Dingo
The Howard Government's support for the logging of old growth forests was given a big thumbs down in a January national Newspoll which showed that almost nine out of ten Australians want old-growth forests protected. Said Greens leader Bob Brown, "John Howard and [Tasmanian Premier] Jim Bacon's immoveable alliance to destroy Tasmania's forests and wildlife at the fastest rate in history is facing the irresistible force -- it's a tidal wave -- of Australian public opinion." Senator Brown pointed out that even the great battle to save Tasmania's Franklin River in the 1980s did not get such strong support. He said the poll also sends a loud, clear message to the ALP that it should get behind the huge weight of public opinion on the issue.* * * The New Zealand Labour Government of Helen Clark is a typically opportunistic, wavering social democratic one. Like their ALP counterparts here in Australia they introduce occasional progressive leaning policies with one hand while delivering a pro-capitalist agenda with the other. As far as asylum seekers go Clark comes up smelling like a rose. A number of refugees rejected by Australia have been allowed to settle in New Zealand permanently. Now Clark has announced NZ will take 26 of the asylum seekers the Howard Government sent to the prison camp on Nauru. Even though they have been classified as refugees Australia still refuses them entry. In three years they will be New Zealand citizens.* * * Workers beware! Just prior to last weekend's ALP national conference Labor leader Mark Latham called the ACTU executive to his office for a little chat. After the meeting ACTU president Sharan Burrow said that "it's going to be a conference that reasserts Labor values". The last time such values were asserted back in the 1980s the ACTU betrayed workers and signed up to an Accord with the Labor Government that cut jobs, wages and working conditions across the board while overseeing a massive increase in company profits.* * * CAPITALIST HOG OF THE WEEK is Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer. While in Israel last week appeasing the fascist Sharon Government, Downer was pronounced an "honorary Zionist" by no less a personage than the chairman of the Israel-Australia Chamber of Commerce in Jerusalem. Downer laid it on thick: "We admire your tenacity. We admire your determination to build a society here in circumstances which are somewhat embattled", he told the Chamber of Commerce members. Not surprisingly they treated the obsequious suck-up to a standing ovation. On the other side, Downer refused to meet with any Palestinian representatives. And it is worth recalling that Australia was one of only seven nations in the UN to vote with Israel against a motion condemning Israel's new apartheid wall.