Dehumanising Us All. "Dark Victory" by David Marr and Marian Wilkinson and "Don't Tell the Prime Minister" by Patrick Weller. [review]

Abstract

With these two books and Peter Mares’s admirable "Borderline" now in the public domain, it is impossible to say we haven't been told the truth. Or that we don't understand the long-term consequences of the Howard government's radical exercise in political opportunism and expediency. Kim Beazley, perhaps the loneliest figure in "Dark Victory", has had to live with the failure of Labor's 'means to end' method of campaigning. Peter Costello must still be calculating the cost of the 'Pacific Solution' - but don't expect him to make the bill public. And for sailors, once justifiably proud of Australia's record of saving people in danger at sea, Captain Arne Rinnan has a message as ominous as a foghorn: 'It's a terrible thing to be out there in a broken down boat. I’m afraid now there might be fewer rescues.'