{"id":8935,"date":"2013-08-24T20:42:13","date_gmt":"2013-08-24T10:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nofibs.com.au\/?p=8935"},"modified":"2022-05-02T00:40:52","modified_gmt":"2022-05-01T14:40:52","slug":"howards-bush-barbecue-memories-to-prepare-for-abbott-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/howards-bush-barbecue-memories-to-prepare-for-abbott-government\/","title":{"rendered":"Howard’s Bush barbecue memories to prepare for Abbott government"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Margo Kingston<\/a>,<\/p>\n

24 August, 2013<\/p>\n

Wondering who will be in the Abbott Government’s club? It took a while, but back in 2003\u00a0Webdiarists and I\u00a0worked out who Howard invited to his barbecue with George Bush. Believe it or not the guest list was a secret, and there’ll be many more of those, folks. Paul\u00a0Ramsey of Ramsey Health Care was there, along with other big Liberal donors. Paul will also\u00a0get rewarded by\u00a0Howard’s political son Abbott.\u00a0Mike Seccombe revealed this week that Paul keeps\u00a0giving the Libs bucketloads of cash<\/a>. This is the opening chapter of Still not happy, John: Defending our democracy<\/em> (Penguin, 1997).<\/p>\n

Disclosing John Howard\u2019s Elite<\/b><\/p>\n

\"davies_prancing240\"<\/p>\n

\n

Beware of he who would deny you information, for in his mind he dreams of being your master<\/i><\/p>\n

Message on a computer game<\/b><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

J<\/span><\/span>ohn Howard personally chose the Australians invited to the Lodge for a barbecue on Thursday, 23 October 2003. We paid the bills \u2013 as we should have if this were a government function and not a private party. John Howard\u2019s guest of honour was none other than George Bush, President of the United States of America.<\/p>\n

I was interested in John Howard\u2019s invitation list because this was the only function in George Bush\u2019s one-day stopover where he could meet real Australians. All else was staged, choreographed, ritualised \u2013 a speech to Parliament, a wreath laying at the War Memorial \u2013 and cocooned by oppressive security and the meticulous masking from the President\u2019s eyes of any sign of protest, any indication that Australia was not united behind the war on Iraq.<\/p>\n

It was a thank-you visit \u2013 a special treat to reward a loyal ally. So who would Howard choose to represent us? In 1996, when we chose him to lead us, he promised to govern \u2018For all of us\u2019. That was his slogan. So what did that mean when it came to the nitty-gritty of choosing the Australians to meet the President?<\/p>\n

The first big shock was that he didn\u2019t want to tell us. Pardon? On the morning of the Bush visit to the capital, I was back in the Sydn<\/i>e<\/i>y Morning Herald<\/i>\u2019s Canberra bureau, where I\u2019d worked for so long before moving to Sydney, when our political correspondent Mark Riley put down the phone.<\/p>\n

\u2018Howard won\u2019t release the list,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018What?\u2019 I replied. \u2018But this is basic\u00a0 public \u00a0information \u2013 this is a state visit by the President of the United States. The public has a right to know.\u2019<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when I found out that actually this was no<\/i>t <\/i>a state visit, although neither Howard nor the press gallery had bothered to tell the Australian people that. A state visit is one by a foreign government\u2019s head of state to Australia. It\u2019s above politics \u2013 a visit to all of us \u2013 and that\u2019s why our head of state, the governor-general, is host and escort. Strict protocols apply. But for this visit John Howard was host. The visit was a partisan political one dressed up as a solemn ceremonial occasion.<\/p>\n

\"www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au

www.nicholsoncartoons.com.au<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Still, surely the Australian people had a right to know \u2013 we were paying for it, after all. Anyway why wouldn\u2019t Howard want us to know?<\/p>\n

\u2018Don\u2019t worry, if we press hard they\u2019ll probably change their mind by the end of the day,\u2019 Mark said. \u2018It happens all the time. That\u2019s the way they play.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018What? How long has this been going on?\u2019 I asked.<\/p>\n

