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Project SafeCom News and Updates 27 February 2006
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Project SafeCom
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Feb 26, 2006 15:00 PST
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Project SafeCom News and Updates 27 February 2006
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¤ - In this Edition - ¤
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1. Asylum-seekers top agenda in Jakarta
2. Indonesia seeks consular access to Papuan asylum seekers
3. Downer faces dual diplomatic tests
4. Rau still waiting for compensation
5. Refugees 'sank the damn boat', says PM
6. Saddam guard's visa anger
7. Pacific islands record sea level rise
8. 50 million refugees in the next four decades from natural disasters
9. Pacific Island And Norwegian Youth “Take Action” On Climate Change
10. Some more equal than others
11. PM accused over jihad remark
12. Live here and be Australian, Howard declares
13. The Bigoted Wombat: John Howard' Does Abu Ghraib
14. Costello's step right may be stretch too far
15. For one night, the life of the party
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==============================
1. Asylum-seekers top agenda in Jakarta
==============================
The Australian
Patrick Walters, National security editor
February 27, 2006
ALEXANDER Downer will meet senior Indonesian officials today in a bid to
calm Jakarta's concerns over Australia's handling of 43 Papuan
asylum-seekers now on Christmas Island.
There is a growing expectation in Canberra that most, if not all, of the 43
could end up staying in Australia after having their cases examined by the
Department of Immigration.
The issue is extremely sensitive for the Yudhoyono Government, with senior
Indonesian officials warning recently that conferring refugee status on the
Papuans would undermine bilateral relations with Canberra.
"Their applications are being considered one by one by the Immigration
Department and they will make an assessment consistent with the legal
obligations that Australia has," Mr Downer said yesterday ahead of leaving
Australia for Jakarta.
The Foreign Minister will have breakfast with his counterpart, Hassan
Wiryuda, this morning at the start of a 16-hour visit to the Indonesian
capital.
Mr Wiryuda raised the Papuan case in a recent telephone call with Mr Downer
following a similar call from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to John
Howard last month. A grant of asylum by Australia would confirm in the
minds of some Indonesian policy-makers that Canberra was seeking to
undermine Indonesian sovereignty over West Papua and encourage secessionist
sentiment.
Immigration officials have interviewed all the group who landed near Weipa,
in northern Queensland, after a five-day canoe voyage. The department will
make a final assessment on their applications by mid-April.
Dr Yudhoyono personally guaranteed to the Prime Minister that the
asylum-seekers would not be harmed if they returned to Indonesia.
Dr Yudhoyono and Mr Wiryuda say that Indonesia has steadily improved its
human rights record in West Papua.
The 43 Papuans, who included independence activists, say they could be
killed or persecuted if they are forced to return home -- a claim rejected
by Jakarta.
Mr Downer will also discuss strategies for curbing illegal fishing in
Australian waters by Indonesian fishing vessels and raise the issue of
clemency for Bali Nine ringleaders Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran --
sentenced to death by a Bali court two weeks ago -- with Mr Wiryuda.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18283587%255E2702,00.html
=============================================
2. Indonesia seeks consular access to Papuan asylum seekers
=============================================
ANTARA News Agency
Feb 24 21:58
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesia urges Australia to give it full consular
access to 43 Papuans currently seeking asylum in that country.
Foreign ministry spokesman Yuri O Thamrin said here Friday Indonesia would
continue urging Australia to give the access to the Indonesian government
although most of the asylum seekers themselves did not agree with it.
"We are entitled to such consular access under the Vienna Convention of
1961. So granting of the access does not need a consent of the asylum
seekers. It is the legitimate right of our mission there to meet with their
citizens," he told newsmen.
Yuri said "what we have received so far is merely an explanation from the
local immigration office. We appreciate that, but it will not reduce our
right for the access."
He said the status of illegal immigrants applied to the 43 Papuans was
indeed against the Australian regulations on visa application.
"We feel that something is wrong here. They are illegal immigrants, but
they are given a visa and their request for an asylum is being considered,"
he said.
In view of that he said the Indonesian government had asked the Australian
government to refer to the UN Convention of 1951 on Refugees in considering
their status.
The convention states that only those who are under a threat of being
legally processed because of their political views, racial or religious
backgrounds would be eligible to a political asylum.
"I have spoken with the Papua regional police chief and he told me that the
43 Papuans are not wanted by the police," he said.
The country`s highest leader has even guaranteed their security if they
return, he said
He also has no objection if Australia would inspect the real condition in
the field, Yuri added.
According to latest information, 40 of the 43 Papuans are still being held
in the immigration detention center on Christmas Island although they are
allowed to stay with the islanders. The other three are in Perth for a
medical examination, he said.(*)
LKBN ANTARA Copyright © 2005
===========================
3. Downer faces dual diplomatic tests
===========================
By Mark Forbes, Jakarta
February 27, 2006
AUSTRALIA will call for leniency for two members of the Bali nine sentenced
to death and face Indonesian demands to reject 43 Papuans' claims for
asylum when Foreign Minister Alexander Downer meets counterpart Hassan
Wirayuda in Jakarta today.
Mr Downer will also deliver a keynote speech at an international conference
focusing on eliminating suicide bombings. He will be accompanied by
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty.
Mr Wirayuda's spokesman, Yuri Thamrin, has signalled he will call for
Indonesian access to the Papuan independence supporters, who made claims of
persecution and demanded asylum when they arrived off Cape York last month
after a five-day voyage in an outrigger canoe.
"We would like to really underscore there is no persecution being directed
to our brothers, the so-called Papua 43," Mr Thamrin said.
