The Hon. Dr PETER PHELPS Liberal Party NSW Australia: whip under fire for totalitarian planner Nazi slur on scientists

[Darius Appleby]

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/upper-hous...ml?from=smh_sb
The Hon. Dr PETER PHELPS Liberal Party NSW Australia: whip under fire for totalitarian planner Nazi slur on scientists

Upper house whip under fire for Nazi slur on scientists

Alexandra Smith
June 2, 2011

"At the heart of many scientists - but not all scientists - lies the heart of a totalitarian planner" ... state government whip Peter Phelps in hot water over slur. Photo: Jon Reid

THE state government's whip in the upper house, Peter Phelps, has been accused of likening scientists to Nazis in a speech to Parliament.

In an address attacking global warming, Dr Phelps said it should not be forgotten that ''some of the strongest supporters of totalitarian regimes in the last century have been scientists''.

''We should not be so surprised that the contemporary science debate has become so debased,'' Dr Phelps, pictured, said. ''At the heart of many scientists - but not all scientists - lies the heart of a totalitarian planner.''

He once compared the former army officer and federal Labor MP Mike Kelly to the guards at a concentration camp. Dr Phelps was chief-of-staff to the then special minister of state Gary Nairn in 2007 when he accused Mr Kelly of using the Nuremberg defence, like the guards at the Belsen concentration camp.

Speaking in Parliament on Monday, Dr Phelps quoted an unidentified writer whom he described as ''speaking about the rise of Nazism'' and its similarity to ''scientists agitating for a scientific organisation of society''.

Dr Phelps then went on to say: ''One can see them now, beavering away, alone, unknown, in their laboratories.

''Now, through the great global warming swindle, they can influence policy, they can set agendas, they can reach into everyone's lives; they can, like Lenin, proclaim what must be done.''

The Greens MP John Kaye said Dr Phelps had created ''a massive political headache'' for Barry O'Farrell.

''The Premier can either dissociate himself from the remarks made by his whip in the upper house or forever be a party to the most virulent science-denying libel yet seen in the climate debate,'' Dr Kaye said.

''He has well and truly tied the Liberal and National parties to the extremist fringe by suggesting science has been corrupted by public funding and scientists and engineers have the 'heart of a totalitarian planner'.''

The Labor MP Luke Foley said Dr Phelps had not learnt from his earlier mistakes.

''In the 2007 federal election campaign, Peter Phelps became an infamous figure nationally when he compared Mike Kelly to a Nazi concentration camp guard,'' Mr Foley said.

''The then Howard government was forced to apologise for Dr Phelps's outrageous comments but he hasn't learnt his lesson and he's back, likening scientists who report the facts on global warming to Nazi propagandists.''

Dr Phelps last night denied he was likening scientists to Nazis.

''This is not an issue of Nazism or Communism but an unhealthy relationship between scientists and governments that can lead to totalitarianism,'' Dr Phelps said.

A spokesman for the Premier declined to comment.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/upper-hous...#ixzz1OZwGybW3



http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/pro.../LC20110530041
The Hon. Dr PETER PHELPS

http://www.menzieshouse.com.au/peter-phelps/
Global Warming Totalitarians
A brilliant speech from The Hon. Dr. Peter Phelps MLC discussing the great global warming swindle:

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2742686.html
Ignoring the leper's bell on climate change
707 Comments
PETER PHELPS
From the adjournment debate, New South Wales Legislative Council 1 June 2011:

