Australian Prime Minister John Howard promised yesterday not to let his Oct. 9 election triumph go to his head as he was formally reappointed leader of his Liberal Party.
Howard, reanointed to lead Australia for his fourth consecutive term, signalled again that reform of industrial relations legislation is a top priority.
PHOTO: EPA
But he promised sober government and vowed to keep his election promises.
"There's been a lot of comment about what we might do if we are fortunate enough to have a majority in our own right in the Senate," he told a meeting of Liberal Party legislators.
"The answer to that is very simple -- we'll do what we promised the Australian people we'll do and that does mean reforming Australia's industrial relations system.
"It does mean implementing other things which we have repeatedly taken to the Australian public. But we won't be allowing that circumstance to go to our head."
The 65-year-old veteran politician won a decisive victory after campaigning on his strong economic track record and tough stance on security.
Apart from an increased majority in the House of Representatives, the government won control of the Senate for the first time in two decades. Many of its key reform objectives were previously blocked in the upper house.
The new Cabinet is expected to be announced in the next few days, although Howard has indicated that several key figures will keep their current posts.
Also, Australia would consider negotiating a new security treaty with neighboring Indonesia to strengthen ties and incorporate counter-terror cooperation, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday.
But Downer said there were no plans for Prime Minister John How-ard and Indonesian president-elect Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to discuss a new treaty when Howard visits Jakarta for the former general's inauguration tomorrow.
"I'm making it clear that it's something that we would be prepared to have a look at," Downer told Australian radio.
"Perhaps we'd look at the police co-operation between us and other areas where we could could enhance co-operation between Australia and Indonesia and make it something of substance."
Australia and Indonesian police have worked closely since the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, and again since a car bomb exploded outside Australia's Jakarta embassy last month, killing nine Indonesians.
Downer said some Indonesians would probably oppose a new security pact with Australia because they did not want a foreign policy too closely associated with the West.
"I always say to the Indonesians: `Well, you don't want to look at it terms of east and west or north and south but want to think of it in terms of neighborhood relations.' We're Indonesia's next-door neighbor," Downer said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in