I'm Australian
but I'm baffled.
What's new, you may say. Well sod all, if truth be told.
Apart from the fact that mum's sent through my MCC membership renewal (and I haven't yet worked up the courage to open the envelope and find out how big a hit my bank balance is about to have to take) one news story in particular from home has caught my eye today.
It follows on the heel of countless news stories with the same critical component at their heart; indeed it seeks to tackle this critical component, drag it out in the brilliance of the midday light and examine it.
Before the federal election before last John Howard, PM mongered rumours that would-be asylum seekers were throwing their babies into the open sea within sight of Australian potential rescuers in the expectation that they'd be rescued and brought to a better life in Oz. Turned out, but only after the election, that there never had been any sacrificial baby refugees. The whole thing had been a nasty little (xenophobic) stunt, a bit of lowest common denominator button pushing. Howard won that election and remains securely in place as party leader and Prime Minister.
The scandal involving the Australian Wheat Board has been exposed and the trail leads right up to if not into the Prime Minster's office. His testimony to the enquiry into this cringe-inducing fiasco of loss of probity in office was risible. He's still in office.
Cornelia Rau and the brutalising of would-be migrant foreigners. His brother and the flagrant disregard of the law. Pork barrelling. The wanton destruction of federalism. The aboriginal question. Industrial relations. Channelling of public funds to friends and political allies. The remorseless and malicious concentration of economic and political influence within the geographic boundaries of greater Sydney.
The Australian public for reasons I cannot begin to fathom lap this stuff up. An opinion poll out today suggests a significant majority of voting Australians know and accept that John Howard, PM is a lying little bastard (which is another way of saying 'loose with the truth'). But they'd also prefer he remain in place. Baffling.
What's new, you may say. Well sod all, if truth be told.
Apart from the fact that mum's sent through my MCC membership renewal (and I haven't yet worked up the courage to open the envelope and find out how big a hit my bank balance is about to have to take) one news story in particular from home has caught my eye today.
It follows on the heel of countless news stories with the same critical component at their heart; indeed it seeks to tackle this critical component, drag it out in the brilliance of the midday light and examine it.
Before the federal election before last John Howard, PM mongered rumours that would-be asylum seekers were throwing their babies into the open sea within sight of Australian potential rescuers in the expectation that they'd be rescued and brought to a better life in Oz. Turned out, but only after the election, that there never had been any sacrificial baby refugees. The whole thing had been a nasty little (xenophobic) stunt, a bit of lowest common denominator button pushing. Howard won that election and remains securely in place as party leader and Prime Minister.
The scandal involving the Australian Wheat Board has been exposed and the trail leads right up to if not into the Prime Minster's office. His testimony to the enquiry into this cringe-inducing fiasco of loss of probity in office was risible. He's still in office.
Cornelia Rau and the brutalising of would-be migrant foreigners. His brother and the flagrant disregard of the law. Pork barrelling. The wanton destruction of federalism. The aboriginal question. Industrial relations. Channelling of public funds to friends and political allies. The remorseless and malicious concentration of economic and political influence within the geographic boundaries of greater Sydney.
The Australian public for reasons I cannot begin to fathom lap this stuff up. An opinion poll out today suggests a significant majority of voting Australians know and accept that John Howard, PM is a lying little bastard (which is another way of saying 'loose with the truth'). But they'd also prefer he remain in place. Baffling.
posted by Enyo @ 10:59 pm
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