re: lefty lies support tyranny - maybe
That speech by Downer is very party political Olive and I think some of it is somewhat doubtful...not untrue but maybe not entirely truthful either.
Although there is a belief that the ALP is soft when it comes to dealing with overseas aggression and immigration issues a lot of evidence shows otherwise.
For instance in the 1950s and 1960s the ALP under leader Arthur Calwell were staunch supporters of the White Australia Policy. Then in the 1970s when the Vietnam war ended and the Whitlam ALP government was in power they were faced with the prospect of massive numbers of refugees from South Vietnam. As these people had been our allies in the war against the North Vietnamese they had a legitimate claim to seek refugee status in Australia, but Whitlam said words to the effect that there was no way he was opening the flood-gates for tens of thousands of the little slant-eyed b*stards to pour into Australia. As best I recall those were his words. Many did reach here though in rickety boats and this was when we first started to refer to refugees as "boat people".
I am not sure what the current attitude/policies of the ALP are towards overseas events and refugees and I don't think the ALP really knows itself as they appear to be fence sitting on many issues.
