Sharing bowl and bonhomie

IT CERTAINLY was a rare sign of political bi-partisanship to see Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Opposition spokeswoman on foreign affairs Penny Wong sharing a bowl of kava and bonhomie.

They were on their goodwill visit to the Marshall Islands, to our north. Nothing like thoughts of external threat to our gentle shores to bring out the best in our pollies.

The visit was to shore up our neglected influence and thereby head off those pesky Chinese from stirring up our front-yard friends, way out to sea. But one wonders if the islanders could deter undue influence by themselves, having heard how potent that kava brew can be on visitors.

The ladies smiled at each other after a few sips, so surely there is a place for the brew added to our House of Reps’ water coolers, to keep the peace.

True, these ladies were not the right-wing Margaret Thatcher and leftist Hillary Clinton sharing tea, but you have to start somewhere.

Bill and Malcolm should both feel troubled when the ladies are back in town and aspire to more influential positions. These days, as every schoolgirl is told, girls can do anything.

PETER KNOBEL, Toowoomba

DOUBLE STANDARDS

JUST as Alan Joyce of Qantas was inking his edict to reduce flights to Toowoomba largely due to his inability to employ pilots, he was also bowing down to China to now register Taiwan as part of China in keeping with the ALP’s agenda.

It is noticeable, however, that no one is calling the Taiwanese container ship Yang Ming Efficiency a Chinese ship. Nor has China offered any help regarding the clean up.

Typical PRC; when there is crisis or need for some heavy lifting after natural disasters world wide they stick their heads in the sand.

Why doesn’t Joyce be a brave Australian and put out a press release asking about China’s double standard in relation to Taiwan?

JOHN FRIEND, Toowoomba