AN OPEN LETTER

TO

JASON WOOD, MHR

MEMBER FOR LA TROBE

IN THE

PARLIAMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA

Dear Jason,

Denis at The Nature of Robertson has just forwarded to me this clip from a parliamentary speech you have made. Not a good look, Jason. And that concerns me because, you see, I am one of your constituents in the seat of La Trobe. I am dependent on you to represent my interests in the wider world of governing the nation. With a performance like this, Jason, you just won't cut the mustard will you?

They say that every army officer carries a Field-Marshall's baton in his knapsack. Well, Jason, if you have ever packed a Prime Ministerial baton or even a Cabinet Minister's baton in your knapsack you might as well remove it and use the space for something more useful like aftershave and hair restorer.

However, Jason, if you ever want to learn how to really communicate; to not trip over your tongue (and I hope it wasn't because you had been too long in the parliamentary dining room); to do your homework and present well as a representative for La Trobe, just email me at eaglemiss(at)gmail(dot)com and we can discuss what can be done.

It ill behoves me to make such an offer to a member of the Liberal Party of Australia after all they have put us through but - in the interests of sound representation and because we have more than two more years to get through until the next election - I am prepared to give it a go if you are.

~~~
When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Missionary elites: born of ignorance, deafness and confusion

Let's call this for what it is. Hypocrisy. A brazen display of utter, craven hypocrisy. Tony Abbott was a minister in the failed Howard Government: the Howard Government which ignored - until a losing election was looming in its rear vision - Aboriginal Australia and, not to mention, the needs and aspirations of remote white Australia. And this sanctimonious ignorance was delivered at that centre for hypocrisy and we-know-what's-best-for-you, the Centre for Independent Studies. How long will we have to wait to hear this drivel reprised on Counterpoint - the mouthpiece for the CIS on the ABC?

Six years ago, Miss Eagle was working in Walgett in north-western NSW. The local whitefellas there had organised themselves to provide a scholarship for rural doctors. Medical personnel in private practice are in short supply in mainstream communities in remote Australia. People want to bring doctors to their communities and want to work hard to give them a good lifestyle and so retain them as long as possible. Whitefellas in the bush realise that their best chances are:

1. Train doctors who have grown up in the bush and are likely to want to return to the bush - or at least have a good think about it.
2. Encourage new doctors to the bush by doing part of their practical training in bush hospitals and situations and further encouraging them with a purpose-built bush scholarship.

In a difficult situation, this is reasonable thinking - but it does not absolve governments of their responsibilities - and it expresses the commitment of a local community.

Unfortunately, Aboriginal communities are not able to get together to raise the great wads of cash needed for medical scholarship funding. Even if those concerned gave up their grog and their drugs, the money would have to go to families first.

However, the best bet of getting medicos out into remote Australia is the same two points that have swung white remote communities into action.

More Aboriginal health professionals are coming through our universities. There has been good work done with the training of Aboriginal Health Workers (the original idea came from that of the Barefoot Doctors in Mao's China). A generation further on what are we doing to fund and build on the professionalism of Aboriginal Health Workers so that that from these ranks more Aboriginal health professionals can be put through universities and back into the areas of highest need?

The thing that has always sickened me in the language and actions of Howard and his lackeys is they carry on as if no one prior to their military intervention was doing anything of any value. They had turned their backs years before - meanwhile other parts of humanity, black and white and brindle, were carrying on through thick and thin, funding cuts, isolation, deaf ears and everything that the Howard lot found politically on the outer, politically incorrect. The deaf ears and detachment of the Howard crew cost lives and cost progress.

And Abbott says that self-determination breeds detachment!

WHAT! If self-determination breeds detachment, the only evidence of it is that Aboriginal self-determination was abhorred by the Howard Government and its lackeys and, as a consequence, THEY detached themselves from any interest in Aboriginal people, their situation, their communities.

Sure pay people good money - but pay Aboriginal people already in place and on the ground good money too. And money is not everything. If someone does not have the right spirit and attitude, money won't keep them there long and it certainly won't keep them there through the hard yards.

Will government provide professional development on the ground for all professionals: health, education, justice irrespective of whether of whether they are university or TAFE qualified? You see, governments are very good at doing the flashy stuff like toys and technology and the flash-in-the-pan stuff of big budget announcements. It is not good at the incremental building of solid foundations and structures which will last and which will deliver. Whitefellas lose interest and head back to their capital cities - and blame everyone else for any failures.

And, finally, how will government help to build and revive economies in inland Australia. The mining companies fly in and fly out and do not contribute to community building and localised economies as once they did. Corporate agriculture does not always contribute to local communities in meaningful and substantial ways - but then family owned farming enterprises don't always either. I always remember the quote from western Queensland "..as long as there's a post office to pick up the mail." But may be, in these days of email and digital phones and faxes, he can live without the post office. And then there's the shopping. Woolworths and Coles don't sprout in much of inland Australia. You go to major cities or regional centres for that and the dollar goes away from local communities and economies.

But this nation has made millionaires (including a Labor Prime Minister's wife) out of employment programs for unemployed people, so why can't the same fertile minds turn their attentions to the building of economies in remote Australia for both black and white communities. They would benefit. We would all benefit. Communities would be stronger and more cohesive. Tax coffers could get some additional input. Let's do some real nation building in the inland for black and white communities.

