A NYT editorial has slammed Goldman Sachs for its role in the financial crisis, Ten must work out what to do with Australian Idol in 2010, how the media downturn will affect higher education, newsreaders get emo, and more.
Bidding farewell to our worst foreign minister
|
So goodbye to Alexander Downer. If nothing else, these Coalition departures are great for marvelling at how young they all looked five minutes ago in the early 1990s. It would be comforting to think that the responsibilities of power aged them all terribly, but, alas, we have all aged along with them. We just don’t have the unforgiving evidence of a life in public to remind us. That Downer was our worst foreign minister of recent decades goes without saying. Possibly he was our worst ever, but that’s a matter for foreign policy PhDs. What’s more important is that he chucked in the job in the early part of this decade. From 2001 to 2007, Australia’s foreign policy was essentially outsourced to the United States — and not to the US State Department, where some good sense has remained under Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, but to the White House. Under Howard and Downer, we swapped an alliance and friendship based on shared culture and interests, within which there was room for disagreement and debate, for reflexive support for whatever issued from the mouth of George W. Bush or his operator, Dick Cheney. In doing so, Downer and Howard inflicted significant damage on Australians’ perception of our relationship with the US which, had Mark Latham fluked his way to an election victory in 2004, might have been made long-term. It is testimony to the strength of the US-Australia relationship that it looks to have survived the relationship between the Howard Government and Bush Administration reasonably intact. In abandoning our foreign policy independence, Downer was guilty of two great evils, along with his Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues: leading Australia into an illegal, immoral attack on Iraq that has cost the lives of tens of thousands of Iraqis, if not more, and ruthlessly exploiting the — in historical terms — relatively minor threat of Islamic terrorism for crass political purposes. Compared to those, other Downer f-ck-ups like our damaged relationship with PNG are fairly minor. There were a lot of things about Downer not to like — but many of them he couldn’t do anything about. It wasn’t his fault that he looked and sounded like the British public school prig from Central Casting, and in some ways it was amusing that Australia was represented for so long by Boy Mulcaster. And the poor bastard never lived down the innocuous business with the Rocky Horror Show stockings. But he was more like his predecessor Gareth Evans than either would wish to admit — long-serving foreign ministers, both with grotesquely over-inflated conceptions of their world influence, both somehow encapsulating the very worst of their parties and therefore, automatically, capable of inspiring loathing in opponents. But let’s be charitable — if nothing else can unite the divided citizens of Cyprus, maybe five minutes with Alex will do the trick. In the end, AWB summed up Downer’s foreign ministership perfectly: the deliberate turning of a blind eye to the bribery by a National Party scam of a tyrant against whom Downer was at that very moment making the case for war, about whose toppling Downer would later boast — and against whose forces we would shortly send our troops. The wilful failure of accountability and the intellectual dishonesty of Downer’s response upon discovery — along with that of Howard and Mark Vaile — turned even the Howard Government cheerleaders at The Australian against him. Having bagged the sh-t out of the guy, let’s end on a more positive note. Downer shared a birthdate with fellow South Australian Natasha Stott Despoja, and he hailed her in a corridor in Parliament House once a few years ago. “Do you know who else we share a birthday with?” he asked her. “John Gorton.” He paused, then said, “we all made great leaders didn’t we…” |
|
|
60 Comments
Sorry, I thought this was Crikey, not Green Left Weekly. Although the presence of Marilyn makes it kind of hard to tell at the best of times. Bernard, you are 80% of the reason why I will not renew my subscription.
at a girl, Marilyn. You followed up B Keane admirably!
JamesK please justify the invasions of both countries without the usual neo-con spin (“WMD, War on Terror, Ruthless governments etc) how about OIL /GAS /RESOURCES, btw I do believe there was the greatest opposition worldwide in history to the invasion of Iraq or was that just a bunch of 16 million do-gooders in Feb 2003?- i do believe it’s you’re war mongering, blood letting types that need their heads read..
PS -While we’re on alexanders litany of lies let’s not forget Mamdouh Habib and David Hicks.
