| Australia's Journal of Political Character Assassination | Melbourne, Australia |
SCUM AT THE TOP | Next Issue: 19 Mar 2001 |
| Editor: Harold Hark | Volume 5 Number 3 |
Frank Lloyd Wright |
Defamation: The Plutocrat's Way of Silencing Dissent When the Bannockburn Yellow Gum Action Group circulated a bumper sticker: "Barwon Water--Frankly Foul" in response to Barwon Water chairman Frank De Stefano's attempt to bulldoze a grassy woodland and replace it with a sewage farm, De Stefano sued them for defamation. In the end, he collected $10,000. Brian Walters article in The Age (see links below) pursues the ease with which the powerful/wealthy are able to claim defamation in their cowardly attempts to silence the community. He says it is time for a change, citing four freedoms that should be in enshrined in Australian law: 1) Freedom to speak about corporations; Readers who have viewed Michael Moore's "The Awful Truth," currently being aired on the SBS Tuesday evenings at 8 PM, will have marvelled at how much he can get away with. US constitutional law protects his right to actively speak out on all of the above freedoms. Australians do not have this right. Dissent is always accompanied by fear of reprisals from the powerful. This newsletter was, in fact, a samizdat in its early years. That is, we mailed our editions without a return address to people in the media we considered to be on the side of justice. We called ourselves The Political Prisoners of the Future precisely for the reason that since we have no money, the only recourse for inevitably successful litigants would be to jail us. It was only when that smugly professional litigant, Jeff Kennett, lost his case against The Australian newspaper, that we decided to come out and name ourselves. Walters article is of immense importance if Australia is to be a true democracy. At the moment, it is far from that. Walter's article from The Age Beware Squidgereens* Bearing Lollipops Three policy reversals in a week: BAS, trust tax, petrol excise. This is a mighty effort on the part of John Howard to show the people of Australia that he stands for nothing. Wait, that's not right. He stands for re-election. He loves his job and he's going to do anything to keep it. So now he's cut petrol excise by 1.5¢ a litre and ended the six-monthly excise indexing. People are screaming on all sides. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't? Exactly. Economists and editorial writers are condemning the move as irresponsible populist policy on the run. And the rest of us? A motorist on John Faine's program in Melbourne said the cut will save him 70¢ a week. The bloke at my local petrol station said the first thing to happen will be a rise in pump prices, followed by a return to present prices. In other words, no noticeable change. He may or not be right, but if the price were to eventually come down from 94.9¢ to 90.9¢, that is still about 20¢ a LITRE more than we were paying several months ago. The culprits are indeed world oil prices and our third world dollar. But what sticks in the craw of motorists is that the government promised petrol would not rise because of the GST. (The truth of the matter is the GST is parasite on our pocket books.) But that promise was made by the man who entered Kirribilli House as "Honest" John Howard, and who will leave it as Non-Core Magoo. His great tax adventure, about as exciting as taking out the garbage, is crashing in a heap all around him. Let's hope Ryan is the next stage of his political execution. *Ed. Note: squidgereen n. a short, insignificant person. The word comes from Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure, and Preposterous Words, long since out of print. However there is a Web site featuring Mrs. Byrne's "word of the day". If you keep clicking on "More," you will find a wealth of wonderful, wacky words. Andrew Bolt Makes Old Lady Cry Reactionary whitey's around the country put their paws together in wild applause for that knuckle-scraper's favourite tabloid, the Herald Sun, and its exposé by columnist Andrew Bolt of Aboriginal duplicity. Bolt, a leading proponent of the "stolen generation myth" and critic of the Bringing Them Home report, interviewed Lowitja O'Donoghue and somehow got her to say she wasn't stolen. At least the headlines led us to believe that was the truth of the matter and nothing but. Bolt must have sprung an erection when she admitted to having previously used the term "stolen" when she preferred "removed". Evidently believing that selective truth must be gained even if by cruel means, Bolt appears to believe this semantic difference settles the matter. Michael Bachelard, in The Weekend Australian (24-25 Feb 01), supplies the following quotes from Bolt's previous writings: "The hysterical defence of the stolen generations myth shows what