Where is Bruce Flegg? - Day 3 of the Search

URGENT MESSAGE FOR DR BRUCE FLEGG




Calling Bruce Flegg. Calling Bruce Flegg.

Has anyone seen Bruce Flegg?

John Howard wants your help in the Federal Liberal campaign in Queensland.

After all, you are the Queensland Leader of the Liberal Party, aren't you?

Bruce, where are you?

Who are you?

Howard's promises: Far too little, far too late!

Fair dinkum, you would think there is an election in the air.

For 33 years as a Member of Federal Parliament, John Winston Howard has treated Indigenous Australians as second-rate citizens.

For over three decades, he has barely been prepared to give them the time of day.

As Prime Minister for 11 years, he has never been able to say: "Sorry" to Australia's first inhabitants.

Now, on the eve of the Federal election, John Howard comes up with his grand plan to recognise Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders in the Preamble to the Australian Constitution.

What a tremendous gesture! It won't change their legal rights. It won't change their treatment by bureaucrats and unsympathetic Ministers but it will make John Howard feel good that he added them to the Constitution.

John Howard is acting like a criminal facing a jail sentence - pleading with the Judge to let him walk free because he had commenced reading the Bible and had turned to Jesus for salvation.

Somehow, I don't the people of Australia will be very forgiving of John Howard on Judgment Day in few weeks time.

What else can we expect from this born-again politician in the next few desperate weeks of his career?

Maybe he will sign the Kyoto Protocol before election day.

Or he might become a paid-up member of the Australian Republican Movement just to show that he really supported an Australian Republic all along. The people must have just misunderstood him.

Of course, he will announce a review of the WorkChoices legislation by telling the workers of Australia that he is really on their side and that he will crack down on those few rogue employers rorting the system.

A special Prime Ministerial Review of 457 visas is almost guaranteed to be announced shortly and a fairer tax system will be another certain pronouncement.

John Howard will have an armoury of education promises, child care promises, climate change promises, defence promises, immigration promises, health promises, job creation promises - in fact, his promises over the next few weeks will be oozing out of every orifice of his body!

Now, if only he could arrange another Tampa or refugee crisis or security threat to Australia during the next six weeks ...........


Don't laugh too loud
because anything is
on the cards with this
Wiley Coyote of Australian politics.

Howard set to dupe voters this weekend

John Howard is no dill when it comes to denying voters their democratic right to vote in the upcoming Federal election.

Under the Liberal party's new electoral laws administered by the Australian Electoral Commission, the voters' roll will now close at 8:00pm on the day the writs are issued for the election.

There must be a minimum 33-day period between calling the election and election day itself.

Elections are often called on a Sunday in order to comply with the minimum 33-day limit for the election which would normally be held on the 5th Saturday after that date.

If John Howard calls the election this weekend, it would be held no earlier than Saturday 17 November, with the rolls closing at 8:00pm Monday night - the first working day after the announcement.

This would give tens of thousands of possible Labor voters limited opportunity of getting on the roll on Monday.

Of course, the Liberal Party would see that as another successful nail in the coffin of Australian democracy.

If the Sneaky Devil from the Lodge calls the election this weekend, potential voters would have only until Monday night to get on the roll - making it very difficult for many of them to exercise their democratic rights, to say the least.

If you were a fair and honest Prime Minister, you would make the announcement but delay issuing the writs for a few days to give everyone the opportunity of getting on the roll.

But because it is John Howard, expect a big announcement this weekend with the doors of the Electoral Commission slammed shut in people's faces come 8 o'clock Monday night.

Help the battlers using Australia's roads

In my capacity as a local member, at least every month I see some poor battler who has been involved in an accident where significant damage has been caused to another vehicle.

Only yesterday, a distraught young woman came to my office over an accident which admittedly, was mainly her fault. She was not insured and the other car is probably a write-off.

As a result, she could be $10,000 or more out-of-pocket - an amount which she simply cannot pay.

Many of these battlers cannot afford comprehensive vehicle insurance - which covers their car as well as all other vehicles involved in an accident.

What these drivers don't realise is that for about $50 a year, you can buy a Third Party Property Damage policy - which means that even though you are not insured for your own car, if you smash up a Rolls Royce or Mercedes Benz, you will be covered under the policy.