Indonesia is angry at being denied access to the Papuans, whose asylum
claims are being investigated by the Immigration Department. An ongoing
independence struggle in the resource-rich province has resulted in claims
of widespread human rights abuses.
Mr Thamrin said parliamentarians from Papua should be allowed to encourage
them to return and "explain to the Papua 43 that they are not target of
persecution".
"It's a legitimate right of a sovereign country to have access to meet
their citizens," he said.
Indonesia has imposed a ban on foreign journalists travelling to Papua, but
Mr Thamrin said a delegation of Australian politicians could be allowed to
visit the province. Indonesia has warned that relations with Australia will
be disrupted if asylum is granted to the Papuans.
Mr Downer yesterday said he would explain that the asylum seekers had to be
processed in line with Australian law and its international obligations.
He confirmed he would raise the plight of the recently convicted heroin
traffickers, the Bali nine. He will focus on the two ringleaders sentenced
to death and reaffirm Australia's opposition to the death penalty.
Mr Thamrin said it would be quite natural for Mr Downer to raise the issue,
but warned that Australia needed to respect Indonesia's tough anti-drug
laws. Although President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono could pardon the pair,
clemency could only be granted at the end of all legal processes, he said.
Today's conference will examine the threat posed by suicide bombings in
Indonesia and ways to better combat terrorism. It is likely to call for
more attention to the social, political and historical causes of terrorism
rather than simply tightening security enforcement.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/downer-faces-dual-diplomatic-tests/2006/02/26/1140888749199.html
==========================
4. Rau still waiting for compensation
==========================
From: AAP
February 27, 2006
AUSTRALIAN resident Cornelia Rau is still waiting to be compensated for her
wrongful immigration detention. Ms Rau's lawyer and family have called for
a compensation claim being considered by the federal government to be
finalised.
"There are delays in getting an adequate response from the government
regarding an arbitration package," Ms Rau's Sydney lawyer Harry Freedman
was quoted by the Adelaide Advertiser today as saying.
"It is taking a long time.
"We are getting fed up with the delays."
Ms Rau, a mentally ill Australian resident, was released from South
Australia's Baxter detention centre last February.
She had been wrongfully detained for 10 months in Baxter and a Brisbane
jail before her identity was discovered.
Ms Rau has reportedly stated she wants compensation of at least $500,000.
Her NSW-based relatives also reportedly were angry that up to $10,000 in
travel and legal expenses they were promised so they could visit the
40-year-old in Adelaide was yet to be reimbursed.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said Ms Rau's compensation claim was
being treated as a high priority.
"A proposal by Ms Rau's legal team had been given to the commonwealth and
is now under consideration," the newspaper quoted Senator Vanstone as saying.
"It is important to recognise the matter is a complex one that involves a
number of federal and state organisations."
Ms Rau is believed to be studying at TAFE in Adelaide.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18285628-29277,00.html
================================
5. Refugees 'sank the damn boat', says PM
================================
The Australian
George Megalogenis
February 27, 2006
JOHN Howard says the refugees he falsely accused of throwing their children
in the sea deserve no personal apology because they did the next worst
thing - "they irresponsibly sank the damn boat, which put their children in
the water".
The "children overboard" affair became the most controversial focus of the
2001 federal election campaign, with the Prime Minister accused of
cynically exploiting voters' fears of a wave of illegal immigrants by
demonising asylum-seekers.
Mr Howard and senior ministers claimed on the eve of the election that
children aboard one vessel had been thrown in the water to guarantee their
rescue by the Australian navy. The boat sank, and the crew of HMAS Adelaide
saved all 219 asylum-seekers. But the then defence minister, Peter Reith,
released photos of the rescue at sea as evidence that children had been
thrown in the water. The Government only corrected the record after the
election, which critics claim was won on Mr Howard's tough stance on
asylum-seekers, although The Australian broke the true story two days
before polling day.
Asked in an interview for a new book to mark his 10th anniversary in power
if the issue gave his critics an easy line of attack, Mr Howard says: "The
most powerful reply to that is that they irresponsibly sank the damn boat,
which put their children in the water.
"I'm sorry, if I had have been told definitively, if I had been told that
that story was completely wrong, I would have said so, but I wasn't," he
says in the book The Howard Factor, which is published by Melbourne
University Publishing today.
"And my last act before the election was to put that video in the public
domain so that I wasn't accused of concealing it, because it was ambiguous.
"Watching that video, you couldn't tell whether people were being thrown in
the water or not, it was just impossible. But after all, they did sink the
boat."
Mr Howard said the refugees "don't carry any visible signs of being
demonised".
And figures from the Department of Immigration of the 219 mainly Iraqi
asylum-seekers reveals they wound up with the highest success rate for all
refugee claims made under the so-called Pacific solution.
The official data supplied to The Australian shows that 96.5per cent of the
Iraqis who passed through Papua New Guinea's Manus Island were awarded
humanitarian protection, though most settled in New Zealand, not Australia.
Between late August and December 2001, the navy confronted 14 asylum-seeker
boats carrying more than 2000 people.
Mr Howard says: "(This issue) figured far less prominently in the public's
mind before the (2001) election than it did afterwards, because it became
the great excuse why Labor lost the election.
"But if it had never arisen, I don't think there would have been any
difference in the result, I don't think a vote would have shifted.
"People voted for our tough border protection policy. They didn't vote for
us because of children overboard."
During the interview, conducted in December, Mr Howard also expressed his
concerns about the "fragment" of the Muslim Australian community that had
been "raving on about jihad".
