
Issue No 88		16 March 2001

LaborNET	Ask Neale	Tool of the Week

Tool Shed

Howard’s End?

As his popularity plummets faster than the Aussie dollar, we welcome the Prime Minister back to the Tool Shed to spend the eve of his political Waterloo in familiar surrounds.

The crisis the Howard Government now faces is entirely of its own making. The Ryan by-election is an indulgence Howard accorded his former Defence Minister at a time when he thought he had Labor on the ropes, particularly in Queensland. That was three months ago. Remember? The ALP Rorts show trial was in full swing and the movement was holding its breath about how far the mud would be flung. What a different a few state election losses and a haemorraging economy makes.

Today, the inconceivable has become the inevitable. Labor will win the Ryan by-election and, like the Bass by-election in 1975 and the Canberra landslide in 199, this will be the beginning of the end for the government. It's a strange phenomenon of Australian politics: the electorate is conservative, not prone to changing government. But when they do, the swing is often brutal.

The accepted wisdom has Howard the victim of both his own policy decisions - the GST in particular - and events outside his immediate control - the price of petrol, the American economic slowdown. It also sees the former as extenuating the effect of the latter, Howard's GST has put the brakes on economic activity and increased pressure, particularly on small business.

Howard has compounded by his indecision under pressure, playing the politics of panic as his attempted to stop the slide in public support. This has only been taken as the weakness it is, ending for all time any strategy to target Kim Beazley's big heart. Even under pressure this week, Howard was taking solace in his ascendancy over Beazley as preferred PM - until those numbers went pear-shaped a few days later. Now there is only the reality of a government going out side-ways, with support rivaling that of another celebrated Liberal nonentity, Billy McMahon.

But his problems are far, far deeper than a few policy back-flips. As we argued a few weeks ago, Howard's grand contribution has been the narrowing of the political agenda. Howard has not grown into the job, the national political debate has shrunk to accommodate him. His cynical use of wedge politics has left a nation divided along new fault- lines - a sullen self-interested majority and increasingly large groups of marginalized minorities.

Meanwhile, instead of inspiring his nation, Howard has sucked all he can out of it, stalking achievers in sports and the arts like a pin-striped groupie. But he's finding it increasingly difficult to find a public face to leach off. Even The Don has pulled up stumps.

With the end nigh, it's worth looking at the Howard legacy in its entirety. His crimes against the Antipodes include, but are not limited to:

- tertiary education returned to the rich, who can buy their heirs into any degree

- increased gaps between rich and poor, with the near disappearance of the comfortable middle classes

- a health system where your level of care is more dictated by your wealth than at any time in the past 30 years.

- a global environmental standing that has plummeted from world leader to global dunce.

- a public debate dominated by two media dynasties, whose self-interest has stifled the development of new and exciting industries.

- a nation unable to reconcile with its indigenous citizens, leaving a running historical sore, while too timid to assert its own Republican independence.

Some legacy, huh? Good to know that in the years to come Howard will have the chance to look back on his life in politics and ponder his contribution to the nation. Should be a relatively short experience.

Throughout his reign, Howard has been guided soley by the polls, running the lines that his pollsters tell him the punters wanted to here. It's hardly creative stuff, but it worked for a time. But now the people are sending him a message that it's hard to see him repeating so faithfully. If he did, we'd see Howard, capped tooth grimace, facing the cameras with that signature stilted monotone delivering the following message. "I am a Tool. I am going to lock myself in the Shed. I shan't be bothering you again. Goodbye".

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Issue 88 contents

Interview: Labor Law
Shadow Attorney General Robert McClelland outlines his plans for workers entitlements, legal aid and a Bill of Rights

Unions: Poetic Justice
The ACTU kicked off its 2001 Living Wage campaign this week with a new shock tactic: poetry.

Technology: Big Brother’s Legacy
Organisations with restrictive staff email polices risk locking themselves in the Industrial Age by treating their staff as units to be monitored.

Corporate: Scumbags Exposed
On the eve of the inaugural Corporate Scumbags Tour, we look at the worst of the worst from the Top End of Town.

International: Playing Away
Pat Ranald looks at a proposal to hold Australian companies to basic standards when they invest in developing countries.

Environment: Nuclear Titanics
The Maritime Union has joined Greenpeace in a campaign to stop our seas becoming a nuclear highway.

History: Out of the Bog
Neale Towart looks at the life of big Jim Larkin, one of the heroes of an Irish trade union movement that continues to thrive.

Politics: Westie’s Macquarie Street Alert
The Workers MLC, Ian West, provides the first in a series of regular rundowns on the upcoming Parliamentary session

Review: The Next American Century?
How will the United States maintain its global power in an era when the very notion of the nation-state is under challenge?

Satire: Dollar Crashes Through Psychological 0.00c Barrier
The bedevilled Australian dollar dropped below the crucial 0.00c barrier losing its battle to avoid the humiliation of being worth less than the commemorative Bradman coins distributed by the Sunday Telegraph last weekend.

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