Gerard Henderson as seen by the Byron Bay Institute

From SMH 20/11/07

BBI: Gerard steps in to defend the officers who were found to have not been credible as witnesses against ul-Haque.

"These days we hear much from the high profile civil liberties lobby about the rights of those who are suspected of, charged with and even convicted of terrorist offences. However, virtually no one steps forward to defend the rights of those whose role is to protect society from terrorism or the threat of terrorism, namely, officers who work in the security or police services who are often incorrectly referred to as "spies"."

"This month in the NSW Supreme Court, Justice Michael Adams found that the records of interview conducted with Izhar ul-Haque by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the Australian Federal Police were inadmissible. This led to the charges against ul-Haque being dropped by the Director of Public Prosecutions. He had been accused of training with the terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan in early 2003."

BBI: Thank goodness for Gerard stepping in to speak up for the down trodden police. Incidentally, the Lashkar-e-Taiba were not considered an enemy of this counrty at the time. They had their sights on India. Pakistan and India have been fighting since the Brits foisted the Partition on them.

"The facts of the case are summarised in the judgment. Essentially, Adams found that B15 and B16 had acted improperly by meeting ul-Haque at Blacktown railway station, taking him for questioning at nearby Francis Park and subsequently interrogating him at his Glenwood house. That is about it. There was no evidence of ASIO or the federal police officers having physically harmed ul-Haque. Yet, at one point in his judgment, Adams accused B15 of having acted in a manner "reminiscent of Kafka"."

BBI: That`s not it. No mention of some 30 police and ASIO at his house. No question of why he was taken to a park, rather than a police station? Anyone who has been taken in by unfriendly police would know how intimidating they can be. Of course Gerard would have no idea of this. Innocent until proved guilty. Unless you are poor, black or Muslem.

"The behaviour of ASIO and the federal police personnel involved in the ul-Haque case will be reviewed by the Inspector-General of Security and Intelligence, who, in turn, will report to the federal Attorney-General. Meanwhile, the opposition to the national security legislation from a large section of the legal and media professions is likely to continue - even if Kevin Rudd defeats John Howard on Saturday."

BBI: Gerard`s name was mentioned in a Crikey cartoon today along with most of our other stooges as, would you believe..John Howard`s sycophants.

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From SMH 13/11/07

BBI: We have finally worked Gerard out. He is from the Karl Rove school of journalism where the aim is obfuscation. Muddy the water, confuse the punters. Today`s tome is questioning those who say the Howard is a liar and he tries to mix up predictions that don`t come to pass with actual lies.

"Howard's 2004 commitment to keep interest rates low may have been unwise but it was not a lie. The same can be said of Bob Hawke's 1987 promise that, if he was re-elected, "no Australian child will be living in poverty". False prophecy is one thing; wilful mendacity is something else."

BBI: No mention of core promises, children overboard, weapons of mass destruction, no GST etc. But in our opinion he then finishes with a confession.

"It is convenient to depict those with whom you disagree as liars - because this challenges their motives in addition to their policies. But the truth is that those who make erroneous statements are not always liars. Moreover, those who accuse others of dissembling frequently do not have a good record for accuracy. The driving seat in the Truck of Truth is invariably occupied by holier-than-thou types."

BBI: "But the truth is that those who make erroneous statements are not always liars." No, not always liars, Gerard, but just the same they are liars sometimes, making them simply liars. And by-the-way, every now and then we get the idea that you, Gerard, are a bit holier-than-thou.

From SMH 6/11/07

BBI: Gerard puts on his reasonable voice and proceeds to tie in any people who speak out against war as some left-wing nutter, or even, wait for it......a commo.

"For years, many academics and commentators have maintained that Australians fought in other people's wars - which covered every commitment from World War I (1914-18) to the first Gulf war (1990-91), with the exception of the Pacific war against Japan in the early 1940s."

"This fashionable leftist view - which reached its zenith with the release of the film Gallipoli (director: Peter Weir; screenplay: David Williamson; historical adviser: Bill Gammage) in 1981 - essentially maintained that Australia's fallen had died in vain."

"At times, the extreme left went further. The Communist Party, which opposed the war against Nazism between 1939 and 1941 due to its support for the Nazi-Soviet Pact, went so far as to label those who enlisted murderers."...

"Last week Garry Parr, the Labor candidate for the Queensland seat of Hinkler, was forced to apologise when it was revealed that he had referred to the Australian-based parents of a British soldier serving in Afghanistan as "war-mongers". And recently the journalist Brian Toohey told viewers of the ABC TV program Insiders that Australia is wasting its time in Afghanistan and that, by implication, Australian military casualties are in vain."

"What is significant is that such views carry such little weight in contemporary Australia. There has been a substantial cultural change over the past quarter-century in Australia - and this is evident in attitudes to the fallen of all wars."

