Democracy depends on political transparency and honesty in the electoral system. The USA has, with the advent of the controversially elected GW Bush at its head, squashed democracy and individual freedom in an apparent knee-jerk reaction to a series of terrorism events. By declaring war on terrorism, Bush has opened an unclosable door. How is it possible to fight a war against a noun? Not against people, not against a nation, but against a indefinite noun! Not only will this war never be won, it will allow those freedoms of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity which began with the French Revolution and were brought to the New World by Thomas Jefferson to be withdrawn indefinitely.
Australia, one of America’s staunchest allies, is also suffering from a decline in its democracy. In a political system which was based on a combination of the British Westminster system of Government and on the American Constitution, we currently have a Prime Minister, John Howard, who leads because he refuses to resign when found out in a lie. In fact he leads because his lies are believed by a majority of the electorate.
The value of a free press is that it can bring a Government to account as Woodward and Bernstein did for the Washington Post during the Nixon years. The Press in Australia is owned, in the main, by two groups. The Packer Empire and Rupert Murdoch. the founder and owner of Fox News in America. Although it is generally accepted that Howard has lied on occasion, no readily available list of those lies has ever been published by the main-stream press.
Here is such a list one small blogger has been able to put together. There are four blatant lies listed, any one of which would cause an honourable democratic leader to resign. I am not going to use my own words. I am going to use respected internet sites and cut and paste so that the information is not altered by my own bias.
Goods and Services Tax
The idea for a broad-based value-added tax was first proposed by Paul Keating in the mid-1980s but was rejected by the then Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke who believed it to be unpopular with the Australian public.
The idea was refloated in 1991 by the opposition Liberal-National Coalition, and was the centerpiece of the opposition’s platform at the 1993 election, ironically when Keating was Prime Minister. However the opposition had difficulty explaining the policy, as illustrated in leader John Hewson’s infamous Birthday Cake Interview, and Keating’s campaign exploited public distrust of the GST. The GST was seen as the main reason for the opposition’s surprise election loss of the ‘unloseable election’ in 1993.
John Howard was re-elected leader of the Liberal party in 1995, and pledged to “never, ever” introduce the GST.[1] Howard subsequently led the Liberal-National Coalition to a large victory in the 1996 elections.
In the lead-up to the 1998 election, Howard campaigned on the GST, with the GST replacing all former sales taxes, as well as applying to all goods and services. Howard narrowly won the election, describing the victory as a “mandate for the GST”. Lacking a Senate majority, and with Labor adamantly opposed to the introduction of the GST, the government turned to the minor parties for support.
A prominent selling point of the legislation was that every dollar collected from the GST would be redistributed to the states. As such, an agreement was enacted with the state and territory governments of Australia in 1999 that their various inefficient duties, levies and taxes on consumption would be removed gradually over time, with the budget shortfall being replaced by GST income from the Commonwealth Grants Commission. Furthermore, personal income tax and company tax was reduced to offset the GST.
During the 1998 election campaign, the Democrats leader Meg Lees stated that they were opposed to the GST unless food and other items were exempt.[2] The government initially stated that these exemptions were not possible, but eventually a compromise was reached, including food being exempt from the GST. The legislation was passed on June 28, 1999 as “A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999″. It gained assent on 8 July 1999 and came into operation on 1 July 2000.
Children Overboard
The Children Overboard Affair was an Australian political scandal which arose in 2001 when the government claimed that “a number of children had been thrown overboard” from a “suspected illegal entry vessel” (or SIEV) which had been intercepted by HMAS Adelaide off Christmas Island. The vessel, designated SIEV 4, was carrying a number of asylum seekers, and believed to be operated by people smugglers.
The claim was first announced by the then Minister for Immigration, Philip Ruddock on 7 October 2001, and repeated in subsequent days and weeks by senior Government ministers, including the Minister for Defence, Peter Reith, and Prime Minister John Howard.
The motivation of those allegedly throwing their children overboard, according to those who reported the incident, was to effectively “force” the Royal Australian Navy to rescue the children and their parents. The claim was used to cast doubt on the passengers of SIEV 4 as genuine refugees, instead characterising them as people prepared to use unscrupulous means to gain illegal entry into Australia.
A subsequent inquiry by a Senate select committee found that not only was the claim untrue, but that the government knew the claim to be untrue before the Federal elections, which were held one month later. Part of the title of the main report prepared by the committee has become synonymous with the scandal: a certain maritime incident.
We’ll Look After Your Families!
