Howard’s End

To paraphrase Bill Hicks and Frank L. Baum, “Ding Dong the Liberal Party beast is dead!” Its time to pop the cork (or preferably the Czech beer cap) and enjoy the downfall of the worst Prime Minister Australia has ever had the misfortune of being saddled with. John Howard’s miserable 11-year reign saw Australia tighten its belt in order to accommodate an anorexic view of both domestic and global affairs. The PM’s resultant myopic tendencies were fed via a dangerous infatuation with G.W Bush and US Republican politics.

Whilst there were positives during the Howard era, such as low unemployment and large federal budget surpluses, those gains came on the back of the misery dealt out to those who could least afford it, among those being single mothers, public hospitals, public education, a large chunk of Aboriginal Australia, the environment and investment for the future. Not to forget that the Howard Government's positives also owe a great deal to the industrial boom of the North West that has contributed significantly to the economy and employment statistics. The past 11 years are a monument to greed and the self-indulgence of the most prosperous among us and their lack of consideration for those less fortunate. Money withheld and ripped from the poor were poured into Peter Costello’s money pile, creating the impression of sound financial management, when such surplus funds were desperately needed in a number of key areas, and particularly those previously mentioned.

John Howard and the Australian Liberal Party destroyed the positive steps made for justice in regard to Aboriginal land rights on the back of Mabo and introduced new measures to ensure that hard won civil rights would also be taken from Indigenous Australians, particularly in the Northern Territory. Aboriginal owned enterprises confiscated and returned on lease, along with large tracts of land and no apology in sight for the matters of the past – Is there truly any wonder for that matter, given the sheer number of ongoing crimes committed by the coalition?

Howard pandered to those industries with little or no room for growth, such as coal and timber, whilst doing little to help those industries invest for their future survival in renewable energy and sustainable logging via regrowth respectively. An out of touch leader showed that he was clearly struggling to understand the future of the planet, let alone how Australia should proactively develop new industry and encourage investment in new technology and resource management here and now.

As our kids were getting fatter and our education resources were re-allocated to those institutions already swimming in private funding, our telecommunications industry continued to lag behind the rest of the world, our scientists and nurses headed offshore for realistic reward and the country became progressively more xenophobic, Australia moved ever closer to becoming a turd resembling our recently deposed leader. Thankfully, with more Australians having come to their senses that particular ageing and irrelevant turd has now rounded the s-bend and been flushed out of the system alone.