Courtesy: Geoff Pryor

Standing in the fast checkout line at the local supermarket this morning, I picked up The Age to check the weather and was met by the headline, ABC gets a culture warrior. My gasp was so loud that I frightened the little old lady in front of me. There was no point in telling her why. You can tell 3AW listeners a mile away and she would either have approved of the article's contents -- Keith Windschuttle's appointment to the ABC board -- or not given a damn.

Maybe I'm wrong about the old lady, but not about Windschuttle. He is John Howard's official revisionist historian. If the decade of Howard's shameful reign were a movie, somewhere in the end credits would be a disclaimer similar to: "No aborigine's were harmed in the founding of this Aryan nation," with Keith Windschuttle's name following.

Michelle Grattan says his "appointment is beyond controversial. It is highly provocative, suggesting that those in the Government determined to strike a decisive blow at the ABC's culture have won out." Make that Australia's culture as well.

In his book, The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Windschuttle argued that the slaughter of Aborigines was a myth. This is akin to David Irving writing that the Holocaust was a myth. But Irving is now in disgrace worldwide, whereas Windschuttle has been elevated to a member of the board of Australia's national broadcaster.

This is an outrage from which the ABC -- and Australia -- may not recover. Everyone now on the board is a Howard appointee.

The Howard juggernaut appears unstoppable. His centralisation of power and gradual removal of human rights, first to asylum seekers, then to dissenters and working people, has no parallel in Australian history. Unless his own backbenchers revolt against this tin-pot dictator, Australia will be unrecognisable by the next election.

-- Chet LaMerde

Links:
Govt appoints ABC board members
The man behind the history wars takes on Aunty
ABC critic Windschuttle goes on board
Harsh critic boards the ABC