Friday, December 16, 2005

Aussie Aussie Aussie...

As Crikey's December 13 editorial pointed out, in an October 2001 election speech Prime Minister John Howard described Cronulla and its surrounding suburbs as "a part of Sydney which has always represented to me what middle Australia is all about".

No real surprise there, but when you consider this in the context of this week's shameful race riots at Cronulla beach, where people of "middle eastern appearance" were set upon by drunken racist thugs, it's at the very least a trifle disturbing.

So much analysis isn't really necessary, because as Crikey further quotes, Howard continued to set the record straight. "If you listen to the people of this part of Sydney, you've got a pretty good idea of what the people of Australia are thinking and what the people of Australia want from their leaders".

Of course, this was all back in 2001, but if you're in any confusion as to what Howard's thoughts on the Cronulla crowd are these days, his hasty damage control should set the record straight. "I do not accept there is underlying racism in this country" quoth our apparently straight-faced PM, simultaneously staring down mobs of "Aussie blokes" (mate) chanting slogans like "wogs go home" and "no more Lebs".

Howard didn't even see much wrong with these top Aussie sorts getting around
cloaking themselves in Australian flags.

At least Costello had the balls to put that one to rest. It's a pity the same can't be said for our Prime Minister. If this isn't proof that the Liberal party is One Nation mark II, I don't know what is.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really liked this particular posting on this topic which was drafted as a 'letter to the editor' on one of the forums I frequent.

onegiantpanda said...

That's good. A nice thorough analysis but not too long.

Love the "What about atheists or agnostics, can they get a green and gold guernsey?" and "Mohammed, you are the weakest link. Goodbye." :)

And for just one more quote, further down the page: "NSW Premier Morris Iemma met with community leaders from the local, Christian and Islamic communities on Monday, agreeing to condemn the ethnic violence around Sydney, and to further condemn the fact that no one cared what they thought." (The Chaser.)

Anonymous said...

I really like that forum - it's a football forum but many of the posters on there are or used to be professional writers writing for music magazines like NME etc so it makes for interesting reading.

I post on there to try to improve my writing style.

onegiantpanda said...

Funny how these little enclaves seem to gather on the internet sometimes. And nice to stumble across them :)