Madame Defarge
I’ve been applying my mind to some useful definitions for the political and environmental state we find ourselves in the new Tasmania.
Uber Bogan: Premier Paul Lennon.
And …
Under Bogan: Leader of the Opposition, Will Hodgman.
Mini Bogans: Members of the Parliamentary Liberal and Labor parties.
Boganocracy: Government by bogans for bogans as seen in the Tasmanian Parliament which governs for the board and shareholders of Gunns and members of the CFMEU. Too bad about the other 300,000 Tasmanians. Too bad about jobs in the tourism, wine and fishing industries.
Boganomics: What the Boganocracy thinks will be the benefits of the pulp mill.
Boganza: A sitting of the Tasmanian Parliament.
Boganfest: A demonstration in favour of the pulp mill, featuring demonstrators who have all been given a paid day off, free transport to the venue, and their relatives.
Boganvilla: The Premier’s Victorian Gothic house, renovations and extensions done by Hinman Wright Manser, a subsidiary of Gunns. Fancy that.
Boganup: The unhealthy closeness between big business and government in Tasmania, manifested in such deals as the Tamar Ridge sponsorship (yet another Gunns subsidiary) of the Hawthorn Football Club’s Tasmanian adventure, not to mention the abandonment of due process as far as the pulp mill is concerned, and of course, Boganvilla’s extensions and renovations.
Bogette: Lisa Singh, who most disappointingly does not have the courage of her convictions.
Bogre: Eric Abetz in Dalek mode.
Boganed off: The state of acute embarrassment and rage one experiences when confronted with all of the above.
Bogania: The new Tasmania, pop 200,000, noted for pulp mill tourism, pulp plantations planted on the site of former vineyards, orchards, dairy and vegetable farms, log truck racing derbys, glorious golden woodchip pyramids, and its ubiquitous emblems featuring extinct native wildlife: tigers, devils, emus, eagles and the list will no doubt go on. No more fine food and wine, but there are plenty of MacDonalds and Hungry Jacks franchises to employ Bogania’s young women. Everybody’s happy, but they don’t live very long. Too much exposure to toxic chemicals in air and water, poor diets and poverty see to that.
Boganoia: Fear of bogans trashing one’s car, house, garden, killing one’s pets , as a price for dissent.
Edited version
Earlier: The Philistine
