I was wrong
Howard govt - - Posted on June, 22 at 9:05 pm by Ken L
I didn’t quite get it right last September; the story about a pedophile ring in Aboriginal communities does have substance. And I underestimated our prime minister’s grubby willingness to turn it to political advantage.
Taking control of welfare payments while removing Aboriginal communities’ power to decide who comes to their lands and the circumstances under which they come - doing this will prevent sexual abuse of children.
Sure. Makes perfect sense.
So I was wrong about the detail, but I had the measure of this sad contemptible man’s style and the kind of strategy he would be happy to use to cling to power. Rabbits still to be pulled out of hats? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Howard will do or say anything to cling to what he now regards as his personal property: the perks and prestige that go with being the Australian prime minister.
Ken Parish says what needs to be said at Club Troppo, if you haven’t read it already. A day of shame for our nation indeed.
Posted in Howard govt |
June 22nd, 2007 at 10:45 pm
Too true. I can feel the temptation to give it a go though…so many years of faffing about and all that has happened is the situation getting worse.
However, I need to remind myself that I should never be so relaxed about giving away somebody else’s right to determine their lives for good or ill.
I can agree with Rudd’s stance though. Anything to do with child sex abuse brings out the nutters and the media is only too happy to run any accusations of backsliding from them. And that sort of abuse sticks like no other mud.
June 23rd, 2007 at 8:27 am
And the first rabbit leaps from the hat!
Amazing how Howard’s ignored our aborigines, trashed Mabo and Wik, and shown not the slightest care about them for eleven years, now suddenly, facing an election, he’s deeply concerned for them.
Another transparent con-job from the master magician who, I’m sure, has lots more shiny new rabbits waiting to zoom from that hat, ready to feed the gullible meejah frenzy and the witless electorate yet again.
Howard doesn’t give a damn about aboriginal kids, his ONLY rationale at all times is what Ken said : “Howard will do or say anything to cling to what he now regards as his personal property: the perks and prestige that go with being the Australian prime minister.”
June 23rd, 2007 at 11:05 am
That this latest intervention is nothing but an election stunt is pretty-well exposed in today’s SMH.
It now transpires that the NT Chief Minister, Clare Martin, wrote to El Rodent in June last year urging a National response to the crisis in aboriginal communities, only to get a “we’ll get back to you on that one” response.
Since this little tid-bit of information hit the fan, Howard has been desperately trying to deflect the allegation that his Government was has been sitting on its hands on the issue.
He’s had the Government Gophers running about toting-up every penny spent on police and other programs in aboriginal communities since then, trying to depict it as some sort of urgent response. That tap tap tapping you hear in the background is the sound of Lib staffers feverishly working the calculators.
What a tosser.
June 23rd, 2007 at 11:40 am
You don’t have to know anything about the plight of the aborigines, or the details of paedophilia in the remote settlements to know this is pure political wedge tactic by Howard. I have no credentials on the aboriginal side of the equation, but I’ve been a Howard watcher for years now, and this stinks to high heaven.
The Problems
Last Monday’s Newspoll told us that Rudd was ahead of Howard on “Family” and “Aborigines”. There is also a sense of well-being and reasonable contentment abroad in the general (i.e. white) community.
Solution
Escalate the aboriginal situtaion into a “National Emergency”, and then extend it to all families, black, brown and now today, white. Voila! Howard shoots up the Newspoll ratings in the appropriate categories and once again gets a chance to ponce around as “Father Of The Nation”… literally. Good Father John Howard will keep your kiddies safe, and if you don’t like it, he’ll run an audit on your Social security payments and punish you for being a slack-arse mum.
Discussion
Trying to analyse this situation from the point of view of aboriginal affairs, from in-depth analyses of the socio-economic dynamics of outback culture clash is unproductive. You’ll only get mired in details. All you have to know is that if Howard is involved in it, then it’s purely political.
Consider… this is the man who has been telling us that Mabo and Wik are threats to our heroic rural society. This is the man who shouted and screamed at aborigines who turned their backs on him ten years ago in Sydney at the ATSIC conference. He never forgets an insult. First he got ATSIC, now he’s going after the whole aboriginal race in this back-to-the-future reintroduction of the old paternalism. Add a twist of lemon by making the new rules apply not only to the black brothers, but also to the poor white trash, two dead set certainties for the wowsers to look down upon from on high. It makes them feel better about themselves (the wowsers, that is).
