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December 05, 2003
Politics Down Under III
Can I pick 'em? Check out this story in the SMH which has a picture of Latham (leader of the federal opposition (Labour) party) standing next to an American flag:
The leader of government business, Tony Abbott, accused Mr Latham of having "a brutal streak", saying that his life had left "a trail of human wreckage" including his "abandoned" former wife.
Mr Abbott launched his attack following critical comments about Mr Latham from his first wife, Gabrielle Gwyther, the Premier, Bob Carr, and a taxi driver, Bachir Mustafa, whose arm was broken in an altercation with Mr Latham two years ago.
"The fact is that the Leader of the Opposition is no alternative prime minister, because in the end it is the character that counts," Mr Abbott told Parliament.
Just in case you thing this is strong language, check out what Latham said about Abbott earlier:
In July last year, Mr Latham launched a similarly vitriolic attack on Mr Abbott for leaving the priesthood and giving up for adoption a child he fathered out of marriage.
"Tony Abbott is always walking away," Mr Latham said then. "As a young man he became a 'hereditary disappear'. Then he walked away from his responsibilities as a priest. Then he walked away from the DLP and joined the Liberal Party."
I find it hard to believe that (a) the Labour party did not realise the risk of running such a controversial loud-mouth as leader and (b) that they expected the electorate to accept him as a prime-ministerial candidate. Personally I think the leadership ballot ended up being no more than a factional result where such considerations fell by the roadside.
The story behind the American flag can be found here:
Prime Minister John Howard has warned Mark Latham that he is in "big school" now as he accused the new opposition leader of immaturity and inept tokenism in his first three days at Labor's helm.
After arriving in the Nigerian capital Abuja today for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), Mr Howard wasted no time in attacking Mr Latham, who took over a divided Labor party on Monday.
Mr Latham flew both the Australian and American flags at a press conference in Canberra yesterday after a meeting with US Ambassador Tom Schieffer in which he tried to smooth over his remarks that US President George W Bush was "incompetent and dangerous".
Mr Howard had previously claimed Mr Latham's remarks made before the Iraq war made him a danger to the alliance, but now seems content that the new leader poses as big a threat to his own Labor party.
"I remain of the view that you've got to do more than engage in a bit of inept tokenism than a display of flags to show maturity in relation to our alliance with the United States," Mr Howard told journalists in Abuja.
"My criticism was that the highly personal nature of the attack on the current president of the United States was not only irresponsible but displayed a streak of political tribalism which is not appropriate for an alternative prime minister.
...
Mr Latham said he had not retracted or apologised to Mr Schieffer for his remarks, but cleared the air with him about the past and wanted to move forward.
But Mr Howard said Mr Latham had to learn that politics was not as simple as disowning previous comments and moving on.
Oh well, my other prediction was that at least the campaign will be more interesting and it looks like this is a thrilling start.
In completely unrelated political news, the BBC informs us that Australia [is] to join US [missile] defence plan which suggests that at least Howard had the guts to stand up to China. Back in February, China told us that we should not get involved because it would upset regional stability. I can only assume this comment is along the same lines as the threat advice they offered to Taiwan.
[Ed: If the majority of the readers out there couldn't give a rats (short for rat's *rs*) about Aussie politics, feel free to let me know and I'll refrain from waffling on about it in public. On the other hand if you would like to be reassured that Aussie politicians are just as shallow and useless as your own, then I'll keep up the commentary.]
Posted by Ozguru at December 5, 2003 10:12 AM