http://www.nsw.liberal.org.au/legisl...er-phelps.html
Peter Phelps Member of the Legislative Council since March 2011.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225780228868
Factions, firsts and foolishness in one
Peter van Onselen From: The Australian September 28, 2009 12:00AM
THE Liberal Party preselection showdown in Bradfield had a little bit of irony, history and stupidity all thrown into one.
Despite the shenanigans, on paper the best candidate won - former Optus executive Paul Fletcher.
The stupidity is brought to you by Peter Phelps, the former chief of staff to Howard government frontbencher Gary Nairn, who was forced to apologise in 2007 to now-Labor MP Mike Kelly. He accused him of using the Nazis' Nuremberg defence of just following orders because Kelly served in Iraq but disagreed with the decision to go to war.
On Saturday Phelps used the question-and-answer session with candidates to suggest one of them, Philip Senior, was arrogant for writing about the Liberal Party's future for the edited collection Liberals and Power: The Road Ahead, when he had not performed the mindless task of handing out flyers on election day over the past four elections.
Senior, a management consultant who is about to complete a PhD in political science and is also the author of a book on the 2007 election, dismissed the question as hollow and received rapturous applause in doing so.

http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Pro...2578710004443B
The Hon. Dr Peter PHELPS, MLC
Member of the Legislative Council
Government Whip in the Legislative Council
Member of the Liberal Party
Term of service expires 56th Parliament (1 March 2019)

Contact Details
Address The Hon. Dr Peter Phelps, MLC
Parliament House
Macquarie Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Phone (02) 9230 3462
Fax (02) 9230 3568
Email [email protected]


Parliamentary Activity
Position Start Notes
Member of the NSW Legislative Council 26 Mar 2011
Government Whip in the Legislative Council 3 May 2011
Member, Procedure Committee 10 May 2011
Member, Standing Committee on State Development 17 May 2011
Member, General Purpose Standing Committee No. 5 17 May 2011
Parliamentary Record
Dr Phelps' speeches in Hansard

Dr Phelps' questions published in the Question & Answer Paper

Biography
Political Party Activity - State Executive, NSW Liberal Party 2003-2006 and 2008-2011. State Council, NSW Liberal Party 1996-1998 and 2003-2011. Various positions, NSW Liberal Party 1984-2011. Life member, Sydney University Liberal Club. Life member, NSW Young Liberals. Previous Parliamentary seats contested: 1999 Legislative Assembly seat of Drummoyne.

Community Activity - Member, Greenleigh C.F.U, 2009-2011. Member, Friends of the Australian War Memorial, 2005-2011. Member, Sporting Shooters Association, 2008-2011. Member, Sydney Jewish Museum 2006-2011. Executive, A.C.T Judo Inc., 2008-2011. Member, RSPCA, 2005-2011. Life member, Sydney University Union. Life member, Sydney University Sports. Life member, Fortians Union. Life member, St Paul's College Union. Member, ACT Baseball Umpires Association, 2007-2011.

Personal - Dr Phelps enjoys reading and writing about history. His sporting interests include to rugby union, judo, baseball and target rifle shooting. He has a private pilot's licence. Dr Phelps is a libertarian with social conservative tendencies, placing him within the 'fusionist' school of conservative political philosophy. His political hero is Ronald Reagan.

Publications - Americans are from Pluto, I.P.A Review, 2006; Of Bridges and Blue-eyed Babies, Quadrant, 2000; Anxious Nation - Review, International History Review, 2000; Amnesty Infomercial, I.P.A. Review, 1999; Keen as Mustard - Review, International History Review, 1999.

Qualifications, Occupations and Interests - Bachelor of Arts (Hons), Sydney University, 1990. Doctor of Philosophy, Sydney University, 1997.
Advisor, Hon. Bronwyn Bishop MP, October 2010-January 2011. Advisor, Sen. Michael Ronaldson, February 2009-October 2010. Chief of staff, Hon. Gary Nairn MP, January 2006-November 2007. Chief of staff, Sen. the Hon. Eric Abetz, January 2001-January 2006. Chief of staff, Sen. the Hon. Chris Ellison, May 2000-January 2001. Advisor, Sen. the Hon. Chris Ellison, August 1999-May 2000. Assistant Advisor, Hon. John Moore MP, October 1998-August 1999. Assistant Advisor, Hon. Ian McLachlan, February 1998-October 1998.

