To help our overseeas friends understand some of the background;
Everything hildafish wrote is a correct description
Foolestroupe's cynicism is justifiable.

Oz has six States, each of which has its own constitution and legal jurisdiction that cannot be overridden by that of the Commonwealth formed when the colonies federated in 1901. They control their domestic legal arrangements, although this government (formed by a coalition of "Liberal" - read "Conservative" - and "National" - read "rednecked" - parties) has eroded states rights on labour laws because all the States are currently governed by the Labor party. There are several Territories that, while they may have separate legal jurisdictions (like the Northern Territory and the Aust. Capital Territory) are not "States" and are thus under the ultimate control of the Commonwealth.

The Prime Minister has "invaded" the legislative control of the NT, basically, because he can. He cannot even contemplate such control in the States unless he wishes to control their purse strings and he has shown signs of wanting to do just that. The emotive issue of children being exposed to paedophilia and pornography is just the sort of issue that this consummate wedge politician would welcome to split the formal "Opposition" and his opponents into disarray. Especially in the leadup to an election, where all the main issues at the front of people's minds are negative for him and his government.

John Howard was brought up in the conformist, vaguely Methodist and suburban, environment of the 1950s and still hankers for the supposed verities that his upbringing taught him. He lived with his parents until he was 32 and has never lived a life independent of a supportive but subordinate woman with the same outlook. He has the nickname (what irony) of Honest John and there's only one way an Oz politician could earn such a soubriquet. I'd trust him as far as I could kick him, and he's bigger than me.

Until the postwar flood of refugees and migrants, Oz was backward in its appreciation of diversity and as comfortably racist as anywhere in America's deep south. There was no effective opposition to this until the mid60s, when the civil rights and women's movements got going, pushed hard by antagonism to conscription and Australia's involvement in what came to be known as the Vietnam war. Even until the 1970s, Aboriginal and mixed race (ie even the faintest trace of Aboriginal ancestry) children were removed by govt edict from their families and incarcerated in "homes", trained to be domestic servants and labourers for white people and abused both physically and sexually by those with a "duty of care".

Several Royal (and other) Commissions have investigated and reported savagely on 'Aboriginal Deaths in Custody', 'The Stolen Generation' and similar discriminations against Australia's Indigenous people. Routinely their findings and recommendations have been shelved and ignored. Supported by the outrage of the shock jocks when the Stolen Generations report recommended action, our Prime Minister refused to say "Sorry" and became extremely (and publicly) angry at the Aboriginal response to his subsequent appearance at one formal function; when he came to the podium to speak, they rose as one and stood, in dead silence, with their backs to him until he'd finished. As an effective protest, it had much to recommend it and I commend it to you.

He and his Health Minister Abbott and his Treasurer Costello (the jokes are already there) have no interest in the long term interests of the dispossessed and disaffected; they gutted what they could from the Native Title legislation when in Opposition and this latest move will gut it even further.

With all honesty I can't use my usual signoff ("Cheers, Rowan") on this occasion.

Rowan