Andrew Russell, a sergeant in the Australian Special Air Service was the first Australian soldier killed in action since the Vietnam War.
On February 16, 2002, Russell was travelling through southern Afghanistan with four other Australian soldiers as part of Operation Slipper, Australia’s commitment to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Their patrol vehicle struck a landmine, seriously injuring the 33-year old. The four other soldiers rushed him to a nearby US military hospital, but he subsequently died of his wounds, leaving behind his wife Kylie and daughter Leisa.
There was some controversy surrounding the $37 000 compensation Kylie Russell was paid, as the spouse of a fireman or police officer is paid $300,000.
After Kylie spoke out about that differential she was snubbed in the most hurtful and insulting way by John Howard as can be read here.
Yes, we will look after your families!
Weapons of Mass Destruction
Howard stands by Iraq decision
The Prime Minister says he is not embarrassed about his decision to send troops to Iraq, even though he concedes the intelligence used to justify the attack may have been wrong. John Howard is yet to be convinced another inquiry into that intelligence is warranted. Mr Howard says before the war there was strong intelligence suggesting Iraq had banned weapons.
While there are now growing doubts about that intelligence, he says he does not resile from his decision to go to war. “I am not embarrassed … because intelligence is an imprecise science,” he said. Mr Howard says a parliamentary committee will soon report on the accuracy of that pre-war intelligence. He has guaranteed that report, which he says he has seen, will not be vetted in any way.
By Margo Kingston
March 7, 2003
I received this email today from ‘Brian Dabeagle’, who says he’s an Australian SAS officer. I have no idea if it’s genuine – perhaps readers with knowledge of the SAS can give me their judgement. Brian sent this email to Bob Brown and me:
I am a currently serving soldier in Australia’s Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) and believe me it has taken weeks, if not months of agonised soul searching as I have tried to decide whether to make my views public or not.
As you can understand, if my identity is revealed, my career (in a job that I love) is finished and as such I have taken some steps to protect my identity. However, some of the information that is in this email is not on the public record (but not vital to operational security) and can be checked to confirm my bona fides. I write this because I am sick of John Howard and the Federal Government’s lies about our position re Iraq and our role within the coalition.
By the time that you read this, it is quite possibly too late to influence the outcome of events regarding our involvement, but at the very least maybe one of you guys may have the courage to make the public a little more aware of what really is happening regarding our (the SAS) role in this conflict.
John Howard stated that we had only recently started preparing for this looming conflict. Bullshit! We, that is, 1 SAS Squadron (please refer to it as One SAS Squadron, not 1st SAS or anything else) were given orders to prepare for a war with Iraq around July 2002.
The Australian Special Air Service Regiment was specifically asked for by US planners after they had observed our performance in Afghanistan, where we demonstrated a capability that had been neglected by other Special Forces units who until recently had deemed it obsolete. Our skills in what is termed Strategic Reconaissance (SR) are unsurpassed by any other Special Forces unit in the world. This includes other so called Tier 1 (a system of rating free world Special Forces units devised by the yanks – Tier 1 being the highest rating) units, including the Brit SAS, US Delta and US Dev Group units.
What happened was we were initially deployed into areas deemed ‘clean’ by the coalition as we were viewed by the US command as really just a token gesture made by the Australian Government (as was our deployment to Kuwait in 98). We were also viewed as an ‘unknown’ quantity as our last real operational deployment working with the yanks was Vietnam. But, because we had maintained the skills of remaining ‘behind the lines’ for much longer periods without resupply or external support, we started to find things that had remained un-noticed by the coalition. Taliban & al Qaida forces started to reappear in the areas we operated in, thinking the area was secure. And, we started to find things that had been missed by the coalition as they passed through. Our discoveries led to some of the coalition’s biggest successes and suddenly the US planners started to realise that we were providing a service that they no longer had the capability to provide AS EFFECTIVELY.
Consequently and as a result of our operations in Afghanistan the relationship between the Australian SAS and our US counterparts is closer than at any time in our history. It is because of our ability to provide a service to the US effort that CANNOT be as effectively carried out by US forces that we were specifically asked for by the Pentagon right at the start of planning. Our role in this conflict is crucial to the outcome and there is no way that we can be taken out of the conflict without seriously affecting the US operational capability. Our planning was at such an advanced stage that whilst the parliamentary debate was raging, we were already into advanced planning of specific targets (not just general planning, but actual targets and operations) … quite contrary to what John Howard was stating. Without going into too much detail (for obvious reasons) what we will be doing is absolutely vital to the successful prosecution of the war. There is no way we are going to be withdrawn. This is nothing like Kuwait in 98, back then we were “untested” in the eyes of the yanks, now we are crucial to their plans.
