How To Win Friends and Influence Elections

It started with the givewaway bribes at the end of the last financial year, like a $3,000 "baby bonus" for any Aussie mum's who give birth after June 30th, 2004. These were accompanied by a barrage of taxpayer-funded advertisements promoting other Federal Government policies, including a backflip on Medicare (the Medicare Safety Net is basically just a return to previous Labour Government policy). But the polls showed the bribes and propaganda were not working.

So now, quietly and without fanfare or explanation, the Howard government is back-flipping on a range of other unpopular policies. A few weeks ago we learned that children have now been released from detention centres around Australia. This was despite the Howard government's long insistence that they must be detained with their families, even in contravention of UN Human Rights demands.

Last night, 69 Afghani refugees flew into Brisbane on a charter flight from the Pacific island of Nauru, where they have been held in detention for a year and a half as part of Howard's hugely unpopular "Pacific Solution". Refugee advocacy groups say the government is using the refugees as a political football and most are on anti-depressants.

We also learn today that the Howard government has quickly backed away from a plan to set up a single, massive dump for Australia's nuclear waste. Instead, each State will have it's own nuclear dump, meaning the hot potato issue has been tossed to the (mostly Labour) State governments.

It's all the most cynical, manipulative and morally bankrupt type of politics imagineable, especially as close observers know full well that Howard & Co will quickly revert to form as soon as they win another term in office.