Australia's Foreign/Domestic Policy-Made In Iron Bark?

Banjo Patterson's poem "The Man From Iron Bark" does present a supposition, that is more or less equivalent to Australia's dithering Foreign Policy.

Courtesy of Croz Walsh blog an ABC 'Counter Point' interview with Peter Thompson, a former Fiji diplomat, who labeled Australia's smart sanctions on Fiji, as disastrous.

The interview is posted below on MP3 player.






Not surprising that same cumbersome approach in Australian Foreign policy has chilled relations with China, according to Kuwait Times article.

Australia's own image of being a benevolent defender of Aboriginal rights, has since been reduced to mere rhetoric after the release of the UN Human Rights report by James Anaya, the Special Rapporteur. New Zealand Herald article, tags the Australian treatment of its native population as "abusive".

Excerpt of Reuter's article:

UN critical of Australian Aboriginal intervention

Thu Aug 27, 2009 4:08am EDT

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Australia Aborigines ask U.N. for refugee status
Tuesday, 25 Aug 2009 11:39pm EDT

By James Grubel

CANBERRA (Reuters) - A senior United Nations official condemned on Thursday Australia's controversial intervention into remote Aboriginal communities, describing the measures as discriminatory and finding entrenched racism in Australia.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous People, James Anaya, made the findings after a 12-day visit to Australia, where he visited indigenous communities and held talks with the Australian government.

Australia's former conservative government sent police and troops to remote Aboriginal communities in June 2007, and made special bans on alcohol and pornography, to stamp out widespread child sex abuse fueled by chronic alcoholism.

"These measures overtly discriminate against aboriginal peoples, infringe their right of self-determination and stigmatize already stigmatized communities," Anaya told reporters in Canberra. Anaya, the first UN Rapporteur on Indigenous People to visit Aboriginal communities, congratulated Prime Minister Kevin Rudd for his 2008 parliamentary apology to Australia's Aborigines for historical injustices.

But he said it was clear the entrenched racism of the past remained, and the ongoing intervention into communities in the Northern Territory continued to discriminate against Aborigines.

LIFE EXPECTANCY GAP

Rudd has made indigenous affairs a priority of his government and promised to end the 17-year gap in life expectancy between Aborigines and other Australians.

Rudd has said he would continue the controversial intervention, which has widespread support across Australia but has been strongly criticized by some Aboriginal groups.

Anaya's comments will increase the pressure on Rudd to review parts of the intervention, particularly measures that quarantine welfare payments to make sure a proportion of the payments is spent on food, clothing and healthcare.

An independent review last year found the intervention affected 45,500 Aboriginal men, women and children in more than 500 Northern Territory communities, and progress on healthcare and security were undermined by a lack of full community support.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin said the government was determined to restore laws to outlaw racial discrimination in the Northern Territory and welcomed Anaya's visit.

"I think what's important is that we recognize we have a huge task in front of us to close the gap, to close the life expectancy gap, the employment gap, the gap in education," Macklin told reporters.

"We know how big the task is and we certainly intend to keep getting on with it."

Australia's 460,000 Aborigines make up about 2 percent of the population. They suffer higher rates of unemployment, substance abuse and domestic violence than other Australians.

(Editing by Alex Richardson)

Of Stars and Stripes- Dodgy Dinger's Designated Democracy.

In his last July 4th celebration in Fiji, outgoing US Ambassador, Larry Dinger commented on the issue of coups and American policy, stating both don't go well together, as reported in a Fiji Live article.

The excerpt of the FL article:

Have elections, not coups: Dinger
05 JUL 2008
Counting down on the number of days as the United State’s Ambassador to Fiji, Larry Dinger has sounded a friendly warning maintaining the US stand that coups and election do not go well together.

Instead, the outgoing career diplomat said it is critical that Fiji realises the importance of maintaining democracy being the right way to move Fiji forward.

He said the US government valued its democratic roots, which it believed was just as important in other countries, explaining the US stand on the current political situation in Fiji.

“We continue to believe that democracy is the right way to go, that elections routinely without coups are the right way to go,” Dinger told more than 500 guests in attendance at the US Independence Day celebrations.

“American policy and coups don’t go along very well together so that has made it difficult but Fiji is still filled with wonderful people and great deal of potential.

“And so Washington and I just hope that things settle down rapidly and you can achieve those potentials in the future.”

Dinger, who toured polling stations around the country in the 2006 general election, said past elections had shown that there could be free and fair elections under the current Constitution.

He said there were a lot of ways a country could undertake democracy.

“The US has one way and the Fiji Constitution has another, other countries have different ways. Many ways to get there but the key is to have the voice of the people heard so that the leadership is responsive to the people and has legitimacy from the people,” Dinger said.

“And that’s the problem Fiji has at the moment.

“An election under the current system will be fine by us to bring in a government with that kind of legitimacy and that they can address other issues that obviously need addressing in Fiji.

“We are not fans of coups. But we believe very strongly that the United States will continue to advocate for a return to truly democratic governance at the earliest possible time.”

It appears that Dinger, is not well versed with the US history of supporting coups in numerous parts of the world or selectively omits the facts derived from the 1973 Church Committee. Dinger unapologetically follows the play book of Pax Americana, of choosing a convenient option like a coup or opposing it, as long as it suits their interest.

Interestingly enough, Dinger's comments comes across as a pharisaical, and in a "holier than thou" tongue in cheek, contradicted the Interim Attorney General's remarks on the perceived impartiality of Heads of Missions in Fiji, as seen in a Fiji Village article. The excerpt of the FV article:

Dinger Disputes AG's Allegation
Publish date/time: 04/07/2008 [11:55]

Outgoing US Ambassador Larry Dinger has disputed the allegation by the Interim Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum that some heads of missions in Fiji are not impartial in their work.

Dinger who will be farewelled tonight by colleagues told ABC Pacific Beat that his work is to report the truth on the current political situation in Fiji to Washington which he has done.

While, Dinger is entitled to his opinion on democracy and election, it should be noted that one of US' closest allies in the Middle East aside from Israel, Saudia Arabia is a monarchy and never ever had a general election. That illusive nature of Saudi democracy really undermines and erodes Dinger's diplomatic position on the subject of elections in Fiji.

On the aspect of coups and American policy; Dinger may be well advised to rethink that statement, as 'empty sacks never stand upright'. Readers may also note double standards of sorts, in the US policy and even that dichotomy has not escaped the mind of Russia's new President, quoted in a IHT article titled "U.S. is in no shape to give advice".


Videos (posted below)summarizes the extent to which US egalitarianism has wavered.









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