Happy Days are Here Again

Posted at 12:00 AM, Wednesday, February 20, 2008

These are heady days in Australia. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has scored a record 70% approval rating from the Australian people and is showing every indication that this is a job he was born to do. (Brendan Nelson, leader of the opposition Liberal party, has a 9% approval rating and may wish to reconsider his career options.) It is remarkable how in just a few months in office PM Rudd has really turned around the general mood in the country through several dramatic and sometimes symbolic gestures. This government's very first action was to ratify the Kyoto Treaty on Global Warming, leaving the United States standing alone as the one western nation that hasn't signed it. Rudd then announced his intention to pull Australia's 550 soldiers out of Iraq. In between announcements, he's been visiting schools, chatting up elderly people, and generally sending all kinds of genial messages to the public.

By far the most powerful action of the Rudd government so far was purely symbolic, but what a symbol! Last Wednesday, February 13, Kevin Rudd stood in the Parliament House, surrounded by current members of parliament, a gallery full of Aboriginal leaders, and just about every living former prime minister (John Howard decided to stay in Sydney and go for a walk instead). He read a brief apology to indigenous Australians for the decades of wrongs perpetrated against them. In particular, he apologized for the sixty-year policy of removing Aboriginal children from their homes without their parents permission and sending them off to be brought up in missions or in white foster homes. Following the formal apology, PM Rudd then gave a short speech in which he promised to follow up his actions with words--specifically a plan to make high-quality preschool available to all indigenous children within the next several years. He received a standing ovation for his remarks, and tears flowed freely both in the parliament chamber and among the thousands of people who had gathered outside and in numerous squares around the country.

Although at least a couple of people have told me that they personally didn't approve of the apology, in general the public reaction has been hugely positive. I bought "The Australian" the next day, with it's enormous headline "We are Sorry" and a full quarter of the newspaper devoted to this one story. People have been referring back to the event ever since, generally with a sense of pride. Bobby listened to veteran leftist broadcaster Phillip Adams on his daily radio show "Late Night Live" and noted that for once Adams didn't sound in the least bit cynical. Indeed, in his Saturday column, Adams admitted that he been wrong to say repeatedly that Kevin Rudd was essentially a clone of John Howard. I'd love to share that witty and self-mocking article with you, but the link is not yet up on "The Australian" website.

John Howard must be given a little bit of credit for the buoyancy of the country. Whatever you have to say about his policies, Howard managed the budget magnificently, and as a result the Rudd government has inherited a budget surplus and the possibility to spend a bit more on social programs. (I imagine Mr. Howard sitting at home and wondering to himself how he could possibly have managed to have been turned out of office--and even out of his own parliamentary seat!--when he did such a good job balancing the budget.) Mr. Rudd faces challenges as well. Inflation is on the rise, and the federal reserve has been raising interest rates at an alarming rate. Since many mortgages are tied to the official interest rate, folks are seeing their savings depleted and are feeling the pinch, even in this booming economy. The drought continues to drive prices up--milk and cheese have gone up at least 20% as far as I can tell, and lately the north of the country has been plagued with line after line of very heavy rainstorms that have put considerable pressure on disaster relief services. But all in all, there is a hopeful and even happy mood in the country. I can only wish for the same for the United States in the not-too-distant future!