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Aussie news #1
Immigration minister says school children called her "racist pig" and foreign minister scores 'own goal' on Iraq.
Here the other day, I got a little idea... You see, Australia doesn't make headlines around the world very often. So I've decided to do an occasional summary of the "important" Australian news as I see them. Just so that you guys can get a little idea of what is happening here on this island, far, far away from everyone else! Here goes:
Minister called racist pig by kids
According to The Age, Australian immigration minister Amanda Vanstone said primary-school kids have called her a "racist pig". Vanstone said she received several letters in which the senders called her racist and drew pictures of little pigs.
"I think how dare these teachers teach the kids that their country is racist and unwelcoming when we are a world leader and they should be teaching the kids to be proud of what their country is doing," she said.
Marius says: I mean, yeah... Why wouldn't they be proud of Australia's immigration policies? The Tampa incident, when the Australian government in its wisdom decided to send more than 400 refugees off to Nauru - a bankrupted country - for two years, was really something... Not to mention how the parliament just excises islands from the Australian immigration zone whenever refugees try to reach the country by boat - stripping them of all rights to seek asylum here! But seriously... Shame on the kids for allegedly calling the minister a racist pig!
Iraqi own goal
Source: The Australian
Australian defence minister Robert Hill today said he was certain there are "no weapons of mass destruction [in Iraq] and there is no dictator that will use them against his own people or his neighbours". Hill made the comment as he hinted the government might withdraw the remaining Australian forces from Iraq in the next few months.
His statement - undermining the Australian government's argument for joining the war against Iraq in the first place - was obviously not a popular one in cabinet circles. A few hours later, defence minister Hill attempted to clarify his previous comment thus: "A comment I made today that with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein we can be confident there are no weapons of mass destruction [was] related to the removal of a threat rather than a judgment on whether such weapons might still be found."
Marius says: Wouldn't it have been easier just to say that they wanted to throw out Saddam for humanitarian reasons? The guy killed more than 300.000 Iraqis during his reign, and used chemical weapons on his own people. But then, I guess, the US/UK/Australia would have had to take out North Korea's leadership as well... Which would be a somewhat bigger challenge!
Posted by Marius Berg Askildsen
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