Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott is seeking a new head gardener for his residences in Canberra and Sydney. The job application is an exhausting 50 pages, reports the Sydney Morning Herald, and spectacularly detailed, demanding, among other things, that the applicant not be on any list designated as a terrorist.
The official job application title is that of groundskeeper, and it includes responsibilities from keeping the pool clean, to mowing the lawn, to preparing the estate for visits from high-profile world leaders. The Canberra Times dives even deeper into this job application, uncovering that gardeners must have all their own tools, “be financially viable, and have a perfect record of compliance with gender equality and workplace safety regulations.” The job at The Lodge, as the Prime Minister’s residence is known, requires that the person “must not be named on the list of persons and entities designated as terrorists.”
In addition to The Lodge, Australian Prime Ministers receive control of an estate in Sydney, the Kirribilli House.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott is in neither this week, however, as he is currently embarking on a trip to North America. During his exchange with President Barack Obama, Abbott, the head of his country’s right-wing Liberal Party, publicly considered the possibility of exporting the idea of corporate-sponsored schools from the United States, which would allow greater free market freedom in education as well as allow the burdened Australian economy to spend less money on a federal level. He also arrived at the White House with a special present for the nation’s first Hawaiian president: a surfboard with the presidential seal emblazoned on it.
Abbott has not been all agreements with President Obama, however, as he is one of the most vocal opponents of climate change-driven legislation in the world. Ahead of his meeting with the President, Abbott asserted that climate change was not “one of the most important issues facing the world today,” though offering that something can be done and Australia “will do our bit.” The comment follows Abbott’s push to remove Australia’s climate tax and attract more investment and business in the country, and it has outraged many on the left in Australia.
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