ALL CHICKENS ARE ON THE ROOST: THE MAN OF SHAME HAS CONCEDED DEFEAT

John Howard's chickens have finally come home to roost

This morning a tune keeps coming into my mind. I hum it away but the words are a little different from the original. The tune is "After the Ball" and I apologise to Charles K Harris for the interference with his lyrics:

After the election’s over, after the votes are in,
After the worker’s leaving, after the poster’s gone,
Many a heart’s rejoicing, if you could read them all—
Many the hopes that have heightened after it all.

And here is why:

We don't know yet if John Howard has been defeated in his seat of Bennelong by Maxine McKew. But it appears more than likely. John Howard sought to make it into the history books - by longevity as Australian Prime Minister. He would have like to equalled or surpassed the long period of office of Sir Robert Menzies. He failed. He is second only to Menzies. But he will make it into the record books for another reason which he almost surely did not ever imagine - he would be kicked out by the voters of Bennelong. John Howard did not seek this record - but he will become only the second Prime Minister in Australian history to be voted out of his own seat.

As Miss Eagle's campaign against John Howard's retirement until the chickens come home to roost has shown, John Howard has meted such inhumanity out to so many people that his actions could not go unaddressed by the electorate. This has happened. The chickens have roosted. They are in the henhouse. They sit on their perch - and John Howard has been knocked off his.

John Howard was the Prime Minister for Injustice. The Minister for Injustice, Mal Brough - co-author with John Howard of the military intervention into Aboriginal life and land in the Northern Territory - has been kicked out of his seat of Longman. It is pleasing to know that the ALP has won the seat of Solomon in the Northern Territory. There are only two Federal seats in the sparsely populated NT - one was already held by Centralian stalwart Warren Snowdon for the ALP. Now the other seat has been snatched away by the ALP from the Coalition. The people of the Northern Territory have expressed their views on the military intervention at the ballot box.

Of course, a number of Liberals are in the safest of safe seats but because of their administration of injustice need to go. This raises the question of resignations and by-elections. In this category, Philip Ruddock tops the list. His horrific administration of Immigration followed by his deceptive and devious administration of the Attorney-General's portfolio has meant that he does not deserve membership in the Parliament of Australia - but the electorate of Berowra has decided to return him anyway. We look forward to his resignation from Parliament within the next twelve months.

The current incumbent in the Immigration portfolio is Kevin Andrews who has proved to have only lower-levels of competence and a complete intolerance of the heat in the political kitchen. His report card should read: Consider your future.

Another who needs to consider his future is Tony Abbott. If there is a particular hallmark in the character of Tony Abbott, it is his absolute high-level rudeness. If Tony Abbott is to continue in Parliament, graduation from a reputable charm school should be mandatory. Why should the Australian public have to witness his carry-ons?

And does Alexander Downer consider that he has a future in the Parliament? What heights of power and fame does he think he can now aspire to? Methinks, Alexander is an example of the Peter Principle. He has risen to his level of incompetence. Didn't know about the AWB corruption, Alexander? You must be incompetent then, Alexander. Otherwise, you must be telling porkies, eh?

So onto a new day...

We can't know or say what we are getting with Kevin 07 and his Krew.

We just believe that Howard & Co had to go.

We hope for a just, fair, equitable future for all.

And some of us are determined to keep Kevin and Krew to that.
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And - for those who might be interested in how it happened in Australian democracy yesterday - here it is

Miss Eagle did her stint at Upper Gully School.
Schools traditionally use Election Day as an opportunity for fundraising

Miss Eagle as Booth Captain was there at 5.30am setting up for Your Rights At Work. YRAW is unique in that it had no candidates of its own but it did have a voting ticket to distribute. Our organisers in La Trobe, Katie and Sam, had provided us with a huge amount of bunting and there was a huge amount of fence to take it. So YRAW won the Fence Competition!
Posters, posters all about!

Booth Workers:

The Greens; ALP, the Officer in Charge of the Polling Booth, Liberal; What Women Want; Liberal.

Within two hours, we had formed a jolly little community of civic minded people.

Election hostilities are put far away on the day.

Australia does not use computerised voting although there have recently been pilot programs for the visually impaired. We use the plain old fashioned method: pencil and paper and placing in a secure box for counting, under scrutiny of all political parties, at the close of voting. Australia does not have the big issues of electoral fraud one hears of in the U.S.A. If there are disputes arising from the polling or the counting, matters can be referred to the Court of Disputed Returns for decision.

On Election Night, there are parties - private, public, and political - so people can gather for drinks, food, and watching telecasts from the National Tally Room in Canberra. Last night, in the seat of La Trobe, Your Rights At Work and Kevin 07 people gathered in a small church hall in Tecoma and watched on the big screen - with more and more and more cheering as the night wore on. Miss Eagle was beyond applause. Euphoria would best describe her condition - sprinkled with a tear of great relief.

