“I don’t
pretend to understand the universe,” wrote Thomas Carlyle, the 19th
century Scottish satirist, “it’s a great deal bigger than I am… people ought to
be modester.” It’s advice that, perhaps, our new Foreign Minister might care to
think about.
Only two
weeks into the job, Bob has already boasted of his desire to heal the rift
between Islam and the West (1500 years in the making), tidy up the oceans (a million
or so years in the making), solve the problem of self-immolating Tibetan monks
(1200 years in the making), sort out Labor’s nuclear energy dilemma (40 years
in the making) and stop dead in its tracks the rise of Tony Abbott (two years
in the making.)
Not to mention coughing up to help a Sydney couple with their hefty
million dollar hospital bill following the birth of their premature baby in
Canada that Bob hopes to take care of. With our money, presumably.
All of which would be extremely laudable except for one tiny caveat. The
only foray Bob has actually made into what is, after all, the most important
function of his new role – ensuring smooth relationships with our closest
neighbours - ended in embarrassment and humiliation all round.
“As I said to Foreign Minister Pala… my
recent comments have been misunderstood and used out of context,” the good
senator claimed, falling back on spin (surprise, surprise) to cover up what was
an arrogant and foolish error – in his first week, no less - that no experienced
diplomat would ever allow to occur.
Bob Carr’s ambitions have always outstripped his abilities. It’s no good
being a “policy wonk” if nothing substantial emerges from your ponderings and
pontifications. Ten years as Premier of our most important state is a long time
in which you would expect a man of Carr’s promise to actually notch up a few historic
runs on the board. Particularly given his unfettered power (there were never
any Rudd or Turnbull –style rivals to trouble him) and a Treasury awash with
real estate boom dividends. Yet apart from Nikki Webster dangling over the
crowds in Homebush and 120,000 hectares of bush-fire prone National Parks, the
student of NSW political history struggles to find any earth-shatteringly impressive
achievements from his time in office. Certainly nothing on a par with his recently-stated
lofty goals.
It’s all very well to go overboard on the Samuel P. Huntington and
despair of “the dystopic nightmare of a clash of civilisations” or to try and
out-do Tim Flannery by whipping up fear about the “tipping point” and
“emergence of huge dead areas'' of the oceans. But, like his predecessor Kevin
Rudd, the impression left is that Carr is running his own agenda, hurriedly preparing
his CV in the hope of following mentor Gareth Evans into a cushy career in
Brussels or Geneva if Labor loses the next election.
As Thomas Carlyle also observed: "A man lives
by believing something; not by debating and arguing about many things."
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