Thursday, April 22, 2004
Reality conspires against Latham again
Our esteemed Labor leader, Mark "Clinton's deputy speech-writer" Latham, has earlier this month, according to news reports, accused "the Howard government of turning its back on Asia in favour of an 'insurance policy' alliance with the United States, and said Australia had lost the gains made under the previous Labor governments of Bob Hawke and Paul Keating."
Elsewhere, Latham complained that "the big gain in [trade in] Asia is that it is multilateral, and they are forming up the ASEAN Plus Three Trade Group and Australia is outside it... Basically we have no seat at the table in Asia other than two forums established under the last Labor Government."
Ah, if only that misguided Howard government stopped sucking up to the Yanks, focused back on Asia, and stopped alienating our neighbours.
"The [South East Asian] economics ministers will be recommending to ASEAN leaders that we should work on the launch of a free trade agreement with Australia and New Zealand," Singapore Trade Minister George Yeo told media today.
Oops.
Better check if Bill Clinton had anything to say about that.
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Elsewhere, Latham complained that "the big gain in [trade in] Asia is that it is multilateral, and they are forming up the ASEAN Plus Three Trade Group and Australia is outside it... Basically we have no seat at the table in Asia other than two forums established under the last Labor Government."
Ah, if only that misguided Howard government stopped sucking up to the Yanks, focused back on Asia, and stopped alienating our neighbours.
"The [South East Asian] economics ministers will be recommending to ASEAN leaders that we should work on the launch of a free trade agreement with Australia and New Zealand," Singapore Trade Minister George Yeo told media today.
Oops.
Better check if Bill Clinton had anything to say about that.
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