The Australian federal election is tomorrow. I’ve deliberately not commented greatly about it - aside from this piece about the possibility of a Labor government supporting a US-strike on Iran and the occasional article about the major parties’ slavish attention to Israel - so a few words are in order.
The nearly 12 years of the Howard government has caused the country to lose its moral compass - a position I share with former Prime Minister Paul Keating, though it’s sickening to read a man who cozied up to former Indonesian dictator Suharto talk about ethics - through the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the treatment of refugees as cannon fodder, gross exaggeration of the terror threat to ram through draconian legislation and blind support for the rogue, Jewish state. Some of these issues resonate with voters, and many do not. These are my personal feelings.
It’s hard to be inspired with the likely win of Kevin Rudd when he talks about being tough against boat people. Rudd seems to me to be a dull technocrat who acts like a robot when appearing in public. No passion or true conviction, though he surely has both. Robert Manne, a leading critic of the Howard years, is right when he argues today that the current government has been a master at wedge politics, causing fear in the community and highlighting divisions along racial lines. This should be reason alone to change government.
For much of the last decade, I’ve regularly been ashamed to call myself an Australian, especially when travelling the world and being asked why our government has walked so closely with the Bush administration on a host of issues, from war to climate change. Sadly, Australian leaders have rarely been able to say “no” when Washington comes knocking.
As a fierce critic of Howard for many years, I’ve rarely been inspired by the Labor opposition. On many issues, they are little different to the Liberals, though with perhaps softer edges on some issues, like industrial relations. In terms of foreign affairs, I fear that Rudd would be as pathetically in thrall to America and its priorities. As a middle-ranking power, joining illegal wars for the “sake of the alliance” is a bogus reason and fundamentally short-sighted. Iraq was such a war. Iran could be.
Many of my friends support the Labor party and believe it will bring change in the social fabric of the country. Perhaps, but I doubt it. They see a party how they wish it was, rather than how it truly is.
I desperately want a change of government tomorrow, and I guess that therefore means a Rudd win. I will not be voting for him, however. I will, as I have done now for many years, support the Greens, a party not without its faults, but one that generally believes in principle over pragmatism. Morality does matter in public life, especially when we see how it can be so corrupted. Much of the mainstream media is supporting a Rudd government, but I can’t help but think this is more about wanting to back a winner, rather than truly believing Labor has a better team. The Murdoch broadsheet especially regularly talks about ideology but this is always a cover for maintaining power at any cost. Hence its endorsement of Rudd today.
The role of journalists should be to challenge and counter establishment power, not endorse it. There are notable exceptions. It is for this reason that we can only hope that a change of government, if it happens, brings a modicum of decency back to Australian political life.
The media elite are probably too far gone for true reform.
DUE INDICTMENT ON THE TWENTY FORTH DAY OF THE ELEVENTH MONTH OF THE FINAL HOUR
• Tony Kevin: “I wonder how many people feel as I do - that the removal of Howard from power will mean the disappearance from our public life of a truly evil man who has done great harm to our country’s values. A man who has presided over the official creation of enormous human misery. I cannot view this election in the way I would have viewed any of the previous Australian election battles - eg, Keating vs Hewson, Fraser vs Hawke, Whitlam vs McMahon, Menzies vs Calwell”!
“To me, this election is qualitatively different. It is, simply, the battle of good vs evil. A man who did so much to debase Australian integrity, besides turning us into a compliant tributary state of the USA, and betraying our sovereignty in all kinds of other important ways, will soon be gone. Thank God. I don’t know if my “Don’s Party” will be a boozy celebration or a giving-thanks prayer meeting - perhaps a bit of both, like an Irish wake. But it is going to be a special night for me”!
• Julie Macken: “In what may be the dying days of the Coalition Government, it is easy to see John Howard as an old man with his best days behind him - cranky and frazzled perhaps - but an old bloke doing his best [to massage Zionist egos]. It is easy to lose sight of the Australia [as] he has done so much to create [the police state]. Lest we forget”!
• Dazza: “John Winston Howard, Prime Minister of Australia, is a monster! His Ministers are all monsters. His backbench, with a few honorable exceptions, are also monsters. One has to wonder how the ‘Liberal party of Australia’ got to this? Look no further than its very beginnings, actually! Howard is mean, tricky, dishonorable, nasty, conniving and ruthless. Tells porkies as if he was born that way, maybe he was! Has absolutely no compassion for human beings. His whole ‘rule’ has been pointed to making life more miserable for the disadvantaged, weak and those unwanted by the Right Wing commentariat and unfortunately, the vast bulk of the ‘great unwashed’; while giving the rich and powerful more and more of what they want”!
“I really do wonder at the thinking of those in Australia who see nothing, hear nothing, that alters their incredible belief system that Howard is a ‘good person’. Surely this must indicate that they are very much like-minded with Howard and his thugs. Which goes to show that Rudd may be on the right track (pander to the worst in Australians and they may well vote for you). Howard has shown the way now for the last 11.5 long terrible years. No, I am not proud to be an Australian! How could I be? And if I could, I would also attend a party giving great thanks that this man and his minions have been defeated and sent to the dust bin of history; but I would also be mindful that the winner is tarred with the same brush, whether by his own hand, or otherwise”!
• Willy Bach: “To say the least, the practises of the Howard government are shameful to Australians and repugnant to humanity. The Howard Ministry, especially Phillip Ruddock should be tried for crimes against humanity or comparable charges and if found guilty, should be punished with the full weight of the law. I would like to see an emphatic statement of condemnation for these well-documented violations of human rights and international law. There must be a Royal Commission into these crimes and, if the Commission finds there is a case to answer, proceedings should be commenced to bring several or all members of the Howard government to justice”!
• Douglas Jones: “People are ciphers, so is the electorate which given the correct spin … is off in fear and trembling. Did Saddam have WMD? No. Was he a threat to America and neighbours - probably not. At least the Downing street Memo leaked to the British press May 1, 2005 (and reluctantly by a few media outlets in Australia) claimed Saddam was no threat but the propaganda was made to fit the aim, invasion (bugger the UN we gave that up long ago, except for fell good nappy changes)”!
“Mind you it could be different, we have all the sweet talk the ideals, so loved by all. So long as we don’t need to do more than listen to our leaders. Naturally the big boys had to be allowed a veto, and naturally they used it not in furtherance of human wellbeing but of ‘realist foreign policy’. So okay several were butchered, denied protection promised! So what, grow up! The terrorist mess is largely of our making and we ‘need to protect ourselves’, else the polis might have some questions asked. Why did America invade”?
• Famie: “I do dont understand the surprise at the horrific treatment of refugees under the charge of this government. Australia has a long and sordid history when it comes to treating people whom they consider outsiders. I have lived here for forty years and can see very little change in its racist policies from the indigenous population to the present refugees. We are after all a former colony of an imperial [zionist] nation and have repeated their abuses. If you don’t believe me just take a look at a recent film of Glasgow ‘The Red Road’ and it will show you quite clearly the social breakdown in what was supposedly one of the richest empires in human history. An empire [of zion] built on the backs of the poor nationals as well as the poor colonials. Not much has changed”!
• Howard’s Australia: The Bureaucratisation of Evil … http://www.newmatilda.com/home/articledetailmagazine.asp?ArticleID=2558