From a political standpoint they are at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Bob Ellis, poetic writer, darling of the left and a speech writer for the Australian Labor Party and the conservative Catholic politician and Federal Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott.
In Ellis's new book
Suddenly Last Winter-An Election Diary Bob gets stuck into a few Labor Party heavies while announcing his admiration for Abbott.
On Prime Minister Julia Gillard he says she is "not well informed". He says Gillard is part of a Melbourne clique called the Mouse Pack, a reference to the size of their intellect.
" She hasn't I think read a novel or seen a film that has subtitles and I doubt if she has read Encounter or The New Statesmen or Vanity Fair or The London Review of Books or The New York Review of Books and therefore she doesn't have a hinterland. She has not much except a kindergarten sandpit response to things-'Nyah Nyah you're just jealous because I'm Prime Minister and you're not' "
" Civilised people already have their hands over their faces when she speaks!"
Ellis has form in courting those from the right. Often spotted lunching with Christopher Hitchers when in town or the famed right leaning poet Les Murray. And he has expressed an odd admiration for the xenophobic Pauline Hanson who Ellis swears attempted to pick him in a Surfer's Paradise bar long before her political career took off
But it's the astonishing turn around in his relationship with the political love-child of the strange Catholic theologian and political fixer B.A.Santamaria and Margaret Thatcher-Tony 'Mad Monk'Abbot that is raising eyebrows.
Several years ago Tony Abbot and his wife along with a fellow cabinet minister Peter Costello and his wife sued Ellis and Random House over Bob's new book Goodbye Jerusalem and Ellis was badly bruised to the tune of a $277,000 libel payout that came right upon his uninsured Palm Beach home burning to the ground in a bush fire.
Ellis says he has just about forgiven Tony Abbot over that episode and invited Abbot to launch one of his books a year ago which Abbot did.
The Opposition Leader who once studied to be a priest openly admires the philosophies of the late B.A.Santamaria who railed against Communism and socialism in the 1960's, split the Labor Party and in the 1930s supported Mussolini and Franco.
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| "resembles F.Scott Fitzgerald" |
But Ellis reckons Tony Abbott may be a closet socialist :
"He is no more a Liberal than I am . Liberal is the name of
the suit he is wearing. He is actually a Catholic socialist. He's DLP
[Democratic Labor Party] and always has been."
Ellis goes further in his SMH interview : "The person he most resembles, I've just decided, is F.Scott Fitzgerald. The classic good looks, big
flashing smile, easy Irish eloquence, angelic writing style, self-doubt,
Catholic guilt, hot temper, Gatsby-like yearnings for past
relationships long gone and luminous in remembrance, fondness for
football and self-flagellation and his need for a son, all bespeak a
literary genius drawn by life and lesser pursuits into spiritual
shallows and drunken remorse like Scott, poor Scott."
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Writing in the UK Guardian newspaper Germaine Greer has slammed American architect Frank Gehy's plans for the new University of Technology describing the building as "five scrunched up brown bags"
The building (pictured) is to replace the ugly concrete bunker that stands on the proposed site and when the model was release the UTS Vice Chancellor Ross Milbourne said "We've got the Opera House, and it's hard to say we are going to beat
that, but from what I've seen we'll have an equally outstanding icon at
this end of Sydney."
Responds Greer:"
The Sydney Opera House may be one of the best known structures in the world, but it is also a
worse building than anything Gehry would want to put his name to. The original design by Danish architect Jorn Utzon was rejected by the Australian judges in 1956, only to be reinstated. By
the time the opera house opened in 1973, it was more than 10 times over
budget. Utzon struggled to protect his vision of a building made of
sails until 1966, when he was obliged to close his Sydney office and
return to Denmark, because the New South Wales state government would
not meet his fees. Government architects took over the project.
