Danby becomes Parliamentary Secretary
Federal Labor Member of Parliament Michael Danby has been made a Parliamentary Secretary.
Danby, member for Melbourne Ports said: “I am honoured to have been appointed by the Prime Minister as Parliamentary Secretary for the Arts. Gratitude is an obligation incumbent on all men, as the great teacher Lubavitcher Rebbe argued.
This is particularly so in a great country like Australia where people from all backgrounds have so much opportunity; where in one generation, a refugee from Nazism such as my father Fred Danby can see his son become a junior Minister (member of the Executive).
Michael Danby
My passion for the arts began as a teenager, while helping in my late mother’s art gallery next to Her Majesty’s Theatre in Melbourne. It was also there that I met many great actors who attended and often opened exhibitions at the Gallery.
As well as entertaining and inspiring us, artists tell our stories, and reflect our diverse society; through our artists, we know and understand Australia better.
My friends and the large artistic community of my electorate of Melbourne Ports, know me as a keen supporter of all the arts. Only last Wednesday night I attended a showing of the Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition at the National Gallery. The next day I expressed admiration of the NGA curators for assembling such an aesthetically important retrospective by the premier modern multimedia visual artist. http://www.danbymp.com/recent/1879-toulouse-lautrec-paris-and-the-moulin-rouge.html.
Danby added: “We have been passed a great policy by Simon Crean – “Creative Australia.” Minister Burke and I will enthusiastically implement these creative ideas in the coming months. It’s been a long journey since Kamahl, Paul Eddington and Derek Nimmo opened exhibitions in my late mother Margaret’s Melbourne Gallery. She would be proud.
In the reshuffled ministry, Mark Dreyfus remains Attorney-General but his responsibilities now also include being Special Minister of State and Minister for the Public Service and Integrity.
Don’t be so mean-spirited, Otto. Just because Danby mentions Kamahl opening one of his mother’s Melbourne Gallery exhibitions, it doesn’t necessarily follow he’s a fan of Kamahl’s brand of song, although even if he was, so what?; it’s possible to have both ‘sophisticated’ and populist tastes in music – one doesn’t necessarily cancel out the other, unless, of course, one allows snobbery to do so. I love all kinds of music, from classical through to blues, and my special love is Louis ‘Satchmo’ Armstrong, so what does that make me?
That Danby spontaneously (it seems to me) shares the knowledge that he recently went to the Toulouse Lautrec exhibition shouldn’t attract a sneer. Nobody should be kicked while displaying any kind of sincerity, and there are many Jewish parables and choice thoughts to that effect.
It’s a brave man or woman who would be Jewish and a politician in this country, chiefly due to the flak it attracts from so many in the Australian Jewish communities.
Hang on a minute, I had no idea that Michael Danby just went to the Toulouse Lautrec exhibition and also, what a revelation, that he is a Khamal admirer. Michael is sophistication embodied and has nothing Toulouse by displaying his “funny” side(s). I , for one, am laughing………..
ALEPH MELBOURNE MEDIA RELEASE:
NOT ALL AUSTRALIANS SHARE THE SAME OPPORTUNITIES AS MICHAEL DANBY
27 MARCH 2013
Aleph Melbourne, a support organisation that advocates for the welfare of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex people of Jewish background, welcomes local MP Michael Danby’s elevation to the position of Parliamentary Secretary to the Arts.
Danby’s electorate of Melbourne Ports covers an area with significant Jewish and gay populations. Many Aleph Melbourne members are constituents in his electorate.
On J-Wire [1] Danby asserts that in Australia people from all backgrounds are able to have so much opportunity and demonstrates this by relating how in just one generation, as a child of refugees, he became a member of the Federal Executive.
In the same paragraph Danby then quotes the late Jewish Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Schneerson about the necessity for obligation and gratitude.
Aleph Melbourne co-convenor Michael Barnett said in response, “It’s rewarding that someone like Michael Danby can attain an elevated status in society coming from such humble beginnings, but the reality is that not all Australians share the same opportunities as him.”
“Danby casually throws around platitudes and quotes, but he needs to distance himself from extreme views held by the likes of Schneerson, a person who believed homosexuality was destructive and abnormal.” [2]
“Danby plays well to his Jewish constituency but recklessly ignores his large gay constituency. Just last year he abstained from the Parliamentary vote on marriage equality, a vote that would have seen him practicing what he preaches, giving his gay and lesbian constituents the opportunity to marry, an opportunity he is privileged to have.”
“He may well consider his gratitude an obligation, but he shows no gratitude to those gay voters who may identify as Jewish and who continue to support him.”
Barnett called on Danby to distance himself from the homophobic and intolerant teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe and to support marriage equality so that all Australians can have equal opportunity, regardless of their backgrounds.
“It’s time Danby came out and wholeheartedly supported marriage equality. He has the right to get married. We all should. He’s no better than the rest of us. We’ve had enough of him just simply keeping quiet or delivering half-baked answers. He needs to stand up and be counted.” Barnett said.
ENDS.
Contact: Michael Barnett (0417-595-541).
[1] http://www.jwire.com.au/news/danby-becomes-parliamentary-secretary/33503 (Mar 25, 2013)
[2] http://borngay.procon.org/view.source.php?sourceID=003891
Well done and well deserved Michael is a fine active local member