{"id":3675,"date":"2013-05-08T21:57:11","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T11:57:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/australiansforhonestpolitics.wordpress.com\/?p=3675"},"modified":"2019-04-13T23:24:14","modified_gmt":"2019-04-13T13:24:14","slug":"a-day-in-the-life-of-our-house-under-siege","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/a-day-in-the-life-of-our-house-under-siege\/","title":{"rendered":"A day in the life of Our House under siege"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Bush

Bush and Howard during visit to Australia. Credit. ABC<\/p><\/div>\n

By Margo Kingston
\n<\/a>May 8, 2013<\/p>\n

Margo:<\/strong> In this chapter from my book, I detail the unprecedented mauling of press, parliamentary and citizen’s freedom in Parliament by Howard when George Bush came to Canberra in 2003. Brandis was in the thick of it, and made no protest. My contemporaneous report of the events is Parliament meets Bush: A day in the life of our faltering democracy<\/a><\/p>\n

Political systems have much more frequently been overthrown by their own corruption and decay than by external forces<\/strong>
\nRobert Menzies, \u2018The Sickness of Democracy\u2019, from The Forgotten People radio broadcasts, 1942<\/em><\/p>\n

The anti-democratic hustle<\/strong><\/p>\n

On 8 October 2003 John Howard\u2019s government lied to the Australian people to obtain their Parliament\u2019s consent to hold a special joint sitting for President George W. Bush. Manager of business Tony Abbott told the people\u2019s House:<\/p>\n

\u2018The government has decided to deal with the visit of President Bush in precisely the same way that the Keating Government dealt with the visit of President Bush Senior on 2 January 1992. As well as the formal Parliamentary proceedings, there will obviously be an opportunity for all members of this Parliament to mix with President Bush, and very possibly to meet him.\u2019<\/p>\n

Senior ministers would hold talks with the President, Abbott said, adding, \u2018Of course, there will be similar opportunities for the Leader of the Opposition and senior shadow ministers. This Parliament spends a lot of time dealing with what might be described as politics as usual, but it is important to put politics as usual aside for this day.\u2019<\/p>\n

The 1992 speech by Bush Senior was the first time any foreign head of state had addressed our Parliament. There is nothing in the Constitution to allow it and no precise rules in place. But his visit had gone well. Australians had generally supported our participation in the UN-endorsed coalition to drive Iraq from Kuwait, and the man who\u2019d masterminded it arrived as a largely uncontroversial figure. \u2018Politics as usual\u2019 was put aside by making Bush Senior\u2019s stay a state visit. He was welcomed at Kingsford Smith Air- port on his arrival in Australia by the Governor-General, Bill Hayden, with Prime Minister Keating in attendance; there was a state dinner hosted by the Governor-General at Government House, a non-partisan parliamentary dinner hosted by Keating, and meetings with government, Opposition and even farm lobby leaders. The President mixed equally with all our representatives after his speech to show his respect for the honour we, their electors, had extended to him; and he treated our media congenially and with even- handedness throughout.<\/p>\n

Australian Prime Minister:<\/strong> Thank you for coming. And just before I invite the President to say a few words, just to outline, first of all, the structure of the press conference so we can operate smoothly . . . I hope we\u2019ll be able to take a roughly even amount from both the Australian and visiting press . . .<\/p>\n

American President<\/strong>: My [opening] remarks, Mr Prime Minister, will be very brief. And I simply want to, once again, thank you, thank all of our official hosts, and thank the people of Australia for the warmth of the reception on this visit . . . And I\u2019ll be glad to take my share of the questions.<\/p>\n

At that joint press conference Australian journalists asked Bush Senior about half of the twenty-two questions he fielded. Presumably when Abbott told Parliament that this next Bush visit would proceed in \u2018precisely the same way\u2019 both our press gallery and elected representatives felt reassured.<\/p>\n

The anti-democratic sting<\/strong><\/p>\n

Contrary to Abbott\u2019s pledge, the government already knew that, unlike the visit by his dad, the visit by Bush Junior would NOT be a state visit, but a partisan \u2018working\u2019 one, as a guest NOT of the governor-general, our head of state, but of John Howard. The President would NOT \u2018very possibly . . . meet\u2019 our parliamentarians, or even \u2018obviously . . . mix\u2019 with them. He would NOT \u2018of course\u2019 meet senior shadow ministers. He would NOT hold a press conference.<\/p>\n

The government knew all this weeks before Abbott misled Parliament to obtain our consent.<\/p>\n

Documents I obtained from the Prime Minister\u2019s Department under a Freedom of Information request show that at a planning meeting with John Howard\u2019s department on 17 September 2003 a member of Bush\u2019s Advance Team said that the \u2018visit was to be short \u2013 just the basic wreath laying in the Hall of Memory \u2013 no official state visit, no ceremonial greeting, gun salute etc\u2019. A draft itinerary dated the same day \u2013 and which remained largely unchanged \u2013 provided for no meetings with Labor shadow ministers and no mixing with or meetings between parliamentarians and Bush.<\/p>\n

The visit was always going to be the George \u2019n\u2019 John Show, with Bush shadowed by Howard at all times so that he appeared in practically every image captured of the President. There\u2019d be no public opportunity for any Australian to voice their opposition to his foreign or trade policies directly or question his plans for our ANZUS future. Rather than seek to unite all Australians behind our most important ally via demonstrable expressions of our true shared values \u2013 engaged debate, freedom of speech and of the press and democratic inclusion \u2013 Howard would prevent almost everyone who disagreed with him from speaking with Bush at all.<\/p>\n

I reckon that if our parliamentarians had known that it was going to be \u2018politics as usual\u2019 \u2013 only much worse than usual \u2013 there\u2019d have been uproar in both our Houses. The Senate had already censured Howard twice over Iraq, and many non-government MPs may have refused to attend Bush\u2019s speech at all.<\/p>\n

Doubtless that\u2019s exactly what John Howard reckoned, too.<\/p>\n

Read more on Scribd below<\/p>\n