Howard conceding defeat - we were beginning to wonder if he every would!

THE DAY OF ROOSTING CHOOKS FOR THE MAN OF SHAME

I am up bright and early as you can see, dear Reader. Booth tables in the station wagon, basket packed with everything from blu-tac to wire cutters and bottles of water. To-day, the final small anonymous actions of myself and thousands of people like me are orchestrated to rid Australia of a shameful and shameless leader.

It seems that Tracee Hutchinson has been eavesdropping. At least, that is what it looks like. Go here to see what I mean. She says it so much better than I but with exactly the same sentiment.

God go with you to-day, dear Reader. Vote for justice remembering all those sad cases of littered humanity strewn in the path of John Howard. Vote against his self-aggrandising meanness which benefited his kind and saw him - our national leader - deserting the Prime Minister's residence in Canberra for the desire of every Sydney-sider, a harbour view. Remove him from the national stage, dear Reader. Remove him from our embarrassment as he cavorted the world stage with George W Bush, and cavorted on television in a tipsy state with the fascist, Silvio Belursconi. And tell him to take his un-Australian values with him.

PS: Go Maxine in Bennelong to make Howard only the second PM to lose his seat.

John Howard: two more sleeps to retirement!

Denis from The Nature of Robertson has a beautiful picture (doctored, of course) which illustrates John Howard's retirement. Do yourself a favour and have a look.

THE WEEK OF ROOSTING CHOOKS: Thursday

AUSTRALIA HAS LOST ITS MORAL COMPASS
by
Paul Keating

THE principal reason the public should take the opportunity to kill off the Howard Government has less to do with broken promises on interest rates — or even its draconian WorkChoices industrial laws — and everything to do with restoring a moral basis to our public life.
Without this, the nation has no standard to rely upon, no claim that can be believed, not even when the grave step of going to war is being considered. When truth is up for grabs, everything is up for grabs.

Cynicism and deceitfulness have been the defining characteristics of John Howard and his Government. They were brazen enough to oversee the corruption of a UN welfare program. And when they were found out, not one of them accepted ministerial responsibility. Not Downer, not Vaile and certainly not Howard. What they were doing was letting the cockies get their wheat sold through the AWB while turning a blind eye to the AWB's unscrupulous behaviour — illegally funding a regime Howard was arguing was so bad it had to be changed by force.
John Howard took us into the disastrous Gulf war on the back of two lies. One, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, capable of threatening the Middle East and Western Europe; the other, that Howard was judiciously weighing whether to commit Australian forces against an evolving situation. We now know he had committed our forces to the Americans all along.

If the Prime Minister cannot be believed, who in the system is to be believed?
When opposition leader in 1995, Howard told us he would restore trust in government, when at that time trust in government was not in question. He also told us he would make us more "relaxed and comfortable". Well, some relaxation and some comfort. These days, there are many parts of the world where Australians dare not go, something new for all of us.
But bad as all this is, how much worse was it for John Howard to begin the fracturing of his own community?

Think about his tacit endorsement of Hanson's racism during his first government, his WASP-divined jihad against refugees — those wretched individuals who had enough faith in us to try to reach us in old tubs, while his wicked detention policy was presided over by that other psalm singer, Philip Ruddock. This is the John Howard the press gallery in Canberra went out of its way to sell to the public during 1995. The new-made person on immigration, not the old suburban, picket-fence racist of the 1980s, no, the enlightened unifier who now accepted Australia's ethnic diversity; the opposition leader who was going to maintain Keating Labor's social policies on industrial relations, on superannuation at 15%, on reconciliation, on native title, and on the unique labour market programs for the unemployed.

These solemn commitments by Howard, which helped him win the 1996 election, bit the dust under that breathtaking blanket of hypocrisy he labelled "non-core promises". Even on Medicare, contrary to his commitment, he forced each of us into private health or carry the consequences.

During the 1996 election campaign, a number of people I regard well said to me, "Oh, I think Howard will be all right"; meaning, while not progressive, he would not be reactionary or socially divisive, or opportunistically amoral. Well, Howard wasn't "all right". He has turned out to be the most divisive prime minister in Australia's history. Not simply a conservative maintaining the status quo, but a militant reactionary bent on turning the clock back against social inclusion, co-operation in the workplace, the alignment of our foreign policies towards Asia, providing a truthful and honourable basis for our reconciliation, accepting the notion that all prime ministers since Menzies had — Holt, Gorton, McMahon, Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke and me — that our ethnic diversity had made us better and stronger and that the nation's leitmotif was tolerance.
Howard has trodden those values into the ground. He also trod on the reasonable constitutional progression to an Australian republic, even when the proposal I championed had everything about it that the Liberal Party could accept: a president appointed by both houses of parliament (meaning by both major parties), while leaving the reserve powers with the new head of state.
The price of Howard conniving in its defeat will probably mean we will ultimately end up with an elected head of state, completely changing the representative nature of power, of the prime ministership and of the cabinet.

