Stuart Munckton
& Sarah Stephen
The federal election result does not amount to an endorsement of the warmongering and racist polices of the Coalition.
The election was not a referendum on Australia's involvement in the unpopular and disastrous Iraqi war. This was partly because Australia's small contingent of troops is not viewed as decisive and has suffered no casualties. However, it was also because the Labor Party, as well as the media, did not make the war an election issue. PM John Howard certainly didn't want it to be an issue.
More than 40 former high ranking diplomats and military figures wrote an open letter slamming Howard over WMDs and Iraq. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan recently declared the Iraq invasion illegal and in the last week of the election campaign a US report said there never were any weapons of mass destruction. After the Jakarta bombing, polls showed the majority of Australians believed that the Iraq war made us more of target for terrorists.
Support for refugees has also steadily increased over the past few years, in large part due to the work of the refugee-rights movement. Unlike the 2001 federal election, when scaremongering about boatloads of refugees invading Australia featured centrally, Howard dared not mention the issue of refugees this time around, precisely because there has been such a shift in public opinion.
A Newspoll conducted on August 20 found that only 35% of Australians agreed with the government's actions over the Tampa, compared with 68% when polled by Roy Morgan in September 2001.
In August 2001, opinion was split 50-50 on allowing some boats to land or turning all boats back. But an August 13, 2004, Newspoll confirmed that only 35% supported turning back all boats, while 47% supported some boats landing depending on the circumstances, and 14% supported allowing all boats to land.
Since the beginning of 2004, the Howard government has made a point of addressing (or pretending to address) the most appalling aspects of its treatment of refugees, thereby removing ammunition with which pro-refugee campaigners or the Labor Party (if it was brave enough) could attack it with during the election campaign. While its fundamental immigration policy remains intact, the Coalition was forced to make some concessions regarding children in detention and the plight of temporary-protection-visa holders.
It is no coincidence that there was a 3.6% swing against Howard in his seat of Bennelong and a 2.9% swing against former immigration minister Philip Ruddock in his seat of Berowra. Many hundreds of activists from all over Sydney campaigned in those electorates on the issues of truth, refugees and war, urging people to vote against the Coalition.
Howard did not win because of his pro-war and racist policies — he won despite them.
From Green Left Weekly, October 20, 2004.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.