Why doesn’t Crikey just come out and admit it’s the official propaganda website of the Labor Party. Downer was one of Australia’s best Foreign Ministers - possibly the best - certainly the best since Paul Hasluck. The worst was that blathering equivocator Gareth Evans.
Well David, the proposition is that Downer was the worst foreign minister in recent decades. If you agree with that proposition, then the onus is on you to prove it. Why don’t you list out all the relevant foreign ministers from, say Whitlam’s government to the present date, create a list of each of their achievements and shortcomings and then get back to us. In the absence of you doing that, it is pure hyperbole to allege that he is the worst.
Christopher Paaayne. Heir apparent?
Now you will have time to read!
The attached are my sentiments exactly.
I reckon Rudd’s behind the appointment. Opposing him as the foreign minister, Rudd’s patience (ethical snobbishness as a diplomat) must have been in short supply once too often, I figure. And, what a grandiose way of ridding us all from Downer by lobbying the UN to take him on (count the number of times Rudd has been hailing the possibility of Downer’s UN appointment in recent months), and getting him jailed, together with the monks (weren’t they the Franciscans or the Cappucins?) on Cyprus
“Hail, hail, the Last True Ottoman enters Cyprus!!”
Thus ends “Rudd’s Sweet Revenge on Alex”. Downer can’t harm anyone on the island, and it’s such a contained mission, that he will have zero influence on international affairs, pushing some confused neo-Bush agenda….
Bernard Keane, Howard hating gone mad !
I totally agree with you. You remind us what we really should be accounting in assessing his performance. You understate the multifocal ugly criminality of Australia dancing the slaughter with the essence (he has no axis) of evil Bush on Iraq’s grave represented in the White House Ball Room by our sexily stockinged Alex. For anyone of substance a stockinged appearance would have been an enjoyable fun interlude relegated to its place by impressive dealings in matters of state. Alas for Alex that’s it, the only impressive moment (of his state) the other performances bring shame and guilt to us all while we look for a competent to express our sorrow for where Alex led us. There is one single excuse for Alex. He could be the victim of mental damage of severe chronic stress syndrome caused by that recently decorated ex Boss of his.
Islamic terrorism was only a minor threat? I’m glad you’re not responsible for any decisions concerning our security, although if you were we could probably move through airports a lot quicker
I still await the list of glorious acheivements Downer has showered on this country over 12 years of poncing around the world. Nothing from the detractors of Bernards article. A few smart arse critical comments, obviously learnt reading the nonsense in the Labor bashing blogs of Akerman and Bolt. Coming from there to here is like moving from the slums of Bangladesh to the Ritz. While not wishing to see paying readers of Crikey go, its good riddance to a few on this particular topic.
well said Bernard & well said Marilyn, the apologist come out full force yet turn the blind eye to all that happened under his watch (see Marilyn’s concise list) - talk about jobs for the boys (well girls too given the farcical appointment of another ex-cabinet member, Ms Vanstone)! Downer lives up to his name, the DFAT mole summed him up correctly -arrogant, self important twat - he leaves a legacy of the longest serving foreign minister who oversaw the litany of lies, deceptions, kowtowing to Indonesia, inaction on human rights issues and general US arsekissing of an unprecedented scale. his appointment is so farcical i cannot wait for the real players in the issue to speak candidly of lord downers appointment after a few months in the job. Lynda of Mayo put it so well yesterday “His past 7 months of seat-warming has been an outrageous waste of taxpayers’ money” - here, good riddance to silver spoonned garbage. unfortunately he’s now an extra problem that the cypriots didn’t need.
Bernard, you write some bullsh*t mate, but your take on Alexander Downer is so over the top that your fishnets are showing.
It’s a shame we can’t upgrade the comments area to full forum capability, largely to eradicate the simplistic and coarse neocon doggerel that gets entered — like the US Repubs, no intellect and all smear. And which would allow the thinking people to edit their ripostes with the even greater brilliance of afterthought…
I know it won’t budge your anti-Lib, anti-Downer views but I can’t let you go in smearing Downer by comparing him with that walking ego working in a sheltered workshop, Gareth Gareth Evans.