To compound Howard's transgressions, he has run dead on the continuing obligation of structural economic change, just as he did when he was treasurer in the 1970s. He and Costello have simply made hay while the sun has shone from the great structural reforms introduced by the Hawke and Keating governments. Those changes — open financial and product markets, and the new decentralised wages system of 1993 — were married up with $1 trillion in superannuation savings, to completely underwrite the country's prosperity and renew its economic base.

Howard's sole example of reform is his GST — the one he told us in 1996 he would not give us, a regressive tax on all spending regardless of income.

Nations get a chance to change course every now and then. When things become errant, a wise country adjusts its direction. It understands that it is being granted an appointment with history. On this coming Saturday, this country should take that opportunity by driving a stake through the dark heart of Howard's reactionary Government.
Paul Keating was prime minister of Australia from 1991 to 1996.

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Meanwhile, back at The Trad Pad, Miss Eagle collected her booth captain's gear last night from the Your Rights At Work Campaign. Is this the first time that an organisation who has no representative candidate standing for election is staffing booths at polling places and handing out how to vote cards?

No leafletting got done yesterday - it was rain, beautiful rain, all day and into the night. As I write the sun is not yet out. Forecasts are for showers this morning and a clearing shower later. I hope there are a couple of hours of sunshine to get that leafletting done.

~~~~~~~~~

In the Blue Mountains up behind Sydney, the hills are also alive with the sound of honking. Here they are at Lawson. On ya folks!

THE WEEK OF ROOSTING CHOOKS: Wednesday

Sydney Morning Herald 25/7/2006

Excitement mounts! Only three more sleeps and a long wait on Saturday until EARLY on Saturday night John Howard's chickens come home to roost and he concedes. There are many ways to speak of chickens coming home to roost. Many spiritual beliefs speak of Karma. Buddhism says that you may forget your actions, but your actions don't forget you. Miss Eagle counts the Prophets of the Eighth Century BC among her best friends. The longsuffering Hosea - he of the adulterous wife - said it best in the Jewish and Christian tradition, in Miss E's view.

For they sow the wind,

and they shall reap the whirlwind.

Hosea 8:7

Karma, unforgotten actions, and escalating wind apply to all of us - whether as individuals, families, groups, or nations. Miss Eagle believes that John Howard will reap the rewards of countless meannesses, innumerable cruelties, and injustices beyond counting.

But we also have to remember that if Australia does not hold John Howard and his cronies accountable on Saturday then Australia - Australians as a nation - risks reaping the whirlwind itself.

We can hold our governments accountable. When we fail to do so, we then face the judgment that should be visited on them as well. In other words, there are spiritual lessons to be learned in how we govern ourselves, how we respond as the body politic. There are no exemptions as Matthew points out in 5:45 when he speaks of the sun rising on the evil and on the good; and sending rain on the just and unjust.

So on Saturday we have the responsibility of collective accountability for ourselves and, above all, to hold our government and those who participate within the governance of this nation - the Opposition, the minor parties, the independents - accountable individually and collectively.

We are responsible for our actions - and those actions include holding those who act for us accountable responsible for theirs.

~~~~~~~~~

Miss Eagle's plans for to-day include - if our welcome rain eases off - more leafletting for the Greens in Rowville. Then to-night I will turn up with Katie and the Krew at the Your Rights At Work La Trobe headquarters in Boronia to pick up the gear for our booths on Saturday. Miss Eagle is booth captain at Upper Ferntree Gully School on Saturday and will be there from 6am to 10am.

From 2pm to close she will be at Kent Park school handing out how-to-votes for the Greens.

And how many election parties are on Saturday night! If my eyelids are open, I hope I can sit by the television blogging happily with a celebratory Bundy and Coke in between.

THE WEEK OF ROOSTING CHOOKS: Tuesday

This morning, The Hills were alive with the sound of honking: car horns honking, honking short, honking long, loud and long. There we were at the roundabout on the Belgrave-Hallam Road near the Pony Club at Lysterfield with our placard letters spelling out HOWARD HURTS FAMILIES. We did get a couple of objections/objectionables - but we were wowed with the marvellous support we received from everyone on their way to work between 6.30am and 7.30am.

And here we are:

To-morrow it's happening at Berwick. Miss E won't make this one - but if you are down that way and want to attend, please email Miss Eagle at misseagleatbluebottledotcom and she will give you all the details.

BubbleShare: Share photos - Thanksgivingtime!

THE WEEK OF ROOSTING CHOOKS: Monday

They're almost there, those roosting chooks. I can hear the sounds, the clucks and the crowing. John Howard's chickens are coming home to roost. We won't be able to do the counting until Saturday night - but the anticipation is mounting.

