Aussie PM a 'lackey to US'
2003-07-14 11:07
Sydney - Former prime minister Malcolm Fraser accused the present PM, John Howard, on Monday of unnecessarily making enemies in the world and losing influence in Asia by being "subservient" to the United States.
In an article written for the Sydney Morning Herald to coincide with Howard overtaking him as second longest-serving Liberal Party prime minister, Fraser said it was time to ask whose national interests the government was serving - Australia's or the United States's.
Fraser, who led a conservative government from 1975 to 1983, cited the controversy surrounding Howard's claim, which he said was made on the basis of fraudulent intelligence, that Iraq tried to buy African uranium.
Fraser said it was "inconceivable" that the prime minister's department would not have alerted him to the truth about the nuclear claims had it been aware of them and "impossible" to believe it did not know.
He also accused the government of failing to stand up for Australians held by the United States since the Afghan war in its "meek acceptance" of the detention and military trial of suspected terrorist David Hicks.
Relations with US 'come first'
The prosecution by the United States of Hicks in a military trial posed the question, Fraser said, of whether Australia was any longer "able to stand up for Australians who may need the protection of their nationality".
"The present answer is clear. Not if such actions cut across relations with the United States," said Fraser.
"Some would believe that we are now a completely subservient ally.
"Do we really serve Australia's interests by such uncritical support (of the United States) and by such apparent loss of purpose and independence?"
Extracts of the article and an accompanying interview were splashed across page one of the Herald as Howard began an eight-day Asian tour to meet leaders of the Philippines, Japan and South Korea for talks focusing mainly on the North Korean nuclear crisis and international terrorism.
Although he led a conservative Liberal-National coalition government for eight years in which Howard was latterly the federal treasurer, there is little love lost between Fraser and the present crop of Liberal politicians.
For years, Fraser has been a supporter of numerous causes generally seen as leftwing, including abolition of mandatory detention of illegal immigrants, the policy supported by both the government and the Labour opposition and by an overwhelming majority of Australians.