I remember Gareth trying to orchestrate himself a Nobel Peace Prize gig over Cambodia though it was never clear as to what he thought he did in Cambodia to deserve any personal praise. By comparison, Downer, without ever seeking personal glory, was critical in Liberal decisions to send troops to help people in East Timor, Solomon Islands, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Australian political history will have a space of pride for Downer’s contribution. Unfortunately for Gareth, he is most likely to be remembered for his personal indiscretion but thankfully that won’t find space in our history books.
You know, there are some days when I look at what I wrote and wonder if I went too far, let my emotions get in the way of an objective assessment, let my feelings derail a good argument.
Today ain’t one of them. Truth be told, I let the bloke off lightly. Our participation in the Iraq War remains a stain on this country that will take a long time and I lot of good work to remove.
What’s funniest are the people who think this is a left-wing critique. More or less the same critique has been made of the Bush Administration by American conservatives - old-style Republicans who despise the way their party has been turned into an arm of the neo-con movement.
Bob Murphy & Nic -good riddance guys - such bullshit apologists for such a self-important idiot as Downer -countless crap ons about Bernards reporting yet no acknowledgment of Downer’s policies -yes we tend to look at iraq a bit more than a project in cambodia because over 1 million people are dead because of it ! “howard haters” geez its just so easy to dismiss any criticism with a label, one size fits all eh - take the blinkers off and go back to lapping up your lattes as you fondle over janet, piers and andrew.
dear John (Ryan)
Actually your view point has been quite fashionable for the past 12 years in every Murdoch & packer owned media outlet, not forgetting those bastions of objective ideals channels 7 & 10! You obviously seemed to have glued the rose coloured glasses onto your head not being able to see that downer & howards actions in both Iraq & Afghanistan has greatly lessened our security not increased it. Anyone who believes that invasion of both of these countries is legitimate needs committing. another furphy is the idea that only competent people are sent to the UN - please pry the glasses off!
This may not be a fashionable point of view, but I think Alexander Downer served Australia extremely well. He had one rule, which was “Put Australia’s interests first.” In difficult times he supported a policy which ensured that our best and strongest ally, the USA was totally committed to our security. I’ll swap that level of security any day for the academic right to have differences of opinion - which make no damm difference. If he was a bad as the commentator made out, then he would not be going to the UN.
Wish you lot would work out whether I’m left wing or right wing. I’m still replying to yesterday’s attacks about voluntary voting. Sigh.
Who knew the Crikey readership contained so many unreconstructed Howardite neocons? I always thought Downer was an object of ridicule even within the upper echelon of Lib circles. This is all very enlightening.
Nic I couldnt better Marilyn and Bernards list of Downers antics, they sum the person up perfectly. Incidently thought you were leaving, waiting for a ticket perhaps?
Dear Eric Blair, It must be so terribly difficult for you with your supreme intelligence and humanity to live in this community (in which you presumably live) where the overwhelming majority “needs committing”. Still your arrogance will carry you through.
Has Downer yet mastered the Greek and Turkish words for ‘smear’? That seemed to be his favourite term whenever taken to task over anything - of course, trying to take him to task over ‘Children Overboard’ was a ‘smear’ on the Navy, and trying to take him to task on his department’s failure over the Bali Bombing was a ‘smear’ on ASIO and the like.
Furthermore, what are the Greek and Turkish translations for ‘gaffe’? They’ll be required sooner rather than later.
steve - yet another one raises his head out of the muck -please will some of you downer apologists, lovers of war & disinformation at least come up with some relevant & truthful analysis of the wondrous achievements of lord downer!
Churlish and mean spirited…the author.
The list of stuff ups against Downer are long. East Timor, where the UN report found him to be culpable for the deaths of the many killed during the referendum because he lied to the world about who was doing the killing.
Nauru and Manus Island which was nothing more than bribery to force poor neighbours to breach their own constitutions to lock up people for us when they didn’t want to be there - a $1.5 billion exercise with DIAC alone costing taxpayers $305 million according to the details released last week.
