politicalowl

Monday, 9th May, 2005    - Richard Farmer   Less than a month ago Rupert Murdoch gave a speech in which he declared that "too many of us editors and reporters are out of touch with our readers." It was no wonder, the News Corporation boss told the American Society of Newspaper Editors, that people, in particular the young, were ditching their newspapers. Today's teens, twenty- and thirty-somethings "don't want to rely on a god-like figure from above to tell them what's important." So what did I find in this morning's Australian previewing its 2005 Budget Special Edition? The promise that 10 of "the nation's most experienced political, economic and business writers" would be featured. All but one of them covered their first budget at least 22 years ago. I could not tell you what the 20-somethings of my acquaintance think of the likes of Paul Kelly (first budget 1973), Alan Wood (first budget 1967) and Mike Steketee (1970)...

Sunday, 8th May, 2005    - Richard Farmer   When politicians talk, what they do not say is every bit as important as what they do say. Consider this exchange on yesterday's Channel Nine Sunday program: LAURIE OAKES: ... I mean, people must wonder how two people with a relationship as apparently poisonous as yours and John Howard's can get together and produce the right budget for this country. PETER COSTELLO: Well, I can because I've been fully focused on the budget. LAURIE OAKES: He hasn't? PETER COSTELLO: Since — well, since February. And I take responsibility for the budget. Of course I do. I'm the Treasurer. Treasurer Peter Costello did not even try to deny that his relationship with Prime Minister John Howard is 'poisonous'. Nor did he pretend that the leader and deputy leader of the country are working together on the budget. According to Mr Costello he has been fully focused on the budget but since February Mr Howard has not been. ...

Tuesday, 3rd May 2005    - Richard Farmer   John Howard gave a perfectly understandable answer to those journalists who asked him questions about his plans for the future. Of course he gave no hint of an impending retirement. To have done so would have made him a lame duck for the 12 months or so more in which he will be Prime Minister. The only surprise about this whole affair was the response of Treasurer Peter Costello. He reacted as if he had somehow been dudded. And to think just two weeks ago I made the mistake of writing how relaxed he was about the future. ( Changing the Guard  - 20th April 2005). Peter Costello should return to being relaxed. The only way he will not be the leader of the Liberal Party at the next election is if he upsets his colleagues to such an extent that they either implore John Howard to stay on or choose someone else as their leader.

It was depressing to read in this morning's papers that there is now but one person classified as a traditional owner of the land which contains the Koongarra uranium deposit in the Northern Territory. When I started working for the grand father of that sole survivor we would have 40 or 50 people at meetings under the trees considering whether they wanted mining on their land. And mining they certainly did want despite the desperate efforts of do-gooder environment groups to stop them exercising their right to determine their own future. Unfortunately for those now departed after a life of abject poverty, Labor Governments stuck to their absurd three mines policy and the mine that would have delivered the traditional owners a taste of economic security was vetoed. Unfortunately the arrival of the Howard Government coincided with a low point in uranium prices so there was no pressure to give belated approval. Not that the environmental groups stopped agitating. The traditional ow...

Wednesday, 20th April 2005    - Richard Farmer   There is little doubt in my mind that John Howard is planning his orderly retirement as Prime Minister. For a start he is engaging in an orgy of international travel which is not at all surprising. If you want to be remembered as a major player on the international stage you have to tread the boards in foreign parts as well as having foreign leaders starring in your own political theatre. Then there is the fascinating spectacle of John Howard taking the rap for the decision to blatantly abandon a key part of last year’s re-election strategy. Substantially increasing the Medicare safety net will cause considerable anger and that anger will grow as the months go by. A Prime Minister considering yet another term in office would have flicked the announcement to his Treasurer or his Finance Minister. Instead the PM is doing the decent thing by his successor in the hope, perhaps, that the anger will depart wi...

Wednesday, 20th April 2005    - Richard Farmer   There is something wonderfully refreshing about the Indonesian legal system. Defence lawyers do not go into attempts to shift the blame from their clients with long descriptions of deprived child hoods and years of abuse. They just make statements of the obvious. Like today when the counsel for two of those arrested as heroin couriers described them as: “Stupid. Just stupid.” The point was to disassociate the two from any involvement in the planning of the attempt to import heroin into Australia. They were simply simple couriers without the intelligence to understand the risks they were taking let alone develop the strategy to be an importer. The lawyer’s advice to her clients was that spilling the beans was the only way to avoid the death penalty. No wonder the Australian Federal police were happy enough for their Indonesian colleagues to make the catch. It will avoid three or four years of listening to Sydn...

Tuesday, 5th April 2005    - Richard Farmer   In the ranks of the South Australian Parliamentary Labor Party is a member described in a fax sent to 100 media organisations by two voluntary workers for an independent MP as being a pedophile. That independent MP, one Peter Lewis, just happened, until he resigned yesterday, to be the Speaker of the lower house. Now the Labor Government is attempting to have legislation passed to temporarily suspend parliamentary privilege to prevent Mr Lewis or anyone else from naming the alleged pedophile. Hence the great guessing game as the good burgers of Adelaide try to work out whom is being referred to. It is impossible not to have considerable sympathy with the Labor MP tangled up in this affair. The faxed statutory declaration apparently contained no evidence about the offence allegedly committed and past police investigations uncovered nothing untoward. Yet the Labor Government is going to extraordinary lengths...