Our Atrocious Record

Well it doesn’t happen often, but I’ve found myself agreeing with Jeff Kennett. Actually, since he’s given up pretensions to be Premier of Victoria yet again, I think I’d almost prefer to have him back. Since his fall from grace, he’s been giving us the benefit of his opinion and I find, more often than not, that he’s quite sensible and certainly seems to be more honest about his reign than most politicians. Bracksy could benefit from a bit of that to I reckon.

Anyway, he made some comments yesterday that sort of hit home. He got stuck in about David Hicks. He had quite a bit to say, the gist of which was that we are all to blame for David Hicks current predicament. He said that Australia had shown "no compassion, no understanding at all" where David Hicks is concerned. Here are some more quotes that I think really speak for themselves and can’t be better said:

"Even if he committed the crimes, he has spent five years in jail — you can get less for murder. Enough is enough. We love the Yanks. We stand behind them, we support them, as we should. But for goodness' sake, we should be using our special relationship with the Americans to bring him home.

"How can you keep a man for five or six years without a trial?"

And

"Imagine if it were my son or daughter," he said. "We do more for drug runners where the evidence is clearer than for this fellow. It's a sad reflection on the period of time we're living through."

And

"You have a look at how the media and the public got involved in the campaign for (convicted drug trafficker) Schapelle Corby ... compared with this. There is a total double standard there."

When asked about the “special” relationship we seem to enjoy with the yanks now, you know, being branded as arrogant asses in certain parts of the world, he said:

"No, I don't think that's got anything to do with it because the UK has retained their strong relationship with the US, but has had all its residents returned to it."

"It's not just the Australian government. Don't absolve yourself, or myself, or any Australian citizen from responsibility. We're all guilty of compliance in the fact that David Hicks is still there ... I'm saying we're all to blame."

Well Jeff, it seems you’ve outdone yourself this time. I couldn’t possibly agree with you more. This sordid affair is a very sad indictment that shows the apathy of the Australian people in a very stark light. Like Britain, we should have been lobbying our government like they’ve never been lobbied before, and cajoling them into bringing our citizen home where he can be treated like a human being, not an animal in a cage and can get the fair trial he’s entitled to, instead of being subjected to the United States making special laws to try him under that will do nothing more than guarantee a guilty verdict in the face of very little evidence. It really is a disgusting state of affairs.

So, try some of these on for size and see if you can get a rise out of anyone. I haven’t yet, but a weight of numbers might make a difference:

John Howard doesn’t advertise his personal email address, which is hardly surprising, but there’s a form you can use here:

http://www.pm.gov.au/email.cfm

Alexander Downer can be reached at:

a.downer.mp@aph.gov.au

Phillip Ruddock’s another cagey sod that won’t publish his email address, but once again, there’s a form here:

http://www.ruddockmp.com.au/contact.asp

To keep them honest, we’ll throw in a couple my favs from the other side as well.

Kevin Rudd:

Kevin.Rudd.MP@aph.gov.au

Julia Gillard:

Julia.Gillard.MP@aph.gov.a

Robert McClelland – Shadow Foreign Minister

R.McClelland.MP@aph.gov.au

Kevin Thomson – Attorney General, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business

Kelvin.Thomson.MP@aph.gov.au

8:08 PM - 23/1/2007 - post comment

Kennett

I think he talks a lot more sense now than he ever did. Except in a certain mobile phone conversation that was taped. ;o)

Howard has been looking at the polls, and is now starting to talk as though he shows some concern for Hicks being held for five years without charge. Yeah, sure...

snowy - 8:30 PM - 23/1/2007

Re: Kennett

Can't agree more Snowy, but nigger and better personalities have suffered from the ol' recorded mobile conversation syndrome and survived. One thing you can say about Jeff is that he's resilient...

As to Johnny and Hicks, I guess time will tell, but it really is about time we told the yanks that as far as Hicksy is concerned they can go whistle Dixie. They should be pretty good at it, they invented it after all

plonka - 8:43 PM - 23/1/2007

Another feather in his cap

If young Jeffery had been as open when he was Premier we wouldn't have flicked him out.

He makes much more sense these days. One thing I did appreciate from when he was Premier. Victoria owed the Feds quite a bit of cash and Jeffery paid it back to Keating thus keeping Paul in the black. Little Johnnie tried to talk him into delaying the pay back but Jeff told him it was Victoria First.

I think that shows why they don't hit it off. Jeff is the Action Man, Howard the ditherer. Global Warming would benefit from Jeff long before Howard can drag his sorry arse towards a solution.

petermcc - 8:47 PM - 23/1/2007

Hear, hear...

Seems that Jeff is more popular now than he ever was when he was in power.

I think there probably are many issues that he could lend an intelligent voice to, but this issue with Hicksy, well I just think it's time we started to push a bit....

plonka - 9:01 PM - 23/1/2007

toothless tiger

Good old Johnny Howard the toothless tiger,make up your mind by mid feb about Hicks or else!!!!!!!. Or else WHAT, thats the question.At least now he has only a few weeks instead of 5 years. Yes Jeff Kennet makes more sense now than when he was our premier. Maybe his involvement with mental depression has made him see the real world instead of being in La La land, which some politicians still live there. Hope Jeff can ruffle a few feathers amongst our pigeon head politicians.
,

effemm - 12:08 PM - 24/1/2007

The deadline

Time for my traditional cynicism here. Isn’t that gutsy timetable the one the US offered? Apparently Howard is happy with the Show Trial conditions. No wonder he got out of Law. Probably didn’t understand it.

petermcc - 4:35 PM - 24/1/2007

Toothless

Thanks for the comment effem and welcome to blognow...:)

Personally, I think we can probably leave the "Tiger" out and just leave it at "toothless", more's the pity.

Jeff's doing well and will probably ruffle some feathers with his comments, but let's not leave it to him alone.

Edited by plonka on 24/1/2007 at 1:52 AM

plonka - 6:50 PM - 24/1/2007

Appreciated...:)

Your cynicism is appreciated Pete...:) Yes, it is GWB's timetable and GWB's rules. It just shows that Johnny's really not doing anything other than pander to the yanks and probably never will!

Time has come people, to get vocal. That's all I can say.

plonka - 7:02 PM - 24/1/2007

Hicks Kennett et al

Kennett has been one of the best spokesmen for a particular illness charity in Australia for some time. He's actually in a great position to see that Hicks could be really, REALLY suffering unnecessarily.

The federal government's position on Hicks is an international disgrace. I'm getting on the case and emailing the bejesus out of these guys, but they simply will not listen. Where's a by-election when you need one?

dikkii - 6:52 PM - 28/1/2007

Feedback

Onya Dikkii! You never know though. One email may be all it takes, the little bit of extra pressure required to make one of them say "Enough is enough. Let's bring our boy home". Of course, considering how far up GWB's backside Johnny is, it'll probably have to come from the opposition, which is a very sad state of affairs.

plonka - 7:21 PM - 28/1/2007