State Governments in Australia have been very wise in the past 60 years to make compulsory third party insurance a condition of registration renewal.

But this covers only death or injury caused to people involved in the accident. There is no cover for any damage caused to the other vehicles.

For about another $50 per car per year, everyone could be automatically covered for third party property damage.

It would not be an enormous impost at the time of registration but would save many battlers from the trauma of paying off huge debts after an accident or even being forced into bankruptcy.

For those people who say - "Well, it's their fault that they didn't obtain a third party property damage policy", the simple fact of the matter is that the availability of this type of policy is not very well known and, being voluntary, is often overlooked.

If Third Party Property cover was rolled into the annual registration & insurance bill, the financial heartbreak currently being suffered by many battlers and their families would disappear overnight.

Where is Bruce Flegg? - Day 2 of the Search

URGENT MESSAGE FOR DR BRUCE FLEGG




Calling Bruce Flegg. Calling Bruce Flegg.

Has anyone seen Bruce Flegg?

John Howard wants your help in the Federal Liberal campaign in Queensland.

After all, you are the Queensland Leader of the Liberal Party, aren't you?

Bruce, where are you?

Who are you?

Pell's bells peal for Labor

"Labor receives Pell's blessing" is the front-page headline in today's Australian newspaper.

Cardinal George Pell, the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney and Australia's most senior Catholic cleric, has publicly endorsed the Labor Party's policy position on schools for the 2007 election.

This glowing endorsement must be a welcome relief for the Federal Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd after the Catholic Church publicly slammed the Labor Party's policy on education funding at the 2004 election.

Cardinal Pell is an interesting - and sometimes controversial - archbishop, often noted for his conservative views.

He was a delegate to the 1998 Constitutional Convention in Canberra and told the Convention:

"Some of my priests suggest to me sometimes that I am a conservative, and I must confess that I have some credentials."

So, he's a pretty honest sort of bloke after all!

And to the total amazement of his conservative colleagues at the Convention on the opposite side of the chamber, he then moved:

"That this Convention supports the adoption of a republican system of government on the bipartisan appointment model in preference to there being no change to the Constitution."

George Pell could prove to be one of Labor's greatest allies in the upcoming Federal election and Kevin Rudd's steady-as-she-goes approach is obviously proving to be a big vote winner - even with arch-conservatives like George Pell.

Michael Johnson bleeds over Goodna Bypass

The Federal Member for Ryan Michael Johnson is weeping crocodile tears now that his avid support for the Goodna Bypass has come back to haunt him. He has been preaching his outrageous stance over the bypass to the still unconverted and is wondering why the people are not embracing him with open arms.

In leaked emails, he is quoted as saying he is "bleeding on this issue".

You don't need to be Einstein to figure out in advance that if you put a major motorway right through the middle of your electorate, particularly one with upmarket acreage homes, you are going to have many hostile voters on your hands.

But then Michael Johnson is no Einstein.

This hapless politician has now concocted a plan to construct two multi-million sports parks in the vicinity of the planned bypass to placate two Brisbane businessmen facing major financial losses on their Brisbane River waterfront homes at Moggill.

Michael Johnson sees this as the best way to get himself out of a very sticky mess even though the Queensland Minister for Main Roads Warren Pitt has quite rightly pointed out that the parks are not needed and were not part of the original bypass proposal.

The $2.3 billion Goodna Bypass should be scrapped immediately. Work could then proceed on upgrading the Ipswich Motorway, under the 2002 proposal, at less than half the cost.

Unless that happens, Michael Johnson can build all the parks he likes but the intelligent voters of Ryan will still see through his mishandling of this issue and his support for foisting this unpopular bypass on the people of his electorate. The Labor candidate for Ryan Ross Daniels must be positively salivating over this latest disclosure.

A cursory reading of Hansard will make it very difficult for Michael Johnson to wriggle his way out of his one.

He would be better off continuing his Prince Charles approach to his constituents on Moggill Road at Indooroopilly where he seems to spend countless hours just waving at passing motorists.

What you don't realise Michael is that most of the drivers who are responding to your endless hand-waving are not ordering "Two to the Valley" but are giving you a true-blue, two-fingered Aussie salute in recognition of your exceptionally poor performance as the outgoing Member for Ryan.

Where is Bruce Flegg? - Day 1 of the Search

URGENT MESSAGE FOR DR BRUCE FLEGG

Calling Bruce Flegg. Calling Bruce Flegg.

