Election 2007 - "Democracy and disillusionment"

This blog post caught my eye. Malperdy's list of Howard's betrayals resonates with fear, greed and malignant power:

"* The Australian Wheat Board scandal over deals with the Saddam Hussein government in Iraq
* The Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq scandal
* Improper support for the invasion of Iraq instead of urging alternative solutions
* Extreme anti-terror laws
* The failure to recognize the international environmental crisis
* Failure to plan for the national water crisis
* The failure to support alternative forms of energy production
* Permitting the untrammelled selling off of natural mineral resources
* Use of dubious definitions of being 'employed' to provide favourable statistics
* Lack of affordable housing, and rising mortgage interest rates
* Failure to produce an effective reconciliation with Aboriginals
* Unqualified and uncritical support for the Bush regime in the USA
* Shameful treatment of asylum seekers who find their way to Australia
* The bogus children overboard scandal
* Shameful refusal to demand the release of Australian Guantanamo Bay detainees
* Blatant trickery over a national referendum on Australia becoming a Republic
* Dishonesty and deceit amongst those holding high office
* Abusing and jeering at its opponents instead of responding to their arguments
* Lacking statesmanship and dignity, and providing appalling role models for younger generations"

Human Rights in Australia - Howard's record critiqued on eve of election

Radio Australia reports "A prominent Australian human rights advocate and lawyer has warned that Australia's anti-terrorism and refugee legislation poses a growing threat to democratic freedoms.

Julian Burnside has been writing for almost ten years on Australia's refugee policies and anti-terror laws.

He's long argued that Australia's treatment of asylum-seekers breaches international law and amounts to serious human rights abuse.

Now he's brought his arguments together in a new book appealing for change.

He spoke to Radio Australia's Connect Asia program about the book.

"Our treatment of asylum seekers is more than just a passing phase, I think it's something which has in an uncomfortable way identified something about the Australian character," he said.

The book, "Watching Brief" also examines Australia's anti-terror laws and call for a Bill of Rights.

"Look to the extent that these things [the anti-terror laws] dilute the rule of law yes it does challenge our democracy. A striking example of that is the laws that allow for orders to be made for preventative detention and for control orders thos are both orders that dramatically curtail a person's liberty not because you have committed an offence but because you might," he said.


You can hear the full story at the Connect Asia website: http://radioaustralia.net.au/connectasia

Election 2007 - Howard warns of social ruin if Rudd elected - 'bring out your dead'

The anticipated shrill hysteria from Howard and cohort is kicking in. Babies won't be born, anarchy will rule, society and marriages will collapse, recession is inevitable. Can you believe people voted for these clowns FOUR times?

Sound the bells, alert the town cryer, batten down the hatches, and shiver yer timbers - Howard is going into meltdown. Its not pretty and it certainly isn't edifying, but entertaining? The question is whether he will lose the plot completely, which would be worth the price of admission.

Sorry Mr Howard, just go...


Let them eat shit Peter...

Alert & Alarmed (the kraken awakes) - Howard says sorry for rate rise, tells blackfellas the word will never cross his lips!

I'm so so sorry, but its your fault...

Election 2007 - Vote for someone who cares about human rights

This is to inform you about a public forum which will take place in Dickson, Canberra on the 8th of November.

The forum is under the auspices of The Justice Project
(www.thejusticeproject.com.au ), whose aims are to protect and promote Human Rights in Australia. It is a non-partisan event to which every federal candidate in the ACT is invited, and the keynote speaker is respected ANU academic Hilary Charlesworth. Marion Le is also speaking.

As someone with an interest in human rights, your support for this forum would be valuable.

A flyer can be accessed here.

Election 2007 - "Exclusive footage: detention centres, riots, refugees. Remember them?"

One of this blog's readers (thanks Steve) brought this footage posted on Crikey to my attention. Part of Crikey's commentary follows:

"So far in this election campaign the only r word employed by politicians has been peppered through the Treasurer's press conferences.

