David Williamson: Howard, morning walks and the ghosts of 1969
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In 1971 I wrote the play Don’s Party about the 1969 election night, when Labor supporters were fervently hoping for the arrival of the Great Gough. As it turned out he was five seats short of arriving and we had to wait until 1972 before the long dark night of conservative rule ended. The similarities with this Saturday’s election are obvious, and many of the old baby boomers, faint memories of the idealistic dreams of the sixties not yet erased by Alzheimer’s, are hoping fervently we won’t see a re-run of 1969. There are many reasons to wish Johnnie bon voyage, the most pressing being the thought of another eighteen months of television footage of his morning walks. It’s time to say no to those daggy shorts, the horrible knees, the resolute stride towards a neo con past where Anglo man still rules the world, and the total lack of wit or spontaneity in his travelling badinage. Joy number two will be picturing the tears and foot stamping of the well paid hosts of Howard acolytes littering our press. Any journalist who can turn a man his own party dubbed a “lying rodent”, into the Saint who saved Australia, has, like their idol, a superb grasp of slippery rhetoric which has hopefully earned them enough money to retire. These same scribes have falsely divided Australia into “Howard hating elites”, and “ordinary Australians,” without ever asking the question as to why many with the remnants of a conscience, including “ordinary Australians”, find it hard to stomach him. The shameless exploitation of fear and hysteria over four hundred genuine and dehydrating refugees on Tampa might be a start. The ludicrous and hugely expensive “Pacific solution” might be another. The moral sleaze of the Saddam kickbacks, the lies of children overboard, the blatant and immoral pork barrelling of Coalition electorates, the attempt to deliver a cowed and cheap workforce to employers without a mandate, the constant and unrelenting grovelling to George Bush, the deathbed conversion to climate change and reconciliation lite - the list could go on. If John can’t pull a Tampa out of his baggy green in this last week, it looks over for him. But we’ve been through 1969, and the anxiety is rising nonetheless. The thought of the most unlovely and thuggish front bench in Australian political history, namely Abbott, Downer, Costello, Ruddock, Andrews, Hockey and the rest retaining power is a thought that could send our already soaring rate of depression exponential. If Rudd does win it will be heartening proof that the cynical pundits who say the hip pocket nerve is the only factor are wrong. Many would like a return to simple decency, and Rudd patently has more of it than Howard. If it’s not a re-run of 1969 and John and Janette are prised out of Kirribilli, the greatest relief for me will still be the end of the morning walks. |
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26 Comments
Thank you for so precisely articulating my thoughts. That we have endured such meretricious mediocrity for so long is a chilling condemnation of a nation which has valued profit before scruples, and a pay cheque before
principles.
Can you believe ,that howard .has nnot once mentioned iraq..4 million refugees.1million dead,30 thousand with cholera..Also no mention of the genocide by isreal,on the people of gazza.what a world statsmen.
After Tampa, children overboard, children behind razor wire and more heartwrenching crimes of this government, I heard for the first time ever people saying ‘we are ashamed of our country” so sad…If Howard loses this election the healing can begin.
i wholeheartedly agree, though i thought the morning walk was actually the only decent thing he ever did in his career.Not the fake aussie sport coach image ala Alan Jones .Still -we all walked for reconcilliation , climate change , refugees-so stuff him
peter old man what nek charge? the one in world war 1 is that the best you can do?
Does this mean that David Williamson, like the rest of the arty lefty brigade, still does not admit that they were wrong about Gough? As for Tampe etc, will David & others admit that it stopped the boats arriving? Do you really want a borderless world?
After Tampa, children overboard, children behind razor wire and more heartwrenching crimes of this government, I heard for the first time ever people saying ‘we are ashamed of our country” so sad…If Howard loses this election the healing can begin.
Peter, I think you may find that the person that gave the order to land at Gallipoli was one Winston Churchill… A Brit & a young fool at the time.
Could the order that was given be representative of the appallling decisions made by the British Navy?
could not have put it any better..being 62 i remember a lot..john howard has been,the greastest devider of people…he taught people it was al about greed…totaly agree his front bench,arragance…sunday .bring on the war crimes charges
YES!
Dermot, Williamson wrote the screenplay for an Australian icon - the movie Gallipoli. Yet despite knowing the truth about who ordered the charge to continue - an Australia Major - he turned the character into a British officer. Why? Lies for a cause!
Your words honour the ghosts of shame that have been haunting this government and this election. The words Tampa, and AWB have not appeared often enough for us to remember the shirking, blaming cowardice that can never be apologised for. Thankyou
David, this is probably your finest work/
My son went through all stages of schooling during Howard’s 11 years with no tax relief for us. My new house costed me much more than it should back in 2000, thanks to Howard’s GST. I bought Telstra shares from him for more than $7.00. They are $4.69 now after so many years. And what is so strong about him running the economy? Doing nothing for 3 years and spending everything in the last month of the election. I wish I could do the same at work or home. Thanks for nothing, Johnny.
I can’t stand John Howards weasle ways either, and despise the lying and the “Ill do absolutely anything to score a political point” attitude. The one thing I do like though, is the morning walk. I have to differ with Mr Williamson there.
Personally its the claims of sound economic management which get me. Impoverishing the nation by suctioning billions of dollars out of the economy, and then returning these as loose change at election time is not economic management. Its a pinata.
What is wrong with the rule of Anglo man? After all, it was Anglo men that created the best societies that humanity has seen - the Western English speaking world. Where is it better, David? As for front bench uglies, was Bob Collins lovely & caring?
David Williamson did not mention collateral damage to people over the Howard 11 years. Real people like David Hicks, Jack Thomas, Mamdouh Habib, Vivienne Solon, Cornelia Rau, Mohammad Haneef and latterly Izhar ul-Haque were all fodder for Howard’s needs
peter I thought that was what you were on about. Films like Gallipoli are fiction not history scriptwriters write more or less what they are told to write this idea that this proves some form of left-wing agenda reinforces my previous comment
Rudd has more “simple decency” than Howard. Well, yes, but so does a rutting vole. The pity of it is that Bob Brown has ten times more of it than both of them put together but it’s not available where it’s needed because of the 2 party preferred rort.
Col, why not condemn Rudd for being a weasel in hiding from Iraq issue despite past two years of grandstanding? Does it suggest there isn’t a majority outrage over it? That Iraq is not a vote winner for Labor? And you want such a coward as PM!
How ironic - accusing the PM of lying, when Dave himself lied about the Nek charge. Whatever happened to John ‘Bull’ Antill, Dave? Why turn him into a Pom? To boost your own 1970’s Aussie cred? Typical Left - change the facts to suit your own prejudice.
David, well said, and Col, at 62 also I remember a lot about John Howard and want him out. On 25/11 my father turns 90. On 24/11 he will be out campaigning for the Greens. Once he was an anti-union Menzies Liberal. We can face the facts and change.
I can’t stand John Howards weasle ways either, and despise the lying and the “Ill do absolutely anything to score a political point” attitude. The one thing I do like though, is the morning walk. I have to differe there.
I have tried so hard for the last 5 or 6 years to adequately express my feelings about Howard. Now you have done it for me in a way I never could - thank you David. I hope that history is as unkind to him as he deserves.
I thought the stevedoring scandal, when the government was obviously up to its neck in a criminal conspiracy, would have been enough to finish Howard. I’m not celebrating until it’s in the bag.