Inaugural speech, 4 May 2011:
Keywords: Government Whip in the Legislative Council
Last modified 07/06/2011 11:25:17 : Update this page

[Darius Appleby]

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June 3, 2011 Peter Doherty responds to Peter Phelps

Australian scientist Peter Doherty has written a wonderful letter in today's SMH that takes apart the odious arguments of Peter Phelps, the NSW Liberal Upper House whip.

Scientists have duty to tell it like it is

The remarks attributed to the state government whip Peter Phelps suggest he has a very selective reading of history in his global attribution of totalitarian/nazi tendencies to scientists (''Upper house whip under fire for Nazi slur on scientists'', June 3).

He might acknowledge, for example, that the Nazis were a democratically-elected, extreme-right populist party who murdered, or forced into exile, large numbers of scientists. He might recall that Stalin's rejection of evidence-based genetics condemned legitimate scientists to the gulag and led to massive starvation in the Soviet Union. He might also reflect on the fact that a group of seismologists has recently been indicted in Italy for failing to give adequate warning about a major earthquake.

Publicly funded researchers, and that includes pretty much all climate scientists, have an absolute obligation to inform both the community and political leaders when they find evidence of changes that could potentially compromise human well-being and civil society.

The scientists I know value living in a pluralist democracy and just want to get on with running their research operations, not the country.

But, so long as they have major concerns, they have to speak up and, as best they can, put the evidence in front of political leaders and the broader Australian community.

Peter Doherty Nobel laureate 1996, University of Melbourne



http://anonymouslefty.wordpress.com/...h-snap-dragon/

Ooh, snap. (Dragon?)

Posted on 3 June, 2011 by Jeremy| 11 Comments

Far right Menzies House darling Peter Phelps isn’t exactly the cluey-est MP in the NSW Parliament:

The session had its bizarre moments. At one point just before midnight Mr Shoebridge described the legislation as “draconian”.

It prompted the Liberal MLC Peter Phelps to leap to his feet with a point of order, telling the house that Mr Shoebridge was mistaken because “there are no dragons in NSW”.

Truly one of the brightest minds of his generation.

This entry was posted in Politics. Bookmark the permalink.

[Darius Appleby]

http://www.climatespectator.com.au/c...rmal-hot-again

Dragon the chain

Conservative politicians in Australia continue to embarrass themselves over climate change, with Dr Peter Phelps, the government whip in the newly elected coalition government in NSW declaring that dragons have the same relevance to climate change science as carbon dioxide. "I foresee a future where dragons are made responsible for global warming," he apparently told the state parliament. "Perhaps dragons should be investigated even more deeply into their role in climate change… because it has the same sort of scientific relevance as carbon dioxide has." Phelps’ biography on the parliament website describes him as a “libertarian with social conservative tendencies, placing him within the 'fusionist' school of conservative political philosophy. His political hero is Ronald Reagan.”

Tags:Australia, Green Deals, Green Business, International (outside Australia)

[Darius Appleby]

ALP candidate and Iraq veteran being compared to the Nazis

YouTube - ‪ALP candidate and Iraq veteran being compared to the Nazis‬‏

YouTube - ‪ALP candidate and Iraq veteran being compared to the Nazis‬‏

[Darius Appleby]

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/a...caust_misused/

Holocaust misused

144 Comments | Permalink Andrew Bolt Blog

Andrew Bolt
Thursday, September 20, 2007 at 10:53am

Labor uses the Holocaust to smear Liberal staffer, Peter Phelps, chief of staff to Special Minister of State Gary Nairn.

In fact, it even got the only federal Jewish MP, Michael Danby, to mount the attack:

Dr Phelps has attempted to equate an Australian who served in Iraq with someone who was a Nazi concentration camp guard at Belsen.

This is deeply offensive not just to the Australian Jewish community but to all of our World War II diggers and airman who fought to defeat Nazism.

Naturally, the media has largely swallowed the Danby line.

But reality check: Phelps is guilty of using crude, unfair and very offensive language, but the point he was trying to make so incompetently was exactly the opposite of the one Danby claims.