BBI: The beauty of Gerard`s writing is that he makes it all sound so reasonable. The Herald letters the next day took him to task. To sum up, one writer said "In his desire to bash the left Gerard Henderson confuses two separate issues. It is possible to honour Australian soldiers while being opposed to the war in which they are fighting. Iraq is a clear example..." Oh yeah!

From SMH 30/10/07

BBI: Gerard is running Costello`s communist line. And mixing in B A Santamaria and Bob Menzies. A heady mix.

"Perhaps it is time for the ALP to grant the political activist B.A. Santamaria posthumous honorary membership. After all, Kevin Rudd and the Labor team in the 2007 election campaign have been keen to stress their social and economic conservatism along with their support for the Australian-American alliance."

"During an interview with The Australian Financial Review on February 7, 2003, Rudd described himself as "an old-fashioned Christian socialist". Today, the Opposition Leader still proclaims his Christianity but he has junked the "s" word. Now Rudd declares that he is an "economic conservative"

"But there is more. The Labor leader's political heroes now include, wait for it, the Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies - who just happens to be one of Howard's heroes."....

"Certainly Rudd has shown signs of economic and moral conservatism in the past. However, his deputy, Julia Gillard, appears to be a relatively recent convert to the cause of economic reform. Interviewed on Lateline on October 17, Gillard attempted to play down her one-time membership of the Melbourne-based Socialist Forum."....

"In fact, documents published in the Herald Sun reveal that the deputy Labor leader was on the organisation's management committee until 1994 and was a member until 2002, when it merged with the Fabian Society."

"The Socialist Forum was set up to facilitate the entry of former Communist Party members into the Victoria ALP. Around the same time, some supporters of Santamaria's National Civic Council were readmitted to the ALP."

BBI: There it is. Conclusive proof, Gillard is a commo!

In her defence, Gillard has claimed that the Liberal Party deputy leader, Peter Costello, when he was a university student, was "hanging out in a group called the Social Democrats". Perhaps so. But the Social Democrats were just that - social democrats who opposed the communist, Trotskyist and socialist traditions within the labour movement.

The right-wing Labor MP Michael Danby was president of the Social Democrats at the time. There is no evidence that Costello ever embraced socialism or any of the ideas of the extreme left.

BBI: We think Gerard is clutching at straws. There is an air of panic in the right-wing generally.

From SMH 23/10/07

"John Howard had reason to be cranky. The reference is not to the leaders' debate on Sunday but to a 7.30 Report interview on October 15. Kerry O'Brien put it to the Prime Minister that the Coalition's tax cut plan "wouldn't be possible without the resources boom and China's insatiable hunger for our minerals" and declared that Howard could not take credit for this."

BBI: We`ve noticed that John Howard has been cranky a lot lately. It was noticeable on the debate. Maybe he`s a bit petulant as things aren`t going his way?

"Howard rejected O'Brien's suggestion that China provided the explanation for Australia's impressive economic performance over recent years. While conceding that China and India provided part of the reason for Australia's declining unemployment, Howard described it as no more than a "glib one-liner to say that our wealth is entirely due to the resources boom". No doubt, if they had been watching the program, the former Labor prime ministers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating would have agreed with the sentiment."

"Who instigated the economic reform process in Australia is a matter for argument. It is true that most of the reforms started after the election of the Hawke government in March 1983."

BBI: Gerard tries to claim as much for Howard as he can, and as a point offers the fact that from opposition Howard supported these reforms. See, they were practically John`s idea.

"O'Brien and his 7.30 Report researchers should check the facts before implying that, but for the grace of China, there would be scant prosperity Down Under. Certainly Australian Bureau of Statistics figures demonstrate that the strongest growth in employment over the year to September 2007 occurred in Western Australia (plus 3.5 per cent) and Queensland (plus 3.3 per cent). However, NSW (2 per cent) and Victoria (2.4 per cent) have also done well - without any direct impact from China."

BBI: Well that proves it then. Thanks Gerard.

From SMH 16/10/07

"Believe it or not, it now appears that Christian leaders in Australia can enter the political debate without being lectured concerning that which belongs to God and that which belongs to Caesar. Provided they choose a fashionable topic, of course. As in criticising the Howard Government's Work Choices legislation."

BBI: Gerard is tut-tutting about criticism of Pell in the stem-cell debate compared to his statements on work choices. No comparison, we reckon. Pell said at one stage that certain aspects of his church may be withdrawn to those who voted against his stem-cell beliefs, wheras re work choices, no such threat was made. He then has found a flaw with Monica Attard. We bet he loved that.