Since Howard had won a third term in 2001. Nothing without pressure. Nothing unless and until John Howard\u2019s minders believed that continued blocking would produce a story sufficiently embarrassing to necessitate disclosure. High-stakes journalism, that, for something so basic. Why get the PM\u2019s office offside over something like the barbecue list?<\/p>\n

Clever, John. Clever.<\/p>\n

Bush\u2019s one-day stopover was frenetic: a day of chaos, of incredible stories and unprecedented difficulties in getting them. I wondered if anyone would keep making the calls to get the guest list, or whether this information would ever reach the people. Howard\u2019s office had released the menu without a qualm \u2013 why wouldn\u2019t he want the public to know who ate the food? What possible justification could he have for secrecy?<\/p>\n

OK, I thought, which reporters were attending the barbecue as observers to report the event to the Australian people? I\u2019d ask them to note the faces they recognised.<\/p>\n

Sorry, Howard had banned all Australian reporters and photographers from the event. Only American reporters would be there, and detailed arrangements had been made to ensure there would be no contact between Bush\u2019s media and our own.<\/p>\n

What? Only Mark Riley, on 21 and 22 October, had bothered to report this unprecedented shutdown of media access, let alone the discrimination against the Australian people\u2019s reporters in our own country. The Sydney Morning Herald<\/i>\u2019s readers were flummoxed by Riley\u2019s revelation and started getting a bit toey over what was going on in Canberra \u2013 and the heat finally started rising among the media \u2013 so Howard gave, just a little, on the day of the visit. One photographer and one reporter for the whole press gallery, he decreed.<\/p>\n

I had one other lead. Only one press gallery reporter, Jason Frenkel of Melbourne\u2019s Heral<\/i>d Sun <\/i>newspaper, had smelt a story in the guest list, and he\u2019d spent the day before the Canberra visit ringing around to uncover some guests. He\u2019d scored a couple, and also reported that Sydney radio talkback host John Laws, Westfield billionaire Frank Lowy (whose companies gave the Liberals $312,300 in 2001\u201302), Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh and former Liberal Party treasurer Ron Walker had been invited but declined due to prior commitments.<\/p>\n

\"packers\"

Ros and Kerry Packer with Alan Jones. Other guests were: Andrew Peacock; Peter Costello and Condoleezza Rice; Kerry Stokes, Christine Simpson and Fiona Stanley. Photo: Andrew Taylo<\/p><\/div>\n

Our media and telecommunications writer Cosima Marriner kept pushing Howard\u2019s people and finally, after deadline, they faxed a page of names listed alphabetically without titles or positions. It would have taken research to get the titles right, and it was too late for that. Nothing ran in Friday\u2019s papers. The story was gone. The parliamentary address of President Hu of China was the story of the day, a day filled with its own shocks, its own extraordinary parliamentary precedents.<\/p>\n

Howard\u2019s tactics had worked.<\/p>\n

Blow that, I thought. On Monday, 27 October, I asked around about the names I couldn\u2019t place and did some internet checks, but to be sure I\u2019d got the list right I phoned the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to check a couple of mystery names and get their titles. That\u2019s what you did when I worked in Canberra \u2013 you checked with departments for the facts, and with ministers for policy and politics.<\/p>\n

Not any more. The switchboard operator transferred me straight to the Prime Minister\u2019s office, where I discovered that one of several Howard press secretaries, former Sydney Daily Telegraph <\/i>press gallery reporter David Luff, didn\u2019t want to help at all.<\/p>\n

\u2018Why don\u2019t you do a Google search?\u2019 he asked accusingly, as if I were wasting his precious time.<\/p>\n

I put to him the names of a couple of people I thought were in the American contingent and he said he didn\u2019t know, making it clear he wouldn\u2019t try to find out either. So I asked for the name and number of a public servant who would know. He said he\u2019d ring back. He didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

