Modelled on one of the twentieth century’s only successful bureaucratic initiatives, Benito Mussolini’s Office for Recreation, Diversion and Public Virtue (Ufficio per la Ricreazione, il Divertimento e la Virtù Pubblica), the Office of Entertainment and Gonorrhoea Control plays a critical role in the day-to-day activities of the HHDRS.

Under the stewardship of the Society’s popular crooner Philippe, the OEGC oversees a vast array of entertainment options, ranging from performances by international and local stars at the world famous Speargun and Snorkel Bistro, to sentience checks with inmates of the Geriatric Holding Facility.

Sir Harold Holt understood that his arch nemesis Mao Zedong promoted the idea that education must foster an individual’s moral, intellectual and physical development, a view Sir Harold dismissed as crude Communist propaganda and a way to convince a population that kidnapping and keeping hostage foreign leaders was legitimate.

By adding entertainment into the mix, Philippe has turned Mao’s half-baked idea into a thing of beauty, with entertainment serving as a teaching device. When Philippe wields his baton, song and dance make the inculcation of Holtist ideas an enjoyable and edifying experience. This is a key reason for the HHDRS’s successful application to become an accredited training body.

Providing light entertainment comes with a heavy responsibility. For example, ensuring the appropriate level of recognition of the important date of 14th February 1966, when decimal currency was introduced and Australia was immediately transformed into the world’s most advanced economy, requires a deft handling of modern artistic forms.