The turning of a blind eye again while his department deported Australian’s and refugees on false documents to the wrong countries which David Corlett, the ERC and Lateline have all proven to be pretty monstrous. Perhaps the most monstrous were the ones used against the Bakhtiyari family which were exposed by the Pakistan authorities within 24 hours of them arriving there. Those illegal, unsigned documents had photos taken from newspapers and claimed that the baby born in Adelaide was born in Quetta. These acts are crimes in Australian law but not one person has ever been charged. The penalty is 14 years in the slammer and ironically the feds. are still pursuing Jack Thomas over nothing more that changing a date on his own passport.
Iraq of course is Downers greatest failure and I will never forgive the bastard for calling most of the world Saddam appeasers and terrorists while his eyes were averted from the gaze of that $300 million to Saddam from AWB. The people of Iraq were starving to death at the rate of thousands per week because they subsisted on 47 cents per day, had no medical care, no anything. I watched two films on Iraq this week - 4 Corners BBC Panorama program finally showed us where some of the stolen $23 billion went and last night I saw the Cutting Edge film about 4 Iraqi boys and the levels of carnage they witnessed.
And still that moron thinks it was a great idea.
Afghanistan is another disaster which Downer clearly never spoke to anyone about but just went along with US planning, of which there was none. And let us never forget that the Taliban were not the worst mob in the country and that we locked up civilians who had escaped them with Downer’s rapturous approval. And let us further not forget that the Taliban offered Bin Laden to the UN on 14 October 2001 if they provided proof that he was responsible for the September 11 attacks. They have never done so and we now also know that the US were planning a pre-emptive attack as early as July 2001 anyway for the oil in the Caspian sea.
Downer should be in the Hague but perhaps knowing he will suffer the same humiliation as Bliar does at the hands of both Israeli’s and Palestinians will be sufficient punishment as he ponces around pretending to make peace.
Adam C. No other government of any country tried to heavy Paul Volker into changing the report about the Oil for food program, no other government tried to heavy the US congress the way Downer did and no other government was as wilfully blind as the Howard mob.
And no-one courted China more than Howard with his gift of most of our gas to China for threepence a tonne.
And greedy to the last. Although he had no intention of doing a stroke of work he wouldn’t resign until the 1st of July so that all his lump sum payments would be in the new financial year therebye paying the least possible amount of income tax.
What a load of dribble but I guess we have to expect such a comment from the Howard haters after such a long time the Liberals were in power -on a personal note one of my sons served as a volunteer in Cambodia for 1 year under an Australian government programme for young people which I understand was instigated by Downer -this was agreat inititive but I guess did not get a lot of publicity -better to concentrate on Iraq etc
Oh come on folks, give me break. One lousy pair of fishnets……..I can do the ‘Nutbush’ pretty good too.
> AdamC
> While Bernard Keane may not have liked the moral clarity which Downer brought to Australia’s foreign policy…
lololol
Ohmigod he is human and made some mistakes, horrors! At least he wasn’t boring like the current mob. And on top of that he was a first rate local member. I have lived in the electorates of several name brand pollies (including at least one of the bunch of “famous” people that tend to get preselected these days. Downer was far and away the best local member I’ve experienced and will be sorely missed.
You need professional help Sean………..seriously seek help. You patently need it.
Alexander who?….oh you mean that guy that works for Rumsfeld……
Nic, not much of an argument there from you either. In the authors opinion (and mine) Downer has been the worst. His record of “achievement” is shocking in my living memory.
Perhaps you could suggest someone worse and provide the details about their actions as you don’t appear to agree with the proposition. Looking back, I can’t find another who helped us participate in an illegal war, suggested that he couldn’t recall anything in a bribe scandal as two examples.
Perhaps you have someone in mind that is worse. Until you do, your argument doesn’t work either.
OK I’m game Nic - the other 20%? I’m disappointed I’m only 80%.
And let’s not forget the proud work Downer did to help deprive a fledgling East Timor of one of its main potential sources of income. Oil.