So Howard\u2019s press secretaries now saw their job as preventing the flow of basic information to the Australian people \u2013 as information blockers, not information providers? It had taken only two years to get to this: Australian taxpayers paying the salaries of people whose job it was to make it as difficult as possible for them to be told the truth \u2013 about just about everything, it seemed.<\/p>\n

I was too proud to call the American Embassy to find out who went to a barbecue in our country hosted by our Prime Minister, so I published the list on Webdiary with question marks and asked readers for help. They dived in, supplying details and weblinks. We\u2019d cracked it.<\/p>\n

I got a huge surge of hits on that story, and many emails from readers nonplussed that only Webdiary had published the info. To my great surprise and concern Webdiary had a scoop!<\/p>\n

Mark Riley made good use of it. A couple of days later, when he got a little spare time, he researched the Australian Electoral Commission\u2019s donations records and found that, between them, the companies of six invited businessmen had donated more than a million dollars to the Liberal Party\u2019s 2001 election campaign.<\/p>\n

So that\u2019s how you got an invite \u2013 you paid <\/i>for it! Money politics.<\/p>\n

No wonder you wanted secrecy, John.<\/p>\n

The next twist made me feel physically ill. Mark had a page-one story, no doubt about it, but in Sydney the paper\u2019s editors decided not to run it. \u2018Tight for space\u2019 was their call, and that was true enough, although for quite a while many of us had noted a growing editorial reluctance regarding political news. Our bosses seemingly prefer lifestyle content and glossy supplements to sell advertising. Fairfax isn\u2019t the worst offender \u2013 the merging of news and advertising and the crunch on news space is a clear and dangerous anti-democratic trend across the media.<\/p>\n

You ain\u2019t got democracy if the public doesn\u2019t know what\u2019s going on, but Fairfax journalists and editors have been fighting\u00a0a losing battle to convince our Chief Executive Officer, Fred Hilmer, that our newspaper performs any function apart from making money by exploiting our readers through advertising. Content is king, I\u2019d argued fruitlessly. Give readers information and they\u2019ll buy us. Think about circulation, not just advertising bucks.<\/p>\n

Lost cause.<\/p>\n

Fred \u2013 the mastermind behind the last Labor government\u2019s National Competition Policy \u2013 thinks of our readers as mere consumers, not citizens. He believes that newspapers are \u2018advertising platforms\u2019 and that journalists are \u2018content providers\u2019. In two weeks in Canberra after the Bush and Hu visits I saw first-hand the large number of important stories dumped for space, never to be read. Like the Bush barbecue guest list, important records of Australian history in the making were never published.<\/p>\n

Mark\u2019s story finally ran as a filler three days later, buried on page 13 of Saturday\u2019s paper, on 1 November. If it had run earlier and more prominently a journalist might have asked Howard a question, or a minor party or Independent senator might have taken up the cudgels.<\/p>\n

You wouldn\u2019t have expected anything from the Opposition, of course \u2013 both Big Parties solicit Big Money from Big Corporates, and both lend their ears to those who\u2019ll pay. \u2018A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said the people invited were a cross-section of the Australian community who had each made a contribution to Australia in different ways, and that the Prime Minister made no apology for inviting any of them\u2019, Mark wrote. \u2018Opposition Leader Simon Crean\u2019s office declined to comment. Most corporate invitees also donated large, if lesser, amounts to Labor at the last election.\u2019<\/p>\n

Mark pointed out that \u2018The presence of major party donors would not have been a surprise to George Bush. The US has a system of declaring the contributions of corporate leaders seeking \u201cface time\u201d with the President. A certain amount buys a plate at a White House dinner, a higher amount a sleep-over in the Lincoln Room.\u2019<\/p>\n

He concluded that \u2018The system is less formal in Australia but money can still buy access \u2013 20 corporates paid<\/p>\n

$4000 a head for dinner with Mr Howard at a fund-raiser for Employment Services Minister Mal Brough at Brisbane\u2019s Treasury Casino on October 2.\u2019<\/p>\n