Check for yourself:

In last week’s exchange during a public forum in the electorate, Dr Phelps was taking Col (Michael) Kelly (Labor’s candidate in Nairn’s seat) to task over his service in Iraq, suggesting it was incompatible with Labor’s policy to withdraw troops from the war zone.

“You took part in it willingly, because you weren’t sent over there. You volunteered, didn’t you?” Dr Phelps asked during the forum.

Col Kelly responded that he was a soldier and had done what he was ordered to do.

“Oh, like the guards at Belsen perhaps? Are you using the Nuremberg Defence?” Dr Phelps said.

Note.

Phelps actually supports our role in Iraq, and what our soldiers do there.

He’s in fact picking up on what he takes to be Kelly’s refusal to do the same by using the infamous “I was only following orders” defence.

Phelps backs our mission there; Kelly does not. It is a perversion of Phelps’ meaning to suggest that he’s actually likening Australian soldiers in Iraq to Belsen guards. If anything, he’s suggesting (wrongly) that Kelly is doing that by invoking the Nuremberg defence.

I’m just very sorry that Danby, a friend of mine, has been party to this offence to Phelps, who indeed deserves criticism on several grounds, but not this one.

[Darius Appleby]

http://www.crikey.com.au/2007/09/20/...lly-represent/

Thursday, 20 September 2007

Who does Dr Phelps really represent?

Norman Abjorensen writes:

The right-wing extremists are not just in the NSW Liberal Party, they have made it to the centre.

It has been known for some time that the group aligned with shady Opus Dei-connected NSW Upper House power-broker, David Clarke, has infiltrated the federal ranks, and the revelations yesterday of Federal minister Gary Nairn’s chief of staff, Peter Phelps, heckling a Labor candidate at a public meeting, brought it out further into the open.

Dr Phelps, as was revealed in question time yesterday, compared Colonel Mike Kelly, a former Australian soldier, with the guards at the Nazi Belsen death camp, over his service in Iraq. Colonel Kelly just happens to be standing against Mr Nairn in Eden-Monaro.

Dr Phelps has a long association with the far right, and the Clarke acolyte, Senator Fierravanti-Wells, paid him tribute in her first speech after being elected in 2005. He has also worked for the chilling Senator Eric Abetz, whom no one would ever call a moderate.

He was instrumental in the undermining of the talented Liberal MLC, John Ryan, leading not only to Ryan’s defeat, but his subsequent suspension from the Liberal Party for daring to go public. Ryan is just the sort of people the Liberals need, and especially so in NSW.

Ryan’s political assassination is an unpublicised case study of all that is wrong with the NSW Liberal Party and why its current extremist domination will drive it into well-deserved oblivion.

One of the very few NSW Liberals to emerge from the western suburbs of Sydney, Ryan, a former high school teacher, took a great interest in social justice issues and was highly regarded for his advocacy on behalf of people with disability, child protection and for reforms to the regulation of boarding houses. As a backbencher he also conducted a long running campaign to enhance protection for consumers in the resident home building industry against unscrupulous builders.

Although a committed evangelical Christian towards the end of his career he was frequently at odds with representatives of the so called “religious right” for supporting socially progressive initiatives such as a bill to codify how parents might smack children, a bill to trial medically supervised injecting rooms for heroin addicts and a Bill to lower the age the age of consent for homosexual sex.

It was this latter issue, apparently, that drew the ire of Clarke, and especially Phelps. In 2003, I attended a Liberal Party gathering to talk about Bob Menzies on the 25th anniversary of his death, but Dr Phelps was not interested. His main concern was getting through a motion condemning attempts in NSW to lower the age of homosexual consent.

On 18 November 2006, despite strong endorsement from the then NSW Liberal Leader Peter Debnam, John Ryan was defeated in a preselection ballot for the Liberal Party Legislative Council ticket by a “right wing” candidate Marie Ficarra – backed and supported by Dr Phelps.

