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CounterPunch
October
25, 2002
Australians
Vote Green:
History-Making No to US War Plans
by VANESSA JONES
Seven days after the Bali bombings Australian
voters history gave a jump in Australia. Michael Organ, became
the first The green candidate to win a seat in the Australian
House of Representatives. Indeed, it was the first victory for
a minority party in the House of Representatives since WW2. (There
are currently two national Greens Senators in Australia.)
The venue for this triumph was a by-election
in the "Cunningham" electorate, in the Wollongong area,
a town 90 minutes south of Sydney, a surfing, seaside town, known
as "The Gong". It has one university, and the area
is famous for hosting the BHP steel works at nearby Port Kembla.
It's traditionally a working class area,
where many post World War 2 southern European migrants chose
to settle, with jobs at the steelworks. Many men, migrants and
Aussies, brought up their families from the wages earned at BHP.
Now it's attracting families who can't afford Sydney's high housing
prices, who settle for an average (not low) mortgage, by the
sea, where parents often commute by train or car to Sydney, twice
a day, to pay off these 30 year long mortgages. I have a friend
who bought a house near Wollongong, a year ago. It was the cheapest
house on the market. She bought it with the bank for $195,000
and says that in the past year, prices have risen so much that
young families like hers' can no longer afford a modest home
there.
The multicultural community of Wollongong
is opposed to Australian involvement in a US-led war against
Iraq, also to the locking up of refugees (a third of whom are
children), in detention centers in the desert, as is currently
Australian government practice.
The conservative Australian government
declined to put up a candidate in the by-election. They knew
they couldn't win. Since 1949, it's been Labor (like US Democrat)
all the way. But this time it looked, by preferences, to be a
Green or union-backed Independent victory. In the event, the
Greens won by trading preferences with Peter Wilson, the independent,
left wing, union-backed candidate.
On October 17, in the Australian senate,
Greens leader Bob Brown expressed concern about unprecedented
US interference in this steel town by-election. Following is
his question to the senate, and the reply by the Minister of
Defense, Senator Hill:
Senator BROWN: "My question without
notice is to Senator Hill, Minister representing the Minister
for Foreign Affairs. I refer to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic
Relations, which states that while countries may have their diplomats
gather information in other countries, they also have a duty
not to interfere in the internal affairs of that State.
"Did the US Embassy or anyone from
the Bush administration contact the government before their representatives
went to Wollongong to question candidates in the Cunningham by-election
about issues such as the impending war in Iraq? Did the government
respond? Is this not a breach of that Vienna convention? Does
the government recollect any similar incursions into Australian
domestic affairs in the past?
"Senator HILL "I notice
that Susan Crystal, the Counselor for Public Affairs for the
US Embassy, has put out a statement on this matter. I think it
confirmed that the US Embassy was sending three officials to
Wollongong to talk to candidates and others to gauge public sentiment.
She said that the visit is part of `routinely sending back information
to the United States about the feeling of the electorate on particular
issues'. She is quoted as saying, `As you may be aware, many
embassies, certainly the American embassy, I would guess many
embassies, many countries around the world routinely send back
information to our host governments, in this case the United
States, about various things that are going on in the country
in which we are serving.' On that basis there does not seem to
be any issue of interference and, therefore, the Vienna convention
is not relevant. Was the Australian government contacted about
the matter? I do not know but I would not have thought so."
"Senator BROWN: Mr President, I
ask a supplementary question. Does the government not see that
this is a clear breach of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic
Relations? While I will be very happy to meet these representatives
with Greens candidate Michael Organ tomorrow in Wollongong, I
ask again, Minister: has this ever occurred in Australian history
and has there ever been an occasion where an Australian diplomat
has gone to question candidates for election in the United States
about domestic affairs or indeed foreign affairs in that country?
"Senator Kemp interjecting-
"The PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Kemp,
come to order.
"Senator HILL: I am not sure they
would learn much from a Greens candidate.
"Senator CARR: Tell us who the Liberal
candidate is.
"Senator HILL: If I were a member
of the Labor Party, I would worry about how the Labor Party is
going to go.
"Senator Sherry: You can't even
field a candidate!
"The PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Nick
Sherry and Senator Carr, come to order, please.
"Senator HILL: I do not think there
is any evidence of interference, as I said. This is a free country.
If they ask to interview a candidate they can do so, and whether
the candidate wishes to respond is up to the candidate."
The US embassy in Canberra confirmed
that they were planning to meet election campaign managers to
discuss election issues. Bob Brown believes that the US was planning
to influence the candidates, and probably the election. This
happened in the week following the October 12 Bali Bombings-
when the media was saturated with parallels to September 11 ,
and issues like US interference in our "democracy"
got little attention, or would be considered unpatriotic to Australia
and to Uncle Sam.
When I called the Greens leader's office
to ask abut articles covering his parliamentary question, to
add to the one article I'd found, by chance, online, they couldn't
find any media coverage, and emailed a transcript of the senate
questions. Surprise, surprise, the Australian Minister of Defense,
Robert Hill, has no concern about political interference by the
US embassy in the upcoming by-election. After all, it's his party
which is in power and has supported the US all the way to Afghanistan,
and continuing for Iraq, and wherever else it goes. Straight
after September 11, our Prime Minister offered Bush our full
support.
We, in Australia, in our desert near Alice Springs, host the
ubiquitous, CIA-operated Pine Gap. The Macquarie Dictionary describes
Pine Gap as "a joint US-Australian defence space research
facility near Alice Springs in the NT, operated by the CIA".
It is a place which Australians know very little about, and are
not permitted to know much about. Pine Gap is believed to be
used to spy on much of the Middle East and was used in the Gulf
War. It's an essential part of US intelligence gathering. Thus,
perhaps, their need to interfere so much in our "democratic"
voting process.
Green and union backed independents bode
a dangerous national precedent which might slowly topple the
existing Howard Coalition (conservative/US aligned) government.
It could create a very independent parliament, one that wouldn't
easily back wars and submissive trade agreements, plus CIA operated
research stations in our backyard.
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October 14,
2002
Harry Browne
Ireland:
No to War; No to Nice
Don Atapattu
The Tragedy of Alan Dershowitz
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Proverbial
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