You can imagine the blow to morale in our Canberra bureau when bosses burn great stories. They\u2019re great journos and they\u2019re brave, too. They cop heaps from Howard\u2019s boys for asking questions he doesn\u2019t want to answer \u2013 for doing their job, in other words \u2013 and to be spiked at the other end of the story chain is not easy to take. Still, we\u2019re better off than journalists on most papers.<\/p>\n

As is so often the case in our democracy, the Senate was the Australian people\u2019s last chance to get some information about the barbecue. This time it was through a regular Senate Estimates hearing, when politicians get the chance to question our public servants about how our money is being spent. Senate Estimates is the only real accountability there is to Australians for what the government is doing, and how and why. Any senator\u2019s got the right to ask questions, and lots do, on matters big and small, many of which affect individual constituents. But not government senators: they ask nothing, except when another senator is uncovering something awry \u2013 in which case they act as attack dogs and work with the minister sitting beside the public servants to control questions. No representation of voters there.<\/p>\n

So on Tuesday, 4 November, I watched Labor Senate leader John Faulkner quiz the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet about the barbecue.<\/p>\n

I learnt a lot that day. For a start, John Howard had personally decided that while President Hu of China would get a state visit hosted by the Governor-General, Bush would come on \u2018a working visit\u2019 with Howard as host. His officials could recall no precedent for a foreign head of state not being hosted by our head of state.<\/p>\n

Never believe John Howard when he says he\u2019s a conservative, a respecter of tradition.<\/p>\n

No way. He\u2019ll bend rules, trash proprieties, even downgrade the head of state he so ardently supported in the Republic debate.<\/p>\n

Howard wanted to meet, greet and escort Bush and make sure he was in every picture with him, come what may. This was no visit to Australia. This was a visit to John.<\/p>\n

\"2003-10-23-Howard-beside-himself-with-Bush-visit-350wb-226x178\"<\/p>\n

The downside, if it were ever reported, was that he had personal responsibility for the decisions made and the tricks pulled to suit his politics. If the media did its job Australians would get a pretty good idea of John Howard\u2019s values, priorities and style by the end of the visit. But the media didn\u2019t do its job: partly because Howard made it too hard to do so in the time available, and partly because the media has forgotten its core job in a functioning democracy.<\/p>\n

I learnt in Senate Estimates that the official term for the barbecue was \u2018an informal lunch hosted by the Prime Minister\u2019. John Howard had decided who to invite, without input from his public servants. He personally decided the seating plan.<\/p>\n

Howard chose not to invite our head of state or to make the function bipartisan by inviting the Leader of the Opposition, Simon Crean. Indeed he did not invite any politician who represented the roughly half of Australia\u2019s voters who did not vote for the Coalition.<\/p>\n

In Howard\u2019s public service, after long and bitter experience, public servants know not to raise queries or make suggestions about such things, or anything really. They didn\u2019t this time either, despite the expertise of the Ceremonial and Hospitality Unit on such matters. The deputy head of Howard\u2019s department, Andrew Metcalfe, explained: \u2018We worked on the basis that it was an informal luncheon and that the invitations were being prepared in the sense of people being identified by the Prime Minister\u2019s office. We were not asked for advice, and we gave none.\u2019<\/p>\n

It was a rush job \u2013 John Howard loves demanding the impossible, or else, from a public service he\u2019s slashed to the bone. The initial list of seventy-two guests landed on the department\u2019s desk less than a week before the barbecue, and the menu \u2013 personally chosen by John and Janette \u2013 even later, with a demand to get Howard\u2019s \u2018wine consultant\u2019 to tell him what booze to serve. The department had to call in staff from other sections to get the marquee, ramps and lighting erected, hire casual luncheon staff, print the place cards and menus, organise transport, do the flowers and decorations \u2013 all of it. And guess who paid for what the Prime Minister\u2019s office \u00a0described \u00a0as \u00a0\u2018a \u00a0private \u00a0function\u2019 to justify not inviting Crean? The cash-strapped department, of course. It didn\u2019t even go on the Prime Minister\u2019s expenses tab.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t surprised when the department refused Faulkner\u2019s request in Senate Estimates for a copy of the guest list. Metcalfe wasn\u2019t sure if Howard had released it, and if Howard hadn\u2019t he sure wasn\u2019t going to. Liberal Senator George Brandis couldn\u2019t resist: \u2018It was in Margo Kingston\u2019s Webdiary in the Sydney Morning Herald<\/i>.\u2019<\/p>\n

