I am seldom lucky enough to see celebrities in my day-to-day travels, but I did spot someone today who’s been in the news a bit lately…it was none other than the The Honourable Bronwyn Jane Pike, State Minister for Health! (Shown at left, putting on her ‘serious’ face as she listens to a question asked by a journalist). Most impressive was the minister’s safety pin – a device usually saved for holding babies nappies together. This time it had been turned into a neat fashion item and was holding her furry green jacket together. Nice touch.

The State Government has been in dispute with the Australian Nurses’ Federation over pay issues and staff-to-patient ratios in public hospitals. You can read about it here. But I was passing by Treasury Place today and saw this media interview commence, so I decided to join in! But having not paid close attention to the issue, I refrained from asking any questions. Lucky for Bronwyn!

It was really interesting to see how the interview was conducted. Mrs. Pike told the journalists what she was going to talk about, and then invited questions. But the questions were really so she could just make the statements that she wanted to make anyway. She inserted lots of ‘snappy’ statements which would be suitable for the ten-second grab on the television news.

The image above shows Bronwyn’s ‘minder’ in the black leather jacket recording the interview (presumably she and Bronwyn listened to themselves later on).

The oddest aspect though was the way that Mrs. Pike looked only at the cameras, even when listening to a journalist ask a question!

So even if she was asked a question from a journalist to her extreme left, her head would not turn one degree to the side – yet she would nod and smile as if she was looking them in the face, such as during a normal conversation!

When she’d decided, after about 10 minutes, that she’d had enough of defending the State Government and condemning the striking nurses, she promptly said “That’s all, thanks” and then promptly re-entered the parliamentary building from where she’d come, and the journalists all dispersed as quickly as they had assembled.

A most interesting phenomenon to witness!