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."
LANDMARK CASE: ‘Every night we were dragged to US soldiers and sexually abused. Every week we were forced to undergo venereal disease tests,’ a victim said More than 100 South Korean women who were forced to work as prostitutes for US soldiers stationed in the country have filed a landmark lawsuit accusing Washington of abuse, their lawyers said yesterday. Historians and activists say tens of thousands of South Korean women worked for state-sanctioned brothels from the 1950s to 1980s, serving US troops stationed in country to protect the South from North Korea. In 2022, South Korea’s top court ruled that the government had illegally “established, managed and operated” such brothels for the US military, ordering it to pay about 120 plaintiffs compensation. Last week, 117 victims
China on Monday announced its first ever sanctions against an individual Japanese lawmaker, targeting China-born Hei Seki for “spreading fallacies” on issues such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and disputed islands, prompting a protest from Tokyo. Beijing has an ongoing spat with Tokyo over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both countries, and considers foreign criticism on sensitive political topics to be acts of interference. Seki, a naturalised Japanese citizen, “spread false information, colluded with Japanese anti-China forces, and wantonly attacked and smeared China”, foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Monday. “For his own selfish interests, (Seki)
Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday vowed to “accelerate” his libertarian reforms after a crushing defeat in Buenos Aires provincial elections. The 54-year-old economist has slashed public spending, dismissed tens of thousands of public employees and led a major deregulation drive since taking office in December 2023. He acknowledged his party’s “clear defeat” by the center-left Peronist movement in the elections to the legislature of Buenos Aires province, the country’s economic powerhouse. A deflated-sounding Milei admitted to unspecified “mistakes” which he vowed to “correct,” but said he would not be swayed “one millimeter” from his reform agenda. “We will deepen and accelerate it,” he
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
RSS