Metcalfe would say no more, so Faulkner tried Defence Minister Robert Hill, who was at the barbecue. They usually get their lines straight, Howard\u2019s loyal ministers, and Hill was no different.<\/p>\n

\u2018It seemed to me to be a reasonable cross-section of the Australian community,\u2019 Hill said, parroting Howard\u2019s line.<\/p>\n

Any journos invited?<\/p>\n

\u2018I am not sure that they would want me to dob them in,\u2019 Hill said.<\/p>\n

And the gift?<\/p>\n

\u2018A Wallaby jumper was presented to Mr Bush,\u2019 Hill replied.<\/p>\n

Metcalfe added, \u2018My understanding is that it was half- Wallaby and half-American.\u2019<\/p>\n

After the Senate lunch break Metcalfe handed the list over. \u2018I have now been advised that that guest list was publicly released on the day. We have a copy with us and we are happy to make a copy available.\u2019<\/p>\n

Stuff-up time: it wasn\u2019t the bare-bones list Howard\u2019s office had given us, it was the official list in all its glory.<\/p>\n

So here it is: John Howard\u2019s \u2018cross-section of the Australian community who \u00a0had \u00a0each \u00a0made \u00a0a \u00a0contribution to Australia in different ways\u2019. Disclosed donations from invitees to the Liberal Party\u2019s 2001 election campaign are given in square brackets, along with their disclosed donations in 2002\u201303.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Luncheon in honour of the Honourable George Bush, President of the United States of America, and Mrs Bush The Lodge, Canberra<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Thursday, 23 October 2003<\/span><\/p>\n

Host<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The Honourable John Howard MP<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prime Minister<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Janette Howard<\/strong><\/p>\n

Guest-of-Honour<\/b><\/p>\n

The Honourable George Bush<\/strong><\/p>\n

President of the United States of America<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Bush<\/strong><\/p>\n

Official Party<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Dr Condoleezza Rice<\/strong><\/p>\n

National Security Adviser<\/i><\/p>\n

Mr Andrew Card [Jr]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chief of Staff<\/i><\/p>\n

Mr James Kelly<\/strong><\/p>\n

Assistant Secretary of State<\/i><\/p>\n

Mr James Moriarty<\/strong><\/p>\n

Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Asian Affairs<\/i><\/p>\n

Ms Andrea Ball<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chief of Staff to the First Lady<\/i><\/p>\n

Diplomatic Corps<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

His Excellency Mr Thomas Schieffer<\/strong> Jr [sic]\n

Ambassador of the United States of America<\/i> <\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Susanne Schieffer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ministry<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The Honourable John Anderson MP<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Transport and<\/i> <\/i>Regional Services<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Julia Anderson<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Honourable Peter Costello MP<\/strong><\/p>\n

T<\/i>reasurer<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Tanya Costello<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Honourable Mark Vaile MP<\/strong><\/p>\n

Minister for Trade<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Wendy Vaile<\/strong><\/p>\n

Senator the Honourable Robert Hill<\/strong><\/p>\n

Minister for Defence and Leader of the Government<\/i> <\/i>in the Senate<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Diana Hill<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Honourable Alexander Downer MP<\/strong><\/p>\n

Minister for Foreign Affairs<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Nicky Downer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Defence Chiefs [sic]<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

General Peter Cosgrove AC MC<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chief of the Defence Force, Department of Defence<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Lynne Cosgrove<\/strong><\/p>\n

Departmental Secretaries [sic]<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Dr Peter Shergold AM<\/strong><\/p>\n

