| by Elliot K – Perth Indymedia | 2006-10-04 1:01 AM +0800 |
| October 04, 2006: Prime Minister John Howard has fired a tirade attack on Australia’s lefties, questioning their loyalty to the nation. Howard named Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II as the “three towering figures” of the late 20th century.He said their moral clarity “punctured the nonsense” of left-wing apologists. Howard attacked Australia’s “intelligensia”, which he says has a past of denigrating the nation and the West and is now doing the same with the war in Iraq.
Mr Howard gave a foaming speech last night in praise of the 50th anniversary of ultra-conservative right-wing magazine – Quadrant of which writer Paddy McGuinness is the editor. Quadrant was set up with funding from the CIA… |
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| Mr Howard blamed the left for “the incomprehensible sludge” in school curriculums and “the black armband view of Australian history” – his offensive term for those who pushed for white Australia to apologise to Aborigines over past wrongs. He said the left had a history of denigrating the nation and was now doing the same with the war in Iraq.
He said Australian universities were still breeding leftists and described pro-communists of decades past as “opposed to Australia and its interests”. Mr Howard praised Quadrant – a journal “dedicated to opposing political correctness”, for countering “stultifying orthodoxies and dangerous utopias that have, at times, gripped the Western intelligentsia”. He linked the great historical battle of ideas between communism and capitalist democracies to the modern-day struggle with Islamist terrorism, arguing that both clashes demanded “clear and unambiguous statements of belief and purpose”. Seeing a sinister threat in the left activism of the 1950s in Australia, Mr Howard said it was anything but an innocent ideological gambol. He said publications such as Quadrant, which was set up with funding from the CIA, countered such views in “a noble and moral cause”. By contrast, Ronald Reagan branded the Soviet Union “the evil empire”, the sort of talk “that sends diplomats the world over into panicked meltdown”. Margaret Thatcher “as well as anyone grasped and articulated the essential connection of personal, political and economic freedom”. And the late pope “inspired millions” behind the Iron Curtain to dream. Rejecting charges that the West was anti-Muslim, he said it was not the Arab League that went to war in the 1990s on behalf of Muslim minorities in the Balkans, and the person who probably killed more Muslims in history was Saddam Hussein. An unapologetic and defiant Mr Howard praised his Government’s successes over the “posses of the politically correct”. Quadrant, a magazine of small circulation and a conservative ranter rag, had been “Australia’s home to all that is worth preserving in the Western cultural tradition”, said the PM. “Of the causes that Quadrant has taken up that are close to my heart, none is more important to me than the role it has played as counterforce to the black armband view of Australian history,” Mr Howard said. About 230 conservative intellectuals, judges, politicians, businessmen, churchmen and commentators arrived to pay homage at Sydney’s Four Seasons hotel in The Rocks. He sat at a power table that included his wife Janette, Catholic Archbishop George Pell, NSW Chief Justice Jim Spiegelman, revisionist historian and ABC board member Keith Windschuttle and former Liberal MP and Quadrant’s longest-serving editor Peter Coleman. Health Minister Tony Abbott was an enthusiastic wellwisher. Mr Howard’s chief speech writer, John Kunkel. So did senior staffer Brian Loughnane. Former head of the Australian Broadcasting Authority and arch-monarchist David Flint soaked up the atmosphere along with fellow traveller Kerry Jones. So did High Court judge Ian Callinan, former Howard minister Jim Carlton, former Treasury chief and Nationals MP John Stone, academic John Paul and former ABC board member Maurice Newman. Think-tank chief John Roskam, who heads the Institute of Public Affairs, was in good spirits, as was Greg Lindsay, executive director of the Centre for Independent Studies. Attendees from the Labor camp included former NSW Supreme Court judge Jeff Shaw, former NSW Labor Council secretary Michael Easson and former Keating minister Gary Johns. There was an impressive line-up of media commentators, including Piers Akerman, Christopher Pearson, Frank Devine, Miranda Devine and Sam Lipski. — [Quadrant Magazine was the brainchild of Richard Krygier, the founding secretary of the Australian branch of the Congress for Cultural Freedom which was established by the CIA in 1950 as a key element in their strategy to combat Soviet propaganda. In its first year the CIA outlay on the Congress for Cultural Freedom was $200,000.] |