And its is full on.

Day 1 started with a 6.30am curtain call in the seat of La Trobe. Your Rights At Work has organised a week of events/community protests. This morning we were there in our orange shirts at the junction of Ferntree Gully Road, Burwood Highway and Commercial Road at Ferntree Gully. We carried large, large letters which spelt out:

HOWARD HURTS FAMILIES

Thank you to all those who honked and gave us the thumbs up in agreement with our placards.

To-morrow morning we will be over near the Pony Club at the the roundabout on the Belgrave-Hallam Road. Give us a wave, a cheer, a honk, a northward pointing thumb as we get rid of John Howard and bring his chickens home to roost.

Sign the petition : end non-consultative intervention

Miss Eagle has to-day received information about a petition relating to the Howard/Brough Northern Territory Intervention into Aboriginal Communities. Links at the top of this blog detail the history.

This petition has come to me from Patricia Corowa who grew up in Bowen like I did. Patricia was an activist in her young days back in the campaign for and surrounding the 1967 Referedum. She has been an adviser to two Labor Ministers for Aboriginal Affairs.

The petition was initiated in Yuendemu in the NT. Patricia received the petition information from Ray Minniecon, a well known Aboriginal and Christian leader. Old Mount Isans remember his father Stirling well who, with his wife Di, was a missionary with AIM at Dajarra in north-west Queensland for many, many years.

Could you please, dear Reader, take a minute or two to go to the link here. There you will able to sign the petition. There is also a link at the top of the page. When you have done this, could you please forward this information on to your networks. That would be much appreciated.

Whichever party comes to power on Saturday 24 November 2007, the message has to be given:

Aboriginal communities have a right to be consulted

- proper two-way all-parties-concerned consultation - on matters affecting themselves, their children, their families, their communities, their land and their place in broader Australian society.

Anything less is not good enough.

Fifty years ago THE great petition began.

Fifty years later, still petitioning for basic human rights and self-determination.

The Hair Apparents

These wonderful studio portraits of John Howard and Kevin Rudd have come to me courtesy of my friend PatC. Clearly, our leaders are meant to have broad spectrum appeal and be all things to all people. So, dear Reader, take your pick:

For Gen Y Voters: Those who love Idol

Alternative Voters: Greenies and others
Young CBD Professional voters: Up and Comers

The Average Working Voter: Dad and Mum
Grey Voters: All of the Gerries
Remote Rural Voters: Tassie plateau dwellers

Crikey cartooning

The Liberals didn't lie about interest rates.

Another instance of WE'LL DO ANYTHING TO WIN SYNDROME - even tender an apology. With just over two weeks of a desperate Prime Minister still to go, could making apologies take over from kissing babies?

Any interest?

Howard's Hallmarks

The hallmarks of John Howard's career are a perseverance which sometimes resembles doggedness and cussedness and an unwillingness to include disparate views on the road to his decision-making. He has his own compass, skewed somewhere to the furthest right of True North, and brooks little deflection from the course to which it points.

There is an oft-used Howard quote which illustrates his doggedness, his preparedness to wait: The times will suit me.

The statement was made by Howard in a 1986 interview in Washington DC with Anne Summers. Just over three years ago, Summers revisited that interview in a piece titled: The sad times do suit him; he made them.

At that time, it looked like Howard would demolish Medicare, Australia's form of national medical insurance. The facts are that it is 2007 and we are in the first 24 hours of the Federal Election campaign which will decide who governs Australia for the next three years. Medicare is still with us.

Howard has interfered in Australian workplaces, changed the laws, left people powerless, lowered their wages. Howard's Work Choices has driven voters - it appears - into or back to the Australian Labor Party. The whole thing has left Australians feeling quite dismal.

Miss Eagle has been reminding for some time anyone who will listen that Howard's political imprimatur is neither invincible nor infallible. Medicare is here - and Howard may not be after November 24.

Why is Medicare here? Because it is quite clear that Australians appreciate and want to keep Medicare. They have made this clear year in and year out. Howard will interfere with Medicare at his peril.

This does not mean that in the next triennium, should Howard be re-elected, that he will not try to remove Medicare from the Australian landscape. And he certainly won't make such removal an agenda item at this election or any election.

Remember, dear Reader, that he promised never-ever to introduce a GST. He did. He didn't put his Work Choices legislation before the voters in 2004 - but he did it anyway as any astute political observer always knew he would. So full privatisation of medical services is part of his agenda. All those doctors want it and an awful lot of them tend to be members of, or at least vote for, the Liberal and National Parties.

But, it is clear that, if Australian voters tell the opinion polls and their politicians consistently of their support for Medicare, it will be extremely difficult to eradicate it. Similarly, for any other policy. The guarantee for survival or introduction of good policy is to demonstrate in word and deed support for that policy.

Kevin Rudd and Krew will need such reminders too should they form the next government.

