Ashamed to be Australian?
Change Australia!

Fight for a more moral Australian government

I am ashamed to be Australian. I feel I must apologise when I communicate with people of other nations (except the USA, whose people have even more cause for shame than Australians).

Dying gums at Crystal Brook, where I live. This may be due to a natural long dry period, or it may be climate change. How much must we loose before our Government decides that greenhouse is a serious problem?

Perhaps the worst single act any national leader can make is to involve his/her country in an unjust and unnecessary war. Prime Minister Howard involved Australia in the Iraq war. Far worse, the Australian people voted him in as our national leader again after he had done this. There was no more justification for the invasion of Iraq than there was for Nazi Germany's invasion of Czechoslovakia and Poland – the acts that started World War II.

Are the majority of the people of my country immoral, stupid, or just ignorant?

Both of the major Australian political parties seem to me to be morally empty, their interaction with the Australian people revolves around how they can win more votes and get into, or hold onto government. I doubt that the word 'ethics' would mean anything to any of their senior members. They seem to be serving only themselves, the wealthy of this country, the big corporations, and the USA.

Why is the Howard Government involving Australia in the 'American Way' in international relations: bombing and terrorising to try to achieve short-sighted national aims?

Worst of all, Australia and Australians are producing far more greenhouse gasses than people in the rest of the world – even more than USians. This is not just a crime of our government, most individual Australians are similarly culpable.

Hope for improvement

There is good reason to believe that the new government will not be so bad as the old. Will it be possible to once again be proud of being Australian? That remains to be seen.

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Why should one be ashamed of being Australian?

International relations the US way Compare to International relations the humane way, below Fallujah (Iraq) burning during the seige of November 2004

• Australia is one of the greatest per-capita greenhouse polluter on Earth and there is ample evidence that man-induced greenhouse is the gravest long-term danger to the Earth. Australia is looking after itself at the expense of the rest of the World. The Rudd Government promised to do better, but is doing next to nothing. Compare Disasters provides a perspective on the probably magnitude of the climate change disaster compared to such others as bird flu and terrorism.
• After agreeing to the Kyoto Protocol, following being given very favourable terms, Australia refused to ratify the Protocol.
• Australia changed its relationship with the World Court of Justice to stop East Timor from obtaining its rights over the Timor Sea oil and gas fields.
• The Australian government has largely ignored human rights abuses in Indonesia; of especial significance being our near neighbour, the Indonesian province of West Irian (West New Guinea).
• The gap between rich and poor in Australia is huge and growing. With many other Western nations, we have allowed greedy company executives to funnel disproportionately large proportions of company profits into there own pockets, to the detriment of all others involved.
• Prime Minister John Howard has made Australia into the unquestioning assistant to the USA in all that nation's moves toward global dominance. There is little reason to believe that a future Labor Government would be much different in this subservience to the USA.
• The invasion of Iraq (Arundhati Roy has called this the most immoral war in history):
  • Estimates of the number of Iraqi civilians to have been killed in the war range up to 600 000;
  • The invasion was not invited by the Iraqi people;
  • There was no UN sanction of the invasion;
  • Iraq posed no danger to Australia (or to the USA);
  • The Weapons of Mass Destruction that supposedly justified the war were not there;
  • There was minimal or no evidence that Iraq was involved in terrorist attacks against the USA or Australia;
  • The US has sold off many Iraqi assets to pay for the 'liberation';
  • The invasion forces did not protect Iraqi cultural assets, looting was rampant; they even allowed several hundred tonnes of high explosives to be stolen;
  • For all the damage and loss of life, it remains to be seen if the Iraqi people are better off than before the invasion.
• Even after Australia's criminal involvement in the Iraq war and knowing the Howard Govenment's terrible record on climate change, the Australian people voted the Howard Government in for another term – showing that they were no better than their government.
• In December 2005 the Australian Parliament voted in a draconian 'anti-terrorism' bill that will have very little, if any, effect on reducing terrorism, but which will erode the rights and freedoms of Australian people. This was a betrayal of those who fought and died for freedom in WW2. I believe that Liberal, Labor and National parties all supported this legislation while it was opposed by the Australian Democrats and the Greens. The Australian people reacted to this betrayal with their accustomed apathy.

