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Issue No. 146 | 26 July 2002 |
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Crean-ite Is Not A Dirty Word
Interview: Trans Tasman Cole-Watch: The Full Story Unions: The Right To A Life Bad Boss: Phoenix Rising Politics: The Virtuous State International: The Champions History: Mandatory Mums Corporate: Network Governance Review: Navigating The Doublespeak Satire: Hector The Galah Found Hiding Poetry: Eight Days a Week
The Soapbox The Locker Room Postcard Week in Review Bosswatch
 No Need To Import IT WorkersKangaroo Court Horrifies ReaderSite Reunites Redundant WorkersCarr Off CourseThe Banners of GreedJoin The PartyShocks and Stares
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Week in Review Save the Last Dance ...By Jim Marr
..................... Labor and the Greens wipe the floor with the Libs and Democrats in a massive Tasmanian endorsement of centre-left politics. Labor grabs 15 seats in the 25-seat Hobart legislature as the Greens lift their party vote to a record 18 percent, and the Liberals and Democrats shrink to rump proportions. Is there a lesson in this for Labor's federal prospects, the commentators and party navel gazers wish to know? Returned Tasmanian Premier, Jim Bacon, thinks there is and it has to do with policy, rather than endless concentration on internal mechanisms. Bacon, of course, rose to prominence in Tasmania as an organiser, not just for any union, but the much-criticised BLF and went on to head up the local Labor Council which probably says it all about the current federal embarrassment with trade union links. .................... Meanwhile, more good news for Labor, as the Democrats wipe its woes off the front pages with a world class leadership stink. They're all at, hoeing into Natasha, or Meg, depending on personal allegiances. Senators Murray and Bartlett, head up the respective factions in style. Murray blasts current leader Natasha Stott Despoja for having "wrongly positioned" the party, and claims that treatment of her predecessor Meg, GST, Lees is "grotesque". Murray returns serve, with interest, accusing him of being, and we quote: "disgracefully gutless", "pathetic", "politically stupid" and "treacherous". Even Mark Latham would struggle to dish dirt at that rate of knots. The normally reticent Sydney Morning Herald is moved to descibe the Democrat party room, in a headline, as a "bitter brawling bunch of cannibals". ........................ Just when Aussie Labor is thinking of sticking its chest out, those pesky brothers and sisters across the Tasman remind them of where they might have been if they had paid a bit more attention to policy last year. Helen Clark rides high in opinion polls leading up the NZ general election although, admittedly, not quite as high as in recent weeks. Still, NZ commentators say the only question to be determined is whether her party rules alone for another three years or has to take on a coalition partner, under New Zealand's ultra-democratic system of proportional representation. Clark, long identified with the Labour Left, is credited with rolling back the type of right-wing economic and industrial agenda being followed by the Howard Government, to mainstream endorsement. ........................... Another potential embarrassment for Aussies of a progressive bent comes when the Clark Government, just days out from the poll, confirms it will neither support US military action against Iraq, nor re-work the anti-nuclear stance that has seen it written out of the Angus script for the best part of two decades. While John Howard continues to tongue the nether regions of the US President, NZ Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff declares "the days when New Zealand was an echo of London and Washington are over" "New Zealand will not send forces into Iraq unless there is clear evidence of links between the regime and terrorism," Goff says. "Despite the best intelligence work, no link has been drawn." ................................ To be fair, one Australian commentator made the valid point that a major difference between New Zealand and Australia, on international matters, lay in the fact that New Zealand "simply, is not next to Indonesia". However, the Kiws are not the only ones barring up about George Bush's apparent view that a bodgeyed US vote actually made him King of the World. Turkey, long a close ally of Washington, continues to balk about the use of its territory for strikes against Iraq, while other European leaders are even more hostile to the prospect. Even pro-American leaders like Britain's Tony Blair and German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fisher, are openly critical of deepening US unilateralism, not least over the Middle East and efforts to scupper the World Criminal Court. .................................. Further weight is given to the doubters by a New York Times investigation that reveals the US air campaign, in Afghanistan alone, has killed hundreds of innocent civilians. Afghan leaders hint that if what Americans refer to as "collateral damage" continues they may impose restrictions on military activities. .................................. Seemingly, having learned four fifths of not a lot, the Bush administration withdraws funding for the UN Population Fund. Although an official investigation clears the UN Agency of support for China's one-child policy, involving forced sterilisations and abortions, it is the peg on which the US hangs its hat. The UN agency estimates that the loss of 13 percent of its annual budget will cost the lives of "up to 80,000" poor women and children. On current outcomes, Fund executive director, Thoraya Obaid, estimates it will cost 4700 maternal deaths and and 77,000 child deaths. She says the funding could have prevented two million unwanted pregnancies and nearly 800,000 induced abortions. The UN Population Funds runs programs in 142 countries. The US is the only country ever to deny it money for non-budgetary reasons. .................................... Finally, Australia lines up with China Cuba, Egypt, Japan, Libya, Nigeria and Sudan in striking another blow against international agreements. Perhaps, more relevantly, the US abstained on the vote. The United Nations Draft Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture was adopted by a large majority at the UN ECOSOC in New York. Early reports indicated that all European states support the UN's protocol on torture, which would establish an international system of inspections of institutions such as police stations and prisons
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