Current Australian Political Drama (1128 hits)
Category: PoliticsRating: 0.1 on 30 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by GodComplex666 (View user info) at 2003-08-21 22:00:42 EDT
These are not my views, as I do not feel as much sympathy for Pauline Hanson as the author, but I share a similar sentiment with her writings. Those not interested in Australian Politics need not read further.
Mother of the nation in jail, its father in charge.
By Margo Kingston
August 21, 2003 - 4:58PM
So, the self-proclaimed mother of the nation is in jail, and the man who took her policies and finessed her beliefs is Prime Minister of Australia.
The rights and wrongs of Pauline Hanson's conviction and sentence aside, her imprisonment is a graphic symbolic representation of the state of Australia and its politics.
Australia's political, police and legal establishment has put Pauline Hanson - fish and chip shop heroine to the poor, the ignorant and the disenfranchised, the woman who created a party out of nothing in an instant and mobilised Australians never before involved in politics - behind bars.
Big money, big brains, big spin machine politics triumphs - replete with its big corporate donations, branch stacking, crony capitalism, deceit and betrayals of the poor and the powerless. Politicians with brains, money and privilege walk free after defrauding the taxpayer, ministers and the Prime Minister survive with a smile after lying to the public- even about the reason for war - and profit from politics with sinecure taxpayer funded jobs or jobs with big corporations exploiting their political contacts.
The big brand names of politics and the big media - with all their considerable assets - worked tirelessly to silence the scream of the Hanson's disenfranchised. I wrote in my book about her 1998 election campaign, Off the Rails: The Pauline Hanson trip, that Australia had been lucky that our brand of far-right nationalist politics had been amateur, unresourced, and too-quickly put together by carpetbaggers like David Oldfield and David Ettridge. What if a professional had captured the masses' imagination - where would Australia be now?
Now we know. A professional has stepped in. His name is John Howard. She wanted refugee boat people given five year temporary visas instead of permanent residence. Philip Ruddock deplored her inhumanity, then, once Hanson was out of action, gave refugees three year visas instead. She demanded that the boats be turned around at sea. In August 2001, our SAS boarded the Tampa and our defence force did just that.
The professional John Howard merely engineered the fears and angers of the insecure and economically suffering to his base political advantage. Softly softly suggestions only, then he sat back and watched the flames engulf each utterance, most recently with capital punishment after he gave the States the all clear to reintroduce it.
The professional, John Howard, faced a fragmentation of the conservative vote with Pauline Hanson. Her One Nation Party helped elect Queensland and Western Australian Governments in early 2001. She pledged to put all sitting members last at the 2001 federal election, almost guaranteeing a Labor victory.
But then came Tampa. The One Nation voted collapsed and its voters ran to Howard. So did Labor, in mortal fear. The professional, John Howard, was triumphant, and Labor unelectable. Australia's march to fascism began (see Howard's roads to absolute power).
And now? The disenfranchised Hansonites are in the middle ground on social policy, Howard brilliantly manipulating their ignorance to exploit their downward envy as he screws them economically and demands they find the money to pay for their own basic health and the education of their children.
The disenfranchised have empowered a resurgent Greens Party. Those who once saw themselves as mainstream Australians in an Australia committed to the universality of human rights are now grassroots activists, visiting refugees, researching their treatment in detention camps, writing books, lobbying politicians.
And the rest of the old old middle ground?
Former Kim Beazley chief of staff Syd Hickman put it this way this week, at the launch of a new group dedicated to reviving Liberalism:
Understandably it is taking liberal Australians a fair while to appreciate the alarming reality that faces us. After all, liberalism for a long time represented the political middle ground. For much of the past thirty years small l liberals have had the luxury of being the swinging voters who decided who would win federal elections. What we thought about key issues used to matter. Quite frankly, in political terms, now it doesn't. And that's why core liberal issues like the future of the ABC, the secular education system and universal health care get such meagre attention.
People who hold liberal values must demand their own place in the political spectrum. To get it they are going to have to work outside the old frameworks. They should stop telling themselves that it's good enough to be the wets or progressives in political parties which are now openly dedicated to illiberal ends. This is not virtue, its self delusion.
Hanson was the most hated woman in Australia when she shocked the powerful and the comfortable with the truth - that our construct of a tolerant, progressive, open Australia was a myth. Now, Australians overwhelmingly feel sympathy for her as she languishes in jail.
