#ratbag club
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The True Story of the Villareal Family [1.2]
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The Von Haunt Estate is a wonderful tourist destination for families, and Jacques couldn’t be happier to finally be away from his.
With his annoying kids out of the way until their secret meeting tonight, Jacques could get back to his second-favorite hobby:
Playing chess,
-while in cosplay. And, miraculously, he wasn’t the only Sim in Windenburg with this hobby. There was a whole club devoted to it.
The suit was stifling hot, you could barely breathe in it, and it was very hard to see the chess pieces, but Jacques loved it nonetheless. And, it was more socially acceptable than his other favorite hobby, murder.
Tonight, Jacques would have to work (they say evil never sleeps, and neither do level 9 criminals in the criminal career), but for now, he had the whole afternoon to play chess in his clinkity-clankity suit of armor.
───────────────✦───────────────
Meanwhile, Luna and Lady Mimsy were getting along like peanut butter and jelly.
She was just teaching the ghost how to slide into someone’s DMs when a voice startled them.
“Ghost!” shouted the voice, muffled by the suit of armor. “Go away, ghost! You leave her alone!”
Luna burst out laughing. “Relax! Mimsy’s, like, not even a little scary. And we’re besties, actually.”
“…besties?” said Mimsy.
“It means we’re BFFLs,” explained Luna.
“…biffles?”
The figure in the suit stiffened. “Well, I uh, thought you were maybe in trouble. Do you always laugh at people trying to help you?”
“Only when they’re wearing costumes from a Halloween store,” she retorted. “But thanks for the noble gesture.”
“Hey now, this is custom-tailored plate armor.” Was it just Luna or did this knight sound cheeky?
“Okay, nerd.”
“Yo, I am not a nerd. You’re the nerd.”
“Said the person wearing a custom-made knight outfit.” Her mouth twitched with a smile. Two could be cheeky.
She searched the face of the suit for a reaction, but couldn’t see anything behind the visor. She could swear the knight wasn’t taking their eyes off her, though.
Behind her, Luna heard Mimsy suppress a giggle. “Well, I must attend to some ghostly business, bestie. Have fun with your knight in shining armor!”
“Wait, I’m not looking for like, a savior or anything,” she said, but Mimsy had already floated away. Luna placed a hand on her hip.
The knight tutted, shaking their head. “And here I thought you were just a nice, boring girl.”
Luna narrowed her eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m just saying, you’re not what I expected. I didn’t know a pretty, popular girl like you could be so savage.”
“Well, I’m full of surprises,” said Luna with another coy smile. She didn’t know who was in this knight suit, but they certainly had her attention. And it didn’t escape her notice that they had called her pretty.
───────────────✦───────────────
“Hey Mister.”
Max had found his own ghost to talk to, a translucent figure standing at an easel.
The ghost of Lord Bernard turned, tensing as he saw Max. “Yes, child?” he said.
“Is that your art?” said Max, pointing at the piece on the easel.
The ghost raised his eyebrows, but then puffed his chest up proudly. “Why yes, it’s only half-finished, but-"
“I now see why you killed yourself.”
Bernard stood frozen in shock for a brief second, then descended upon the child like a raging tempest.
“Listen here, you little ratbag,” he spat. “It was an accident.”
“Yeah, right,” said Max.
“The fire was never supposed to spread-“
“The painting you threw into the fireplace was waaay too big to fit in there and you knew it. Of course you knew the fire would spread.”
Bernard spluttered in shock.
“Ooh, burn!” said Max. “Literally! Haha!”
And the more Bernard quivered with rage, the more Max grinned.
───────────────✦───────────────
Just past the seething ghost, over the railing and below the walkway, lay a vast collection of hedges, and within those hedges, a certain teenager was lost.
Hugo checked his Voidcritter Go! app on his phone.
“Let’s see, this is where I found the Dicoatl, which means I want to turn right to get out of here – wait, there’s no right-"
The sky was darkening, Hugo’s stomach was growling, and he was pretty sure he’d passed this spot of hedges before. And he couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched.
“Oh plum,” he said to himself, getting worried. “I gotta get to Dad’s Family Fun Day, but I’m all mixed up now…”
───────────────✦───────────────
Luna was still with the knight who had “saved” her from Mimsy’s ghost. Somehow, the entire afternoon had slipped away while they were talking.
