Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 2. March 5 1979
A Sick man without a Problem
A Sick man without a Problem
Then it was Bob Jones' turn. He [ unclear: claimed] he hadn't been asked to give a speech but did grace us with the formal: "I've come to say I'm sick and I'm not going to give a speech". Silence. Then, from the audience, "Is it personal or economic?" Jones seemed to decide to stay after all. "Personal", he stated. "The economy is fine. It is what it is." Jones it appeared, wasn't going to make a case or argue. At the stage, however, it wasn't yet clear just what he was going to do.
First a bit of sanctimonious gloating: a little story about when he was our age he used to drive out into the country and see men working for a pittance on the side of the road. "I used to feel ashamed. Now, I don't. I've matured. You will too. Now I feel good about it, especially when it's raining."
From this he moved into a style he obviously preferred: abuse. To a question on why he had more influence with National MPs than most people, he replied: "Probably because you're not very bright" to a question of equality he declared that he was not being facetious but "I'm a lot more good looking than you are. Should I have an operation to make myself look as ugly as you?" For every question he had an insult. Funny perhaps, but his utter contempt for the non-millionaires of this world and students in particular was a distinctly unpleasant thing to watch.
Jones had two themes to support his approach. One was taxes, which he hates and which he also admitted he pays less of than the average student. The other was equality, which he persistently reduced to the level of petty formal inequality. The fact that the people in the audience were not talking about the inequalitites of physsique we are born with but the qualitatively different inequalities caused by our economic and social system did not seem irrelevant to him. That the concomitant to his success was the continued suppression of the living standards of others forced to sell their labour power was no problem.
"What protection do we have against, for example, grubby land speculators?" he was asked. "You don't have any". He continued to claim, "You people are incredibly materialistic. I don't worry about money". Funny that, I'D stake the measly couple of bucks I get for writing this on the fact that the man in front of me in the queue for a cup of coffee before the forum, the man who was quibbling over his change, was none other than Bob Jones himself.