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18283492%255E2702,00.html
=====================
6. Saddam guard's visa anger
=====================
The Age
By Penelope Debelle
February 26, 2006
A FORMER palace guard for Saddam Hussein, Oday al-Tekriti, is angry and
depressed at being still denied a visa after appearing last week as a
witness for the Federal Government in a trial against an alleged people
smuggler.
Mr Tekriti, 38, who told a Perth court last week that he fled Saddam's
regime after his father was assassinated, said the Federal Government
trusted his good character when it needed his help but would not accept him
as a refugee.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone late last year reopened the file on Mr
Tekriti at the request of Prime Minister John Howard after details about
his former close links to the Iraqi regime were made public.
But Mr Tekriti had already undergone at least three ASIO interviews and
Australian Federal Police checks and his identity had been well known since
he arrived at Ashmore Reef in December 1999 and was taken to the Woomera
detention centre.
Mr Tekriti, who met at Woomera, and later married, a former Liberal
politician from South Australia, Bernice Pfitzner, said he hated the people
who poisoned his father, a senior Baath party official who spoke out
against Saddam, and he fled the country believing he would be killed next.
He left behind a wife who has since divorced him and an unborn daughter,
now seven, whom he is desperate to bring to Australia.
It was the second time Mr Tekriti has co-operated with the federal police
and Minister for Justice and Customs Chris Ellison by giving evidence about
the five-day journey from Indonesia to Ashmore Reef more than six years ago
on a fishing boat with no food and little water.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/saddam-guards-visa-anger/2006/02/25/1140670303292.html
===========================
7. Pacific islands record sea level rise
===========================
ABC ONLINE NEWS
Wednesday, February 22, 2006. 12:47pm (AEDT)
Latest figures show that the sea level around the Pacific island of Tonga
appears to have risen by about 10 centimetres in the past 13 years.
The South Pacific Sea Level and Climate Monitoring Project publishes
monthly figures from 12 monitoring stations.
The latest monthly data report shows that for the stations that have been
monitored for more than 10 years, the sea level rise trend is highest in
Tonga, with a rise of 8.4 millimetres a year.
The sea level is rising at every station but there are wide variations.
The Cook Islands station is showing a rising trend less than one-eighth
that in Tonga.
At Tuvalu, which will be experiencing its highest tides in fifteen years
next week, the trend in sea level rise over the past 13 years has been 5.7
millimetres a year, a cumulative rise of about seven centimetres.
Project coordinators urge that caution be exercised in interpreting any of
the trend data because they say longer term recordings are needed.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200602/s1575741.htm
=================================================
8. 50 million refugees in the next four decades from natural disasters
=================================================
Macedonian Press Agency
Thessaloniki, 24 February 2006
Refugee numbers will reach 50 million by 2010 and 150 million by 2050
according to the United Nations not because of political instability but
because of climate problems.
The consequences as a result of the climate change can be compared only to
those of a war. The Hurricane Katrina death toll in the summer of 2005
reached 2,000 and the damages caused exceeded 100 billion dollars. The
economic damage caused by the floods in central Europe in 1998-2002 is
estimated at 25 billion dollars.
The figures mentioned were provided by Network Mediterranean SOS President
Nikos Chrysogelos speaking to ANA-MPA on the catastrophic effects expected
as a result of the climate change.
Mr. Chrysogelos evaluates as imperative the need to turn to renewable
sources of energy, bio-fuel and the use of solar energy and wind power. He
also explained that apart from the natural environment, the biodiversity,
the health and life of the people the sector of economy is also
considerably hurt.
http://www.mpa.gr/article.html?doc_id=568709
=====================================================
9. Pacific Island And Norwegian Youth “Take Action” On Climate Change
=====================================================
World Council of Churches
Press Release
Friday: February 24, 2006
Posted at Pacific Magazine
A Mutirao workshop on the effects of Climate Change was jointly run by
young people from the Pacific and Norway Youth Taking Action.
The workshop was conducted at the World Council of Churches 9th Assembly in
Porto Allegre, Brazil. The Assembly convened between 14-23 February 2006.
The workshop was held in between the ecumenical conversation on the
co-existence of God's creation where are range of speakers were invited to
address the issues that concerns them including churches like the Orthodox
Church who have been practising good steward to mother Earth as one can
relate to their daily prayer and how they worship.
Organisers of the Mutirao Fautu Talapusi of Samoa, Maren Kloster of Norway
and Frances Namoumou of Fiji Islands made a presentation on current
campaign, "Message in The Bottle".
The campaign began as a result of a WCC-funded Climate Change meeting in
Kiribati attended by leaders and youth representatives of the churches in
the Pacific. At the meeting there were two statements from the meeting, the
youth statement, A Call for Solidarity, and the Otin Taai Declaration.
These statements have been the voice and plea of the Pacific Churches
members to the World Council of Churches to their individual governments,
Annex 1 countries and church networks all around the world to stand in
solidarity with the people of the Pacific in this current change of climate
patterns.
According to Ms. Namoumou, the ‘Message in the Bottle’ Campaign was an
unexpected outcome of the meeting.
“Sven Sandvik was a representative from the Changemakers in Norway at the
meeting in Kiribati. Upon his return he found out that the Govt of Norway
was planning on an expansion to the oil factories. The 'Message in the
Bottle' campaign began here.”
A letter on behalf of the youth from the Pacific was written to the PM of
Norway voicing the concern of the youth on the fact that even though the
expansion of the oil factory was up in the North it would still have great
impacts in terms of environment to the south islands.
"This campaign continues as young people from the network that we continue
to expand and participants to the workshop were passionate to continue
raising awareness on the issue of climate change and living as good
stewards to Mother Earth.”
