Melbourne, 8 August 2004: "Fahrenheit 9/11" is stirring -if incomplete-cinema. I left the theatre impressed by the powerful case against President Bush, presented with scary detail and memorable satire. And I recalled the words of Joseph de Maistre from 1811: "Every country has the government it deserves." Does this mean that the American public bears some responsibility for the disasters created by Mr Bush?

Two days later, I had the privilege of hearing the great Australian civil rights advocate, Julian Burnside QC, spell out in chilling detail atrocities inflicted by the our Federal Government on asylum seekers and detainees. Again, the same question emerges: "Are we Australians equally guilty"?

Mr Bush’s opponents predict that "Fahrenheit 9/11" will play a contributing role in unseating the President in the November elections. It is a persuasive weapon but, even so, it by no means reveals the total extent of the darkness that envelops the President.

A far more comprehensive two-part report was aired on SBS - "The World According to George Bush". Produced in France, it squarely faced issues that even Mr Moore avoided. But it must be said, that the program is so damning, there is no possibility of it ever being seen in the United States.

The documentary referred to the shameful reputation of Mr Bush’s grandfather, Senator Prescott Bush. It alleged that as a powerful New York banker, he had close relationship with the Third Reich and in fact continued business dealings with leading Nazis after the declaration of War.

"The World According to George Bush" also spelt out in detail the extent of the President’s link to the so-called Christian Right. These believers have a fanatical commitment to Israel. Scenes showed the Prime Minister, Mr Sharon, receiving an overwhelming welcome at a huge U.S. rally - like the frenzy accorded some rock star. The narration claimed that these Christian extremists were even "more pro-Israel than the U.S. Jewish lobby".

Unlike Michael Moore, the French production highlighted the links between Mr Bush, his circle of Neo-Conservatives (notably Vice President Cheney) and the Right-wing Israeli Administration. It stressed the suffering of the Palestinian people. And claimed that peace will never descend on the Middle East, nor will the war on terror be won, until Washington jettisons its one-sided policy.

Mr Burnside, accompanied by his equally-committed wife Kate Durham, spoke to more than 100 people at a function held at the new "Anatolia Village" Restaurant, in Broadmeadows, Victoria. The occasion was organised by the Islamic Forum, the Melbourne City Circle.

In an hour-long presentation he exposed the cruelty of the Federal Government in its policies towards asylum seekers and detainees. The pain imposed on innocent people, most of them fleeing from the evils of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban, caused distress in the audience. Many of them had direct contacts to the Middle East and South Asia.

He gave repeated examples of specific incidents - stories of cruelty that resonated with images of totalitarian states and prison abuse that could easily have been from Abu Ghraib in Baghdad. There were two stories that typified the abuse:

* A little girl attempted to hang herself inside Melbourne’s own detention camp in Maribyrnong. And then she tried to poison herself by drinking shampoo. She was ten years old.

* An Iranian was ordered to strip naked in front of his 7-year-old daughter and when he refused, he was beaten and flung into solitary confinement. While there, the little girl was secretly smuggled away to Iran - he couldn’t even say "goodbye".

At one time, more than 482 children were facing this prison horror.

Mr Burnside explained that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims that every person has a right to seek asylum in any territory to which they can gain access. But in Australia they are locked up indefinitely and in conditions of shocking harshness.

This has not only been the rule of the Australian centres, but also for those victims of the so-called "Pacific Solution", who end up trapped in heat and depravity in New Guinea and Nauru prisons.

"The ones we lock up", Mr Burnside said, "are not the 55,000 who overstay their visas and simply remain in the country without permission. The ones we lock up are those few who have come by sea, of whom 90% turned out to be genuine refugees - already traumatised by the circumstances which bring them here".

He spoke of two significant tragedies:

* The 433 refugees, who nearly drowned late August in 2001 when a derelict Indonesian boat sank and they were plucked from the water by the crew of the MV "Tampa". They then became a political football and the incident polarised Australia.

* Another 219 were on the SIEV4 fishing boat that was scuttled in the Indian Ocean on October 8, 2001 and allegations were made that children were thrown overboard during the rescue process. The Government was told these rumours were false, but it failed to inform the public till after the November elections.

The Howard Government has been condemned around the world for its refugee and detention abuses. The United Nations Human Rights Commission has described our detention centres as "offensive to human dignity". The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called the establishments "worse than prisons" and observed "alarming levels of self-harm". The National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention spoke of repeated failure - in protecting mental health, providing adequate health care and education, protecting those unaccompanied and disabled.

The Australian Human Rights Commission found that the centres were more like overnight police lock-ups than places suitable for the lengthy detention of people who have committed no crime.

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Recently Mr Burnside spoke with jurists from South Africa, once home of "apartheid". They said that Australia was now "a pariah state" in the eyes of the world.

With "Tampa" and "The Children Overboard", Mr Howard exploited the circumstances and was swept back to power in 2001 on a platform of getting tough with asylum-seekers. He adroitly played upon the public sense of uncertainty. Yet a quarter of a century before, Australians also spoke out against accepting Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees. But the Government of Mr Malcolm Fraser did not listen. Quietly, effectively, his administration ensured that they were successfully integrated, with dignity, into our community.

The American and Australian Administrations and people have questions to answer. From some perspectives, our record is worse.

Mr Bush and his team, utilising their power, make sweeping decisions with a broad brush. These are involved - officially or unofficially-with major issues such as war, diplomacy, globalisation (also corruption and nepotism). As Michael Moore revealed, a majority of citizens have supported their President in the politics of revenge since 9/11 and the disastrous consequences in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Both the American Administration and the general population will face the judgment of history for these actions.

In Australia, our Government has stirred controversy with its focus on a smaller theme. It has dealt directly with the human condition of asylum seekers- making judgments affecting specific people in situations of crises. The Canberra "ice-blood clique" — Messrs Howard, former Minister Peter Reith, Philip Ruddock, Darryl Williams and to a lesser extent Amanda Vanstone - seem immune to human rights and world opinion, and respond with contempt. They in fact consider that they are reflecting public opinion in their decisions, which if true would place the onus directly on all of us. History may also condemn Australians, both leaders and followers, for our moral failure at the start of this century.

There’s an additional burden shaming Australians — the countless deaths, wounds and sickness inflicted on the original inhabitants of this land since 1778. It may be questionable whether we are responsible for the crimes of the past, but we are certainly accountable for the widespread crimes of the present. I speak as a third-generation Australian. In our comfort and privilege, we are living alongside fellow citizens whose standard of living sinks to the depths - equal to the worst anywhere in the Third World.

What is happening in the land of "a fair go for all"?