~~~

When you can do nothing else: bear witness.

Hockey for Leader, outsource the Speaker's job to Sunrise

Now that Brendan Nelson has confirmed he is the worst Leader of the Opposition in Australia's history with an illustrious single digit rating in the polls, the commentariat are talking leadership change and Joe Hockey's name is getting a mention.

Well, how slow are they!

Miss Eagle suggested Hockey for the Leader of the Opposition immediately after last year's election. But, displaying great prescience, Miss Eagle also made suggestions about the Speaker's position.

Last Friday, the House of Representatives saw a great display of lawlessness and disobedience on the part of the Opposition. When a member was ordered to leave the House and refused to go, the member was then escorted from the chamber by the Serjeant-at-Arms. Clearly, the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker were not up to the job. So perhaps Klever Kevvie - who undoubtedly will have things pulled into gear for the March sittings - might like to take up Miss Eagle's suggestion for the Speakership re-published below.

The Sunrise Family

Then we would have the old team - Joe on one side and Kevin on the other. Well, not quite the old team, eh dear Reader? So, ergo Sunrise and team for Speaker. Who better?

At this point in time, whoever Klevver Kevie nominates as Speaker won't be experienced. But Sunrise is experienced. The Sunrise Team is used to intervening, sorting things out and making people stick to the rules of the game. OK, I know, I know. They all, including Kevvie, got a bit expeditious on the Vietnam expedition. I am sure that Mel and Kochie and Nat and Andrew can sort things out though. And the Speaker-ship might give Kerry Stokes and his meany crew something to focus on instead of The Chaser team.

Grant could tell us which way the wind blows. Mark could lighten proceedings with cricket, football (all codes), and basketball and netball scores.

All in all, I think it would the ultimate in outsourcing: Sunrise for Speaker and bring really serious entertainment to the six o'clock news!

Brendan Nelson stays home and sulks.

It is becoming clear just what sort of people dominate the 2008 manifestation of the Liberal Party. They are the people who just don't get it. They are the deaf who will not hear, the blind who will not see. Miss Eagle presumes that these sensory defective people have the numbers. I do not presume that there are no right-minded people in the Liberal Party. After all Pietro Georgiou, for one, is still there. I haven't heard that sort of voice getting any traction in recent debate on Aboriginal matters.

To-day Brendan Nelson and the Liberals are sulking: sulking so badly that Nelson has refused the bi-partisan offer made by the Prime Minister last week for the Leader of the Opposition to visit Aboriginal communities. The Prime Minister has nominated Friday as a day when Ministers do not have to be present in Question Time and backbenchers have greater freedom to have their say. Can someone explain to me what is wrong with that? I only have a problem with people who live in Northern Australia and the fact that they won't be home in their electorates on Friday nights, if for the weekend at all. But that's another story.


The fact is Brendan Nelson is protesting. He is not protesting about or for people. No, he is protesting about how the business of Parliament is being organised. In the current context, not the greatest item on the Agenda since the Magna Carta. In fact, Parliamentary procedure is never more important than humanity. This appears to have escaped Nelson and Abbott.


Of course, a visit to Walgett may be on the embarrassing side for Nelson - and for Abbott, too, if he were ever to move beyond the Northern Beaches of Sydney. After all, Walgett - like them and their electorates - is in New South Wales.

Now, Miss Eagle is not suggesting that life for Aboriginal people in Walgett has not improved since the Freedom Ride of 1967. Aboriginal kids use the swimming pool which once was out of the question. But Miss Eagle lived in Walgett in 2001-2002 and found it a place whose population had little knowledge of the history and social construct of the three Aboriginal groups who each call Walgett their country.

