He’s trying to manufacture a scandal over the fact that the ALP candidate for the upcoming by-election for the seat of Gippsland did, as part of his duties as a cultural festival organiser in the region last year, support and promote a show for the festival fringe which featured a comedy musical act called The Beautiful Losers, which in itself seems inoffensive enough, but where Milne sniffs a “potentially devastating blow” for the ALP is that the poster for the show featured a blow-up sex doll(!!!) and the group’s performance features repeated reference to various forms of sexual gratification (!!!!).
Milne then goes into a frenzy of detail about the sex acts referenced in the musical comedy show that rivals Fred Nile’s extraordinary documentation of the many sexual perversions and acts of depravity portrayed in the film Caligula many years ago. Now, it doesn’t appear, from the description, that it would be a show that I would necessarily rush out to see, even if their musicality is as exceptional as claimed. However, as the candidate Darren McCubbin mentions,
“It came to us as an award-winning adult comedy and we advertised it as an adult show. At the moment the people of Sale are receiving their fourth tour of Puppetry of the Penis after surviving The Vagina Monologues.”
So, really, what’s the big deal about a show featuring some smutty songs? (NB I don’t believe the show actually features that particular song) Are the people of Gippsland really such delicate flowers?
It’s hard not to think that Milne (a) can’t stop himself sharing a juicy story that someone has leaked to him even though it’s trivial, and (b) thinks that the furore over the Bill Henson photos of nude minors might magically attach itself to this comedy act even though it features consenting (and fully clothed) adult performers and a consenting adult audience.
Ha! In what couldn’t possibly have been a move orchestrated to coincide with Milne’s column, Oppo “Leader For Now” Brendan Nelson used Question Time on Monday to confront PM KRudd over whether he endorsed the ALP candidate for Gippsland’s past practises as a cultural festival coordinator:
KRuddy’s staff were ready to parry and riposte though, pointing out that the same act had been part of the 2006 Melbourne International Comedy Festival, which was directed by Victorian state Liberal leader Ted Baillieu! As a cherry on top, they also flourished a 2007 memo from Liberal ex-Federal Minister for the Arts George Brandeis, who praised McCubbin’s skills in the production of Festivals.
Of course, Baillieu immediately responded with a press release pointing out that his personal responsibility for selecting the show to be included in the festival was miniscule, and besides the festival was also supported by the Victorian Labor government and (horrors!) The Age.
It really is going to be difficult for them to continue to spin McCubbin as somehow personally responsible for polluting the hallowed sensibilities of the citizens of Sale without painting Baillieu with the same brush. Any arguments that the show might be OK with decadent and degenerate Melburnians but not OK for the innocents of Sale probably won’t play well either – I’m sure that the voters of Gippsland don’t perceive themselves as unsophisticated yokels.
What a farce. Annabel Crabb treats it all with the respect that it deserves.
Nah, the people of Gippsland aren’t delicate flowers…
Gippsland is my electorate! lol
And I know two of the candidates personally. I went to school with one and the other has been involved in other events I have also been involved in.
Bri, I was pretty sure that you lot were made of tougher stuff!
Your point about knowing candidates personally in a regional electorate is also a good one. From my own time spent in country towns, the press that matters is the local newspaper, not the national press, and the local newspaper doesn’t matter nearly as much as the town grapevine about who is and who isn’t a twerp when it comes to choosing where to place your vote.
I think that particular candidate has other more pressing “negatives” that he needs to think about before he need worry about the sex-scandal-in-a-teacup! I was waiting with my daughter at the doctor’s the other day and some other patients were discussing who they would vote for (bet that doesn’t happen in too many urban based medical clinics!). One particular woman said she was voting for Mr McCubbin because he has such a big mouth that he would definitely be heard in parliament and that is what we need!
I had to laugh at that. She does have a point, I mean the man has been the Town Crier in Sale for many years (as well as being mayor, a school teacher, theatre sports director, Murder Mystery night business owner and a bunch of other things).
Oh and on top of that, the festival McCubbin was involved in, was actually funded by the then Howard Govt… so who is into “smut”??? If the shoe fits…