“So, why were you so aggressive towards Mimsy? Are you afraid of ghosts or something?”
“No!” said the knight quickly. “And I’m not aggressive. I’m tough. I don’t want anybody messing with people I care about.”
“So you saw me and decided you cared about me? That’s why you were acting tough?”
“No,” said the knight, a little too quickly again. “You know, just because you act like a princess doesn’t mean every knight is fawning over you.”
Luna paused, frowning for a brief moment, before slyly raising a finger to the knight’s helmet.
“So, who is my tough knight in shining armor who doesn’t care about me?” she said, slowly lifting their visor,
but the knight stepped back before she could reveal their face. “H-hey! Hands off the suit, princess,” they stammered.
Luna doubled over giggling. “You said you didn’t care about me, but suddenly you’re too shy to show me your face?” She straightened back up, still giggling, and handed the knight something.
“Here,” she said. “Because I like you even though you’re shy.”
“Uh, what?” The knight stood there, flustered, holding Luna’s phone.
“I’m asking for your number, genius. It’s almost nightfall and I have to go.”
“Oh!” If the knight was blushing, Luna couldn’t tell. They struggled to enter their number on her phone with their clunky metal fingers, finally handing it back after several painstaking minutes.
“There you go. Don’t text me anything too savage, princess. Or do.”
Luna wondered if the knight was smiling.
She giggled. “Goodbye, my knight in shining armor.” Luna blew them a kiss, betting it would send them weak in the knees,
and she was right.
“Bye, princess…”
Luna sauntered away, butterflies tingling in her stomach.
As she walked off into the sunset, she could barely concentrate on her Family Fun Day obligations. All she could think about was her mysterious knight in shining armor.
───────────────✦───────────────
While Luna was making friends, Max was making enemies.
It was official now: The ghost of Lord Bernard Escargot Shallot IV was afraid of a 10-year-old.
When the sun started to set, Max finally walked away from his new enemy, triumphant.
It was Max: 1, Bernard: 0.
───────────────✦───────────────
But the day wasn’t over yet, and Jacques was waiting for his children. The real work of Family Fun Day was just about to begin.
───────────────✦───────────────
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#thesims4#simlit#sims4#windenburg#luna villareal#villareal#get together#the true story of the villareal family#hugo villareal#jacques villareal#max villareal#ts4#the sims 4#Von Haunt Estate#sims story#ts4 story#tTSotVF
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50 things about me / intro challenge that I’m currently making up as I go along anyway welcome to my blog! Now how do I pin this post
1. My name is Jordanah, preferred pronunciation is Ordanah and my most common nicknames are Danah and Jordan
2. My pronouns are she/her/hers, the gender I was assigned with at birth.
3. I’m in my mid twenties and have an insane amount of kids a number so peculiar it always blows people’s minds!!!
4. I was born in Texas US but my mother was Croatian Yugoslavian born and raised and I spent most of my childhood living between Croatia, Scotland and Germany. My father was a Slovene-Jew, and my mother’s side somehow also have Lebanese roots.
4. My mother had her first child at age 14 and I had mine at 15!
5. I’ve been married and divorced more than once 😬
6. This list started off exciting and now I’m depressed
7. @fazcinatingblog is my bestttt friend and it’s only through Alex Fasolo and Jordan Roughead that we met!!!
8. I am a massive Carlton fan with a 6 or 7 year membership and have attempted to raise my children Carlton (and failed.) Any family members of mine that came over from Europe (my brother’s family namely) are Bulldog supporters. However I also hold a Collingwood membership, Geelong membership and Essendon membership for my children.
9. Teams my crazy kids’ support are Geelong, Collingwood, Carlton, St Kilda/Hawthorn (he’s v confused), Melbourne/Norf Melbourne (guess his fav city), and Essendon.
10. I am always carrying some sort of injury and it’s always usually done in the most stupid of ways. My most recent injuries are; broken ribs at Collingwood premiership, broken rib, finger and concussion at opening round in Sydney, sore shoulder from tripping down a step and banging into the ladder.
11. I have a diploma in hairdressing, a certificate in business, a certificate in youth work (with a v keen interest towards social/case work), enrolled in a diploma of education and am really interested in becoming a teacher one day when my kids are a bit older!