All but one business had windows covered with wire mesh. Sitting outside the one meshless business and watching was interesting. And it became clear why this one business - with an owner of Chinese ethnicity - had no mesh. This was clearly a place in which Aboriginal people felt comfortable doing business. Clearly, there was mutual trust in this place which was missing elsewhere.

Walgett - which includes the opal town of Lightning Ridge - has difficulties with its own governance. It has been in administration since 2004 and will have fresh elections later this year. The Walgett Shire Council has had an Aboriginal councillor before. Let's hope that this year they can get up more than one representative.

In Miss E's view there is a silent stand-off casting a pall over Walgett. There is the dominating force of local pastoralists - many of whom seem to see themselves as a sort of landed gentry. These are the people to whom owning land is important on many levels not least of which is as an economic base.

I'm not sure that the pastoralists see that this is probably the one great thing - apart from common humanity - that they have in common with Aboriginal people. To Aboriginal people the land is important on many levels not least of which is for sustenance of life.

However, Aboriginal relationship to land is not based, as it is for the whitefella, on "ownership". But then, in fact, many of Walgett Shire's "landed gentry" would not own the land either - at least in the freehold sense. Miss E's guess is that pastoral leasehold would still be the dominant land tensure. Please correct her if she is wrong.

So to-day a Prime Minister comes to the country of the two rivers, the Barwon and the Namoi. These rivers contribute to the major arterial system of our nation - the Murray-Darling system. I hope the visit of Kevin Rudd brings a similar hope, inspiration, and change just as the Freedom Ride did. And I hope Walgett remembers the time when the Anglican minister who had been willing to provide hospitality to the Freedom Riders felt obliged to withdraw his hospitality.

Miss Eagle hopes for the day when doors are truly open to all in Walgett and the mesh can come down from the windows.

Rudd's ministerial list

Gee, thanks Kev for taking Miss Eagle's advice about that superhero, Senator John. Special Minister for State and Cabinet Secretary - that will keep him at every cabinet meeting. How sweet!

The portfolio distribution looks quite artful with some ministers having plural parliamentary secretaries - is this something like plural marriage and will it require the same amount of juggling?

Here, here and here are the reports of the moment on who will be taking home every night the precious red boxes. More when the official list becomes available.

Here is the full list.

Meanwhile, across on the other side of the trenches, Brendan Nelson has just squeaked it in to the Liberal leadership over Malcolm Turnbull after silly Tony Abbott (where is Costello?) scratched himself and declared himself a future starter all at the same time. And this man wants to be taken seriously? Or doesn't he?

The exquisitely groomed but ideological right-wing Julie Bishop (now I don't think she would tolerate an earring should Nelson resume a former sartorial habit) is deputy. None of this was really surprising. Old conservatives could not vote for Turnbull - and he'd only been there five minutes anyway and his personal fortune could be scary for some.

So Brendan was probably young enough and modern enough for the progressives and sufficiently tolerable for the conservatives especially when tempered with Julie Bishop's dowry of West Australian right wing money!

Andrew Robb's political insider insight would have been handy but AR does not have sufficient flair in spite of the value of his methodical and workmanlike nature. And Christopher Pyne? You are kidding!

Downer, Burma, refugees and guano

Photo: The Age

Hands up if you think Alexander Downer is charismatic - with or without the fishnet tights? Mmm...no hands up people and you are looking puzzled. Miss Eagle is not sure if he has great intellectual capacity either.

We know the Howard Government has great difficulty with refugees - actually the Howard Government has great difficulty with people, particularly people who are not Anglo, not rich, not powerful. But Downer has put his foot in his mouth this time. He reckons that we can't take all the refugees in the world (duh!) but we should focus on Burma and take refugees from there.

What a difference a headline makes! No, local headlines won't do. They have to be international - and preferrably supported by George W. Bush and Condi Rice. So Burma and the Burmese become the flavour of the month.

Meanwhile, in the real world - where people other than Alexander Downer live - the words Burmese and refugee are lived out experiences for some people - not mealy-mouthed words in the face of a sanctimonious Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs. You see, dear Reader, there are Burmese refugees left to rot in that very strange place where no shit actually describes its landscape, Nauru.

