Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has a message for the people who want her to be prime minister: Calm down, she’s still learning the job.

Five days after Australians voted in the Voice referendum, she is still reeling from the sudden change from obscure first-term senator for the Northern Territory to someone whose campaign appearances saw her getting rock star-like receptions around the country.

Admitting she is “looking exhausted” and ready for a holiday to visit in her in-laws in Scotland, Price took time this week to sit down in her Parliament House office to reflect on the whirlwind past few months, why people have responded to her, her relationship with the ALP, and what made her give “that answer” at the National Press Club.

“I’m still getting my head around it,” she says of the demands on her.

“My family are like: ‘Everybody wants you – we just want you back. We just want you to ourselves, everyone else has had the opportunity to have you’.”

She pauses.

“It’s quite — like, don’t get me wrong, it’s wonderful and it’s humbling and it’s incredible — but there is a sense of at times getting pulled. Some people want to shake my hand then pull me toward them and want to hug me.”

There is an openness about Price that is unsettling to a journalist used to politicians who consider their answers carefully.

In a second she can switch from joking about herself to talking with a deadly seriousness about what drives her.

Price, 42, understands that the chord she has struck with many Australians is partly about her but also about relief that someone can’t be shut down and is finally saying the things people think.

“I think I’m a particular passionate person. I’m led by reality, I think,” she says.

“Woke culture and identity politics and all of these constructs have been thrust upon us as Australian people when our nature is to be straightforward and not bullshitters.

“I think Australians will have been hungry for that, looking for that again.

“A lot people want what’s best for us all and they don’t like called racist when they’re not. They don’t like being bullied and I think a lot of people have felt that way, and to hear someone who’s resonating with them and see that person at such a time when they were needing it most … I think that’s why there’s been that sort of reaction.”

Inside the conservative political ecosystem it had been predicted long before she arrived in Canberra that Price was going to shake things up.

But without the referendum campaign she wouldn’t have become a household name in the short time she has been in the Senate.

One senses that Price understands that her time has arrived before she is fully ready.

Her next step, she says, will be working with South Australian Liberal Senator Kerrynne Liddle to fight for a royal commission into the sexual abuse of Indigenous children.

“We have been voted into federal parliament to do our job and to do our job effectively, and that for me is what my focus is and I’m in a prime position to do that,” she says.

“The whole leadership thing? I’m not here to try to climb a ladder, I’m here to fight to bring about real change away from what we’ve been regurgitating over the last three decades.”

She laughs.

“The whole country seems to be saying: ‘Jacinta for Prime Minister! Jacinta for Prime Minister!’ but I’m like: ‘Actually you know what, I still need to learn the job’!”

More seriously, when Julian Leeser resigned from Peter Dutton’s frontbench to support the Voice, Price wasn’t sure she was ready for the job of opposition spokeswoman for Indigenous affairs.

“I’m always respectful of understanding there are those who been here longer than me and who have worked hard and have ambition and that sort of thing, so I took a long time to consider that,” she said.

Indeed, so unlikely did her elevation seem to Price she even rang up Dutton to ask: “Am I being considered for this” before being persuaded it needed to happen now, as “in this particular environment right now with the referendum coming” it “would put me in a stronger position to argue my case”.

Price was under no illusions about the difficulty about getting her message out in a media she believes is hostile to her and her message.

“I know they’re still out to get me, which is why I think Warren Mundine was so pissed off at the end of the press conference — because I’ve been fighting to highlight the needs of our most marginalised and yet the shallowness of some of the press … they’re far more interested in gotcha moments. It’s like they’re all: ‘I want to be the person who brings down Jacinta Price’. That’s how it feels.”

That hostility between Price and the media was on full display in September when she addressed the National Press Club in Canberra.

Asked about ongoing negative effects of colonisation on Indigenous people, Price seemed to reflect for a minute before answering that as far she was concerned there were none.

The answer triggered days of coverage. Why had she done that?