dangerous times we live in. A moral mafia is strangling debate in our nation. "Free speech, democracy, the rule of law--all are at risk. Just ask Prime Minister John Howard, who dared to question the scandalous myth that many thousands of Aboriginal children were snatched from loving parents by racist and genocidal governments." Bachelard ends his article with the following from Ms O'Donoghue: "I deeply regret that some subtle distinctions I made in a lengthy and manipulative interview have been taken out of context and distorted by Andrew Bolt and the Murdoch press." HERE IS LOWITJA O'DONOGHUE'S COMPLETE PRESS RELEASE.So! Reconciliation is back on the table, with racists and their closet sympathisers looking even smaller than before. John Howard was quick to be heard on Melbourne chump radio, pandering to the demographic he supports and the rest of are ashamed of. Those hairy backhands pummelling lineless palms were clearly resonating in his marrow-deprived bones. All but claiming vindication, he nevertheless generously backed off from actually rousing the rabble by once again decreeing that the past was of no consequence. Like temporal lobe amnesiacs everywhere, he exhorted us to wipe our slates clean, to bask in the moment and to selectively forget all the bad things that have ever happened. Oh, if that were only possible, what a brilliant lifelong reign he could have. (For an antidote, read Mary Kalantzis' Through a glass selectively.) Unable to win the next election on its laurels, the Coalition has taken to the only strategy left: smear Labor's economic credentials. The word is that the highest level of government is responsible for sending Financial Services Minister Joe Hockey to New York to tell business leaders that a Labor victory would prompt a flight of capital from Australia. Gold ties must have wagged in alarm at Joe the Jerk's message. Such an eventuation surely could not be! Hadn't the government convinced the people of Australia that it and it alone was capable of sound financial management? Alas, the people of Australia have come to realize that the so-called sterling economic management sported by the Coalition rests solely in taking from the poor--and that includes small business--that the rich might excel beyond their wildest dreams. In other words, business is the recipient of government largesse at the expense of social cohesion. In this respect the Coalition is not a government at all. Labor gets its bad rep for economic management because it has traditionally reversed the equation. Louise Dodson in The Age (26/2/01) says: "the government could ... be accused of threatening the already vulnerable Australian dollar and increasing investor uncertainty about Australia for the sake of making cheap political points against the opposition." The Liberals are past masters at the cheap smear. Remember Jeff Kennett's "Guilty Party" campaigns? Marginally acceptable during his first election, it was trotted out again at the second for no other reason than to flog a dead horse venomously. Ironically, the man behind the odious campaign was Petro Georgiou, now one of a handful of backbenchers with a human face. What does this say about the rest of the Coalition's Federal MP's? The question for John Howard is this: Are there enough voting business leaders to swing the next election in his favour? Let's face it, the world is run by the right. Commercial radio and television stations are a business and business is just naturally a right wing people-manipulating affair. Publicly aired left wing views, on the other hand, are few and far between and never properly funded. Australia's public broadcaster is probably the last of its kind in the world to present views that do not follow the company line. Because of this they are deemed to be biased to the left. Folks like to say this isn't so, but it is. In the case of the ABC, however, what is perceived as left wing bias is merely reporting honestly, without fear or favour. This does not sit comfortably with business interests, and especially with governments in the thrall of big business. Enter Jonathan Shier, the loathsome lackey of the left-hating Howard Government. He wants to employ right wing commentators to balance the ABC's lefty bent. But where is the balance when the ABC is the ONLY broadcaster to air views consistent with intelligence and a broader view of life than making a buck off suckers or downsizing a work force? All the other stations are commercially owned and, by nature, right wing. Their focus is to sell products to their listeners. Cash for Comment showed that every word they speak is designed to manipulate the audience. Commentators are not hired unless they agree to go easy on the various hands that feed them. As a result, chump channel listeners do not tune in to hear the truth, but to justify