Party Is Over For Latham The Languid

by Mark Day - Daily Telegraph

As Australia begins to shake off the summer holiday torpor, we are seeing a conjunction of two old political truisms – that a strong Opposition ensures good government, and while power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

John Howard can do what he damn well likes at the moment because he has no opposition, and chances are he'll have control of the Senate and unfettered legislative power before he gets any.

Opposition Leader Mark Latham issued a statement yesterday which shows he doesn't have a clue how to combat the Howard ascendancy – or his own leadership crisis.

I do not suggest John Howard will use his status or power to do an Idi Amin and declare himself president for life. He's too smart for that.

But he's in a rare political comfort zone where he knows he doesn't have to answer to anybody at the moment.

The decision of the Americans to return Mamdouh Habib to Australia with the admission that there was never enough evidence to charge him with terror-related offences, is a shameful travesty of justice.

We pride ourselves that we live under a rule of law which presumes innocence before being proven guilty, yet Mr Howard unblinkingly says neither the Americans or his Government owe Mr Habib an apology or compensation for three years interrogation, alleged torture and incarceration, all without charges being laid.

If any third world government did that to its citizens, we could condemn it. Mr Howard gets away with it because he can.

Since his fourth term victory in October, Mr Howard has become the second longest-serving prime minister in our history. And he's had more of the kind of luck which brought him the Tampa in 2001 – the tsunami crisis allowed him to step up from being a politician to statesman.

By his quick responses to the humanitarian crisis, his flight to Jakarta, and his $1 billion pledge for recovery work he's won plaudits from the public, and fortuitously been able to address one of the great negatives of his career – his perceived dislike of Asians.

The greatest historical blights on his record to date have been his anti-Asian comments of the '80s, his failure to condemn Pauline Hanson's racist excesses, and his flint-hearted response to the plight of refugees.

The tsunami crisis has given him the chance to re-cast his image as a compassionate leader of a compassionate nation.

This is why Latham's silence in the past three weeks has been astounding.

While Howard stepped up and took firm charge of events, Latham remained silent and invisible. No matter that he was holidaying, or no matter that he was sick – he could have expressed his condolences to the victims and promised Labor's support for relief efforts.

Instead, he hid away. It was behaviour which appalled his party. He highlighted his lack of political judgment and turned Labor into a laughing stock. His reckless and often bizarre behaviour, talked of in hushed whispers before the election, was seen in its full and ugly glare.

Paul Keating was known by many of his colleagues as Captain Wacky. On that basis, Latham has been Major Loopy.

Yesterday Latham issued a vague statement which failed to redress his mistakes, failed to address the medical questions which inevitably arise over his physical fitness to lead either his party or the nation, and failed to give Labor supporters any hope for the future. He simply says he'll be back at work on Australia Day with more of the same.

The Latham experiment has failed. He'll have to be removed sooner rather than later.

That raises another conundrum for the party. Do they blood yet another new, untried, leader in the hope he or she might be competitive against Howard in the next two terms, or do they turn back the clock to embrace the old war horse Kim Beazley?

Beazley would bring credibility and stability to the leadership, but there are concerns whether he could stand the relentless grind of another likely six-years of opposition.

Beazley is saying he would take the job only if drafted unopposed. It is unlikely ambitious frontbenchers such as Kevin Rudd would agree to that, so a debilitating and bloody leadership battle would again have to be fought.

Latham's statement yesterday gave no hint of acknowledgement that his leadership, and the Labor Party, might be in deep trouble. He appears to think it's steady as she goes. But the hardheads of Labor know that for Latham, the party's over.