they need us to pick up the bill, honest!

I very much liked the intro to Crikey's daily email today:

Tomorrow, the Prime Minister and a cavalcade of businessmen, politicians, community leaders and celebrities will take their seats at the Sydney Opera House for a state memorial service in honour of a "great Australian." Flags across NSW will fly at half-mast. There will be live television coverage. Eulogies will pour in.

Kerry Packer was a businessman. He owned casinos, a TV network, a stable of popular magazines and many other assets. Kerry Packer deserves respect for doing well in his chosen field of accumulating money and power. He was a rich and powerful Australian, not a great Australian. Tomorrow's state memorial service has blurred that distinction to the point where being rich/powerful and being great seem to be a singular concept to many Australians including, it seems, the federal government.

Tomorrow, as it turns respectfulness into obsequiousness, the federal government has raised some really uncomfortable questions about values in Australia.

Like many others, I find it difficult to fathom how the government can justify spending public money on this. But I guess it's not the only thing in that category. Sigh.