their own right wing biases. Perhaps the many Australians for whom a "fair go" is synonymous with Communism are happy with Shier's determination to introduce "diversity of opinion" to the ABC, but the rest of us know he is merely trying Stalin on for size. If he succeeds, you can kiss both sides of any argument, and especially dissent, goodbye. Gun Fetishists Fantasies Fancy Conspiracies Conspiracies generally don't wash. They require intense cooperation from the people or institutions involved. And since these players are usually conspiring to do the dirty on the unsuspecting, the ideals of noble purpose and beneficial outcomes are missing. In the end, the conspiracy falls apart over greed and paranoia. Nevertheless, there are people who believe that conspiracies are as common as the backflips of Dishonest John. Some are clinically paranoid, some are self serving, and some, often found among One Nation supporters, are both. Recently, a man with a spear posed at his front door to speak of conspiracies ... and in particular a conspiracy claiming that the government or the UN contrived to make Martin Bryant the patsy in the Port Arthur killings (while one or two others actually did the shooting) in the same way that Lee Harvey Oswald is considered to have been the patsy in the Kennedy killing. We have no doubt that the reporter, after concluding the interview, turned and walked swiftly away. Dutifully printed in Update, the official organ of One Nation, this tall tale was brought to the attention of Australians by Ron Boswell during his emotional defence of putting One Nation last in preferences. Pauline Hanson initially seemed to back the idea, questioning why no inquiry had ever been held into the Port Arthur killings. "A lot of people are asking questions," she said, later denying that she supported the claim. No one old enough to comprehend what went on that day will ever forget it. (See The Slaughter of Bambi.) We all know that it was done by a man with guns. We all know that without the guns, he would have done nothing. We are certain he would not have resorted to a knife attack, because that would have required him to physically connect with his victims. People who kill with guns like the idea of abstract, hands-off slaughter. There is something very wrong with people who demand the right to bear arms. Beyond the requirements of some (not all) rural property owners, weapons are meant for one thing only: to bring a savage and cowardly end to your life or mine if we happen to irritate the gun owner. The protection of property and life from marauders may have been necessary in frontier days, but today the risks of personal invasion are statistically too small to warrant an armed populace. Owning an arsenal is not going to prevent a Martin Bryant--you'd have to be armed all the time--but it will increase the likelihood of the arsenal owner himself becoming the next Bryant. Court Stalks Bishop, Pawns Credibility In a stunning display of a chuckleheaded, downright intellectually impaired hubris (our favourite word to describe Australian Liberals), entry-level Machiavellian, Richard Court, stitched up a deal wherein Liberal Lady Who Lunches, Julie Bishop, would give up her Federal seat of Curtin at the next election to contest Richard Court's state seat of Nedlands, which he would by then have resigned, thus parachuting her directly to the leadership of the WA Liberal Party. This mad plot by a man who has been in politics for umpteen years managed to cause turmoil in the state Liberal Party and escalate the perception that the Libs are heading for disintegration. Colin Barnett, the former deputy leader who had hoped to take over from Court but was thwarted when the former Premier stunned the collective intelligence of all by deciding to hang on for another eight years, called it "an act of treachery". By way of explanation for his move, Court inadvertently stated the Liberal Party's underlying credo: "It's like business. If there is an option which is going to improve your position by bringing in a person who is a good performer and is able to add to the team, you do it." That Mz Bishop thinks Howard will win the next election no matter what he or she does must have been her reasoning for jumping ship. Indeed she claimed the PM was all for it. However, the man in the street sees her move as just another example of the politician's contempt for constituents and country. Serving the people runs a far second to furthering a career based on power. And being the premier of a state sure looks better on the CV than being a Federal back bencher. 