12. I have tattoos
13. I have piercings but I never wear them anymore so do I really have piercings?
14. I was loving this list but now I’m over it
15. I go for the Proteas / South Africa in test cricket and Melbourne Renegades in BBL.
16. My NBA team is probably the Dallas Mavericks
17. I love Taylor Swift, The Beatles, 5sos, Doja Cat and Little Mix just to name a few
18. I’m hungry
19. I have this condition where I can make any bone in my body loudly crack and I’m double jointed, I freak a lot of people out. I can be sitting and put my foot over my head behind my neck! Yeah I probably have that Ehlers Danlos Syndrome
20. I hate airports, like passionately, and I will become an absolute ratbag in them
21. I have really severe ADHD combined and I cannot. Sit. Still. And I’m super impatient and just don’t have the ability to wait.
22. I have a severe math’s disability called dyscalculia. I can hardly do basic addition and the rest may as well be in Irish
23. My favourite AFL players are Charlie Curnow, Jack Carroll, Jordan Boyd, Tom De Koning, but right now I’m in a bit of a personal depression slump so that’s it, I just don’t feel much enjoyment around the footy lately.
24. I will jump on my best friend when my team wins if I’m at the game
25. I’m perfectly fine with Irish people, but I feel like none of them like me? There’s been several instances. I’ll name two. I was at the pub with my best friend watching the footy last year and the Irish group at the table just started attacking me for sitting there and even blocked off my seat, but they were fine to my friend? And neither of us had said anything to them? And on the other occasion I was dropping my daughter off at school and an Irish teacher yelled at me because she thought I was a high school student and wanted me to get to campus. I mean. Honestly.
26. I have an older brother who is 1. an idiot and 2. Has worked at many different AFL clubs in Victoria doing physiological stuff and worked at the HFC shop (and hated it)
27. I am really partial with the weather - if it’s freezing I absolutely love it but if its anything over 17 degrees I hate it and will complain non stop
28. I have had my gallbladder and spleen removed, and now my abdomen is not only covered in a horrid cesarean scar but surgery scars.
29. I had a massive Linkin Park obsession and dyed my naturally blonde hair black and in contrast to my blonde eyebrows I looked like I had none.
30. I’ve had cancer and so have my daughters.
31. My kids’ favourite footballers are Sam De Koning, Darcy Moore, Charlie Curnow, Jordan De Goey (we’ll sort her out), Jack Ginnivan, Luke Uniake Davies I think, Josh Dunkley
32. I have a G Flip song stuck in my head and it’s not even my favourite one
33. I’ve met G Flip!!! Laura and I sat in a corporate suite with her last year for Hawthorn V Collingwood and bloody hawthorn won
34. I attended the 2023 grand final at 9 months pregnant (technically overdue, I’m nuts honestly) and nearly killed myself
35. I have video footage of me nearly falling to my death at said game
36. I’m absolutely terrified of feathers, birds, metal spoons, lightning, dogs (including the western kind), adelaide football club and anything bigger than me that can crush me to death. And escalators
37. I’ve done my ACL before and it was really stupid
38. I wish the new season of Stranger Things would hurry TF up because it’s my fav show
39. I absolutely cannot stand Dale Thomas and accidentally started an online war once because I voiced my opinion
40. Not trying to compare anyone here but my favourite AFL wags are Natalie Docherty, Annalise Dalins, Chloe Geraerts, Bella Rendell and Demi Duncan.
41. My brother’s best mate is someone on the Collingwood AFLM’s team. We see them very often.
42. I love writing, I write really long, tedious, painful shit fanfics on Wattpad just for the fun of it and Laura always tells me off for putting the characters in death defying situations. My fanfics all base mainly around a main character and not so much the sportsmen. My username is the same as it is on here!
43. I think I’m a really terrible artist and that my 9 year old is the best but everyone says I can draw Darcy Moore really well.
44. I could not speak one word of English until the age of 9 and even then it was very broken
45. In school I passed Italian with A+’s and several high distinctions. I failed English with F’s and D’s constantly.
46. I hated high school and once, the sickbay nurse screwed up my file with another student’s and I had a massive allergic reaction to the pill they’d given me (I told them I didn’t take pills) lol that’s how they found out I had anaphylaxis
47. I went to primary school with a former Hawthorn player and he’s an asshole lol, he’s at another team now and my daughter isn’t happy about it
48. My favourite food is margerita pizza with no basil. My favourite drink is Shiraz.
49. I’m happy because there’s only one more thing!
50. Free Palestine 🇵🇸
51. Bonus fact, I love the F1 and Max Verstappen is my favourite driver, then George Russel. Don’t even get me started on Ferrari because I cannot stand them.
