Talking of predictable pre-Xmas surprises ...

Well there's a predictable surprise, as noted by the pond's correspondents, always a step ahead of the pond, though whether that's always wise might be questioned, as the lemming said to the cliff, and the corrupt government said 'here's a go' to its mates ...

In its epic, visionary list of 75 ways to improve Australia, the IPA listed at number four:

4 Repeal Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act. 

 Of course the diligent vision also included a few kind words for sponsors:

 38 Repeal plain packaging for cigarettes and rule it out for all other products, including alcohol and fast food. 

 41 Repeal the alcopops tax. (and there's lot more bright ideas here)

And then the gang added 25 more ideas, and 'abolish the HRC' clocked in at 82, here.

As for the Human Rights Commission, why in due course, a few months later, that warranted a press release all on its own:

"The Australian Human Rights Commission does not protect human rights and should be abolished," Simon Breheny, Director of the Legal Rights Project at free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs will tell the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee today. 
Mr Breheny is appearing at the first day of committee hearings into the Gillard government's exposure draft Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Bill 2012 in Melbourne today. 
He will tell the inquiry that despite the fact that the draft Bill is an attack on fundamental human rights, it is supported by the Australian Human Rights Commission. 
"The Australian Human Rights Commission does not defend fundamental rights such as the right to free speech and property. Instead, it selectively defends a human rights agenda determined entirely by the left," said Mr Breheny. (here)


As opposed to the IPA, of course, which vigorously pursues the rights of all, provided they smoke a lot, all the way into the grave, and drink lots of grog, and never mind the kidneys and liver, or the cost of the nanny state trying to keep the bodies of the mug punters going.

Remember, always socialise the profits, and make sure the state picks up the police, hospital, prison and battered, bruised people costs ...

Mark Colvin had a nice opening line about it last night:

MARK COLVIN: It's a rights organisation he used to think shouldn't exist, which defends an anti-discrimination law he didn't believe in, and pays over $320,000 a year. 
Meet Tim Wilson, formerly of the free market Institute of Public Affairs, Article 82 of whose political agenda for Australia is "Abolish the Australian Human Rights Commission". 
Mr Wilson has now resigned his positions with the IPA and the Liberal Party to take a job as a commissioner of that very organisation. 
Mr Wilson says he looks forward to "advancing the Government's freedom agenda". (here)

Now the pond is accustomed to hypocrisy.

It's a nice rich warm stench, of the kind you find in bog swamps, politics and private institutes where the rule is everyone for themselves.

It also goes with the crony commentariat turf.

One day you can say how shocked, disgusted and appalled you are by something, the next day you can sign up for 320k and explain how you're going to reform government from the inside. Tailor, some nice elbow patches, and spare no expense with the cardigans. Waiter, from now on, only tea with milk and a couple of sugars.

Shakespeare put it nicely:

God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.

And Orwell captured that freedom agenda nicely:

Beasts of England, beasts of Ireland, 
Beasts of every land and clime, 
Hearken to my joyful tidings 
Of the golden future time. 
Soon or late the day is coming, 
Tyrant Man shall be o'erthrown, 
And the fruitful fields of England 
Shall be trod by beasts alone. 
Rings shall vanish from our noses, 
And the harness from our back, 
Bit and spur shall rust forever, 
Cruel whips shall no more crack. 
 Riches more than mind can picture, 
Wheat and barley, oats and hay, 
Clover, beans, and mangel-wurzels, 
Shall be ours upon that day. 
 Bright will shine the fields of England, 
Purer shall its water be, 
Sweeter yet shall blow its breezes 
On the day that sets us free. 
 For that day we all must labour, 
Though we die before it break; 
Cows and horses, geese and turkeys,
All must toil for freedom's sake ...

For Freedom's Sake. Tim's a toiler in the field, like any other goose or turkey!

Of course, it didn't work out too well for the creatures, but that's the way it goes on Animal Farm, where on any given day, the chance of picking the difference between the pigs with snout in trough and the humans with snout in trough is slim to none ...

Was it only in November that Chris Berg was drumming up a storm at the ABC with Freedom: the forgotten human right, in which he called for the abolition of ... the HRC?

Hmm, the pond has an idea. Surely the ice Berg is just the right man to right that Titanic of leftist thinking, the ABC.

Sure, it's a hopeless organisation, but privatise it and put in under the IPA, and soon enough everybody will just love their cigarettes and grog.

