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Boxing Kangaroo
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The Federal Press Gallery’s Midwinter Ball was last night and this morning Bob Brown will be calculating how much contamination from big business he has received.
Senator Brown, the Greens leader, has attended past Midwinter Balls and to my knowledge has emerged with a smile and no scars.
This year he seemed to have forgotten what it is all about. The venue, the Great Hall of Parliament House, was “insidious”, he said recently. He was forced to dine with corporate executives, and it all resembled a strategy to divide and corrupt the Greens.
What that description didn’t resemble was the ball I have helped organise for the 12 years of its existence. There has never been any mystery about it.
It is a unique social occasion for just over 600 people, mainly journalists, politicians and their staff who work in Parliament House, and corporate types who help sponsor the event. The idea is for people to leave their six-guns at the door, have a good time, and raise money for charity.
This year’s ball will see some $250,000 go to good causes such as Angel Flight, and the Click Foundation which cares for children with epilepsy.
Let’s face it honestly: It’s a journos’ piss-up that has raised around $1.6 million for charity through the participation of some big companies and media groups such as News Ltd (owner of The Punch) and the ABC.
It certainly isn’t the Midwinter Ball which Senator Brown outlined in an interview with Sydney University professor of politics John Keane, reproduced by The Conversation on June 2.
“I have been offered a couple of free seats at a very high table, and I have said to my staff I haven’t decided if I’m going or not but I will buy the tickets, thank you very much,” said Senator Brown.
The situation is that, as on previous occasions, Senator Brown was offered two places at one of the two top tables in recognition of his party leadership. This year, for the first time, he is paying for the tickets, as he is perfectly entitled to do.
His interview continued: “I have a concern that even at that level of operation, you sit at a table at that ball and there are the corporate lobbyists.
“It’s not the mums and dads, it’s not the little business person I had here [in the office] a while ago, it is the big movers and shakers and this corporation has bought this table with politicians sitting at it.
“And I tell you what else, we’ve tried as Greens to go and have a table but they won’t let you. You have to be spread out everywhere. It is off-putting to us. And if I don’t go, there will be a story about how Senator Brown is running frightened.
“I can imagine how they’ll tie it in.”
As in past balls, there were no corporate suits at the table Senator Brown was invited to join last night. We issue a booklet of who is attending and where they are sitting.
This year the other eight at his table were Prime Minister Julia Gillard and ‘First Bloke’ Tim Mathieson, two journalists and their partners, and two charity representatives.
The ball organisers went to some lengths to ensure Green members and staffers could get tickets, which are in huge demand. The deadline for ticket applications was extended for one Green senator.
So they might not have been sitting in a pod of splendid Green isolation last night, but they were not excluded either. Part of the idea of the ball is to sit people with people they might not usually deal with, certainly not socially. It draws on the fact that most people in Parliament House are civilised and grown-up about these things.
We are grateful that Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Mr Abbott, Mr Truss and Senator Brown attend these events. They are the VIP draw-cards and we make sure representations of the charities benefiting from the night get to talk to them to further press their causes. They probably had other things to do.
“But I would rather go out with my colleagues and have a nice sit around the table. I’m just worried about the way this insidious Great Hall here is available for business dinners and they have them,’’ said Senator Brown in the interview.
I’d rate “insidious” as a bit much. Renting out the hall for functions helps fund the operation of Parliament House. This keeps a lot of people in jobs, too—mums, dads and small business people among them.
I have no doubt Bob Brown will be invited to the ball next year. Should he decline the invitation, it won’t be because of a lack of hospitality - or transparency - on our part.
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