A very informative article on the Iraq War of 2003 is given in Wikipedia.

Australians do not care about greenhouse

Type/Number of occupants	1	2	3	>3	Total
Small car	3	0	0	0	3
Medium car	10	5	0	0	15
Large car	46	23	2	1	72
Large 4WD	12	5	0	0	17
Large car with caravan	0	2	0	0	2
Large 4WD with caravan	0	1	0	0	1
Totals	71	36	2	1	110

Notes on the table The numbers following 'Small car' indicate that there were three cars with one occupant, zero cars with two occupants, etc., etc. My estimates of car sizes go something like this: small, <1 tonne; medium, 1-1¼ t; large 1½ t; large 4WD, 2 t. I did not record large commercial vehicles. Some of the large 'cars' were utilities (pick up trucks) that had at least a partial load. There were no pedestrians, bicycles, or motorbikes. There were no busses (there are four busses a week available to pick up passenges going past my property). 4WD = four-wheel-drive = SUV

All the cars I saw, other than the utilities, could have taken at least four people, some could have taken eight. Apart from one or two of the utes, not one of the total 110 had a full load of passengers; 65% of the cars I saw contained only the driver. Not counting the towing vehicles, about 160 tonnes of vehicles went past carrying about 147 people; if the average weight of an occupant was 70kg that is 160 tonnes of vehicles carrying 10 tonnes of people (a payload ratio of only 0.0625). If the people I recorded cared about how much greenhouse carbon dioxide they were releasing into the atmosphere why did 72 drive large cars and only three drive small cars? (Few of these people could claim to not know about the greenhouse/climate change problem. It had been well publicised for years. They would also have to know that vehicle emissions increase with vehicle size.) (See Eat half the cake.) Why were there no pedestrians or cyclists? (Clare is 5km away from where I did this survey; I frequently ride a bike, and sometimes walk, into town.) This is another reason that I am ashamed to be Australian. On the other hand, I have no reason to believe that Australians are more selfish than are non Australians. Probably most people would behave in the same way if placed in the same situation. Perhaps I should say that I am ashamed to be a member of the human race? Can John Howard (and George W. Bush) be blamed for their irresponsible stands on greenhouse when the common people are unwilling to modify their behaviours? Of course this is not the only evidence that Australians give a very low priority to the environment. A low percentage of Australians vote for political parties that are strong on environment, and the major parties have found that they will get more votes by promising tax cuts or pay rises rather than by promising to do more for the environment.

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Statements from celebrities

So few responses was disappointing. The response from one person, who was a researcher attached to a university, indicated a fear that making a statement might prejudice the chances of further research grants from the government. Another person rang me and expressed equally grave concern to mine, but I did not hear from this person again.

It seems to me that there is a fear of speaking out against the government because of possible consequences.

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A statement by Sir William Deane, former Governor General

Reasons for pride in Australia?

International relations the humane way Compare to International relations the US way, above

My Thuan Bridge, otherwise known as the Friendship Bridge; over a branch of the Mekong delta in Vietnam. This project was partly funded by Australian aid.

