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JANA WENDT

In what described as a "vice-presidential scoop" Jana Wendt flew to Washington D.C. in April 1989 to interview Dan and Marilyn Quayle for the Australian program, 'A Current Affair'. One reporter made the observation, "I find that Australian politicians think they are media smart...What they haven't learnt from the best of their American cousins is how to actually say something. Politicians always only want to give a political answer but the best of the Americans will acknowledge at least half of the proposition you're putting to them before going on to make their political statement. With Australian politicians, if it's anything mildly contentious or vaguely negative, it's 'no, no, that's media hogwash.'" 

Every 3 years, an election would be held whereby Australian voters elected one candidate to represent them in the House of Representatives (some 150 representatives in total) and about 40 senators in the Senate to make laws on their behalf. Before becoming law, the proposed legislation called a bill would be introduced into Federal Parliament for the 2 houses to consider (the House of Representatives and the Senate). In the House of Representatives the party won the most votes would get to govern the country and the leader of the winning party would become Prime Minister. When Bob Hawke won the 1983 election for the Australian Labor Party, the government was said inherited a deficit of some $9.6 billion from the previous government led by Malcolm Fraser and John Howard. It was understood "the budget returned to surplus in 1987-88 and remained in balance for 2 additional years." 

In September 1989, Jana spoke to John Howard who was the Prime Minister of Australia between 1996 and 2007. Jana recapped for the audience, "The trials and tribulations of John Howard in the past 6 months have had all the elements of a Shakespearian farce. Now (back in 1989), the deposed Liberal leader has rejoined Andrew Peacock on the Opposition's front bench at the expense of one of the conspirators who brought about his downfall, but is this the final act in the drama, or are there more surprises in store?" 

Jana: Mr Howard, thanks for your time this evening. Do you see this return to the Shadow front bench as a vindication of your talents? 

John Howard: I am immodest enough to think that there is a fair amount of pressure for me to come back and that my return will be of considerable benefit to the Liberal Party, let me put it that way. 

Jana: Okay. How do you make sense of that, given that you were dumped as party leader only 5 months ago? 

John Howard: The glorious uncertainty and inconsistency of politics, Jana...I can't bear the humbug of politics where people say things they patently don't mean and then behave in a different fashion later on. Obviously, because of past events, it's ludicrous to pretend there's been some phony love-up between us and you know, we just have to be realistic about that… 

Jana: Is it like a couple who loathe each other, deciding to stay together for the sake of the children? 

John Howard: That's an interesting analogy. Well, I mean we are certainly committed to working together for the sake of our party and I believe, also the country, because the country needs a change of government and it needs a Liberal government and I want to help bring that about. 

Jana: Well, it sounds a bit like what I suggested, doesn't it? 

John Howard: Well, that's your analogy, Jana. 

Jana: Well, often those arrangements in domestic life can be disastrous. Do you think this one could be?  

John Howard: No, it won't be disastrous because both of us have a sufficiently high level of professional commitment to the Liberal Party, to see that it's not. 

Jana: Well, back in 1987, you said, 'I don't think Andrew is ever going to be Prime Minister, he has some fundamental weaknesses'. 

John Howard: Well, I may have said that in 1987. I guess he's said a few things about me too, that he might like to be reminded of. 

Jana: He certainly has but have you changed your mind then, do you think he no longer has fundamental weaknesses? 

John Howard: Well you're asking...you're asking me, as of now (1989), and I am telling you the answer. But Jana, you might score a debating point on me by asking these questions but everybody knows that he and I have a bit of a history and we're going to work together. We have a professional commitment to the party and it really is a semantic exercise to trip me up on what I may have said 2 or 3 years ago (1987 or 1986). You see, that's you know, really an irrelevant exercise. 

Jana: Alright, so how would you sum up tonight (in 1989), your relationship with Andrew Peacock? 

John Howard: Correctly professional. 



There were 4 recorded coups d'état between 1987 and 2007 in Fiji when indigenous Fijians opposed a government dominated by politicians of Indian ethnic origin. In the 2000 coup, then Australian Prime Minister John Howard made known, "I'm horrified that such an act should be carried out against a democratically elected leader, a fellow Commonwealth Prime Minister, a person who was a guest in Australia only a matter of a few weeks ago (back in 2000)." 

In May 2000, Jana interviewed the former Fijian Prime Minister Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka on the Australian 'Dateline' program. 

Jana: The Constitution that was ripped up yesterday (in 2000), you, as I said, pushed it with such force, you saw it as a blueprint for a multiethnic Fijian democracy. Why was that document in the end so easy to discard? 

Sitiveni Rabuka: Well, I don't believe it was easy to discard. The Great Council of Chiefs have tried, in their whole deliberation, to retain that Constitution and allow for extra constitutional measures to be taken by His Excellency, the President, to put in place an interim arrangement. 

Jana: Let's just put this on the record. Do you want to see that Constitution restored? 

Sitiveni Rabuka: I believe that there are quite a lot of the provisions of the Constitution that are workable, and it would auger well for the future of Fiji to incorporate some of those provisions into the new Constitution. 

Jana: This is really history repeating itself. I imagine when Mr Speight and his thugs moved into the parliamentary compound, they were somewhat comforted by your illegal takeover of democratically elected governments, don't you think? 

Sitiveni Rabuka: They had a precedent, yes. But even I had a precedent in other parts of the world, but here in Fiji, the setting or the precedent was set in 1987 by my actions. 

Jana: Mr Rabuka, would you say that the rot set in Fiji with your coups in 1987? 

Sitiveni Rabuka: Yes, I believe that. It is unfortunate, but I still believe that the present one, just as mine can probably never be justified, this last one also can never be justified. 

Jana: Let me talk to you about George Speight. As a businessman, George Speight apparently flourished under your prime ministership. How much do you know about him, Mr Rabuka? 

Sitiveni Rabuka: I do not know him that well. I only associate with him on the golf course and I can't play golf because my number one wood, my driver, is still in its golf bag, and I don't know where that golf bag is, so that's the association I have with him. 

Jana: Well, I won't ask you what he's like as a golfer, but do you think that he is a stable man? 

Sitiveni Rabuka: From what little I have seen of him, yes. But since the Friday of the coup up to now (in 2000), he has not been stable. But whether that's his personality coming to the fore, or the fact that he has lost control and there are other people in the parliamentary complex who are controlling him.

Jana: Well, you were a coup leader turned Prime Minister, why shouldn't George Speight be accorded a place in this new government? 

Sitiveni Rabuka: Well, in the interim, I became Prime Minister after election and George Speight should be welcomed to try his hand in the ballot box contest. 

Jana: Well, early on during this coup, you said he should be treated as a criminal, now you are welcoming him to the ballot box? 

Sitiveni Rabuka: Well, even criminals come back to the ballot box. 

Jana: Having served their time, Mr Rabuka? 

Sitiveni Rabuka: Yes, correct.

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