Mark Latham is smart enough and young enough to learn new things, discuss things that matter to Australian voters and tough enough to get everyone's attention.
Many of us are younger than the current Prime Minister and many of us are older and we know age is no barrier to understanding. Yet somehow John Howard just seems too old to learn and this hasn't changed since he was a nipper.
Those who have read the biography of John Howard know his mum told her children they shouldn't ask kids over to play because she didn't want them to encourage undesirables. Heaven knows what she meant by "undesirable", or what her son means when he uses judgmental names to label asylum seekers. But we do know John Howard's mum's policy has become Australia's Immigration Policy.
Malcolm Fraser is a Liberal and was a prime minister but he has never been as old fashioned as John Howard. If you have any doubt about this go to: End detention in Australia. (http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?dtention)
Malcolm Fraser's petition to get families out of detention has nearly 40,000 signatures, and it's only in it's second week. Moreover, the only people who can sign it are people with computers and internet access. And they can only find it if they are directed there by someone who cares about human rights, or they belong to a newsgroup concerned about what is happening in detention. So these signatures represent a tiny fraction of voters who agree with Malcolm Fraser.
Michael Gordon, in The Age, November 25, 2003, reported that Mr Fraser's petition says the oldest children in detention are living out their teens behind razor wire and electric fences. "The youngest is a baby born a month ago who was placed in detention in Baxter shortly after his birth," he says. "Some children in Australian detention centres have been unnecessarily imprisoned for years."
The Sydney Morning Herald, on November 26, 2003, ran an AAP story containing the following quotes from Mr Fraser:
"I really get angry at any form of discrimination towards people on the basis of race, colour or religion."
"I think the move to establish a more humane world ... has been one which Australia by and large has supported, but which Australia has now undermined."
"I've opposed this government because they have not upheld the standards which the Liberal party, and in earlier days the Labor Party, used to support,"
"I do not believe the government will change its policy, but that doesn't mean that people who believe in a more humane approach should not go on record and express their view."
Mark Latham has got it, Simon Crean has got it, Carmen Lawrence has got it. Now the ALP, the Greens and the Democrats have all got it. Only the members of the Howard Government have failed to get it. Why? Well maybe, just maybe, it is all because of John Howard's mum. Maybe, like her son, she made up bed time stories based only on her experience and beliefs.
Times have changed since John Howard was a nipper, although he's done his best to make us all part of his mum's world. His paternalistic and xenophobic campaign of the 2001 Election won't work in 2004. Making up stories about asylum seekers went unchallenged and had a soporific effect on the voters in 2001, but he can't get away with that again 2004. "Relaxed and comfortable" fantasies about the benefits of his health or education policies only instil anger in the mums and dad's of today as they struggle to hang onto their jobs and the roof over their heads, as they struggle to rear their children, while fearing every child's cough in the night and how much it may cost them, where before it was bulk-billed. Private health insurance? Who is John Howard talking to? Certainly not them. They know they are only one rung above asylum seekers on John Howards ladder and the next rung will soon be beyond their reach.
In 2004 the Howard Government should finally 'get it'. They have controlled the media, bullied the people and been actively involved in child abuse for far too long. This time the voters want answers not silly games. Cute won't cut it, this is our future, it isn't the Jack Davy show. John Howard can't take pride in, or bank on the ignorance of the electorate any more, nor can he get everything wrong and expect to grab the prize this time.
Yes there has been a generational change. Mark Latham is just not the kind of kid who will obediently fall silent when told he 'should be seen but not heard.' John Howard's mum would probably label him as 'undesirable.'
The Policies Of John Howard's Mum?