Godfrey Grima in Australia - Part 1

Godfrey Grima is spending nine weeks travelling all over Australia and has recorded his thoughts for exclusive publication in this blog. In his piece, published here today and tomorrow, he surveys the Australian political landscape drawing lessons from the opportunities and predicaments of the island for all of us concerned with the political process. The 'Godfrey Grima weekend' starts here:

"Well its all right, even if you’re old and grey
Well It’s all right, you still have something to say
Well is all right remember to live and let live
Well its all right, best thing to do is forgive"

Trying to absorb the collective musical genius of the Travelling Wilburys - Dylan, Harrison, Orbison, Lynne and Tom Petty - as it trips off the small- change sized MP3 can be a tough call. More so whilst visually soaking up the pastoral enchantment of Mornington Pensinsla from the commanding heights of Boneo whilst, simultaneously, mulling over the crestfallen fortunes of the Australian Labour Party. The State of Victoria has just gone to the polls.

Much about the lingering depression of the Australian Labour Party mirrors the state of affairs of is fellow travelers abroad, particularly in Europe. Most seem to be good only at running the local shop. As far as concerns national electoral contests the chances of many remain a wave short of an ocean.

Those socialist parties that do make it seem more keen to sleep with conservative than social democratic policies. Tony Blair is only one example.

In Victoria, as in every other state in the Australia Federation, Labour gallops into a cozy straight run without a sweat. Ted Ballieu and his Liberals lick gaping wounds. Wan smiles, produced for the gathering tv cameras, masquerade the despondency of the defeated. But the bandages- soaked in whiskey and old blood- are difficult to keep concealed for long. Victorian voters have just left the Liberals swinging in the wind for the third time in a row.

Yet, in Canberra it is Prime Minister John Howard, now celebrating his tenth anniversary as prime minister, whose Liberal writ runs nationwide - and whose policies unfurl unchecked. Nothing he does seems to deliver Labour out of its misery- not keeping troops in Iraq, nor his many broken promises.

Only Elton John explodes into opprobrium.

‘So what would you tell John Howard if you two met’ a journalist from Tv Nine quizzes the visiting rock star ..

‘To Fuck off’ snaps back the irreverent warbler.

Two years ago Mark Latham held great promise of chasing Howard into the wilderness. He turned out to be a damp squib – and failed miserably. I watched his campaign on tv then from the same spot as I now watch his successor, Kim Beazely, perform in Parliament - a friend’s well heeled hobby farm nestled on top the magical sweep of Boneo’s sprawling lush meadows. If ever there was a slice of heaven on earth, this must be it. Escarpments of natural beauty, perimitered with Pine and gum trees, cascade for miles all the way down to Mornington Pensinsula on Australia’s south coast until they hit the ocean.

It has all since withered away.

Latham has disappeared as has the wonder of Boneo’s green pastures. Two years ago this was irreducible beauty. Paddocks stood proud, bountiful with graze and grass. Now dreaded bracken, sorrel and apple of Sodom triumph. Australian farmers face the worst drought for 1,000 years. The 150 or so Angus cows on my friend’s farm are a constant worry. At the cattle markets, prices have collapsed by 40% since the drought struck. Up in the North the dread hand of bankruptcies- and suicides- threatens. In Victoria, eight farmers have taken their lives in despair.

Yet despite the frenzied slaughtering of herds and vanishing farmers’ incomes, meat prices at the shops remain full bloodied as ever. What market manipulators put together no government puts asunder. Somehow none of this makes it into labour’s policy papers - or their speeches...

Continues tomorrow.

Godfrey Grima is a Fleet Street trained journalist, created Associated News Ltd in 1971 and worked as a Financial Times foreign correspondent for many years. He is also a member of the University of Malta Governing Council. In the eighties, Grima was once charged with breach of privilege by the Maltese parliament after writing a piece for the Financial Times criticising a law that forced the Maltese to repatriate their investments from abroad. That event inspired Oliver Friggieri to write his controversial anti establishment novel Fil-Parlament ma jikbrux Fjuri in 1986.