 Officials at Australia's Parliament House on Friday overturned a day-old ban on guards and attendants using the word "mate" to address lawmakers and visitors after the new rule sparked outrage among prime ministers past and present. The U-turn came after Australian Prime Minister John Howard said it was "absurd" to require security guards at the country's Parliament House to stop addressing visitors and lawmakers as "mate".
| I think it sounds a lot friendlier than "Bub," and so much more Australian than "señor"... |
One of his predecessors called the ban "rampant pomposity."
| It's a bit more formal that "honey," of course, or "sweetheart," and much more folksy than "yer honor"... |
| I always thought the WWII term "mac" would be appropriate for just about any occasion ... |
On Thursday, guards and attendants at the building in Canberra were told to stop using the common Australian expression of endearment following a complaint from a senior civil servant, media reported.
"Yer honor, them guards and attendants called me 'mate'! Like I was some kinda mate o' theirs!"
"Okay. I'll write a memo, effendi." |
"These things are all a matter of context, and that's why it's impractical and absurd to try and ban something," Howard, who in the past has used the term to describe President Bush, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
| I can certainly agree with that, sweetheart... |
Hilary Penfold, secretary for the Department of Parliamentary Services, said the ban was intended to ensure staff do not offend visitors.
"I am so offended! That guard called me 'mate'!"
"Did he? I'll write a letter to the management, snookums!" |
By Friday afternoon, staff had been issued fresh written instructions to "be aware when a degree of informality may be acceptable and when a more formal approach is required."
| "And stop offering them sudsers, too!" |
Former prime minister Bob Hawke was enraged by the ban. "It's pomposity gone mad," Hawke told ABC radio. Hawke, a former union leader famous for his down to earth approach and for holding a beer drinking record while studying at Oxford University, said the term had been useful to him at official functions. "It gets you out of all sorts of embarrassing situations," he said. "It's got a nice neutrality about it. I mean, it doesn't imply any intimacy, it shows a reasonable level of respect. I think it's one of our great words."| Whartever you say, infidel. |
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