SYDNEY -- Oh, the disgrace of it. Just as we were on our best behavior to receive the queen, the United Nations had to go and tell the whole world that Australia's treatment of its Aborigines is discriminatory and unsatisfactory.
Hardly a news flash to Canberra, where politicians of all stripes have argued for decades over how to better the lot of the indigenous 2 percent minority. But to have our racism scandals raked over by the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination while Queen Elizabeth II of England and Australia was touring the country -- well, it just isn't cricket.
The unrepentant Howard government has got off fairly lightly, all things considered. Voters, having rejected the chance to become a republic, were agog with the glamorous royal progress. As for the world's media, well, who cares about Down Under while the pope is praying in the Holy Land and U.S. President Bill Clinton is trying to defuse the Indian subcontinent.