So why am I sending you this? Because I am proud to be a professional soldier (not a nazi as I felt on the Tampa) and relish the job that I do, but I am concerned that as a human being that the war we are about to embark on is wrong. As important is the fact that I think that Howard is pandering to the will of that redneck Bush, without considering the long term consequences of this action, not just for Australia but for the whole world. He is lying to Parliament, he is lying to the people of Australia and no doubt he will lie to the dependents of any of us who don’t come back. This Government has a history of the latter as Kylie Russell, Jerry Bampton and the next of kin of the Blackhawk disaster can attest to.
As I mentioned at the start of the email, I think that maybe it is too late to do anything to affect our deployment, but at least if the truth as to our build up and deployment is made public, maybe it will give the parliament and the people of Australia food for thought.
I have not mentioned David Hicks, the Industrial Relations Laws or any of the other many derelictions of duty and departures from the truth committed by our present Prime Minister. Should anyone like to add to the list, I do read my comments!
Look here for more of John Howards Lies.
Oh, and here, as well.
Filed under: Australia, Blogroll, George Bush, Introspective, Iraq, Political, lifestyle, reflective writings | Tagged: Iraq
Really, really good, Archie! Brilliant, in fact. I was moved to angry tears with Kylie Russell’s story, and just plain angry with the WMD story! How CAN this little toad get away with this … how CAN he serve up to Kevin Rudd, the new Opposition Leader, the type of filthy mud-slinging he and his minions … er, sorry … ministers … have been throwing across the Chamber of the House over the past week? Why doesn’t somebody DO something to him, or is he so untouchable that he will never answer for his lies and his ignorance. My grandmother taught me never to tell lies … how come Little Johnny Howard’s grandmother didn’t do the same???!!! Pray to whatever deities you may acknowledge that he or his subservient little toadying wordsmiths do not get re-elected to the Parliament of this wonderful Nation!
First let me say I am hoping George and Jacob leave you soon, having done less damage than the normal tourist trade.
Second, G Dubya. This, to put it mildly, is not America’s finest hour. Too many of us worried about a President getting a blow job in the White House … now the White House is giving one to the entire nation. It’s such a bitch to admit you were wrong. But many of us recognize that tremendous damage has been done to and by this nation – misguidedly – under the name of 911. We have lost that sense that we can accomplish anything together; in fact, many of us now hate each other. Hopefully the upcoming election can end our real “long national nightmare” and get us out of the ditch. But we have to do it without the help of a free press — this is a concept that seems to be meaningless in this day and age. The way it is now, people can pick and choose what the WANT to hear … not just hear the truth. Who do you suppose “embedded” journalism in bed with?
Great compilation Archie. Sadly, there is so much material out there.
Personally, I haven’t forgiven Dishonest John for his cynical manipulation of the 1998 Republic referendum question.
[...] worse fibs. WA blogger Archie has put together a deliberately dispassionate record of some of Dishonest John’s bigger porkies; “Never-Ever GST”, “Children Overboard”, [...]
Thank you Buff, Linda and Mike. It was a difficult task dredging through all the apologists such as Piers Ackermann to find the original statements which have been buried or altered by the mainstream media. All I can ask now is that we spread thye news of this list around Australia. Let’s use this medium as a force for honesty and truth in Australia. Mike, thanks for the ping-back.
I never voted for him, NEVEr will..
If only he had a look at Europe before he ok’ed the GST he would have known, that it can not work the way he said it would.
He said we would all pay less tax and the gov. would spend more.
How is that possible?
Tax = Gov. income, so when you earn less you can spend more?
I hope our country wakes up before the next election.
Spread the word, John. Howard has removed the “fair Go” from our wonderful land and another term of this rabid wannabee neo-con would just about finish the Australia we love.
[...] I flicked over to Mike Fitz to see what’s a-doin’, and started following some of his links about John Howard’s porkies. That led me to Archie and his porky collection. [...]
I cant believe voted him in last time, what does it take for people to wake up, People talk about job creation half of the jobs are people doing work for the dole getting an extra $20 to do 25 hours a week. Iam not 100% sure but one might think there was once a law agaisnt that type of thing.
If you are empolyer ask your self what would happen with you try to employ someone at that rate.
