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."
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
RSS