And if it's good enough for Tim to become a loyal public servant ... helping make government that little bit bigger ... why every government body could do with a little help from the IPA.

Speaking of board troughs and snouts, there was another reliable surprise, snuck in just before Xmas, presumably based on the notion that nobody was paying attention though the sheer nakedness and shamelessness of the chutzpah involved means more than a few have already got agitated about Sophie Mirabella joins board of submarine maintenance organisation.

The bit that the pond loves is the reason finance minister Mathias Cormann offered in support of the appointments:

Cormann pointed to Mirabella’s past shadow cabinet roles as relevant to the appointment. “Combined with her legal background and her extensive experience working with the manufacturing industry, Mrs Mirabella will make a valuable contribution to the board,” he said.

Of course the voters of Indi might take a different view, seeing as how they told her to fuck off, for being totally useless and a complete waste of space, which is why the always helpful pond would like to suggest a few new lines for the ASC corporate values list, to be found here:

We are relentless in our pursuit of excellence.
We are exemplary in all we do. 
We do not accept complacency. 
We take responsibility for our own performance. 
We act with urgency and pace. 
So quick, if you've been kicked in the guts by your electorate
Give your mates a call and ask them for a little help
And with urgency and pace
Why you'll have a nice little earner for the next three years.

We sponsor ideas for improvement. 
We constructively challenge for a better way. 
We embrace and lead change. 
We seek feedback.
And if your electorate told you to fuck off
Why not fuck them off by joining our board?
That's what we call effective fucking feedback ...

Just kicking it around ASC dudes, no doubt you'll have better ideas, and the pond will be eager to follow up in the new year.

Every day is a comedy day at the pond, but can it get much better than this?

Tim Wilson, for the past seven years a policy director of the Institute of Public Affairs, a conservative think tank that early this year called for the abolition of the Human Rights Commission, will be known informally as the "Freedom Commissioner". (here) 

Or as Herr Rex might put it, Freihiet Kommissar.

Enough already, the pond simply has to slip a dollar in the Godwin's Law swear jar, so we can recite along with all the other two legs:

War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

Oh and as a bonus:

Slavery is Freedom
And so is the right to kill yourself with fags and grog
Unless while pissed as a parrot
You prefer to king hit someone in the street
(Mustn't forget the sponsor message)

Then there was this rather prescient ripper of a quote:

The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better, and 320k a year or a plum board job sure buys a shitload of happiness. Thank the long absent lord we have the freedom to accept the kindness of mates ...

Or some such thing.

Why is it that the Bergians, the IPA crowd, Wilson and the rest of the mob are always ready to deploy Orwell?

The IPA’s got form fighting Orwellian ideas ... (here)

So that's what joining Big Brother means? And here the pond was thinking it was a really crappy TV show ...

Meanwhile, there are a couple of areas the new Freihiet Kommissar can immediately begin to explore.

First there's this question of weak-kneed activist Queensland judges, who remarkably seem to have got some bee in their bonnet about the quasi-fascist ways of the Newman government.

The judgments note that the United Nations called for the abolition of solitary in 1990 and international conventions prohibited the cruel or inhuman treatment of prisoners. 
Research linked solitary to the development of psychotic illnesses and it was recognised as ``an extreme prison practice which should only be used as a last resort and then only for a short period of time.'' ``Any substantial period of solitary confinement carries a high risk of causing serious psychological damage to the respondent which will endure after his release. Such enduring consequences carry dangers for members of the community.'' 
 There was "no arithmetical calculation'' to convert months in normal prison conditions to a period in solitary but his role was to deliver a just punishment, Justice Applegarth said. (and more here, along with a forced advertisement).

Astonishing, outrageous. Campbell Newman's freedom to act as a quasi-fascist leader of a quasi-fascist state has been seriously impeded.

No doubt crusading Tim will fight for Newman's freedom to continue on in his quasi-fascist ways.

Meanwhile, the pond has serious concerns about the freedom of the IPA.  For years, shadowy figures in the background have repressed the freedom of this noble body.

The freedom to reveal how much its sponsors and special interest groups fork out to keep the IPA afloat, the freedom to reveal what really goes on in this secretive, furtive organisation, the freedom to end the dissembling and the lies, the freedom to reveal the truth about the freedom fighters.

Guess that's a job for the new Freihiet Kommissar ... unless freedom is just another word for nothin' left to lose, nothin' except a tidy 320k in the paw ...

(Below: guess the joke)