24 hours later the deal collapsed in a party-splitting shambles. Richard Court resigned in utter ignominy. Queensland Libs Turn to Ostrich Farming What a delightful evening of TV viewing was the Saturday election in Queensland. Outside of the deep north, the chump channels couldn't be bothered, but Pay TV subscribers were treated to comprehensive coverage by the Sky Channel. It sure is nice to have one's faith in humanity reaffirmed. One by one, Coalition politicians and merchant banker adherents--Michael Kroger, Santo Santori, Ron Borbidge, Ron Boswell, and later John Howard--professed the Labor landslide to be an election on state-based issues. Ron Boswell, interviewed at length, seemed ready to crumple. We were reminded of a little boy whose expectations--that of a shiny new bicycle for Christmas, or simply happiness in general--had been shattered irrevocably. Incomprehension exuded alarmingly from his troubled visage. He seemed to be clutching his head to prevent sobs from breaking out (or was he simply adjusting an ear phone?) Here is as decent a bloke as you'll find in the Coalition, a man who has bought the party line to such an extent that he simply cannot accept that this Titanic is going down from self-generated icebergs. And he is the one who will be facing off against Pauline at the election. Perhaps the only Coalition members capable of the correct identification of grave-digging implements were the one and only Bob Katter and Russell Cooper. We've come to expect Katter to bypass doublethink, and for that reason he is always enjoyable to listen to, if a tad frightening (in that one is never sure he isn't The Blob posing as a politician, ever ready to suddenly transform and begin absorbing everything in his/its sight.) Cooper's straight shooting, on the other hand, comes from no longer having anything to lose. In the aftermath we had John Howard's assessment. Oh, dear. On the one hand he has assured us that he REALLY UNDERSTANDS the anger of Australians over the GST, competition Policy, petrol prices, dairy regulation, poor bush communications, road funding bypasses, unresolved rorts swept under the carpet, a dollar that is trying to rival the Sri Lankan Rupee, you name it. On the other he concurred with his colleagues that this was indeed a state-based election with no implications for the Federal government. That's our one-note Johnny, the antithesis of Chicken Little, the anti-Cassandra. When he hasn't gone missing, he likes to tell us that everything is fine and if it doesn't really look that way then it means nothing anyway. Beyond the end of his lower lip lies a vague, amorphous, gauzy nothingness. That's right, there is nothing beyond the end of that cartoonish lip. And he thinks we are like that too. (Speaking of going missing, the day before the election Howard secreted himself away at the home of his idol, poor Don Bradman. The excuse this time was to present the Don with yet another award. The great batsman from many yesteryear's ago must be weary of all this attention, just as Menzies must turn in his grave every time the PM intones his name. Let's hope Bradman is writing his memoirs and that in 50 years time when they are unsealed he will reveal his revulsion at what amounts to the first case of one celebrity being stalked by another.) So, with Peter Beattie's Labor Party holding some two thirds of Queensland's seats meaning absolutely nothing, perhaps the PM will stride forth and call an early election. Surely nothing bad will happen to the Coalition if he does? For certainly the advice from his colleagues is that the mob out there knows its place and who their proper rulers are. Come on, John, where's your ticker? Ed. Note: Don Bradman has passed on to that perfect crease in the sky. If he was indeed the bloke the hagiographers say he was, then it's understandable why John Howard so idolised him. The great cricketer was everything Howard is not. Kennett Tunnel Springs City Leak Remember when there was a groundswell of support for inviting Steven Seagal to help remove Jeff Kennett? No? That's because the Great Helmsman was defeated before the staff at SCATT could put out the word. But The Desecrator's legacy lives on in the once proud state of Victoria. One out of four Public Transport ticket machines are reported to be out of order, while users have never been able to buy a day pass on trams. Never mind, they can always drive their cars to work now that City Link is finally up and running. Uh-oh, the Burnley Tunnel has sprung a leak. A really bad leak. Closed for a week because wedges of timber, initially "used to level the area when the concrete was poured for the wall" were never removed, causing them, one supposes, to expand and the wall to crack. Hey, that's like a surgeon leaving his gloves in the abdomen of a private hospital patient, said patient unlucky enough to be covered by private health insurance on this and many other procedural failures deemed no doubt to be "acts of God". Or the surgeon, same difference. But wait, there's more. Not only is it possible that other bits of timber may have been left in other parts of the tunnel wall causing closures and repairs to go on for years, but--gasp!