Bush and Hu in Canberra Part 1

Presidents Bush and Hu in Australia

Presidents Hu Jin Tao and George W Bush are in Australia today, with President Bush giving an address to a Joint Sitting of Federal Parliament this day and the Chinese President Hu tomorrow. A major event in Australias diplomatic history, to have the leaders of the two most powerful nations on Earth here to address our democratically elected representatives in Canberra (Our Bush Capital). President Hu spoke to businessmesn in Sydney NSW today and a secure President Bush thanked Australia for its assistance with Afghanistan and Iraq with an intervention by the Greens Seanators Bob Brown and a Senator Kerry Nettle.

"I want to thank the people of Australia for a gracious welcome. Five months ago your Prime Minister was a distinguished visitor of ours in Crawford, Texas at our ranch. You might remember that I called him a 'man of steel' - that is Texan for 'fair dinkum'." See a video of Bush's address to Parliament complete with the interjections and the gentlemanly response from Dubya. A robust democracy like Australia does have to put up with rude comments by some members from time to time and, as President Bush commented "I love free speech.".

Free Speech does require tollerance of opposition of oneself or organisation within wide bounds. I personally am opposed to some foreign policy of the US and such, have been accused of being un-American and anti-American, however such bold rhetoric is just not true. Those that support the Republicans in the US 100% are some of those who do not allow any criticism of their Presidents Foreign Policy, and such characterisations are used to marginalise opposition, sometimes to good effect, even if it is untrue.

President Hu is here on trade matters and I expect his speech to Parliament to cover those topics relevant to his objectives here. I'll have more to say after I've had time to read the newspapers tomorrow morning.