So this Foreign Minister who speaks loud and long of "experience" and the need for it as an echo of His Master's Voice, John Howard, clearly cannot hold two consequential thoughts in his mind to make some sort of sense: refugees Burma.

• They're here already, Alexander Downer.
• You ignore them already, Alexander Downer.
• You are full of guano, Alexander Downer.
• Suggest you take up residence on Nauru, Alexander Downer.
• You clearly have the capacity, Alexander Downer, to make renewable deposits of guano such that the economy of Nauru could be easily revived.

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.

Who's missing? UR in IR

What's missing from Labor's industrial relations policy?

You - if you are on an AWA

Influenza, sympathy for horses, and a goose gets a saucing

Hooh, boy. Miss Eagle sure does feel sorry for the horses. You see, dear and gentle Reader, your correspondent has been, for about the last ten days, battling the 'flu. Way back in April, I had my annual 'flu injection. This is always a good protection and I rarely get a sniffle. This year was different. Herself, though, tells me to stop grumbling. People have died of the 'flu this year, she reminds me. And this is true. There have been a number of infant deaths in and around Melbourne due to the 'flu. There have been frail and elderly people stricken with it and hospitalised. As for me, I have felt just one step away from the hospital door. I am writing to-day, so I must be feeling better. But you see, there's no telling. How many days have I arisen with optimism in my heart and mind only to be feeling deathly ill by nightfall. I say to Herself that I have done my best to keep going. She replies that she thinks I should have hidden quietly in a darkened room and things might have been better much more quickly.

I have been tempted back to the blog with a story of "what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander" proportions involving a Cabinet minister of rather goose-like proportions himself. He is pictured below: Kevin Andrews, the Minister for Immigration and member for the Melbourne seat of Menzies, over Doncaster way.
Now, Kevin - our goose getting a saucing - has distinguished legal qualifications. He is also a very public Catholic political voice. He came to national attention when he led the push - which not only included fellow Liberals and Nationals but members of the ALP Right - to overturn the Northern Territory's euthanasia legislation. A fact which Territorians have never forgotten. When he was the Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, he introduced the draconian Work Choices legislation - which appears set to lose the Howard Government the 2007 election.

However, when the going gets tough Kevin is not among the tough who get going.

He was not able to successfully sell the Work Choices message so he was shifted and the dreadful job was given to the avuncular media star, Joe Hockey. Now, in the matter of Dr Haneef, he has found the going very tough, Haneef's legal team very determined, and the public expressing profound doubt. There have been times, as Andrews has tried to defend his ministerial decision to revoke Haneef's visa, that he has given every appearance in manner and body language that he has felt hung out to dry by Ruddock and Howard.

Andrews is prepared to do the courageous act but he is not prepared for the heavy political in-fighting which might be required to bring the act to a successful conclusion and bring concomitant glory to himself. Miss Eagle thinks he does not have the taste or relish for it.

But then there is to-day's story whereby it appears that Andrews has committed a foolish act. A law degree from Australia's most distinguished and prestigious law degree factory. A post-grad from another distinguished Melbourne academy. Ambition enough to get a fairly safe Liberal seat with which to enter Federal parliament. Yet he lists five publications: three for 1990, one for 1994, one for 1998. Hardly enough to demonstrate fitness for the publish or perish strand of academe or the publish to be taken seriously strand of modern politics. Mmmm.

Such a modest publishing record could have been omitted perhaps? Under the cover of humility and contemporary relevance? So much better, Miss Eagle thinks, than the current pointing of the finger towards a saucy goose with the assertion that Andrews has claimed a false status for himself.

Supersize me - but do it where I live

Miss Eagle seldom is on message with Paul Kelly of The Government Gazette. However, his analysis yesterday of what Howard is up to at the moment - and it is a moment by moment policy roller-coaster ride - is sound. Governance, not only under Howard but under any future Federal Government, is the issue.

Australia has a three tier system of governance: Local, State, Federal. Governance is on a declining scale of parochialism from Local up to Federal. Until now, when a Prime Minister who has been able to gain neither traction nor momentum against Opposition Leader, Kevin Rudd is becoming desperate. Howard has long demonstrated a bottomless capacity for buying votes but this attribute has now reached proportions which are both grandiose and parochial.

The Shock and Awe intervention appears to have some sort of policy identification and the place, the Northern Territory, seems to have been merely the place over which the Commonwealth had power to intervene easily.

