Tuesday 29 January 2008

Malcolm Turnbull's hopes lie in the Queen's Death

According to my Dictionary of Contemporary English “news” is: Facts that are reported about a recent event or events; new information; news to someone or something which one has not heard before.

Keeping this explanation in mind consider the headlines Malcolm Turnbull has made over the long Australia Day weekend: Queen must die or abdicate for republic (Perth Now, 28 Jan. 2008) or Queen's death will reignite republic debate: Turnbull (ABC, 28 Jan. 2008), Queen's exit may revive republic debate, (The Age, 28 Jan. 2008) and all national and local media covered the same story: Malcolm Turnbull, now opposition treasury spokesperson, said Australians would not vote for a republic while the country's monarch reigned.

But where’s the news? Malcolm Turnbull keeps repeating this “story” year in year out. There’s not even a variations of words:

THE Queen must die or abdicate before a republic referendum becomes an option for the Coalition, former republican leader Malcolm Turnbull has said.
"The next time would be when the Queen's reign came to an end, whether she abdicated or died," he told AAP. (October 20, 2007)

“Republic after Queen's reign” (Macquarie National News, July 29, 2007), "And my view in 1999, and it remains my view, was that the next time when you could win a referendum on the republic would be at the end of the Queen’s reign," Mr Turnbull said.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: I said in 99 when the referendum was on that a 'no' vote means no for a long time and I said then that I thought it would be unlikely that there would be enough of a sense of a mood for change until the reign of the Queen came to an end.
ABC interview on The Insiders on Sunday, 24 July 2005.

The former journalist Malcolm Turnbull still uses his old contacts. Mates in the media get him the attention other people and other, more worthy causes can only dream of. He gets the headlines for something that is neither new nor original. It is the same old story repeated like a mantra in the hope that it will some day be heard. He is as boring as his requests for a republic in Australia.

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