Dead man walking

Prime Minister John Howard has now been shown irrefutably to 
have lied to the Australian people. Last week's statement by 
former defence advisor Mike Scrafton that he told Howard asylum 
seekers had not thrown children off their boat into the sea just 
prior to the federal election in 2001, confirms what many people 
have come to suspect — that Howard and his Government are 
inveterate deceivers and liars.

Though he had been told the truth, Howard ignored it and used the 
incident to demonise asylum seekers and run a campaign to pull 
votes based on suspicion and fear of refugees. In doing so he 
lied to the Australian people, an act that even under the 
Westminster system so heralded by Howard himself, requires him to 
tender his resignation.

Mike Scrafton says in his statement that before the 2001 election 
he told Howard the evidence "certainly didn't support the 
proposition" that asylum seekers threw children off the refugee 
boat (which was actually sinking), that photographs used by the 
Government as evidence were "definitely of the sinking of the 
refugee boat — not of children being thrown into the water", and 
"that no one in Defence that I dealt with on the matter still 
believed any children were thrown overboard".

Howard and his ministers nonetheless continued to claim the 
incident took place, and in fact are still doing so today.

Though Howard is unlikely to step down, this latest revelation, 
added to the weight of other public deceptions such as the 
reasons for going to war against Iraq, should be more electoral 
baggage than he and his government can bear. He has already 
indicated an election will not be called until the latest 
possible time, in November. But he is now, as the saying goes, a 
dead man walking and deserves nothing less than to be booted out 
by voters.