from The Australian, Nov 21

.. regarding a senior longstanding and favorite minister in John Howard's Australian government. This is but one example of the shameless viciousness which is permeating this country, from the very top down. This is your government's Iraq ally, Americans .. be proud ..

In a wide-ranging speech to Adelaide Rotarians, Senator Vanstone dismissed many commonwealth security measures as essentially ineffective. "To be tactful about these things, a lot of what we do is to make people feel better as opposed to actually achieve an outcome," Senator Vanstone said.

Unaware that a journalist from Adelaide's Sunday Mail newspaper was in the lunchtime audience last Wednesday, Senator Vanstone complained about being forced to use plastic knives on aircraft and revealed a bizarre discussion with John Howard about the potential to hijack a plane using a pencil.

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During her Adelaide speech, Senator Vanstone implied the use of plastic cutlery on planes to thwart terrorism was foolhardy.

"Has it ever occurred to you that you just smash your wine glass and jump at someone, grab the top of their head and put it in their carotid artery and ask anything?" Senator Vanstone told her audience of about 100 Rotarians. "And believe me, you will have their attention. I think of this every time I see more money for the security agencies."

The Immigration Minister also told of a grisly conversation with Mr Howard during a discussion on increased spending on national security.

Senator Vanstone said: "I asked him if I was able to get on a plane with an HB pencil, which you are able to, and I further asked him if I went down and came and grabbed him by the front of the head and stabbed the HB pencil into your eyeball and wiggled it around down to your brain area, do you think you'd be focusing? He's thinking, she's gone mad again."

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Arch Bevis, Labor homeland security spokesman, said Senator Vanstone's "utterly bizarre and shockingly trivial" speech rendered her unfit for office.
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Mr Bevis said Senator Vanstone's comments on wielding weapons in planes were irresponsible. "If she made comments like that getting ready to board a plane, she'd be arrested," he said.