The Government’s Wheat Board Whammy
Friday April 21, 2006
Christian Kerr writes:
Who says the AWB scandal isn’t causing a stir? Gary Morgan has been working the phones and his findings are bad news for the Government:
A majority of Australians (54%) think Prime Minister John Howard did not act ethically over AWB Ltd.’s wheat to Iraq… Similar proportions of Australians aged 14 and over think Foreign Minister Alexander Downer (56%) and Deputy Prime Minister and Trade Minister Mark Vaile (55%) did not act ethically…
Now four in five (80%, up 3% since late February) Australians are aware of the Royal Commission and only 20% (down 3%) are unaware of the Royal Commission. When it comes to perceptions of the Federal Government as a whole, 63% (up 6% from 57%) think it acted ethically on the issue while 18% (up 1%) think it did not act ethically.
Almost two-thirds (65%, up 6%) of Australians think AWB Ltd. did not act ethically in their negotiations to sell wheat to Iraq, 12% (unchanged) think it acted ethically and 23% (down 6%) couldn’t say.
Of those Australians who are aware of the Royal Commission, 58% think Mr Howard did not act ethically, 63% think Mr Downer did not act ethically and 63% think Mr Vaile did not act ethically. Almost three-quarters (74%) of Australians who had heard of the Royal Commission think AWB acted unethically and 68% think the Federal Government acted unethically.
A separate Morgan Poll puts support for Australia’s presence in Iraq at an all-time low:
Fifty-nine per cent of Australians (up 8% since March 2005 and 13% since March 2004) think Australia should not have a military presence in Iraq, a special telephone Morgan Poll finds. Only 35% (down 10%) of Australians aged 14 and over think Australia should have a military presence and 6% (up 2%) couldn’t say.
How does all of this translate into practical politics? Well, an election is 18 months away – and we all know a lot can happen in that time.
OK so we got the message, Crikey’s been around long enough to be recognised as part of the establishment, so that enough memories thanks
Is a refreshing reminder of the duplicity of politicians in the machinations of Howard Downer and Vaile and the grossly offensive activities of AWB in bribing Saddam Hussein while Howard had our Navy was trying to enforce the UN sanctions in the Gulf. Notwithstanding numerous attempts by diplomatic staff in the field to acquaint the government with the facts, curiously none of these facts penetrated the consciousness of the politicians concerned.
In all probability this was as a consequence of the “information firewalls” constructed around politicians so that they only need to acknowledge the existence of information that they want to hear, and don’t need to acknowledge receipt of unpopular or unwanted information when they are lying directly to the public.
One is drawn to the conclusion that this desire to win at any cost regardless of breaches of principle and failure of good governance probably exists on both sides of politics and it will be interesting to review the aspects of the activities of the Rudd government in five years on a similar basis. The areas that immediately come to mind include the NBN, emissions trading and Conroy’s internet filter.