Social management must not be based on fear, and human rights must never be sacrificed for any material benefits.
In my humble opinion, damage caused by John Howard in his late years as prime-minister was enormous overweighting all his achievements. He was trying to spread fear and paranoia among Australians. Fear of terrorism, fear of refugees, fear of financial crisis, etc. ...
Also, he is responsible for Australia's involvement in Iraq, and, thus, some people view him as a war criminal.
I believe it is a shame for Australia to have such a prime-minister as John Howard. I do hope we will not repeat our mistakes by choosing someone similar.

That's interesting Andreas.

What do you call the carpetbaggers, trying to rip us off with the greatest fear campaign of all time, the Global Warming con?

If ever there were criminals in high places generating a fear campaign, that is mother of them all, & includes the current Prime, & Foreign ministers.

Dear Hasbeen,

Global Warming campaign is not a fear campaign at all. It is a Global Warning campaign about dangerous influence of human activities on our environment and, consequently, on ourselves.
For example, if physician warns about dangerous consequences of certain styles of life, diets, etc., intelligent persons would gratefully listen and take relevant actions. Fools and idiots would ignore such a warning. 'Intelligent' fools and idiots would consider themselves knowing better than a physician and promote contrary view.
Global warming and dangerous influence of human activities on our environment is not a subject for discussion, it is, unfortunately, indisputable fact confirmed by our scientists. Thus, it is also indisputable that we must address these issues. The disputable only matter are best means of dealing with these dangers for humanity.

Dear Hasbeen,

The global warming con? Carpetbaggers?

Oh dear. I guess "where there's smoke there's jobs,"
and we should keep on doing what we're doing because
who cares about cleaner choices in the future.

Australians
don't deserve a better deal because clean choices are
cheaper and more competitive than polluting ones. We
don't need new industries because the old ones will last
forever. We don't need new industries with high-paying skilled
jobs to be created for the future.

Oh dear.

Ulcers are caused by worry,

& the world was built in 6 days by a man with a long beard, wearing a dress.

If only you people had some math.

Never mind, we survived the majority of the population believing the earth was flat, & the moon was dragged into the sky by horses, didn't we?

Dear Hasbeen,

Don't be so hard on yourself,

It's important to remember that some people in
our society - are dull, self-satisfied, and
joylessly conformist. Not simply null and boring
but nullarboring. Not merely mindless, but
lobotomised. Of course, the option of putting a
price on carbon pollution involves taking some
considerable risks - but almost every human advance
is based on experiment, innovation and adventure.