It's easy to explain, really, with the benefit of time. Underneath the racism and the ignorance, Hanson triggered a people's movement. It was crushed with all means at the powerful's disposal. And we all know it.
One final word. John Ralston Saul made the point in his book, The Unconscious Civilisation, that outbreaks like Hansonism are not the fault of supporters, but of the elites:
"There is no reason to believe that large parts of any population wish to reject learning or those who are learned.People want the best for society and themselves. The extent to which a populace falls back on superstition or violence can be traced to the ignorance in which their elites have managed to keep them, the ill-treatment they have suffered and the despair into which a combination of ignorance and suffering have driven them."
So blame the Labor elite of 1983-1996 for the rise of Hansonism. And blame John Howard's elite for exploiting it now. And please, let Pauline Hanson walk free. She's more innocent than our major parties by miles.
User Reviews
Submitted by thorpe87 (user info) at 2004-11-09 01:29:43 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
I don't know about the "redneck state" coment - I'm from Brisbane and the majority of people I know are fairly progressive... but then I think we just elected two Liberal and two National senators and gave Howard a Senate majority FUCK!!CUFKCUFKCUFKCU and I realise that yeh we would have to be the most redneck state in Australia.
We make most of our redneck jokes about Tasmania... but they are probably one of the more educated states in Australia.
I hate people. We have all Labor state governments, and a Liberal federal government with a large majority. Obviously that means a lot of people are voting based on personality and image, and not actual policies.
Williamson is Aussie too - from same school. Go Aussies!
Interesting fact for all non-Australian readers - Midnight Oil's lead singer was just elected to federal parliament for the Labor Party.
Submitted by Hairsphincter (user info) at 2003-08-23 03:55:14 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Lisa. You are cute. Send me a photo mrbradtoyou.at.hotmail.com.
We'll work the rest out later.
Submitted by Lisa (user info) at 2003-08-23 02:42:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Australia has politics? I thought it was just a bunch of kangaroos and croc hunters.
But that's probably just cause I'm an ignorant American. And by America, I'm of course referring to the United States. GO USA!
Okay, that was an attempt to ridicule patriotism, but I think I blew it. Maybe I should stop browsing Ubersite at 2am.
Submitted by Hairsphincter (user info) at 2003-08-23 02:12:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Sorry DooZ, it's not my policy. Why, some of my best friends are Queenslanders...
Submitted by DooZa (user info) at 2003-08-23 02:02:59 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Pauline Hanson came from Queensland, our red-neck state, but there's a lot of exceptions if you ask DooZa.
Um Hair, what the FUCK?
QLD is not the redneck state at all, think NT or WA buddy .. Think before you type
Submitted by Hairsphincter (user info) at 2003-08-23 01:40:17 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Loki - Kiwis are New Zealanders, not Australians.
I forgive you, you Canadians can be so quirky.
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2003-08-22 10:50:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
**an* ADD friendly version
oh just figure it out I don't have an editor and I type faster than I can read
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2003-08-22 10:49:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Is there and ADD friendly version of this because I'm lost. I have the same impression that Razor does, is that the deal. Shit I feel like a rube, I don't know anything about kiwi politics, but the swim team did kick ass in the Olympics. That one kid has feet the size of my flippers though.
Submitted by Hairsphincter (user info) at 2003-08-22 10:31:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
pretty much
Submitted by Razor (user info) at 2003-08-22 10:23:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
So Hanson was a redneck racist right winger that exploited the fears of the poor to maneuver into power but who ultimately failed because the political establishment shut her out?
Submitted by Hairsphincter (user info) at 2003-08-22 02:43:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Karma, it's all karma...
Submitted by MOssiah (user info) at 2003-08-22 02:41:49 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
It's true. She did want harsher penalties for criminals.
She also had grand ideas to solve debt:
"I don't understand why we don't just print more money."
Oh god, how did people vote for her after that statement.
Submitted by Hairsphincter (user info) at 2003-08-22 02:29:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Ironically - Ms Hanson campaigned on tougher penalties for criminals. She wanted this.
Submitted by Hairsphincter (user info) at 2003-08-22 00:23:53 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
As I have said before, I am happy that we did follow, if only for economic reasons (certainly not for ethical reasons).
Grey vote - the elderly, generally "scared" voters,
Sad Sacks - the unemployed and disenfranchised - generally "accusative" voters
We have mandatory voting for local, state and federal government elections.
