Review 22.9
27 June - 24 July 1997

Is it asking too much of our national parliamentarians that they demonstrate financial responsibility, racial tolerance, political sensitivity, and yet also contain their bizarre agendas?

Confronted with Ross Lightfoot, Australia's newest Senator, explaining his remarks that Aborigines were "the bottom colour of the civilisation spectrum," caused national anxiety. Lightfoot's attempt to defuse the issue was to explain that in reality he was referring to Aborigines "in their native state." Such is the Senator's contempt for indigenous Australians that this was the best explanation he could offer until a dressing down from Prime Minister John Howard yielded the prompt announcement that, suddenly, Senator Lightfoot 'no longer holds those views.'

Now, during a period of tension over social and racial issues, it's tempting to claim that Senator Lightfoot's emergence from Western Australia on to the national stage could have been predicted. Perhaps our expectations are lower now. Far preferable it would be to dismiss him, like a good many of our Ômaverick' politicians - as a colourful and outspoken character; a ranting old uncle; a silly old fool. Not this time. As the Review cover story illustrates, Ross Lightfoot is far from a benign figure who can safely be granted indulgence.

His public record speaks for itself: repeated and concerted pseudo-anthropological denigrations of Aboriginal culture; efforts to defend extremist groups like the League of Rights; his many calls for the secession of Western Australia; his role in the tragic Penny Easton affair; his disturbing financial affairs and his bizarre letter to former US Secretary of State George Shultz, which risked sabotaging Australia's economic interests. Ross Lightfoot is no mere time server.

Having entered the Western Australian Legislative Assembly in 1986, Lightfoot's exploits were well known in his home state. The obvious question is: how on earth did the Liberal Party nominate such a liability as Mr Lightfoot to fill the Senate vacancy arising from the death of John Panizza?

Perhaps Mr Lightfoot's nomination is not so remarkable when one recalls that the Liberal Party also preselected Pauline Hanson - an offence only mitigated by the fact that she was both an unknown quantity back then, and was later disendorsed. Not so with Senator Lightfoot, who carries more than just a notorious public record.

Just a few inquiries would have revealed that the mining company of which he was Chairman is now in liquidation, with more than $2 million lost by unsecured creditors. Compounding this is the revelation in documents obtained by the Review from the Australian Securities Commission that the Australian Federal Police last year investigated Ross Lightfoot's company A-CAP, although no charges were laid. If all this isn't enough, Senator Lightfoot has been invited by the Federal Government to join the Coalition's Aboriginal Affairs backbench committee - a sad indication of contempt for those who have been critical of the Government's approach to indigenous issues. And given Senator Lightfoot's record of travel allowance abuse and directorship of companies now in liquidation, it's hard to feel comfortable about his appointment to the Senate Finance and Public Administration References Committee.

Clearly, however he likes to cast himself, Ross Lightfoot is no unwitting dupe. The man has the taste for a scrap, and an ego too large to pass up the opportunity for a little notoriety. He has never been forced to do anything. His letter to George Shultz was his initiative alone, and a stunningly rash misjudgment. His defence of the League of Rights - no-one put him up to it; and the League's unsavoury ideological baggage is well known. Nor was his signature on a Lyndon LaRouche-inspired petition given at gunpoint. His role in the bitter political (and personal) dog-fight over the Eastons was a highly active one. And most critically now, Lightfoot's reference to Aborigines was not a one-off incident, but rather, as the Review documents, part of a 10-year campaign of denigration and contempt for Aborigines which despite the Prime Minister's warnings, he has continued to pursue. There are probably many Federal Liberals who would prefer that Senator Lightfoot was not on their team. It is also doubtful that Senator Lightfoot would ever gain a Ministerial portfolio. After all, six years in the WA Parliament brought him no such position in the Court Liberal Government.

Yet as a Senator, Lightfoot is in a position to play a damaging role on the national stage, lending legitimacy to intolerance and credibility to racists. Mr Lightfoot's elevation to the Senate comes at a bad time. The integrity of many of Australia's politicians has perhaps never been held in such low esteem. Sensitivities about racism and Aboriginal concerns are heightened over the often polarised and intolerant nature of social debate - see Wik, the Stolen Children and Pauline Hanson's One Nation. We have the right to expect a higher calibre of national politician.

Perhaps there was a time when a less sophisticated and more insular Australia was prepared to tolerate political figures in the Ross Lightfoot mould. That time has long since passed.