An Election’s No Time For Principle – Rudd

On Tuesday morning, I was woken to the great news that Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Robert McClelland had committed a future ALP government to not only opposing the death penalty in all circumstances and in all cases, but to going so far as to forming a regional coalition in Asia to lobby for the complete abolition of the death penalty in our region.

I actually couldn’t imagine a better policy coming out of the alternative government, and when I was contacted by various media (including the Brisbane Times here) as convenor of Australians Against Capital Punishment, I roundly congratulated the ALP on this principled stand.

Within an hour of giving the interview, I heard the news that Kevin Rudd had come down on McClelland, first claiming the timing of speech – so close to the anniversary of the Bali Bombing, was insensitive, then not only reversing McClelland’s laudable position that our government would actively oppose capital punishment in all cases, not just when Australians were involved, but actually claimed there was no difference between the Liberal Party and ALP policy (here).

Yes, it was close to the anniversary of that awful tragedy and some of the Bali Bombers’ cases were in a crucial point in the appeals process, but it was also a critical point for the appeals of some of the young Australians facing execution in Indonesia over drug smuggling charges.