Secretary, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet<\/i><\/p>\n

Ms Carol Green<\/strong><\/p>\n

Australian Ambassador<\/b><\/p>\n

Ambassador Michael Thawley<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ambassador, Australian Embassy, Washington<\/i><\/p>\n

Business<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Rob Gerard AO<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chairman and Managing Director, Gerard Industries Ltd [Gerard Industries donated $244,806 for the 2001 election campaign and $187,000 to the Liberal Party<\/i><\/p>\n

in 2002\u201303, after which the government appointed him to the Reserve Bank board]<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Fay Gerard<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Mark Leibler AO<\/strong><\/p>\n

Senior Partner, Arnold Bloch Leibler, Solicitors and<\/i> <\/i>Consultants [also a director of Coles Myer, which\u00a0<\/i>donated $132,000 for the 2001 election campaign and\u00a0<\/i>$133,000 in 2002\u201303]<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Rosanna Leibler<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Kerry Packer AC<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chairman<\/i>, Consolidated Press Holdings<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Ros Packer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Donald McDonald AO<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chairman, Australian Broadcasting Corporation [an odd entry under \u2018Business\u2019]<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Janet McDonald [AO]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Harry Triguboff AO<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chairman and Managing Director, Meriton Properties Pty Ltd [Meriton \u2013 $278,000 for the 2001 election campaign and $150,000 in 2002\u201303]<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Rhonda Triguboff<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Terry Campbell<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chairman, JB Were [JB Were \u2013 $163,000 for 2001 election campaign. JB Were is one of two contributors to the Cormack Foundation, an \u2018associated entity\u2019 of the Liberal Party, which gave $1.8 million to the Victorian branch in 2002\u201303 and can be used to funnel anonymous donations]<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Christine Campbell<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Leon Davis<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chairman, Westpac Banking Corporation<\/i><\/p>\n

[Westpac \u2013 $142,000 for the 2001 election campaign,<\/i><\/p>\n

$118,000 in 2002\u201303]<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Annette Davis<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Kerry Stokes AO<\/strong><\/p>\n

Executive Chairman, Seven Network Limited<\/i><\/p>\n

Ms Christine Simpson<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nAcademics<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Professor Susan [sic] Cory AC<\/strong><\/p>\n

Professor of Medical Research, University of Melbourne [Suzanne Cory is best known as the Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research] <\/i>Professor Jerry Adams<\/p>\n

Mr Paul Ramsay AO<\/strong><\/p>\n

V<\/i>i<\/i>ce<\/i>–<\/i>C<\/i>h<\/i>a<\/i>n<\/i>ce<\/i>llo<\/i>r<\/i>, University of Sydney [sic: Ramsay should be in the \u2018Business\u2019 category as head of Ramsay Health Care (Ramsay Health Care \u2013 $275,000 for the 2001 election campaign, $165,000 in 2002\u201303); the Vice-Chancellor of Sydney University, Professor Gavin Brown, was not invited]<\/i><\/p>\n

Professor [Emeritus] Geoffrey Blainey AO<\/strong><\/p>\n

Author and Historian<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Ann Blainey<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Sporting Bodies<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Mr John Eales AM<\/strong><\/p>\n

Former Captain of the Australian Rugby Union Team<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Lara Eales<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Lleyton Hewitt<\/strong><\/p>\n

Australian Tennis Player<\/i><\/p>\n

Mr Mark Taylor<\/strong><\/p>\n

Former Captain Australian Cricket Team<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Judy Taylor<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Former Ambassadors [sic]<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

The Honourable Andrew Peacock AC<\/p>\n

President, Boeing Australia Limited<\/i><\/p>\n

\n

Prime Minister\u2019s Office<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Arthur Sinodinos<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chief of Staff<\/i><\/p>\n

Mr Tony Nutt<\/strong><\/p>\n

Principal Private Secretary<\/i><\/p>\n

Mr Peter Varghese<\/strong><\/p>\n

Senior Adviser (International) [now head of ONA]<\/i><\/p>\n

Mr Tony O\u2019Leary<\/strong><\/p>\n

Press Secretary<\/i><\/p>\n

\n

Others<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Richard Howard<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prime Minister\u2019s relatives<\/i><\/p>\n