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Character alcohol tolerances: Ratbag without Talion, Talion without Ratbag (assuming that he can still drink), Ratbag and Talion together.
lol okay so
Ratbag without Talion:
Did you want to have feels and be sad today? Well I hope so bc that's what you're getting. As we know, Ratbag isn't exactly the biggest of uruks. He's also mouthy and that mouth gets him into trouble (and out of it). Because he gets picked on and gets into a lot of deep shit, Ratbag prefers not to drink alcohol unless he can't avoid it. He likes to keep his wits about him to avoid not so savory circumstances. His natural tolerance is pretty decent, but he doesn't have the same built up tolerance as someone who pounds back grog on the regular. So like if my friends and I took him clubbing back when I could drink, he would be one of the first to be white girl wasted (we were honestly probably binge drinker alcoholics ngl)
Talion without Ratbag:
Talion is a big dude (6'6" and all that muscle) with a fast metabolism thanks to his life style as a Ranger, which means his natural tolerance is pretty high as it is. Throw the wraith in there? He can get drunk, but it's either gonna take some everclear or that moonshine you get by hiking deep into the Appalachians where the mountain people dwell and you're probably gonna run into Bigfoot or a Not Deer. You know, the kind of moonshine that puts hair on not just your chest but every part of your body, makes you go blind from more than a capful, and is honestly a better fire starter than anything legally on the market. He's the poor fuck that has to drag everyone's drunk asses home after last call.
Ratbag + Talion:
Want more feels? Here. Ratbag feels safe around Talion, so around Talion he'll drink without worry. He's the first of the two to get drunk, always. He's also the one who suffers worse hangovers because once he's drunk he's even more of a dumbass than normal and keeps drinking -_- Gotta keep up with Talion, right? Wrong. That's how you die. Don't try and keep up with Talion once he's joined with the wraith. Talion lets himself get a bit more than tipsy, but he doesn't like to get to a point where he couldn't at least buy Ratbag time to run away and hide if that was required. Meanwhile our favorite ever irritating wraith Celebrimbor disapproves of everything going on.
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Pre-woke Australian poetry
The starlit insomniacs toddle, arms extending
Headless golliwog
(Bruce Dawe - The City: Midnight)
___________________________________________
he’s at it hard . . .
tattoo-mulattoes
the neighbourhood . . .
jars the subAfrican
under-jungle thump
(Judith Rodriguez - Drums in the Suburb)
___________________________________________
an Italian grandmother . . .
Mrs Whatwasitagain in black . . .
Whose roots settle
for earth, old earth, with a blackboy endurance
(Judith Rodriguez - At the Nature-Strip)
___________________________________________
I am in my Eskimo-hunting-song mood,
Aha!
(Judith Rodriguez - Eskimo Occasion)
___________________________________________
a native hunter hides his
muscles, poised with a fire sharpened spear
(John Forbes - TV)
___________________________________________
pigeons in the park
cunts in the dark
three old newspapers
& a dead rhyme
(Richard Tipping - Box 2709)
___________________________________________
the sallow mongoloid,
Solemnly tasting the concrete
(Peter Kocan - Retards)
___________________________________________
and man, with the artistry of a glass blower
working his tube between the grip of life,
the taut opening of a woman,
as fluid moves, fountaining hot, hollow
through him, into the final void.
(Graham Rowlands - Void)
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The support act
at ‘The Club’
is a drag show
. . .
The main act
is a circuit black
of such clubs
& talk shows
. . .
the m.c. suggests
‘Fair go for the nigger, or,
we’ll bring the poofters back’
(Nigel Roberts - A Nigger & Some Poofters)
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Negresses in their first nubility
With the sad eyes and muzzles of young apes
(A. D. Hope - The Damnation of Byron)
___________________________________________
and the yellow boy died
in the sulky ahead with the gear, but the horse went on
(Judith Wright - South of My Days)
___________________________________________
Tim and Sam and ratbag Nell,
Wong who keeps the Chinese hell,
the half-caste lovers, the humpbacked boy
sleep for sorrow, or wake for joy.
