Sunday, March 28, 2010

Work-Life Balance II - Now it's our our "health" minister


In Part I Wayne Swan attacked Tony Abbott for taking part in the Iron Man triathlon:

"I frankly have trouble understanding how he finds the time to do it. Because these jobs are all-consuming, we are dealing with very important issues and particularly in the last few years dealing with a global recession and its impact on our economy. I can't understand how any senior person in the Opposition can find the time to go off surfing all of the time."

Now this morning "Health" Minister Nicola Roxon has backed him up:

"I think Wayne Swan was a little bit wistful, almost jealous that he doesn't have as much time to do some of the things he would like to. That's the reality of the jobs that we have in government.

And it is a lot of time. I think it's a fair question to say: does that amount of time actually have an impact on the lack of policy development that we're seeing from the Opposition?"


Then, perhaps remembering her portfolio, she added:

"I would like to exercise more but then I'd have less time with my young daughter. You know we all make choices about what we do in busy lives. I'm certainly not going to pass any judgment about the choices that Tony Abbott makes. And I do think it's good to have people setting an example."

What are they on?

Will they expect us to take them seriously when it matters?

As Monash University's Stephen King put it today: "To have a federal health minister questioning exercise of a level of 10 hours a week – and intimating it might be too much – is ludicrous."

And unsettling.

At least Kevin Rudd has the right idea.

Here is his tweet from this morning:

Wishing @TonyAbbottMHR all the best today for a very tough race. KRudd

Congratulations Tony. And congratulations Kevin.


Related Posts

. Wayne Swan, on work-life balance

. Wednesday Column: Swan, Rudd and Tanner are stuffing things up big-time