Has anyone seen Bruce Flegg?

John Howard wants your help in the Federal Liberal campaign in Queensland.

After all, you are the Queensland Leader of the Liberal Party, aren't you?

Bruce, where are you?

Who are you?

Liberals come unstuck over Bali bombers' fate

YESTERDAY'S HEADLINE:

Costello slams Labor as Bali bomber supporters
Federal Treasurer Peter Costello has accused the Labor Party of supporting the Bali bombers, after Opposition Foreign Affairs spokesman Robert McClelland criticised Prime Minister John Howard's approach to capital punishment.


TODAY'S HEADLINE:

Rudd "lacks guts over death penalty"
PRIME Minister John Howard today accused Kevin Rudd of disloyalty and lacking nerve over his death penalty backdown.


So, there it is in black and white.

Peter Costello is frothing at the mouth over Robert McLelland's comments after McLelland criticised John Howard's approach to capital punishment by the Indonesian authorities.

John Howard then condemns Kevin Rudd for his supposed "death penalty backdown".

This sledging by the Liberal Party is becoming so bizarre - with more twists and turns than a Filipino pole dancer.

If this Liberal rhetoric is stripped bare of its nonsense, it seems that John Howard is supporting his deputy Peter Costello for condemning Kevin Rudd and at the same time is condemning Rudd for backing down on the issue - which, by definition, must mean that Howard is now condemning Costello for attacking Rudd, leading to the only logical conclusion that Howard must now be supporting the Bali bombers - which, of course, is the very thing which Costello accused the Labor Party of doing!

Which is all just as bloody stupid as the Liberal Party's feeble attempts over the past 48 hours to discredit Kevin Rudd's statesman-like stance over this very sensitive inter-governmental issue.

John Howard astride the barbed wire fence again

Australia's Prime Minister John Howard was quoted today on Southern Cross Radio as saying:

"I think that would be very, very bad, I accept that many people will think it is inconsistent of me to say and I've acknowledged this before....I personally don't support capital punishment in Australia."

But capital punishment in Indonesia is OK, John?

What sort of moral principle is that?

Next he'll be telling us that stoning women adulterers to death is wrong in Australia but is OK in Iran.

Come off it John, you must think all Australians are complete dills with that sort of convoluted logic.

Seeney sees the light!

Whether or not it was the crowing of the roosters or a sudden surge of blood to the brain, Queensland Opposition Leader National MP Jeff Seeney is now supporting a split time zone for southeast Queensland.

Jeff Seeney said discussions over daylight saving for southeast Queensland are not over yet, after the Premier Anna Bligh ruled out daylight saving for Queensland including the southeast corner of the state.

The National Party Leader offered a remarkable view for a conservative Queensland politician when he weighed into the debate with the following frank admission:

"I think in south-east Queensland it certainly has a lot of benefits and sooner or later I think we have to seriously consider how we ensure that people can get those benefits."

A truly remarkable statement indeed for the National Party which up until now has been more-protective of milking times for cows in rural Queensland than supporting an enhanced quality of life for the people of the southeast corner.

Broken Hill in New South Wales is on a split time zone from the rest of the state and operates very successfully all year round on South Australian time.

Despite the fact that 59% of Queenslanders now support daylight saving, nothing is likely to change in Queensland in the near future.

Perhaps, it is time to take the matter to the Federal Parliament.

On 30 July 1974, the Federal Attorney-General - and future High Court Judge - Lionel Murphy made a statement to the Senate that the Commonwealth Parliament had the constitutional power to introduce daylight saving in Australia and to control the standard time zones around the nation under the "weights and measures" powers granted to the Commonwealth Parliament under section 51 of the Australian Constitution. Lionel Murphy was ahead of his time with such a view 33 years ago which accords with the the High Court's broad interpretation of the extent Commonwealth's constitutional powers.

If the Commonwealth Parliament enacted a law in relation to daylight saving, it would override any inconsistent state laws by virtue of section 109 of the Australian Constitution.

Prime Minister John Howard is on the record as supporting a split time zone for southeast Queensland.

Let's hope Kevin Rudd has the same view because he should be in a position to do something about it in a few weeks' time.

Kevin Andrews still spin-doctoring

Well, well, well.