John Howard, with Member for Braddon Mark Baker, make the most of a celebrity welcome at Mersey Hospital, Devonport as part of their Stick it to the States Campaign

The Shock and Awe modus operandi has continued week by week. Last week, it was the intervention in Tasmania singling out one hospital in one small community (the 70,000 population figure by Abbot is a blatant lie and does not describe the population of the community serviced by the Mersey hospital). This week it is offering disaffected local councils in Queensland funding for plebiscites in their municipalities on amalgamations proposed by Peter Beattie's Labor Government after long consultation with local government.

The ACT is the latest government in Howard's "Embarrass a Government To-day" program. This time he is offering to fund timber mill employees' entitlements to the tune of $5 million on the condition that the NSW Government issues the mill with a long-term licence. Now, there appear to be a number of interests coalescing here.

1. Most of the employees are resident in the electorate of Eden-Monaro. Eden-Monaro is known as a bellwether seat. Eden-Monaro, since 1972, has been held by whichever party forms government.
2. The purpose of the proposed funding and the request for a long-term licence is that the mill can be sold as a going concern. So, while employees may benefit and continuing employment in a marginal electorate are supported, the main beneficiary could well be the employer/company. Another case of business welfare?
3. The relevant union is the CFMEU. This union is a blessing and a curse to the constituency of the Federal Government. Its members employed in the timber and forest products industry cost Labor two Tasmanian seats at the Federal Election of 2004 and have forced the ALP this time into a me-too Howard-image policy which dares not deviate in any environmentally responsible way or it will pay dearly in Tasmania. On the other hand, Howard and Co loathe the CFMEU's members employed in building and construction and have done everything they can to legislate against and prosecute the CFMEU's officials and members in this industry. But...timber and forest products industry union members appear to be a well-beloved species!

So since the Shock and Awe Campaign, Howard has struck at two states and two territories. Three states if one considers the position of the NSW Government in relation to a long-term licence for the ACT timber mill. So WA, SA, and Victoria are still to come. WA is open to vilification because they were the one stand-out state against Howard's armed intervention in Aboriginal affairs. Victoria has been a stand-out on the Howard Government attempt to nationalise water policy with all its private sector market-driven consequences. So there is room for Howard nastiness and meanness to operate against WA and Victoria.

So what will happen in SA? Undoubtedly, somewhere along the line will be incursion into Pitjantjatjara lands. And, just as certainly, the excuse will that Pitlands cross the border of South Australia and the Northern Territory.

So Back to Reality.Yesterday, the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Bill 2007 [NTMERB] passed through the House of Representatives in spite of Labor attempts to amend the legislation and in spite of the difficulties faced by Warren Snowdon and Senator Trish Crossin.

CEO of NITV, Pat Turner AM, at the Indigenous leaders press conference in Canberra yesterday.
Valda Shannon, a significant Aboriginal woman from Tennant Creek, at the press conference
Bill Heffernan, Homo Horribilis, puts in an appearance and an interruption at the Indigenous leaders press conference in Canberra yesterday

And who should raise his head above the parapet but that shameless and nasty old homo, Bill Heffernan. Homo, you ask? Homo Horribilis, don't you think Dear Reader? Aboriginal leaders came to Canberra yesterday to discuss the NTNERB and held a press conference. Bill the Buzzard came along, clearly seeing fresh meat to pick over, more dreadful people to put on his hit and smear list. He had the hide to interrupt. But good manners have never been the hallmark of of our hero, Homo Horribilis.

But perhaps I sell him short. Perhaps he only wanted to see what Aboriginal people look like. Maybe there haven't been many around his property in Junee lately. Maybe Bill just wanted to get to know some Aboriginal people before he sunk his ploughshares into their land as he farms Northern Australia!

Anyway, they told Bill where to go. Miss Eagle loves the photograph of Jack Ah Kit eyeballing him.

So, if Bill Heffernan was shameless yesterday, another Senator, Stephen Parry of Tasmania, found himself feeling shameful. Stephen, it is now believed, has learned not to open his mouth in lifts when uncertain of the discretion of all present. Parry has thought about this. So have the clinicians who have resigned from Mersey at the prospect of a Howard take-over. And then there is the Tasmanian Labor Government and its view.

So John Howard has let it be known that, if anyone anywhere in the nation has a proposal which is believed to have been neglected by a State Government, get in touch and they will put it on the list. Word has it that people are queuing up.

Parochialism across the nation is standing up and demanding to be supersized by superhero government. Damned is good governance.

