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Home » 2007 » #726 » Cultural Dissent » Delicious sedition

Russell McGilton

COSTELLO: I’m having you arrested for bringing the government into contempt.

HOWARD: I thought we’d already done that.

I never thought I’d feel the ripples of PM John Howard’s sedition laws. That was until I recently had the wonderful experience of ABC radio rejecting an interview in regards to my live radio Melbourne Fringe show Seditious — A Portrait of John Howard.

I was told that despite the fact they liked the work they could not interview me on the basis of “balance”. I replied, “When has satire ever had to be balanced? Will Leunig now have a duck and a teapot on his head for the sake of ‘balance’?”

How did Howard get such institutions to behave like this? How has he been able to commit the crimes that he has? Did he make some Faustian pact?

Despite my anger and frustration, Seditious Delicious made it to the keyboard instead of out of something more ballistic. The story is this: It’s 1996. John Howard wins the Australian federal election and becomes prime minister. While having his victory portrait done, Howard, in Dorianesque moment, wishes to become immortal — in power forever while his portrait grows old and decrepit. However, a mysterious figure puts a hex on the portrait and the reverse happens: the painting gets better looking while Howard gets uglier with every evil thing that he does!

There’s lots of uncomfortable moments — Howard being used as a commode by former Guantanamo detainee David Hicks, Janette arousing John with cricket terminology — but I will leave it to your imagination what happens when Howard and foreign minister Alexander Downer are left in a room together with George Dubbya’s National Endowment of Democracy.

So come along to my highly seditious show and watch the PM cop his just desserts in this live radio play of embarrassing sound effects and dubious impersonations.

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