POLITICS AS USUAL


Lefty academic Mark Bahnisch -- author of 33 academic papers, two book chapters and two journal articles -- is not impressed with the government's intervention in remote Aboriginal communities:

I am disturbed by the attitude of many that “whatever might work” is appropriate in the face of what are clearly, in many instances, very ill thought out and probably ineffective measures.

Bahnisch is very much "impressed" by West Australian premier Alan Carpenter's attack on John Howard:

Here in Western Australia we're doing the things in Western Australia that John Howard says should be done in the Northern Territory. ... Does anybody in Australia honestly believe that what John Howard's doing is not related to the forthcoming federal election? Does anybody honestly believe that? Come on. We've seen it before. I've seen it, we've seen it with the 'Tampa', we've seen it with other pre election periods.

Carpenter was claiming to have already addressed problems only now being addressed by the federal government and accusing Howard of cynical political manipulation. It's no wonder Bahnisch found appealing this attack on Howard by a Labor politician.

Unfortunately, Carpenter grossly understated the extent of the problem in WA's remote Aboriginal communities,:

Western Australia is calling for other states and the commonwealth to send police officers to help stop pedophilia in the state's Aboriginal communities.

WA's acting Premier Eric Ripper today again rejected federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough's offer of military help to fight the problem, saying it was a police issue.

Mr Ripper said he would write to Mr Brough today outlining what assistance WA wanted.

"Additional policing resources will be on that list,'' Mr Ripper told reporters.

"If the commonwealth, or indeed others states, have police resources they can provide to Western Australia on a sustained basis to assist us to police our rather large number of indigenous communities, I for one, and I'm sure all my colleagues, would welcome that.''

The WA government is only now recognizing a long standing problem and belatedly intervening.

If anyone is playing politics with what appears to be a huge paedophilia problem it's Bahnisch, the LP crew and pretty much the whole of the left, who condemn the government for trying to at least stop the abuse of children. If that's not cynical politics, there is no such thing.

Update: LPer Kim is unconvinced that an increased police presence is appropriate. The WA government sees police as the solution, however:

The state's priorities in Indigenous communities are extra police and help with the building of police stations, schools and houses.

The WA government is now reconsidering the federal government's offer of assistance:

The Western Australian Government has decided to write to the Commonwealth to find out what help might be available to fight child sexual abuse in remote Indigenous communities, just a day after appearing to dismiss such an offer.

This is quite a change in course: WA Premier Alan Carpenter was originally so confident in his government's competence that he offered assistance to the federal government. Gee, maybe Howard's plan isn't so bad after all.