WEE think the most amazing thing about this election was the fact that the off-mainstream press (MSM) were so stunningly accurate with their predictions of a Labor win. When many were wavering and worrying about the ‘narrowing’ or Rudd just messing up, the poll watchers were calmly asserting that there was nothing to worry about.

And on the night it seems they were dead right. WEE must say, that we didn’t really believe the wise old sage, Possum, would be right – although WEE were confidently predicting a Labor win to friends and sundry, back in the deep recesses WEE had our doubts.

And then, on the evening of the election broadcast (admittedly before Queensland votes had begun counting) WEE were still wavering, worried sick that Howard and his cronies would win their unwinnable election.

But to great relief, Possum and Pollbludger were proved correct. And Howard was swept from office.

Highlights of the night included the roar from the crowd in the tally room when the ABC showed a graphic of Bennelong with Maxine McKew ahead of John Howard. Also Kerry O’Brien claiming that there, ‘was a swing to the ABC’. Priceless. It could possibly be Freudian slip of the century – in that it confirms everything the Howard huggers and ABC haters have mythologised about what’s wrong with the national broadcaster.

And finally, the change of government. It’s noticeable. There is a different feeling out there in the community now. A collective sigh of relief that Howard has gone. A slight jolt when an announcer on TV mentions the Prime Minister and you see an image of Kevin Rudd. We’re still getting used to it. Eleven years is a long time, and it’s been a long time between drinks for compassionate and respectable government. Let’s hope that Rudd can deliver the goods.

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Howard hits states again – National – smh.com.au

It might work, but WEE hope that the good burghers of Queensland will see through this act. WEE hope they’ll see through Howard’s sudden feigned outrage at people being forced into these mergers.

Along with a hospital in Mersey in Tasmania one really has to take these interventions with a grain of salt. Howard is simply out of control. He will stop at nothing to get back in. It is kind of sad in a frightening way. As happened to poor Dawn in Welcome to the Dollhouse John Howard should really go home and right an essay on dignity. Because he is certainly not displaying any at the moment.

He is probably betting on the fact that no-one will remember all of these bizarre tactics if he wins the next federal election. He is really just trying to secure his place in history and hoping to hell he can leave the stage with dignity (the way he should have left late last year).

And he will stop at nothing to do it. He won’t mind trashing any convention to remain in power. He will tell any lie, slander anyone who gets in his way. It will either work (WEE hope it won’t) or he will retire a very diminished politician who will have trashed his (questionable) legacy for the sake of his own ego.

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From the start of this saga, WEE had given the Government the benefit of the doubt. Maybe there really was something that the AFP had on Haneef. WEE were content, despite the uneasiness of the continued extensions of Haneef’s detention, to let the AFP do their job and trust that the judicial review of the case would ensure a reasonable outcome. But then it started…

Government ministers couldn’t help themselves, commenting on the case. Ruddock, Downer, Andrews and Howard just couldn’t keep their mouths shut. This wasn’t for the benefit of the case, it was to try and draw the opposition out – to try and get a rise from Rudd. And the longer Rudd resisted the more bits and pieces of information dribbled out. That was until it became apparent that the AFP had made some errors in the investigation.

Mick Keelty blames the time zone difference between Australia and the UK for some of the confusion. Good grief, its 2007 not 1807. However, when push came to shove and they had to make some charge against Haneef to justify all the carry on surrounding the case, the judicial system operated as it should and granted bail to the accused.

This is where things started to go off the rails and the Government really started to overstep its power. Kevin Andrews, a grubby character if ever there was one, and a committed Christian, decided that based on some evidence that only the AFP and he have been privy to (and which seems to be the only piece of evidence not leaked to the press!) he would revoke Haneef’s working visa. This truly was an act of a complete bastard. A mean, nasty and vicious act – and an act that was political in its motive.

And make no mistake, this was not an act that Andrews dreamed up all by himself. This one has all the hallmarks of a classic Howard maneuver. Try and win a political point over Labor under the guise of anti-terror laws. They have used this time and time again. And unfortunately for the Gold Coast registrar Haneef, he was in the way, and disposable (and deportable).

What they didn’t count on was the whole AFP case unravelling quite so badly. Unravelling to the point that the DPP had to drop the charges against Haneef.

If the Coalition had been able to resist their insatiable desire for a political wedge to damage Rudd, they wouldn’t be in this mess. If they had let the AFP do their job without the running commentary. If Haneef could have waited patiently for the case against him to be dropped after investigation, then none of this grandstanding would have been necessary. None of this visa nonsense would be necessary and the whole thing could have been a shining demonstration of how the terror laws could work – even in the case of an innocent person being detained.

