March 15, 2010
Byron Shire Echo – Ph 02 6684 1777
8 August , Byron Shire EchoCommentHoward nds a tiger in the tankVol August , A fair AustraliaThe Australian Council of Social Services , the peak lobby group for the community services and welfare sector, is asking Australians to consider what constitutes a fair society. Given that Advance Australia Fair is our anthem why we didnt choose a song by one of our national bards about a vagrant stealing a sheep and then drowning himself is another issue it seems appropriate to wonder if we live up to the words. It is all too easy to believe the stereotype portrayed in tourism ads for overseas consumption. We are a friendly multicultural nation, madly interested in outdoor sports, and laidback in our personal philosophy while still working hard enough to keep the economy growing. However, the truth can sometimes be we respond in an angry kneejerk fashion to racist urging, we demonise minorities, we sit in front of the television while our children grow fat. We work hard because we are scared of losing our jobs or give in altogether and become another soldier in the army of the depressed. Which image is true, if either Beyond the image, there is the reality. According to ACOSS, right now there are two million Australians who do not have an acceptable standard of living and go without the bare necessities housing, work, education, health care and community services. Their daily struggle to make ends meet takes its toll on their health and life chances. It is unfair that Children in jobless families are less likely to complete high school. Currently .3 of people who have not done Year are unemployed compared to just 3 of people who have done a bachelor degree. Children in the poorest of families live shorter lives than those born in the richest families. For example Indigenous Australians have a life expectancy that is years less than other Australians. A fair decision is one that is considered valid because it meets contemporary community perceptions of what is a legitimate decision. Australia has inherited several institutions charged with upholding fairness such as democratically-elected Parliament, Constitution and the courts. However, it has frequently been groups of active citizens that have redened our perceptions of fairness. ACOSSs denition of a legitimate decision could be found specious considering the nature of some contemporary community perceptions were the contemporary Taliban ruling fairly, did George W Bush really get more votes but its examples of the poorrich divide and Indigenous inequalities shoot holes in the dream of Australia as a fair nation. ACOSS invites us to comment on the nature of fairness after taking a minute to think about a time you were down on your luck. Maybe thats the problem at the top while most of us have struggled to buy food and pay the rent at some time or another, our politicians never had to or forgot their working class roots. Many years ago an ABC current affairs program arranged for a Liberal minister to spend a week on the dole, and he found out rsthand how difcult it was to make ends meet. Perhaps it should be an entry requirement for the job of MP then at least our representatives would think more closely on the ideal of fairness. Until that job requirement is part of the parliamentary workplace agreement, visit the ACOSS website and take the challenge. Fair enoughnce more John Howards opportunism, mendacity and humbuggery have come back to haunt him. As petrol prices rise inexorably towards the 1. a litre mark and the public anger grows, our Dear Leader pleads for understanding its all a matter of supply and demand, its because Chinas demand for energy is insatiable, its because of hurricanes in America and instability in the Middle East though not, of course, his war in Iraq, its an international problem and hes really, truly, honestly not to blame. Hed just love to bring the cost to the motorist down, he recognises it as his greatest problem, but theres absolutely nothing he can do, fair dinkum cross my heart. And people just dont believe him. They dont believe him because they know if they carry on loudly enough and for long enough that Howard will make the price come down, and the reason they know this is because it has all happened before. When the price rose at the beginning of there was a huge outcry, and the government, already somewhat spooked by unfavourable opinion polls, went into a at panic. Not only did the bush receive a veritable cornucopia of fuel subsidies ranging from the easily rortable through the utterly inequitable to the frankly unworkable, but Howard knocked a sizeable chunk off federal government excise and abandoned the indexation of excise altogether. This sent a rm signal to the industry that petrol was king and would continue to be king until it ran out alto-Ogether there was to be no serious attempt to ration an increasingly scarce resource through the use of the market, and the search for alternatives was to be seen as an unnecessary frippery. And if the message didnt get through in it was heavily reinforced three years later when Howard offered a pre-election bribe of another 1.5 billion in subsidies both to off-road farm vehicles and to long-haul transport, a policy which became abbreviated as Cheap Diesel for Big Trucks. Just llprice of petrol likely to keep rising it would do very little political good. There are more profitable ways of spending 4 billion in the lead up to an election year extra funds for political junk mail, for instance and there have to be cheaper ways to divert the publics attention. It is probably too late to try and educate them to the fact that Australia has cheaper petrol than almost anywhere outside the United States and the middle east itself, or to tell them that they were silly to buy that huge fourHoward has pandered to the greed of the electorate for far too long to start preaching restraint now. by Mungo MacCallumup at the nearest pump and dont worry about the cost the government will look after it. But although the main beneciaries of this squandermania were the farmers and the truckies, the message was clear to all motorists indeed, to all consumers if you just make enough fuss, if you hold your breath till you turn blue in the face and then scream and scream and scream till youre sick, Johnny will buy you an ice cream. Hell keep telling you no, but he doesnt really mean it. The problem is that this time he does mean it he really has to. He simply cant afford to lose any more of the excise as he himself has pointed out, to cut the excise by even ten cents a litre would cost the budget around 4 billion a year and with the wheel drive gas guzzler just to drive the kids half a kilometre from the McMansion to the local private school Howard has pandered to the greed of the electorate for far too long to start preaching restraint now. The tokenism of a touch of ethanol in every tank appeals, once again, to the farmers but does almost nothing to reduce costs to the motorist and absolutely nothing to promote fuel conservation, which is the real problem. The subsidy for those who already overuse their vehicles to convert to gas is another piece of panic-driven economic nonsense it will simply push up the price of gas supply and demand again, Prime Minister and in any case, the gas is to become subject to excise in a few years so theprice will rise anyway. It is, after all, a by-product of the same crude oil from which we rene our petrol, and will run out at the same time. This is not a policy it is pure political adhockery. But since political adhockery has driven this governments approach to fuel for the whole of the last decade, we have no reason to be surprised. And deep down we are still convinced that if we throw a big enough tantrum, that same adhockery will give us back petrol at a dollar a litre. But then, we believed that hed keep interest rates low, too. Some voters will never learn. nother example of Howards adhockery he himself would, of course, describe it as realistic and pragmatic government that pays due attention to public concern is the decision to allow a free vote on bringing embryonic stem cell research up to the level that operates in most other countries. The very idea has further unhinged Tony Abbott, who has warned that such legislation would turn Australia into some kind of Island of Dr Moreau in which mad scientists would create halfhuman monsters and release them to terrorise the populace. Such statements might suggest that Abbott is unt to occupy the ofce of health minister, or indeed any room that lacks well padded walls and a secure lock on the door. But then, what else would you expect from the Mad Monk, whose own idea of medical research consists of an annual pilgrimage to LourdesALiver Clinic Support GroupThe Byron Shire Echo established Publisher David Lovejoy Editor Michael McDonald Photographer Jeff Dawson Advertising Manager Geoff Williams Accounts Manager Simon Haslam Production Manager Ziggi BrowningThe job of a newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Finley Peter Dunne - Echo Publications PL Village Way, Stuart Street, Mullumbimby Ph Fax Byron Bay 36 Jonson St. Ph Printer Rural Press Reg. by Aust. Post Pub. No. NBF.Nicholas ShandFounding EditorUnsolicited contributions are welcome but, given the volume of material we receive, not all submissions will be acknowledged. Email to is the preferred means of receipt.