Mr Timothy Howard<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prime Minister\u2019s relatives<\/i><\/p>\n

Mr Steve Irwin<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Crocodile Man [The Crocodile Hunter]<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Terri Irwin<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Rowan McDonald<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prime Minister\u2019s relatives<\/i><\/p>\n

Mrs Melanie McDonald [Melanie Howard]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brigadier Maurie McNarn <\/strong>AO D<\/i>i<\/i>r<\/i>ec<\/i>to<\/i>r General, Personnel, Army<\/p>\n

<\/i>Mrs Richenda McNarn<\/strong><\/p>\n

Professor Fiona Stanley [AC]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Australian of the Year, Founding Director, TVW Telethon Institute for Child Health Research<\/i><\/p>\n

Professor Geoff Shellam<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr [sic] Jackie Huggins [AM]<\/strong><\/p>\n

Board Member, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies<\/i><\/p>\n

\n

Media<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Alan Jones AM<\/strong><\/p>\n

Radio Broadcaster, Radio 2UE Sydney [sic: Jones is<\/i> <\/i>at 2GB]<\/i><\/p>\n

Mr Malcolm Farr<\/strong><\/p>\n

President, Parliamentary Press Gallery<\/i><\/p>\n

Mr Neil Mitchell<\/strong><\/p>\n

Radio and Television, Current Affairs Commentator<\/i><\/p>\n

Security<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

President\u2019s \u00a0Security<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a cosy circle, isn\u2019t it? Howard\u2019s family and his work family are all in.<\/p>\n

For all of us, eh? Well, how come the invited guests (minus partners) are an all-white (bar Huggins), overwhelmingly male group who predominantly live in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra?<\/p>\n

Howard\u2019s cross-section of Australia is Big Party, Big Business, Big Media \u2013 and Big Sport. Sports stars are greatly over-represented \u2013 that\u2019s the connection with the ordinary Australians he wants to get by association.<\/p>\n

And, of course \u2013 representing the battler perhaps? \u2013 the millionaire \u2018Crocodile Man\u2019, Steve Irwin, who just happened to say publicly seven weeks before, when Howard visited his Queensland zoo, that Howard was \u2018the greatest leader Australia has ever had\u2019 and \u2018the greatest leader in the entire world\u2019. We learnt a few days later in Senate Estimates that, months before, the government had paid Irwin<\/p>\n

$175,000 \u2013 $364 a minute \u2013 for a day\u2019s work on a quarantine TV advertisement. Back in February the government had refused to disclose to Parliament Steve\u2019s payment, despite the fact that it was our money they were spending to buy his sales job. I don\u2019t want to be snippy, but surely Howard\u2019s not venturing into buying personal endorsements with our money, is he?<\/p>\n

Never again, though \u2013 not after John\u2019s mate Steve thought it was cool to feed a 4-metre crocodile in one hand with his baby son, Bob, in the other? We all know John doesn\u2019t want parents like that in our country, don\u2019t we?<\/p>\n

Included in the massively over-represented Big Business and Big Media invitees \u2013 his backers or perhaps his real bosses? \u2013 are Kerry Packer, Australia\u2019s richest man, with fingers in lots of pies requiring government largesse and protection, including the Nine Network; the \u00a0other \u00a0important Australian TV network owner, Seven\u2019s Kerry Stokes; Alan Jones, Howard\u2019s favourite Sydney talk-show host; and Neil Mitchell, his favourite Melbourne talk-show host. Malcolm Farr, Rupert Murdoch\u2019s \u00a0chief \u00a0political \u00a0reporter for the Daily Telegraph<\/i>, represented the press gallery. The numbers from Big Business and Big Media overwhelm Australians from the pillars of our democracy: the Parliament (none), the law (one \u2013 Leibler is a tax expert), the public service (one), the defence force (two) and the universities.<\/p>\n

