Banging The Symbols

Banging The Symbols

Newcastle Herald

Saturday April 19, 2008

Maria Hawthorne Newscope

KEVIN Rudd told a big fat lie this week.

It wasn't about whether his FuelWatch plan would lead to lower petrol prices, or how much it would cost to establish one-stop centres offering all parents access to child care, learning and health services.

It came when the Prime Minister was asked about calls for tax changes to encourage distillers and brewers to make more low-alcohol products.

With binge drinking to be a hot topic at this weekend's Australia 2020 summit, Mr Rudd said all options would be considered to fight this "major national contagion".

Then, straight-faced, he said: "I'm not interested in symbolic gestures of any description."

This from a Prime Minister who within a month of winning the election had ratified the Kyoto protocol, moved into The Lodge in Canberra, and made a pre-Christmas dash to visit Australian troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Within three months, he'd made a parliamentary apology to indigenous Australians and released his own report card on his first 100 days in office.

This month, he's spoken to Chinese leaders in their own language about human rights abuses in Tibet and endorsed people's right to protest against the Beijing Olympic-torch relay.

This week, he appointed the country's first female governor-general.

And this weekend he will host a meeting of 1000 of the nation's best and brightest for an ideas summit in Parliament's Great Hall.

These are all highly symbolic acts and there's nothing wrong with any of them.

Ratifying Kyoto made no difference to Australia's greenhouse gas emissions reduction target but it did allow Australia a say in the next round of targets to be hammered out by the end of next year.

The apology to the stolen generations has not closed the immense gap between black and white living standards. But it has given many in the indigenous community heart that the Government is serious about solving the problems.

Choosing to move into The Lodge, rather than the Sydney harbourside mansion Kirribilli House preferred by John Howard, was both a practical and a symbolic recognition of Canberra's role as the nation's capital.

Visiting the troops early was also vital for a new prime minister elected on a promise to bring the combat troops home from Iraq.

Mr Rudd's command of Mandarin makes him unique among Western leaders.

His decision to address Chinese students at Peking University in their own language allowed him to deliver a blunt message about human rights without looking like a complete outsider.

And the choice of Quentin Bryce as Australia's 25th governor-general is not only symbolic but merited.

Conventional wisdom says that Australians don't care about symbolism and are only interested in their own hip pockets.

But polls last year repeatedly showed people would prefer to go without tax cuts if the money saved was spent on hospitals and schools instead.

And research ahead of this weekend's 2020 summit shows that people want the environment and climate change to dominate the talks.

Mr Rudd may have been elected as an economic conservative, but his choice of symbolic actions is aimed squarely at Labor's support base. Labor voters have long wanted the Kyoto ratification, the apology, more activity on affirmative action and a leading role for Australia on the human rights world stage, as well as the scrapping of WorkChoices.

And this weekend we will have the re-emergence of possibly the biggest symbolic challenge for the nation the republic.

After the 1999 referendum failed, monarchists and republicans alike thought the issue was dead for at least another 20 years.

But Mr Rudd floated the idea of a national debate ahead of his meeting with the Queen two weeks ago.

It will be debated at the 2020 summit, with many believing it will play a major role in the next election campaign.

Cutting the constitutional ties to the monarchy has long been Labor policy.

And it will highlight divisions within the Opposition. Liberal Leader Brendan Nelson is a constitutional monarchist; his ambitious deputy Malcolm Turnbull led the case for a republic in 1999.

For someone who doesn't believe in symbolic acts, Mr Rudd sure knows how to exploit them.

AAP