And another leftie bites the dust! Good riddance!
Sir John Howard
Former federal Labor minister John Button has died.
Acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced Mr Button's death at a
function in Melbourne on Tuesday morning.
Mr Button, 74, had been battling pancreatic cancer in recent months.
He died in Melbourne overnight, Ms Gillard said.
Labor figures has paid tribute to the former Hawke and Keating Labor
government minister.
As industry minister and Senate leader, Mr Button was at the heart of
government for a decade and the principal architect of modernised
Australian industry.
He also played a pivotal role in Bob Hawke becoming prime minister
when, a day before the 1983 election was called, he persuaded his
friend Bill Hayden to step down as opposition leader.
Ms Gillard said Mr Button always spoke his mind.
"John Button went into politics with the reputation of being an honest
man who spoke his mind and he came out of politics with the reputation
of being an honest man who spoke his mind," she told reporters.
"He was short in stature, but he was a legend of the Labor movement."
Ms Gillard paid her condolences to Mr Button's family and said he
would be much missed within the Labor Party.
Ms Gillard said she had known Mr Button through the Victorian branch
of the Labor Party and had always admired him.
He had made a great contribution to Australia's prosperity over 10
years as a minister in the Hawke government and as a leader in
economic debate, she said.
"He is particularly responsible for driving the economic debate in
this country during the era of the Hawke government," she said.
"When this country had to make difficult decisions about opening its
economy to the world, John Button was always a voice for reform."
John Norman Button, born in Ballarat on June 30, 1933, was educated at
Geelong College and studied law at the University of Melbourne.
His initial foray into politics was to campaign against the Menzies
government's referendum to ban the Communist Party during the early
1950s.
He joined the Communist Party, but only to get a free trip to a youth
festival in Moscow.
In 1959, he returned to Melbourne and joined leading Labor lawyers
Maurice Blackburn & Co. He stayed with the company, becoming a senior
partner, until elected to the Senate in 1974.
In the Labor Party he was a founder of a group called the participants
- whose members included future Hawke government ministers Barry Jones
and Michael Duffy and a future Victorian governor, Dick McGarvie - to
promote party reform and progressive policies.
After Hawke led Labor back to power in 1983 Mr Button, as the new
Senate leader, had the right to choose which ministry he took. He
chose industry because, having seen some very bad factories, he
thought it would be a challenge.
He was to stay there until he retired in 1993 - the longest tenure in
a single ministry in the Hawke-Keating governments.
As industry minister, Mr Button had to deal with complex industries
that had long been protected by high tariffs and quotas at a time when
the government was trying to drag Australia into a more globalised
world.
The Button Car Plan, as it was known, involved the steady withdrawal
of protection accompanied by greater government export incentives and
grants to encourage Australian design, while the industry reduced the
number of plants and models to gain economies of scale.
Perhaps Mr Button's most controversial decision was to spend $36
million over three years to keep Kodak's big factory in Melbourne.
Paul Keating, as treasurer, said it was one of the government's worst
decisions.
Mr Button retired from politics in 1993, but not from life.
He led trade missions; joined the board of what he regarded as smart,
as distinct from big, companies; became a professorial fellow at
Monash University; and wrote.
Ms Gillard said Mr Button would be remembered for reforming
Australia's car manufacturing industry with the so-called Button car
plan, which aimed to make the industry more efficient and allowed
import tariffs to be gradually wound back.
"When I go to visit car plants like the Toyota factory, both the
managers and the workers still talk about the Button car plan and
there is still an acknowledgment by them that the industry would have
been unlikely to still be here today if it hadn't been for the
visionary work of John Button," Ms Gillard said.
"So there will be people all around the nation who are stopping today
to reflect a moment on John Button's passing and my condolences go to
his family and friends."
The Geelong Football Club has paid tribute to Mr Button, who was
infatuated with the AFL club.
He had a special spot in his heart for one of the club's greats, Gary
Ablett Senior, Geelong Football Club president Frank Costa said.
