Whatever it takes

John Richardson writes: Re. “Labor’s sudden backbone a political stunt” (yesterday). So, on the one hand Crikey would chastise Labor for its evident lack of principle in failing to speak-out against human rights abuses perpetrated against asylum-seekers and for opposing legislation that would have assisted in exposing such crimes and then on the other, accuse it of hypocrisy when it performs a volte face and introduces legislation to make such reporting mandatory for personnel operating under the aegis of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t eh Labor?

If modern Labor has come to believe that it pays to be as hypocritical, cynical and unprincipled as the Coalition parties, that must surely be a lesson in realpolitik learned at Sir John Kerr’s footstool way back in 1975? That Labor’s historical pursuit of high principle has been replaced by a hunger for power is hardly surprising and doubtless explains why there is so little real daylight between both sides of politics in modern Australia and why modern political leadership is so much about appearance & so little about substance. In the words of Graham Richardson: “Whatever it takes.”

Careful with the TPP

David Havyatt writes: “Australia squeaks through TPP copyright compliance thanks to piracy bill” (yesterday). Please can we get it right: the TPP has been agreed but not signed. When Minister Robb talks of “translation” it is not from language X to language Y, but from the wording of the “agreement” into the language of a treaty. See the comments attributed to Canadian PM Stephen Harper here.