But no, our grubby leaders couldn’t let that happen. And it begs the question. Did they really introduce the terror laws to protect Australia? Or did they introduce them to create the circumstances for political show trials? Show trials designed to keep the community in fear? Show trials to try and goad the opposition into questioning their outrageous treatment of any poor bugger that gets detained on flimsy or false evidence?

These are the questions we should reflect back on these men who think nothing of dragging Haneef through mud. Of course they will squeal like stuck pigs that this article is written by someone soft on terror, that WEE haven’t seen the evidence against Haneef, that WEE would prefer to see someone get killed in a terror attack that protect the nation. What rot.

WEE cannot stop asking these questions. The veil of suspicion must fall on the Howard government. It is they who have betrayed our trust in this case. It is they who have behaved in the most appalling way. It is they who are threatening the national security of this country through their abuse and disregard for natural justice and common law.

Do not let Andrews cast further suspicion onto Haneef as he tried to do by commenting on the haste with which the poor doctor left the country last night. Rather let us reflect on the haste with which Andrews made his decisions about this case, and the suspicion this arouses about the Government’s motives for such actions. Get suspicious about everything this Government has done and will do in the future under the guise of terror laws and ‘protecting’ Australia.

Question their utterances, now matter how Downer extreme. Question their actions. For in our view these are not the actions of men with the countries interest at heart – this are men who are acting in their own self-interest, and in the interest of maintaining power.

And finally, can WEE just make the observation that the quiet dignity and grace that Haneef has shown since his release stands in stark contrast to the hysterics of the grubby men who pretend they are protecting Australia.

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Well the sentence in the David Hicks case has been brought down. This terrible, dangerous man, who was caught consorting with terrorists, hanging with Osama, and providing material support to terrorists will serve nine months in prison in Adelaide.

Gosh, the case against him must have been compelling for this result. Hardly a case of do the crime, do the time. It doesn’t seem the crime was very serious after all.

Bush, Howard and all their cronies should hang their collective heads in shame. The serious and terrible crimes of which he was accused (that we never really got to the bottom of) were worth a measly nine months in jail? Are they serious? Seven years was pleaded down to nine months?

Can we get these fools away from the levers of government? They really don’t deserve them. [more]

Janet Albrechtsen and the rest of the Howard cheer squad were out in force late last week, misrepresenting the views of many people who were more concerned about justice than his guilt or otherwise. But all of us have apparently got ‘egg on our faces’ because Hicks pleaded guilty. Well they must be suffering a bit of egg blowback tonight! This dangerous man they have all be demonising for the last five years will be walking among us early in 2008.

How will we protect ourselves from such danger? WEE are astonished that Howard can, in the light of this result, stand with his straight, serious face on and tell us that due process has been observed and justice has run its course.

WEE mentioned that it was a sad chapter in Australian history earlier this week. Well, it’s starting to descend into farce. WEE only hope the electorate can see through this sham.

Either the man is a dangerous terrorist (the government position) who deserves to be locked up behind bars for a long time, or he was a naive adventurer (the rather extreme left view) who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and so was only guilty of misadventure… which WEE don’t think is a crime.

Gosh, when is this farce going to end? Now we have to wait until early next year (and after the election… how convenient) to really hear what Hicks is all about. And of course it will be dragged on and on in the media. Couldn’t they have put us all out of our misery and released him now? Then it could all be over in a couple of weeks, or at least the real issue in all of this could have been brought into focus, the role the Australian government played in colluding with the Americans to lock Hicks up without trial for five years.

Alas, the media will now be clamouring over each other to court Hicks for his story over the next 9-12 months. And the distraction of these media games will ensure that Howard and his government avoids any awkward questions about his disgraceful handling of the Hicks case from the day he was apprehended by the Americans.

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New ads encouraging people to enlist in the defence forces will hit television screen next month as part of a massive recruitment drive. Defence Minister Brendan Nelson says the government decided to increase the Australian Defence Force’s advertising budget to help it reach its recruitment targets. Dr Nelson said the government would significantly increase the amount of money spent on advertising and promoting the ADF, and change the focus of the campaigns.

Source: More funding for recruitment ads: Nelson – Breaking News – National – Breaking News

I don’t suppose it occurred to the government that perhaps numbers were down because people don’t want to be sent into war zones on the whim of a prime minister.

The Iraq adventure has done untold damage to the ability of the defence force to attract people. The government will blather on about a tight job market, but in the end it’s the poor judgement of John Howard that has led to this problem.

