Earlier this year I went to a very interesting talk by Andrew Wilkie an Aussie ex intelligence officer who is now speaking out against the Iraq war. He resigned from the Office of National Assessments in March 2003 and went public with his concerns that John Howard's government was manipulating and distorting the intelligence for political reasons.

It truly scared me when he said Labour leader Kim Beazely, currently leader of the opposition is to the _right_ of Howard on security issues! Sheeez till then I hadn't thought it was possible.

I really hope the Australian Labour party can come up with a better candidate to challenge Howard, otherwise we might see Beazely run a right wing 'reporting for duty' Kerry like campaign.
Joe Hendren | Homepage | 14.04.06 - 12:56 pm | #

Racism has always been rife in Australia. What has changed is people's increasing condemnation of it (and rightly so). Even when I was in primary school in Australia, "wogs" were always singled out for abuse. This was just considered "playground bullying", but now reflecting on what I observed, it boiled down to 8 and 9 year olds reflecting what was being taught at home. These may not have been conscious lessons as such, but a proliferating attitude that was being rubbed off on children. When you get older, only then you realise that what was considered as just a part of society is, in fact, very wrong.
thelibran | 16.04.06 - 12:28 pm | #

Racist? Australia? Never.

Those little kerfuffles in Cronulla were mere merely attempts by the media to make Australia look bad to the international community: it worked to the extent that American legislators are crying foul, that Australia has been ripping off their wheat growers in order to fund guns for terrorists.

It's just not true: John knew nothing about the kickbaks. It wasn't his fault and you can't prove that it was. It's not like the money was going into his pockets.

Or is it?
Rantz | Homepage | 18.04.06 - 2:58 am | #