(Judith Wright - Camphor Laurel)
___________________________________________
It’s not the queers and chewers of poppy seeds
I hate, it’s that gammony gang of tarts
That’s bringing normal sex into disrepute.
(Peter Porter - A Meredithian Treatment)
___________________________________________
The young wives drab,
swelling with hormones until their eyes
grow smaller in their fat, blank faces.
(In the butcher’s window a dead pig
suspended on wires seems familiar.)
(Bruce Beaver - Letters to Live Poets II)
___________________________________________
The younger cooperative yet inhibited,
not without charm yet judgmental, expecting
too much or the worst from life and the living, quietly raped
at seventeen, impregnated at twenty.
(Bruce Beaver - A Pair)
___________________________________________
pass an Abo, not attempting to hitch, outside town.
(Robert Gray - North Coast Town)
___________________________________________
With its withered Native American head
a turtle’s
struggling up steeply
(Robert Gray - The Shark)
___________________________________________
I rose to catch the early morning,
the different Japanese-painted world of six a.m.
. . .
Another world lies
in my garden - for me to see through slanted eyes
(Rhyll McMaster - Slanted World)
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I saw a negro through a green
wire screen
and caught his silver eye
(Rhyll McMaster - Shaking the Flame)
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Reno, please!
Got two for Reno!
First impression:
What an asshole. He might’ve joined my teen club for cool jerks if he wasn’t too much of a ratbag scoundrel for my taste.
Impression now:
I like Reno enough, though I don’t think about him that much. I like how he seems the type to do his job and look out for his own, genuinely not caring about the sometimes innocent people he hurts as long as he doesn’t personally know them. I mean, he might feel bad in a theoretical sense, like, ‘it’s wrong to commit genocide’, but he doesn’t really empathise. Regardless of whether this is seasoned compartmentalisation at work or just his personality, I like the disconnect between how far he’ll go for folks he likes, and how little thought he gives to folks he doesn’t like, or doesn’t know.
Favourite moment:
Wutai. ‘We’re on a break’. Haha. Cheeky. Not very professional at all.
Idea for a story:
I don’t have anything Reno-centric. I’d love to have him interact more with Aerith though.
Unpopular opinion:
Dropping the plate doesn’t really affect him as much as it should, and he knows it.
Favourite relationship:
Rude, obviously! And Elena too actually - I like how he starts acting like an older brother type, it’s adorable.
Favourite headcanon:
I don’t really have that many headcanons... I think Reno was a streetrat when he was young, and his shenanigans were always bound to either get him killed or noticed by the wrong people.
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Dune Rats Launch Animated Video Clip For '6 Pack' Ahead Of Splendour In The Grass And.
People who like Dune Rats might likewise like these musicians. A no-nonsense stoner-pop anthem that calls it how it is, the video for 'Bullshit' was filmed at a yard party in Byron and also is an ode to whatever Dune Rats hold high. The Brisbane three-piece clarify, "We figured it was a great way to invest a lot of money with our tightest good friends from the bay." - no bullshit.
2016 Dune Rats. Marketed as well as dispersed by Detector Songs Australia Pty Ltd under special license. Given that Skegss get on Dune Rats' label, Ratbag Records, you would anticipate them to tour with each other at one point or one more. That time saw and also came Dune Rats hit bigger locations, like The Triffid. DUNE RATS play the Edge Resort on Friday Dune 20 with Drunk Mums, The Bennies as well as WOD. Their self-titled cd is out now via ratbag records.
Palming Dunies off however as your ordinary trio of lost lunatics, would be a narrow-minded and also unfortunate mistake. These three take as much enjoyment in overt politeness as well as the strange area of gardening as they do in the eyes-wide open experience of tilting reality. Yet at the core of everything - the system for everything that complies with - is their uncalculated lust for making songs. It's taken them from Brisbane to the United States, South Africa (ask just how the heck they found themselves below!), China, Indo, Malaysia, Canada, Singapore, a tiny seaside shanty South of Sydney and also to the proudest musical minute up until now the writing, recording and the imminent launch on Dune 1st of their initial unabridged document.
Warm off the back of a place on the substantial Uniqueness in the Yard schedule, Dune Rats have revealed the FUCK YEAH WALK YEW!" Trip for later this year. Dune Rats Trip Dates 2019 2020. Dune Rats Tickets And Concerts. However, while they get on the roadway again, they're not heading to their common haunts, yet off the beaten track to a few of the nation's smaller cities as well as towns this moment around.
