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BBC Monitoring Quotes From Australian Press 16 Dec 05

Posted on: Thursday, 15 December 2005, 12:00 CST

The following is a selection of quotes from editorials and commentaries published in 16 December editions of Australian newspapers available to BBC Monitoring:

Sydney violence

Sydney's The Sydney Morning Herald: www.smh.com.au "Now that the rancid old race dog is out of the kennel for another trot around the block it is timely to see just where the wretched hound is going to take the man holding the lead, John Howard. Howard said at the beginning of the week that he doesn't accept Australia is a racist country. Nor does he think we should 'overcomplicate' the violent situation on the streets of Sydney... The trouble is that every time John Howard says something about race all sorts of dark shadows fall out of his mouth. He is a man whose pronouncements on the topic invariably have been wreathed in opportunistic circumlocutions... So with all this context is it any wonder, for a man who has spoken out of both sides of his mouth for 30 years on race, that he wouldn't detect just the tiniest hint of racism in the land he leads, and moreover not lift a finger to do anything about it?" (Justinian) (16)

Sydney's The Australian: www.theaustralian.news.com.au "It was inevitable, given the prevailing mind-set within government and the media, that Sydney's beachside violence this week would be called race riots... However, a more ungainly but nonetheless more accurate description would have been multicultural riots. For the doctrine of multiculturalism is really to blame... Put this week's beachside violence into its political and social context, and the conclusion is clear. It is not race that is the problem but culture. Multiracialism has been a success in contemporary Australia but multiculturalism has been an abject failure." (Keith Windschuttle, author) (16)

Melbourne's Herald Sun: www.heraldsun.news.com.au "Four attacks on churches in 24 hours remind us it's foolish to dismiss the riots in Sydney as just proof of white Australian racism... Each assault was against a proof of 'our' welcome to people of other races. Those who say this strife is about nasty 'us', as in white racists, are blind, or maybe racist themselves." (Andrew Bolt, columnist) (16)

Australian defence plans

Sydney's The Australian: www.theaustralian.news.com.au "While the world is a much more peaceful place than it was 20 years ago, when the risk of an all-engulfing global nuclear war was real, the paradox for Australian defence planners is that demands on our forces are larger and more diverse than they used to be... Australia is a major power in the Asia-Pacific, and our neighbours will look to us for the sort of assistance in peacekeeping that only boots on the ground can deliver. We must also be ready to pull our weight in the war on terror, which we certainly have not done in Iraq. The fact that we have not deployed a full combat battalion to Iraq is a disgraceful demonstration that while, the government talks tough in the war on terror, it has not made a matching military contribution. And while another Timor-style operation is most unlikely, it would be imprudent to assume there will never be a need for a major army engagement anywhere in our region..." (Editorial) (16)

US policy

Sydney's The Sydney Morning Herald: www.smh.com.au "... Bush's legacy has become defined by the war in Iraq and its outcome. Unless that country finds a future of stability and security within a functioning democracy, and with attainment of that objective in turn permitting American (and Australian) troops to go home in substantial numbers, the remaining three years of President Bush's term will be deeply troubled. A weakened, divided America, its coffers depleted and its optimism dimmed, is not what the world needs when there are so many other profound challenges, from a nuclear Iran to a paralysed world trading regime; these cry out for successful engagement." (Editorial) (16)

Guantanamo detainee

Sydney's The Australian: www.theaustralian.news.com.au "... It is the most basic principle of the rule of law that even the most vicious characters cannot be held at the whim of the ruler without charge or trial. Yet this is exactly what happened to Hicks, who has been detained since January 2002 at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba... The Australian government not only failed to protest at this tyranny by the US government against an Australian citizen: it actively and warmly supported it... What an irony. Parliament has just spent several weeks agonizing over a law that allows people in Australia, in certain circumstances, to be detained for no more than two weeks without charge. These were described as exceptional provisions to cope with the threat of terrorism. Yet the Australian government supported the US imprisoning an Australian citizen without charge, not for two weeks but for more than two years..." (Michael Costello) (16)

Sources: As lsited

Source: BBC Monitoring Newsfile

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