The "Doctor Death" of Australian Immigration, the Honourable Kevin Andrews is at it again with another spin-doctoring performance which would put him first in line for an Emmy award.

There are 7 Burmese individuals still languishing on Nauru while Immigration officials determine their plight and whether or not they qualify for humanitarian refugee status.

The Department's investigations can be long and arduous and no one is suggesting that they should ever be rushed.

But these men have had to take their case to the High Court of Australia to force proper consideration of their applications.

Now, out of the blue, Kevin Andrews says that the men could have had their claims expedited if they had agreed to voluntarily return to Malaysia.

However, the lawyers for the Nauru Seven have rightly pointed out that the men are all Muslims from Burma's Rohingya minority and after fleeing Burma had been brutalised by Malaysian officials.

But to make matters worse, Kevin Andrews also outrageously suggested that the men had not been anxious to finalise their applications.

"One of the difficulties is the lawyers for the seven on Nauru seem to have been not in a great hurry to get these matters dealt with," he said.

Now, either Kevin Andrews is a complete dill or he is being given wrong advice by his Department. Or both.

The Nauru Seven are desperate. They have been forcibly detained on Nauru for a year. They have filed the appropriate applications. They have engaged lawyers and they have gone to the High Court of Australia to expedite their claims.

For God sake Kevin what more can they have done?

All Kevin Andrews can say is that these men are tardy in the way they have proceeded with their claims and could have saved their souls by going back to Malaysia.

Kevin Andrews does not seem to have have one ounce of compassion in his body when dealing with such matters.

He seems to regard these people as file numbers and not as human beings who - along with their families - await their fate.

Just look at how Kevin Andrews dealt with Dr Mohamed Haneef by continuing to treat him like a common criminal even after the Director of Public Prosecutions had dropped criminal charges against Dr Haneef.

The sooner Kevin Andrews is dumped as Immigration Minister, the sooner the people of Australia will have their confidence in our immigration system restored.

It's time to go - John Howard!

OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA





Dear John

It's time, John.

It's time to go to the polls to see whether or not the people of Australia still love you or whether they really want a quickie divorce.

Don't worry about the polls - you have always said the only poll which counts is the one on election day.

It's 3 years ago today since the last Federal election but the longer you cling to power - using Constitutional trickery - the more you look like the convicted felon on the scaffold vainly making a very long speech in the forlorn hope of avoiding the hangman's noose.

The last time a Prime Minister lost his seat in Parliament was Stanley Bruce in 1929. Now, the ALP's Maxine McKew stands an excellent chance of toppling you. You have been a member of Federal Parliament since 1974 and Prime Minister since 1996, so do you really want to prolong the agony?

It's time, John. John, John - are you listening anymore?

John, can you hear that ringing in the distance?

"For whom the bells toll?" you ask.

"They toll for thee".

Yours sincerely


The People of Australia

Liberals set to lose Ryan

With all the huffing and puffing over the Goodna Bypass - which most people realise is a very poor substitute for upgrading the Ipswich Motorway - leaked figures now show that the Liberal Member for Ryan, Michael Johnson is in real trouble at the upcoming Federal election.

His hold on his blue-ribbon western suburbs' seat is now described as "ultra-marginal".

The research has probably been leaked by the Liberal Party as payback across its bitter and mostly-acrimonious factions.

Michael Johnson should be very concerned because the Labor Party won the seat for the first time at the 2001 by-election, when Leonie Short had a spectacular victory over the former State Liberal Party President Bob Tucker.

The people had had a enough of the Liberal Party back in 2001 and its seems that lightning might be ready to strike twice in the same place.

The seat of Ryan had been a very safe Liberal seat since it was first created in 1949.

After the brief hold by the ALP, it went back to the Liberal Party when Michael Johnson won the seat at the ensuing general election in 2001.

The cause of the current anger against the Liberal Party in Ryan is the support given by Michael Johnson to his mate in the adjoining seat of Blair, Cameron Thompson over the Goodna Bypass.

Michael Johnson should realise that voters aren't dills and by shoving a major motorway through the picturesque suburb of Moggill, along with forced property resumptions and a real reduction in the lifestyle enjoyed by the local residents, there will be a severe reaction against him and the government.

Ryan might be the "jewel in the crown" for the Liberal Party is Queensland but Michael Johnson will undoubtedly experience some real gut-wrenching pains in the near future when the election results flow in.

