The man about to switch his office light off, John Howard:
I used to be very interested in politics but, as I’ve aged, I’ve become more disillusioned with the two major parties in Australia. Yesterday, Australia held a general election. My disillusionment really hit home at the end of the week when I rocked up at the Australian Embassy here in Copenhagen to cast my vote, only to find I’d mucked up the time difference and was too late… Normally, this would have been a huge irritation, not just the forthcoming fine for not doing my duty but also because I like to have my say. That day I just shrugged my shoulders and went home and had a wine.
In the late 1980’s Australia was an economic mess. We seem to be very much a ‘boom and bust’ country and, for some reason, our economy appears to be linked in with just about every other country on the planet that suffers an economic downturn. It was an awful, awful time. Thousands of people lost their homes and businesses, interest rates were wayyy into the double digits and, tragically, quite a number of ruined people did themselves in – all because of money, or the lack thereof.
The party responsible was the Labor Party, headed initially by Bob Hawke (under whom, on paper, all was relatively well), until his ‘treasurer’, Paul Keating, somewhat deviously booted him out of office. PK is an intelligent man but one who, IMO, has a huge chip on his shoulders. A great orator, his good qualities were shadowed by a rather enormous chip on his shoulders and, to me, he still comes across as a very embittered human being.
To make a long story endless, Australia went down the gurgler and he as finally voted out by a suffering population in a landslide swing against Labor, in favour of the Liberals, headed by John Howard. Last night, after eleven and a half years of government JH was forced to concede defeat.
Over that decade and a bit, the Liberals got the country up and running again and it seemed they could do no wrong. The trouble with staying in office too long seems to me to be a government becomes too sure of being right about everything and not listening to the people. Ego takes over. Britain’s Maggie Thatcher was also a victim of this syndrome and so was John Howard.
I believe he tried to turn the country into a complete private enterprise, based on a dog-eat-dog foundation. He introduced what they call Industrial Relations Laws, which meant employees had to sign contracts written by their employer stipulating the rules and regulations about their tenure. Certainly, there are apparently laws in place to protect workers’ rights but, it seems that these are very vague and, at the end of the day, not necessarily beneficial to the employee but potentially so for the employer.
Since these laws came into effect, unemployment has dropped but I have to wonder under what sort of conditions employees in new positions are taken on. I’ve read and heard many things but I can only say that if the laws were completely beneficial to all concerned, they would have been a lot more popular than they are.
Sadly, the various unions in Australia are as much to blame as anyone else. They’re too often militant thugs and, by being so, end up being more of a hindrance to the workers they are meant to protect than saviours. Had they in general terms been cleverer and rational the IR laws may never have been initiated.
Unlike most people, I started out quite conservative in my views and have lately edged to the left. The older I’ve become, the more I can see that life is exceedingly difficult for some people. They literally battle to survive with young families and mortgages, with simply not enough money to go around, which seems ridiculous in a country as wealthy as Australia. Add in a crumbling health system, a questionable government-based education system and you have a recipe for lots of future worries. As it seems to be at the moment, the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer.
Of course, nowhere in the world are people equal. That will never be, because of human nature. Some of us are determined to be the best, while others don’t have the same drive. What I believe is essential is that everyone, no matter what suburb or socio-economic family background they have, deserves a chance. That chance is all- important but seems to be getting less and less of a reality. I think that’s what JH lost sight of. Sure we need stable economies but I think not at the cost of our humanity.
So now Australia has a new, Labor government, headed by a chap called Kevin Rudd (A Prime Minister called Kevin, is going to take some getting used to…). There’s a huge honey pot in Canberra and it will be interesting – from a safe distance – to see how they manage it. I hope for the country’s sake they do well but their history of handling the economy is anything but good. To me he comes across as somewhat arrogant as well and I have a feeling he may have a nasty streak but he may need that to work with the unions. We shall see…
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