Dune Rats have actually received considerable assistance from triple j over the years, which most certainly placed them in a setting to allow their 2nd cd, The Children Will Know It's Bullshit, to debut at top on the ARIA Albums Chart and also get a subsequent election for ARIA's Ideal Rock Album of the year. They were likewise added to the triple j uncovered Live At The Steps occasion that took place as part of Melbourne Songs Week in November 2017. Then again, provided three-way j's absence of moral management when it come to holding its Hottest 100 countdown on 26 January (now settled with a positive outcome), its astonishing reaction to The Football Club allegations previously last year which it has actually given platforms to Nazis as well as MRAs in current times, you don't really expect much from Australia's youth broadcaster nowadays.
As for I recognize, no Australian music press outlet has actually withdrawn their assistance for Dune Rats and also said why they can no more support and also advertise them. You would certainly believe it would certainly be a relatively uncomplicated decision however it's an exceptionally unusual occasion for the music press to call individuals out of within the Australian songs market for their suspicious views, actions and also comments, as well as Dune Rats have gained from this. As in the past, as always, it removes from the daily chest-beating, flag-waving nausea or vomiting of EVERYTHING IS BRILLIANT IN AUSTRALIA" mode of operation that prevails throughout the Australian songs market and also the country's music press.
Last month, Australia's most recent touring event, The Decline, wrapped up with three shows across three states, providing a seriously great time to hundreds of people. However, the celebration is not over. The Drop is crossing international waters and has gotten here in Bali to produce a party to finish all parties with Dune Rats, DZ Deathrays as well as a lot more.
The development that Hockey Papa have actually experienced over the past 18 months has been no accident. The hectic, punk style of Billy's drums is performed in excellent synchronicity with Zach's jangly guitar, anthemic choruses and also ever before confident vocals to give life to their transmittable as well as unmistakable brand of rock-pop. After Boronia's release, the duo started marketed out tours throughout Australia as well as toured extensively with The United States and Canada, including showcases at SXSW as well as a Canadian tour with Dune Rats. 2017 took them to the UK, Europe, as well as further throughout Australia, consisting of more programs together with Dune Rats as well as Wavves in a few of the nation's greatest venues - a globe far from the 70 cap band area where Hockey Father first reduced their teeth.
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ABC 'being used as a political punching bag': Michelle Guthrie
Updated June 19, 2018 18:06:09
The ABC's managing director Michelle Guthrie has rebuffed calls to privatise the national broadcaster, saying its value to the Australian economy is worth more than $1 billion.
Key points:New research puts the value of the ABC to the national economy at $1 billionMs Guthrie says the argument to privatise the ABC ignores the public's view of it as a "priceless asset"Ms Guthrie says 92pc of the ABC's budget this year will be spent making content
In her first comments since Liberal Party members voted to privatise the ABC, Ms Guthrie told the Melbourne Press Club that "far from being a drain on the public purse, the audience, community and economic value stemming from ABC activity [has] a real and tangible benefit".
The Liberal Party federal council approved the non-binding motion to privatise the organisation over the weekend.
"The argument seems to carry a misplaced notion of both privatisation and conservatism. But more importantly it completely ignores the public value of the ABC, both in direct dollar terms but also as far as the wider public good remit," Ms Guthrie said.
She said the people of Australia resented the ABC "being used as a punching bag by narrow political, commercial and ideological interests".
"I think the public regards the ABC as a priceless asset, more valuable now than ever in its history," she said.
Ms Guthrie said the argument for privatisation was based on the notion that there was no redeemable value for public investment in the ABC, and the commercial media sector would benefit from the so-called level playing field.
"What price do you put on public trust in an independent, commercial-free news organisation at a time of fragmentation and disruption?" she said.
"What price do you put on an ABC devoted to serving the nation across its vast expanse and through a myriad of services, with quality and distinctiveness as a hallmark?"
Party room raises questions about program costs
Ms Guthrie told the press club that research commissioned by Deloitte Access Economics, to be released next month, showed the ABC contributed $1 billion to the economy last financial year.
"The actual amount that we have to spend on content is well below that $1 billion figure. The ABC's per capita funding has halved in real terms in 30 years," she said.
"This financial year, 92 per cent of the ABC's budget will be spent on making content."