And on election night, he might be heard to say: "If only I hadn't listened to that self-appointed traffic engineer Cameron Thompson who forced this abominable bypass on me".

Cameron Thompson caught out again

The Liberal member for Blair Cameron Thompson has been caught out again, this time denying claims that the Federal Government is planning a nuclear waste dump for the Ipswich suburb of Redbank, 28km west of Brisbane.

The Labor Member for Oxley Bernie Ripoll has released terrifying details of a 40-year old plan stored in the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library showing plans for the facility. This master stroke by Bernie Ripoll, so close to the Federal election, has flushed out the "single issue" Cameron Thompson, who thinks the whole of the next election in Blair will revolve around the Goodna Bypass.

Ipswich has a population of 150,000 and despite the autocue denial by Cameron Thompson of a nuclear waste facility for Ipswich, the average punter knows that where there's smoke there's fire!

The Queensland National Party Government was defeated in 1989 over a similar plan to establish a radioactive waste dump at Smith Street Redbank. The incoming Goss Labor government immediately scrapped the proposal after hundreds of people were arrested in the fight to save the suburb.

The Federal Liberal Government has elevated hypocrisy to new heights by delaying a decision on a nuclear industry in Australia until after the election - with Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba earmarked as possible nuclear reactor sites.

Cameron Thompson was caught out over the issue when he denied the possibility of a nuclear dump in Ipswich but was forced to admit that he had not even seen the map held in the Parliamentary Library. What a dill!

Is this one of Cameron's "core promises" or "non-core promises". Perhaps, he could ask the Prime Minister who is the master purveyor of such base, gutter politics.

Cameron Thompson is an ex-ABC radio journalist whose slippery political denials are legendary around Ipswich. When caught out over the latest disclosure, he was quoted as saying there was "no prospect whatsoever" of the waste facility being built in Ipswich.

And, yes - there was a pig flying across the skies of Ipswich when Cameron Thompson made that utterly delusional promise, which had not received Prime Ministerial approval to be made.

According to an opinion poll released today, the people of Blair will be represented by the ALP's Shayne Neumann before the end of the year. And Cameron Thompson is now panicking because Shayne Neumann has performed the renowned Indian political trick and "crept up" on him over the past 3 years!

Given that the election of a Labor Government seems to be the only way to stop this Liberal Party nuclear lunacy, Cameron Thompson seems to have given up all hope of the Liberal Party winning the upcoming election and is probably slowly counting down the days to when he is kindly referred to as the "former Member for Blair".

Sudanese debacle: Vanstone better than Andrews

I never thought that I would publicly say that the former Minister for Immigration Amanda Vanstone was a much more decent, compassionate and less-racist Minister than her successor Kevin Andrews.

On reflection, that would not be hard - given the recent, right-wing racist rantings of this hapless Minister.

Kevin Andrews is such a sour-puss, he must suck a couple of lemons for breakfast every day.

Fresh from his recent debacle over his outrageous cancellation of Dr Mohamed Haneef's visa - a decision promptly overturned by the Federal Court of Australia - Kevin Andrews has now embarked on an unprincipled attack on Sudanese refugees to Australia.

Will this man ever stop?

He has cut the total intake of Sudanese refugees from a potential 50 percent of Australia's refugee intake to 30 percent - justifying it with all of his usual Ministerial clap-trap and his regular denial that he is racist.

Even the Brisbane Liberal MP Gary Hardgrave - recently cleared by the Australian Federal Police over allegations relating to the running of his electorate office - stupidly bought into the argument with his unsubstantiated assertion that his community was "exhausted" by the influx of African refugees and needed a break.

Of course, that's right. It must be right if Gary Hardgrave says it's right. Why only yesterday, I drove through the leafy suburb of Moorooka deep in the heart of Gary Hardgrave's electorate and all I could see were white Australians lying over all the footpaths in total exhaustion screaming: "Save us Gary, save us".

If bullsh*t was made of electricity, Gary Hardgrave would be a walking powerhouse!

The way things are going, the people of Gary Hardgrave's southside electorate of Moreton won't have to put up with him much longer. Yes, Gary - there is a light at the end of the tunnel for the Sudanese and it is a train load of your voters coming the other way!

