Anzac Biscuit is the bush telegraph of the broadband cable for cockatoos needing some thought provoking escapism from the authorities of the Australian government, corporate, media, legal, arts and education landscapes.

The term 'bush telegraph' originated in
Australia, probably influenced by
'grapevine telegraph'. That referred to the
informal network that passed information
about police movements to convicts who
were hiding in the bush. It was recorded in 1878 by an Australian author called Morris:


"The police are baffled by the number and activity of the bush telegraphs."




Friday, November 2, 2007

Is John Howard just a Political Opportunist?

Dr. Bob Brown the leader of 'The Greens' says his party are the, “real economic conservatives”. The claim was made on the SKY News Election Agenda program, Kieran Gilbert the journalist interviewing Dr. Brown thanked him for the comment and moved on whilst shaking his head in disbelief.

This comment was an aim to capture the mainstream vote, but seemed so incredulous a statement to come from the mouth of a left wing social politician with a background in activism, that you couldn’t help but chuckle at his showmanship. Despite this, Dr. Brown’s comment wasn’t without foundation; his reasoning was that his party's policy of spending money on education, health and helping pensioners, instead of implementing the $34 & $31 billion dollars of tax cuts proposed by the major parties, was more economically conservative.

Many people who have read my written recount of Dr. Brown’s comment have agreed with Dr. Brown, they even said the comment had won The Greens their vote. Maybe you need to see the claim in black and white, rather than out of Bob Browns mouth.

Bob Brown will do anything he can to glean a second of the spotlight, because he has to get the airtime in the media to make his minor party relevant to more people. In the history of The Greens which set it’s foundations around a single issue, Bob Brown as it’s leader has had to be a politicalopportunist to keep the party afloat whilst developing The Greens platform to have a broad spread across the issues of importance to voters. Now with climate change being a mainstream political issue, Bob Brown took this opportunity to broaden the appeal of his party across the other mainstream issues of irresponsible taxation, health, education and making a play for the pensioner vote.

After making a friend aware of Bob Brown’s claim, I commented that I thought Bob Brown was more of a political opportunist than John Howard. My friend’s reply, “Bob Brown more of a political opportunist than John Howard - surely you jest?”

Despite my friends scepticism, I'd give the political opportunism award to Bob Brown ahead of John Howard. Brown is more of a one trick pony in the ‘political opportunism stakes’. He goes for attention wherever he can, with the aim to lift the profile of The Greens. To establish his The greens, Dr. Brown has no other choice or his party could like the Democrats, see thier popularity eroded.

There is more dimension to John Howard's political opportunism, than purely the attention seeking of Dr. Brown. If Mr. Howard were only a political opportunist then he wouldn't have lasted in politics for over 30 years and as Prime Minister for 11 years.

Howard is a man who was looked upon by his own party in the first twenty years of his political career as someone with limitations in regards to intelligence and a thorough understanding of how to develop policy. Howard morphed himself into a leader, again, because basically there was no one else near capable and the party went with someone who had a trusting profile to beat Keating, which really wasn't that hard a task, because Keating due to gallivanting on his ideological and philosophical bandwagon, had lost touch with the people.

So in the last 11 years my take is Howard has acted pretty much from his own beliefs rather than developing any vision through consultation, in the consideration of how he will leave Australia in the future, those of the right do claim vision in regards to the economic portfolio under Howard and Costello though. And when John's beliefs seem unpopular he will modify them so they become more unobtrusive and don't grate with the mainstream populous. Howard’s downfall may just be his judgement of public feeling towards the implementation of Work Choices. Further to this Howard's skill, is to identify an issue that can capture public acceptance and then take the middle ground, thus keeping his party in government by not doing anything wrong by the electorate.

Howard also survives by being a wedge politician which is where he is a political opportunist, which shows him to be a great reader of public feeling, thus fulfilling his party's aim of staying in power, but showing little foresight in how to develop a progressive nation in regards to social policy or the upkeep and development of infrastructure. Of course the pure capitalists of his side of politics will contend that, purely generating economic prosperity fulfills these concerns.

To me we do live in a lucky country in Australia, in the sense that we are a civil and obedient people who enjoy a good quality of life, but we really lack a culture of thinking, where there is an environment of academic discussion out of which ideas develop about how our country should progress. Our politicians don't really have a history of consulting the breadth of academia just use it selectively by finding an academic that fits their political way of thought, then just sort of follow the dog of what is popular. Our politician's are pretty simple, they just follow trends similar to how it used to be said that our economy once 'rode on the sheep's back'. Or in this government's case, following the economic portfolio of the nation - gearing the economy to the industries we are proficient in, which does take intelligence in terms of management but I'd credit that more to Costello rather than Howard. Howard just fits the Australian profile hand in glove; to me he is 'Mr. Lucky'.

Don't get me wrong, Howard is a cunningly intelligent politician but I don't think he is really an overtly intelligent man. Where are the great philosophical speeches of his 11-year reign as Prime Minister? They don't exist, the extent of Howard's leadership, is that when something goes wrong, like the Cronulla riots, the Bali bombings or the death of a soldier, Howard comes into the domain as a moral conscience, a genuinely caring person who soothes people's nerves. I don't doubt the guy's humanity; it's his lack of any vision with his decision-making ability.

Howard is a political opportunist, a specialist wedge politician, but he is also 'one of us', that is the characteristic that endears him to the middle class, which makes up the percentage of our populous & keeps him in power. John Howard is 'Mr. Lucky' of the 'lucky country'. I'm sure Costello would have showed more of a broader vision for Australia had the Liberal party room allowed us to see it in this election, but John stayed on because the Liberal Cabinet knew he had a better chance of getting them re-elected. If Howard didn't fill this political aim/criteria better than Costello, miles on the board or the Liberals being indebted to him for leading them in governance for 11 years would have counted for nothing, Howard would have been expedient.

Now with the Liberal campaign flagging, in the next four weeks Howard, as a 68 year old, has to be recast as a man of the future. As Mr. Rudd has been accused of being ‘me too’ by copying Howard on various policies, Howard will now challenge Rudd’s claim that he doesn’t have a plan for the future, by in the rest of the election campaign becoming a Mr. ‘Me Too’ who has a plan for the future. Who knows whether he'll be successful? Howard comes across as that an inoffensive personable chap, with the
well -oiled Liberal Party machine operating, Australian's may just buy Howard, again.

In simple terms, John Howard is a political opportunist, who has a few tried and true political plays in his play book which I think are a bit more multi-faceted than just political opportunism, rather being reflective of a person with 30 plus years experience who now is an expert in playing politics in our political landscape, but really Howard's survival in crunch times, like the last three weeks of an election campaign, relies on being just a good ordinary bloke with a back bone who can be trusted.

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