Photo: Ninety-two per cent of the ABC's budget will be spent on making content, Ms Guthrie said. (ABC News: Natasha Johnson)
Just before Ms Guthrie spoke in Melbourne, Coalition members and senators were again discussing the merits of the ABC in their weekly party room meeting in Canberra.
Some members raised concerns about the cost of certain programs, such as panel show Q&A, compared to weekly rural current affairs program Landline.
They wanted the ABC to publish how much each production costs, and the salaries of the broadcaster's highest-paid presenters.
Photo: In a consolidated media market the ABC was more "crucial than ever" in delivering Australian content, she said. (ABC News: Natasha Johnson)
Ms Guthrie said the ABC's policy on disclosing salaries would not change, pointing out it was more transparent than commercial broadcasters and the public service.
She also defended her own stewardship of the organisation, pointing to innovations such as the $50 million Great Ideas Grant and the creation of an additional 80 jobs as proof of her leadership.
Veteran ABC Melbourne broadcaster Jon Faine, who previously criticised ABC management for not being vocal enough in its support of the organisation, called for more speeches from the managing director.
"We do not understand why you are so reluctant to do more of what you have just done today," he said.
"We need a public champion, not a managing director who hides from the media or from public engagement."
ABC News Breakfast host Michael Rowland asked about sustained attacks from The Australian newspaper on the ABC.
"Someone pointed out to me that [7.30 presenter] Leigh Sales has more Twitter followers than read The Australian, so I think we're OK," Ms Guthrie replied.
In an increasingly consolidated media market, Ms Guthrie said, the ABC was more crucial than ever for delivering Australian content.
"The real challenge is the Facebook, Netflix and Googles of this world who have so much more capacity to invest," she said.
She cited drama Mystery Road and Stargazing Live as two valuable programs that would not be delivered by a commercial organisation.
Audience will be 'punished' by cuts
Ms Guthrie said 30 years ago, the ABC had five platforms and 6,000 staff.
She said today it was operating 30 platforms and services with two-thirds the number of staff, and "half the real per capita funding".
She also questioned claims that the ABC should be able to easily accommodate the funding freeze imposed in the 2018 federal budget.
"It ignores the accumulation of efficiency takes by Canberra over the past four years and the fact that these efficiencies rob the ABC of its ability to finance new content and innovation," she said.
"This whittling away of our funding represents a real opportunity cost and, in the end, serves only to punish those audiences."
Fears ABC being worn down by Trump-style attacks
Matthew Ricketson, a communications professor at Deakin University, said Ms Guthrie's speech was strong.
"She was really more passionate and engaged than I have seen her in public before," Professor Ricketson said.
But he argued more could be done to defend the public broadcaster.
"I think there is a problem with the amount of noise that is coming against the ABC from sort of the usual suspects such as The Australian," he said.
"The noise can have a wearing effect. I mean, I think we're seeing that over in the United States with President Donald Trump and how he's trying to wear away at the [Robert] Mueller investigation [into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election].
"I'd be really worried if the same sort of thing might be happening here."
Privatisation will open the ABC to Rupert Murdoch
The ABC's former managing director, David Hill, told ABC Radio Melbourne that the threat of privatisation was real.
"This proposal from the national conference of the Liberal Party is well I think it's whacky but they're serious," he said.
"This was not some ratbag rant to the Liberal Party, this was the national conference where the vote was overwhelming.
"If they can get away with it, they'll do it."
Mr Hill was the managing director of the ABC between 1987 and 1995, and was at the helm of the public broadcaster when it ran its 8-cents-a-day campaign, which referred to how much the organisation was costing taxpayers.
He said the Liberal Party had always been hostile to the ABC.
"A commercialised privatised ABC ... Rupert Murdoch's going to run our national ABC television and radio," he said.
"They'll do it if they can."
The ABC contacted senior Liberal Party conservatives Tony Abbott and Eric Abetz for comment, as well as the president of the Young Liberals, Harry Stutchbury, who voted in favour of privatising the public broadcaster.
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield was also contacted, but he declined to comment.
Topics:media,government-and-politics,industry,information-and-communication,broadcasting,radio-broadcasting,television-broadcasting,melbourne-3000,australia
First posted June 19, 2018 13:58:35
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-19/abc-being-used-as-punching-bag-michelle-guthrie-says/9885302
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