The Election is on...and roosting chickens can be heard in the distance!

It's on! Australia votes on November 24, 2007.

Polls continue to say that the Australian Labor Party (ALP) will win - and by a landslide. Kevin Rudd will Prime Minister.

But...

The polls narrow things down to a two-party preferred vote.

When the results are in there could be vast differences:

1. What are the figures for the minor parties and to whom are their preferences being directed? In blunt terms, is it possible for the Greens to gain their first seat in the House of Representatives and, if so where? Is it possible for new independents to enter the House of Representatives?
2. How will votes translate into seats and how will seats translate into winning and losing?

On the major vote winner for Labor, opposition to John Howard's Work Choices legislation, will voters - when it comes to casting a ballot - accept Kevin Rudd's delay in the abolition of Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs)?

This voter won't. Miss Eagle hangs her colours out for all to see. She is in that unofficial voting bloc, Rusted on Labor that Votes Green. Miss Eagle thought that this election would see her giving her No. 1 vote to the ALP like old times were here again. But, at this point in time, no.

Miss Eagle will express her disenchantment with Labor and its Leader by giving the Greens her No. 1 vote and she is helping out in the seat of Aston because Rex, one of her fellow parishioners at St Thom's, is the campaign manager there.

However, Miss Eagle believes that this is an election where anything can happen and probably will. The Liberals have already shown how desperate they are to hang on to government. Rudd has shown how tetchy he is in rebuking his Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and Bob Brown's temper hasn't been too even with the goings on around the projected pulp mill in Tasmania. And there's six weeks still to go!

So, dear Voter/Punter, consider your vote carefully. Don't make self-interest your only guide. And keep your vote well away from the mean-spirited...you know who I mean!

Howards's backflip? More a reverse triple pike with tuck and twist***

All of a sudden, out of the blue, John Howard has announced that within 100 days of being returned to Parliament and to the Prime Ministership that he will introduce a bill into Parliament of Australia for a preamble to the constitution in relation to Aboriginal people.

This announcement has made headlines across the world: here, here

Howard's announcement is being portrayed as a backflip. In Miss Eagle's view, it is not so much a backflip as a reverse triple pike with tuck and twist.*** And because Howard seldom executes a backflip, let alone attempting such a dramatic one, Miss Eagle predicts a great splash and low, if any marks, from judges who know their stuff.

***Diving terminology: Straight - with no bend at the knees or hips; Pike - with knees straight but a tight bend at the hips; Tuck - body folded up in a tight ball, hands holding the shins and toes pointed; Free - Some sequence of the above positions.

The electorate is being taken for mugs once again. It is taken for granted that we have short memories - or, for that matter, no memories whatsoever.

So, dear Reader, let us take a little trip back in time. 9 years and 9 days ago, Australia elected the Liberal Party, with John Howard as Prime Minister, to its second term.

One year before, at the 1997 Reconciliation Conference during which the Bringing Them Home report brought out by Sir Ronald Wilson was launched, John Howard's reputation in Aboriginal Australia reached a, then, all time low. This was when Howard, most unusually, blew his cool in a speech and when Aboriginal people silently expressed their displeasure with John Howard by standing up and turning their backs on him.

This latter incident was to be repeated by many, many more people when John Howard spoke at the Sydney Opera House at Corroboree 2000. This happened the day before 250,000 Australians - with Peter Costello and without John Howard - marched across Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Bridge-marching in support of Aboriginal rights and asking John Howard to say sorry to the stolen generations took place for months to come across Australia.

So back to 1998. On election night in 1998, John Howard committed himself to achieving reconciliation by 2001. He failed. Last night he said:
"I recognise now that, though emotionally committed to the goal, I was mistaken in believing that it could be achieved in a form I truly believed in."

Again John Howard takes us for mugs with no memories. You see, Miss Eagle, for one, remembers Gatjil Djerrkura's invitation back then to John Howard to visit him in his home at Yirrkala in the Northern Territory. Gatjil was then the Chair of the Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC). John Howard accepted and went to Yirrkala.

Now, Gatjil's political views were not left of centre. He was a paid up member of the NT's Country Liberal Party. Gatjil's idea was a good one. An ignorant and powerful PM. Take him to the country of a powerful Aboriginal nation, speak to him privately, show him the culture, the people at a most personal and intimate level. But nine years later, Howard says that he was not emotionally committed to the goal of reconciliation.

It has been quite clear by word and deed that John Howard has NOT been committed to the goal of reconciliation in spite of his election night words - and it is clear that the visit to Yirrkala did not touch Howard either in heart or in spirit. He came the closest to Aboriginal Australia he was ever likely to get and he was untouched, unmoved, and unmotivated.

So what brought about the military intervention of 21 June 2007? A militarist Minister of Indigenous Affairs in Mal Brough; an election year; political point scoring; and the constitutional ability to give full rein to his centralizing views in the Northern Territory.

