Senator Andrew Bartlett
Saturday, March 19, 2005
 
Comments on the Ross Lightfoot saga
- I hope this episode doesn’t end up damaging the credibility of the Kurdish cause. Ross Lightfoot has said a few things in the past I found quite objectionable, and his behaviour in this incident seems at the very least a little bit odd. However, I agree with his support for the Kurds and their desire to attain independence or at the very least a decent form of autonomy. He has spoken publicly on this in the past and I agree with his view on this.
- I wish John Howard was just as willing to give the benefit of the doubt to everyone else in the community as he is to his own MPs. It is unsatisfactory that there is not going to be some form of further inquiry into the matter, as it does raise issues of proper declaration of interests to Parliament, apart from anything else. The suggestion that he wasn’t sure who funded an earlier trip to Iraq is not very credible to me;
- I don’t like condemning people without all the facts. However, from what has come out to date, this seems to be a case of excessive verbal bravado, coupled with some specific inconsistencies in the story. Whatever the truth may be, one fact is that it generally brings the reputation of politicians down (again);
- We are seeing the natural benefit to John Howard of his decision to dramatically reduce the number of sitting days in the Parliament. After only 11 sitting days so far this year, the Senate does not return until the Budget is brought down on May 10th. Even that is for just 3 days, and it’s another break until June 14th. In a more normal environment, there would be plenty more opportunities to get to the facts of this matter.


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