david williamsonIn Crikey In 1971 I wrote the play Don’s Party about the 1969 election night, when Labor supporters were fervently hoping for the arrival of the Great Gough. As it turned out he was five seats short of arriving and we had to wait until 1972 before the long dark night of conservative rule ended. The similarities with this Saturday’s election are obvious, and many of the old baby boomers, faint memories of the idealistic dreams of the sixties not yet erased by Alzheimer’s, are hoping fervently we won’t see a re-run of 1969. There are many reasons to wish Johnnie bon voyage, the most pressing being the thought of another eighteen months of television footage of his morning walks. .. Any journalist who can turn a man his own party dubbed a “lying rodent”, into the Saint who saved Australia, has, like their idol, a superb grasp of slippery rhetoric which has hopefully earned them enough money to retire. These same scribes have falsely divided Australia into “Howard hating elites”, and “ordinary Australians,” without ever asking the question as to why many with the remnants of a conscience, including “ordinary Australians”, find it hard to stomach him. The shameless exploitation of fear and hysteria over four hundred genuine and dehydrating refugees on Tampa might be a start. The ludicrous and hugely expensive “Pacific solution” might be another. The moral sleaze of the Saddam kickbacks, the lies of children overboard, the blatant and immoral pork barrelling of Coalition electorates, the attempt to deliver a cowed and cheap workforce to employers without a mandate, the constant and unrelenting grovelling to George Bush, the deathbed conversion to climate change and reconciliation lite - the list could go on.
................................................................................................................................................................................................. From an article in SMH 8/9/07 BBI: David Williamson filling in for Alan Ramsey (one of our favourites at the Institute) has written a fantastic piece. "New theme for Don`s next party" BBI: He talks about differences between 1972 and now, and different things being offered by the opposition. "Back then Whitlam was promising to change the nature of society. He was promising a swag of social reforms: equal pay for women, a national health service, no-fault divorce, university fees abolished, urban planning, taking responsibility for Aboriginal health, education and welfare, and an independent foreign policy that would stare down the US and pull us out of Vietnam." "In the coming election such a swag of social initiatives would be all but unthinkable. Labor has offered important social initiatives in education, broadband and health, a qualified winding back of Work Choices, and a phased withdrawal from Iraq counter-balanced by an increased commitment to Afghanistan, but any hint that there will be the slightest tinkering with the economy would be greeted with howls of outrage by the conservative press. Since 1969 a neo-conservative revolution has happened, and everything is supposed to be about the economy. Questions of social equity are barely raised, and when they are, are derided as "nanny state" welfare-ism. " BBI: He goes on.. "The neo-conservative dogma that an ever-expanding economy benefits all is a lie. Thirty per cent of the population is doing very well, the rest are barely keeping pace and the poor are getting poorer. And there are many determinants of wellbeing other than money. One of them is basic decency. One reason that Kevin Rudd holds such a commanding lead in the polls is that although he's no less ambitious a politician than Howard, he's perceived, rightly I think, as more decent." BBI: He talks of disquiet in the electorate about refugees, AWB, "children overboard", blatant vote buying etc. "And there is great disquiet about how Howard, without announcing it before the election, sprung on Australia his ideological dream, Work Choices, once he realised he had control of the Senate. People are not fools, and they don't like to be lied to. They know that the balance of power was blatantly tipped towards employers without a mandate." "If I was writing Don's Party 2 around this election, decency is a theme I'd make central. And I think the perception of the electorate is that Kevin Rudd has considerably more of it than John Howard." http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/new-theme-for-dons-next-party/2007/09/07/1188783493518.html |
