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| Now that's disgusting |
paraclete |
06/22/07 |
Get set for a rude awakening
June 22, 2007 01:00am
Article from: The Daily Telegraph
AUSTRALIAN politics has been rocked this week by the shocking revelation, captured on film, that swearing occurs on building sites.
This follows horrific footage last week that some construction workers wear bad T-shirts and carry a bit of weight around the midriff.
Footage of a West Australian union official, forced by a federal government officer to leave an unsafe building site, responding with some choice expletives, has sent the political classes into a lather.
Hold the presses.
Building workers swear, they also curse, cuss and diss.
They do so in an industry where a worker dies, on average, every week.
Because lives and limbs are at stake tempers can flare, particularly when workers are told they can not take a stand on safety.
Before we watch the union official in question hoisted on a four-letter cross today, it's worth asking ourselves whether swearing in the Australian workplace is such an outrage.
Let's start on the cricket pitch.
For generations, Australia's representatives have used the well-aimed expletive as a way of unsettling and, yes, intimidating an opponent.
Back in 1932, at the height of bodyline, Australian players accused English captain Douglas Jardine of being a "bastard".
When Jardine complained at the close of play to Australian captain Victor Richardson, he turned to the dressing room and asked: "Which of you bastards called this bastard a bastard?"
Richardson's grandson Ian Chappell nurtured that tradition, pioneering what we now refer to as "sledging", which has turned into a fine art in recent years.
Matthew Hayden, Darren Lehmann and, of course, Shane Warne have all been pinged letting slip colourful adjectives.
What can we learn from our cricketers?
Probably that the best response to verbal abuse is humour.
When an Aussie cricketer asked Zimbabwean tail-end batsman Eddie Brandes why he was so fat, Brandes replied: "Because every time I sleep with your wife she gives me a biscuit."
Game, set and match to Eddie.
TV and radio recording studios are other workplaces where colourful language can sometimes be heard.
The doyen of talkback Alan Jones has an impressive back-catalogue of off-mike sprays, letting fly at everything from "f..king dust in the studio" to having to "catch a plane to raise f..king money for charity."
For former Today Tonight host Naomi Robson, things turned blue when there was an autocue problem.
"F..king drop it in at the last minute ... You should be able to read every f..king word, every comma. It should be very specific because if we've seen it before we've got a chance in our mind to go 'oh look they've f..ked up this, they've f..ked up that."'
As Naomi looks for a new career, maybe she should consider the building industry.
Which brings us to our politicians, whose workplace has the procedural equivalent of a swear-box, known as un-Parliamentary language.
It means that you can say basically anything you like about an opponent, as long as you then withdraw it from the record.
Things are not so simple outside Parliament.
When former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett and then Opposition front-bencher Andrew Peacock were caught on mobile phone discussing our Prime Minister's character they actually invented some brand new terms of abuse.
When media outlets attempted to air the tape the required beeps were so frequent it sounded like an old Roadrunner cartoon.
Interestingly, on becoming PM, John Howard rewarded Peacock for his creativity by appointing him to Australia's most sensitive diplomatic posting, ambassador to the US.
The final word on swearing should really go to the Howard Government.
When deciding the best way to market Australia abroad, what did they do?
They put a model in a bikini and paid her to swear.
Workers can rightly be asking today: "Where the bloody hell is the consistency?"
When did it become a crime to swear on a building sites?
And why is this front page news?
* Dave Noonan is national secretary CFMEU construction division
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