Next, get your pals in the media to repeat the “National Emergency” mantra. Getthem sounding all “concerned”. It doesn’t matter that they didn’t give a fuck about the abos last Monday, as long as they’re on-board today, their brows furrowed with worry at our “National Shame”, their pens quivering with emotion as they sadly write up the brilliance and the humanity of Dear Leader.
Toss a little “send in the troops” malarkey into the mix and finally verbal Rudd into saying something he never said. Tell us all that he totally agreed with the new “policy”, y’know, the one he heard about from a 10 minute press conference then backed it to the hilt… when he did no such thing. Later on, if he questions any of the details, he’s putting our “National Security” at risk by being anti-the-troops, hypocritical on aborigines, wimpy on white trash monster mums, and soft on this latest “National Emergency” in general.
The suddenness with which all this has happened is the key. They’ve kept it a secret.
Why?
So Labor can’t trump them on it. As I said, pure politics.
The timing? Three months before an election? Pshaw! That’s just sour grapes from the lefty luvvies, sipping lattes while their black bretheren are anally raped in the red sand settlements of the Northern Territory.
Howard had a chance to do something about it last year? More excuse-making from the Labor NT government, who caused all this misery in the first place. those wicked states… amazing co-incidence they’re all LABOR, eh?
This is just another water “crisis”, more “Saddam’s WMDs”, a Tampa “threat”, an interest rate “scare”. Mark Textor is probably in his spider hole as I write trying to figure out a way to prove that “union bosses” have been supplying the grog, or “militant TWU members” are running a nice little earner, selling petrol from the sample spigot on the back of their B-double tankers. That’d make it perfect.
My guess (certainly my hope) is that this time it won’t work. The punters made up their minds on Howard’s “Aboriginal” credentials long ago: ZERO. I’m not sure they’ll go for the extension of the scheme to the general white community, either. oo many of them have daughters and grandchildren who bend the rules from time to time. There’s not enough detail as to how benefits will be shaved for non-compliance, and there’s not enough time (or resources) to police the careful investigations that will be necessary.
In short, Howard has once again, wedged himself. To get out of the hole he’s in he has to make ever more desperate gestures, jump higher just to get to the lip of the pit and see what’s above ground. I know we’re supposed to be sheep, publicy sporting the “larrikin” image of being contemptuous of “authority”, but privately meekly submissive. But this is too much to foist upon the community with too little time for analysis of the details. And there will be details, lots and lots of details to sort through, get wrong, get right and then get wrong again.
Howard is so close to the election that, as far as grand gestures like this areconcerned, he is in de facto “caretaker mode”. The punters want their election. They don’t want to be told that the entire fabric of their society is going to be turned arse-up by a little man with eyebrows who might be voted out of office - by them - in just a few months time. They’re sick of being presented with fait accomplis by this caretaker PM, fait accomplis that seek to bind them long after he’s gone to political oblivion.
As I’ve said many times, there’s too much to do and too little time to do it in for Howard to get this one through undamaged. Eventually the critics will come out of their foxholes and start fighting back, pointing out the errors and absurdities. Eventually the whole schemozzle will subside into the political background noise, along with water, climate, refugees, Iraq, AWB, Tampa and all the rest of “National Emergencies” that have been invented, exploited and ultimately abandoned.
The boy has cried “Wolf!” too many times for anyone to believe he’s turned 180 degrees on yet another policy position at this late stage of his political life.
Wait a week, and then let’s see how much of an “Emergency” this really is. Like the Germans’ schwerpunkt attack on the allied “Bulge” in Ardennes in late 1944, a few casualties will be taken, it’ll look bad for a few weeks, but eventually Howard will run out of gas on this one too. Despite the fright, the end result, come October or November, is not in doubt.
Sorry for such a long post Ken, but I wanted to reassure you that you weren’t wrong. You were right. Your analysis was sound. The “National Emergency” is pure manufactured spin, coming out of Textor’s office (he’s from the NT, after all). The fundamentals of your argument are correct: this issue does not have resonance. It may even backfire, now that white families are involved too.
But what else could Howard do?
Subtlety, at this stage, is not an option.
June 23rd, 2007 at 11:50 am
Thanks AB and Ken, you both got it spot on.
June 23rd, 2007 at 12:05 pm
Just to continue the Battle Of The Bulge analogy, “Aborigines” and “Family” were not only bad for Howard, but they were not regarded as important issues in general.
Take quiet sector of the front, mount a massive attack and see what happens.
As I said, desperate times call for desperate measures.