The Mutirao presentation focused on the impact of climate change in terms
of the change in weather pattern as felt now by Pacific Islands; frequent
cyclones with an average of nine cyclones per year; and the salination of
drinking water and ground water affecting crops planted on low-lying islands.
The presentation also highlighted how Pacific Island countries are adapting
to the effects of climate change, including raising awareness on this
critical issue; the building of a sea-wall along coastlines in Kiribati;
Tuvaluan farmers changing farming methods to planting in pots rather than
in the ground and an agreement for New Zealand to accept 'environmental
refugees' from Tuvalu.
The ‘Changemakers’ then issued a challenge, to Assembly participants, as
well as the youth of Norway and Pacific Islands: “We call the youth to
stand together in solidarity with the Pacific youth to address the issue of
Climate Change and for Churches to speak ecumenically and act prophetically
against the injustice of climate change. We call them to act now!”
http://www.pacificislands.cc/pina/pinadefault2.php?urlpinaid=20503
========================
10. Some more equal than others
========================
Sydney Morning Herald
February 25, 2006
Many people have been left behind during Howard's decade of growth. Adele
Horin reports.
TRISH Highfield will never forgive the Howard Government for what it did to
Shayan Badraie and the other 2183 children it locked up in immigration
detention centres. A child-care worker from Manly Vale, and one of the
first to blow the whistle on the plight of the hidden children, Highfield,
56, can't erase from her mind the incidents she saw behind the wire during
years of regular visiting.
"I will never, ever forgive Howard and Ruddock," she says, "for the cruelty
and the damage to children."
There are many, like Highfield, for whom 10 years of economic growth under
the Howard Government cannot compensate for what they regard as its
shameful moral failure towards the weakest of the weak in society. Ninety
per cent of the children in detention, according to the Human Rights and
Equal Opportunity Commission, were later found to be genuine refugees, but
not before the detention experience cost many their mental health.
Now 11-year-old Shayan, living in the community after two years in
detention, is reminding Australians of the policy's long-term consequences.
He is suing the Federal Government in the Supreme Court of NSW for child
abuse, claiming the Government was recklessly indifferent to his plight,
and that he still suffers.
Half of Australia, a Herald poll has found, believes we have become a
meaner country in the past decade, and two out of five believe we are less
fair. The Government has put greater emphasis on people's responsibilities
to provide for themselves and their children - for health, education and
retirement. But many of the weakest, who cannot compete in the private
market, have encountered harsher treatment than in the past.
In its policies towards the most unpopular and vulnerable groups in
Australia - the refugees, the Aborigines, and the unemployed - the
Government has taken a hard line. In its policies on social infrastructure,
it has shifted spending to private schools and private health care, and
away from the public education, health and housing that benefits the less
fortunate. But in its income policies, it has been generous to families,
including sole parents and the poor - preventing, it appears, a slide
towards greater income inequality.
The polls suggest Australians have become more liberal during the decade,
on a range of social issues. But the Government has fanned the public's
undiminished antipathy towards the most marginalised. It introduced
temporary protection visas to deny genuine asylum seekers permanent
residency after their release from detention, casting them into a miserable
limbo. It sidelined the push for Aboriginal reconciliation and
self-determination, and disparaged what it called the "black-armband" view
of history.
It made the unemployed jump through so many hoops to get their benefits
that the St Vincent de Paul Society and the Brotherhood of St Laurence
described the system not as "welfare to work" but "welfare as work".
"The Government succeeded in redefining fairness," says Michael Raper,
president of the National Welfare Rights Network. "It has come to mean
having an equal go in the marketplace rather than helping out others who
are the most disadvantaged."
Of great significance has been its shift in spending towards middle-class
services. For example, of the money it spends on all schools, it has
boosted the proportion going to private schools from 58 per cent in 1996 to
67 per cent in 2004. And, by denigrating the values taught at public
schools, it has helped cement a belief that private schooling, like a
dishwasher, is an essential part of middle-class life.
It scrapped the federal dental program for the disadvantaged while
introducing the $2.5 billion-a-year rebate for private health insurance to
pay the dental (and massage therapy, iridology and naturopath) bills of the
better-off. It has accelerated the rundown of public housing begun under Labor.
And while it has presided over a long economic boom, it failed to create
for the first six years a single full-time job for the 1 million
low-skilled men who were out of work, says Bob Gregory, professor of
economics at the Australian National University. Indeed, jobs were lost, as
many of the victims of economic restructuring ended up on the disability
support pension.
The position began to turn around in 2002, with the construction boom and a
net gain of 150,000 full-time jobs - still a drop in the bucket.
"Australia is less fair than it was. There's less money for social
mobility, and more for privilege preservation," says the Monash University
historian Mark Peel. He wrote The Lowest Rung, about life in disadvantaged
suburbs.
The lack of full-time jobs for much of the boom meant poverty amid plenty
remained a reality. Professor Peter Saunders, of the Social Policy Research
Centre at the University of NSW, says: "It is not employment, as such, that
greatly reduces exposure to poverty, but full-time employment."
An unemployment rate that reached a 28-year low is a laudable achievement
but it disguised a big contingent of underemployed and, at minimum, a
million Australians live in poverty.
The jury is still out on whether Australia has become a more unequal
society in terms of income redistribution. The very rich got richer. The
pay of the top 50 chief executives rose dramatically from an average $1.2
million in 1996 to $3.5 million in 2002. And Andrew Leigh, of the
Australian National University's School of Social Sciences, says the
wealthiest 1 per cent of Australians snared a bigger share of income.
