The latest development at the Darwin Port Corporation will probably raise a wry smile or three in the London inner sanctum of one of the world’s best known crusading lawyers, Australian Geoffrey Robertson,QC, deeply involved in the Julian Assange extradition case.
Robertson’s office was made aware long ago of a situation at the DPC in which action, we firmly believe, was unfairly taken against a longtime female staff member . Official DPC correspondence in that matter referred to a Little Darwin spoof set in Cloud Cuckoo Land which involved a number of hypothetical hypothetical questions and somebody exhibiting puberty blue flushes . Most people would know that Geoffrey Robertson ran a number of Australian TV hypotheticals.
He is also married to vivacious Kathy Lette, co-author with Gabrielle Carey, of the bestseller, Puberty Blues , made into a movie by Bruce Beresford.
Somehow, the Little Darwin post , pure spoof ,was taken to be a reference to goings on here in Darwin . How anybody could equate Darwin with Cloud Cuckoo Land is , frankly, baffling and plainly offensive to the establishment, heartily enjoying the fruits of occupation . However, an official letter bearing the DPC seal, hairy nosed wombat or echidna, was sent out specifically mentioning the crazy blog and demanded an explanation by a set date.
Union officials here and in Melbourne, and southern industrial lawyers, thought the mango madness season had obviously arrived early on reading the correspondence. In a friendly way, the DPC was told that if the media became aware of the matter – all the hypotheticals,flushes ,etc- they would have a field day.[ Imagine, for example, what a brilliant cartoonist like Wicking would draw on learning that a CEO believed Cloud Cuckoo Land was actually Darwin !]
It was further pointed out that if the DPC felt the blog item somehow related to it , then the contents had to taken in toto, not just be cherry picked .This, in itself, would then point the fickle finger of fate in many directions and demand explanations,action etcetera ,etcetera, etcetera.
In effect, the DPC was strongly advised to dump the matter in the harbour where, unfortunately, so much muck spills. That sage advice, proffered with legal input, was not accepted. A growing number of southern industrial lawyers, union officials and those who appreciated the absurd tapped into the Little Darwin blogspot on being informed of the Cloud Cuckoo Land hypotheticals. Now it is up to the Chief Minister, other politicians and the Public Service here in the Northern Territory to remediate the intolerable situation of an employee.
To make sure that this happens, it is suggested the media do follow ups, ask questions. In a purely hypothetical situation, they might also like to ask for details under freedom of information about what the DPC had to say in respect of the wretched Little Darwin blog. Wicked Wicking by now must surely be sharpening his charcoal stick .
FOOTNOTE: Pelicans taking refuge in the duck pond from the 15th cyclone predicted by the NT News this week were scared off when Tugboat Annie repeatedly cart-wheeled along the waterfront . She had previously been reported to the RSPCA for monstering Big Bird who recently underwent the trauma of being plucked in public, his flashy plumes inserted in a mock goose-feather bed for export to Nippon.