--it is now understood that the entire tunnel was built on the cheap. Under Jeff Kennett's Benevolent Stewardship? Unbelievable! It seems the builder, Transfield-Obayashi Joint Venture, should have employed a cylindrical design ("more able to withstand high water pressure because the force of water around the tunnel was evenly spread") instead of the D-shape model ("less appropriate for the variable conditions under Melbourne") that saved the them all that money. Well, there you have it. Victorians not only get to pay tolls for the next 35 years, they can also count on occasional drives through a tunnel that will eventually be closed and filled and forgotten. Let it be hereafter called The Kennett Tunnel. WHERE'S ME TABLETS! Reporters Refuse to Help Shier's Gestapo Amanda Meade of The Australian and Cynthia Banham of the Sydney Morning Herald, the two reporters who received an ABC leaked document concerning Jonathan Shier's proposed $7.5 million executive team blowout, refused to cooperate with Federal Police over the matter. The ABC's ineffectually effete chairman Donald McDonald made a feeble gesture to halt the police investigation of ABC staff members, but failed. Meanwhile, plans to turn the national broadcaster into a taxpayer funded chump channel continue. Nat Frump's Conservative Family That word again, but when you're talking about National Party/One Nation women, frump just kinda fits. (Liberal women, on the other hand, as represented by Julie Bishop of WA, have a certain Beamer elegance with calm, measured tones belaying a single-minded determination to disregard the entire contents of the peripheral world.) We caught the ubiquitous DeAnne Kelly on Lateline the other soir, where she brought out the rationale for putting One Nation ahead of Labor. Besides treating politics as trench warfare, where Labor is the enemy and the national good is of secondary importance, she went on to include One Nation in her so-called broad conservative family of the right. Of course, there are a few conservatives in this woeful world who would object to being part of a family which includes abortion clinic bombers, snarling arsenal advocates, white supremacists, wacko conspiracists, right wing death squads, and Tony Abbott. But perhaps I exaggerate. Nat's Eat Pizza, Accomplish Nothing Nothing much to say here, except that the great meeting of National Party heads produced something like the following: Ministers are encouraged to ask their constituents to put One Nation last, while backbenchers can do what ever they like. Missing from the meeting were One Nation preference enthusiasts, DeAnne Kelly, Bob Katter and Ian Causley. Also missing was any future for the party. Borbidge Contrite at La Cérémonie Rob Borbidge's farewell speech as leader of the Queensland National Party acknowledged the plague-like inevitability of globalisation, but conceded that "we've been lousy managers" of its implementation in Australia. Well said, Rob, but too late. To begin with John Howard would never make such an admission for the simple reason that it would never have occurred to him. The Coalition has never considered "the people it serves" when forming its policies for the simple reason that these policies have been implemented in the interests of business. The will of the multinationals is the focus of this government. The people (or "that mob" as John Howard once referred to Australians in Parliament) have been urged to eat it, as if the quality of their lives, regarded abstractly at best, were of secondary importance. Ed. Note: "La Cérémonie" was the term used during the French Revolution for the walk to the guillotine. Mary Matalin, former political debate host for CNN's Crossfire, now White House counsellor, has lashed out at the US media for picking on George W. Bush's third-grade abuse of the English language. "To parse it and pick it apart in the way that it has is discordant with the American people," she said, confirming that Americans have justified themselves as a nation of grammatical manglers by electing one of their own. Calling Cocaine leaves "cocoa" instead of coca is just one of Dubbya's many gaffes SCATT hopes some web site out there is recording for our schadenfreudian pleasure. Speaking of Bush's determination to continue to give press conferences undeterred by carping criticism, Matalin contributed her own baffle-speak: "It was designed from the beginning to show and telegraph we'll be giving many and frequent press conferences, so the American people can understand what it is we're doing, not so the grammarians in the press can have a field day." Ah, America. Clem one day. Cleatus the next. |
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