Word of the Day: bathos

Tuesday, 12 November 2002

Both "AM" and "The World Today" reported today on Immigration Minister Peter Ruddock's announcement of an overhaul of Australia's Business Migration program. Under the new arrangements, business migrants who migrate to the less populous states, such as South Australia and Tasmania are likely to receive preference over those who flock to Sydney (currently about 50% of all business migrants).

As well as covering Mr Ruddock's announcement, and the generally favourable reaction of state governments (which emphasised the need for skilled migration to match the needs of a growing and vibrant economy, etceteraaah, etceteraaah, etceteraaah (yada, yada, yada for those who are more familiar with Jerry Seinfeld than Rodgers and Hammerstein)), The World Today provided a couple of case studies of successful business immigrants in Tasmania. This caught my attention, as I quite like stories of those successful entrepreneurs who build thriving businesses from innovative ideas. What "The World Today" gave us was a Hobart cafe owner and the proprietor of a Tasmanian abbatoir which processes possums for export as game meat.

Which brings us to our word of the day, defined (as usual by the Macquarie) as:

a ludicrous descent from the elevated to the commonplace; anticlimax.

Update: Ken Parish has taken me to task for not looking a little more closely at this story, and gives some interesting background that I missed.