I just watched Channel 7’s expose about employers unfairly sacking people legally. Not that that can happen according to the Cheif Cane Toad!
The biggest lie that John spurns forth is that the government is responsible for the healthy economy. Anyone with even a rudementary knowlegde of macro economics and a little common sense can work it out for them selves.. We have this government because the global economy has been good. We have this govenrnment because people in the early 1990’s had more disposable income than they had before and became comfortable. When people think they have something to loose or feel threatened they sway to conseratism. In bad economic times and where people feel they have nothing to loose they become more social/left in their thinking. Economics and safety lead to which government we have, not the other way around. We don’t have this economy because we have this government, we have this government because we have this economy.
Fear is central to a conservative party’s power base. I came from a country where that fear was experianced every waking hour.. not because it was dangerous but because our government told us everyday to fear. A government that came into our living rooms every evening on television and told us to be fearfull of terrorism.. Sounds familiar.. Real terrorism is the person reminding you every moment that there is something to fear.. it isn’t the guy with a bomb strapped to his chest. In real terms he is a soldier. It is the government that is the terrorist. When we are at war we are not told to be scared, we are told to be brave and strong. So what is the truth.. we have more chance of being struck by lightening twice than being a victim of a bomb blast, but the government doesn’t tell you everyday to be fearfull of lightening strikes.
(in writing this comment i am frustrated that i cannot use the word liberal in the context of the way a party/government thinks… perhaps we should’nt be supprised that Howard lies.. after all his party is committing one of the biggest public frauds in “western” political history.. A conservative party calling itself liberal.)
Collin, this is too good to languish amongst the comments of a long-past post. I shall transfer it to a post of its own.
[...] Howard, The Terrorist Prime Minister Colin recently made the following comment on my “John Howard’s Lies” post from back in March of this year. He had some very interesting things to say on terrorism and [...]
Well done Archie, you have proved that John Howard is one of the most honest politicians we have ever had. My proof is that after all the abuse you have not demonstraited any lies at all. The “never-ever GST” was a policy which changed BEFORE the 1998 election – there is nothing dishonest about that. The “children-overboard” mistake was not a deliberate lie, and although the delayed correction was suspicious, the Senate investigation could not pin it on a deliberate cover-up by Howard. The “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq was misinformation the whole world (including Rudd) believed due to Sadam’s non-compliance with inspections imposed by the UN – why would Howard deliberately mislead us about this knowing that his lie would be exposed after the invasion? If these are the best examples that can be dredged up after all these years and the millions of complex and sensitive situations Howard has spoken about on a daily basis, it is a remarkably clean run. You could come up with more suspicious incidents from Rudd’s very brief period under the spotlight.
John, thank you for that erudite re-writing of history. I did not mention the Howard invention of Core-nonCore promises, you need to bring yourself up to speed on the truth of interest rates and it is so good to see that you think so little of our troops that you don’t even mention the lie about looking after them and their families!
Let me just go back to the GST. He DID say that it was dead and would never happen. The fact that he then changed the policy (in very fine print) to include a GST again, either indicates that he vacillates or that he lies. (He couldn’t possibly be the pawn of big business and overseas multinationals, could he?)
Weapons of mass destruction, “everyone” did not believe there were WMD. the USA administration twisted enough “intelligence” to convince Bush (and his little bum-buddy, Howard) that there were WMD’s. Anyone reading below the headlines could see that there were none.
Your excuse for Howard on the “Children Overboard” insult is just that – a pathetic and politically biased excuse.
And let us not dare to mention the Australian Wheat Board.
Dear Sir,
I have just found your web site, I like the look at, I love the truth (or we not in the government), accountability and transparency, neither applied.
But great work, I look forward to having a read.
Kind regards,
Steven Golub
Concerned in Oz becoming a Poliezi State
Steven, “dear Sir”? I’m just plain “archie”. But thank you for the kind words. I hope you enjoy your visits here.
[...] in March I posted about four of John Howard’s lies, including the infamous “We’ll Look After Your Families!” [...]
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[...] the Australian Election a Core Promise? Posted on October 15, 2007 by archiearchive FCD The greatest liar in Australia’s history, other than Truthful Jones from the Speewah, has announced that there will be an election on 24th [...]
Ughkkk… The complete and utter deluded libellious drivle you would expect at a Howard slandering website. I wonder what you think of a huge government deficit now.
And you, Sir, are an ignorant, deluded fool. Please don’t open your mind, a thought may get in.