Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

"‘The DVD that disgusted a city’ was one of the news headlines in the shocking case of a DVD produced and sold in Melbourne’s outer west by the self-styled "teenage kings of Werribee". What at first looked like a Jackass-style prank posted on YouTube, police are now investigating as sexual assault involving up to 12 youths. Sadly, amid the media storm, the trauma goes beyond that of the victim. Students from one of the district schools named by the media have had passers-by spit at them in the street. This degree of public hate contains an irony we shall examine. ": Stephen Smith

"Our reputation as a successful multicultural society is now threatened. ... The new security laws diminish the rights of all Australians. I do not know of any other democracy that has legislated for the secret detention of people the authorities know to be innocent.": Malcolm Fraser
Text updated to transcript of speech as delivered

"The point is not that public confidence (or lack thereof) in an election outcome doesn’t matter. It does. But the broader picture – whether, as in Mexico, a country is able to continue to go about its business as its political institutions sort out the mess – matters far more. Unlike in Ukraine, investors have shrugged off the noisy demonstrations in Mexico City’s streets and remained focused on interest rates and fluctuations in the global economy. This suggests that governing principles and sturdy political institutions, not powerful individuals, have become the bedrock of Mexican governance. " Ian Bremmer

"Burma is failing miserably to live up to the standards of decency that the Southeast Asian region is setting for itself. The military remains firmly in control, the rule of law is absent, and the government refuses to admit to the systematic sexual violence committed by its soldiers as they terrorize the population. All of Burma’s people deserve security, and refugee women and girls who have experienced gender-based violence need the world’s solidarity and support. ": Teresa Kok Suh Sim, Nursyahbani Katjasungkana and Eva K. Sundari

"The wars in Lebanon and Gaza constitute a grave threat to democratic reform in the southern Mediterranean. These wars are inflicting heavy punishment on precisely those peoples who have held fully free and fair elections in the region, while eroding the legitimacy of Israel’s democracy.": Álvaro de Vasconcelos

"When football matches – at least those that must produce a winner – end in a draw, a penalty shoot-out must resolve the matter, as this World Cup has demonstrated so dramatically. The shoot-out’s individual competition for heroism or misery is really alien to such a team game as football, but it is accepted as a necessary way to resolve the stalemate. But when it comes to elections – which ideally should always produce a winner – there is no such device." Ralf Dahrendorf

"Over the last decade there has been increasing acceptance that the Republican debate has delivered to this country the classic rock and a hard place proposition. Which is to say; "we'll be damned if do and we'll be damned if we don't!" Option 'C' is therefore a concept that is set to provide a bridge over these troubled waters.": Max Wilkinson

There is much debate in the UK around the declaration by a group of bloggers and journos that calls for (yet another?) re-alignment of progressive forces under the heading of The Euston Manifesto. Life being what it is, the debate has been more around the "Elaborations" than around the "Statement of principles" - but are even the principles the right ones? To help you consider that question, here is the full text.

"Fascism can be defeated by rational argument (that’s why fascists hate intellectuals), by genuine democracy (that’s why they despise civil libertarians), by legal principle (that’s why they criticise independent judges), and by international conventions (that’s why they fulminate about the United Nations). They claim they are defending our way of life, or our civilisation, even while they are undermining its fundamental principles. All civilisations have tried to raise people above fascism, but the fight has to be had over and over again." Alison Broinowski

"As with the factions of the major parties, the major parties themselves are vehicles of power, not of policy. They are increasingly revealing themselves as the operations of insular groups seeking to bring power to political time-servers without the slightest hint of real world experience. The rank-and-file membership is not even of passing importance to the career politicians who run the parties, and it is hard to imagine how somebody who has never done anything but politics could relate in any way to the people they claim to represent." Troy Rollo

"From the evidence to emerge from the Cole Commission there seems little doubt that the Howard government backed the AWB until confronted by the UN Volker report in 2004. It then succumbed to US pressure and agreed to hold an inquiry into the AWB. What a farce when the Howard government has refused to hold inquiries into detention camps, SIEV X, infrastructure and water." Bruce Haigh

David McKnight’s Beyond Right and Left: New Politics and the Culture Wars was reviewed on Webdiary back in October. McKnight is essentially a politician whose analysis of the capture of the parties of the left by the market imperative is used as a basis for a program for regeneration of the left. Almost simultaneously with McKnight’s Australian publication, a very different analysis by a right-wing sociologist, Frank Furedi, was published in the UK: Politics of Fear: beyond left and right (London & New York, Continuum). David Roffey reviews it.

