Julie Bishop's 'soft' power
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Julie Bishop was out spreading Australian "soft power" overseas yesterday in a gaffe strewn BBC interview. Managing editor David Donovan wishes she just wouldn't.
SOMETIMES, it's difficult to be Australian in the UK.
When John Howard came to power in Australian in November 1996, by May
1997 I was in London, attempting to put as much distance as possible
between myself and the rodent-like monarchist — who seemed determined to send Australia back to days of Pig-Iron Bob.
However, the opprobrium was not to be entirely avoided, as Howard's
George W Bush-like infamy would, at times, creep out into the global
press. Such as during the infamous Tampa Affair in 2001 and then the appalling Children Overboard deceit.
Back then, we were widely regarded in London as despicable racist
rednecks due, quite understandably, to our Federal Government's callous
approach towards desperate vulnerable asylum seekers.
It was a tough time to be an Aussie abroad — but it was tougher being a refugee.
Regrettably, matters around the workplace would only become worse on
the mercifully rare occasions the smug visage of then Foreign Minister Alexander Downer appeared on British morning television — defending the indefensible with his faux British accent and trademark patronising chuckle.
Those were the days you dreaded appearing in the office and found excuses, if you could, to call in a sickie.
Australia's international stocks had surely never been lower.
Until now.
Now, we have former asbestos lawyer Foreign Minister Julie Bishop out exercising what she calls "soft power" for Australia.
But there is nothing soft about Julie Bishop — nothing soft in the slightest.
From her hawkish features, to her asbestos melting glare, to her
clipped prosecutorial voice, she radiates waves of condescension and
hostility.
This week, she was confronted by veteran BBC journalist John Humphrys
on British morning radio. Unlike Australia's dismal media, which
delights and pressgangs the Australian Government to come up with ever
more oppressive ways to abuse the poor people fleeing horrors in their
homelands, humanitarian Humphrys was not prepared to let Bishop off the
hook when it came to confronting the asylum seeker Gulags we've
established to our North.
Humphrys asks Bishop why Australia couldn't find a way to treat
asylum seekers humanely, suggesting that the camps at
Nauru or Manus Island were
"... breeding grounds for rape, rioting, malaria and mental illness that bear the look and feel of concentration camps."
Bishop replied that
"... they're not holiday camps... I have visited there and I am satisfied [that] people are treated appropriately."
Appropriate, yes, maybe — if you believe that getting your head stoven in by a camp welfare officer with a piece of timber is adaquate treatment.
Even more cringemaking for expats in Britain – or, indeed, humane
people of any nationality, anywhere – Bishop was not even across her
brief, making gaffe after embarrassing gaffe during the brief exchange.
Abridged interview:
Principled Fairfax journalist Michael Gordon – who has done a series
of excellent articles on the recent Manus Island murder and mayhem
– covered a few of her worst blunders in a piece called 'Befuddled Julie Bishop confuses the facts over Sovereign Borders':
First came the assertion that the claims of asylum seekers ''are
processed in third countries, and then we look for resettlement in other
countries, including in Australia - and we've done this before and it
worked''.
If this were the case, some of the concerns of human rights
agencies would be allayed, but the message to boat arrivals is that they
will never be resettled in Australia.
According to Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, the only
resettlement option for those on Manus Island whose refugee claims are
recognised is resettlement in Papua New Guinea, even though this is a
matter of conjecture in PNG. The same, it appears, goes for those on
Nauru.
Could it get any worse?
Unfortunately, it could:
Then came, ''people are clearly having their applications for
asylum processed there [on Manus and Nauru] and if they are found not to
be genuine asylum seekers, they are returned [home]''.
The problem here is that no determinations on refugee status have
been made - aside from one positive decision on Nauru - and the UN
refugee agency has serious doubts about the capacity of either country
to make determinations and give adequate protection to those who have
fled persecution.
Full interview:
Bishop even tried, dismally, to defend Australia's treatment of children:
"Their children go to school, they have community centres … the
standard of accommodation and the standard of support they receive, in
many instances, is better than that received by the people of Papua New
Guinea."
Gordon says this is a furphy, referring to a statement by Greens' Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who (unlike Bishop) has been to both the Manus and Nauru facilities:
''On Christmas Island, none of the children are going to school,
and on Nauru, the situation is even worse,'' says the Greens'
immigration spokesperson. ''In the middle of the Nauru compound, there
is a tent where they run activities for the children for two hours a
day, and that's it. There is no proper education and no dedicated
learning space, let alone 'schooling'.''
JuliaGillard may have established these horrible concentration camps, but at
least Kevin Rudd as foreign minister had the decency to sound somewhat
apologetic when questioned about them. Rather than sounding like a
concerned humanitarian, Bishop came off with the officious and
perfunctory air of a Camp Commandant.
For a supposed foreign minister, it was not a good look.
And of course, today, Bishop even had the temerity to question whether the ABC was the right operator for the Australia Network, saying:
"My question is whether under a soft power diplomacy contract...
is that the best use of taxpayers money to project a positive image into
the region?"
I think most Australians would rather the ABC exercising soft-power
rather than the curt, abrasive, gaffe prone, former asbestos defender
Bishop.
And I'm damned sure Aussies in London would. I suspect a few may well be calling in sick.