And what has brought about his announcement on a preamble?

History, dear Reader, history.

The Presidents of the United States of America always have one eye on history. One of their post-presidential entitlements is to the building of a library. Such libraries provide a rich resource relating to the individual president and his time in the White House. Documents and personal memorabilia are installed there and can provide rich pickings for researchers.

In Australia this does not happen. But Prime Ministers, like Presidents, do give thought to how history will view them. Howard has been particularly conscious of this. One of the reasons that Howard has hung on so long to power is because he has emulated, to some extent, and compared himself with Sir Robert Menzies whom some Liberals promote as a great Australian statesman. Therefore, if one has to be seen as distinctive in the eyes of history, length of office is not necessarily sufficient.

Howard launched a military adventure in the Northern Territory which is doing things - on a small scale. The fanfare and rhetoric have not delivered quickly and in spades what was promised. In fact, the whole thing could fail.

Miss Eagle's view is that it is an ill wind that blows nobody any good so there will be some good things to report - but how much and how long it will be sustained will have to be judged further down the track. And the discussion will always be about lost opportunity and how things could have been done better.

So the preamble announcement is Howard's insurance policy for history.

Parliament is scheduled to sit within days. This is unlikely to happen because a whole lot of goodbyes and farewell speeches might have to get a re-run! So it is likely that within the next 24-48 hours the 2007 election will be announced.

So last night was almost the last chance for Howard to do something positive in relation to Aboriginal issues. He has tried to make himself look sincere even if he has had to eat humble pie. If he loses his seat and loses government, both of which are distinct possibilities, he will look as if he has tried. If he is returned to government, he has guaranteed only to introduce a bill for a preamble. The preamble is only words. It has no legitimacy. It cannot be used as a constitutional amendment from which rights and entitlements might be derived.

And yet again we are taken as mugs without memories - because Howard has form on the matter of a preamble. In 1999, Howard presented a poorly imagined and drafted preamble to the people of Australia. It failed.

Sorry, John Howard. You won't say sorry - and now it's time to go. You have had eleven years to heal this country, to bring reconciliation, to advance some of the most powerless and poverty-stricken in this nation.

Instead, you have not only failed to take these things forward, you have taken back many things already in place and you have actively impeded good people doing good and valuable things. No, John. As this blog has said time and again, chickens are coming home to roost.

You have to face the consequences of your actions and inactions. You have to be held accountable by the people of this nation.

Miss Eagle hopes and prays that the Australian people are up to it - but the opinion polls are saying they are. Miss Eagle hopes and prays that when you go, John, we really do get a government that is up to the task ahead which will also be held accountable by the Australian electorate.

Has John Howard been wedged?

John Howard has long been hailed as the master of wedge politics. In fact, it has become his stock in trade to thwart political opposition and drive forward political policies which a lot of Australians thought were not part of our national ethos anymore.

As the Liberal Party plunges in the polls with a Federal election only weeks away, and as the possibility of John Howard becoming the second Prime Minister in Australian history to lose his own seat, the question now needs to be asked:

Has John Howard been wedged?

Now geometry and higher forms of mathematics were never Miss Eagle's strong suits. Arithmetical calculations and mystical algebraic contemplation are more her speed. But Miss Eagle does venture to ask the following:

1. Does a wedge have boomerang-style capabilities? In other words, is it possible for it to come back and bite you in the b^m?
2. Bearing in mind the flying wedge strategy - so useful in war and Rugby Union - what is the trajectory of a wedge in flight: short and steep? long with deep coverage? able to encompass ministers and backbenchers in its flightpath? is it a guided or unguided missile?

There seems little doubt that Kevin Rudd has developed an effective shield against the wedge. The first person in modern political history to effectively do so, or so it would seem. The poll that counts will tell.

Meanwhile, there are noises in the barnyard of chickens coming home to roost.

Thanks for not announcing your retirement, John.

Hang in there, John - even if it's by your fingernails.

Hang in there! Until the electors of Bennelong give you your marching orders.

Then your chickens will have come home to roost.

Rudd-Gillard Response to Howard's IR Policy

ALP : Think power. Ditch Local

It isn't in this morning's press but it appears Rodney Cocks is now, officially, the ALP candidate for the seat of La Trobe. Funny the things that pop into one's mind at times. I couldn't help thinking this morning of the environmentalist slogan "Think globally: act locally". Except. Except I altered it a bit. "Think power: ditch local". Because - unless the ALP and Rodney Cocks tell us where he lives and if he is on the La Trobe roll - Rodney Cocks has been appointed over and against the hard-working already endorsed ALP candidate, Greg Pargeter.

Of course, with Rodney overseas, is he on an electoral roll anywhere. Wouldn't be the first time a candidate has slipped up, would it?