"I will be reminding them [Muslim leaders], as I remind all Australians, our common values as Australians transcend any other allegiances or commitments, and I will be talking in practical ways about how these goals might be achieved." This controversial statement by John Howard is discussed by Greg Clarke

"Queenslanders in 2005 discovered that their public health system was chronically underfunded, poorly run and in some cases it provided dangerous and even deadly services for those who turned to its hospitals for attention. Two Commissions of Inquiry (the first shut because of the apprehended bias of its Commissioners) and a wide-ranging administrative inquiry were instituted after a whistleblower nurse, Ms Toni Hoffman, told her local MP about the disastrous surgical exploits of an overseas-trained doctor, Dr Jayant Patel, who had become infamously known to some of his colleagues as Dr Death." David Solomon

"The election of the militant and hitherto extra-parliamentary group Hamas in the Palestinian territories reminds us of what democracy cannot achieve. No one in a more established democratic state is surprised if one’s own side does not win. Democracy is about competing parties, and, unless they form a “grand coalition,” they cannot all win. But what if an election’s winners have no intention of abiding by the rules that are part and parcel of the democratic process?" Ralf Dahrendorf

"One immediate issue Democracy Watch is mobilising against is the federal government's attempts to raise the disclosure threshold from $1500 to $10,000. This effectively means an individual, corporation or union could donate $9,999 to every state, territory and federal branch of a major party without the source of any of these donations having to be disclosed. That would total $89,991. This proposal is appalling and it must be stopped." Democracy Watch President, Brad Pederson

"Today I have formally tendered my resignation to the Prime Minister from the position as Defence Minister and Leader of the Government in the Senate." Senator Robert Hill

"Any 'diarists fancy doing an analysis of which former Howard staffers are now working for Big Pharma? Or any former staffers of other pollies for that matter? How many former pollies and political staffers have gone on to drugs after politics?" Craig Rowley

"It is sorely tempting to accept Professor Mirko Bagaric’s thesis that Australians would not benefit from a Bill of Rights... But his capstone argument appears to be that there is no point in us having a Bill of Rights, as our politicians as ‘lawmakers’ would simply find ways to subvert those rights!" John Richardson.

"Of course, real conservatives realise that multiculturalism is the status quo. That explains why real conservatives, people like Jeff Kennett and Malcolm Fraser and John Hewson and Tim Fischer, don’t waste their time with the badly reconstructed Marxists and lefties that now seem to dominate allegedly conservative discourse." Irfan Yusuf

"This year, Australians could be issued with a "smartcard". Containing a computerised chip, these cards will hold sensitive, identifying information about the holder, allowing him or her to access government services." Senator Natasha Stott Despoja

"In the 2005 rankings, Iceland scored as the least corrupt country, with the Scandinavian countries, New Zealand, and Singapore close behind. The US ranked seventeenth from the top, a not-so-glorious position for the world’s leading power. In general, the poorer the country, the lower the ranking: tied for last place are Chad and Bangladesh." Jeffrey Sachs.

Justin Wilshaw kindly suggested we publish the following statement from The Howard Government for discussion. I for one take it at face value and believe every word, but other Webdiarists may not agree. Hamish Alcorn.

by Jack H Smit
Project SafeCom

Ian Harper, John Howard's new Fair Pay Commissioner, is an Anglican who's on God's side, and he's been pretty open about it since his appointment. It seemed a bit up in the air at the time, but Australian reporters let him have his day in Heaven when he was first appointed. Now, it seems, Mr Harper may know more about God than about the Australian history of Industrial arbitration, a discovery probably first made through Sydney-based blogger Evan Jones - on his Alert and Alarmed Blog - and further brought to the public domain by the folks of ABC Radio's PM program this week.

