Labor Stands For Something, Yessss: UPDATED FOR LEADER HATE
Update: Absolutely fucking unbelievable, What party does he think he’s leading? Is he not accountable to Conference and his own party’s policy platform? Of course not. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. I am de-friending Rudd on Facebook and burning my Kevin07 Tshirt.
But Mr Rudd said that if elected prime minister, his government would never make any diplomatic moves to argue in favour of sparing any terrorist’s life.
A Rudd government would maintain the long-held Labor policy of only intervening in support of Australian nationals who were facing capital punishment abroad.
original post
I was so pleased to wake up this morning and read the front page of The Australian, which quotes quite extensively from Rob McClelland’s speech to George Newhouse’s crowd:
In a prepared speech released last night, Mr McClelland criticised the Prime Minister for supporting “the executions of the perpetrators of the Bali bombings, Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein”, while continuing to state that “Australia opposed capital punishment”.
Mr McClelland said Labor would be consistent in its public comments on capital punishment.
Considering the prevailing wisdom that most Australians would be happy to see the Bali Bombers strung up by their testicles, tarred, feathered, drawn, quartered and shot, this is pretty brave. I’ve always liked Rob McClelland, and I now have a reason to make him my facebook friend.
Just to be clear, the relevant parts of the Labor Party’s policy platform read:
Labor opposes the death penalty and believes that death by hanging, beheading, electrocution, firing squad, or stoning is inhumane, no matter what the crime. Labor in government will strongly and clearly state its opposition to the death penalty, whenever and wherever it arises and will use its position internationally and in the region to advocate for the universal abolition of the death penalty.
and
Labor will be forthright in raising concerns over human rights violations with relevant governments in our region and beyond. Similarly, we expect and welcome the prospect of international scrutiny of Australia’s domestic human rights record. This includes the mandatory imposition of the death penalty.
liam wrote:
Hear hear, Arleeshar.
Could be interesting should Labor win the next election. Who’ll get to go to Beijing and express disapproval of capital punishment at the Olympics?
Mark wrote:
I think capital punishment’s too good for those bloody Olympians.
I don’t really understand how this is against Labor policy because Rudd’s just said his government wouldn’t ask for clemency for terrorists. I mean, this is a total red herring from Rudd, because no one’s said that the Australian government should request clemency, only that the Indonesians shouldn’t have capital punishment, which Rudd stops short of disputing.
However, I take your disenchantment very seriously. Actually, I find it quite confusing. I actually was never sure whether you were joking about Kevin07. But still, I take this as a sign that Rudd is erring on the side of caution and moving too far to the right for his own good and losing the core. See also the Tasmanian pulp mill. Well, we’ll see if King John ever deigns to allow electors a general election.
arleeshar wrote:
The death penalty is a very emotive issue for me. It’s a line where I stop poking fun from the sidelines and turn into a red-faced, tshirt-burning, desk thumping zealot, along with torture, discrimination, and right-to-choose issues.
To censure McClelland and two staffers for a speech that merely outlined established ALP policy is just unacceptable.
Mark wrote:
arleeshar wrote:
apparently, even alexander downer thinks McClelland was done over on this one. Crazy times when the lion lays down with the lamb.
Myth wrote:
I said it first when I mentioned that he was the Devil and was trying to use his name to come up with 666. Rudd is evil.
Whatever…
If some nation wants to kill its own citizens, than what can we really do to stop it? To what point would be to try to convert them to western manners?
Post new comment