I received an email from a school student yesterday, 17yo Cameron, who asked me to look at a letter he had written to Tony Abbott. I asked him if he minded me publishing it on my site. What an informed and engaged young fella! Australia’s looking good…..
Dear Mr Abbott,
Seeing as an election is but a year away, I wanted to ask you these questions that, frankly, have not been answered by any of the Coalition parties. All I see from the Coalition day to day is an attack on Labor, rather than actual policy. Because of this policy gulf, I am here writing a letter, as a member of the younger generation that will inherit the nation as it is created today. The best way to sum up my sentiments right now is through the words of Paul Keating. I am worried about “our ability to say to ourselves and the rest of the world that Australia is a first rate social democracy, that we are what we should be – truly the land of the fair go and the better chance.”
One of the issues that is closest to my heart is the plight of many institutions of higher education in my home state of Victoria, under the Coalition government being led by Ted Baillieu. The cuts to these TAFEs, $1.2 billion to be exact, was then spun in an advertisement, featured in a variety of local newspapers, as the Coalition spending “an extra $1.2 billion for the skills Victoria needs”. Will cuts to education be a part of Coalition policy in government? Will such about faced lying to the public be a part of the government you lead, if elected?
In Queensland, many things have happened which make me deeply nervous about the potential actions of a federal Coalition government. In the Student Union elections at the University of Queensland, the group “Fresh”, which is dominated mostly by students from the Young Liberals, decided it would help their cause if they were to change the name of the opposition group “Pulse”, start a new group called “Pulse” and then fill it with their buddies. The actual students from “Pulse” did not know about this until two days after applications closed, so now the two main choices in the UQ elections are “Fresh” and a group that is, for all intents and purposes, “Fresh” in a new garb.
I know that, within the federal superstructure of Australia, our electoral process is vastly different but, under a government that you lead, will such electoral fraud play a part? Who will lead the “Labor” party? Joe Hockey? Sophie Mirabella? Peter Dutton?
Another event in Queensland that disturbed me greatly was the remark by the LNP premier that “we (the LNP government) get the pooper scooper out every day of the week”, referring to the need to sack public servants in Queensland; 4500 pieces of poo are already gone, and another 15,500 are tipped to go. Will a federal Coalition government liken public servants to pieces of human excrement? Will they treat these hard working people, the backbone of our government, like faeces on the bottom of a boot?
The “free and sceptical” media is referred to by the person whose government you want to emulate, John Howard, as “one of the great pillars of Australian democracy.” (Logies 2011 Award Ceremony) After this remark, could you please explain to me why an individual that is deeply woven into the fabric of the Liberal party, Grahame Morris, called Leigh Sales a “cow” in response to an interview between yourself and Leigh that, in my eyes, tested you slightly? Will this be the reaction of the Liberal Party or their high-up cadres when someone tries to get the truth out of the Liberal Party? Will insults towards people that disagree with you be a feature of the government that you lead?
I am sure that you, like most Australians and myself, have the memory of the massacre in Norway by the far right wing Anders Behring Breivik deeply etched in your mind as a dark chapter in human history. To take an extract from The Age that left a lasting mark on me “Breivik’s bullets went through eyes and took sight, they destroyed arms and legs that had to be amputated, they ripped through brains and mouths and breasts and scrotums”. On the Internet, I found a copy of his compendium, his manifesto that led to the killing of 77 innocent people, most of whom were unarmed teenagers. In it, he writes “One of the intelligent ones comes from Australia… They have taken serious steps towards actually enforcing their own borders, despite the predictable outcries from various NGOs and anti-racists, and Prime Minister John Howard has repeatedly proven to be one of the most sensible leaders in the Western world”. (2083 – A Declaration of European Independence) Using one of my favourite intellectual tools, antithesis, can it be deduced from this passage that the government of John Howard was inherently racist in its dealing toward refugees and other racial minorities? As you have said that you will recreate “Howard’s golden age”, is it your intention to become “one of the most sensible leaders in the Western world?” Will it be the intention of your government to achieve similar outcomes?
Over the past two years I have noticed policies being floated by Liberal governments around Australia that are anything but Liberal. Liberty, according to the French Declaration of the Rights of the Man and of the Citizen, considered the document upon which many contemporary political ideas were founded, states that “Liberty consists in the freedom to do that which injures no one else”. Is it Tony Abbott’s idea of liberty that a Victorian can be fined when they swear? Is it Tony Abbot’s idea of liberty that two people who are in a loving, committed relationship cannot get married on the basis of their sexuality? Can you please explain to me what lasting effect these two ‘social dangers’ will have on individuals and society more broadly?
I am sure that you will be able to recall your interview with John Faine on Tuesday the 14th of August, where you were corrected in your calling of asylum seeker boats “illegal”. As I am sure you are aware, being a long standing member of the highest law making body in the country, seeking asylum is not illegal, no matter how you arrive, according to both our domestic law in the Migration Act and according to International Law, encompassing the 1951 Refugee Convention and all subsequent laws and treaties. Were you either:
a) Trying to mislead the Australian people, or…
b) Completely unaware of what is illegal and what is legal under a critical piece of Australian law?
Lastly, I am sure that you remember your interview on the 7.30 Report with Leigh Sales. In it, you state that you had not read the report from Marius Kloppers, the CEO of BHP Billiton, in regard to why the Olympic Dam project had been indefinitely put on hold. Later, in question time, you accused Prime Minister Gillard of falsely claiming you hadn’t read the statement. Again, which is true?
a) You did read the report before the show, but decided to disregard the contents because they did not fit with you political agenda, or…
b) You did not read the report, were ignorant before appearing on the 7.30 Report that was about the decisions made in regard to Olympic Dam and then tried to make assumptions, all the while trying, as usual, to tear down the government.
Are you capable of telling the truth to the Parliament, the highest democratically elected body in the land, the “free and sceptical media”, the “great pillar of Australian democracy” and to the Australian people more broadly, from whom you are seeking you mandate?
These are all the questions I would like to put to you. Many of the questions contained within this letter are, I think, of utmost importance to the future of Australia. I hope you can find the time to answer them both for me and for the Australian people.
Thank you very much for reading my letter,
Cameron Stuart Petrie