 Political Corrections
with Margo Kingston
Vision of a Paradise Lost, not Found
Liberal launch, February 18, 1996, Ryde Civic Centre: 'Don't any of you ever be lectured by the Labor Party about racial tolerance - never ever. It was our party that broke down the White Australia Policy. It was our party that extended the welcoming arms of the Indo-chinese refugees in the late 1970s.'
A woman of Indian heritage in a sari and an Aboriginal man were strategically placed to greet John Howard for a picture opportunity.
October 28, 2001, Sydney City Recital Centre: 'We have had a single irrevocable view on this, and that is that we will defend our borders and WE'LL decide who comes to this country.'
Pictures flash of Howard with children, youth and elderly Australians. All are white.
Labor launch, February 14, 1996, Melbourne World Congress Centre: 'We have invested in the cultural diversity of this country and we have legislated to protect the victims of prejudice. We have not turned a blind eye to racism - and we will not compromise the principle of non-discrimination in immigration by erecting new barriers which discriminate against family reunion for our non English speaking background communities.'
October 31, 2001, Hurstville Entertainment Centre: 'We need to work harder at finding diplomatic solutions with our neighbours - to take the boats back, or stop them before they leave.'
I remember 1996, Keating alone on the stage in the flash city auditorium, the single word LEADERSHIP emblazoned on the wall behind him. I remember a chaotic Ryde Civic Centre on a day when the sun shone as it shines only in Australia, and a group of Australians who looked like forgotten people who laughed and clapped in excitement at the expectation of victory.
In 2001, the venue, the launch trappings and the people allowed to come swapped, as they must. Power has its victims, draws its protests. Relaxed spontaneity is the luxury of pretenders to power.
Yet in 2001 the mood had not swapped, despite the fact that Labor reigned triumphant in the States as had the Liberals had been in 1996, despite Beazley winning a leader's debate, as had Howard in 1996, despite the fact that Howard, like Keating, was standing on on a deeply flawed record.
In 2001, the Liberal audience cheered, and foot-thumped, smelling victory. Malcolm Fraser, the ghost of a dead Liberal Party, was absent.
In 2001, on a sunny day reminiscent of that day in Ryde, the forgotten people, looking like the crowd in Ryde, walked in quietly and clapped on cue. The great Labor men - Gough, Wran, Hawkie and Keating - received their cheers, but like Fraser's absence at the Liberal launch, it reminded one more of what had been lost than what might be gained.
We have come so far since 1996. As Beazley pointed out to his audience, the parties are as one on the boat people. The Liberal audience went wild on the matter, immune to images of those dead by drowning a few days before. The Labor audience clapped sotto voce.
But bipartisanship on this and on the stripping away of on-shore refugees' rights and hopes in the post-Tampa frenzy is just one symbol of how far we've come.
In Ryde, Howard said: 'We will (put) increased emphasis on the importance of lifting the health and education standards of Aboriginal people and their job opportunities.' In 2001, he mentioned indigenous Australians once, in passing, when he announced more money to counter drug abuse.
In 1996, Keating pledged 'an unprecedented effort to solve the distressing problems of Aboriginal health and morale which are the continuing legacies of dispossession and neglect'. He promoted engagement with Asia as central to jobs and prosperity. He promised a plebiscite on a republic.
In 2001, Beazley didn't mention a republic, our role in the region, cultural diversity, pluralism, multiculturalism or indigenous disadvantage. He allowed himself a one liner, that he wanted 'a tolerant nation, reconciled with its indigenous peoples'.
In last weekend's Australian newspaper, Howard said his 'legitimacy' was still 'in limbo', and that this victory, if it was his, would give him that. He would have won the cultural wars, the debate about who we are and what we want to be.
Labor, if it loses on November 10, will, through its leadership's laziness, cynicism and contempt for the Australian people, have lost by surrender to a man more committed to his vision for Australia than they have proved to be to theirs.
Email: mkingston@mail.fairfax.com.au
Margo's web diary - www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/webdiary/
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