John Howard was quite willing to stand before his entranced party on Monday and proclaim 'love me or loath me, the Australian people know what I stand for'. In light of this, I checked out the Liberal party's website for what the party publicly states it stands for. The website cites eight core beliefs which define Liberal party values:
1. We believe in the inalienable rights and freedoms of all peoples; and we work towards a lean government that minimises interference in our daily lives; and maximises individual and private sector initiative.
* Except we don't recognise the rights of Aboriginal people to self-determination which is why we abolished ATSIC and latterly the permit system and consistently attacked High Court decisions (Mabo and Wik) on native title.
* Except we have introduced the most draconian legislation to control payments to the unemployed, including single mothers and the disabled, where failure to perform fifteen hours of work a week can lead to losing payments for eight weeks.
2. We believe in government that nurtures and encourages its citizens through incentive, rather than putting limits on people through the punishing disincentives of burdensome taxes and the stifling structures of Labor's corporate state and bureaucratic red tape.
* Which is why we introduced the GST and Workchoices, two of the most hideous complicated legislative programmes in history. Not content with that we introduced the ad hoc fairness test with no guidelines as to what constituted 'fair compensation' for lost conditions.
* Into the bargain, we turned remote NT shopkeepers into micro-accountants, quarantining support payments based on printouts sent from Canberra.
3. We believe in those most basic freedoms of parliamentary democracy - the freedom of thought, worship, speech and association.
* Which is why we accept donations from the Exclusive Brethren which was implicated in interference in the NZ election, forcing the resignation of the opposition leader.
* Which is why large sections of the party actively discourage involvement by people from non-European backgrounds or anyone who has views contrary to those of the so-called Christian right.
* Which is why we are trying to destroy the remainder of the union movement by making it almost impossible for union organisers to visit workplaces and involvement akin to social death.
4. We believe in a just and humane society in which the importance of the family and the role of law and justice is maintained.
* Tell that to Izhar Ul Haque.
* As long as you are not actually suspected of either being involved in anything remotely close to terrorism or being disorientated from a non-Anglo Saxon background (Cornelia Rau or Vivian Solon).
* Families are so important we made it easy for workers to lose their penalty rates so they didn't have to be together on weekends.
5. We believe in equal opportunity for all Australians; and the encouragement and facilitation of wealth so that all may enjoy the highest possible standards of living, health, education and social justice.
* But if you did not have equal opportunity to start with, bad luck. University education should be confined to those who will use it responsibly and not flirt with radical ideas like postmodernism.
* Education should be about the 'three rs'. Nothing else, and Australian history.
* We really believe that the highest possible standard of living involves buying lots of stuff whether you can afford it or not.
* We believe everyone should get the best health care so long as it's private and the drug companies get a fair go at getting their R&D budget back.
6. We believe that, wherever possible, government should not compete with an efficient private sector; and that businesses and individuals - not government - are the true creators of wealth and employment.
* We really believe that there is no such thing as an inefficient private sector. All private sectors are by defintion efficient. Some just need support against public sectors.
7. We believe in preserving Australia's natural beauty and the environment for future generations.
* We like whales but we don't really think the environment is that important compared to the economy.
* We don't think climate change is a problem, but if it is, little old us can't do anything anyway. Windmills kill birds. If we need to protect the Barrier Reef, we will cover it in shadecloth.
8. We believe that our nation has a constructive role to play in maintaining world peace and democracy through alliance with other free nations.
* Except through anything that looks like the United Nations. National interest is the only way to go and we can only do that through other forums.
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