drongo: noun This great Australian insult was originally an RAAF term for a raw recruit. It first appeared in the early 1940s, but its origin reaches back to the name of the racehorse Drongo, who ran in the early 1920s. No Phar lap, Drongo was famed for its poor form, never winning a race.
Nice Mr Brown, Auckland’s Mayor, describes contemporary drongos, detailing:
“another encounter with the media as evidence of the cause of his frustrations. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins flew to Auckland on Saturday and was then toured in an NZ Defence Force helicopter. “I paid for a helicopter. Me. I paid for it. The taxpayer paid for his. There’s some balancing stuff. Just think about that,” Brown said.
The two leaders – one civic, the other national – surveyed damage and flew to Whenuapai Air Force Base in west Auckland where Hipkins was speaking at a press conference. Brown gets out to join the Beehive contingent, is elbowed aside by a camera operator and finds some present don’t recognise who he is. “Later it’s reported I’m not there. That’s why you’re drongos.”
Hard to argue with that, just sayin’. When media just make stuff up they are drongos.
There are more drongos, they’re in parliament too, in several forms. Notwithstanding the merits of the lesser drongos, let’s just look at Drongo-in Chief: Minister – Emergency Management McAnulty, delighting in the skewering of Mr Brown in a Stuff piece riddled with innuendo and faint accusation towards the Auckland Mayor, McAnulty’s office suggested ‘new powers’, may be necessary “that could allow the National Emergency Management Agency to intervene if local leaders fail to act”. Whew! That’s mega-Drongo, right there – that ‘new’ power already explicitly exists:
So why aren’t the drongos of the press holding McAnulty’s feet to the fire? He had the power to act: he didn’t.
Why is the mega-Drongo suggesting ‘new powers’ to duplicate powers he already has? Is he that stupid? Has he not read the legislation he’s responsible for? Didn’t he know? What does the prime minister have to say about a minister who had the power to act but failed to do so? Why didn’t the prime minister order the Emergency Management Minister to act? Hasn’t he read the legislation either? Doesn’t he know what he is doing? Crikey! So many questions so pertinent, yet they’re not being asked.
Come on you useless drongos of the press: catch up. Do your job!