"The benefits of tolerating free speech outweigh the harm of abusing it. Indeed, the Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen has demonstrated that free speech even helps mitigate seemingly natural catastrophes like famines, because it reveals the ways in which a few haves exploit the many have-nots. As the watchdog organization Transparency International reminds us, corruption exposed is in many cases corruption prevented. These practical consequences are above and beyond the liberating effect of allowing the “marketplace of ideas,” rather than state authorities, to judge people’s expressed views." Ralf Dahrendorf.

Update 10.50pm: with permission Andrew's 5pm Update was added to this post.

After having to endure the government’s use of very sharp guillotines in the Senate to prevent scrutiny of hugely significant legislative changes in the areas of welfare, industrial relations and civil liberties, I sat through the absurdity of government Senator’s filibustering* on non-controversial legislation while they waited to discover whether or not the government can reach agreement on the University student services legislation (usually known as the VSU Bill). Senator Andrew Bartlett.

UPDATE 8.50PM: Dems Senator Andrew Bartlett's first terror debate report for Webdiary has been added to this entry.

UPDATE 7.50 PM by Margo: The Government has just, without notice to non-Government Senators, guillotined Senate debate on the terror laws in what Dems Senator Andrew Bartlett said was an "utterly corrupt process". Few get the chance to state their views - speeches must and end at 8.30pm. All amendments must be debated, questions asked and the vote taken in a mere three and a half hours tomorrow, with the vote at 6.30 pm. It's unprecedented. You can hear and watch the speeches by going here.

The Law Council has launched a final assault on the Federal Government's anti-terrorism legislation and its lack of response to the legal profession's objections to the laws. Full-page advertisements will appear in newspapers criticising John Howard's failure to reply to a Law Council letter condemning the counter-terror laws.

UPDATE Dec 5 by Margo: The Government has just announced a crunched, derisory Senate debate on the Welfare to Work package. Speeches will be allowed from 8.30pm to 11.30pm tonight. Amendments must be debated, questions asked and votes taken between 7.30pm and 11pm tomorrow. You can hear and/or watch the debate here. 

UPDATE Dec 1 by Margo: Western Australian Liberal MP Judi Moylan tells Webdiary why she abstained on the House of Reps vote today on the Welfare to Work package.

November 30, Judi's speech to the House of Reps: "In my view, we have lost a golden opportunity to reform welfare in a meaningful way and put in place a package of measures that would strongly support not just the incentives for employers but true and real incentives for employees with additional caring responsibilities and disabilities to be supported in their efforts to access the workplace. I find this cut in income support really very disturbing the eve of the delivery of tax cuts for families earning more than $1,200 a week. We will all be the poorer if this legislation goes through. In my view, that part of the legislation which cuts income support and imposes disincentives and high effective or marginal rates of tax on some of the most vulnerable groups in our community does not deserve the support of this parliament." Judi Moylan, MP

"In what is sometimes called the 'age of culture wars' there are three aspects of contemporary political commentary and reporting that deserve attention. None of them are especially new but all are now noticeably prominent. In my view they contaminate political discourse and significantly reduce the value of newspaper commentary. The first is the misunderstanding of bias and corkscrew journalism, the second is political apostacy and the third is the intoxication generated by proximity to power." Scott Burchill

December 2, 2005. An Australian is hanged. The career of a would-be Prime Minister who made his name breaking union power in the Courts is in ruins. The IR legislation passes the Senate as a fierce and thunderous storm whips through Canberra. Drivers in a long line of white cars outside the Parliament's Senate Entrance waiting to take the Senators away turn on their lights as rumours fly that the airport is closed. A tree uprooted by the storm falls in a nearby suburb, killing a man.