"On the ABC Radio Sunday Profile program last weekend, the presenter, Monica Attard, claimed that Pell "has come out in support of the ALP - and its education policy, in particular". Pell has not endorsed either Labor or the Coalition. Rather, he made it clear at the National Press Club that he was "more than happy" to leave the choice between John Howard and Rudd "to the individual voters". This is the kind of howler that should be picked up by the ABC TV Media Watch program. But as Attard presents that program as well, this seems unlikely. Attard is focused on the (alleged) errors of others."

BBI: Has Monica ever taken you to task, Gerard? (BBI must declare an interest here, we find Monica strangely attractive,)

"When the likes of Pell and Jensen express doubts about industrial relations reform, they invariably receive sympathetic coverage in the media. This suggests that, now at least, it's okay for church leaders to talk about politics - at least when they are opposing deregulation in particular and economic reform in general. Most of the journalists and academics who comment on such matters agree with the Pell/Jensen position and this ensures favourable coverage."

BBI: Then he defends work choices and raises the fear of unions..

"Interviewed on the PM program on Thursday, Sister Libby Rogerson, social justice director for the Parramatta Catholic diocese, ran the same line as those two councils (Social Justice Council and the Australian Catholic Council for Employment Relations) when she complained that "a young person from Mt Druitt going for his or her first job" is in "no position to negotiate their pay and conditions". Clearly she wants the trade unions involved."

"Rogerson seems oblivious to the fact that, without industrial relations reform, such a young person would have found it very difficult - if not impossible - to find a job."

BBI: Clearly she wants the trade unions involved? And he finishes with a broad brush, which could get him into trouble...

"The unfashionable fact is that nations which have paid heed to Catholic social teaching have had poor economic outcomes. Ireland and Italy come to mind. Ireland recovered from high unemployment only after it embraced economic reform. The churches have a right to enter the public debate. And citizens - Christian and non-Christian - have the right to contest their views with respect to the secular and the spiritual."

BBI: We have never been fans of George Pell, but we feel that the absolute best thing from the Catholic Church has been their social teaching.

From SMH 9/10/07

BBI: Gerard criticises those who say the Howard Government has shut down debate.

"Seldom in the history of public debate have the allegedly silenced been so vocal. Last Friday the ABC Radio National Australia Talks program ran a session from the recent Brisbane Writers Festival. It was one of those familiar taxpayer-subsidised events where members of the left intelligentsia gather to have their prejudices confirmed."

BBI: He lists Clive Hamilton, Hugh MacKay and David Marr, who all agree about contemporary Australia, he says. He cites Pria Viswalingam`s documentary..

"..titled Decadence. Early in the program, footage was shown of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz with the now familiar link to modern Australia. Also, the presenter primarily interviewed members of the left intelligentsia who agree with him that Australia has become a decadent democracy. Then the academic Robert Manne joined Hamilton in alleging that dissent was not allowed under the Howard Government."

BBI: He goes on saying Joe Hockey`s criticism of the report Australia@work because the authors were funded by and formerly worked for unions.

"Writing in The Age last Thursday, journalist Michael Bachelard went so far as to suggest that the Howard Government had somehow sanctified the report because it was partly funded by the Research Council and because van Wanrooy had once worked in the Commonwealth Public Service "under Peter Reith", the former Howard Government minister for industrial relations."

"The fact is that funding by the council does not imply Government support for the findings of publicly financed research. What's more, the fact that someone once worked in the public service has no connection whatsoever with the views of any minister - Coalition or Labor. It is disingenuous to imply otherwise."

BBI: He talks of how it is not going to be a fair report just because van Wanrooy once worked for Peter Reith, yet it is unfair because Buchanan spoke out against John Howard. In David Marr`s quarterly essay he points out that "Canberra has a taste for punishing dissent by cutting off funds." Isn`t that a form of shutting down dissent?

From SMH 2/10/07

BBI: Gerard is running the line that nothing much will change under Kevin Rudd. Except that the critics will no longer criticise.

"Modern Australia is an efficient, accepting, tolerant society with a very strong economy. Compared with like nations, that is. Consequently, Australia is not very newsy on the world scene. The histories of Australia which sell overseas invariably exaggerate the Australian condition. The works of Manning Clark, Germaine Greer, Robert Hughes, Philip Knightley and John Pilger come immediately to mind."

"It's much the same with journalism. Those commentators who get a run in the international media on Australia tend to egg-up the message. Their views are more likely to be found in publications which like to run a surplus of leftist views. The Guardian and the New Statesman, in London, for example."

BBI: Leftist views eh, Gerard? Not very credible then.

"Writing in The Guardian last January, Pilger claimed that Australia's social democracy has regressed "into a state of fabricated fear and xenophobia". He depicted his former nation of residence as replete with "white supremacists" and dominated by a prevailing "hand-on-heart jingoism"."

BBI: John Howard`s Australia! Then Gerard has a go at Richard Flanagan for daring to question The Government Initiative in the N.T. He also points out that..

