*Ø* Blogmanac | Australian senators interrupt Bush speech

"Greens senators Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle interrupted US President George Bush several times when the world's most powerful political leader addressed a special joint sitting of both houses of federal Parliament in Canberra on Thursday

Senator Brown, the leader of the left-wing party, stood up during the President's address and appealed to him to extend civil liberties to Australian citizens incarcarated as 'enemy combatants' in Gauntanamo Bay.

"'Then the world will respect you for obeying the law,' Senator Brown said.

"After being warned by the Speaker of the House of Representatives that he would be ejected, Senator Brown sat down and the President resumed his address.

"But then, a few minutes later, as Mr Bush was praising Australia for its role in promoting security in the Asian-Pacific region, Senator Brown interjected: 'But we are not a sheriff.'*

"Later, as Mr Bush was referring to the negotiations for a free trade agreement between Australia and the US, Senator Nettle interjected: 'You must not sell out ...' before being drowned out by shouts of derision from Government MPs."
Source: Australian Financial Review


* Senator Brown's "sheriff" remark was a reference to Bush's statement this week that Australia is a "sheriff" of South-East Asia, an insult that has naturally offended hundreds of millions of Australia's neighbours and reflects Bush's own narrow, racially bigoted attitudes rather than those of the Australian people.

Aussie democracy?
It's a national disgrace that Australian citizens were prohibited from entering Parliament House today and so many non-Australians, George W Bush and his many minders, were allowed in.

The main signs of true democracy in Canberra today were the interjections of Greens Senators Brown and Nettle, the large protest outside the building, and the fact that about 17 parliamentarians defiantly remained seated and did not applaud at the end of Bush's patronising speech, which emphasised Australian-US military ties yet glossed over or ignored significant historical relations between the two nations.