Shouts from the desert

Well, after much consideration, I have taken a bold new step.

For those of you who don't know, I live in the Bennelong electorate. John Howard's seat.

Over the past three years, the Prime Minister has been making decisions like we, the electors, just don't matter. In particular, he took us into a war which, having spent more time on the relevant issues of international law, I am now 100% certain was illegal. And he did it despite the vocal dissent of huge sections of the community, and polling that shows that most people were opposed to the war at the time.

The Coalition of the Willing claimed the war was justified based on United Nations Security Council resolutions relating to weapons of mass destruction. Even if there were weapons of mass destruction there, the support of those resolutions for this war was debatable. Buteven if those resolutions were capable of supporting the war, the legality of the war depended not on a belief in those weapons, but on the actual existence of the weapons. Without the weapons, the war was illegal.

On the 18^th of February 2003, John Howard told us on the Today Show that there was only one way we could express our disapproval of his actions on Iraq. He said "If the public at the next election doesn't like the job I've done, they'll throw me out." As if we didn't get the message, he repeated "I'm accountable at election time and if people don't agree with what I'm doing, then they vote against me."

You have it there. The Prime Minister has told us himself that if we don't like what he did in Iraq, we should vote him out. Anything else is approval of his actions.

Howard was no doubt hoping we have short memories.

Now the people of Bennelong have the best opportunity to vote John Howard out. In fact they're the only people who can vote John Howard out. Others can vote their local liberal member out, but that effectively requires a choice between other Liberal party policies and expressing disapproval in the only way the Prime Minister will acknowledge.

Bennelong is an electorate that has always voted Liberal. I have said it before, but more than 50% of Bennelong would rather poke their eyes out with sticks than vote for a Labor candidate. More so for the Democrats and Greens, since they are even further left than Labor. Would the people of Bennelong take their disapproval far enough to vote so far counter to their own instincts?

I don't think they would. Which is why I have decided to make myself available as a candidate for election in Bennelong. While I have never either joined or had an affiliation with any party, I am fiscally conservative (like the Liberals), and socially progressive (like some Liberals would like to be, but aren't allowed to be under Howard). I offer myself as a way for people who don't feel comfortable voting Labor, Green or Democrat to take John Howard up on his invitation.

If you live in Bennelong, it is time to take the Prime Minister up on his offer - vote him out.

PS. At this stage I need volunteers to help with the campaign, and donations to cover campaign expenses. Even if you don't live in Bennelong, please join the mailing list so I can let you know as things develop. And please, let me know if you can help.