BY SARAH STEPHEN
Should we turn our backs? Should we wear white or black armbands? Should we sit during the standing ovation? Should we refuse to clap? After weeks of parliamentarians debating how to receive US President George Bush, all such symbolic gestures were overshadowed by the actions of the two Greens senators, Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle.
Brown interrupted Bush's speech to say: "Mr Bush, this is Australia. Respect our nation's laws. Return our Australian citizens from Guantanamo Bay. If you respect the world's laws, the world will respect you." He was shouted down and asked to leave the chamber, but refused. According to the Sydney Morning Herald's Margo Kingston, writing in her October 24 web diary, "Howard went bright red and stayed that way for the rest of the speech. His hand clutched the lectern in front of him."
Eighteen-year-old Ahmed Habib, whose father Mamdouh has been held in Guantanamo Bay for two years without charge, was in the public gallery with his family as guests of Brown. Habib called out, "What about my father's rights?" during the speech and was promptly removed from the gallery by security staff.
When Nettle rose to protest the proposed US-Australia free trade agreement, the Coalition shouted her down as well. But when Bush responded that "I love free speech", MPs broke into wild laughter and applause.
Asked what she thought of Brown's interjections, Daisy Cousens from Sydney high school Monte Sant Angelo, one of 40 hand-picked school students in the public gallery, told the October 24 Sydney Morning Herald: "They stood up for what they believed and showed support for those people in Guantanamo Bay. They weren't scared by how much George Bush is the most powerful man the world".
Both senators tried to approach Bush. Nettle wanted to present a letter from Habib's wife. They were assaulted by a scrum of Coalition MPs trying to hold them back, reminiscent of the behavior of police holding back the demonstrators outside, and Nettle claims that Liberal Senator Ross Lightfoot told her to "die". Despite their efforts, Brown managed to shake Bush's hand and say: "I hope you will release our citizens from Guantanamo Bay".
In an October 23 press release, Democrats leader Andrew Bartlett called the Greens' protest "stupid, disrespectful and counterproductive". Bartlett was a poor judge of the reception that Brown and Nettle's actions would receive. On October 24, newspapers across the country were filled with appreciative and sympathetic letters. A poll on the SMH web site received 20,000 responses in a day, and almost two-thirds supported Brown's actions.
Press photographers were barred from the parliamentary chamber, but thanks to CNN's defiance of government orders, footage of the Greens' protest has been beamed around Australia and the world.
Harry Quick was alone in his decision to wear a white arm-band, despite voicing his hope at the Sydney rally the day before that he would be joined by fellow Labor MPs such as Jennie George and Tanya Plibersek. Instead, Plibersek led the charge in undermining the impact of Quick's potentially embarrassing actions by drafting a letter to the US president which was signed by 41 Labor MPs, politely expressing their opposition to a war conducted outside the auspices of the UN.
From Green Left Weekly, October 29, 2003.
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