Mission & Justice

Paul Daley; 29/6/08

There’s a weary saying among some top brass at Australia’s Defence headquarters at Canberra’s Russell Hill: “Defence ministers come and go. But we are here to stay.” What they actually mean is: “Defence ministers think they run us. But we run them.” … Fast forward and enter Joel Fitzgibbon, a no-bullshit former auto-electrician from Cessnock in country NSW. … Soon after being sworn in as Defence Minister, Fitzgibbon dressed down one stunned service chief when answers he demanded about the deaths of personnel were not forthcoming. The same (now former) chief got another serve when a multibillion-dollar procurement went off the rails and he couldn’t be contacted. He was on the golf course. His mobile wasn’t. Then, just before Christmas in a closed-door meeting of NATO defence ministers in the shadows of Edinburgh Castle, Fitzgibbon let fly at the organisation’s lack of coherence on Afghanistan.

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Editorial; 16/6/08

The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is making her sixth trip this year to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories in a bid to revive - or more accurately pretend to revive - peace talks. Having been asked about the Jewish state’s latest announcement of building and expanding some of its illegal colonies on occupied land, Rice referred to it as a “problem”. Could she not have been more blunt and called Israel’s actions illegal? Even though the rest of the world has long agreed that any construction or expansion of Israeli colonies on Palestinian land is illegal, Israel has managed not only to secure American oversight but also the US’ overall support, except perhaps for former president George Bush Sr, on this issue.

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Ashleigh Wilson; 8/5/08

A Sydney councillor has criticised a playground sculpture for featuring an extract from Paul Keating’s Redfern speech, claiming the words were a “real guilt trip” to non-indigenous Australians who had already apologised to the Stolen Generations. Shayne Mallard, a Liberal member of the Sydney City Council, last night said the former prime minister’s message was inappropriate for a children’s playground. “This is political correctness going mad when you put this in the playground,” Mr Mallard said. “What happened to the age of innocence?” The sculpture, by indigenous artist Fiona Foley, includes several lines from Mr Keating’s acclaimed speech in the Sydney suburb of Redfern in 1992.

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Paul Toohey; 8/5/08

Northern Territory Deputy Chief Minister Marion Scrymgour has reached across the top of Australia to give a sharp touch-up to the man she called “Saint Noel” and a “latter-day Martin Luther” - better known as Cape York Institute’s Noel Pearson. In a speech to parliament in Darwin, Ms Scrymgour doubted north Queensland’s Mr Pearson was any kind of visionary and described his views as “unremarkable”. She hit bombastic stride by likening the challenges of her Government to those faced by Franklin Delano Roosevelt when he entered the White House in the Great Depression.

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Editorial; 28/4/08

Aborigines are part of the urban underclass  InN an exclusive post-2020 Summit interview with The Australian last week, Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin had her priorities right. While willing to consider calls for a treaty between black and white Australia, the Rudd Government’s “No1 focus” will remain closing the 17-year gap between indigenous and non-indigenous life expectancy. Breaching the large gap in education standards between black and white Australia and reducing indigenous childhood mortality are top priorities. We applaud her good sense. On the question of a treaty, two of the nation’s most credible Aboriginal leaders were even more blunt. Cape York leader Noel Pearson and Arnhem Land powerbroker Galarrwuy Yunupingu branded the treaty push as a political “dead horse”. Instead, they want their fellow indigenous leaders to embrace the mainstream push towards constitutional recognition of Aboriginal people. But the symbolic importance of a constitutional preamble, they warned, should not come at the expense of practical measures to combat endemic Aboriginal disadvantage. Born of long experience and frustration, this is sage advice.

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Michael Bachelard; 10/2/08

The Prime Minister, John Howard, has warned his MPs not to accept help from the Exclusive Brethren, and Kevin Rudd has refused their requests to meet him. Revelations of the religious sect’s covert political activism, the funding of their schools and attempts to influence the Family Court have made the Brethren political poison. Sources have said that the Mr Howard’s message filtered out via NSW Senator Bill Heffernan that MPs were not to accept help or donations from the group, as public suspicion of their influence on politics grows. Neither Mr Howard nor Senator Heffernan responded to queries yesterday.

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