Is this the sort of support Gary Nairn is courting in his bid to hold one of the most marginal government seats?

The far right which now controls the NSW Liberals is akin to the left which ran the Victorian ALP after the 1955 split: forget electoral success; fight for purity.

One must ask whether Dr Phelps is any sort of asset at all, and just who it is he really represents.

Dr Norman Abjorensen’s book, Leadership and the Liberal Revival: Bolte, Askin and the Post-war Ascendancy, will be published in October by Australian Scholarly Publishing.


Irfan Yusuf also has memories of Dr Phelps:

I’ve known Peter Phelps since 1995. He was a member of the Left who then defected to the Right. He is a very smart chap with a PhD in history from Sydney Uni.

Phelps first burst onto the conservative scene as editor of a Right Wing Young Liberal newsletter called “The Atlas” which lasted some 5 or 6 editions.

In 1996, Phelps went to work for Federal Member for Lowe Paul Zammitt. At first Zammitt stopped Phelps from doing factional work, hoping that behaving in a factionally neutral manner would gain Zammitt a ministry.

Zammitt forced Phelps to stop producing his “The Atlas” newsletter after Phelps ran a front page editorial calling for Medicare to be abolished.

Zammitt’s factional neutrality didn’t gain him a ministry. Phelps suggested to Zammitt that he become an internal Right Wing warrior of Sydney’s inner-west. Zammitt took on this advice but his paranoia led him to upset more conservatives than lefties.

Zammitt eventually saw the writing on the wall and decided to ditch the Liberal Party altogether and become an independent. Poor Phelps was left high and dry. However, he was looked after and has now risen up the ranks to become chief of staff to two Special Ministers of State.

The Coalition has little reason to complain about Phelps, who has always been known to speak his mind, even if potentially embarrassing his politician bosses. Phelps’ latest foray against Mike Kelly is quite characteristic of his brash style, something he has maintained since his Young Liberal days.

Phelps is merely behaving consistently with the culture of the NSW Liberal Party. Here, politics is treated like a game of cricket, and Phelps is someone who prefers to bowl bouncers. Sadly, on this occasion, all he has achieved is adding runs to his opponent’s run tally.

[Darius Appleby]

http://www.menzieshouse.com.au/2011/...lian-left.html

March 11, 2011

The Selective Amnesia of the Australian Left

Dr. Peter Phelps analyses Julia Gillard's speech to U.S. Congress junior congressional staff line by line, and how it whitewashes the rabid anti-American vitriol from the left:

Julia Gillard is a member of the Socialist Left faction of the Australian Labor Party. And like many Australian Leftist, she seems to think that she can get away with an ahistorical absolution of the role played by the Australian Left in the Cold War.

The fact is this: the Australian Left was vehemently opposed to the US during the Cold War. They may have vacillated in their support for the Soviet Union and various other Socialist thug-ocracies. But if the US was involved, they were opposed to it.

Now, as Prime Minister, she addresses the US Congress. All the usual buttons were pushed.

But what she missed saying was the one thing that the Australian Left needed to say: “We are Sorry. We are sorry we opposed the USA during the Cold War, that we sought to impute bad motives to their actions and we blindly overlooked the bad motives of the Soviet Union, China and their satellites. We are sorry we were used by Soviet agents of influence to take part in so-called ‘Peace Marches’ and joined Soviet-funded organisation like CND. For these, and all our other dangerous delusions, for our active support for totalitarianism over freedom, we are sincerely sorry”.

But what did Julia say? Herewith you will find her speech and my annotations:

“A message which has been true in war and peace, in hardship and prosperity, in the Cold War and in the new world.”

I’m glad you mentioned the Cold War – but more of that later.

“You have a true friend down under.”

Oh, really?

“For my parents’ generation, the defining image of America was the landing at Normandy. Your "boys of Point-du-Hoc"... risking everything to help free the world.”