Of course, in Queensland "Think power: ditch local" is being enacted on a broader scale in the battle to amalgamate councils and the consequent legislative battle between Peter Beattie and John Howard.

An old mate of Miss Eagle's, Brian Courtice - former ALP member for Hinkler centred on Bundaberg and who comes from a long and distinguished AWU and ALP lineage - has been vocal on Radio National's breakfast this morning outlining the federal seats which he believes the ALP has now no chance of winning when it needs Queensland seats stacking up to win government.

Courtice had a beaut quote: Beattie is Bill Clinton without the intellect. Not a bad description - but I am sure, dear Reader, you can think of a few question such a statement begs.

Kevin Rudd has publicly supported Howard against Beattie on the amalgamation issue. When the polls come in showing endangered seats endangering his Prime Ministerial challenge, will we at last see the colour of his money, the steel of his statesmanship. Will we be able to measure his true political stature? We wish. We wait to see.

This morning's The Age is related to celebrity candidature and, while not supporting the editorial in its entirety, I give it the last word with a worthwhile quote:

• The ALP does need to be mindful of the risks of parachuting in a candidate from outside the electorate. This can alienate party members who have worked for years on behalf of local candidates. The public may also see this as a trivialisation of politics.

Howard's Government - unhinged...or unplugged?

Greg Barns's view.

Leadership and critique on the Howard Shock and Awe Intervention

Many people, black and white and blog, have drawn attention to shortcomings in the Northern Territory State of Emergency otherwise known as Howard's Shock and Awe Campaign.

The Labor Opposition under Kevin Rudd has provided no leadership on the issue. While attention is drawn to this, a lot of us go along with it in the hope that as he leads the opinion polls so it will be on election day and we have Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister. The only problem with this is - what if he doesn't win; what if he turns out to be nothing like the Prime Minister that we want and the nation needs.

At last, a leader has spoken up. Not caustically, as this blog has the freedom and inclination to do. An old lady can do little else but snipe from the sidelines. But a knowledgable, experienced and forthright Archbishop? Well, he might actually have an opportunity to discuss something with a Prime Minister sometime, somewhere. He needs to have channels of communication to be kept open. He does not have the same freedom as Miss Eagle - even if this was his inclination - to sound off.

So the Archbishop of Melbourne, Philip Freier, makes his point moderately while bringing into focus THE major issues - community consultation, communication and respect.

Last night, Rudd and Howard presented their respective viewpoints on a national internet presentation hosted by the Australian Christian Lobby. Tens of thousands of Christians gathered at over 700 [or 850, depending on which report is read] venues across Australia to watch a live webcast featuring speeches from John Howard and Kevin Rudd. [Please note, dear Reader, the numbers. The megachurches love the numbers and the income they provide. So do politicians. Twin species?]

Miss Eagle made no attempt to get involved in this internet hook-up. The mind-set of the ACL is not Miss Eagle's except that we both claim the name of Christian. In no media coverage that I have heard to-day, and there is nothing on the ACL website as at 10.25am to-day, which would indicate that the welfare of Aboriginal people got a guernsey in this For Christians Only debate. Clearly, Howard thought the people at the For Christians Only debate gave highest priority to pornography. Who can say he's wrong?

[Miss E is anti-pornography too. I am anti-pornography not only for all the usual reasons but because a family member is a victim of the pornography addiction of a spouse. My take on pornography is much more sophisticated than any arguments that I have heard from the ACL constituency. I also contest the high priority given to pornography in that constituency in contrast to matters such as poverty and employment. ]

Miss Eagle, at the time of writing, has been unable to find transcipts of the Howard and Rudd speeches.

Supersizing me where I live - Part 2

I - as I am sure you do, dear Reader - sometimes daydream about living in another period of human history. For Miss Eagle, her daydream is about time travelling to live as an Edwardian. Not a poor Edwardian mind you - probably an upper middle class Edwardian. So many things were happening then. New ideas, a new century and clothes were s-o-o elegant. But my daydream is tempered by the quote from John Rawls: The best measure of a just society is whether you’d be willing to be thrown into it at random.

That, dear Reader, is the crunch - is it not? I certainly would not want to be thrown at random and willy-nilly into Edwardian society. Would you, dear Reader, wish to be thrown random and willy-nilly into the first decade of 21st century Australian society? Before you give an unthinking yes to that question or reply that if you could come back as a miner in the Pilbara, let's pause for thought. Perhaps randomness and willy-nillyness would see you come back as a traditional Aboriginal person in a remote community in the Northern Territory. Or you might come back as a woman of Islamic faith who wears a hajib speaking with a broad Australian westie accent. Or a young man of middle-eastern appearance in Lakemba with a similar accent. Are you still willing to subject yourself to such randomness and willy-nillyness?

If your answer is no then Australian society in the first decade of the 21st century is not living up to the best measure of a just society as defined by John Rawls, the great moral philosopher of the 20th century.

