As you might have guessed from my last post, I was a tad pessimistic about the hope of the Labour party finally gaining power in this country. But as it turns out, I was wrong…and gladly so. The time had well and truly come for J. Ho to get the fuck out. Yes, he presided over a time of great economic prosperity, but by focusing on that we apparently forget that Howard himself said over ten years ago that it didn’t matter who was in charge, an economic boom was coming for this country. So we mustn’t overlook that Howard’s “main claim to fame”, namely his economic management was a combination of luck and riding on the coattails of the payoff from the Hawke-Keating years and the move toward neo-liberalism made during that time.

I found my anger building today while reading Howard’s eulogy in The Sunday Age, where they are already attempting to rewrite history by claiming that Howard’s adoption of ‘One Nation’ ideology was about defusing the party. With nothing what so ever to do with racism. What an absolute load of bollocks. Howard adopted those policies as it allowed him to create a scapegoat, a racial bogeyman, to stoke the fear that has been so prominnate in the political landscape worldwide since 9/11. This wasn’t a case of a strategy to eliminate One Nation. This was, to quote Greg Palast “the New Meanness”, an uncalled for and completely unfair attack of defenceless refugees, fleeing countries devastated by the wars we were starting. It was not surprising to see that in the mindless puff piece by John Roskam, that there was no mention of ‘Children Overboard’, nothing relating to ‘The Tampa’ and he must have run out of room to discuss the Australian Wheat Board scandal, because that was completely left out too. But I did have a bit of a chuckle to myself to see that according to Roskam, Howard’s refusal to say sorry to the indigenous people of this country wasn’t, as many thought, a damning indictment of race relations in this country under a coalition government. No, it was about changing “The terms of the debate….Because of Howard, the public argument shifted away from just being about whether to say sorry to the question of how to improve the living standards of out fellow citizens”. If this is the case, then why did it take so long for Howard to take action in remote indigenous communities? Oh yes, that’s right, because he was a lying, war mongering bigot.

So screw you Mr Roskam and your piss-weak attempt to try and wash the blood and grime off Howard’s hands, no less than a day after he was booted out of office for his sheer vileness.

Also a goodbye Mr Howard and Mr Costello, but in no way, shape or form do I wish you good-luck. May your consciences forever interrupt your sleep for the actions you have both taken in making this nation, however flawed, a new bastion for meanness and intolerance