Dear reader once again our heroes are in the thick of it.
Could the mystery voice belong to another powerful woman? Arguably just as powerful as ‘the Big G’!
About to meet Australia’s most powerful woman, they’re disturbed by the change in her voice. Disturbed enough to realise there’s something uncannily familiar in the air, and yet threatening.
They had been hijacked by ‘Operation Grand Slam’. Was it the mission, to monetise the hand-back of the Darwin port? Or just another hand-over of publicly funded state and federal assets to Transurban and Exxon so that they could be free of the irritating requirement to pay tax? Or just a facade to hide the goodwill of Lord Rupert of Murdoch?
A woman who knows how to wield power and influence with deft skill on the sporting field and in choosing other worthy causes?
Whatever Macabre Machiavellian Machination was afoot, they, like the Coalition’s Carbon Policy were clue-less, cept for the stern reminder that with ‘Benny-Boy’ at their side one false mood change by Gina could mean certain death. The irony, was excruciating. Here they were being admitted to the secret inner sanctum of arguably Australia’s most powerful woman, by Australia’s most decorated soldier, EVER, and all for the sake of Mrs Culthorpe the tea-lady who’d done it hard after her stint as a parliamentary intern. Was it worth it? What value humanity? Can humanity be dug up? Is it viable like franking credits and a Gas-Led recovery in restoring the national character?
Is ‘Grand-slam’, as the characters translated from the Mandarin just an acronym for ; “Reap profit for General Commander Oceanic region”, or was it much more sinister? The etags piled up in the corner indicated just one thing, if it came to rent-seeking on a monumental scale Transurban was bound to be in on it. Other brochures told a similar worrying story, the evidence stacked up. Crown Casino betting slips. A users guide to the laundry facilities at Barangaroo. Ticket butts from the high roller gaming lounge at Crown Casino Melbourne, and travel brochures signed ‘Angus’ bestowed the delights of the Cayman Islands, Monaco and the Virgin Islands. If international travel was code for ‘tax dodge’, Angus was a Peter Stuyvesant advert, all class and a lotta smoke.
A woman of character, both inflexible and indomitable!
Other brochures spoke of his intent to develop in a private partnership with Transurban and the Happy Eight Golden Dragon Corp Australia’s most successful Concentration camp re-badged as the prospectus showed, ‘the Happy Eight Centre for Higher Education’. On the cover in partnership with the University of Melbourne and Exxon it proclaimed “BELIEVE”, a true sign of the illuminating bond between university and the marketing punch of big money. On another, vocational colleges for convicted felons, whose crimes included jay-walking, fine defaults and the crime of offending public decency. A colour code within each brochure identifying the skin colour and tone of those most likely according to Australian tradition of being incarcerated with terms and income derivatives indexed in a glossary. Another brochure pleaded: ‘had enough of deaths in custody? Try the Re-branded “ Conniston Corrective Centre”! The prospectus promised high returns for processing and a cash back job – keeper type payment for sponsored inmates who inadvertently topped themselves.
Ces Whispered; ‘this is gold, Tales is making money outta Abo’s both dead or alive, and reaping government kickbacks just for finding em. This really is a Nation-Building scheme to make us all proud’.
‘Yep, I whispered, you’ve gotta hand it to China for getting the system right. The sheer grandeur of the scheme, though corrupted by base greed and evil was inspiring, demonstration enough of what human-kind can do to create TRUE WEALTH!
But was this enough to guide the future direction of foreign policy, domestic policy and every-fink?
Behind POWERFUL WOMEN are POWERFUL MEN!
All of it with Angus as the main beneficiary? Or was it just another twist in the defilement of Mrs Culthorpe after she returned a rusk of her former self after her stint as a parliamentary intern?
MEN who have a way with INFLUENCE and Unquestionable INTEGRITY!
On another wall a chart indicated the entire north west of Western Australia cleansed of native title, and a ‘Special Enterprise Development Zone marked in nine dashes. It was heartening to see the same cryptography used in the nine dash line of territorial sovereignty over the South China Sea and all the other bits of New Guinea not yet converted to naval bases. On the top of each maps, options to be shared jointly between Jam-land and Andrew Robb investment Corp. The stellar performer in the coalition who gave us the Australia-China free trade policy. ‘Good ol Andy’, Ces muttered,’ at least he’s coping with his bi-polar and depressive tendencies by being busy’.
Indeed we could see minions delivering trolleys full of papers into huge hoppers and being carted off to who knows where? The activity was fierce and relentless.
In a instant the activity stopped, a bell rang clamorously and the thousands looked up, standing to attention and with an eerie silence the whirr, the clatter, the maelstrom was stilled,
Or are these men just an over-ripe tomato short of the full fruit salad?
What will happen next? Will they be grist to the industrial mill? Or will they be oblivious to oblivion? Find out in the next indexed and itemised chapter, ‘For Whomever the bell tolls’, or ‘Five minutes to Midnight’s sunken garden’.