November 28, 2006
Are the journalists swallowing the Howard Government's line that it stands vindicated over the AWB scandal? That it has done nothing wrong and has nothing to hide. Yesterdays news reports lapped up the spin and recycled it. Do the commentators see beyond the spin? Do they link this negligence and lack of accountibility to the health of our liberal democracy? It is a good issue to judge the state of our free and critical press, don't you think?
Steve Lewis in The Australian does go beyond the spin to democracy. He says that yesterday's release of the Cole report also highlights the need for a more genuine parliamentary scrutiny of the executive:
This has never been more apparent, given the changed Senate dynamics and the incapacity of the opposition parties to force the Government to fully account for its actions. If the opposition parties still had the numbers, Howard and his senior ministers would have been subjected to a tougher examination over AWB. This would be no bad thing. Robust parliamentary accountability requires a Senate with the muscle and resolve to question properly the government of the day. Alas, the present Senate finds itself unable to meet this challenge.
He concludes that an executive with unchecked power is bad for democracy and that Australian voters would be better served if the Senate were able to deliver a more robust oversight of the executive.
Maybe, just maybe the ALP has learned to take the Senate seriously. After all, it handed Howard the Senate with its Victorian preference deals that gave a Senate seat to Family First and not the Greens. It also treats the Senate as second rate, as it with fills the Senate with union and party hacks.
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This has been probably the most shameful day for Australian democracy since Whitlam was dismissed.
Which was caused, of course, by the senate.
As long as the Senate majority remains in place, accountability and integrity are no longer a part of the system.