Richard Laidlaw -ain’t it grand when the pot calls the kettle black tho you offer naught but simple minded critical bollocks, as for Ian McFadyen - - hah! i just love polarization, criticize Downer and you must be pro-ALP! wel I’m certainly not that’s for sure! I’m fed up with both mobs , what i find so funny is that for the past 12yrs the neo-con howard bottom feeders have bathed in the mainstream media fecal matter and now just don’t know what to do when they come across media that turns the spotlight on what really happened! take some advice from your lots attacks in the past - if you don’t like crikey then leave it!
I note that none of the apologists have actually got anything to say about what Downer actually did in his years in the job.
Lively debate though.
Bernard, you are spot-on, but being too diplomatic about the legacy our long-serving, (some might set, self-serving) Foreogn Minister . Downer encapsulates, by being on the extreme end, the lies, the hypocrisy and the manipulation that has become the norm for politics But then he had a lot of tradition to go on: we invited ourselves to the Vietnam slaughter, backed the US in all it`s imperialist adventures, `earning` the title of `Deputy Sheriff`, and did our own imperialist thing in Timor Leste, stretching back to Gough`s time to the present occupation, the PNG, the Solomon Islands, repeating, ad neuseam that `Israel has the right to defend itself` whilst deevastating Lebanon and its infrastructure, killing over a thousand people and sowing the country with millions of cluster bombs.. Yes, we`ve learned a lot from the US. All of the above, and more, was done in our name, in the time-honoured method in trying to identify the ostensibly democratic Government with the people it rules : `l`état c`est moi!`. But is it what the people of Australia really deserve?
Hi.
Now I remember why I didn’t renew my subscription.
Bernard Keane’s finger wagging moralising, vituperative bitchiness and the generally limp dicked left orientation of Crikey.
Addicted to chatter mind, and oblivious to the law of unintended consequences.
Life is too short.
Have fun with global warming and your other intellectual projections.
Too bad, the irreverent sh-t stirring was often entertaining.
I pay my money to read witty analysis; not the literary flatulence of someone whose biases are all to apparent.
Let’s just see how our foreign policy expert Rudd manages Australia’s Asian relationships in the region. He’s started so well, hasn’t he?
Hey Ian McFayden: you must of course be the comedian…..I would hope.
Downer is forever stuck in my mind as the fool who made the “things that go batter in the night’ jibe when referring to domestic violence during his brief time as Opposition Leader. At that very moment, that Mayo silver spoon must have slunk up his arse in embarrassment !!!!!
Hail the great political strategist…Alexander ’ Tell me when you’d like me to go down on you Condi’ Downer.
Bernard, your article provoked the most comments I have seen on a Crikey article - so you must be doing something right. Crikey today is not the same as it was when I started reading years ago, but you may still be able to attract enough support without people like me.
Bernard Keane is a joke, both as journalist and as a commentator. This piece is drivel.
Marion in his defence given the amount of money he is likely to earn as a consultant, the timing of his payout probably isn’t going to do much to his tax liability for ‘08-09.
I’m guessing Natasha found out about Gorton accidentally - she had no idea who Paul Hasluck (about whom more in a second) was, nor Evatt, nor any of Whitlam’s ministers. She knew who Don Chipp was…
And thanks for an article that gets Downer about right - his only claim was that he was there longer than anyone else. Look at any old biddy who’s been in Accounts since 1980, and no-one has the heart to remove, despite her unpleasant nature and incompetence… Compared to Casey, Hasluc, Hayden or Evatt, Downer was crap. Even compared to Lynch or Evans (who was dreadful), Downer was crap.
And I hope this means his unwelcome (we voted your lot out!) head will stop popping up on the ABC …
I love the self proclaimed critics who have nothing of substance to write…Ian Vagg, Nev Parker, Bob Murphy, David M, Nic. isn’t it so easy on the thinking dept to just criticise Bernard and not offer any words of wisdom to back up your spiteful digs. Read Marilyns post again and have a think about what she has written, then if you are game take her to task on each point. I suspect you haven’t the spine for it. Is not often she gets her facts wrong as Akerman has found out many times.
JamesK please justify the invasions of both countries without the usual neo-con spin (“WMD, War on Terror, Ruthless governments etc) how about OIL /GAS /RESOURCES, btw I do believe there was the greatest opposition worldwide in history to the invasion of Iraq or was that just a bunch of 16 million do-gooders in Feb 2003?- i do believe it’s you’re war mongering, blood letting types that need their heads read..
