The Guardian 25 July, 2007
Editorial
The truth will out!
Of all the remarkable disclosures of Costello’s view of his Prime Minister made in the Howard biography written by Wayne Errington and Peter van Onselen, perhaps the most telling is the remark of Janette, John Howard’s wife. She is quoted as saying: “You talk about a whole lot of things when you’re trying to convince people to do things, but you don’t go back and honour every single one of these unless you have made a firm commitment about it, and John wasn’t into making firm commitments."
Her statement underlies the immorality of the more than 10 years of the Howard Government’s lying and prevarication — say whatever it takes to get people to do whatever you want them to do and then dishonour any promise or commitment made.
Peter Costello was a victim of this “morality", a victim of a “non-core" promise to ensure that he was removed as a candidate for the Liberal Party leadership, allowing Howard to continue to assert his control over the Liberal Party and the government of Australia.
Janette has made it clear that she subscribes to this disgusting morality and supports her husband’s treatment of Costello and his attitude to government. Perhaps Costello’s now published comments on Howard are his payback.
But Howard’s “morality" has not been limited to his treatment of Costello. It has and is being continuously played on the Australian people. Recall his “never ever GST" although Howard’s biography shows that he always supported a tax on consumption rather than on earnings.
Remember the “children overboard" — a deliberate and conscious lie to win an election. More deliberate lies were used to railroad Australia into the Iraq war. In this regard he had equally dishonest partners in Tony Blair and George Bush who are motivated by the same immorality.
And now we have Dr Haneef who is only the latest victim of the deliberate lying by Howard, Kevin Andrews, Phillip Ruddock and Alexander Downer. Once again the terrorist façade is trotted out to inculcate fear in the community and win votes in the coming election.
There are other disclosures in the book that dispel the false propaganda that the government has been pouring out. One false claim relates to the economy. For years Howard has been telling everyone that it is his great economic prowess that is responsible for the long-running economic boom that Australia has been experiencing. Costello is attempting to claim this prowess for himself and debunks Howard’s economic credentials.
The truth is that both are wrong. The boom conditions are a direct result of the rapid economic development of China, India and several other Asian countries who are in the market for Australia’s abundant coal, natural gas, iron ore, bauxite and other metals. If it had not been for this massive windfall trade, the Australian economy would have been doing no better than any other capitalist economy. And if Australia has paid off its borrowings it is a result of massive cuts to public education, health services, housing and community services and the sale of Telstra and other public assets.
Despite Costello’s bragging, Australia’s real economic rate of growth is a tawdry 2-3 per cent per year whereas the economies of China and India are leaping ahead at 6-11 percent per year respectively.
Another not so dramatic but just as serious aspect of the Howard years is his dictatorial control of the Coalition’s Cabinet and insistence on his policies being implemented. Anyone who stood up to Howard could expect to be sidelined or thrown out of Cabinet. Amanda Vanstone was one of these. The Howard biography says: “A prime ministerial adviser moving into the office of a new minister is not uncommon. It improves Howard’s ability to keep a watchful eye over his team."
But lies, immorality and plain bastardry will catch up with even the cleverest politician. It has now caught up with Howard and it is clear that a majority of the electorate has turned off on the lies and dishonest propaganda that has poured out of Canberra.