
Issue No 119		16 November 2001

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

Tool Shed

Third Term Tool

John Howard maintains his hold on the Tool Shed for a third term after one of the most destructive campaigns in living memory.

It wasn't enough for Howard to drive a wedge through the Australian psyche in a bid to get reelected. There he was on Saturday night, claiming victory with his trademark whine, pumping both fists in the 'double wank' he has made famous and calling for national unity!

Twenty-four hours later he was trying to spin the whole election as a win on merits, denying his Fortress Australia policy had been the substantial factor in his win. For a man who has never been shy of accusing opponents to rewrite history, this was a remarkable piece of revisionism.

The full-page newspaper advertisements the Liberals ran on election eve with the 36 point type screaming "we decide who comes into this country and the circumstance they come in" will long be remembered as a national disgrace. The manipulation of public attitudes toward desperate Afghanis made the Petrov Affair seem like a soft photo op.

Yep, Little Johnnie's ships came in, but it's a vessel that will soon be taking water. In his desperate bid for power he's not only made Australia an international pariah, he's fractured relations with our nearest neighbour and brought the modern day equivalent of feudalism to the Pacific - which is noiw a series of island states taking our money to house our refugees while waiting to be swamped by rising water levels caused by the greenhouse crisis that Howard refuses to address by signing the Kyoto protocol.

But if there's international damage - it shrinks in comparison with the harm Howard has caused our national interest. For a nation reliant on immigration, Howard has killed - perhaps for all time - the consensus that our leaders will make the tough decisions to expand our population base. As Malcolm Fraser observed so eloquently this week there would have been no post-war immigration if the question had been taken to a popular vote, ditto south-east Asian immigration in the 70s. But we have strengthened and diversified by our so-called 'elites' forming a bipartisan view that we needed to grow to survive.

Now Howard has adopted the One Nation agenda on immigration, it's difficult to see how he will be able to lead our nation into the new century with any sort of vision. But that's never been where Howard wants to take us. He's nirvana is the 1950s, a nice cuppa, a photo of the Queen on the mantelpiece and the blackfellas kept out in the back paddocks.. As this Tool takes up three more years on the public purse, it will be left to Labor - as always - to build a new vision that cuts through the fear and loathing that Howard has unleashed to find a way forward for the nation.

For Howard, his enduring legacy will be to have lower the standard of political discourse in this country. Rejecting the notion that leaders should take their people to somewhere better, he opted to drive them down for his own calculate political advantage. In years to come, this will be remembered as the Howard Doctrine.

A Ship of Tools

Of course, Howard is but the head of a team of Tools who were quaffing the bubbly on Saturday night. Amongst them are:

- Daddy's Boy Larry Anthony, holding onto Richmond without leaving the old man's side.

- Sophie Panopolous - the excreble anti-Republic campaigner who ran big on the "don't trust a pollie" ticket last year. Now she is one and we won't.

- PM-designate Peter Costello, who's election-night high-jinx ripped off his mask as a modest politician to expose a two-pot screamer.

- The Mad Monk, who blamed the CFMEU personally for having to get out on the streets of Mosman and actually work his electorate.

- And Peter Reith- who abandoned ship when things looked rough and now probably realizes he could have hung around and had a run at the top job.

So, regrettably, the ship of tools continues to float, against all justice and reason - as long as it does the Tool Shed will be there, exposing their hypocrisy,

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Issue 119 contents

Interview: Out of the Rubble
Michael Costa argues that Saturday's election result could have been much, much worse.

Unions: Sixty-Forty Are Good Odds!
John Robertson argues that while there may be many problems with the ALP, union power is not one of them.

Politics: Wrong Way, Go Back
Labor's failure in the federal election is the result of more than bad luck. It is the result of a shift to populism that has left the Party bereft of core principles.

Campaign Diary: Week Five: All Washed Up
If you can stand it, relive the fatefull final week of a most remarkable election campaign.

International: Trade Piracy Unmasked
As the trade barons met in Qatar to chart out their agenda, George Monbiot looks at the machinations behind the scenes.

Factions: The Party's Over
Chris Christodoulou renews his call for a breakdown of the factional system to bring new life into the ALP

History: The Fall-Out
Neale Towart looks back to Labor's reaction to its loss in the 1954 'Petrov election' and finds warnings for today's post mortem.

Media: Elite Defeat
Rowan Cahill looks at the intellectual paucity in the PM's ongoing attacks on 'elite opinion'.

Satire: Crean 'Listens To Australian People': Will Sink Refugee Boats
Simon Crean, the most likely candidate to replace Kim Beazley as Labor's leader, says he will take heed of the message sent to the ALP by Australian voters at the Federal Election.

» Unions Call for Border Review

» Compo Fire Reignites as Bill Hits Deck

» Workers Unite Over Corporate Power

» Day Three: Telstra Privatisation Begins

» Primus Deal Marks New Era in Telcos

» Qantas Staff Cuts Condemned

» Bank Workers Seek Proxies for AGMs

» Blokes Stand Up For The Ladies

» Landmark Community Services Win

» Anger at Sartor's Power Grab

» Consumer Boycott Call for Sugar Co-op

» Apprentices Win Parity with Uni Students

» Competition for Nurses Hots Up

» CFMEU Launches Bunny Club

» ICFTU Reveals 250 Companies in Burma

» Activists Notebook

» STOP PRESS: No Democracy at Telstra AGM