| Tom Schieffer, the former Bush appointed Ambassador to Australia and Japan, announced earlier this week that he is forming an Gubernatorial exploratory committee. While much has been made of his close ties to former President George W. Bush and his short stint as a conservative Democrat in the Texas House of Representatives in the 1970s, not much attention has been paid to his years as Ambassador. The Tally Room, an Australian-based blog, says Schieffer caused his share of "controversy" for openly criticizing the Australian government when he was Ambassador. In 2004, Schieffer criticized a Labor Party leader for proposed amendments to a U.S.-Australia Free Trade agreement.
Mr Schieffer warned yesterday that US certification of the deal was no longer certain because of the Opposition amendments.
"The concern we have about the amendment is that ... for patent law there's an attempt to carve out a special exception with regard to pharmaceuticals," he said.
"The concern we have is that if you were able to do that, then could you then carve out something later on for automotive parts or for this or that sector in the economy?"
The Opposition trade spokesman, Stephen Conroy, said Mr Schieffer had entered the debate without a clear understanding of what the Labor Party's amendments were about.
"What Tom Schieffer's comments suggest is that [Prime Minister] John Howard has negotiated a free trade deal that sells out the PBS [pharmaceutical benefits scheme]," Senator Conroy told ABC radio
....
"For people to be concerned that there have been changes to the Patents Act demonstrates that they haven't carefully examined Labor's amendments.
"In terms of other carve-outs, I repeat, there are not carve-outs here."
Senator Conroy said Labor had been attempting to ensure that the government and the parliament were not beholden to the drug companies, as they were in the US.
"The Bush administration have been a wholly owned subsidiary of the drug companies in the US for some time." he said.
Schieffer also went after the same Labor Party leader, Mark Latham, when Latham called for a plan to pull Australian troops out of Iraq. US Ambassador Tom Schieffer told The Age that Mr Latham's comments "could have very serious consequences beyond Australia." Such a move risked damaging the US alliance and could assist terrorists accomplishing larger goals, he said. Almost a month ago, when the Schieffer for Governor rumors began, I wrote, "I do think Schieffer could be a compelling candidate." Though I have been openly critical of his Republican ties, I am trying to take a "wait and see" approach to Ambassador Schieffer's campaign. While I sure haven't seen much to get excited about yet, if he is the Democratic nominee he will have my support. Having said that, the filing deadline is many months away and those Democats who look at Schieffer and think "We can do better" have plenty of time to find their candidate. |
