I am no longer in charge of my own destiny

“I am no longer in charge of my own destiny.”

So said Isobel Redmond in what all media outlets unanimously agreed was the first major public relations gaffe of the 2010 election campaign. It was a reference to her inability to release (or not as the case may be) her party’s funding commitments for the duplication of the Southern Expressway,* when prompted by an ABC journalist during a morning interview.

This caused me to scratch my head at the time; quite furiously, in fact. Indeed, even recalling her bizarre ejaculation now causes me much discombobulation.

Why would any leader of any political party with even a modicum of intellectual capacity hand their opposition such a perfect sound grab. I’m surprised that I haven’t seen in more ALP advertising material, because the images conjured up by the statement are simply too precious: the odd-looking woman with her curious mop of curly (and presumably fake) blonde hair, standing, advisors crowded round, being prompted on what to say, what to do and what to think.

To my dismay, the only plausible explanation is that she had actually meant what she had said. This was, in fact, a woman not in charge of her own destiny. This was a woman being dictated to by shadowy forces within the Liberal Party of Australia, South Australia Branch.

Move over Kristina Kerscher Keneally,# you’re not the only marionette in Australian politics.

Are the people of South Australia so naïve as to believe that (1) this woman, plucked from relative electoral obscurity rose to the leadership of the Liberal Party without more than a little factional support from old cronies, hidden away in some dark, dank recess on Greenhill Road? That (2) she does, in fact, control party policy when she owes these cronies big time? That (3) she would still have refused to release the costings for a centrepiece policy in her party’s electoral platform, if she had actually been aware of them? Give me a break.

And more curiously and worryingly, the Labor Party, Greens, et. al. have permitted her and her motley crew of conservatives to run the line “Redmond is Ready” from Day 1, without so much of a hint of the most obvious rejoinder: how can a woman no longer in charge of her own destiny be ready for government?

I promise a more detailed, policy-driven critique of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition in the days to come. I feel guilt at having been so quiet until now.

But then again, would it matter to South Australians, 50% of whom, if today’s Newspoll is to be believed, would prefer to have a woman not in charge of her own destiny be in charge of theirs.

* For those non-South Australians reading this blog, I feel I have to clarify. One of this state’s more embarrassing features is a one-way highway that permits traffic to flow in one direction for half of the day, and in the other direction for the other half. Very, very odd. But then again, so were the whole Brown-Olsen Premierships, in my humble opinion.
# Never noticed her initials were KKK before. Spooky, huh?