The mess in the Iraq is the worst job ad you could hope for when it comes to recruitment for the ADF. People understand the different roles that can be undertaken in the ADF and there are some admirable examples of interventions at a national and international level.

However, the risk of being sent to participate in the invasion and occupation of a war like Iraq surely puts many people off. Especially as they understand that the Iraq war was inspired by the less than honourable motives of leaders in the US, UK and Australia.

The image of a career in the defence force has been damaged by members of the government themselves, and until they start to admit they were wrong about the war, WEE don’t see many people rushing to join up.

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Well, NSW have voted and it’s another four years of the Labor Party running the state. If ever there was a winnable election for the Coalition, it should have been this one.

WEE were struck, watching the election coverage last night, that it’s inexplicable in any logical world why the Liberal Party did not select Barry O’Farrell as its leader when they had the chance. WEE hope they get the message coming out of this election that people just don’t like Peter Debnam. They don’t relate to him. The Liberals can bang on all they like about the negative campaign of the Labor party and it’s attacks on Debnam, but in the end those ads only resonated with people because they really don’t like him.

Why didn’t the Liberal Party mount a negative personal attack on Iemma? Because people like him. They certainly mounted negative personal attacks on Costa, Sartor and Tripodi (who WEE have it on pretty good authority people don’t like!). Why did the Liberal Party attack Latham with such gusto at the last Federal election? Because they suspected that people didn’t like him much and eventually that was the case. Sure the negative campaigns can be powerful, but there has to be a grain of reality in people’s perception for negative campaigns to work.

Look at Kevin Rudd. The federal Liberal Party’s attempts to hone in negatively on him have backfired spectacularly. That’s because no matter what he has or hasn’t done, people like him and reckon he’s okay. If the federal Liberal Party had handled Rudd in the way the NSW Liberals have handled Iemma, they may have avoided the embarrassment of the last few weeks of ministerial losses. Not attacking Iemma probably helped the NSW Libs in making the state election a positive result for them (even if they didn’t win office).

All they have to do now is realise that Debnam comes across as a bit of a spiv and so people don’t really like him or relate to him. They need to get rid of him as quickly as they can and install someone that people do relate to – WEE happen to think that’s O’ Farrell.

The NSW right obviously has much to answer for on this front, it was the dirty campaign to get rid of Brogden that installed Debnam in the first place (after O’Farrell withdrew from the leadership contest because he knew the right would wreck his chances by undermining him, even if he won).

Ironically, if they had all left Brodgen to it, he probably would have been Premier this weekend. Instead their meddling has delivered another four years of government to the ALP in NSW.

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WEE are not so sure. He is a wily old ______. There is still a long way to go to the next election and he’s been down and out for the count before. But most agree he hasn’t been quite this far down and out in his years in office. Perhaps we are really sensing a mood for change among the Australian people, and it would be quite extraordinary that in an economy that is still going strong, issues around human rights, the war in Iraq and workplace relations come into focus as key concerns for the voting public.

The war and human rights have been in focus before and haven’t damaged Howard. It’s really still a waiting game to see if he has credibility left on these issues, or if people are really just sick of the accumulation of mean-spiritedness and untruths over much of these social matters. Perhaps this election won’t be fought on “it’s the economy stupid” but rather over the broad vision of where Australia is heading as a nation in the next twenty years.

Whatever the next few months hold, it is going to get vicious. Howard will not risk the trashing of his legacy without a fight. Or… Costello. Nah, he’s left his run way too late.

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Solar technology could be exported: Costello | News | The Australian

Solar technology could be exported: Costello October 25, 2006 CUTTING-EDGE technology in a solar concentrator power plant to be built in Victoria with the aid of a $75 million government grant could be exported around the world, Treasurer Peter Costello says. Solar technology could be exported: Costello October 25, 2006 CUTTING-EDGE technology in a solar concentrator power plant to be built in Victoria with the aid of a $75 million government grant could be exported around the world, Treasurer Peter Costello says.

Well….duh!

It’s just a pity this peanut is about 20 years too late.

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Goward faces new test, and Debnam is accused of threatening to block her rival

Mr Debnam angrily denied the claims concerning the disendorsement threat yesterday. “If I had a conversation with Martin Laverty, there’s only two people that can tell you that it’s true,” he said. “There’s no way Martin Laverty would tell you it’s true, so it’s not true.”

The problem is the statement that there was no way that Martin Laverty would tell you it’s true. It sounds almost like a threat.

It doesn’t sound very convincing really does it?

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