Politics of distraction. John Howard's latest ploy.

[Esra Star]

I just heard the PM's interview with Fran Kelly this morning.
OK, so now he needs to do something about the problem experienced
by remote aboriginal communities??
Funnily enough it involves retaking land back under the control of
the federal government. Big surprise. We all know that he isn't going to do
a damn thing to improve the situation.
Is it an election winner? Is he trying to distract from another issue?
Are they trying to grt control of land so they can create nuclear fuel dumps?
Anybody got any ideas?
He's a shifty little bastard, you've got to keep a close eye.

[Matilda]

1. What you said.

After eleven years, suddenly the welfare of Aboriginals is a national emergency. This from the man
who can't even say "sorry".

Definitely a land grab, IMHO. And banning alcohol for six months will achieve - what? Apart from
the fact that prohibition has never worked anywhere, it does nothing to get to the root of the
problems, and certainly will do nothing to help.

And now talk of extending welfare checks to the whole population - does that translate to "if the
government doesn't like the way you spend your paltry child allowance, you'll lose it?" Is that
Big Brother or what?

The report he claims to be acting on didn't recommend any of these actions, and I think Howard's
ploy is beginning to be seen for what it is - an election stunt which will appeal to racism (and
companies that would like to grab Aboriginal land). I think perhaps this time he's miscalculated -
even blind Freddie can see that he's had eleven years to deal with issues that he's preferred to
ignore.

Good report from Aunty here:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/06/22/1958939.htm

Edit: typo

[canetoad]

2. Heading over to Box Hill this morning

JH materialized on Jon Faine's 774am. Fuck me dead if he didn't say at least a dozen times, 'The little children must be protected. It's the very most important thing in the universe.'

Fair dinkum, talk about oiling his way into the hearts of family values voters.

[Matilda]

3. Exactly - I've lost count of the number of times he's said

the most important thing is protecting the little children.

This is the man who wanted to give ASIO the right to detain and question
children as young as 10 without having to even inform their parents, let
alone have them present. Where was his paternal instinct then?

Of course action needs to be taken - but all Howard's about is
imperialistic paternalism. And we won't even mention all the uranium
in the Northern Territory. It's got nothing to do with this at all, not
a thing.

[Matilda]

4. Moir cartoon from the Herald ....

[Esra Star]

5. So now we're seeing John Howard the street fighter. How many more distractions.

It's almost like he's going to test the water everywhere, and then run with anything that works.
His run in with Peter Beattie is getting interesting. Peter is suggesting he might include
a few embarrassing questions on any "referendum".
A couple of questions about Iraq and our involvement would be good.
Anyway the Libs are still "headless chookin it". They are acting like losers.
I hope they're right.