The Guardian 23 July, 2008
Editorial
A See of money
It’s jobs for the boys with a twist. The twist is that a Labor prime minister is handing out the jobs to Liberal and National Party figures. PM Rudd’s announcement that former National Party leader and deputy PM, Tim Fischer, would be appointed ambassador to the Holy See shocked the Coalition and diplomatic corps. It has angered many of Labor’s bright boys, who were waiting for a plum position overseas.
"It will allow Australia to expand dialogue with the Vatican in areas including human rights, political and religious freedom, food security, arms control, refugees and anti-people trafficking", said Rudd. A comment which give the impression the ultra-conservative Pope Benedict XVI intends to play an interventionist role in international politics.
The Diplomatic corps are not impressed; they are sick of "jobs for the boys" political appointments that undermine their career paths. They are not happy about the allocation of $500,000 for the Holy See appointment when other postings are being cut back. The government is undertaking a $57 million three-year program of staff cuts in Athens, Berlin, Nairobi, London, and several other cities.
The Pope is the head of a church, the Vatican is its headquarters, although it acts like and is internationally recognised as a state which interferes in the internal politics of numerous other states. It has its own bank and other infrastructure, and is rolling in riches.
The church’s World Youth Day last week is estimated to have cost the federal government about $55 million and the NSW state government about $108.5 million. The church’s contribution was a mere $15-20 million. The centre of Sydney was disrupted, thousands of police were on duty; catching a bus became a challenge as routes were changed.
The appointment will "mark a significant deepening of Australia’s relations with the Vatican", said Rudd.
Rudd’s personal and financial support for the appointment are far more sinister than other populist or cynical exercises in opportunism, such as being seen at the football or drinking with workers in a pub.
They are an indication of the moral, social and non-secular direction the conservative and religious Rudd wants to take Australia. They are an attack on multiculturalism and an exercise to try and return to the time when the church and state were closely linked.
Get out of Afghanistan and Iraq
Kevin Rudd went to the electorate last year with a very cautious program of tinkering at the edges of the neo-liberal economic agenda applied by Howard. He also pledged to keep intact a foreign policy grounded in subservience to US global interests. A minor point of difference with the Coalition was the proposed withdrawal of Australian troops from operations in Iraq. The justification was tissue thin. It was claimed that the Iraqi government forces were getting on top of the security threats in the country and that a more pressing problem existed in Afghanistan requiring the commitment of more troops.
Both claims are self-serving. Rudd sensed the growing disquiet over Howard’s commitment to US-led endless wars. The war in Iraq never had the support of most Australians and brought unprecedented numbers onto the streets in February 2003 as the US finalised preparations for the invasion and occupation of the country. The partial withdrawal was not a brave or groundbreaking move. Australia was only the latest of a long list of the "coalition of the willing" that finally had to buckle to the will of their own people.
The redeployment to Afghanistan was also a means of smoothing ruffled feathers of the hawks in the Bush Administration. "The core reason for the deployment in Afghanistan — which we supported to a man and a woman in Opposition — was a direct reflection of our alliance obligations to the US", Rudd said recently. "The ANZUS treaty committed us to respond to a direct attack on any of its members. That happened in September, 2001."
The root cause of the situation in Afghanistan is the same as that in Iraq. The presence of foreign troops is not a solution to these countries’ crises but a real root cause. People will resist foreign occupation and the plundering of their resources. The defence of US global corporate interests is not a worthy goal. It is shameful. It is not worth the life of one more Iraqi or Afghani person or Australian soldier.