Ablett played 242 games and kicked more than 1000 goals for the club,
with many considering him the greatest ever Australian rules football
player.
"It's really such an enormous shock, a huge disappointment and great
loss," Mr Costa said of Mr Button's death.
"He was absolutely infatuated with Gary Ablett Snr. But he knew almost
every player and play (tactic) very well."
When the Geelong Cats Sport Foundation was established four years ago,
the first person the club wanted as chairman was Mr Button.
"He agreed to do that straight away and he's been absolutely wonderful
in that role," Mr Costa said.
When the foundation held a meeting last week, Mr Button sent a note of
apology, saying he could not attend because he had medical
appointments.
"At that stage, we had no idea how bad his illness was," Mr Costa
said.
Mr Costa said it was one of the greatest moments in Mr Button's life
when Geelong won the grand final last year - the Cats' first
premiership since 1963.
"Both John and I never thought we'd live to see the Cats win another
final."
Mr Costa said Mr Button was a humble man, an ordinary footy fan, who
was warmly regarded by everyone at the club.
The club is to discuss a memorial for Mr Button.
Former prime minister Bob Hawke agreed that Mr Button elicited great
joy from the Cats' premiership just months before he was diagnosed
with pancreatic cancer.
"It (the premiership) was a moment of great joy for him and it was
very shortly after that, that he got the bad news about the disease
that very quickly killed him," Mr Hawke said.
Mr Hawke said it was significant in the lead-up to the 1983 election
that Mr Button, a very close friend of then leader Bill Hayden,
changed his alliance and backed Mr Hawke as the new leader.
Federal Industry Minister Kim Carr, Button's modern day counterpart,
said Button's achievements in modernising Australian industry were
unsurpassed.
"His achievements in modernising old industries and developing new
ones are unsurpassed," he told a conference in Canberra.
"(Prime ministers) Hawke and Keating captured the headlines in the
1980s with their bold macroeconomic reforms.
"But go into any factory in Australia and you'll find that it's
Button's contribution people remember."
It was Mr Button, more than anyone else, that Australians should thank
for all that the nation had achieved in manufacturing during the past
two decades.
"John was a mentor and an inspiration to me and it is an honour to
dedicate my work in this portfolio to his memory," he said.
A former political opponent says John Button brought wit and grace to
politics.
Fred Chaney, opposition leader in the Senate between 1983 and 1990,
paid tribute to the former Labor government minister and senator.
"He played a very significant role in opening up the Australian
economy and made a major contribution to restructuring Australian
industry," he said in a statement.
Mr Chaney sat opposite Mr Button, who was government leader in the
Senate, for seven years in the upper house of parliament.
"I held the same high opinion of him at the end of this period as I'd
held at the beginning," Mr Chaney said.
"He was a man who served Australia well.
"He brought wit and grace into politics (and) I will miss John as an
admired friend."
Mr Button's family had lost a very special person, Mr Chaney said.
------------------------------------------------
Yeah, this cunt was responsible for thousands of people losing their
jobs. Nice going, you stupid labour retard!
Don H
news:7bd4e8c1-7f98-4ff6...@u10g2000prn.googlegroups.com...
# Unfortunately, I tend to agree. "Social democrats", operating within a
capitalist environment, tend to be seduced by the concepts of efficiency,
growth, development, free trade, etc. When your "class enemies" praise you,
you've got to ask -"Where am I going wrong?"
What is the situation re Australian manufacturing today?
The lowering of tariffs has forced most of our textile, footwear,
car-components, etc, offshore. We now import from China that which we once
made ourselves.
Indeed, the deep dredging of Port Phillip Bay is to allow bigger container
vessels to deliver goods here - goods we once made ourselves.
We used to "ride on the sheep's back"; nowadays it is the "mineral boom".
We export minerals (and coal) to China, to help them manufacture goods,
which we then buy - which is why our balance-of-trade is only viable as long
as we have minerals to export.
So, the True Believers, or the Great Revisionists?
The Whitlam govt sacked the Leftwing junta in Victoria - probably to good
effect - but then itself was sacked in the Dismissal.