Thoughtful policy is for the birds when making it up on the run and trying to shaft Labor is much more fun.

And Mal Brough is expressing concern about whether his legislation can survive a Federal Labor government. Well, Mal, when you carry on like this why would you expect the legislation produced to stand the test of time? When you expect everyone to toe the line when you say the magic words "child abuse" because they fear being labelled as unsupportive of efforts to combat it, why should you be surprised when more considered opinion will want to override your legislation? And when people realise that you have lead them up the garden path by failure to implement the recommendations of the very report you have used to force action after a decade of neglect, you still expect them to say you did the right thing?

Miss Eagle wonders what the so-called committee hearing will produce on Friday. What can it produce that will be meaningful? Some sound grabs?

And, dear Reader, if you are still not clear about what good and sound governance in this nation might look like, you can get an idea of it here. Whatever happened to this process, Miss Eagle wants to know? Buried between the manila folders and red tape of bureaucracy or withering for lack of funding by a grandstanding Prime Minister and his political, advisory, and bureaucratic lackeys?

Tony Abbott, WorkChoices and The Communion of Saints

There's little doubt about it - but PolMin's campaign against Howard's workplace relations laws is hitting home if Tony Abbott's rave to-day in The Oz is anything to go by. Abbott might be on message with Cardinal George Pell but he doesn't seem to be with Bishop Kevin Manning. Surprise, surprise!

And - since when did Tony Abbott have an aversion to pre-Vatican II intensity... with its invocations of authority, dogmatic pronouncements and references to the natural order even if it did manage to apply to PolMin. Abbot says he's nostalgic as anyone for the church triumphant but wonder about this application of pseudo-theological rigour to political rather than to religious faith.

Miss Eagle got the giggles at that last quote. Abbot doesn't seem to have an understanding of the ancient Christian doctrine of the Communion of Saints. He should be referring to the Church Militant (those of us still on Planet Earth). Tony, it's not only trade unions who get militant - the church does too!

The Church Triumphant is all those in Heaven so I'm not sure whether all those nuns and brothers have managed to co-opt them to the PolMin campaign at this time - but I'm sure if there was a late Nov/early Dec election and a concerted appeal was made by PolMin to the Church Triumphant on 1 Nov celebrations (All Saints Day) then anything might be possible.

Malcom Fraser: Australians All: Justice, Security, A Fair Go

There's no doubt about Malcolm Fraser, 22nd Prime Minister of Australia. In 1975, his actions divided the nation. In 1986, a now retired Malcolm somehow managed to get drugged and lose his trousers in Memphis, Tennessee. But, for many years, Malcolm has had the status of National Treasure. Where would we be without him?

In recent times, he has gathered around him a coterie of forty distinguished Australians from all walks of life, from major faiths, from across the political spectrum. You can find them all on Malcolm's site, Australians All, which has the motto - Justice, Security, A Fair Go.

In the dark shadow cast by John Howard's Shock and Awe Campaign in Aboriginal communities, there's a lot of good writing at Australians All so please pop over and avail yourself of it, dear Reader.

Whither the spirit of '67

Reconciliation by Edna Watson

Edna Watson is a Dharug elder whose paintings have been recognised in Australia and overseas.
In this work Edna expresses the various groups who have come to Australia with the original Aboriginal people in the centre of the circle of reconciliation.

Reconciling hands point inwards and outwards.
Earth colours dominate with the central circle showing a broken earth, symbolic of the current drought and the unfinished process of reconciliation.

Miss Eagle commends this article to you, dear Reader. This is the best article that Miss Eagle has read on the current status of Aboriginal people and the issues affecting them. It outlines the progress, the success stories, the failures and the neglect. It attaches blame. It shows the complexity of the topic and the ignorance of governments.



Miss Eagle was interested in the information that Fred Chaney, a former Liberal Aboriginal affairs minister ... has known every minister to have held the post going back to Billy Hughes.



Miss Eagle frequently uses Fred Chaney and Billy Wentworth as examples of the sort of Liberal governance that once prevailed in Australia. These men understood Aboriginal issues, they communicated with Aboriginal people, forged personal friendships in Aboriginal Australia and acquitted themselves well in Aboriginal matters.



There is no one - as far as Miss Eagle can see - in the Australian Government under John Howard who compares with these men. As far as Miss Eagle can see, there is no one in the Howard Government who has the ability to communicate with our First Nations. The great swing to the far right by the Liberal Party in the late 80s and early 90s saw to this. Such people had no value.