What exactly does the term ‘Howard hater’ mean?
If you read the above allegations, it appears to mean any person who criticises the Federal Liberal Government’s clearly questionable performance across a wide range of domestic & international issues since 1996. It’s value as a honest reflection of community attitudes has already been debased by its misuse by those lightweight media commentators such as Dizzy Devine, FS Ackerman & Stockholm Janet.
For those who have used the term as a defence to widespread criticism of the Howard years, read Marilyn’s first comment & rebutt them with facts if you can.
’ Howard hater ’ has about the same creedence as the ’ poofter ’ tag used so widely as a put down up until the 1990’s …it’s meaningless, offensive & reveals a lot more about its source, than about its target.
…………and the Macarena. I’ve actually been doing foreign dances for many years. It shows my multicultural flair.
JamesK the joke is on you captain peanut, your neo-con drivel is as interesting as watching downer being interviewed - shallow, self-important garbage !! now go back to drooling over janet’s latest piece, don’t forget the tissues. and so it goes…
Hi-five for that spray Bernard Keane. You’ve cheered me up considerably.
“Best” and “worst” foreign ministers are, by definition, extremely subjective tags to hang, and the debate raging here will never reach consensus. Downer has some good qualities (that joke about John Gorton was a cracker), but I can’t get past the AWB scandal for one of the Howard Government’s most disgraceful acts. In the lead-up to the last election, I frequently referred to this scandal as the reason I was happy to spend 14 hours at a polling booth for the ALP. Despite anything that happened on the domestic front, from a humanitarian point of view I regarded the effects of this scandal on long-suffering Iraqi citizens as being worse than Workchoices, VSU and dragging feet on climate change rolled into one. Sending Australians to war to fight against an enemy armed with weapons purchsed with ‘trucking fees’ stolen from the food for oil program as part of a deal where AWB was getting top dollar for the wheat sale and despite a UN resolution requiring Downer to actively ensure trade with Iraq was above board? If he wasn’t the worst foreign minister, he was at least responsible for the biggest scandal in decades.
Why no comment about Brendon Nelson’s outrageous proclamation that “all Australian’s owe Alexander Downer”? What?!?!?
hey Nic so where’s the untruths in marilyn’s commentary? out with it mate, how about trying to dispute the indisputable! no better yet just label it left wing do-gooder rubbish and that’ll be enough eh! at least come up with some sort of argument in alexanders defense! to quote the peep show “oh cocknobs”
ps -bernard’s enlightening prose is a definite sub renewer for sure!!
Despite me initially knocking Bernard Keane I’m now finding his take on Canberra politics refreshing and far more in touch than the other’s who pass themselves off as “political” pundits including the silly titled “the most interesting” Malcolm Farr who writes like an old woman gossiping over the back fence and with as much insight.
Downer going to the UN is the ultimate insult. I well remember his first utterances about the UN when taking over his ministership: “Irrelevant” and “out of touch” were just some of his comments-which may well describe what Downer’s contribution to solving any Cyprus problems will be.
The mystery is why Kevin Rudd is congratualting him on his post and encouraging the move-it can only be he views it like an exile to a Mediterranean island just like Napoleon, another deluded nutcase. If he can get Costello packed off somewhere out of harm’s way now ( as no-one else seems to want him) that just leaves Malcolm Turnbull on the other side to deal with. Turnbull will be sure to alienate any wavering aspirants still left who suport the Liberals.
I note that both Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities have welcomed the appointment, but it’s a reality of being a South Australian politician that you automatically back the Greeks against the Turks. Check out any of Mike Rann’s comments on this issue over the years. The reason is screamingly obvious - SA’s Greek community is substantial, and its Turkish community is very, very small. Is Downer the best man for the job?
Ah yes, Tony - the establishment of an unviable, unstable microstate in East Timor - another great achievement of the Howard-Downer years. How could we forget, esp. when according to the Budget papers we spent $100K on Jose Ramos Horta’s health care in 2007-08.