Pixelated Semantics

A different kind of negotiation

According to Foreign Minister Downer, the Australian government actually does negotiate with terrorists. Demonstrating the usual high level of semantic elasticity, he said "It depends what you mean by negotiate... The Australian government would never offer money for the release of somebody, and we certainly wouldn't change any of our policies. But if, by negotiate, it means people should speak to these terrorists who are holding her and plead for her release, that's, of course, a different thing." Of course, we must have misunderstood the government when it told us they would never negotiate.

Howard told us "we cannot bargain with or negotiate with terrorists" on September 21, 2004. Downer on 09/10/2004 said he had contacted British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw last week to convey Australia's support for Britain's refusal to negotiate with the kidnappers [at the price of Ken Bigley's life.] On September 14, 2004 Howard was "adamant he will not negotiate with the terrorists." "We will not compromise" he said. On July 26, 2004 Howard told us "Australia would not negotiate with terrorists".

And so on. Obviously the definition of "negotiate" depends on who you are in the scheme of things, and seems to be as elastic as the rest of the government's vocabulary.

Item posted by AutoEditor at 3:07 pm ::