Political Amnesia and Howard's Ten Years : Melbourne Indymedia

Over the last week or so the mainstream press has been saturated with pieces covering the legacy of the Howard Government.
The pieces have generally followed the following format - they have acknowledged briefly Howard's "divisive" qualities but basically stated that because his Government has supposedly been "good for the economy" we should all be grateful.
I haven't heard or read the word liar or racist been used once in a mainstream context which is incredible given the ten year record of the Howard Government. The only example usually given where Howard's credibility has been strained is on the issue of WMD's and the invasion of Iraq but even this is only given a cursory mention.
Just from the top of my head I can think of the following events which show both this Governments racism, repressiveness
and its consistent propensity for lying to the public
- The "eight billion dollar blackhole" the government discovered upon election to office that meant it had "no choice" but to slash public funding for health, welfare and education.
- the introduction of the regressive GST despite denials before coming to office of their intentions
- the curtailing of Native Title Rights with the "Wik" legislation.
- the lies and secrets surrounding the training of scabs by the military in Dubai prior to the MUA dispute where the PM and senior Ministers lied about their involvement
- the Children Over Board scandal where the Prime Minister and his senior ministers again lied
- the racist treatment of the Tampa and the subsequent establishment of the "Pacific Solution"
- the lies and cruelty that has occurred in the past decade in the running of on-shore immigration detention facilities.
- Howard's implicit support for the ideas of Pauline Hanson through "dog whistle statements" and a refusal to condemn her ideas and then the subsequent adoption of much of her platform
- the wrongful imprisonment and deportation of Australian citizens in Australian immigration detention
- the lies surrounding the invasion of Iraq
- the failure to sign the Kyoto Agreement and massive subsidies to the coal industry. They have also promoted the expansion of Uranium mining and other parts of the nuclear cycle such as reactors and waste dumps.
- the AWB lies
- the introduction of regressive and unpopular IR laws
- ballooning spending on Defence as the Government increasing make the Australian military another division of the U.S. "Foreign Legion".
- the racist scapegoating of Muslims both at home and abroad
- the introduction of draconian and undemocratic security laws which have wiped out centuries of hard won legal rights such as the presumption of innocence and the right to not be detained without trail.

The message from the press on these issues has to play a game of political amnesia. They simply don’t mention most of these events in their analysis. If they do allude to the Governments lies or racism - euphemisms are used at best. The underlying message is that Howard is one of "us" - from middle Australia who represents "our values". Interest rates are low - sales of plasma televisions are up so everything must be right in the world.
This is a deliberate attempt to cover up the fact Howard represents no-one except the elites interests. His racism which is supported by large sections of the population is used as an example of how Howard stands with the "common man" at the same time as he attacks the rights and living conditions of ordinary people. This same divide and rule politics - particularly in regards to Muslims has justified our involvement in the Imperialistic wars of the U.S. Empire to control the oil of the Middle East.
I am not a political expert - the above list is I am sure far from complete - but the absence of analysis of such events by the mainstream press in their "retrospectives" on the Howard Government is pathetic.