The Sydney Morning Herald Liberals have lost their conscience Date: 18/03/00 Late last year Amnesty International wrote to Philip Ruddock, the Minister for Immigration, and asked that he no longer wear his AI lapel badge when speaking in his capacity as Federal minister. The private letter cited Amnesty's "fundamental opposition" to the minister's treatment of refugees. It did not want him identified in any way with Amnesty when he announced or defended his hard-hearted policies. Yet Ruddock is supposedly part of the conscience of the Liberal Party, the liberal Left who identify themselves with a small "l" and call themselves the moderates. In days gone by he was a fiery spirit, too, who has crossed the floor to oppose John Howard's 1988 pronounce-ment that Australia should alter the ethnic mix of its migration program. But that was then. Now, Ruddock not only runs an immigration policy which Amnesty condemns, he also was all but invisible this week when the Government stymied all attempts to override the Northern Territory's mandatory sentencing laws, which Amnesty also condemns. Also silent was Robert Hill, Minister for the Environment, and once also a man whose conscience repeatedly put him on the opposite side of the chamber from his conservative Liberal colleagues. So too Justice Minister Amanda Vanstone and Attorney-General Daryl Williams (who should both be directly concerned by Australian breaches of international law). Not to mention John Fahey, Joe Hockey and Michael Wooldridge, all ministers who have identified themselves in the past with the moderates and progressive social policy. The Liberal moderates have faded away like summer dew. Over the past 10 or 15 years, many have been driven from the party, either dumped by the Right at preselection time or given up in disgust. The right-wing headkickers, led by Michael Kroger in Victoria, John Howard and Bronwyn Bishop in NSW, Nick Minchin in South Australia and Noel Crichton-Browne in WA, have purged many, and co-opted most of the rest. The silence of the ministers was proof. Yesterday, the Herald rang most of the remaining moderates. It doesn't take long. Even by the estimates of the small core who remain, they only number about 10 at most. Mandatory sentencing is a clear-cut human rights issue. The laws which mandatorily jail juveniles in Western Australia and more particularly in the NT breach multiple human rights agreements to which Australia is a signatory, are opposed by virtually the entire legal community up to High Court level as a travesty of justice, and are opposed by the clear majority of Federal politicians. Yet opposition to them in the Government was led not by a moderate, but by a social conservative who is committed to the rights of kids, Mrs Danna Vale. The final test, of course, is expected to come on April 10, when a new bill, more tightly framed, to override the NT laws without touching Western Australia, is due to come before the House. If, as appears likely, the moderates cannot find the collective gumption to stand up and be counted, then it will be fair to consider them dead as a political force. They need six to cross the floor; at the moment they can muster two or three at best. If they can't do it, the conservative hegemony will be complete and the Liberal Party will effectively have no liberal element left in it at all. Mike Seccombe This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised use, copying or mirroring is prohibited. -- ********************************* Make the Hunger Site your homepage! http://www.thehungersite.com/index.html ********************************* ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
