 |
The Prime Minister, John Howard, walks to the prime ministerial jet at Fairbairn in Canberra. |
Missing in action: Still no sign of jet-setting Johnnie
Issue 134 - 26 Jul 2007
Issue 134, July 26, 2007: It was former Prime Minister Paul Keating who said that the best way to see the Northern Territory was from 30,000 feet. But it's the current Prime Minister, John Howard who has put it into practice. CHRIS GRAHAM analyses the government response to the 'national emergency' we had to have, but didn't get.
Five weeks ago, Howard and Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough announced a military-led intervention into the desperate lives of Aboriginal men, women and children in the Northern Territory.
It was big news, and dominated media for weeks.
Since then, the PM has been to Sydney and Bega in the south east of New South Wales.
He's visited the ACT several times, and flown to Tasmania to forget the name of a Liberal candidate.
Howard has visited South Australia, plus Brisbane and several regional Queensland towns (in marginal electorates).
But more than a month after declaring a state of "national emergency", Howard still hasn't visited a single Aboriginal community.
He hasn't even stepped foot on Northern Territory soil.
But he has seen it from the air.
Twice.
Earlier this week, Howard flew over Central Australia on his way to the remote desert mining town of Kalgoorlie.
After flying on to Perth, where he tripped over and made even more headlines, Howard hopped back in his taxpayer-funded jet and headed north again, back over the Territory on his way to East Timor where he was no doubt expecting to be photographed with Australian troops.
This is the first 'national emergency' that the Prime Minister has never visited.
When Cyclone Larry tore through Cape York last year, Howard was there within 48 hours, doling out cash and comfort to local residents.
Indeed, if you go to the media section on the Prime Minister's website - www.pm.gov.au - the transcript posted immediately before the Brough/Howard press conference on the NT intervention is a record of a 'doorstop interview' Howard gave to media in the NSW Hunter Valley.
Howard had flown to Metford, north of Sydney, to conduct a press conference outside the local headquarters of the State Emergency Service, following a savage storm that claimed nine lives and caused widespread flooding and damage.
Howard is so fond of bobbing up at crises that he'll even appear at other country's national emergencies.
When a massive tsunami struck Asia, Howard visited not once, but twice.
His first trip was within two weeks of the disaster, when he flew to Indonesia for a summit on the recovery effort.
He was back within a month to tour the ravaged province of Aceh.
Yet Howard still hasn't found his way to the Northern Territory. He still hasn't toured a single Aboriginal community. And he's already back overseas.
Those with a keen interest in Indigenous affairs are no doubt unsurprised.
John Howard lives, as the crow flies, about five kilometres from Redfern, one of the nation's poorest and most troubled Aboriginal communities.
Howard has never visited the community, not even after the infamous Redfern riots in 2004 following the death of a young Aboriginal boy during a police pursuit.
La Perouse, another of the nation's poorest Aboriginal communities, is about 15 kilometres drive south of Kirribilli House, Howard's lush residence opposite the Sydney Opera House.
Howard hasn't been to 'Lapa' either.
In fact during his Prime Ministership, Howard has only ever visited two Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, plus two trips to Cape York in Queensland.
That's an average of about one Aboriginal community every three years.
John Howard has been overseas more times this year than he's visited Aboriginal communities in his entire reign as Prime Minister.
Also unsurprisingly, Howard's colleagues are taking their lead from their fearless (or is that feckless?) leader.
Minister for Health, Tony Abbott was scheduled to visit Central Australia early last week.
He cancelled the visit, and provided no reasons, although Abbott's office this week categorically denied the visit had ever been planned.
Abbott's office lied.
His absence, some might suggest, was due to growing anger within the Department of Health bureaucracy that the entire intervention - including the 'not so compulsory' health checks - is being run from the Department of Family and Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.
But more likely, Abbott realised what everyone else in his cabinet knew - that the 'national emergency' wasn't really all that dire at all.
It's Abbott, after all, who as health minister has refused to boost spending in Indigenous health despite the AMA and Access Economics identifying an annual funding shortfall of $460 million.
What Abbott probably ultimately realised is that the Howard government 'emergency intervention' was a con. Pure and simple.
It was an election year stunt aimed at seizing the media agenda from an increasingly dominant ALP leader, Kevin Rudd.
And to that extent, Howard's plan worked.
The story dominated news outlets around the nation for several weeks.
It's still making headline news today.
But at the same time, the 'national emergency we had to have, but haven't really got yet' also failed to provide Howard the electoral bounce he no doubt expected.
He's still very much lagging in the polls and Rudd looks further and further out of reach with every passing week.
Howard's hunt for a wedge, quite simply, went unsatisfied.
Labor didn't bite.
And the Opposition leader has remained virtually silent on the issue ever since... and I use the term 'leader' loosely.
Ultimately, voters need to ask themselves a couple of key questions. If Howard really was concerned about Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory, why hasn't he actually toured the scene of a the 'national emergency'.
Where is our leader at this time of 'national emergency'? Why has he jetted off overseas in the middle of it?
The Howard government promised a bandaid solution to a problem it has been actively ignoring since coming to office in 1996.
But it hasn't even delivered that.
You can't help but escape the feeling that maybe Mr Tampa is beginning to lose his touch.
SEE ALSO: Fact vs Fiction: The truth behind a bandaid solution.
SEE ALSO: No progress on stamping out porn in NT's black towns.
SEE ALSO: Charge of the Band-Aid Brigade.
Related Links
http://www.nit.com.au/story.aspx?id=12166
http://www.nit.com.au/News/story.aspx?id=12164
http://www.nit.com.au/News/story.aspx?id=11797
 
|