“Part of it was that frustration that: ‘Here we go again, they want to paint us as victims’. This is the narrative that they’ve pushed on us as Aboriginal Australians and I wanted to be completely honest and to say ‘well, actually, there’s a hell of lot that colonisation has brought that has improved our lives and in general terms. What we don’t appreciate enough is the efforts that are put in to improving the lives of Indigenous Australians despite what has occurred in our country’s history’.

“No one is out to bring Aboriginal people down and to use colonisation to do that.

“That’s the nonsense that is fed to Australians and so I just had to tell the truth really.”

Her views haven’t endeared her to some Labor senators, especially Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

“There’s couple that are nice and respectful obviously. There are some that just wouldn’t give you the time of day basically. I’ve had very little to do with Penny Wong. She didn’t bother shaking my hand. She split from the chamber once I had finished my speech.”

Five days after the referendum vote, she says Labor still hasn’t got the message: “They have been unwilling to accept the outcome. They’re still not reading the room, to their detriment, and not accepting responsibility for their failure throughout this process.”

As for the Indigenous leaders who went to ground after issuing a statement on Saturday in which they called themselves the “true owners of the country” and announcing a week of silence, Price thinks they should get over themselves.

“I just feel like, for those of us who are doing all right for ourselves, we should be putting our focus — and understanding there is always someone worse off than us — we should be placing our focus on improving their lives and not making it about us,” she says.

You know time has a way of moving quickly and catching you unaware of the passing years.  It seems like yesterday that I was young, just married, and embarking on my new life with my mate. Yet in a way, it seems like eons ago, and I wonder where all those years went.

 I know that I lived them all.  I have glimpses of how it was back then and of all my hopes and dreams.

But here it is … the winter of my life, and it catches me by surprise.  How did I get here so fast?  Where did the years go and where did my youth go?  I remember well seeing older people through the years and thinking that those “older people” were years away from me and that winter was so far off that I could not fathom it or imagine fully what it would be like.

 But here it is … my friends are retired and getting grey … they move slower, and I see an older person in myself now.   Some are in better and some worse shape than me …  but I see the great change … not like the ones that I remember who were young and vibrant … but, like me, their age is beginning to show and we are now those older folks that we used to see and never thought we’d be.

Each day now, I find that just getting a shower is a real target for the day!  And taking a nap is not a treat anymore … it’s mandatory!  Cause if I don’t on my own free will … I just fall asleep where I sit!

And so … now I enter this new season of my life unprepared for all the aches and pains and the loss of strength and ability to go and do things that I wish I had done but never did!!   But at least I know, that though the winter has come, and I’m not sure how long it will last … this I know, that when it’s over on this earth … it’s over.   A new adventure will begin!

Yes, I have regrets.  There are things I wish I hadn’t done … things I should have done, but indeed, there are also many things I’m happy to have done.   It’s all in a lifetime.

So, if you’re not in your winter yet … let me remind you, that it will be here faster than you think.  So, whatever you would like to accomplish in your life, please do it quickly!  Don’t put things off too long!!  Life goes by quickly.  So, do what you can TODAY, as you can never be sure whether this is your winter or not!

 You have no promise that you will see all the seasons of your life … so, LIVE FOR TODAY and say all the things that you want your loved ones to remember … and hope that they appreciate and love you for all the things that you have done for them in all the years past!!

“Life” is a GIFT to you.  The way you live your life is your gift to those who come after.    Make it a fantastic one.

Remember:  “It is Health that is real Wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.”

Your kids are becoming you … but your grandchildren are perfect!

Going out is good … coming home is even better!

You forget names … but it’s OK, because other people forgot they even knew you!!!

You realize you’re never going to be really good at anything … especially golf.

The things you used to care to do, you no longer care to do, but you really do care that you don’t care to do them anymore.
 
You sleep better on a lounge chair with the TV blaring than in bed. It’s called “pre-sleep”.

You miss the days when everything worked with just an “ON” and “OFF” switch.

You tend to use more 4 letter words … “what?” …”when?”…???