Submitted by MOssiah (user info) at 2003-08-21 23:31:47 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Yeah Judoka, Bush has Blair in one pocket, and Howard up his ass.
I think that most of the Australian public were against us backing Bush up, but Howard wanted to lick Bush's bum so bad that he didn't care what we thought.
Submitted by MOssiah (user info) at 2003-08-21 23:29:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
true. true. Howard is a homophobe muppet.
Only Jim Henson could create eyebrows like that.
Howard should have been a character in the Dark Crystal.
Submitted by Judoka (user info) at 2003-08-21 23:28:10 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I do not know who you are refering to..."grey vote and the sad sacks".
Nothing like having a intolerant freak running the show. No wonder Australia supported Bush they sound if they are cut from the same cloth.
Submitted by Hairsphincter (user info) at 2003-08-21 23:22:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Howard is also a great big fucking homophobe.
Submitted by Hairsphincter (user info) at 2003-08-21 23:20:29 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Judoka - he does. It's the grey vote and the sad sacks who get all huffy about these "immigrants taking our jobs".
It's bad, but that's what people want - leaders who harken back to a better time, for John Howard, it's the 50's.
Pauline Hanson came from Queensland, our red-neck state, but there's a lot of exceptions if you ask DooZa. The people who followed her would like to go back to the "White Australia Policy" days.
Still, our "right" wing is like the US democrats, so I wonder how much longer we can survive being such a "left" minded country in the current international climate - similar things are happening in other "left" western countries, like Canada, The Netherlands, Sweden and Norway.
Submitted by MOssiah (user info) at 2003-08-21 23:19:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
yeah, Hair, you should come to Perth for awhile. I don't know the other Perth Ubers, but they all seem to be fairly decent people judging by their writings.
Gangajang, they were great weren't they. We can have an Australian music fiesta. Men at Work, Icehouse, Midnight Oil, and maybe for the kiwi's, some crowded house.
Submitted by MOssiah (user info) at 2003-08-21 23:17:12 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Howard owes thanks to many people, mostly to his propoganda machine which led many to believe he was doing the right thing in the lead up to election by telling Australians that the boat people were throwing their children off the side.
Submitted by Judoka (user info) at 2003-08-21 23:11:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Sounds vaguely like Ross Perot's third party movement in the states. He ended up putting Bill Clinton in office by fragmenting the Republican party in '92. Does Howard owe Pauline Hanson thanks?
Submitted by Hairsphincter (user info) at 2003-08-21 23:08:21 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Gangajang - that's a fucking blast from the past.
Submitted by MOssiah (user info) at 2003-08-21 23:07:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Yes. It is quite peculiar.
We should all meet up and have a few beers.
Belgian Beer house maybe?
Or maybe we should go all Australian, and just have a few VB's on my back porch, listening to Gangajang and Great Southern land by Icehouse. haha.
Submitted by Hairsphincter (user info) at 2003-08-21 23:01:51 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
We need an ANZAC convention. Perth seems the most likely place - do all you guys know each other or is it just luck you are all here on Uber from Perth? Odd, eh?
Submitted by Hairsphincter (user info) at 2003-08-21 23:00:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
dolphgirl is also a Kiwi!
Submitted by Hairsphincter (user info) at 2003-08-21 22:58:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Shit Mossiah, I knew there was someone else to mention - you!
+2 because Yes just stated the fucking obvious.
Submitted by MOssiah (user info) at 2003-08-21 22:55:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Hair, yes I'm Australian, from Perth too.
I know others wouldn't really give a flying fuck, that's why I said in the first sentence not to read on if they weren't interested.
If I get a negative rating it doesn't matter, it means nothing. Just thought I'd put it out there so people who wanted to know could find out. There does seem to be a few of us Australians who regularly view this site.
Submitted by Yes at 2003-08-21 22:50:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
too fucking long. if i wanted your local news i'd check out cnn or somesuchthing...
Submitted by Hairsphincter (user info) at 2003-08-21 22:48:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
The Australians I know of here aside from myself (Melbourne) are iddqd (Sydney), DooZa (Brisbane), TuTs (Perth), Not_Unless_Its_Shaven (Perth), ekkythumpin (Perth), MikeHunt (Sydney).
Hey, what's with all the Perth?
Nobb is a Kiwi, and there's another one here somewhere who I have forgotten...
I don't think anyone else gives a flying fuck.
I am guessing you are Australian, where from?