Sometimes you just can’t help it. You’re in a meeting and somebody in the room says an unbelievably frustrating comment.
It’s the kind of comment that’s deliberately designed to attack. Not just a slip of the tongue, but something much deeper. It’s antagonising and makes your blood boil.
You don’t necessarily move, but your entire body gives off the four words you want to scream aloud: You can’t be serious.
Depending on where you’re seated, you may be able to get away without the offending party noticing. But if there happens to be a camera in the room and numerous people tweeting and reporting on your every facial expression, a silent protest might prove difficult.
And so it was for Foreign Minister Julie Bishop during Question Time on Monday afternoon. Treasurer Joe Hockey made a tribute to the late former prime minister Malcolm Fraser by praising him for starting the Expenditure Review Committee — noting that it “has endured, much to the chagrin of my colleagues”. This committee is also known as the ‘Razor Gang’, the small group of ministers responsible for cutting government spending.
Bishop not only rolled her eyes, she shook her head, put her hand to her forehead, muttered a little something under her breath.
The comment was no doubt frustrating. Possibly because just hours earlier, Bishop had learned that the Committee Hockey was referring to would be cutting her aid budget — the same budget that was slashed significantly in the 2014/15 Federal Budget. As she told ABC radio early yesterday morning, the cut she’d just read about via a leak to The Australian was the first she’d heard about the idea, and that she would be asking the Treasurer about the ‘source of the story’.
Bishop is known for her game face — in fact, she’s even made fun of it, taking on a ‘staring contest’ with The Chaser team during the last Federal election campaign. So to see it come undone so quickly is certainly noteworthy.
But it also seems Bishop’s public frustration has ultimately helped her cause — and that of the foreign aid budget. The Abbott government has now ruled out further cuts to foreign aid, promising a budget that will be dull and routine, but good for families and small business. While Bishop wouldn’t elaborate on just what she was thinking during Hockey’s remarks in Question Time yesterday, she did tell reporters she had been informed by finance minister Mathias Cormann the aid budget would be left alone. “We have a significant challenge in front of us to ensure that our aid budget is delivered effectively and efficiently and so I’m pleased that there won’t be an uncertainty surrounding that.”
Given a massive $11 billion has already been cut from the foreign aid budget by the Coalition, and the recent spate of international emergencies including Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu, Australia is in no position to do any further ‘leaning’ when it comes to foreign aid commitments.
Sometimes, it really is best to show what you actually think — with a shake of the head, an eye roll, or even a hand to the head. And if that doesn’t work, say it aloud.