No way, mate!
Officials at Australia's Parliament House yesterday overturned a day-old ban on guards and attendants using the word "mate" to address lawmakers and visitors after the new rule sparked outrage among prime ministers past and present.
`Rampant pomposity'
The U-turn came after Australian Prime Minister John Howard said it was "absurd" to require security guards at the country's Parliament House to stop addressing visitors and lawmakers as "mate."
One of Howard's predecessors called the ban "rampant pomposity."
On Thursday, guards and attendants at the building in Canberra were told to stop using the common Australian expression of endearment following a complaint from a senior civil servant, media reports said.
Impractical, absurd
"These things are all a matter of context, and that's why it's impractical and absurd to try and ban something," Howard, who in the past has used the term to describe US President George W. Bush, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.
"There are circumstances where a more formal address is appropriate," he said.
"But in the same conversation you might start off calling somebody you've just met `sir' or `madam,' but as you become more familiar with your conversation and your exchange, you might end up saying `mate,'" he added.
Hilary Penfold, who is the secretary for the Department of Parliamentary Services, said that the ban was intended to ensure that staff do not offend visitors.
Term of endearment
But Howard said that it was not necessary, adding that even he often uses the term of endearment with people he barely knows.
"People will ring me up and I might start off saying `yes sir' as a matter of courtesy, which I normally do, and then we lapse into it, we might say `mate,'" Howard said.
Former Labor Party prime minister Bob Hawke was enraged by the ban.
"It's pomposity gone mad," Hawke told ABC radio.
Hawke, who is a former union leader famous for his down to earth approach and for holding a beer drinking record while studying at Oxford University, said that in the past the term had been useful to him at official functions.
Reasonable respect
"It gets you out of all sorts of embarrassing situations," he said.
"It's got a nice neutrality about it. I mean, it doesn't imply any intimacy, it shows a reasonable level of respect." I think it's one of our great words," Hawke added.
By yesterday afternoon, staff had been issued fresh written instructions.
In the future, they were cautioned to "be aware when a degree of informality may be acceptable and when a more formal approach is required and not use colloquialisms where these might not be understood or appreciated."
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