For this, Aboriginal people and the people of Australia in general have paid a great price.

WorkChoice retreat

Wot’s in a name?-- she sez . . . An' then she sighs,

An' clasps 'er little 'ands, an' rolls 'er eyes.

"A rose," she sez, "be any other name

Would smell the same.

Oh, w'erefore art you Romeo, young sir?

Chuck yer ole pot, an' change yer moniker!"

The Play

This stanza from "The Sentimental Bloke" by C.J. Dennis came to mind when Casting a Short Shadow drew Miss Eagle's attention to the fact that the Howard Government has beat some form of retreat by backing away from the use of the term WorkChoices for its industrial relations laws.

Congratulations, fair minded Australians (as opposed to the unfair ones who support this), you are doing a great job. Keep up the good work!

Remember, there is one agenda item that the Howard Government has not attempted to meet in spite of Liberal-voting doctors and that is the abolition of Medicare. Why? Because Australians time and again have demonstrated at the ballot box their support for this national medical insurance scheme. Now is the time to demonstrate that Australians want a fair go in the workplace.

Rudd and Gillard need support and strengthening in the face of concerted attempts by mining and big business to retain AWAs. We know how poll-driven the Howard Government is. But paying attention to the polls is not the sole prerogative of one side of politics. If a pollster phones, make your views on a fair go heard. At the ballot box later this year, cast your vote accordingly.

No man, no kids, no low-income: nothing in the Budget

Jody Ekert reckons she's missing out in the Budget and has some suggestions how the money should be spent.

Aboriginal issues: no mention, no money?

Miss Eagle is indebted to Crikey for tagging the Budget speech. Now, dear Reader, Miss E has perused this with a visual text search with her own two eyes. She Eyeballed Aborigines, Aboriginal, Indigenous. No result.

Aboriginal issues frequently headline, even frontpage headlines, in the metro media. Much breast-beating, blame-shifting, bleeding of hearts. Mmmmmm...

Not only not a headline - it appears, if our Crikey is to be believed with their tagging effort, no mention. What the heck! Who gives a fig for overcrowding which leads to sexual abuse of children, dislocation, and just a plain rotten childhood? Who gives a cent for economic participation and economic infrastructure in Aboriginal communities?


Don't think there will be a decent all weather road for Wadeye or any other Aboriginal community in the NT just yet.

Howard put the fear of Hell Fire into Bill?

Miss Eagle was not clear on the role of John Howard in the Bill Heffernan's Julia Gillard comments. Here is an article from The Age printed in full because it clarifies Howard's role - and Miss Eagle loves Kate Lundy's remarks. Please note Heffernan's vile remarks on the celibacy of Catholic priests. Now many people take issue with the celibate priesthood of the Catholic Church, but to make your point like this? Vile Bill Heffernan Vile (punctuate according to taste)! More evidence of his character.

Howard forces Senator's apology
Brendan Nicholson, Ben Doherty and Andrew Darby - May 3, 2007

BLUNTLY spoken Liberal MP Bill Heffernan has apologised to deputy ALP leader Julia Gillard for suggesting that she was not suited to be deputy prime minister because she chose not to have children.
The man dubbed John Howard's "boundary rider" got a blast from the Prime Minister after he insisted on standing by a comment he made last year that Ms Gillard had no idea what life was about because she was "deliberately barren".
"I won't walk away from that," Senator Heffernan told The Bulletin.
"One of the great understandings in a community is family, and the relationship between mum, dads and a bucket of nappies."
The comment about Ms Gillard drew a barrage of flak from Labor's ranks, and strong criticism from Mr Howard and ministers clearly annoyed about the extent to whichit drew attention from their attack on Labor's industrial relations policy.
The question of whether people married and had children was entirely a matter for them, Mr Howard said. "I don't approve of those sort of remarks, and I made that very clear.
"Julia Gillard's life is her business, and she has a right to live it according to what she thinks is appropriate."
Labor MP Kate Lundy said that if controversial Muslim cleric Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali had made such a remark, the Prime Minister would have been the first to criticise him.
Treasurer Peter Costello said it was wrong to comment on a person's decision to have children or not.
Labor leader Kevin Rudd said he believed Mr Howard was a decent man and he must pull Senator Heffernan into line over the outlandish comment.
Senator Heffernan had also repeated his observation that priests should be allowed to marry because they, "like the rest of us, wake up with a horn at four in the morning".
Mr Howard called the senator to tell him his Gillard remark was out of order and that he should apologise immediately.
Mr Heffernan's written apology was prompt.
"I apologise to Julia Gillard and anyone else who was offended for my completely inappropriate and insensitive remarks," he said.
Liberal MP Sophie Mirabella said there was no outrage from Labor women when an ALP candidate made a similar suggestion about her fitness for Parliament during the 2004 campaign.

