September 9, 2004

The reasons (in no particular order) for which I dislike Mr Howard with an intensity I’d never have believed possible are:-

• His destruction of the Republic debate with the support of a dishonest campaign and his refusal to allow the one obvious question to be put - that being ‘Would the people of Australia prefer to have an Australian Head of State’? Having wrecked that debate Mr Howard has cornered the real role of our supposed Head of State and has attended functions and events to which he has no right.

• The mean-spirited response to the ‘Stolen Generation’ and Mr Howard’s refusal to say ‘Sorry’. We will never move on with the Aboriginal people of Australia until the severe wrongs of the not-too-distant past are properly acknowledged and atoned for. To authorise the spending of millions on barristers to fight a few sad and damaged people over some compensation for the evils done to them is something with which you should be ashamed to be involved.

• It has been obvious to me since the last election that Mr Howard lied over the Children Overboard affair, and now, with the evidence mounting, the case seems clear. We are not bored with this issue and I will not tolerate a leader who uses the misfortunes of others for his own political gain. Arguments that the issue wasn’t clear are no excuse - the information was grabbed with glee and used and abused at every opportunity. Mr Scrafton has given his account clearly and has nothing to gain by doing so. Mr Howard has run for the cover of an election. One of them is lying and I know who I believe.

• The treatment of asylum seekers has made me weep real tears. How can we indulge in the disgusting and wickedly expensive Pacific solution? The numbers are so tiny and the people who make it to Australia are probably the very ones with guts and determination that we need. Children damaged beyond repair and adults in terminal despair is not something we can be proud of.

• Following George Bush into war with Iraq was a mistake for which we will pay and pay. If we are more at risk of terrorist attacks than we used to be, I sheet that firmly home to our blind involvement in the illegal Iraq war, and in our dubious alliance with George Bush. We were lied to regarding the reasons for this war and now that the original reasons have been shown to be palpably false, we were expected to accept that the reasons didn’t really matter anyway.

• I resent our armed forces being used for the PM’s photo opportunities - even in this he usurps the Governor General’s role at every turn.

• The shutting down of the Parliament of Australia during the visit of George Bush was a scandal. And this must never happen again - and you back benchers must never allow it again. Anyone who is prepared to send young people off to fight their wars and do their dirty work should take their chances in the street like the rest of us. The Head of State Mr Howard purports to support, Her Majesty the Queen, would never in a million years have condoned such a nonsense. The man-handling of Senators Brown and Nettle was also a shameful episode, when they were after all doing what most of us would dearly like to have done - ask questions of a man who is leading us by the nose. That our House was closed down for what was officially not even a State visit, and our police, security services and press were all forced to be subservient to a foreign power is totally unforgivable - and for what?

• Mr Howard’s refusal to accept that East Timor would be a blood bath after Independence voting until it was hideously apparent that he had hidden his head in the sand for to long. To then finally turn around and send in the troops when there was no other choice and claim the credit for doing a good job was nauseating.

• It is duplicitous in the extreme to refuse to enact legislation ensuring that workers are paid their due entitlements when a company goes bust, yet the one company for which Mr Howard pledged support was that owned by his brother. And while we are talking about family, his son Tim’s involvement in sending spam emails to electors sounds doubly dodgy to me.

• The Government’s treatment of Tertiary Education - the starving of courses and colleges of funds so that any of us trying to send children on to maximise their talents face appalling bills - and Mr Howard and his mates got their education virtually free. The impending 2 tiers of HECS and full fee paying students will be divisive in the extreme.

• The denigration of the ABC and the attempts to staff the board with Liberal Party cronies makes my blood boil. We need a free and fearless public broadcaster and if the government doesn’t like what it hears - well so be it. I do not find the ABC to be biased - I value broadcasters of the calibre of Kerry O’ Brian, Terry Lane and Chris Masters, and programmes such as Four Corners and Background Briefing and we would be poorer and more vulnerable with out them. An Australia wholly dependant on the commercial networks doesn’t bear thinking about.

• The attempts to pander to Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch regarding cross media ownership are sincerely scary, for without a free media we will be completely blind to anything those grotesquely powerful people do not wish us to observe. We must ensure a free and fearless press or we are sunk.