Who advised the Australian government that it could sign an aid agreement with PNG that gave the AFP assisting the RPNG Constabulary immunity from prosecution.

Clearly, as the PNG High Court has ruled, it is not possible under the PNG constitution, a document available to our AG.

Didn’t anybody in Foreign Affairs bother to read it or ask advice of the AG. Is this another example of the tea drinkers asleep at the wheel or were they remembering the time bilong masta, before 1972.

We have managed to sour this important relationship with the largest Melanesian country, our closest neighbour and former colony.

Treating their PM Michael Somare, one of the strugglers for independence, with disdain when we had him remove his shoes to check for terrorists bombs.

Hey, he won, why would he start a war with Australia to make PNG like the time before. Did we do this to that arch communist Hu Jing Tao or George Walker Bush. Perhaps government realised that Bush controls sufficient WMD to terrorize us all that a check of his shoes wasn’t necessary whereas a look a Somare’s socks may have seemed amusing to the security officials.

Did we apologize. No never apologize, arrogance personified, Howard attempted to explain this one away, his modus for everything that goes wrong. Leave it and it will die down, another cock-up replacing it in the public’s attention.

Cornelia Rau and Mrs Young were failures in DIMIA, Schapelle Corby has been hung out to dry so the AFP could complete a cocaine bust.

Again the PM and the head of the AFP differ, this time on baggage handlers and drugs. The Customs Minister Ellison out of step with the PM as well.

A strange area this, a place of work for a Mr Bilal, a person of interest to the security forces since the World Trade Center Bombing.

How is it, with millions spent on making air travel secure from the threat of nail clippers that baggage handlers can enter and leave their workplace with no checks of their bags. That the areas where they work are not survieled.

Australian Intelligence failed us on Iraq, unable to give any but the Bush and Blair view, committing us to attacking Iraq with evidenced justification.

We could not work out the sequence of events for the sinking of 2 SIEVs, lying about the sinking of one that occurred under tow of an Australian naval vessel [children not thrown overboard lie] and denying knowledge of one initially [SIEVX], a Senate inquiry showing that Denmark is not the only nation with things fishy, the military appearing confused and ill-informed, no coordination with intelligence.

To these failings in the government’s foreign affairs policy we can add the Timor Sea Gap continued misappropriation of their resources by sticking with a treaty that has been superseded by independence and now a complete breakdown of the plan to rebuild PNG nationals’ confidence in the rule of law and prevent the development of another Solomon Islands failed state. 

Whilst the Timor intervention that led to independence and the interventions in Bouganville and Solomon Islands that have ended civil strife and allowed normality to return have been successes for Australia.

However, the failures of the system that let down this good work at home and in the eyes of our neighbours condemn the government’s oversight of the detail. They appear to have fallen into cruise mode, renewal in economic reform and foreign relations escaping them.

phill Parsons has not forgotten the unfinished farrago of the Treaty of Amnity and Cooperation, rubbing the noses of our neighbours to the near north-west in it. Certainly mistakes will occur. Some may say these are minor matters in the light of Free Trade Agreements. The view of those at the other end of these policy failures may not concur.

And,

Its official, eating at McDonalds is bad for your health.

Spokesperson for federal Health Minister Tony Abbott, press secretary, Kate Miranda, said “that there is only so much the Government can do. They can invest in programs, they can deal with the infrastructure, and they can pour money into it, but if somebody chooses to eat McDonald’s three meals a day for a year, the Government can’t stop them.” [The Age 15MAY2005]

This followed her saying Mr Abbott routinely advised people to eat better and exercise more. “Whether you’re five years old or 75, if you do a bit of exercise . . . and eat well, you are going to be healthier,” she said.

Has Kate aborted her career or will an understanding Minister apologize for her slip of the tongue and use another fast food example.

One hopes that in the Ministers office the understanding of hot water increases, its most important when aiming at the main portfolio.

phill Parsons has an abiding interest in the career of the Member for Foolgarah and longs for the day that 50% plus 1 of the voters in that electorate remember that thay are “doctor’s wives” on election day.