Diary

Saturday, 4th December 2010

David Flint opens his Diary

My week began when a dear friend took me to the Berlin Philharmonic concert. The program — Rachmaninov and Mahler — was modern by my standards. The acoustics in the Opera House are somewhat barren, but the energy and brilliance of this orchestra overcame that. The applause was deservedly prolonged, with a complete absence of the curious yelping you hear these days. As the crowds surged out, a company of young ladies came forward bearing wrapped gifts. When one admitted it was the Sun Herald, there was an audible groan. I was back in the Opera House on Thursday for the Australian Ballet’s absolutely delightful Molto Vivace — all dancing and no rolling on the floor.

Tony Abbott delivered the Neville Bonner Oration at the ACM conference last Saturday. His line that a broadsheet editor was worried that the royal marriage might be ‘a distraction from the need for a republic’ brought down the house. As did his quotation from a journalist who had grown to like the royals because they ‘annoy so many awful people’. [See page viii.]

It surprises some that our first Aboriginal Senator was a conservative. As is our first Aboriginal MP, and as were our first women MPs and ministers. So was Britain’s first woman prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. A few years ago I found myself discussing immigration with her. Telling her how my grandparents were given the White Australia dictation test, she thundered: ‘There ought to be more of that.’ Taken aback, I asked, meekly, ‘More of what, Lady Thatcher?’ ‘Dictation of course… children must learn to spell correctly,’ she glared. The point was lost when an eager Bob Carr asked whether she had received the box of wine. ‘What box of wine?’ she demanded, with eyes that said, ‘And who might you be?’

1 | 2 | 3 Next page