And yet, for the Australian Left, the defining image of victory in WW2 was the Red Army storming across Eastern Europe. We were continually told about how the sacrifices of Mother Russia were greater than anything the Capitalist West endured.

“For my own generation, the defining image of America was the landing on the moon.”

That same Apollo Program that was criticised by the Left, usually along the lines of ‘what a waste of money when we have so many poor people here on Earth’.

“My classmates and I were sent home from school to watch the great moment on television.”

In Soviet Russia, television watches you!

“I’ll always remember thinking that day: Americans can do anything.”

Sort of – for most of the Cold War the Left’s mantra was: ‘the bloody Yanks are capable of anything!’

“Americans helped free the world of my parents’ generation.”

So the mindless adoration of Stalin’s armies was wrong? What about the Left’s sudden about face on Hitler following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and their equally sudden about face once Operation Barbarossa was launched?

“Americans inspired the world of my own youth.”

Especially the Students for Democratic Action, the Yippies and the Black Panthers.

“I stand here and I see the same brave and free people today.”

Not bound down by the chains of Capitalist oppression? So you were wrong then, or are you lying now?

“There is a reason the world always looks to America.”

Except that in the Cold War, Socialists like you looked to the USSR or Communist China or Cuba or North Korea.

“You have an ally in Australia. An ally for war and peace. An ally for hardship and prosperity. An ally for the sixty years past and Australia is an ally for all the years to come.”

Except that the Socialist Left continually attempted to break that alliance and have Australia move into the UN’s Non-Aligned Nations caucus.

“Geography and history alone could never explain the strength of the commitment between us. Rather, our values are shared and our people are friends.”

But the Left was closer friends with the Communist dictatorships. They were forever meeting New Soviet Man and admiring what they saw.

“This is why in our darkest days we have been glad to see each other’s face and hear each other’s voice. Australia’s darkest days in the last century followed the fall of Singapore in 1942. And you were with us.”

It’s a pity the Left wasn’t with us until the Soviet Union was attacked in July 1941. Until then, on orders from Moscow, the official line from the Australian Left was that we were engaged in wars of decadent Capitalist aggression.

“The ultimate expression of our alliance, the ANZUS Treaty, was not signed until 1951.”

Signed by a Coalition Government because the previous Labor government was adamantly opposed to any alliance with the Americans.

“But it was anticipated a decade earlier.”

This is a lie.

“In the judgements – the clear, frank and accurate judgements – of an Australian Prime Minister.”

This is another lie.

“In the decades since, we have stuck together. In every major conflict. From Korea...”

Opposed by the Australian Left – remember Wilfred Burchett?

“... and Vietnam ...”

Opposed by the Australian Left – remember Jim Cairns?

“... to the conflicts in the Gulf.”

Which were also uniformly opposed by the Socialist Left – remember that even the then Centre Unity leader of the ALP, Simon Crean, called the 2003 liberation of Iraq ‘both illegal and immoral’.

“Your darkest days since Pearl Harbour were ten years ago in Washington and New York. And we were with you.”

No you weren’t. The Australian Left, while ostensibly lamenting the loss on American lives, said that the US deserved what it got on 9/11 because of its neo-colonialism and its support for Israel.

“ ... what I told General Petraeus in Kabul ... Australia will stand firm with our ally the United States.”

Is that the same General Petraeus who led Coalition forces during the ‘illegal and immoral’ war in Iraq? The same one that the Rudd Labor government subsequently made an honorary Companion of the Order of Australia?

“Our friends understand this.”

They understand that the Left are a bunch of hypocrites who want to conceal their true past.

“Our enemies understand this too.”

Which is why they feel they can attack the West with impugnity. Because the Left will always find fault in their own side, especially if we are fighting alongside the United States.

“We must be very realistic about Afghanistan’s future. Australia firmly supports the international strategy led by President Obama and adopted at Lisbon last year.”

So how do you explain the Left’s opposition to invasion in the first place, and their subsequent calls at every opportunity to ‘bring the troops home’? Or does the Australian Left only support military action when the Labor Party is in power?

