Posted on 06/11/2002 8:59:53 PM PDT by maui_hawaii
CANBERRA, June 11 — Australia is slamming the door on its nice guy image, sealing its borders to asylum seekers and turning its back on international pacts to tackle global warming and punish war criminals.
Conservative Prime Minister John Howard won a third term in office last November on a ''fortress Australia'' policy in the wake of the September 11 attacks in the United States and analysts say he his now entrenching his long-held nationalist, domestic agenda.
''This is a radical departure from Australia's open foreign policy of the 1990s,'' political analyst Tony Burke from Adelaide University told Reuters.
''There is a faction within the (ruling) Liberal party and cabinet that is very right wing which has decided -- probably since September 11 -- to become far more isolationist.''
Since September 11, Howard has used the threat of terrorism to justify an existing policy of mandatory detention of asylum seekers, many from the Middle East and Afghanistan, in outback camps.
Last Friday, he toughened the policy by removing thousands of islands from its migration zone, preventing arrivals there from applying for visas.
Howard has also moved Australia towards closer links with Washington and Europe, visiting the United States this week for the third time in a year.
Mirroring Washington, Canberra this month abandoned the Kyoto climate pact to cut greenhouse gases saying it would hurt local industry and reversed a decision to endorse the new International Criminal Court due to sovereignty concerns.
Analysts say Howard's pro-Washington stance has failed to endear Australia to its Asian allies, which believe Canberra is trying to be Washington's ''deputy sheriff'' in the region.
Australia was first with its hand up when Washington asked for help in its ''war on terrorism'' after the devastating September 11 suicide attacks and is one of a handful of nations to back the U.S.'s controversial missile shield project.
STEP BACK IN TIME
The United Nations has regularly criticised Australia over the past few years for its mandatory detention of asylum seekers.
But Howard has shrugged off the criticism, arguing his government will decide who comes to Australia, branding the 5,000 boatpeople each year as ''queue jumpers.''
''The outside world sees Australia going back to its 1950s isolationism with Australia only really comfortable with the United States first and Britain second,'' political analyst Nick Economou from Melbourne's Monash University told Reuters.
''But this anti-internationalist approach is not surprising with Mr Howard well aware of Australians' fear of outsiders and regional Australia's economic needs and opposing globalisation.''
Howard's isolationist policies and closer ties with the United States are also seen as a repudiation of his arch-rival and predecessor, former Labor prime minister Paul Keating, who focused on Asia and globalisation during the 1990s.
The shift away from globalisation has done Howard's popularity wonders in the island continent of 20 million people.
Analysts do not expect any shift in policy near term with no election due until 2004 and opposition Labor in disarray.
Howard has said he'll review his political career at age 64 in July 2003 but, if he does step down, his heir apparent Treasurer Peter Costello is likely to continue the same focus.
''Costello is hard to read at the moment but he is no longer projecting any cosmopolitanism and knows where the votes are both within the party and with the electorate,'' Economou said.
More like they sobered up.
Since September 11, Howard has used the threat of terrorism to justify an existing policy of mandatory detention of asylum seekers, many from the Middle East and Afghanistan, in outback camps.
Translation: The Austrailians haven't completely lost their minds and realize that Middle Eastern and Afghani immigrants may not be the most desirable around - unless you enjoy the possiblity of bombs going off and all that. And the rape statistics by Middle Eastern immigrant males on Austrailian females are reason enough to start keeping them out.
Does anyone ever wonder why these Muslims are so desperate to leave their home countries? At least some Western civilized countries are wising up to start restricting them. They seem to want to impose their crazy values on their host countries, instead of assimulating.
Welcome to the club, Australia. It is small and very select group made up of the countries that are actually producers and contributors to the world rather then takers only.
You will now, naturally, be blamed for everything that goes wrong in the world. From third world debt to the bugs that ate some Asian farmers rice crop, it is now, officially, entirely your fault.
Victims and failures are never at fault so wear the blame heaped on you proudly. It means that you are truly a success.
a.cricket
Good, I shall enjoy living next door to them.
Australia is getting their act together, so perhaps with some help from FReepers in Australia, they will gain back their right to own firearms in the near future.
Remember we must be optimistic. And be patient too. That is how socialism became so powerful in the West.
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