
Issue No 86		02 March 2001

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

Tool Shed

Ruddock: Once Was Wet

This week we welcome a modern day political tragedy into the Tool Shed: Phillip Ruddock, a man who once had a heart but had to trade it in for a portfolio in the most heartless government of all.

The man responsible for placing illegal immigrants in privately-run concentration camps, while turning a blind eye to the systematic exploitation of foreigners on working visas, is himself a tortured soul. You see, Ruddock was once a 'Wet', the dodo bird of conservative politics, a group who thought Liberal meant tolerance, openness, libertarianism. These strange creatures thrived for a time, until the big-game hunters of Ugly Right cut a swathe through their numbers.

Ruddock was the last Wet standing as colleagues Chris Puplick, Ian McPhee and Fred Chaeny fell by the wayside as the Bishops and Abbotts and other canons of the Howard Church spread their Scriptures of Wedge Politics across the party in the late eighties. In fact, at the height of Howard's racial troubles as Opposition Leader, it was Ruddock who crossed the floor on immigration. A decade on, it has been Ruddock's fate to preside over some of the more odious elements of the Howard Doctrine with the duel jewels of immigration and reconciliation in his Ministerial Crown.

Only a Wet would know the personal turmoil that would come with a request from Amnesty International to stop wearing their badge in public. Once an idealist, Ruddock now carries the sickly palour of a man who knows his soul has been sold, with more than a passing resemblance to Montogomery Burns, the hollow man of Matt Groenig's Springfield.

Ruddock has mastered the shrug of the shoulders whenever questioned about his handling of the disgrace that is Australia's treatment of refugees. Private prison officers keeping detainees locked in sweltering dessert heat? Shrug. Young children being exposed to sexual assault through the inappropriate housing of detainess? Shrug. Detainees rooms ransacked by heavy-handed prison guards? Shrug. A modicum of sensitivity for the plight of people forced to take such outrageous risks to start a new life? Shrug. It's as if the Ruddock was a specator rather than the man with whom the buck stops.

With reconciliation he's proven to be a flag-bearer for Howard's poisoned obstinance - totally unaware of his own privileged place in the world. Only last week, he was visiting the central Australian community of Yuendemu, telling the locals they should be grateful for the damn nearby - "never had a dam like that when I was growing up', he intones, oblivious to the fact that it is a cesspit unsuitable for either swimming or drinking. Got to love that Practical Reconciliation.

And now this week Ruddock has barged into the Tool Shed as the plight of the Indian temple workers came to light with proof that Ruddock's Department has done nothing to ensure that minimum wages and conditions are paid. In fact, it has emerged that there has not been a solitary prosecution against an employer, despite evidence of serial under-payment of foreigners on working visas. During thr week, Ruddock has slipped and slithered, claiming it was not his responsibility, even when his own officers conceded it was. This is an issue that will continue to torture this tortured soul until the government puts in place a process of scrutiny for working visas.

One of the things that made the Wets bearable was their understanding that not all people had the same privileges as they did. Sure, they were generally from the upper -middle classes, but the Wets weren't your average Spivs. They actually felt a responsibility to use their positions of power and influence in a constructive way. In taking a position in Howard's Government Ruddock could not have moved further from his original values and beliefs. He is now a tool of division whose net contribution is a negative one. In fact, it's simpler than that, he's just a Tool.

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Issue 86 contents

Interview: Master of Opposition
Over the past five years, John Faulkner has turned the Senates Estimates structure into his own House of Pain. He explains the art of Opposition.

Politics: Beazley the Bridge Builder?
As the Howard Government flounders, Brett Evans looks at the challenges Kim Beazley faces as his hour of destiny approaches.

Unions: Lashing & Loathing at Patricks
Three years since one of the Howard Government�s most infamous episodes, the Waterfront War, Zoe Reynolds discovers how casuals are now doing the doing the dirty work on the docks.

Legal: Workers Without Rights
Mark Morey outlines the legal status and (lack of) rights for foreigners in Australia on working visas.

International: Dispatch from the Dispossessed
Mahendra Chaudhry, Leader of the People's Coalition and the Fiji Labour Party comments on this week�s court decision.

Economics: Business Power and Mobility
The US election season makes it patently clear how Big Business is able to transform its financial resources into political power via campaigncontributions.

History: The Spoilers and the Split
The Movement, Groupers, the DLP and The Doc. All have been blamed in various ways for the ALP split in the 1950s, ensuring the ALP was kept out of federal government until 1972. Can One Nation return the favour?

Review: The New Hard Politics
Dennis Glover argues that policy has taken over from spin as the political battleground of the new century.

Satire: Bradman Latest: Family In Dramatic Court Action
The family of the late Sir Donald Bradman yesterday sought a restraining order against Prime Minister John Howard after it became apparent that he wants to be involved in every single detail of the The Don's funeral.

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