“I believe we have the right strategy in place, a resolute and courageous commander in General Petraeus, and the resources needed to deliver the strategy.”

Resolute and courageous? If Labor lived by their insincere hyperbolic words, he would now be facing a war crimes trial.

“I am cautiously encouraged by what I have seen.”

So the Left’s concerns about ‘the surge’ were totally unfounded? Just like they were in Iraq? How about an apology then?

“As an ally we share your resolve. Afghanistan must never again be a safe haven for terrorism.”

And yet, in 2001, the Australia Left queried whether there even were any terrorists in Afghanistan – on the say-so of the Taliban Government!

“Just as our security alliance is one for war and peace, our economic partnership is one for hardship and prosperity.”

What? Why not with Cuba or North Korea or any of those other Socialist paradises that the Australian Left used to idolise?

“Our societies share a deep understanding of the human importance of work.”

Except the Capitalist West gets people to work with dollars, and the totalitarian regimes that the Left adored used the whip, the gun and the gulag. Big difference, Julia.

“We believe life is given direction and purpose by work. Without work there is corrosive aimlessness. With the loss of work comes the loss of dignity.”

Which is why the Left’s love of cradle to grave government welfare has been an abject failure. But it was still the Socialist ideal for much of the 20th Century.

“This is why, in each of our countries, the great goal of all we do in the economy is the same to ensure that everyone who can work does work. In turn, this is why each of our countries took early and strong action in the face of the greatest threat to the world’s economy since the Great Depression.”

The greatest threat to the world’s economy since the 1930’s was the insidious spread of Communism. So, in one sense, Julia is correct. McCarthyism in the US and the exposure of Communism is Australia in the 1950’s WAS early and strong action.

“Like you, I am a leader in a democracy.”

But you wouldn’t be if your Socialist predecessors had been successful in their plans.

“We worked hard with you during the global economic crisis to resist protectionist pressures. This only built on our decades working together to promote free trade in the world.”

Free trade is not usually synonymous with the Socialist Left.

“And we aim for even larger benefits from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is a great economic opportunity for our two countries and seven of our regional partners.”

So COMECON is off the agenda, huh?

“We know the equation is simple: trade equals jobs.”

But that’s not what your brethren said in the Cold War, dear.

“And our societies share a deep commitment to the value of education. We understand education’s transformative power. We know education is the future for every child who learns. We also know education is the future for our economies.”

Education? Yes. Indoctrination? No.

“This is why I went to a school ... this week. The President and I not only saw children learning. We saw the future of your people and the future of your prosperity as well.”

Which is exactly what the Left chose to see when they visited Soviet Russia in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

“We must work together to achieve an historic transition to high technology, high skill, clean energy economies.”

Which once would have meant the massive hydro-electric schemes in Mother Russia, comrade.

“So, conceived in the Pacific War and born in the Cold War, adapted to the space age and invoked in the face of terror, our indispensable alliance is a friendship for the future.”

Indispensible? That’s not what you Leftists said for the better part of the last 60 years.

“It is this year’s sixtieth anniversary of the signing of our Treaty that occasions your invitation to me today. For that I am grateful. As I said to President Obama, it is an alliance sixty years young with so much future to share.”

Now she is just sounding like a conga-line of suck-holes.

“The bipolar world in which our Alliance was signed has long disappeared.”

Yes, and the Left always hoped and assumed that its bi-polarity would disappear through the defeat of the US and the victory of Soviet Russia.

“I am not sad about its passing.”

Yet what did you do to end the Cold War? What help did you give to the cause of Capitalism? What cries did you raise up – like we did – in support of Reagan or Thatcher at that time? Or did you just bludge on the effort of me and my compatriots?

“Hundreds of millions of people have a better life today, democracy and human dignity have spread wide in the world in the last twenty years.”

And no thanks to the America-hating Australian Left of which you were an active part.

“We have seen this from Eastern Europe to East Asia in recent years and we are seeing the hope of it in the Middle East now.”