The find the flaw project

Senator Bill Heffernan - with horns

Bill Heffernan's serial vile offences demonstrate a flawed character. Now, one feature of flawed character of the serial offence kind is repetition. In other words, an offence is not a once-only. It keeps coming out time and again. As Miss Eagle has pointed out in this post.

Now the offences mentioned are the ones regarded by the media as newsworthy. Miss E reckons that there are probably lots of other incidents which have not been regarded as worth the effort by the metro media.

Dear Reader, if you have knowledge of other incidents of Heffernan's vile and peculiar manifestation of foot-in-mouth disease or his vile and peculiar investigatory digging-the-dirt crusades, could you please email Miss Eagle off the sidebar: after all neither of us want to be enjoined in legal proceedings by the nasty Senator.

No real contrition, no real job - resign Bill

Senator Bill Heffernan - with horns

Bill Heffernan has apologised. This morning Miss Eagle heard his apology on radio. His voice sounded off-hand as he said "I apologise to all the people that's offended, so there you go." Gee, Bill. That sounded really sincere and contrite - NOT.

Now Miss E, dear Reader, is all for forgiveness in public life. Miss E has, on occasions, mused on this topic here on this blog. But, dear Reader, there are two types of contrition - perfect and imperfect.

As a practising Catholic, Bill Heffernan would be aware of this.

If these theological niceties escape you, dear Reader, Miss E will come to your rescue.

Perfect Contrition is where the offender is sincerely sorry, remorseful and repentant. The offender sincerely seeks forgiveness, wishes to reform, and seeks to make amends for his or her actions.

Imperfect Contrition is when the reason for the offender's sorrow is fear of Hell Fire.

Bill Heffernan is a serial offender.

And, as Bill Heffernan knows, a priest in the confessional is quite justified in refusing absolution to an offender who continues in his or her way without any attempt at reform.

The words, Bill, are too little too late. Have you called on Julia Gillard in person, cap in hand to apologise and make amends to her? How do you suggest we re-assure ourselves of your sincerity, Bill, when so many people have been on the receiving end of your offensive tongue and vile actions?

And, Bill, just why did you apologise? Did John Howard chastise you and that was as the Fires of Hell? If John Howard did not chastise you, Bill, why would that have been? Yes, John, if you did not chastise Heffernan, why would that have been?

Senator Heffernan must resign. He is a serial offensive offender. He has brought shame to the public life of Australia. He is a waste of space in the Senate.

Time to go, Bill Heffernan...we don't need to hear from you ever again

Well, dear Reader, do you think the above touched-up photograph is fair political comment?

You see, he's at it again.

Yes, Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan is once again reminding us of his infinite capacity to breach one of the two commandments enjoined upon all Christians and Heffernan is reputed to be a faithful Catholic.

The Second Commandment is commonly known as The Golden Rule. It is "loving your neighbour as yourself".

Bill can't keep his mouth shut. In fact, it appears that he may never have heard of that wise saying which states that if you can't say something good about someone then don't say anything at all.

Now, ordinarily, someone like Bill probably wouldn't get airplay. Bill would never pass as an intellectual. His resources aren't such that they would be a source of power. And it is doubtful whether he could lead legions of followers across a desert. In fact, his comments would probably die for want of oxygen except for one crucial fact. You see, dear Reader, Bill is a good mate of John Howard's and a sort of attack-dog-come-dirt-digger for him.

But Bill is not infallible - and definitely not reliable.

This became clear when he tried single handedly to destroy one of Australia's finest jurists, Michael Kirby. He failed in a major, major way.

You see, Bill has a tendency to unapologetically shoot his mouth off and doesn't give a fig even if it is someone on his own side of politics.

But headlines and attitudes which say that "Bill is just being Bill" won't cut the mustard anymore. Bill's mouth and mind are too despicable for that.

Apologists for Bill from the PM down only show their own lack of ethics, show their own bigotry and bias, and shame Australia and Australians.