“John Howard has told his party room he could secure the release of David Hicks any time but says that would be wrong.”
Howard has a long history of U-turns in election years. Particularly on policies he has said it would be “wrong” to abrogate. In 2004, I believe it was, he said it would be “wrong” to remove (reduce?) a fuel excise, at a time of galloping petrol prices. Sure enough, a short time later, he implemented a “wrong” policy. Now who can still say he is a man of principle? I have said for a long time that he only has one core value – and that is to get re-elected. Everything else is up for auction.
He’s had abrupt U-turns on two issues I’ve commented on more than once: he now “believes” in global warming, and he now “believes” it is wrong for Australian David Hicks to be incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay without a trial for five years.
It’s a sucker bet to say that he will secure the release of David Hicks. “Wrongly”. It is, after all, election year.
18-Feb-07 Update - Going... going
Latest news from one of Howard's "senior advisors" is that Howard plans to do whatever it takes to get the issue out of the way before the election campaign starts. Is it still wrong, Prime Minister?
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