Now that you can afford expensive jewellery, it’s not safe to wear it anywhere.

 You notice everything they sell in stores is “sleeveless?!”

What used to be freckles are now liver spots.

Everybody seems to whisper.

You have 3 sizes of clothes in your cupboard … 2 of which you will never wear.

But “Old” is good in some things:
Old Songs, Old movies … and best of all, our dear … OLD FRIENDS!!

It’s Not What You Gather, But What You Scatter That Tells What Kind of Life You Have Lived.

Stay well, “OLD FRIENDS!”

HAMAS’S surprise ambush was an intelligence, political and military disaster for Israel, which declared it “national tragedy.

Israel’s disproportionate response may also ultimately prove too difficult to justify despite the best efforts of its international propaganda arm and unquestioning supporters.

Inevitably in Middle Eastern affairs it will escalate into an international tragedy.

The UN estimates total casualties at 4200, including too many children, women and other non-military personal on both sides who have become “collateral damage”.

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Australian Defence History, Policy and Veterans Issues (targetsdown.blogspot.com)

If you live in Queensland this petition may be of interest to you.

Click this link to open the E-Petition: https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Work-of-the-Assembly/Petitions/Petition-Details?id=3974

This E-Petition closes on 28/1/2024.

The Ukrainian military has recently acquired its initial batch of M39 missiles from the 1990s era. In a bold move, they launched three of these missiles at a Russian helicopter facility in Berdyansk, located in southern Ukraine. This night raid dispersed numerous grenade-sized submunitions over the airbase, leading to the destruction of an estimated nine helicopters.

Now, envision these steel-and-tungsten submunitions targeting an air-defence unit comprising delicate radars, accompanying vehicles, launch pads, and missiles. As U.S. Army Major Carter Rogers highlighted in his 1991 U.S. Army Command and General Staff College thesis, the ATACMS (of which the M39 is a type) can effectively neutralize or diminish various targets, notably air defence systems and radars.

Weighing two tons and spanning 13 feet, the M39 is a ballistic missile powered by a solid rocket motor. Its warhead houses 950 submunitions. Deployed from either tracked or wheeled launch systems, the missile can reach destinations up to 100 miles away using its inertial guidance.

The M39’s intended purpose for neutralizing enemy air defences is evident in its design. A missile designed for targets like bunkers would usually carry a singular, large warhead instead of numerous submunitions. Notably, during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, the U.S. Army’s maiden combat use of an M39 targeted an Iraqi S-75 air-defence unit, posing a threat to coalition aircraft. As Major Rogers observed, the ATACMS strike was effective, demonstrating the system’s precision and lethality, despite its relatively new and unproven doctrine.

Currently, Ukrainian forces deploy a diverse range of weapons for the Suppression of Enemy Air Defences (SEAD) mission. These include the 40-mile range M30/31 rockets launched by M270 tracked systems and wheeled High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), which also launch the longer-range M39 missiles. In their arsenal are also explosive-laden drones with first-person views and Sukhoi Su-27 and Mikoyan MiG-29 jets that deploy American AGM-88 radar-seeking missiles. For deeper SEAD operations targeting advanced S-400 systems in Crimea, Ukraine has employed modified Neptune anti-ship missiles.

The M39, in a SEAD role, bridges the gap between smaller drones and the potent anti-ship missiles. While a drone attack is considered opportunistic and causes limited damage, a Neptune missile strike is more strategic, planned, and devastating. The M39, when launched from 100 miles away, can target segments of the Russian air defence infrastructure located significantly behind frontline areas without necessitating a large-scale, specialized operation for its suppression.

In many respects, the M39’s capabilities might parallel the air-launched AGM-88. However, one key distinction is the relative safety of deploying an ATACMS missile compared to an aerial SEAD mission. While Russian forces have downed many of Ukraine’s pre-war fleet of Su-27s and MiG-29s, none of Ukraine’s army-operated M270s and HIMARS launchers have been destroyed thus far.