But the most recent figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show
that, on a broader measure, Australia is no less equal than when Howard
took office. Income inequality grew a little in most years after 1996. But
the increase was wiped out in 2003-04, as low-income households caught up.
There is no obvious tax or welfare change to explain it, but the bureau
ascribes the lift partly to the $600-a-child one-off payments given in May
2004 (and disparaged by Labor). There was also a change in the bureau's
methodology.
The turnaround is so large - showing a 9 per cent increase in income for
the 20 per cent of households at the bottom, a 7 per cent gain for the
middle, and only a 3 per cent gain for the top 20 per cent - that academics
are keen to see the full data, to be released next month.
Saunders says: "It is premature, but if these latest figures are genuine,
much to the surprise of people like me, the Prime Minister might be right
in claiming income inequality hasn't grown."
The Government's generous family payments, maternity allowance and
child-care benefit - together worth $16.4 billion this financial year —
will be part of the story. Low-income families have not fallen further
behind middle-income families, according to NATSEM, the economic modelling
unit at the University of Canberra. Private schools and private health
insurance may still be out of reach for low-income parents but there is
more change in their purses these days.
Now the Government controls the Senate, a new dawn rises for the least
fortunate. Sole mothers, the major beneficiaries of family payments until
now, will be sent to work when their youngest children turn six. Many
people with disabilities will also be put to work. It will be a tougher
labour market under the new industrial relations regime.
As for Highfield, the Government can never redeem itself for what she calls
state-sanctioned child abuse: "They think the children are out and so they
can wipe it, pretend it never happened. But the kids are still suffering -
the ones they sent back to countries that have no mental health services,
and the ones they let stay here. "
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/some-more-equal-than-others/2006/02/24/1140670269274.html
=========================
11. PM accused over jihad remark
=========================
The Australian
Richard Kerbaj and George Megalogenis
February 21, 2006
THE spiritual leader of the nation's 300,000 Muslims yesterday accused John
Howard of inflaming public hatred towards the Islamic community.
Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali said the Prime Minister's criticism of the
extremist views held by a fragment of the Muslim Australian population had
been "childish, irresponsible and uninformed".
"His comments will only magnify the wave of antagonism and hate towards
Muslims," the Mufti told The Australian in an interview conducted in Arabic.
Sheik Hilali said Mr Howard should take a crash course in Islam "because if
a prime minister does not understand the true meaning of jihad, then how
can we blame the general public for not understanding it?"
But Mr Howard was supported yesterday by both the Labor Opposition and a
moderate Muslim leader who said those who advocated terrorism had no place
in Australian society.
The debate was ignited by the publication yesterday of Mr Howard's
long-held concerns that "raving on about jihad" by a minority of the
Islamic community and the conservative attitudes towards women were two
problems that Australia had not faced with previous immigrant groups.
Mr Howard revealed his thoughts in an interview with The Australian for The
Howard Factor, a book to be published next week to mark the 10th
anniversary of his rise to power.
"I stand by those comments," Mr Howard told reporters in Sydney yesterday.
"These attitudes are not typical of all Muslims but they do represent the
attitudes of a small section of the Islamic population and there's no point
in not saying so.
"I hope it will encourage the broader Islamic community to understand that
it is an issue."
Prominent Melbourne cleric Sheik Fehmi Naji El-Imam conceded that there was
a radical minority who should probably leave the country.
"These (extremists) can be found, but the mainstream are not extremists,"
the imam of Preston Mosque, in Melbourne's north, said.
"But we should ask why the extremist have such views. In the case of
Palestine and the double standards of the West, what do you expect?"
Sheik Fehmi, who is regarded as a moderate, said he understood why Muslims
would fight overseas. But he said Muslim Australians had no business
preaching and pursuing violence here.
"It's not wrong to fight the invasion in Iraq, it's not wrong to assist the
Palestinians but here (in Australia), we cannot go ahead to do some
terrorist (attack) to help the people over there," Sheik Fehmi said.
"If you live here, you have to keep (extremist views) to yourself. If you
cannot keep it to yourself, then leave."
Opposition immigration spokesman Tony Burke welcomed Mr Howard's statement,
but said it was long overdue: "Finally, he's recognised that the Department
of Immigration is one of the departments that's relevant to national
security."
Mr Burke said the deportation of Australian citizen Vivian Alvarez Solon
and the detention of Cornelia Rau showed that the minister, Amanda
Vanstone, had betrayed the national interest.
"If you don't know who you are kicking out of the country, you don't know
who you are letting in," Mr Burke said.
Sheik Hilali, head of Lakemba mosque in Sydney's southwest, said Mr Howard
did not know what he was talking about.
"His views on both jihad and the treatment of women in Islam are reflective
of a primary school student's views," he said.
He accused Mr Howard of playing politics with Muslim Australians. "The
easiest way to claim public votes these days is to attack Islam and
Muslims," the Mufti said.
"By making such statement about Muslims, he is telling the Australian
public that Muslims are different, not human beings."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,18218411%255E2702,00.html
===================================
12. Live here and be Australian, Howard declares
===================================
Sydney Morning Herald
By David Humphries
February 25, 2006
MIGRANTS are obliged to "be Australian" and social integration must be
pushed harder, John Howard has declared.
In an interview marking his 10th anniversary as Prime Minister, Mr Howard
also describes the burqa, the full head covering worn by some Muslim women,
as "confronting".
Mr Howard yesterday defended as "fundamentally accurate" a controversial
speech by his Treasurer, Peter Costello, on core Australian values.
But Mr Howard's interview with the Herald, conducted before the Costello
speech, confirmed that the two men are singing from the same song sheet in
expressing trepidation about a divide between some Muslims and mainstream
Australia.
