What might have been..

NOTE: If you're planning to vote on October 9th, you can check that you are enrolled and what electorate you're enrolled in here. There's also links to information about your electorate - how it voted as a whole in the last few elections, who your member is etc.

If you think that last post was extreme then read this article from an expat journalist. It's one of those rare summaries of all the stories that were big news in their time but were dropped before the final details became clear and it paints a terrible picture of the difference between Keating's badly budgeted renaissance '96 and Fortress Howard 2004.

Remember this:

Back in Australia, Hanson, who said she represented the 'white community' and everyone, 'apart from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders', had just made her maiden speech attacking her favourite targets. Howard refused to condemn her, instead turning his venom on 'political correctness' and adding: 'I thought some of the things she said were an accurate reflection of what people feel.'

And did you know exactly how Howard played this:

Howard's brutal policy on asylum seekers, pursued with indecent relish by Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock, kept Australians fearful of an invasion - although the numbers, some 3,000, were laughably small. Hundreds of children were imprisoned, along with their families, in desert detention centres.

Australians, who a few years before had apparently relished ethnic differences, became more openly racist. Polls showed racial intolerance, especially against Muslims, growing. ...

For me, the final straw was the so-called 'children overboard' affair. On the eve of the last national poll in October 2001, a group of 200 desperate asylum-seekers, mainly Iraqis, jumped with their children from a sinking boat off the Australian coast.

Within hours, Howard and Ruddock were relaying a very different version of events. There was no mention of sinking ships. Australians were told the 'illegal immigrants' had thrown their children in the sea to force a nearby frigate to pick them up.

Now, back in Bangkok, there are no briefings for US journalists at the Australian embassy, and taxi drivers tell me: 'Australia. Same, same America.' (emphasis mine)

Well kids we've become a lesson to others: 'don't make the Australian mistake'. How can I sum this up? Sure, Labour weren't that good, but at least they weren't evil.

Related Link