"Then in August Julianne Schultz, the editor of the Griffith Review, let loose in the New Statesman. She maintained that, since the election of the Howard Government in 1996, the previously "outward-looking, self-confident Australia has become defensive, socially and culturally divided and domestically complacent"."

BBI: We think the same.

"What unites the work of Pilger, Flanagan and Schultz is a capacity for generalisations unmatched by factual analysis."

BBI: Well, we can at least depend on Gerard to be factual at all times. No beat-ups here. Then he goes on..

"Even if the Pilger/Flanagan/Schultz analysis be essentially correct, Australia is unlikely to change much under Labor."..

"There will be changes if Labor wins the election. But they are not likely to be enough to satisfy the taste of Guardian and/or New Statesman readers. It will be worth watching which commentators maintain their (internationally focused) rage about Australia and which elect for accommodation and denial."

From SMH 25/09/07

"If elected to office, Labor is committed to set up scores of inquiries and commissions into this or that. In view of such bureaucratic largesse, there must be room for at least one more such initiative - along the lines of an inquiry/commission into the use or misuse of historical parallels in the domestic political debate."

BBI: Gerard starts off agreeing with Julia Gillard that comparing a person or party with Hitler or a Nazi is, quoting Julia "one of the most repulsive allegations you can make against another human being". Quite so, says Gerard. He then points out that the conservatives have done this before (once) but the left wing do it frequently.

"The fact is that large sections of the Australian left like to link their political opponents with Hitler's Nazi regime or Mussolini's Italian fascist regime."

BBI: He cites Mike Carlton, Mungo and Alan Ramsey as journos who have made these comparisons. And somehow these comparisons are incorrect Gerard thinks. BBI thinks otherwise. FOI being made more difficult, unbelievable security overkill, the demise of political correctness allowing racism to raise its ugly head, the use of anti-terrorism laws enabling people to be locked up without being sent to trial are just a few measures that could make a reasonable person compare our society with past atrocities. No Gerard, we are not that bad, but that seems to be the direction we are headed.

BBI: From SMH 11/9/07 Gerard is not amused.

"In Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, terrorism - and the threat of terrorism - is no joke."

"And then there is Australia - where the threat of terrorism is a (taxpayer-subsidised) joke. The Chaser's stunt, whereby the comedians breached security put in place for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum in Sydney by posing as the Canadian motorcade, received international media coverage."

"The Chaser has many fans in Australia and some members of the team are both talented and funny. In recent times, however, The Chaser has moved to embrace fashionable leftist causes - the latest manifestation of which is that terrorism is not all that serious a problem and that, consequently, national security is not all that important."

BBI: Leftist causes, eh? And now Gerard raises the real issue.

"In the past, (Mark) Scott has defended unlawful activities by The Chaser. I raised with Scott in March the fact that the troupe had unlawfully gatecrashed a booked-out Sydney Institute function and trespassed on private property. I was subsequently informed in writing by Scott in April that such stunts were approved by the ABC and to expect more of the same. It is unlikely that Scott would put his name to such a letter without the sanction of the ABC board and the ABC's lawyers."

BBI: At The Sydney Institute no less. I told on those naughty boys and they didn`t get into trouble.

"No one can trespass on ABC property in, say, Sydney or Perth. But the ABC management reckons it's OK for The Chaser to trespass on the property of others. Now, apparently, ABC lawyers have said that attempting to breach APEC security is also OK, to a degree at least."

BBI: No one can do righteous indignation quite like Gerard. And taxpayer funded, too!

From Gerard`s Article SMH 4/9/07

"In Britain...There is now a backlog of 450,000 asylum cases which are to be determined."

"Compared with Britain and such nations as Germany, Italy and France, Australia has never had a serious problem with unlawful entry."

"Border Protection was an issue in the 2001 and 2004 federal elections.."

BBI: Border protection was indeed an issue, often a media beat-up by such people as you Gerard, who encouraged John Howard to tap into Australia`s inherent racism. How can you say this stuff with a straight face when you were one of the loudest voices proclaiming that illegal immigrants would be the ruin of us all.

"After the 2004 election the Howard Government moved to reform the system of mandatory detention.."

BBI: After some public pressure from Petro Georgiou, Bruce Baird and Judy Moylan they did make some changes. For their trouble Bruce Baird was disendorsed and Petro was challenged by a Downer staffer.

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From Gerard`s article in SMH 10/7/07.

"Brendan Nelson...appearing to link Australia`s Iraq commitment to oil."

BBI: I thought he actually did link those things, Gerard

"Nelson`s background is in medical politics and he was once a rank-and-file Labor Party member."

BBI: Oh, that explains it then.

"In the foreign policy-national security area, the likes of Howard, Peter Costello, Alexander Downer and Tony Abbott can adequately explain coalition policy in Iraq."

BBI: Dunno, Gerry.

Gerard Henderson is the executive director of the Sydney Institute

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