By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
Stephen Jolly, a lifelong socialist recently elevated to be a Dear Leader mayor of the City of Yarra council (of the People’s Republic of Yarra, as we term it), says he has been called many things in his time: an Irish terrorist, leftist and activist.
Yarra Mayor Stephen Jolly.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
“I have been accused of being a socialist ratbag on Yarra council for 20 years,” he tells CBD. “I have always been attacked from the right.”
But times change. And it was rather a surprise when he learnt he had been attacked for being like US President-elect Donald Trump.
Regular readers will recall that Jolly formed a ticket for the recent council elections, and his Yarra For All ticket enjoyed great success at the expense of the Greens, who lost control of the council and were reduced to a rump of two councillors. Democracy has spoken.
Step forward former Yarra mayor Gabrielle de Vietri, a contemporary artist and an activist who won the state seat of Richmond for the Greens “in the face of ecological collapse and growing inequality” (as she termed it).
Jolly’s priorities were “cars, property investors and pearl clutchers”, said Greens MP Gabrielle de Vietri.Credit: Justin McManus
When Jolly hit the ground running and immediately introduced an “omnibus motion” that had a 36-point plan, de Vietri stood up in state parliament and bared her teeth.
“These are the policies you would expect from Trump if he woke up as mayor of a progressive town,” she told parliament.
“This is the first time I have been called Donald Trump,” Jolly said. “I found it quite amusing, as did the community.”
De Vietri, who states online her policies include free rent and free Palestine, was not a fan of his initiatives.
“Their a la carte policies are totally rogue and it is very concerning,” she told parliament.
Jolly’s priorities for council were “cars, property investors and pearl clutchers”.
Jolly took to Instagram to deny his council would rip up bike lanes, scrap a local park or give tax breaks to property owners.
He told CBD: “It is like a feature of politics now. They either say it is a feature of the electorate not getting it or saying your opponents are Putins, Nazis, Trumps or whatever.”
In response, de Vietri told CBD: “Yarra is a progressive community, but there’s nothing progressive about these policies, and it should be called out.”
Only in Yarra, folks. Only in Yarra.
Party like the Labor Party
The Age’s front page from October 18, 1999. Credit:
Ain’t no party like the Australian Labor Party, judging by last week’s gathering to celebrate two big anniversaries. For a start, there was the 25th anniversary of the 1999 election of the Steve Bracks government to mark (meanwhile, the big fella recently turned 70).
And also, playing second billing, the 10th anniversary of the 2014 election of the Daniel Andrews government wasn’t ignored.
The focus was very much on the political yesteryear, with only a smattering of current caucus members attending the shindig last Thursday at favoured ALP function venue, the Moonee Valley Racecourse.
“The Bracks people love these get-togethers,” one party delegate, who rather enjoyed the evening, said.
Taking to the stage was a panel of four Labor premiers – past and present. Hosted by Premier Jacinta Allan, the onstage chinwag featured Daniel Andrews, Steve Bracks and the other one.
Readers with long memories will recall that when Bracks was swept to power in 1999, Allan was the surprise winner of Bendigo East, which the Liberal Party had held for 14 years.
Andrews didn’t hit parliament until three years later but was a backroom boy running the ALP’s marginal-seat campaign that got Bracks elected as premier, with a frontbench that included Bracks’ eventual successor … who was… it’s coming … that’s right … John Brumby!
Labor being Labor, reaction to the $300-a-head night was mixed, with some praise and some unhappiness. “The wine was terrible,” one attendee confided. “It is the worst venue on the planet and I don’t [know] why we keep going back there.”
It’s a Manne’s world
Landing in bookshops this week with a thud equivalent to a concrete slab hitting a puddle is public intellectual Robert Manne’s big (486 pages – yikes!) A Political Memoir. Subtitled Intellectual Combat in the Cold War and Culture Wars, the book canvasses Manne’s life in the intellectual trenches.
Robert Manne expects The Australian to fire up at him. Credit: Joe Armao
But it is also, according to one reader, “a lot of fights with people who were big a very long time ago”.
Those people include John Howard, Keith Windschuttle, Gerard Henderson, Nick Cater, anyone associated with Quadrant, Bill Leak, Peter Singer and Chris Mitchell. Then there is his love of, but ultimate disappointment with, Kevin Rudd.
Manne, who was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2016, gets on with the business of settling scores even when he professes not to be settling scores.
“I have spared readers details of the vendettas mounted over the decades by two political enemies, Gerard Henderson and Keith Windschuttle, principally because their lines of attack almost never concerned questions of any general significance or interest,” he writes. A strong candidate for condescending backhander of the year – we are still in the introduction.
The book is published by Manne’s old stomping ground La Trobe University Press, in conjunction with Morry Schwartz’s Black Inc.
“Morry invited me to write a long book. I am extremely grateful to him.” Whether readers are is another matter.
Manne told this masthead he fully expected The Australian to fire up at him because it has an inability to take criticism. He said he hadn’t read the paper in years but, in light of what he expected was coming, he was going to have to renew his subscription.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.