What a creep

Headlines indicating that Little John has commented on or waded deep into the debate over what shall for the purposes of debate be referred to as Australia's indigenous population are a foretaste of an article or transcript I always approached with trepidation and a sense of dread.

The strong sense is ever that Howard's dearest wish is that the entire lot hurry up and kill themselves with the lethal cocktail of drink, drugs, indolence, poor diet, slum dwelling conditions, under-education,

They're an affront to what in his speech this week to the Sydney Institute he described as "traditional" Australia.

Yep. Even when he's trying very, very hard to sound statesman like, he will occasionally run home to the comfort and security of old certainties - which tend to be straight, white, upper working class, quarter acre block, brick veneer dwelling, married couple, 2.2 kids, sundry pets, at least notionally christian and so forth.

But there's an election in the offing and the straits in which the good ship Liberal Party of Australia sails are so dire (by comparison the newly open North West Passage being a doddle) that any vote at all is some sort of port in an ice storm ... which is why John's offering the Abos a place in the Australian constitution.

This gesture looks all warm and cuddly on the outside, but on the inside it is still the gesture of the sort of man who'll send in the army to sort out the bunch of layabouts on the fringes of the Alice; a sad bunch who have convinced themselves they've a special entitlement to endless state largesse as some sort of recompense for having been driven off all the workable land on the continent.

Geez guys, get a job.

And don't worry about it being low paid and coming with limited superannuation; with your life expectancy (given how much you drink and in-breed and so on) you won't live long enough to claim a pension.

But vote for me, in the meantime please and I'll put you in the constitution which is a really fine thing, I promise.