Who specifically is excluded from John Howard\u2019s Australia? Artists \u2013 not a novelist, painter, actor, dancer or creative person apart from Blainey (the historian who invented the term \u2018black armband\u2019 view of history and who backed Howard in the 1980s when he wanted Asian immigration reduced). Australians from non-European \u2018ethnic\u2019backgrounds. Religious representatives, although Mark Leibler is a leading figure in the Zionist movement. Women \u2013 only three are there in their own right, not as partners or Howard\u2019s relatives. There\u2019s also no non-medical scientist, farmer, small businessperson, community worker or volunteer, workers\u2019 representative, judge or university vice-chancellor.<\/p>\n

The reality behind the perception. Us and them. With me or against me.<\/p>\n

Kylie Russell was not on the list. By rights she should have been the first invited, for Kylie is the Australian most deeply affected by the wars we fought at the request of George Bush after September 11. She\u2019s the Australian you\u2019d think would have been most on Howard\u2019s mind as he prepared the welcome mat for George Bush, coming to thank us for our loyalty and sacrifice in those wars. Howard had said waging war was the gravest decision a leader could make \u2013 sending Australians to possible death for their country is a big responsibility to shoulder.<\/p>\n

Kylie\u2019s husband, Andrew, an SAS sergeant, was killed in Afghanistan in February 2002 when his truck ran over a landmine. He was 33, and the first Australian casualty in combat since Vietnam. Their only child, Leisa, was born eleven days before Andrew was killed.<\/p>\n

John Howard didn\u2019t invite Kylie to the Bush barbecue. In fact he didn\u2019t invite her to Canberra to hear George Bush speak of the cause for which her husband died. The Australia I love would have remembered Kylie. John Howard\u2019s Australia didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Postscript: <\/b>200 businessmen paid $8,250 each in June 2007 to \u2018observe\u2019 the Liberal Party\u2019s Federal Council meeting and attend a delegates\u2019 cocktail party at Kirribilli House. Howard tried to keep the latter secret, as official residences, which belong to the people, are not for party-political events, let alone ones where people pay to get in. Howard claimed taxpayers were \u2018fully reimbursed\u2019 ($5,186 for food and drink for 225 people, nothing for venue hire).<\/p>\n

Gifts to a political party must be disclosed by law, and the Australian Electoral Commission\u2019s Director of Funding and Disclosure, Kevin Bodel, told the A<\/i>u<\/i>s<\/i>tr<\/i>a<\/i>li<\/i>an<\/i>\u2019s Samantha Maiden, \u2018it does seem a gift in kind of a venue . . . there could well be a disclosure issue\u2019. Special Minister of State Gary Nairn contacted AEC Commissioner Ian Campbell that night. Bodel then told Maiden, \u2018Basically I\u2019ve been told to shut up.\u2019 The next day an AEC statement rejected Bodel\u2019s remarks and denied government pressure. It was \u2018examining\u2019 the issue. Within six hours another statement: \u2018on the facts available\u2019 the taxpayers\u2019 donation of Kirribilli House was not a gift to the Liberal Party and there would be no investigation. Two top QCs disagreed, as did Australia\u2019s leading electoral law expert, Graeme Orr, now at the University of Queensland.<\/p>\n

Kevin Rudd has promised to quarantine official residences from ALP events if he becomes PM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Margo Kingston, 24 August, 2013 Wondering who will be in the Abbott Government’s club? It took a while, but back in 2003\u00a0Webdiarists and I\u00a0worked out who Howard invited to his barbecue with George Bush. Believe it or not the guest list was a secret, and there’ll be many more of those, folks. Paul\u00a0Ramsey of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8953,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3434,61,62,3546,585,14,26],"tags":[2589,1271,539,269,1273,1274,1272],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/davies_prancing240-1.jpg?fit=240%2C162&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3t0mw-2k7","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8935"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8935"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8935\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56945,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8935\/revisions\/56945"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.nofibs.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}