Progress Report: Australia Takes A Progressive Turn

November 26, 2007

by Faiz Shakir, Amanda Terkel, Satyam Khanna, Matt Corley, and Ali Frick Contact Us | Tell-a-Friend | Archives | Permalink

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Australia Takes A Progressive Turn

This weekend, Australians went to the polls and delivered an emphatic victory for Labor leader Kevin Rudd, while handing the party of conservative Bush ally John Howard its "worst election defeat in its 63-year history." Howard "suffered the additional ignominy of losing his own constituency seat" in addition to the prime minister's seat, the first time since 1929 that an Australian prime minister has been voted out of parliament. Rudd, a Chinese-speaking former diplomat who made combating global warming, strengthening workers' rights, and redeploying from Iraq key priorities in his campaign, "swings Australia toward the political left after almost 12 years of conservative rule." The incoming prime minister has wasted no time implementing his new vision for Australia. Yesterday, he convened a meeting with government officials to discuss the mechanics of signing onto the Kyoto pact on global warming, and he announced that he will attend a U.N. climate change conference in Bali next month. Rudd soon plans to begin negotiations with the Bush administration over the withdrawal of Australia's 500 troops from Iraq. "Today Australia looks to the future," Rudd said. "Today the Australian people have decided that we as a nation will move forward."

BUSHWHACKED: President Bush, who lauded the outgoing prime minister as a "man of steel," lost one of his "most steadfast allies" in Howard. The Bush administration had sought to influence the Australian elections with press offensives declaring the Iraq escalation a success, hoping that the reports would bolster Howard's campaign. For his part, Howard had interceded on Bush's behalf prior to the 2004 U.S. presidential elections, claiming a Bush reelection was needed in order to "stay and finish the job" in Iraq. In February of this year, Howard inserted himself into U.S. domestic politics again by spouting this smear: "If I was running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008, and pray, as many times as possible, for a victory not only for [Barack] Obama, but also for the Democrats." In a 2003 speech delivered to the Australian parliament, Howard claimed history had proven wrong those critics of Bush who "assaulted his judgment, and called into question his ability to lead the U.S. in this very, very difficult conflict." History will instead deliver a very different message than the one Howard predicted.

COALITION OF THE DEFEATED: Like Britain's Tony Blair, Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, and Spain's Jose Maria Aznar before him, John Howard suffered greatly from his decision to participate in Bush's "coalition of the willing." His full-throated support for the Iraq war hurt him domestically. More than 60 percent of Australians want forces out of Iraq within a year, and Rudd pledged that Australian troops would leave by mid-2008 after consultations with the United States and the United Kingdom. Analysts noted that Bush "was a little more isolated in the world Sunday" after the loss of his close Australian ally.

CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL LOSING STEAM: For many years, Howard was one of the world's foremost climate deniers, tag-teaming with the Bush administration to remain the only major industrialized nations to stay out of the international agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Until a few months ago when Howard moderated his climate change rhetoric for political reason, he and his ministers frequently "pooh-poohed the climate-change doomsayers." When former vice president Al Gore traveled to Australia in September to deliver a speech on the climate crisis, Howard prohibited his party members from attending the event. With Australia mired in the midst of the worst drought the country has faced in a thousand years, Howard's climate change denial put him in a political position isolated from his countrymen. The majority of Australians viewed climate change as the number one external threat to the country, and Rudd delivered what Australia wanted to hear. "I am determined to make Australia part of the global climate change solution -- not just part of the global climate change problem," Rudd said during his campaign.