Boswell smashed over china plate 'threat'
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Dogs eye and dead horse... Professor Seal says rhyming slang is still common in Australia. (Kate Shannon )
Queensland Nationals Senator Ron Boswell has defended his choice of words during last night's Senate Estimates hearings, saying he was not being racist.
Senator Boswell was forced to withdraw because one of his comments to the department's secretary, Martin Parkinson, was seen as a threat.
"You are making this a high farce. Now just watch it, china," Senator Boswell said, referring to the rhyming slang phrase "china plate" meaning "mate".
Committee chair Helen Polley struggled to regain control and called on her Upper House colleagues to show more self control.
"Senator Boswell, can I just remind you of the standing orders. It is inappropriate to threaten a witness. I ask you to withdraw those comments," she said.
"I withdraw the comment, if it was considered threatening," Senator Boswell replied.
Today Senator Boswell said he used the word "china" to mean "mate" and it was neither threatening or racist.
"I haven't got a racist bone in my body; I'm certainly not racist," he said.
"I don't think anyone would take it up as racism. It was just the old slang of the 'dog and the bone' - the phone - and china plate and a mate - that's the way I use it.
"I was getting very frustrated because estimates are a time when you have a right to question public servants and I just wasn't getting any response at all."
'No Dalai Lamas'
Curtin University Professor of Folklore Graham Seal, who has also written a book on rhyming slang in Australia, says using the term "china" is definitely not racist.
"China plate is definitely a rhyming slang for mate and doesn't have any racist connotations or implications," he said.
"It's a piece of cockney rhyming slang that we used in Australia for I guess 100 years or so."
Professor Seal says it does not seem unusual for 60-year-old Senator Boswell to use the phrase as it was probably a popular term for his generation.
"I think the thing with rhyming slang it tends to sort of go to sleep for a while and it can pop up in another generation," he said.
"Even though some of these terms are quite old and are often used by people from particular generations because they were around at that time, quite a few of them still survive and live on.
"I think china plate's still around. It's a term that's certainly around in Australian speech."
Professor Seal says more modern rhyming slang has also been introduced to the Australian vernacular in recent years.
"Things like Britney Spears for beers, these are more modern ones," he said.
"It used to be Germaine Greers for beers, but that was a generation back.
"There's a few other ones around. When the Dalai Lama was around a year or two ago someone coined the term Dalai Lamas for no dramas."
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76 needed to form government
State of the Parties
76 seats required for victory
|
91.7% counted.
Updated Sat Sep 4 09:44PM
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| Party | % Vote | Swing | Won | Predict | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labor | 38.0 | -5.4 | 72 | |||
| Coalition | 43.7 | +1.6 | 73 | |||
| Greens | 11.7 | +3.9 | 1 | |||
| Others | 6.6 | -0.1 | 4 | |||
Changing Seats
|
91.7% counted.
Last updated Sat Sep 4 09:44PM
|
|||||||
| Time | Count % | Electorate | Held By | Margin | 2PP % | Swing | Predict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14:37 | 93.5 | La Trobe | L/NP | 0.5 | 50.9 | 1.4% to ALP | ALP GAIN |
| 18:22 | 91.0 | McEwen | L/NP | 0.0 | 55.2 | 5.2% to ALP | ALP GAIN |
| 10:36 | 89.0 | Solomon | ALP | 0.2 | 51.9 | 2.0% to CLP | CLP GAIN |
| 18:52 | 83.1 | Melbourne | ALP | 4.7 | 55.6 | 10.3% to GRN | GRN GAIN |
| 17:37 | 94.3 | Denison | ALP | 15.3 | 51.2 | 16.5% from ALP | IND GAIN |
| 15:21 | 91.2 | Bennelong | ALP | 1.4 | 53.5 | 4.9% to LIB | LIB GAIN |
| 13:07 | 92.8 | Gilmore * | ALP | 0.4 | 55.3 | 5.7% to LIB | LIB WIN |
| 18:07 | 92.9 | Hasluck | ALP | 0.8 | 50.6 | 1.4% to LIB | LIB GAIN |
| 16:21 | 92.0 | Macarthur * | ALP | 0.5 | 53.0 | 3.5% to LIB | LIB WIN |
| 11:23 | 92.5 | Macquarie | ALP | 0.3 | 51.2 | 1.5% to LIB | LIB GAIN |
| 18:54 | 90.3 | Swan * | ALP | 0.3 | 52.6 | 2.8% to LIB | LIB WIN |
| 16:53 | 91.5 | Bonner | ALP | 4.5 | 52.6 | 7.1% to LNP | LNP GAIN |
| 17:21 | 89.8 | Brisbane | ALP | 4.6 | 51.0 | 5.6% to LNP | LNP GAIN |
| 11:36 | 92.7 | Dawson | ALP | 2.6 | 52.4 | 5.0% to LNP | LNP GAIN |
| 12:51 | 93.7 | Dickson * | ALP | 0.8 | 55.2 | 5.9% to LNP | LNP WIN |
| 14:36 | 91.1 | Flynn | ALP | 2.2 | 53.5 | 5.7% to LNP | LNP GAIN |
| 15:08 | 91.6 | Forde | ALP | 3.4 | 51.6 | 5.0% to LNP | LNP GAIN |
| 16:06 | 92.4 | Herbert * | ALP | 0.0 | 52.1 | 2.1% to LNP | LNP WIN |
| 16:37 | 90.4 | Leichhardt | ALP | 4.1 | 54.6 | 8.7% to LNP | LNP GAIN |
| 14:21 | 92.2 | Longman | ALP | 1.9 | 52.0 | 3.9% to LNP | LNP GAIN |
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