- The Guardian
- Issue #2122
Missed opportunity
Dear Editor,
Some may remember that Malcolm Turnbull when he was Prime Minister said that Queen Elizabeth II was “too popular” in Australia for our country to push for a republic. QE2 died 5 months after Albanese became Prime Minister. Albanese said it was too much for the Australian people to vote for the Voice and for the republic. The truth is probably that Albanese was keen to bow and scrape to a monarch and thus keep his ‘small target’ profile. Contrast that with the self confidence of Barbados who took the opportunity to sever ties with the British Monarchy.
The President of Barbados said “the Republic of Barbados has set sail on its maiden voyage” to face “complex, the fractured and turbulent world” meanwhile Albanese stands shivering behind doors unwilling to make a move to an independent Australia. Barbados, a tiny island state in the Caribbean knowing the risks of going it alone and knowing how the British Monarchy robbed them just like it robbed Australia, said “enough is enough” while our excuses for politicians continue to bow and scrape.
The ‘popularity’ of QE2 was hammered out by the media with puff pieces, sycophantic reports of the ‘Royal Family’ all orchestrated by the wealthy and privileged to protect the privileged. All this palaver is starting again, I even heard a breathless documentary wondering what type of a King little George may be! He is currently Charlie’s grandson, decades away! The King has arrived in Australia and the propaganda machines are cranking up the simpering reports, the smiling couple, the delivery of a small joke said in a very posh accent, the angle of Camilla’s hat and so on.
The British Monarch represents all the things that the British stole from us. He may be a good person at home but he has no place here and no place to be gushed over. He is a symbol of Australia’s unwillingness to a grow up and be an adult country. While Charles himself should be the last monarch that is head of state for Australia, I fear that our country will not have the bravery to say goodbye to monarchy and its thieving ways.
Yours sincerely
Denis Doherty
Meeting Peter Costello – Arrogant and Boring
Dear Comrade Editor,
In 1984 I was invited by friends in the Young Liberals to meet Peter Costello and his wife at a Liberal Party luncheon. Peter was its rising star, connected with the quarterly magazine IPA Review, published by the Institute of Public Affairs, established in 1943. The writer Roger Neave said it was “the conscience of the Liberal Party, not its propaganda arm.” This changed in the 1970s. The IPA turned further right wing, attacking protectionism, Keynesian economics and Labor.
Costello had been in the Social Democratic Students Association of Victoria, the Balaclava Branch of Australian Young Labor. In 1977, he was beaten up by a left-wing student, which received much media attention. Costello became conservative, joined the Liberals, and quickly became identified as part of the New Right movement in Australia. In 1984, as a barrister Costello represented the National Farmers Federation’s legal action against the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union (AMIEU).
Australia’s version of neoliberal economics was Economic Rationalism, and it led to the same destruction of society. Costello was a founding member of the H. R. Nicholls Society, set up in 1984 as a think tank to dismantle Australia’s industrial relations system, abolishing awards and minimum wages, and the signing of the Accord. Prime Minister Bob Hawke, called the H. R. Nicholls group “political troglodytes and economic lunatics.” One of these “economic lunatics” became treasurer of Australia, Peter Costello, under Prime Minister John Howard. Costello was to be the longest-serving treasurer of Australia, from 1996 to 2007.
I was introduced to Peter and his wife Tanya as a geologist from BHP. I expected someone with his background and position in the New Right to be entertaining and cordial. He wasn’t. He never asked what I did or anything about me. Instead, he went straight into a hard sell on the IPA Review, why Economic Rationalism was necessary, and why the Liberals were the way of the future. For two hours I sat through this diatribe, enduring the most boring dinner of my life. I left thinking he was arrogant and self-centred, and thankful I am a Communist!
Graham Holton