June 23rd, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Gee I am so glad your back AB. You say everything I want to say but don’t have ‘IT’.
So I am just happy to sit here and read yours and “Nasking’s” comments and nod my head in agreement.I just wish “Ghandi” would come back.
June 23rd, 2007 at 12:16 pm
Ghandi and Mars. Where’s Mars?
June 23rd, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Random observations about the prejudice that still runs deep within white Australia:
When I used to teach HRM at TAFE, one topic was equal employment opportunity and anti-discrimination law. I used to dread it because half the time it would turn into a welter of juvenile jokes from ‘mature age’ students about gays and indigenous people.
The lack of empathy with Aboriginal people was stunning. I could guarantee that somebody would ask a question about why some jobs were advertised as being for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, and how come that was allowed when white folks were struggling to get a job too you know, and wasn’t it time the blacks stopped getting special treatment and so on, all to plenty of nods around the room.
It’s also not uncommon to read comments on blogs, and in some of the thousands of students’ assignments that I’ve marked, that suggest indigenous people are just another minority group like Sikhs or Vietnamese boat people and the sooner they get over whatever it is they’re moaning about and learn to be proper Australians the better.
Another random story … recently I participated in a seminar where research higher degree candidates presented their proposals. One was enthusiastic about developing a model of successful indigenous businesses. I asked if her research design allowed for the possible finding that indigenous culture was simply incompatible with white Australian capitalism. She appeared nonplussed by my question, but I suspect her findings will basically say íf indigenous people want to run successful businesses they’ll have to learn to behave like white Australians - another leg-up for the assimilationists who steadfastly refuse to examine the moral foundation of their position.
These are a few observations about attitudes. I believe that at a deep inner level, many white Australians feel a heavy burden of guilt for what we’ve collectively done to indigenous people, and they resent them for making them feel bad; so the more an authority figure like Howard can explain that really it’s all the blackfellas’ own fault the happier those people will be.
So I think Howard’s on a winner here. Don’t forget the Hanson party got up to 20% of the primary vote a few years ago, Those people haven’t all died in the mean time, nor have they been converted to multiculturalism. They won’t win ther election all by themselves but in a seat like Richmond they could be decisive for the Coalition.
And of course Howard can run out amendments to the Native Title Act any time he likes, to ‘clarify’the situation after the Noongar decision last year. Ruddock set it up back then by telling us all how if we didn’t watch out the damn Aborigines would be taking over Cottesloe Beach.
When Hanson got that great groundswell of public support in the late 1990s it revealed the petty ugliness that runs through so much of Australia. Howard plays on it beautifully.
June 23rd, 2007 at 6:43 pm
Ken, there is also the fear factor of “white” Australians from Aboriginals , Howards new found “compassion”, militant love, will settle some people down, ‘Howards going to get tough with these black bastards, and about time’.
‘This will make the mongrels stop and think before they nick my car/break into my joint and etc;’and putting up the tough love crap he has come out with in the last couple of days is only about votes. I ‘recon that this little ploy that he has been advised on will blow up in Australia’s face down the track, but , you think he gives a F##k, only about himself. Lets put in into plain talk.
Howard is an old man with grudges held against those who treated him as a joke for so many years, so, revenge there.
He is an idealist who has the rat cunning to gradually shift his ideals on to the voters disguised as being good for you.
He never forgets or forgives a slur or rejection that true or not,casts against his ideals.
He will use any way available to achieve an end to these ideals, however does it in such a sly and conniving way that the less enlightened believe it.
He has no so called ‘good for Australia’ ethics whatsover, only for ‘his’ Party, and himself, ‘my Government’, and I suspect with strong input from the hand that rocks the cradle.
From an overview of the last , what now, eleven years, this fellow really has to go, enough of this type of self serving Government, and back to ethics and some principal. At least I bloody hope so.
June 23rd, 2007 at 7:43 pm
The first recommendation in the Little Children Are Sacred Report (downloadable at http://www.nt.gov.au/dcm/inquirysaac/), under the heading ‘Leadership’, is as follows:
The NT government found out about Howard’s decision to send in the troops after he’d announded it at a press conference.
So much for any suggestion that this is a sincere effort to implement the findings of a report which incidentally was set up by the NT government, not by Captain Brough.
June 28th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
Late in getting to this thread, AB you are a legend. Now please excuse me while I weep for everything that I admired in this country that this lying,manipulative,power hungry despot that makes dictatorship all the more relevant today, and uses the military to aquire the riches that his mates could only dream of without this intervention.