In southeast Queensland, there are some 6000 Sudanese in Brisbane, Ipswich and Toowoomba. In the Ipswich suburb of Goodna, which is home to over 90 individual nationalities, the Sudanese have been welcomed by the community and have fitted in as model citizens. Embracing such a diverse, multicultural community is one of the hallmarks of the local Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale whose own family emigrated from Sicily over 50 years ago.

Coming back to Kevin Andrews.

Yes, Virginia - there is a racist in Australia and his name is Kevin Andrews, posing as the Minister for Immigration.

Come Christmas, he won't have much to do in Opposition. He may even be queueing up to receive his first dole cheque.

And hopefully, the Honourable Kevin Andrews will be remembered as the last racist Immigration Minister Australia has ever had to endure.

Brendan Nelson earns "Arch Conservative" Award

Just when the rest of Australia was warming to the idea of cutting our apron strings with Mother England and creating an Australian Republic, up pops Dr Brendan Nelson with his right-wing rhetoric at the opening of the Australians for Constitutional Monarchy conference in Sydney.

And what a spectacular crowd for the annual conference. With an Australian population of 20 million, a grand total of 60 lost souls turned up to hear the former ear ring studded Minister sing the praises of the English Monarchy.

Dr Nelson praised the virtues of having Queen Elizabeth as Queen of Australia yet fell short of telling the gobsmacked political troglodytes as to what his views might be when the Queen's recalcitrant first-born son becomes King Charles of Australia.

How absurd it will be when we have to sing "God Save the King" during future Royal tours by Bonnie King Charlie with his ex-mistress Queen Camilla in tow.

Even Peter Costello embraces an Australian republic yet Dr Nelson perseveres in the past, describing himself as "not a royalist, but ... a monarchist".

Not a sensible Minister, just an opportunistic dill!

John Howard's Dicky Wiki Explanation!

John Howard continues to treat the people of Australia as dimwits over his claims that he did not direct any of his staff to systematically change Australia's history by altering less-than-flattering Wikipedia entries regarding himself and his government.

Of course, he didn't. You don't have to Einstein to know that John Howard doesn't personally direct all of the political spin and media clap-trap emanating from his office on a daily basis.

And to have public servants involved in this deceptive process is nothing short of a national scandal.

Now, the Ministerial Class Clown Alexander Downer has weighed into the argument with his profound assertion that it is not illegal to alter Wikipedia entries. Der! Surely Alexander, you have heard of political ethics? Well, come to think of it, maybe you haven't!

Those fishnet stockings have obviously been too tight around the more-intellectual part of Alexander Downer's anatomy causing a brain implosion of unprecedented proportions.

When John Howard is finally given his marching orders by the people of Australia, history will record that he has been one of the most-conniving, manipulative and slippery Prime Ministers that this country has ever seen.

Hopefully by then, Wikipedia will have devised a system to ensure that the Liberal Party's rag-tag rabble of dishonest internet users have been stopped in their tracks forever.

Dr Haneef and the Australian Federal Police

The Australian Federal Police have a hide to be making an official complaint about the release by respected Brisbane solicitor Peter Russo of the second interview the AFP conducted with Dr Mohamed Haneef.

This transcript shows conclusively that Dr Haneef had no knowledge of any planned terrorist activities on the other side of the world.

The AFP have been party to one of the greatest acts of bastardry seen for many years with their selective release of PART of the transcript of the first interview with Dr Haneef. Yet this group of semi-incompetents seems they will never give up.

Are they being improperly directed or manipulated by their political masters?

The AFP is crying foul because the WHOLE of the transcript has been released. Surely, releasing the entire transcript is the only fair and honest thing to do, rather than the selective quotes readily supplied to the Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews for worldwide release.

What does the AFP have to hide besides their bumbling ineptitude over this matter?

Fair dinkum, they have now earned the title of the Australian Keystone Cops with this impressive performance of dubious political intrigue, kow-towing to a Minister whose handling of his portfolio could be better performed by an untrained gorilla.

After being forced to drop the trumped-up charge against Dr Haneef, AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty must now feel he is in the twilight of his long career. You would think that he might be prepared to be a little contrite about the AFP's handling of this tawdry affair.

Otherwise, Commisioner Keelty will go down in Australian policing history by being regarded by many people as the worst commissioner the AFP has ever had.