Short Circuits #7
Historical mascots of SECV. Also idiots, doing idiot things, because they're idiots.
Jump Fright
Shoutout to Tom F, who last week introduced me to the most terrifying Australian horror character ever created. Thanks for that, mate.
Move over Babadook, Shocko the ‘electrical accident imp’ from the 1950s State Electricity Commission of Victoria is here to ensure that you not only treat your electrical appliances with appropriate caution, but never ever fucking sleep again.
The SECV introduced Shocko in 1953 in response to rising electrical safety incidents and planned on distributing a million copies of the booklet pictured above. Given Victoria’s population was around 2.6 million people at the time, the SECV had properly ambitious plans to traumatise people.
In fact apparently permanently traumatising Victorian boomers wasn’t enough, and Tasmania’s Hydro-Electric Commission borrowed Shocko for their own brutal safety campaign.
A well preserved copy of the booklet is currently for sale on eBay, if you haven’t learned any lessons from The Babadook and think it’s a good idea to bring a cursed book into your home and terrorise your children.
Moomba SEC float
Melbourne held was Moomba Festival recently, which as best I can gather (I’ve never been) is a festival held for the sake of holding a festival? Also it’s deliberately and proudly kitsch?1
A major part of the festival is the parade (apparently? Obviously?), and in years past the State Electricity Commission entered floats.
The images below are courtesy of the Facebook group I Worked for the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV).
History nerds might also notice the clear view down Swanston St to St Paul’s cathedral, the Ball & Welch department store and The Forum — the Princes Gate Towers (home of the SECV’s nemesis the Gas & Fuel Corporation) weren’t constructed until 1967.
Better yet the SECV’s 1966 Annual Report suggests that this particular float won first prize in the Industrial Section. Wild!
But who and what is that mascot atop the float? That is none other than Bernie Briquette! A delightful little character created in the 1950s to promote the burning of briquettes in the home for heating.
Thankfully the SECV never trotted out a float featuring Shocko, which probably wouldn’t have won them any prizes and may have lead to heart attacks in the crowd.
In fact Bernie Briquette made appearances in other years, like this example from 1962.
And while it’s still not entirely clear what the purpose of the modern SECV is, honestly they could do worse then enter floats based on cutesy marketing characters into the Moomba parade.
Trumpet of Parrots
Clive Palmer, Australia’s second most expensive waste of space2, has launched his third foray into politics with the Trumpet of Patriots – his most populist and stupidly-named play (to date).
After the last federal election Palmer voluntarily deregistered his previous party, the United Australia Party, for reasons uncear, but probably definitely absolutely not related to Australian Electoral Commission donation disclosure rules.
Turns out you can’t simply re-register the party (within the same electoral cycle) when it suits you, and so here we are – instead of a party name blatantly ripped from the 1930s-1940s, we have *gestures wildly* whatever the fuck this thing is.
Craig Kelly, the former Liberal MP turned anti-vaxxer, Bureau of Meteorology conspiracy theorist and general gronk is out3 and Suellen Wrightson is in as the new party leader.4
Suellen Wrightson is the first announced candidate for ToP5, running for the seat of Hunter – a rusted-on Labor seat which is the beating heart of NSW coal country. The Hunter electorate includes Eraring and the decommissioned Wangi Wangi power stations, and narrowly misses Vales Point, Bayswater and the decommissioned Liddell; not to mention the many mines which feed these stations and the export market.
Wrightson is a former Cessnock (Newcastle) councillor and OG Palmer United Party candidate from 2013; she’s also currently sole-remaining UAP senator Ralph Babet’s chief of staff. To the shock of absolutely no-one, Wrightson and ToP are vehemently “anti-woke”6 as well as anti-renewables.
Given Suellen’s long history of association with Palmer and his expensive electoral endeavours it’s hard to know if the announcement of Wrightson running for Hunter as the first announced candidate is shrewdly calculated, convenient or coincidental, but a blue collar seat facing a cost of living crisis, an uncertain employment future and some controversy and unpopularity regarding offshore wind farms plays right into Palmer’s particular brand of populism.7
What is interesting, I think, is that it’s not a given that Palmer’s brand of populism needs to lean into far right anti-renewables misinformation. In fact the last time Wrightson was involved with the Palmer United Party, they allied with Labor and The Greens to support the RET from Abbott’s axe in 2014. Helping reduce electricity bills and slow climate change could be a good thing for constituents, imagine! However a decade on and it’s safe to say that Wrightson and ToP will not be aligning with Labor or The Greens on much.8
Anyway, in announcing his new political party in February, Palmer rather fitting (accidentally?) referred to it as the Trumpet of Parrots, then in March addressed the National Press Club and proceeded to eat Tim Tams while taking questions, which honestly, bravo. No notes.
The organisers apparently chose the name Moomba believing that it was a native word meaning ‘to have fun’, but apparently is closer in meaning to ‘up your bum’, which is just a different type of fun I guess.
When measured on a $/kg basis.
He seems intent on beating Mark Latham to win the far right micro-party grand slam – working with Palmer, Hansen, and now the Libertarian Party (a rebranded DLP). I give him 6 months before he pops up with Lyle Shelton.
The Victorian senator, former real estate agent and absolute D-grade gronk Ralph Babet chose to stay on with the UAP, which remains registered as a political party in Victoria only. It’s not clear why he didn’t transfer to Palmer’s new party, but honestly that’s probably the least confusing thing going on in this whole story.
Palmer will apparently put candidates up for all 151 lower house seats, something which a) he’s done previously to vanishingly small success, b) is a huge waste of everyone’s time and his money and c) seems like even shorter notice then normal to find another 150 people with a heartbeat willing to contest seats for ToP. Palmer however has a reputation for finding the most amazing bottom of the barrel single-issue cooker candidates, so at the very least things will be… colourful.
No, I don’t know what it means either. But I do know that there is a strong correlation between earnestly using the term “anti-woke” and being an awful person.
Nevermind that Palmer’s populism doesn’t actually translate to anything meaningful. When Clive himself was an MP he only bothered turning up to less than 10% of parliament’s sitting days, and only then to vote on issues which would directly impact his wealth and corporate interests. How Trumpian.
Viewer discretion advised — this video contains two morons lisping through climate denial, offshore wind farm conspiracy theories and general dumbfuckery.
Informative and humorous as always Alex. Keep em coming.
I am BAFFLED as to why the SEC put John Steinbeck’s Burning Bright on their Moomba float. It's an experimental theatre piece about characters struggling with impotence, infidelity and infertility. A cry for help from someone in the SEC struggling with these issues; or an employee who wants to signal they’re down with the latest avant guard theatre despite their boring government job? Perhaps a meta-comment that the book is so bad it should be burned (it was a critical flop)?
Or (and I suspect more likely) someone in the marketing department saw the book in a bookshop window, thought “Hey, briquettes burn bright! Let’s use that!” and didn’t actually check out what it was about.
I guess we will never know.