Word: canberras
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...fork in the road") and slogans ("China's quarry and Japan's beach"), Rudd has managed to "cut through"?the dream of political word wranglers. Inevitably, Rudd's success so far has elicited comparisons with former leader Mark Latham, who made local politics interesting in 2004. All of Canberra's political pros have come a long way since then. In any case, it's worth noting that Team Rudd is several notches above the Crazy Lathams and Beazley's Bunch. Rudd, a lifelong striver, is more assured than his predecessors, rounded, grounded and disciplined. But the question remains...
...exporter AWB's abuse of the Iraqi oil-for-food program. Rudd is a Christian who is comfortable speaking about his faith. His early life was thrown into turmoil when his farmer father was killed in a car accident before Rudd reached his teens. He went to university in Canberra and majored in Asian studies, becoming a sinologist and foreign affairs official. Not naturally gregarious, seen by his party pals as aloof and academic, Rudd has worked hard to raise his profile at grass-roots level...
...drought has tumbled back into the minds of city dwellers. All sorts of trip wires have been activated in a matter of days. Parched, cracked earth and blue sky stretch across the front pages of the nation's newspapers. Canberra is issuing a burst of agricultural terms-relief package, subsidies, exceptional circumstances and "our farmers." "It is part of the psyche of this country, it is part of the essence of Australia, to have a rural community," Howard said last week after announcing an extension of drought support to farmers. "We would lose something of our identification as Australians...
While Sogavare was in the Big Apple, RAMSI officials were generating color and movement in Honiara. Working the grass roots, the mission set up community outreach stalls to promote its work. According to the Solomon Star newspaper, a young Canberra economist, Harry the Juggler, entertained the crowd while speaking in pidgin about economic reform; it was goofy but effective. RAMSI is popular with locals because it's brought better security, some services, and new infrastructure. RAMSI is a strange beast. It is not an occupying force, but remains in the Solomons at the invitation of the government...
...people. Its performance is monitored by an eminent persons group from the Pacific Islands Forum. Yes, RAMSI is staffed by people from 14 nations in the South Pacific?as Batley, an Australian diplomat, stresses tirelessly. But there's no doubt that the mission is an Australian initiative. Without Canberra's dollars, troops and expertise, RAMSI would not exist. Having committed so much, Australia cannot pull out. It must stay until the work is done. Nor did it underestimate the task; in fact, six months before the July 2003 deployment, Downer saw intervention as "folly in the extreme." "The fundamental problem...