Everybody seems to be talking about johnhowardlies.com and the site is getting a lot of hits.

The site is worth a look, but it doesn’t quite work for me, for a couple of reasons.

Lies are different to Broken Promises

Firstly, I think that lies and broken promises are different things and ought to be dealt with separately. Now, there is no doubt that John Howard has broken a number of promises. The spectacular one is on the GST:

“There’s no way that a GST will ever be part of our policy. Never ever. It’s dead. It was killed by the voters in the last election.

Any suggestion that I left the door open is absolute nonsense. I didn’t. I never will. The last election killed the GST. It’s not part of our policy and it won’t be part of our policy at any time in the future. ”

John Howard, May 1995

Look at that. Could he be saying a more definite “no” to a GST. But you can’t conclude he was lying in 1995. Just that he broke this promise three years later. It doesn’t encourage me to trust Howard. He knowingly broke his word.

Now, looking to the future, can you expect Howard to keep his promises? I’d say, No. That’s important information.

Not lies, just Broken Promises.

Negative and Looking Backwards

Secondly, johnhowardlies.com makes out it is something like the MoveOn.org movement in the US. Now MoveOn.org has always had, as far as I can see, a relatively positive, forward looking message. They comment on the past, but they are more focussed on a new democratic future.

Johnhowardlies, however is only about John Howard. It doesn’t present an alternative or anything for the future. Once John Howard is gone, what is left? No more community. I get the feeling that creating something like JohnHowardLies just reinforces the need of the left to have a John Howard to hate and poke fun at. And that kind of behaviour helps get him re-elected, because he is necessary in the process. Take the John Howard out of JohnHowardLies and all you have is Lies. Nothing special. Margot Kingston has fallen into the same trap with Not Happy, John.

[Update: I just had a bit more of a read of Not Happy John and I was being a bit unfair. On the Not Happy John home page, Margot is making an appeal for a better political future for Australia and looking for support.]

Positive Future

So, we need some sort of vision for a compassionate, democratic future. We need a MoveOn.org.au. We know we have an unhappy political past. We need a happy, compassionate, honest, real political future.

Am I dreaming here? Do we really need to play everything against Howard? I hope not.