All good Catholic Laborites want a Republic (gets rid of the Protestant
Queen), but the Pope is to visit here later this year. He'll get a welcome
which any Royal would find hard to achieve.
The Rudd govt vows to be Fiscal Conservatives. Off to a good start, with
the razor gang in action? Should please the Top End of Town.
B J Foster
> http://news.smh.com.au/former-labor-minister-john-button-dies/20080408-24hs.html
>
> Former federal Labor minister John Button has died.
>
>
> The Button Car Plan, as it was known, involved the steady withdrawal
> of protection accompanied by greater government export incentives and
> grants to encourage Australian design, while the industry reduced the
> number of plants and models to gain economies of scale.
>
>
> "He was a man who served Australia well.
>
> "He brought wit and grace into politics (and) I will miss John as an
> admired friend."
>
> Mr Button's family had lost a very special person, Mr Chaney said.
>
> ------------------------------------------------
>
> Yeah, this cunt was responsible for thousands of people losing their
> jobs. Nice going, you stupid labour retard!
Hmmm...silly characterisation - calling someone a "leftie" who
implemented a major plank of globalisation - which in any case was part
& parcel of micro-economic reform.
If it weren't for the wisdom and foresight behind the micro-economic
reform we would be a banana republic. Mind you, after 11 years of John
Howard and a resources boom, why is the BoP negative and falling?
Top-right, last bar:
http://www.rba.gov.au/ChartPack/output_expenditure_activity_fincon.pdf
Rod Speed
> Unfortunately, I tend to agree.
More fool you.
> "Social democrats", operating within a capitalist
> environment, tend to be seduced by the concepts
> of efficiency, growth, development, free trade, etc.
And at the other extreme, you get the sort of fucked iron lung
approach that does no one any good and fucks the entire economy.
> When your "class enemies" praise you, you've got to ask -"Where am I going wrong?"
Only if you're as stupid as you and your ilk.
> What is the situation re Australian manufacturing today?
Just like every other modern first world country, we have noticed
that high labor input manufacturing is never going to be viable
here, and that it makes a hell of a lot more sense to have the
high labor imput manufacturing done in low labor cost countrys.
And when we now have the lowest unemployment
rate in 35+ years, thats clearly completely viable.
> The lowering of tariffs has forced most of our textile,
> footwear, car-components, etc, offshore. We now
> import from China that which we once made ourselves.
And that is the only thing that makes any sense, and we STILL
have an unemployment rate thats the lowest in 35+ years.
> Indeed, the deep dredging of Port Phillip Bay is to allow bigger container
> vessels to deliver goods here - goods we once made ourselves.
And we STILL have an unemployment rate thats the lowest in 35+ years.
> We used to "ride on the sheep's back"; nowadays it is the "mineral boom".
The current state of the economy is about a hell of a lot more than just the mining boom.
> We export minerals (and coal) to China, to help them manufacture
> goods, which we then buy - which is why our balance-of-trade is
> only viable as long as we have minerals to export.
And we will have minerals to export for centurys, a thousand years with some of them.
> So, the True Believers, or the Great Revisionists?
Or mindless silly stuff from you and your ilk.
> The Whitlam govt sacked the Leftwing junta in Victoria - probably
> to good effect - but then itself was sacked in the Dismissal.
Because that fool couldnt organise a pissup in a brewery and deserved the bums
rush he got so unceremoniously. If the voters hadnt decided that he had passed
his useby date, they would have reelected his govt. They werent THAT stupid.
> All good Catholic Laborites want a Republic (gets rid of the Protestant Queen),
They dont give a flying red fuck about shit like that anymore.
> but the Pope is to visit here later this year. He'll get a
> welcome which any Royal would find hard to achieve.
Because the stupids are god botherers, stupid.
> The Rudd govt vows to be Fiscal Conservatives. Off to a good start,
> with the razor gang in action? Should please the Top End of Town.
The top end of town is completely irrelevant. They've never mattered a damn.