Butt out, Latham tells America By Mark Forbes, Michelle Grattan July 9, 2004
Opposition Leader Mark Latham has urged Americans from the right and the left to butt out of Australian politics.
Responding to the latest comments on Iraq policy from the Bush Administration, Mr Latham said there was "too much overseas commentary and interventions in Australian politics" in the lead-up to an election.
He joined a chorus of condemnation yesterday of United States Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage's claim that Labor was "rent down the middle" over its Iraq policy.
Former prime minister Paul Keating released a statement describing the Bush Administration's attacks as thuggish, dumb and counter-productive.
And New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, in Sydney yesterday, warned the US that "Australians have to have the debate themselves about who is best to lead them" adding that "other people should stand back".
In Washington for talks with top Administration officials, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer seized on Mr Armitage's comments as proof that Labor said one thing in public and another in private in an "extraordinary display of division and incoherence".
Mr Armitage told Australian reporters this week that he had based his view on private talks with Australian "colleagues" during the Australian-US dialogue in Washington recently. His comments followed President George Bush describing Labor's plans to withdraw troops from Iraq as disastrous.
In repudiating Mr Armitage's intervention, Mr Latham was careful not to appear to be attacking simply the Bush Administration.
He noted that left-wing US filmmaker Michael Moore had also stepped into Australian politics. Moore said this week that Prime Minister John Howard "appears to have half a brain" in supporting Mr Bush on Iraq.
Mr Latham, campaigning on the NSW central coast, said: "I'd ask these commentators overseas to respect Australia's democratic processes just as we respect theirs, and basically stick to their own election campaign and arrangements just as we're going to stick to ours".
He said Australians wanted to make their own judgement in their own way about the coming election.
"So whether it's right or left-wing commentary out of the United States or any other country, it's better for people to stick to their own democracies," he said.
Mr Latham pointed out that Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd had said he knew of no factual basis for what Mr Armitage was saying.
Mr Latham said he had not had the chance to ask others from the Labor Party about any conversations with Mr Armitage, but Mr Rudd had responded on behalf of the party.
Yesterday Mr Rudd said he had had a "robust exchange" with Mr Armitage after explaining Labor's promise to withdraw troops from Iraq by Christmas. "We opposed going to war in Iraq and our policy was clear-cut in terms of a proposed date for withdrawing our troops," Mr Rudd said.
Four federal MPs, including Mr Rudd, Kim Beazley, Stephen Conroy and Martyn Evans, attended the dialogue, as did NSW Premier Bob Carr and Victorian Premier Steve Bracks.
Mr Latham rejected yesterday's pact with the US for Australia to join its "son of star wars" missile defence shield.
He said it would not protect continental Australia but would increase missile proliferation and insecurity in the region.
However, he supported the establishment of three joint training bases in northern Australia, which was also endorsed in the Washington talks.
"Labor has always supported joint training with the United States, just as we strongly support the American alliance," he said.
Mr Keating denied there was any division in the party over Iraq policy and said Mr Armitage "has made yet another unwarranted and untimely partisan intervention in the Australian political debate".
The Labor Party would "not be thugged by US officials", and the previous Bush and Clinton administrations would not have attempted or contemplated such behaviour.
"Beating up on friendly foreign political parties is not only unsightly, it is also dumb and counter-productive in the longer term," Mr Keating said.