Photo thanks to "Travel to Vietnam"

• Australia is one of the most secular nations on Earth. Fewer residents of Australia swallow the destructive religion delusion than in the great majority of countries. (However, we should guard against this being undone by Muslim immigrants.)
• Australia has freedom of speech, although the Howard government has shamefully reduced that.
• Australia has a working democracy (while apathetic and unthinking voters don't help.)
• Australians are as well educated and informed as most peoples.
• Australia's involvement in bringing peace to East Timor is something that all Australians should be proud of. Unlike the situation in Iraq, the East Timorese wanted us, the UN was in favour or our intervention, and even the Indonesian government did not object to our presence. (Of course this followed Australia's ignoring the illegal invasion of East Timor by Indonesia for the previous 25 years.)
• Australia's participation in helping the Solomon Islands sort out their recent problems was commendable. Note that this differed to Iraq in that we were invited and our involvement saved lives.
• Of 19 countries listed on the 'Index of Bribe-Payers' (BPI), Australia is second. Ie. Australians are the second least likely to offer bribes. Sweden comes first, China has the worst record. (Source: Global Corruption Report 2001) (This picture may have changed a bit since the AWB $300m Iraq bribery scandle.)
• The photo on the right is of My Thuan Bridge which was built in Vietnam with assistance from Australia. Projects such as this are a greatly preferable way of interacting with other countries than is bombing them.
• The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) are credits to Australia. In spite of cut-backs in funding they still provide news and information free from control by government and business. A very few large media companies have gained control of the greatest part of main-stream media and present biased and/or lowest-common-denomiator coverage, but there seems to be an increasing number of alternative sources of news and stories about what is going on in the world around us. While government is not entirely in favour of it, there continues to be a free 'press' in Australia.
• Perhaps the greatest reason for pride in being Australian would be because of the number of Australians who selflessly volunteer their time to help others who may be less well off or to improve their communities.

An example letter that you might like to modify and send to your local member if he/she is Liberal or National Party This is a slightly edited copy of a letter that I sent to my local MP and about 10 local newspapers on 2004/11/18. You can probably improve on it or think of other ways to prick someone's conscience. Be polite and not insulting; this can be difficult when you feel disgusted. The Editor, Dear Sir/Madam; Open letter to [politician's name], Federal Parliamentary member for [name of electorate]. The prestigious journal, The Lancet, has published a study concluding that 100 000 Iraqi civilians have died from the hostilities since the beginning of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. I don't know how many politicians in the UK and USA voted for the war, but for the sake of an estimate I will suppose that there were 200 in the UK and 300 in the USA. There must have been about 85 Liberal members of the Australian House of Representatives, including you, who went along with the invasion. We can therefore lay the responsibility for the 100 000 dead Iraqi civilians on about 585 politicians. Your share, then, is 100 000/585=171 innocent dead people. Do you feel that you are responsible for the deaths of these 171 Iraqi civilians? If not, can you please explain why you should not be considered responsible? The Weapons of Mass Destruction that were the main justification for the war have not been found. The war was illegal according to the UN. Ie. Iraq posed no immediate threat to Australia, the USA, or the UK; and the UN Security Council did not approve of the invasion. There was never any credible evidence that Iraq was connected with terrorist groups. Any unbiased observer would have to conclude that the war has increased hatred and mistrust for the Coalition, and therefore it would have increased the threat of terrorism against Australia and Australians. The USA has sold off Billions of dollars worth of Iraqi assets to pay for 'reconstruction'; a reconstruction that would not have been needed but for the invasion. Finally, Iraq seems as far from being a peaceful democratic nation now as it was before the invasion. (As the latest example, Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) has just announced that it is pulling out of Iraq because their people are now at too much risk.) Do you believe that the war was morally justified? Yours faithfully... Don't forget to give your name and address, newspapers cannot print letters if they don't have the name and address of the sender. You can ask that they do not print your name and address, but that might make it less likely that they will print your letter. The Lancet article which refers to the 100 000 deaths among Iraqi civilians mentioned above can be read on The Lancet Internet site. You will have to register to read it, but this is a simple matter.

Some Australians are exemplary

Statement by 43 former leaders

Useful links

• Australian Electoral Commission (AEC)
• Electoral Boundaries (AEC)

What local papers are there?

• Many are listed on OnLineNewspapers.com
• Many are listed at Google Newspapers directory (Regional Australia)