Like in Iraq? Apologies proffered?

“We understand that nothing is certain.”

Accept that the Left will attempt to hide their disgraceful past.

“There is still much for the people of the Middle East to do and the governments of the world will be called on to help them do it.”

None of which involves a movement towards Socialist totalitarianism. You know. Like the sort of societies your kind were offering us for more than half a Century.

“For Australia’s part, we will do what we can – and work with you – to support orderly transitions to democracy.”

Like Iraq? Like the liberation of a country which the Left actively opposed?

“A peace where Israel is secure...”

Cough, splutter, gasp – the Socilaist Left hasn’t supported that since 1967.

“And we applaud China’s lifting some 500 million people out of poverty.”

That’s more like the way the old Left behaved!

“We encourage China to engage as a good global citizen and we are clear-eyed about where differences do lie.”

Differences? Differences? Why China is a Communist utopia! With the Little Red Book and the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward – all of which were enthusiastically welcomed by the Australia Left (despite the millions of deaths).

“America has always understood this principle of the economy - that everyone can benefit when everyone competes.”

And yet the mantra of Australian Leftism has always been that competition in BAD.

“And for sixty years your leadership in the Asia-Pacific has showed this.”

Thereby disproving the Socialist Left’s desire for Maoist China to be the leaders of the Asia-Pacific region.

“Your presence and network of alliances ensured the stability.”

Network of alliances! Has Comrade Julia forgotten the Socialist wisdom of Cynthia Enloe’s ‘Bananas, Beaches and Bases’? Surely not!

“You were indispensable in the Cold War and you are indispensable in the new world too.”

Again with the ‘indispensible’. So all those Left-wing calls for an end to the ANZUS alliance and American neo-imperialism were, ah, wrong? How about an apology then?

“An alliance which was strong in the Cold War...”

Just not with the Left.

“Together in the hardest of times. Friends for the future.”

Not the Left’s mantra previously. It was ‘US out! End ANZUS! Close the Bases!’ back then.

“To safeguard our future. For ours is a friendship for the future.”

And yet all those Leftists told us, as JFK pointed out in West Berlin, that “Communism is the wave of the future”.

“In 1942, John Curtin – my predecessor, my country’s great wartime leader – looked to America. I still do.”

This is a lie. Curtin was British race patriot who favoured post-war Imperial preference. His comments on the US were a short-term plea for assistance.

“This year you have marked the centenary of President Reagan’s birth. He remains a great symbol of American optimism.”

You f@cking hypocrite. I was there in the 1980’s. The Left hated Reagan. They hated him and what he was trying to do. They mocked his name, his beliefs, his speeches and his actions. But in the end, you were WRONG and Reagan was RIGHT. The Uni conservatives of the 1980’s stand and bear witness to this. If you want to apologise for being so, so very wrong about Ronald Reagan, then do so now. But don’t you dare use his name in your own interests, you hypocrite.

“The only greater symbol of American optimism is America itself.”

Except when it was Soviet Russia.

“The eyes of the world are still upon you.”

Except when they were on Red China.

“Your city on a hill cannot be hidden.”

Except when it was hidden in Cuba.

“Your brave and free people have made you the masters of recovery and reinvention.”

Just like the Left supported the brave and free people of the Khmer Rouge.

“As I stand in this cradle of democracy I see a nation that has changed the world and known remarkable days.”

Just like the workers’ paradise of North Korea.

“On that great day I believed Americans could do anything.”

But for the rest of those 60 years, the Left believed the Soviet Union was good, America was evil, Socialism would triumph and Capitalism would end up on the ash heap of history.

We remember. We remember clearly. We remember and will not let you get away with a white-washing of history.

You and your comrades were wrong. Desperately, dangerously wrong.

And you should apologise to those of us who were mocked, abused, ridiculed and taunted – but most of all, those of us who were who were right.

Peter Phelps is a former long-term staffer in the Howard Government and has a PhD in Australian History.