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| John Howard: Standard bearer in liberal culture Howard names his three towering heroes – The Age Howard attacks left intelligentsia – News Ltd Howard rallies Right in culture war assault – The Australian PM puts boot into left as soft on tyranny CIA as Culture Vultures – Jacket Black Armband History – ANTaR |
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| by Burrup Indymedia | 2006-10-04 2:08 AM +0800 |
| October 3, 2006: Greens Senator Rachel Siewert has welcomed the report by the Australian Heritage Council proposing to protect the Burrup Peninsula Rock Art Province. Environment Minister Ian Campbell has announced he will delay his decision on whether to grant heritage status to the ancient rock art.Burrup is home to countless ancient Aboriginal rock art but also the site of several industrial plants and a proposed new natural gas processing plant… | |
The Australian Heritage Council recommended yesterday that 874sqkm of the North-West, including 100sqkm of the Burrup, be put on the national heritage list.Woodside Petroleum, which is planning a $5 billion onshore LNG terminal on the Burrup Peninsula to exploit its Pluto gas discoveries, last week expressed concern at Senator Campbell’s announcement that he was seeking further comment on the Aboriginal Heritage Council’s recommendation. Rock art on the Burrup has become controversial in recent years, with some saying moving the work to accommodate industrial activity is akin to moving Stonehenge.
The boundaries of the proposed Australian Heritage Council area cover most of the Burrup and offshore islands, which contain the $20 billion NW Shelf gas project, BHP Billiton’s multi-billion dollar iron ore shipping facilities and an fertiliser plant. Ian Campbell says it could be many months before he decides whether to add rock art in WA’s north to the heritage list. Senator Campbell said last week that the vast array of Aboriginal rock art on the Burrup Peninsula, under threat from further developments in the area, met requirements for National Heritage listing but he would wait before deciding their fate. Senator Siewart said the Heritage Minister “now has in his hands the clearest indication yet that the Burrup deserves full protection. This is a turning point in the campaign to save this remarkable part of the world. (Campbell) should add the Burrup to the National Heritage List without further delay,” Senator Siewert said. The Heritage Council documents can be found here. Senator Campbell said it could be “many, many months” before he made a final decision on heritage listing. “I think it could be well into next year,” he said in Perth. “I believe very strongly that the economic benefits of development at the Burrup are in synergy.” However, Liberal MP Colin Barnett hammered his Federal party colleagues yesterday, saying they had contributed nothing to WA’s industrial development and were guilty of failing to protect the ancient Aboriginal rock art in the North-West. Mr Barnett said Campbell was neglecting his portfolio through his failure to heritage-list the Burrup Peninsula. He said both the State and Federal governments had handled the situation badly. Mr Campbell says “we have got to ensure that we do nothing to hamper the development of that resource because of the massive economic benefit. People who say ’stop it or slow it down’, are actually contributing to the problem of climate change.” Woodside is concerned a National Heritage listing could result in costs and delays for industry that would have significant economic implications for WA, but not deliver any significantly improved heritage protection. “The Heritage Council has spent a year investigating the issue and has compiled decades worth of research. Their position is very clear – it is not acceptable for Senator Campbell to stand by and watch as Woodside sends in the bulldozers for the Pluto Project. I don’t understand why Senator Campbell doesn’t just list the Burrup now, when he has such unequivocal evidence in front of him,” Senator Siewert said. |
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| Campbell signals Burrup wait – Sunday Times Campbell to take time on Burrup Peninsula decision – ABC Search Perth Indymedia for “Burrup” stories Decision on Burrup rock artmonths away – The Australian EPA defends Burrup gas project go-ahead – ABC Federal Libs failing rock art, industry: Barnett – The West Burrup Peninsula |
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