War games, Olympic Games and political games – the week in review
Aug 16th, 2008 | By David Harper | Category: OpinionDavid Harper: The big news of the week, rather surprisingly, wasn’t the Olympic Games. However, the media still found plenty of time to complain about the bizarre and authoritarian actions of the Chinese government. On the local front, the Labor Party just managed to hang on to government in the Northern Territory, Federal Labor actually made a decision, and Peter Costello waited some more for his book launch.
A new Cold War?
The pseudo-democratic Georgian government launched a military campaign against separatists in the South Ossetia region last weekend. Unfortunately for the Georgian civilian population, Russia, asserting its military might in a manner not seen since the Cold War, invaded Georgia in support of the separatists. And while the Russian President, Dmitri Medvedev, humoured French President Nicholas Sarkozy’s attempts at peacemaking, the real power, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, continued to push Russian troops deeper into Georgian territory.
This just goes to show that the Great Powers will do whatever they want in their traditional stamping grounds. The Bush Administration, which was basically responsible for the installation of the current Georgian regime, has responded – rather surprisingly – with tactful strategy, sending in what they hope will be just enough assistance to prevent the total destruction of the pro-Western government. But in the end, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is just another strong-man from a country that famously gave us Joseph Stalin. The real victims are the Georgian population, who did not endorse their government’s invasion of South Ossetia and are now forced to live with (and die from) the results.
The phoney Games
Although you won’t see a lot of politics in the sporting coverage of the Olympics, the authoritarian behaviour of the Chinese Communist Party continues to make headlines. A variety of fakeries have permeated the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Inside the stadium, we’ve been treated to fake crowds, fake singers, and fake fireworks. Outside, anybody who gets in the way of the positive image that the Chinese Government wishes to project – including those pesky Western journalists – is quietly removed.
Unfortunately for the Chinese Government, Western journalists don’t like having their colleagues harassed or assaulted, and are increasingly hostile towards the International Olympic Committee and the Beijing Organising Committee. This hostility can’t fail to be noticed by ordinary citizens across the world, and I suspect that China won’t gain nearly as much international prestige from the Olympics as it might have hoped – something that is appropriate considering the fact that the government has deported, imprisoned or otherwise silenced thousands of would-be critics in the lead-up to the Games.
‘Tis the season of elections
The Labor Party has much to consider after the events of the week. In the Northern Territory, the ALP Government was battered by a surprise 9% swing in last weekend’s cliffhanger election. Chief Minister Paul Henderson barely avoided having to negotiate with independent MP Gerry Wood to form a minority government.
The size of the swing, which surprised everyone – not least the opposition Country Liberal Party – will be viewed with some trepidation in Western Australia, where Premier Alan Carpenter has rather cynically called an election nine months early. Mr. Carpenter is no doubt hoping to capitalise on the continuing problems facing the WA Liberals, whose now ex-leader Troy Buswell famously sexually harassed a female MP by sniffing her chair. But his Government deserves to be tossed from power, primarily because of its disgraceful links with corrupt former premier turned lobbyist Brian Burke.
The Liberals only need a 4.6% swing to form government in Western Australia, and the latest Newspoll, published today, shows that they are in with a fighting chance. Now if only the WA Nationals would stop playing spoiler and agree to go back into coalition with the Liberals again!
A decision from Kevin 07
Rather surprisingly, the Federal Government made a bona fide decision this week. The cabinet agreed to spend an additional $50 million on water for the Murray River – not enough, according to independent senator Nick Xenophon, but definitely a start.
There are very few things that the Rudd Government has actually decided to do yet. Most of what they have done since winning last year’s election has centred around consultations and reviews – there have been dozens of them launched in the last nine months, the most spectacular of which was the 2020 Summit, which produced lots of ideas (mostly involving new taxes – like that will happen!) and not much policy.
Certainly every new government spends a lot of time getting the best advice it can before it starts implementing its policies, but I still can’t shake the impression that the only policies Labor has at the moment have either been stolen from the Howard Government’s re-election campaign, or have yet to be implemented. In fact some upcoming policies – particularly the increasingly farcical FuelWatch – may never even see the light of day thanks to the newly independent Senate.
Costello waits in the wings
For all we know, however, the ALP will have as much the time it needs to make up its mind about how to govern the country. The current Opposition Leader, Brendan Nelson, is unbelievably unpopular, and his often-touted replacement, former treasurer Peter Costello, is playing his cards very close to his chest. Until recently, chances were that he would quit politics, which would leave the Coalition up the creek without a proverbial paddle. The Weekend Australian revealed today that the two met privately late last month, presumably to discuss the leadership, so perhaps Dr. Nelson has some idea of what is going to happen when Mr. Costello’s memoirs are published in September.
But even if he takes the leadership, is Costello the right man at the right time? For all that he has been the victim of unfortunate timing in terms of the tight economic situation he inherited, Kevin Rudd is still very popular and Labor has a strong lead over the Liberal/National coalition. Australians have never elected a single-term federal government since World War Two, and assuming this electoral truism continued, even if Mr. Costello became the new Liberal leader in September he would be faced with at least one more term in Opposition – something that would test even the strongest political hard-head. Unfortunately, if his detractors are to be believed, Mr. Costello is not hard-headed and in fact has never been suited to a leadership role, even though he has coveted it since his 1995 deal with John Howard.
In the end, only three people know about the former treasurer’s intentions: Mr. Costello himself, his wife Tanya, and, if the Weekend Australian is to be believed, Brendan Nelson. The rest of us will just have to continue to wait, and wait, until the book launch next month. As was pointed out by one commentator, every day Mr. Costello does nothing, anticipation builds – something that can only be good for Mr. Costello, or at least his book. So you can be guaranteed that even if nobody else is smiling after the Member for Higgins finally announces his decision, Melbourne University Press will be laughing all the way to the bank.