Nimetic

Is anybody attempting to follow this?

It's all a little long-winded for me, but I checked the DFAT mission statement, and it seems to me that they have been unsuccessful when judged on that basis.

Likewise, I'm not impressed with Howard.

But.... I'm not sure either that we should simply walk away from this internationally with our tail between our legs. After all - the alternative seems to be "Haliburton and friends".

Kostya

Regardless of the international issues at hand, the contradiction between what the Howard Government has said about Saddam's regime and their actions regarding AWB's action even if it was mere negligence to act, is scandalous in the extreme.

Nimetic

It's funny. I was just looking a pics of the rather macho Pong Su bombing (by F111s) on another website - when I had a flash of insight.

What probably occurred there was that Kim got various messages allluding to drug smuggling around the world, but nothing directly implicating North Korea. And anyways... he gets more mail than he has a chance to read.

dlish

the fact that Mr Howard has gone on record to say that he 'suspected' that there were dodgy dealings going on a few years ago and the fact that he's done nothing since then is an outrage. its like knowing that Mugabe was killing innocent white zimbabwean farmers and looting their lands and not saying or doing anything about it.

everyone suspected that there were rorts...why not do whats in your power to rectify the situation. in my opinion, thats called gross negligence.

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Nimetic

Glad to hear it. That's my view also.

I was just saying to somebody yesterday. I'm not happy with this. If I sent that police minister multiple messages saying that I'd been bashed by the police, I'd expect him to look into it.

So likewise - I expect the foreign affairs / trade ministers to look into allegations against our trade bodies.

Maybe that's harsh. Ok putting it another way, would I be happy to have Downer/Vaile in charge of health. Probably not. I'm thinking of that Queensland doctor now. Allegations need to be checked.

So I'm right with you here : >

But in present day Aust. will people act?

aKula

I think that there should have been some investigation set up into AWB as soon as the accusations reached the government. Now I think there should be an investigation looking at the government as well, but that's not going to happen. So I think they'll get away with this until perhaps the next election. Then again with the current opposition leader they may get away with it then as well.

There are so many scandals coming out of this government and the ministers seem to be able to survive them all. If you think what they've survived so far: the lies about the "children overboard", incompentence in the immigration department, Howard's enthanol crony. There have been many more. In each case it seems to boil down to the minister involved not knowing anything.

Then there was this announcment that they'll now consult Indonesia over any asylum claims from west Papuans. Now I concede this could be a move to appease the Indonesians while actually not paying any heed to their claims of innocence at all. If they do give great weight to their arguments however, it will be like if west germany asked east germany if they were really suppresing the people who managed to make it over the wall and sending them back on the assurances that the refugees are lying.

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Nimetic

Well of course they'll ask for input from Indonesia, but you know - there's more information coming in than the ministers can read : >

On the topic of the Papuans, I think the best argument was a letter I read in TheAge. They essentially pointed out that we didn't expect to be consulted about the drug trafficers caught recently, and took on-board the fact that Indonesia has it's own laws. The same can/should be said for immigrants.

But yeah.. I'd probably support the government in seeking to take some heat out of this issue. Howard gives them a morsel, and everybody can take a step back. Whether that amounts to anything much is another matter entirely. For myself - I sorta accept, based on recent reading, that the Papuans have been mistreated. Still, we can't rehouse thousands on them. The answer is probably to let DIMA shuffle papers for a while, while quietly protecting the people involved.

Whether such a matter can be trusted to DIMA and Vanstone is another matter of concern however, in my view.

spindles

this government has spent an awful lot of time in power, considering how little they seem to "know". The biggest problem is Beazley is not a credible alternative. In any case, once again we are shown what a pathetic little weasel we have running the country.

I bet that a lot of things may have been discussed with their departments, but the crucial memos were never actually sighted, giving them the ability to say "I never saw that".

The worst part about this is government ministers (Downer and others) making money on AWB shares at the time these allegations started to surface, but then denying that they knew anything.

This is quite an interesting read - an exerpt from the Sunday program.

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Willravel

I absolutely love AWB. I mean most people love "Play that Funky Music White Boy" and "Pick Up the Pieces", but they managed to write some truely original pieces that always put me in a good mood. http://www.averagewhiteband.com/

Back to serious discussion...accountability is a rarity in our society. As one of your neighbors to the northeast, I can relate a great deal with the deeply seeded and growing mistrust of the leaders of the country.

http://news.tradingcharts.com/futures/0/9/77530690.html is a good article that has introduced me to the story. If anyone else has some links, I'm very interested in learning more.

spindles

You could always pick your favourite aussie news paper and google for articles:

like this on the sydney morning herald...

http://www.google.com.au/search?hl=e...e+Search&meta=

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Nimetic

Haha. You may have underestimated us. Australians view politicians as akin to second-hand-car salesmen. Our key fault seems to be a huge and growing apathy (rather than trust). Life simply seems to be too comfortable for most of us.

For my part though, I love judicial enquiries. Watching a politician hit the rocks is a great spectator sport.

Nimetic

The article is ok - the cartoon is more fun. Ok, it's not quite a simple comparison, but it's head is in the right place.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/shaun-...521502044.html

Nimetic

Oh.. This is a better bit of writing. Nice.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinio...344080841.html