Conservative Australian PM John Howard made inflammatory remarks about Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama yesterday in reference to his calls to withdrawal U.S. troops from Iraq by 2008.
For us Americans, Howard is a bit of a curious figure. Some details worth knowing . . .
- Howard is among a rare group of political leaders who continue to deny that human factors are influencing global warming. Surprisingly or not, he receives significant financial support from the oil and gas industry.
- Howard is struggling at the polls. His continued support of the Iraq invasion, including a nominal force of 1,500 troops in a non-combat role, has severely hurt him on the home front.
Enter Dick Cheney.
President/VP Cheney will be paying his respects to his respects to Howard this upcoming week, which makes the timing of Howard's comments especially curious.
An Australian might help me navigate the nuances of the Australian political financing system better; however, I stumbled across an interesting article in reference to this issue.
At the same time, the legislation has made it easier for corporations and rich individuals to keep their political patronage secret. It increased the disclosure threshold for political donations from $1,500 to $10,000, with an annual upward adjustment in line with the cost of living index. In effect, donors can contribute $90,000 a year without public disclosure, if they donate $10,000 to each of their preferred party’s eight state and territory branches, as well as to a federal division.
The tax deductibility level for political donations has also increased 15-fold from $100 to $1,500 per year, and the tax breaks have been extended to companies as well as individuals.
Just months before the legislation passed, AEC statistics confirmed that both major parties were heavily reliant on huge sums from wealthy donors in the 2004 election. Officially-recorded donations for 2004-05 showed that $48.6 million flowed into Liberal Party coffers and $48.1 million into Labor’s, a total of almost $100 million. No doubt other contributions remained camouflaged by a complex array of trusts and foundations.
In another provision aimed at stifling dissent, the bill forces anyone who spends more than $10,000 a year on a "political purpose," which includes expressing views on political parties, to lodge an annual financial disclosure form. Previously, this requirement was confined to election campaign spending. Any group that actively engages in political commentary and activity, whether it is contesting an election or not, can now be subjected to highly-intrusive and widely-publicised financial investigations by the electoral authorities and federal police.
The new legislation is part of a sustained onslaught by the Howard government, with full support from the Labor opposition, on political and civil rights over the past five years. This includes the introduction of indefinite detention without trial for asylum seekers, draconian "anti-terrorist" laws and powers to call out the military on domestic soil.
The virtual silence in the political and media establishment underscores the advanced state of decay of Australian democracy. The most elementary legal and political rights are being repudiated, and vicious anti-democratic measures introduced, with hardly a murmur of dissent.
Melbourne Indymedia
Whether this is purely coincidence, or something more insidious, it is impossible for me to say. At the very least, Howard's comments seem extremely curious.
If Howard was looking for some financial assistance from his good friend Dick Cheney his comments over the past couple days certainly couldn't have hurt.