Secret Squirrel

Radio National is running a competition asking people to tell stories about their secrets.

 I’ve found out a lot of secret stuff lately.

1. There must be a secret book held by judges that tells them it’s OK to sentence a man who  streaks at  the football match to a jail sentence because he breached his bond to be of good behaviour for doing the same thing last year; but it’s OK to put a pedophile on a good behaviour bond even when he has pleaded guilty to four representative counts of aggravated sexual assault and one of aggravated indecent assault over five years with his own child.

2. Tony Abbott believes in secrets: If he doesn’t tell us about refugee boat arrivals, then we won’t be able to ask questions about it. Obviously his election campaigning held secret words:

 We will Stop (telling you about) the Boats

3. The ACT has secret rules for getting a learner’s permit. A near 16 year old cannot prove their residency unless accompanied to the application line with a parent or legal guardian who can swear they live where they say they live.  Ask them where that is written in the instructions/ on the website and all they can produce is an internal memo to staff that makes a vague and ambiguous reference to Statutory Declarations. Regardless of having a passport, a birth certificate and numerous bits of other identification and verification, you cannot beat the secret rules of the system. So make sure you take a day off work when your teenager needs to get their permit.

4. There are secret rules for being the best candidate for the job: that accounts for why our only female minister is Barbie Bishop.

5. Norfolk Island is a well kept secret. I had a week there recuperating from the election results. It was bliss.

6. http://www.postsecret.com/ is a site that invites people to anonymously post in their secrets on a post card. This is my favourite:

                                        

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, since 1970 the US and Australia have eavesdropped on the rest of the world from Pine Gap. 

OMG - does that mean my Blog audience is way bigger than I thought?