Hi, and thanks to readers who sent welcome back messages. David Morgan has started a weblog called ‘Elitist’ with the motto ‘”Say it loud – I’m elitist and proud”, and is horrified at the thought that yesterday’s piece pronouncing the end of “elite” as a neo-liberal term of abuse might be true. “Oh no … Where does that leave me?” elitist
Webdiary regular Robert Lawton, in Adelaide, had no time for niceties, as usual. “As overwhelming as the asylum-seeker issue might seem, and as fun as it is to fight the troglodyte populists like Shane Stone, Piers Ackerman or Andrew Bolt over such things, can you give some space in the welcome return of your column to the greater issues for this country? How about health care costs and Medicare reform, the welfare trap, which dissuades people from paid work and the shocking failure of urban planning in Sydney and Melbourne? That’s for starters anyway.”
Good point Robert, with the budget coming up. Anyone keen to start the ball rolling?
Senate committee members are still brooding over whether to subpoena Reith. For those who want to be reminded of the lies and obfuscations of that terrible day on Thursday, November 8 when it become blindingly obvious that the public had been duped – not that the government cared, they’d got boat people back on centre stage two days before election day – there’s transcripts and details of the day’s events in Credibility overboard, Red light questions, Circling the wagons, Howard throw and Rotten corpse of an election (see Webdiary archive). There’s a chronology of the affair on Labor website truthoverboard
On the evidence to date, Reith is in the clink as a liar and co-conspirator in an intricate cover-up during the election which utterly compromised defence and other so-called public “servants”. The numbers of those in the know was huge, yet all kept their mouths shut rather than tell the public the truth. Wasn’t this supposed to be a caretaker period, where the public service ran on automatic pilot, not cooperate with government scams to help win it an election? Not a leak, not one, when it had to be done in the public interest. It was left to a few bewildered sailors on HMAS Adelaide, abandoned by the defence hierarchy and public servants, to tell The Australian newspaper the truth in the last week of the campaign, only to be flippantly dismissed by Howard. The ‘public service’, culture would have been be pronounced dead if not for some very frank evidence to the inquiry by some public officials embroiled in the dirty, demeaning mess. (I hear there’s been some dynamite evidence at the hearing this afternoon.)
This is a clear case of the cover up being worse than the offence. To quickly admit that public statements were based on incorrect information would be a one day wonder, and take little away from the government’s political momentum on boat people. To corrupt the defence department and the defence force is but one of many long-term adverse consequences of this matter, including the apparently gaping hole in the accountability of government. We’ve seen defence personnel and public ‘servants’ – some of whom told the government of the fake claims – grilled, but the ministers and his courtiers who gave the orders, hide out.
This is a big call for Labor. A subpoena to Reith would set the precedent for former Labor ministers to be called by the Liberals, in government or opposition.The big parties traditionally look after each other on these matters. If Labor bites the bullet, you can bet Reith will fight it in court, maybe all the way to the High Court.
After all, taking the rap and perhaps protecting the Prime Minister means the government owes him big time. Nice place for a private defence consultant to be in, don’t you think? And what of current staffers Hampton and Jordana and former staffer Scrafton? They’re in no hurry to clear their names either – and remember, there’s no precedent set if such people VOLUNTEER to give evidence. How big a favour might the government owe one or more of them?
Ever wondered why the higher up you get the greater the chance of being kicked upstairs or getting big payouts for incompetence or worse? Jonathan Shier for example, was sacked and given $1 million. What did that pay for? How many ABC board members would survive a Shier statement of his riding instructions? The more you know, the safer you are.
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Bleeding Heart Club – foundation member
Joe Podosky in Ascot, Brisbane
I’ve been a closet bleeding heart for years and I recently came to a similar conclusion to you about our place in Australian society. I realised that I am in the minority; even in my own family. I think my family suspects something but I have not outed myself. I’m sure my mother knows though…mothers are like that.
However, I do also see something hopeful. Go back 30 odd years to the early days of the Vietnam War and a similar situation existed. The majority of “right thinking” Australians supported the government’s actions in Vietnam. The bleeding hearts in those days were again a minority. But over time, the tide changed and more and more people came to realise the stupidity of the continuing the War. A bleeding heart became PM!
While today’s history is still being written, I feel that the tide is about to turn with the dead hand of the Howard junta. All things pass.
Certainly this government has not only tapped into the ingrained racism of most white Australians but it has also inflamed and fed that horrid xenophobic side of the Australian psyche to a point where even good Australians have lost all sense of perspective. We have lost our famous attitude of a fair go for all. We have turned our backs on frightened, helpless human beings in their time of need. We are a poorer nation for that.
I guess only time will finally reveal the moral bankruptcy of the Howard years. As Donald Horne said in The Australian (Jan 26, 2002), “One of these days we my again be granted a leader with the gift of showing us the possibility of a new national togetherness”. I guess that person would have to be a bleeding heart.
I’ll now wear my bleeding heart on my sleeve.
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What is a bleeding Heart?
Caroline Compton in Sydney
The gist of it is something like this: The Hebrew word that means ‘bleeding heart’, literally translated, means ‘beautiful soul’. (Margo: Oh no! Does anyone know anyone who qualifies for the Bleeding Heart Club?)
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Stephen Holt in Canberra
My understanding is that the term “bleeding heart” dates back to the 1960s in the USA. In 1964 Governor George C Wallace of Alabama ran in a few Democratic primaries in protest against the Civil Rights Act. Normally his support would have been confined to the KKK and the Old Confederacy but commentators were surprised when he polled strongly in industrial Northern states. He benefited from a “backlash” among working class ethnic voters who felt they were being “wedged” out by a coalition of African-Americans in the inner cities and college educated “bleeding heart” small “l” liberal Democrats from more prosperous suburbs.
Wallace’s 1964 campaign was a foretaste of the eclipse of the Democratic Party, presidentially, in the era from Nixon to Clinton. George C Wallace would have little to learn from the successful campaign tactics in the last federal election.
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Can you better Steve J Spear’s nicknames for Howard and Ruddock in yesterday’s diary?
Neil Watson in Jakarta
Please be informed that the PM has long been known as ‘Iron Jack’ Howard among the cognescenti. Similarly it’s ‘Wallaby Bob’ Hill and ‘Pistol Pete’ Costello. But we’re supporters, so you Bleeding Hearts will have to find your own monickers.
David Eastwood in Sydney
Ruddock: Mr Hat (apologies to South Park)
Crean: Kenny (ditto) or Boofhead (Apologies to James Packer)
Howard: ALT (Annoying little twerp) or “What’s that noise?” or “Weedle”
Ferguson: Kevin
Stott-Despoja: Mrs Smith (obvious, and reinforces a certain sense of mediocrity)
Alston: Gretel (Packer, get it?)
Abbott: Can’t better “Rasputin”
Bishop: Who?
Hill: Fluffy
Downer: Krusty (apologies to the Simpsons)
Murdoch, R: Obi-wan
Packer, K: D-Vader
Packer, J: See above, also Don’t.Tel
Murdoch, L: Bart (“it wasn’t me”)
Kemp, D: Terence
Kemp, R: Phillip (sorry, more South Park references)
Costello: Laughing Assassin
Nelson: Duncan Kerr
Anderson: Clarke Kent
I’d put more Laborites in, but they’re mostly too invisible to create an impression.
MARGO: Alston as Gretel is my pick. I reckon that would stick.