As Australia heads for an election and the possibility of electing John Howard (who is in his sixty-ninth year) as Prime Minister for a fifth term heading for twelve years in office (the President of the USA can only have two terms of four years each), the question we should ask - as we should always ask of our nation - is: is Australia a just and fair society?

And, Miss Eagle has discovered, we give ourselves away on the justice issue in one crucial and historically verifiable way: our height. Now I am not clear where Australians are on the height table in relation to other nations but take a look at this article about the height of Americans vis-a-vis Northern Europeans. It appears that we write our communal and national history in our bodies and we can transcribe that history through our measurements, our personal vital statistics. We can match those vital statistics to historical events, to economic data like GDP and we can see what we are doing and have done to ourselves and to others.

Similar measures are outlined in the WHO Issues New Healthy Life Expectancy Rankings. Japan is top of the list and Australia is No. 2. The USA is not in the top ten. It rates 24th. Miss Eagle wonders if Australia might have topped Japan if mainstream Australia had been as concerned for Aboriginal health and well-being as it is for its own. Certainly, in the USA, efforts are poor at having an inclusive attitude to national health and well-being. Let's take a look:

1. You die earlier and spend more time disabled if you’re an American rather than a member of most other advanced countries.
2. Some groups, such as Native Americans, rural African Americans and the inner city poor, have extremely poor health, more characteristic of a poor developing country rather than a rich industrialized one.
3. The HIV epidemic causes a higher proportion of death and disability to U.S. young and middle-aged than in most other advanced countries. HIV-AIDS cut three months from the healthy life expectancy of male American babies born in 1999, and one month from female lives.
4. The U.S. is one of the leading countries for cancers relating to tobacco, especially lung cancer. Tobacco use also causes chronic lung disease.
5. A high coronary heart disease rate, which has dropped in recent years but remains high.
6. Fairly high levels of violence, especially of homicides, when compared to other industrial countries.
7. Lack of universal access to medical insurance thus limiting access to health care.
8. Eight million Americans are without a job.
9. Forty million Americans are without health insurance.
10. Thirty-five million Americans live below the poverty line.

So, dear Reader, next time rich, famous, and infamous Americans catch your attention and life looks great over there, please remember these ten points. Next time an American celebrity gives away lots of money and looks good doing it, remember the unfairness of those ten points.

Ask yourself, dear Reader: if you were one of those people in the statistics quoted in these ten points, would you rather have fairness and equity brought to you by public policy voted on by every citizen entitled to vote or would you rather be one of the deserving poor dependent on the selectivity of a rich person?

Now look at the Australian picture:

1. 1.05 million households have been classified as having "low economic resources" by the Bureau of Statistics. To fall into that category households had to have low levels of both income and wealth.
2. More than 820,000 children aged under 14 live in the 1.05 million households that have been classified as having "low economic resources"
3. After adjustment for family size and composition, the disposable income for low economic resources households was $262, less than half that of middle-expenditure households.
4. One in every eight of people living in "low economic resources" households are saying they gone without meals in the previous 12 months because of a shortage of money.
5. Almost one-third of the households said they spent more than they earned, suggesting they were either running up debt or drawing on meagre savings to make ends meet.
6. The number of sole parents who receive a pension is on the decline for the first time since 1997.
7. The proportion of lone mothers in the labour force - either in work or looking for work - grew from 49 per cent in 1997 to 60 per cent last year

The last two items need to be look at more closely in relation to income, child care costs, who is looking after the kids and in what circumstances?

Our national government has neglected Aboriginal voices for more than a decade. State and Territory Governments records are not good either. And the Australian voter has not given a sufficiently high priority to Aboriginal health and well-being - instead focussing on its own income and tax-cuts - to impress politicians with a demand for urgent attention. There is a lot of goodwill out there towards Aboriginal people and their concerns but mainstream Australia is not prepared to forego its own financial well-being or do without a tax cut to bring others, black or white, into a position of equity. Please read this speech by Lieutenant General John Sanderson and have a big think.

And what evidence do I have that mainstream Australians are prepared to put themselves and their own well-being ahead of other citizens? I give you the saga of the Merseyside Hospital in Devonport, Tasmania. This is a town with a population of just over 20,000 souls which has access to two nearby hospitals within a half hour and an hour's drive yet has demanded that its own hospital be kept open to the tune of at least $45 million in spite of the difficulty of attracting highly skilled staff and maintaining their skills, in spite of the fact that the hospital itself may not be able to operate in a manner in which safety is guaranteed.

A venal Prime Minister desperate to advance his election prospects has met these demands and thus encouraged a queue of similar demands to form.

It is not only our bodies that are getting fatter and taller, our minds are becoming sloppy and unreasonable and more grandiose.

Supersize me, Prime Minister, some citizens are saying - and do it right where I live.