Australia - I'm standing in it!

Having expressed my disgust at the rapacious foreign policies of the US of A, perhaps it is time to turn a jaundiced eye to the politics of my own country and the once fairly congenial but now increasingly cringe-inducing society of which I am a part.George W., in a statement of remarkable stupidity and insensitivity, has dubbed Australia not America’s Deputy Sheriff in S.E. Asia, but the Sheriff of S.E.Asia. This was, presumably, an endorsement of Australia’s unquestioning loyalty to all US policies. Australia is indeed galloping down a path which I fear may see it end up as a tame tin-pot dictatorship. The loathsome Prime Minister of Oz, John Howard, (they can never get his name right in Washington), has done more to undermine Australian political culture than anyone else in the country’s history. Ever concentrating power in his own person, he has repeatedly usurped the functions of the Governor-General, the official head of state and the ministries of his own Cabinet. More and more ministries have been run, de-facto, from his office. It is now fairly widely realised that the recently demoted Health Minister was not really in charge, but the Prime-Minister’s office was. The same applies to the Defence Department and the Foreign Affairs Department. Parliament has long since been reduced to a talkfest, but at least cabinet used to have a strong voice. Howard has reduced most of his cabinet colleagues to minion status. He appoints a Neanderthal to the Environment portfolio and an ineffective, red-nosed buffoon to the Attorney Generalship. Policy is only to be extensively discussed on user-friendly shock-jock radio. Quality education is not to be squandered on the hoi-polloi. The poor, the vulnerable and the disadvantaged are to be severely punished to demonstrate solidarity with the wealthy. Particularly repulsive political head-kickers have been assigned this happy task.He has surrounded himself with a cloud (170-ish?) of ministerial advisors whose job it is to:intervene in other ministries;make sure that news he doesn’t wish to hear does not officially reach him;make sure no unfortunate outcome or dishonest political act can be sheeted home to him. (”Nobody told me !” )On assuming office he emphasised that a rigorous code of ministerial conduct would be enforced. His administration has been notable for scandals and improprieties on an unprecedented scale. He also pledged that Aboriginal reconciliation would be the major focus of his present term. This process has now officially died of neglect.How then, you ask, has this man managed to stay in power? There are three factors:He has claimed credit for a good economic performance which was built on the reforms of his predecessor and on the vagaries of world economic cycles over which he has no control, but which have favoured him.He has a demoralised and ineffective opposition. So efficiently has he shifted Australian politics to the right that his opposition has difficulty establishing a distinct voice.He has perfected the politics of fear. He promotes fear of refugees, of gays, of unions, of anything that didn’t emerge from a nuclear family surrounded by a white picket fence.I can’t think of an Australian politician that I have hated before, but this man and his trained media parrots, I TRULY DETEST ! ! ! End of rant.