Posted on 09/04/2005 5:36:32 PM PDT by naturalman1975
THE Opposition has ridiculed the Government's efforts to get diplomatic assistance to Australians stranded in the US hurricane disaster zone.
An Australian consular official from Atlanta has now been given approval to enter the devastated city of New Orleans.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today the official had permission to stay just until sunset and would be concentrating on locating two missing Australians.
But Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, said Mr Downer had achieved little.
"I don't know what planet Mr Downer is on, but he's not on planet New Orleans," he said.
"The bottom line is this – when it comes to helping Australians on the ground, the Australian Government has failed miserably to persuade its closest friend and ally, the United States Government, to allow Australian consular officials access to help our own people.
"When it came time to deliver, I've got to say it failed miserably because Australians have been left in the lurch on the ground in New Orleans.
"Not good enough Mr Downer, and for you to go to air this morning to congratulate yourself about getting the first consular official on the ground in New Orleans, one week after the hurricane hit, frankly, is just a joke."
Mr Rudd said the consular official would be able to achieve little in New Orleans in such a short amount of time. "You need a few days to allow people to assess the situation ... and to deploy personnel," he said.
"We have one official go in and can only stay there until night time and then has to skedaddle out of there.
"What's happening here? It's just not good enough."
Labor understood the constraints on the ground in New Orleans, Mr Rudd said, and had not been quick to criticise the Government's efforts.
But a week after the hurricane, the situation had dragged on too long, he said.
"If you've got Australian television crews on the ground helping to rescue Australian citizens ... people are legitimately asking the question, where is the Australian Government?
"Mr Downer's responsibility and John Howard's responsibility is to pick up the telephone to their best mates in Washington and fix it."
Um hmm. The Ozzie version of "Its all Bush's fault."
Perhaps he was told to "skeedaddle" for his own safety?
It's like hiring twenty-five trumpet players to screw in a lightbulb. One of them screws in the lightbulb and the rest stand around and say they could have done it better.
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