Kevin Rudd, 'Fiscal' Conservative?
Just over a year since the Howard Government was
thrown unceremoniously from power, with their leader, John Howard, losing his
own seat (his party didn't have the guts to dump him, but the voters did) it is
an appropriate time to take stock of the Labor Government under Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd. Perhaps there was a portent of the direction and flavour of the
incoming government on the night of the election, when, flushed with the
euphoria of victory and more than a glass or two of celebratory drinks, we
endured Mr Rudd delivering an uninspiring cliche-ridden speech in a flat
monotone. Anything was better than John Howard though, and we lived in hope of a
more tolerant society.
Within a couple of months, Rudd signed Australia
up to the Kyoto protocol, and delivered an inspiring, eloquent and emotional
apology to the 'stolen generations,' those Aboriginal people taken from their
parents and institutionalised during the greater part of the last century.
Rudd's speech, and the occasion, epitimises the high point of the government's
tenure in the eyes of many Labor supporters. Aided by the election of Brendon
Nelson to the position of Liberal Party leader, (a walking carcass from the
moment he was chosen) and his recent replacement with Malcolm Turnbull, (a more
worthy opponent but yet to land a blow), Rudd's rating remains high. His mantra
of being a fiscal conservative during the lead-up to the election has proved to
be true, and no doubt appropriate for the times, with few questioning his prompt
moves to stimulate the economy. I do, however, have my reservations about this
government's conservative approach to other than the fiscal management of the
country.
During the lead up to the
last election, John Howard's most notable contribution to a rapport with the
Aboriginal people was to wave his fists and shout at them, at, of all places,
the televised launch of the main Reconciliation conference meant to further this
process. This was the nearest he got to reconciliation, and without his support
the reconciliation movement passed into irrelevance.
Miraculously, months before the last
election, John Howard rediscovered the Aboriginal people. The catalyst was a
report called 'Little Children are Sacred' which suggested that the sexual abuse
of children was rife in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory. Howard
decided to intervene, under the pretense that he was 'saving the children', with
the support of his well meaning but autocratic minister for Aboriginal Affairs
Mal Brough. Brough, an ex army officer, literally sent the troops in; to
examine children for molestation, to check their general health, and to
undertake maintenance of essential services in these remote communities.
The intervention went much further
though. Social security payments were to be controlled, in that half would be
paid in money, and the rest in food vouchers. In addition, the Commonwealth
would take control of Aboriginal lands in the Northern Territory until further
notice. Aboriginal people found that not only would they not be able to access
all of their welfare money, but that it would be decreed where the food vouchers
could be spent, meaning that food stores not on that list suffered a huge fall
in sales, while the option of choice for the shoppers was curtailed. The Racial
Discrimination Act, for the purposes of the intervention, was
'suspended'.
The Government also
decided to control the wages of those receiving CDEP payments. CDEP provides
work and wages for thousands of people in the NT, for performing work such as
rubbish collection, road works, ranger duties, working in the community stores,
ect., but when the government realised they could not purloin these wages, they
simply decided to discontinue CDEP altogether. All of this served to make John
Howard seem to be the man of action with regard to dealing with the alleged
child abuse, while disempowering Aboriginal people with action more akin to the
19th century. The Labor party decided that rather than allow the issue to
'wedge' them in the lead-up to the election, that they would go along with all
that Howard proposed.
Under the new
Aboriginal Minister, Jenny Macklin, we see that twelve months later little has
changed. Macklin authorised an enquiry into the intervention which reported a
few months ago with a host of recommended changes. She binned the lot, dealing a
slap in the face of those who prepared the report.
The fiscally conservative government
is now looking decidedly conservative, not only on Aboriginal issues but on many
other issues as well. Howard lackeys who were rewarded for imprisoning
children, supporting an illegal war, denigrating refugees, and untruthfully
stating that refugees had thrown their children overboard, are still sitting in
plum jobs overseas. When an Indian Doctor working in Australia was wrongfully
arrested on terrorism charges by the Howard government, charges which a recent
report has shown lacked substance, the Rudd Government decided that no-one
needed to be punished. The current slaughter of innocents in the Gaza strip by
the biggest weapons of mass destruction owners in the middle east, elicits
little concern from the Rudd Government, who mouth the same simplistic homilies
as the Bush administration, who see only the white hat Israeli 'goodies' and the
black hat Palestinian
'baddies'.
Despite these reservations
of mine towards Kevin Rudd, I am reminded of the ugly and mean spirited racist
who preceded him this week, when it was announced that John Howard is to be
awarded the US Medal of Freedom next week by his partner in crime George Bush,
the village idiot who became President. It seems that Howard will be staying in
Blair House, where guests of the White House usually stay. For this reason, the
President elect Barack Obama has been unable to use this facility as he moves
into Washington in preparation to take over from Bush on the 20th January. No
doubt Obama, like Rudd, will not turn out to be all that we hoped for, but as
two of the most discredited people ever to assume power celebrate their final
love-in together, we can only be thankful that soon they shall both be gone.
Despite all of the challenges the new leaders face as we step shakily into
2009, things can only get better.
Posted: Wed - January 7, 2009 at 11:47 PM
