BUSHRANGER

EASY BEING GREEN

During the good times, blue and red are the traditional colours worn by Labor Party true believers. When things aren’t so good, they sometimes look for alternatives. Take former Labor Party leader and Nightcliff MLA Natasha Fyles. The masthead on her local Nightcliff electoral news that appeared in letterboxes around the electorate last week has gone from blue and red to green, presumably to confuse Greens voters and to distance herself from the party that she led for two years.

UNEASY BEING GREEN

A media release issued by the NT Environment Centre’s Kirsty Howey said federal Labor’s plan to continue extracting and using gas “will turn northern Australia into a climate sacrifice zone unfit for human habitation”. Given that, Bushranger put it to Ms Howey that she would be negligent if she didn’t remove her young family immediately from the Territory and relocate down south where the climate is presumably fit for human habitation. But no! The forecasts are for 2070 and beyond, apparently, so in the meantime she’s sticking around to fight the fight.

ALL IN THE TIMING

This week’s announcement of Commonwealth funds to build the NT’s first homegrown medical school at Charles Darwin University couldn’t have come at a worse time for vice chancellor, Scott Bowman. Professor Bowman has been fighting for the facility for years and news of the pending announcement was delivered to the university this week, just after he’d left for an overseas trip, meaning his deputy Reuben Bolt fronted the announcement. Professor Bolt delivered in spades with a killer opening line: “What a great day it is today. I’ve been in the role for three hours as the associate vice chancellor, and already I’m here … to launch one of the most significant media events in the history of Charles Darwin University.”