SELECTIVE MEMORY

Labor politician Carmen Lawrence damns John Howard by likening Australia today to the awful country in which she grew up:

Hostility to outsiders has become something of a hallmark of this Government and it's cultivated a form of paranoid nationalism, which I haven't seen here since the 1950s and 60s.

Funny, Lawrence can remember the 1950s but can't get more recent events right:

And talking about Australia as the deputy sheriff in the region, I mean it's not inclined to make you well loved and respected in the region either.

We have to live in our region, we have to be part of it, we have to consult and work with people and if we're trotting around thinking we're the deputy sheriff we're not likely to get a healthy reception.

Howard never said it.