Howard's legacy, Julia's new spin

There is nothing underhand or furtive in relation to issues of race and racism in South Africa. There are no codes or Masonic signals surrounding and defining racism as there is in Australia.

Howard used racism for political ends while denying its existence. It was nudge and wink racism in public, encouraged more blatantly behind closed doors. It went hand in glove with the secrecy that Howard fostered in response to the fear he sought to engender and use in response to what he termed international terrorism.

Sneaky, subterranean racism rises to the surface in sulphurous, surprising bursts. Recent vitriolic musings in club surrounds from AFL and NRL luminaries give a glimpse into what some select sub-groups consider acceptable, if not normal in their social discourse.

It is an offshoot of the flag draped racism of Howard, where the language and symbolism of his peculiar brand of jingoistic nationalism was deployed to devastating effect against refugees and Muslims.

Mal Brough under Howard instituted a major attack on the rights and self respect of Aborigines for the same political purpose as Children Overboard. No respect, no dialogue, separate development, a Bantu Board solution in Australia.

This is Howard’s legacy; this is what he is reaping. Did he really believe it would go unnoticed?

Tragically for us the framework of his legacy was embraced by Rudd and now Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Chasing seats in the Western Suburbs of Sydney, Gillard has decided to pull the race card and lay refugees low.

Refugees arriving by boat have been woven into a modern day Australian narrative by risk averse manipulators within both major parties as, selfish, calculating, usurpers of the life-style and rights of “ordinary working Australians”.

Many in the media and putative victims have accepted the narrative. It has been too easy and rewarding for the major political parties to embrace, for political advantage, the short term appeal of Howard’s, “we will decide who comes here” without factoring in the long term damage to the social fabric and moral fibre of the country. Howard’s and now Gillard’s policy is the political and social asbestos that Australia will have to deal with in the future. It is toxic.

Boat people are the political and social scapegoats for all that is wrong with, and lacking, in badly planned, rapidly deteriorating and dysfunctional urban Australia. Lack of money and opportunity is what the marginal seats are saying, but it is all together too easy to avoid these big issues by hiding behind the smokescreen of a sea borne invasion of undeserving queue jumpers.

Gillard, like Rudd, takes us for fools. She seeks to spin.