It also illustrates the futility of some Muslim leaders appealing to Mr
Howard yesterday to censure Mr Costello for the speech on Thursday.
Mr Howard told the Herald, "when you come to this country, you become
Australian". Similarly, Mr Costello had said: "Before becoming an
Australian, you will be asked to subscribe to certain values. If you have
strong objections to those values, don't come to Australia."
In the interview, Mr Howard said multiculturalism had become distorted and
too often stupidly meant "a federation of cultures". And he said Muslims
must work at avoiding their alienation. Mr Costello condemned "confused,
mushy, misguided multiculturalism".
Initially, the Costello comments - including stripping citizenship from
people who advocate Islamic law over Australian law - were judged to be at
odds with Mr Howard. On the same day, Mr Howard had spoken of the
contribution of "all of those who weren't born in this country" and
extolled Australia as the least discriminatory country. In the interview,
however, Mr Howard said integration was underdone, even though Australia
was "very socially cohesive". Yesterday Mr Howard said Australia's core set
of values flowed from its Anglo-Saxon identity and the Treasurer's
essential point - that people should not migrate to countries they do not
appreciate - was unexceptional.
Mr Howard said Australian Muslims overhwelmingly were committed to
Australia, and terrorism was based "upon an evil, distorted interpretation
of Islam … But that doesn't mean you can't identify areas of concern, and I
think the reaction of some in the Islamic community … is quite unreasonable."
Costello backers said his remarks were intended to brand him as
conservative enough for a legitimate shot at the Liberal leadership.
Yesterday Mr Costello continued to promote the cause for a more demanding
citizenship test. On Sydney radio he brushed aside the leadership question
when asked if he was positioning himself by making remarks that some would
consider to be racist.
Despite a chorus of protest at the Costello speech, NSW's Labor Premier,
Morris Iemma, called it reasonable and practical and said immigrants should
"leave the disputes, leave the extremism and leave the fights behind". This
endorsement is a sure sign that Labor polling identifies the Muslim divide
as a potent electoral issue.
Pauline Hanson, the former One Nation leader, said she was vindicated by Mr
Costello. She added that "he needs to throw these people out of this
country who do not embrace Australia".
http://smh.com.au/news/national/live-here-and-be-australian-howard-declares/2006/02/24/1140670269194.html
=========================================
13. The Bigoted Wombat: John Howard' Does Abu Ghraib
=========================================
Counterpunch
February 20, 2006
By RACHARD ITANI
I was startled to hear Prime Minister John Howard of Australia exclaim in a
BBC interview last night that he could not understand why pictures of
starving Jewish interns of Bergen Belsen, Dachau, and Aushwitz had been
aired, yet again, by an Australian TV station a few days ago. "I don't
understand what news value there is any longer in showing more pictures of
starving Jews, tortured in these prison camps." He added that the airing at
this time was all the more disturbing that "people involved in abusing the
Jewish concentration camp interns had been prosecuted and some had even
gone to jail" and wondered who benefited from the re-airing of photos that
had shocked the civilized world. Mr. Howard was also shocked, but shocked
that the photos had been published "unnecessarily", not revolted at the
humiliating, disgraceful, vile acts that they depicted.
This is the same John Howard who ordered his armed forces to abuse Iraqi
and Afghan refugees, including young children and old people, and locked
them up in the heat of the Australian desert in a jail run by a private
American company. The same John Howard who is prime minister of the only
Western country which automatically jails all political refugees that land
on its shore, a policy he instituted. To be fair to Mr. Howard though, one
must state that he did not personally abuse the poor, starving refugees. He
let his Army, Navy and police forces do his dirty deeds. Which helped him
win the last general election on a wave of xenophobia that did not do those
who rode it, nor those who voted for Mr. Howard because of it, any honor.
The Howard team's shameful, casuistic argument against giving shelter to
starving refugees was of course that they were nothing but "illegal
immigrants" trying to sneak into Australia through the back door, i.e. that
they were jumping the line while thousands of "legal" candidates were going
through proper channels. Naturally, Mr. Howard has not heard of the
international UN conventions on refugees. Indeed, the fourth item in a list
returned by a Web search engine reads: "Detention Camps: Australia's
Shameful Breach of The UN Convention." (www.safecom.org.au/detention.htm)
To think that voters in one of the richest "Western" countries bought
Howard's argumentation lock, stock and barrel, is disheartening. To think
that they were so frightened by a few dozen refugees that they cheered when
the cynical, immoral Howard team used the might of Australian frigates
bedecked with heavy guns and rocket launchers to block access to their
shores to a bunch of men, women, and mostly children fleeing death and
persecution in a rickety boat that eventually faltered, is distressing. To
think that Australia, a country that boasts one of the highest standards of
living in the world, could not find it in its heart to open its arms to a
few dozen haggard people who were running out of food and water, is
offensive to the civilized mind.
Doubtless, Mr. Howard would have approved turning back even the "Exodus" if
it suited his election campaign. Imagine the propaganda value he would have
derived from turning back a ship carrying more than 4,500 wretched
refugees, not merely two or three dozen. Back in 1947, the "Exodus" was
prevented from docking in a Palestinian port by the British authorities
after they boarded the ship, bludgeoning to death 3 innocent Jewish men,
and injuring several dozen in the act of taking control of it. "Exodus" was
eventually forced to return to its point of origin near Marseilles before
it was taken to Germany where its passengers were forcibly removed. The
ordeal suffered by those suffering refugees, facing dwindling supplies of
food and water, proved to be one of the most defining iconic images that
helped in the establishment of the state of Israel a year later. Of course,
had the refugees stood in front of the Australian embassy in Berlin, in a
long line stretching from the Brandenburgh Gate to the Reichstag, Mr.