But the footage we reveal today, which has never been released to the public, concerns a subject that has featured promimently in elections past: refugees.

The video includes footage of the Port Hedland detention centre riots from May 2001 and was leaked by an anonymous guard shortly after the riot occurred, a time when the media was denied access to Australian detention centres.

The footage came to light after producers of the US reality television program Most Shocking sought it from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre this year. The producers of the program, which airs on Channel Seven, eventually rejected the Port Hedland tape on the grounds that it wasn't "pro government forces".

Pamela Curr of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre has told Crikey that the video was filmed by the government contractor Australasian Correctional Management to be circulated in the Department of Immigration."

Don't you think verbal gaffes like Garrett's pale into insignificance when you consider the appalling human rights record of the Howard Govt.? Our political culture has been degraded and demeaned by shock jocks and a large slice of the commentariat who have stood by while this country has been hijacked by dangerous buffoons. I sent the following comment to SKY News the other day. Their election coverage was positively frothing with the Garrett story at the time:

"I know you are pitching constantly to the moneyed part of the society (because they can afford pay TV), but your political coverage is awful. Your ridiculous polls indicate the skewed demographic you appeal to.

Your constant trawling for slip ups and minor inflections by candidates is disappointing. You have fallen into the trap of most political journos in thrall to the Howard experiment and have started believing your own spin. A word to the wise, if you want to be taken seriously as a current affairs outlet, lose the skewed polls and try to insert some balance and intellectual integrity into your coverage.

You might consider employing someone who has been around longer than 10 mins on your political team to bring some gravitas to the content. It is no accident that Howard has a preference for SKY coverage - it is because you mainly seem in thrall to his side of politics and his constituency.

Certain of your presenters might consider loosing the deeply troubled look when Labor or the Greens pitch a message. One of your female presenters always looks as though there has been a death in the family. Don't worry its not that bad!

Try to imagine what it's been like for people who value social equity, community cohesion, reconciliation, and respect for human rights, rule of law, fairness and good international citizenship over the last 11 years - in a word, ghastly!"

New Matilda: Howard’s Australia: The Bureaucratisation of Evil

Julie Macken remembers some key moments in the recent history of John Howard’s Australia relating to the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers.

If you merge the Arendt dictum on the "banality of evil" with this one you get Howard and the dark elves, Kevin (I am not Mr Bean) Andrews and Philip (I am not a wraith) Ruddock. Banal, bureaucratic and evil - a heady cocktail to take a country's reputation for fairness, compassion and good international citizenship to hell in a hand-basket. G'day and good luck.

Election 2007 - Journos just don't get it!

After a decade of going soft on Howard's nasty experiment, that has seen Australia hijacked by ideological extremists, the 4th estate seems to assume the rest of us are blank slates waiting for their latest 'extraordinary' insights. Lord help us all if that was the case.

I tuned in to Fran Kelly's 'political panel' discussion this morning on Radio National Breakfast. Even the seasoned political journo, Michelle Grattan, seemed to be in fierce agreement with the others (Kelly, Farr & Bongiorno) that the bulk of the electors have'nt really turned off Howard, they're just in to a mindless 'it's time' construct.

Oh dear, what can the matter be, all these journos hoist by their flattery (of Howard that is). Oops, sorry, just got carried away for a moment.

I listened to Hugh Mackay's chat with Phillip Adams on LNL yesterday. What a contrast from the mealy mouthed 'me tooisms' of the gallery hack pack. Hugh was talking about his new book, Advance Australia Where?

He refers to the Howard years as the 'dreaming', when Australia tuned out of issues such as reconciliation, refugee rights and general human rights, and rule of law concerns. Money and lifestyle obsessions saw these issues 'back-seated', facilitated by a media culture in thrall to Howard's radical reactionary agenda.

Now that Australians are waking up to the fact that loss of social cohesion, genuine community and fairness is not the Australia we aspire to, the journos are all at sea trying to explain why the electorate is getting set to thump the Coalition.