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| quote: | Howard's Assault on Democracy (and Why We Should Care)
5:35pm Wednesday, Oct 24
The website, Howard Facts, provides the truth about Work Choices, Climate Change, Nuclear Reactors, Iraq, and Interest Rates.
John Howard says that "working families have never been better off". Well, this website shows just how hopelessly out of touch he has become...
I think the really scary stuff hasn't even been mentioned on that website. Howard has systematically changed the face of Australian politics very slowly over a decade (like slowly boiling a frog in a pot) in the following ways:
* Scientific research now finds itself without funding for areas that might go in contrary to the government's own ideas - especially in the areas of alternative energy.
* Non-government organisations have experienced fund cuts if they don't comply with Howard's own ideals, or management fired and changed out for Liberal-friendlies.
* Many government agencies and public offices have been augmented or disassembled so that decision-making, along with the enforcement of policy, is re-routed through the Howard office. Nothing happens without Howard's say-so. A culture of intimidation and fear exists where people are unable to question or make a stand for anything without fear of losing their funding or their jobs.
An example of this is the disbanding of Unions and the subsequent Work Choices legislation where the employee no longer has a voice. A flow-on from this move is another example that went under the radar: the complete demolishing of the Office of Workplace Services and the Office of the Employment Advocate, replaced by the Workplace Ombudsman and the Workplace Authority respectively.
Most people would see this as a simple name change. However, whereas before they were independent Government-funded agencies designed to stand up for employers and employees in regards to wage and conditions disputes, there are now two new agencies in their place, completely owned and operated by the Howard Government coinciding with the WorkChoices roll-out. One can easily guess the effect this has on government accountability and the so-called "fair go" for Australian workers.
* Freedom of speech has been limited by Howard's use of "attack dogs" - MP's whose purpose is to attack the reputation of opposing MP's or even citizens like journalists, in order to counter their arguments - often resulting in reputations and careers being destroyed.
* Howard has not, for a long time, held Q&A times with journalists but rather has confined his contact with them to highly structured announce-and-run press meetings, or to morning talk-back radio with Liberal-friendies where he can control the situation. Further, it is often a government spokesperson who does the announcing and running. Journalists are having to rely more and more on press releases for their information, without the opportunity to question or probe for answers. Ask anyone who has worked for more than 10 years in the parliamentary press gallery and they will tell you how much of an exercise in futility it has become.
* Government-funded institutions such as museums have been ordered to change their exhibits to fall in line with Howard's preferred 'sanitised' portrayal of Australian history. HISTORICAL EVENTS in Australia's checkered past have been omitted from education curriculum, such as:
o the systematic culling of Aborigines by white settlers
o our first Prime Minister's (Sir Edmund Barton) blatant racism towards Asians ('White Australia' policy)
o the slave trade (our cane farming industry was built on the backs of South Pacific Islanders who had been torn from their homes)
o the Stolen Generation
Instead we're left with stories about Burke and Wills having to eat raw Koala when they ran out of food and their matches were wet. Cute, but not that crucial to understanding our path to where we are today. The only way we can avoid making the same mistakes over and over and therefore forge a modern nation is by keeping past mistakes in recent memory.
* The Senate is now, for the first time in Australian history, a Liberal majority. That means they can control which bills get passed and which don't. In recent years they have even done away with the initial approval process by a review board and have moved bills straight to the Senate for passing. A Liberal majority Senate in this political environment will of course pass legislation that agrees with the Howard agenda and block those which don't. This is a DIRECT AFFRONT to the Democratic System.
The above points are just some of the many checks and balances built into Democracy to make governments accountable for their actions - or in other words, to "keep the bastards honest". Without these the Opposition Government is left to be the lone voice of dissent against Howard, and they have to work HARDER to do it without support from all quarters.
These attacks on Democracy are largely noticed only by nervous political commentators and some journalists, while Jim and Jan Citizen from Wedgeville really only care about Education, Health and Jobs and wether or not they can get on the internet where they live. So naturally, the election is going to be ALL about Education, Health, Workchoices and Broadband in regional areas, followed in distant second by the Troops in Iraq, Global Warming, and Nuclear Energy.
The reason more people aren't as absolutely horrified by the state of Australian politics is that they simply don't know and don't understand and therefore don't CARE to know the truth. They want to hear the two sides talk about stuff they relate to.
Unfortunately this election is not just about those issues, although those issues are the very aspects of Australian life that are affected by a bastardised Democracy at the end of the day. Without a proper Democracy the Australian people are at the mercy of the government.
They have had NO choice in "WorkChoices".
NO choice in the GST back in the 90's.
NO choice regarding treatment of Asylum Seekers.
NO choice on wether or not to go to war.
NO choice on Aboriginal Reconciliation or the "Intervention".
NO choice on wether we want to support the Kyoto Agreement and fall into line with the rest of Planet Earth on Environmental issues.
Howard has systematically destroyed and reconfigured the agencies, organisations and government departments that have power to question policy-making and has silenced critics in the public sector, essentially killing public discussion and involvement in the shaping of the country. The result is of course (and was always intended to be) complete power. This, my friends, is called a Dictatorship.
The worst part is that, as we all know, Howard is directly influenced by American policy on Global issues through his close relationship with President George W Bush, arguably the most unpopular President in United States history.
Please vote Labor on November 24 to bring balance and sense back to the Australian way. |
(source)
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Jose Amnesia - The Eternal (Pulser Remix) / Chicane - Saltwater / Photon Project - Illumination / Gouryella - Tenshi / Altitude - Altitude (SHOKK Remix) / Rank 1 - Airwave / The Thrillseekers - Synaesthesia (En Motion Mix)
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