Howard might have provided "legal" passage to Australia to a few dozen of
them, but only so he could later claim that he too had saved Jews from
annihilation. You can imagine him dreaming of being the subject of a film
directed by Steven Spielberg, entitled "Howard's List."
But to be fair yet again to Mr. Howard, he was neither alone, nor the
first, in bemoaning the publication of the heretofore unpublished Abu
Ghraib torture photos, further documenting the abuse, abasement, and
inhumane treatment of Iraqi detainees by their American jailers. A U.S.
State Department spokesman joined the chorus of those who termed the
publication of the photos "unfortunate", though not the acts that the
photos depicted. As for his and Mr. Howard's argument that people (a few
lowly scape-goats) had been prosecuted and sent to jail (for a few years)
which in their eyes ought to be enough for the world to forget about this
affair, this same argument would have seen Himler, Goebles and Goering go
scot free for the crimes against humanity that they visited upon innocent
Jews, while a handful of SS and Gestapo murderers would have been sent to
the "Western Front" for actually carrying out the Nazi genocidal policy.
Now I know that none of you were fooled by the artifice that I used in the
first paragraph above: substituting the word "Jewish" for "Iraqi." Funny,
isn't it, how starkly revealing can be the transposition of a single word.
Mr. Howard was of course criticizing the decision of an Australian paper to
publish newly leaked photos of the criminal torture that Iraqi detainees
were subjected to in Abu Ghraib prison on the hands of their American
jailers. The world knows well by now that this torture was officially
sanctioned at the highest levels of the American government and military
command. People have often wondered why the Wehrmacht's high-command never
rebelled en-masse against Hitler's illegitimate, murderous orders. The
policy of torture that the U.S. army command ordered and instituted at Abu
Ghraib, Bagram, and other infamous locations gives us valuable insights
into how politicians can utilize propaganda effectively to corrupt the very
soul of otherwise honorable people, even in a country like the U.S. where
the majority of the people are appalled at what their government is doing
to other descent people around the world. By the by, of course not "all"
Danes, Norwegians or Dutch are as insensitive, fascist, or right-wing as
the editors of Jyllands-Posten or the current Danish Government. The
artifice of painting "all" Danes, Dutch and other Scandinavians with the
same broad brush was designed to generate the very howls of protests that
peppered the 175 responses that I received in response to my article on the
Jyllands-Posten's cartoons. That, folks, is how decent, ordinary,
law-abiding, non-violent Muslims (the vast majority of them) feel when they
are collectively painted as "potential terrorists." And, yes, of course not
all Danes or Dutch are mindless right-wingers intent on "confronting
radical Islam," an asinine endeavor if ever there was one.
And before I am submerged with further howls of protest, if not worse, at
the "unconscionable" juxtaposition of what took place in the Nazi death
camps with what happened at Abu Ghraib and other torture centers like
Guantanamo Bay, let me be perfectly clear: there is no comparison possible
between the two. The Holocaust was a barbaric, horrendous event on a
historical scale. Meanwhile, the death, suffering and destruction that the
Anglo-American led "International Community" has visited upon Iraq through
ill-conceived, inhumane, collective punishment euphemistically described as
"sanctions" that killed upward of a million Iraqis, half of them children,
and the torture and humiliation of Iraqi men, women and teenagers on the
hands of American and British jailers and "interrogators," are described as
an "anomaly" by British prime minister Tony Blair.
I have news for Mr. Blair: an anomaly is when the weather suddenly and
unexpectedly changes from bright sunlit sky to thunderous raining clouds,
ruining his open-air tea party at Checkers; an anomaly is when fluid
traffic on the M1 suddenly turns into a 4 hour long complete traffic
stoppage that causes thousands of commuters to miss both dinner with the
family and the 10 o'clock news on BBC2; an anomaly is when his government
is returned to power with a majority of seats in parliament on the strength
of a mere 25% of the popular vote. Those are indeed anomalies. What
happened in Dachau and Treblinka were not anomalies but crimes against
History itself. What happened in Abu Ghraib and Bagram and other
undisclosed locations were not anomalies but crimes ordered and sanctioned
at the highest levels of the political and military command of a country
that is full of descent, honest, hardworking people who are horrified at
the "anomalies" that their government is committing in their name. As for
the claim that British forces do not behave as egregiously as their
American counterparts, well, the recent video showing the brutal beating of
Iraqi teen-agers by British troops lays that argument to rest. Imagine how
many more similar incidents took place that were not filmed, or were filmed
but the images have not been leaked yet. The British emperor truly hath no
clothes, and Mr. Blair must take people the world over for idiots incapable
of critical, independent thought.
What I truly do not understand however, is the absence of one particular
image, in view of the ignominies suffered by Jews in recent history, and in
view of "Never Again, Never Forget." What's missing is a video showing all
members of the Israeli Knesset, led by the President of Israel, filing in
to sign a petition for the world never to forget what's happening to
innocent Iraqis in Abu Ghraib, and demanding that such practices stop
immediately. I once wrote a hypothetical letter to President Katsav
inviting him to lead the world in declaring: "We are all Iraqis now." A
friend sent it to two well-known and highly respected Israeli journalists,
hoping, I guess, that they would do the same: urge their president to
recite what must amount to the most moral words that an Israeli president
could utter today: "We are all Iraqis Now." Imagine the effect of such a
declaration on Middle East politics. Of course, though my recommendation
was meant sincerely, I never expected President Katsav to ever make such a
declaration. And the point of my letter was exactly that: to prove that for
the political leadership of a people whom Edward Saïd described as "amongst
the most moral people in the world," there's one standard for them, and
another for the "dirty Arabs."
Too much fantasy? If I had apologized to wombats down under for having
described John Howard as one of theirs, now that could have been called a
"fantasy." For the record therefore: Mr. Howard is not a wombat.
Personally, I can declare unequivocally that I don't know and have never
read about, met, or heard of, a single bigoted wombat. Cuddly creatures, they.
Rachard Itani can be reached at: rachar-@yahoo.com
http://www.counterpunch.org/itani02202006.html
==================================
14. Costello's step right may be stretch too far
==================================
Sydney Morning Herald
By Louise Dodson
February 25, 2006
COMMENT
PETER COSTELLO'S speechmaking has raised a few eyebrows among his
colleagues, with many believing his pitch to succeed John Howard has
entered a new phase.
His speech to the Sydney Institute this week condemning "confused mushy
misguided multiculturalism" and warning that Muslims should not come to
Australia if they do not subscribe to Australian values, has sparked a
storm of protest from Muslims.
It follows a speech to Parliament last week in which he supported removing
the Health Minister's veto on the abortion pill RU486, in stark contrast to
the position taken by John Howard and Tony Abbott.
They were very different speeches, but both revealed Costello's personal
views and a side of him rarely seen.
He made two major speeches in two weeks on subjects outside his Treasury
portfolio, both of which have been controversial and attention-grabbing.
With the speech on multiculturalism it seems no coincidence that it was
attention-grabbing at the very time that John Howard's 10th anniversary as
Prime Minister was attracting widespread coverage.
Keen to ensure party unity, Howard yesterday defended the right of Costello
as deputy leader to speak on a broad range of subjects. Costello's speeches
are part of a plan to define himself as a politician holding firm views
like Howard, but more modern ones, his supporters say. In other words, an
updated "conviction politician". One supporter described his motivation:
"He does not want to be seen as wishy-washy."
His identification with capital "N" nationalism also appeared designed to
draw favourable attention from powerful Sydney media personalities to
promote his career as successor on John Howard's home turf.
In his speech, he sought to tap into the view that Australians should be
more assertive about national identity and values.
The problem for him is that in the process of trying to garner right-wing
support he may have alienated some people - even in his own party - by
going too far.
http://smh.com.au/news/national/costellos-step-right-may-be-stretch-too-far/2006/02/24/1140670269223.html
===========================
15. For one night, the life of the party
===========================
Sydney Morning Herald
By Michael Gordon
February 25, 2006
NEXT week will be John Howard's, with a string of functions in Canberra,
Sydney and Melbourne to mark his 10 years in power. Last night belonged to
Peter Costello.
Despite his status as Howard's heir apparent and custodian of the nation's
prosperous economy, Costello had never hosted the kind of bash that
influential Sydneysiders might be accustomed to at Kirribilli House.
But last night Costello and wife, Tanya, hosted a cocktail party at
Melbourne's Federation Square for a cross-section of the city's political,
sporting, business and media personalities. Among them were John Bertrand,
Geoff Pollard, Darryl Somers, Robert Doyle, Clinton Casey, Margaret Jackson
and the woman Mr Costello called Victoria's leading citizen, Dame Elisabeth
Murdoch.
But what was the purpose of the party? As Peter Bartels put it: "This is
Peter and Tanya Costello at home with Melbourne's own."
Costello told the gathering of several hundred that some had suggested the
party was to celebrate 10 years as Treasurer. "Some say that's an
achievement. Personally, I don't think so. I never set out to do 10 years
as Treasurer. And, if I were any good, I don't think I still would be."
When the laughter died down, Costello explained he simply thought, with the
Commonwealth Games approaching, it was a good time to get together.
But there was an elephant in the room, as there will be at the official
anniversary events next week - the question of the succession is impossible
to ignore.
When will Howard decide enough is enough? And is Costello relaxed and
comfortable with whatever he decides? The emphatic message from Howard is
that retirement is the last thing on his mind.
"I still have a driving interest and commitment in the job," he said in an
interview. "I still want to do things."
But he will not be drawn on whether he intends to contest a fifth election
next year.
The diplomatic answer from the Treasurer, in a separate interview, is that
it has been "a privilege" to have shared the achievements of the past 10 years.
Only three members of the original Howard cabinet are still in the same
slots - Howard himself, Costello and the Foreign Minister, Alexander
Downer. Howard describes the role of his two most senior colleagues as
"absolutely crucial" to the Government's success.
He also acknowledges the role of his wife, Janette. "I am incredibly lucky
to have her. She is not only the love of my life, but she is also the
source of a lot of commonsense advice. She likes politics. We talk things
over and she's usually got a well-developed view on things. I'm very lucky."
The Costello household is similarly happy and close, though the Treasurer
has probably had to sacrifice more family time. While Howard has fully
staffed official residences in Canberra and Sydney, and adult children,
Costello, with younger children, has spent much of the past 10 years
sharing a flat in Canberra when Parliament is sitting. Not that you will
hear him complain.
His over-riding emotion 10 years on is pride over the state of the economy.
"We are respected internationally now for our economic achievements in a
way we weren't 10 years ago," he says.
Costello appears to be assuming Howard will step down later this year. The
consensus of most of his colleagues is that Howard will stay.
He is giving plenty of hints. Asked what he thought average Australians
would make of his prime ministership, he said: "The time to start
reflecting on those things is when you're about to go."
http://smh.com.au/news/national/for-one-night-the-life-of-the-party/2006/02/24/1140670269226.html
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