SYDNEY -- Two weeks of hard-sell diplomacy in New York and Jakarta have left Australian Prime Minister John Howard feeling a little cheesed off. Back home, his wins are being downplayed. And as Parliament opens its autumn sitting in Canberra, his mind is strictly on urgent domestic problems.
Such is the smiling resilience of the man, however, that he is giving a rather neat impression of a national leader triumphantly returning as a world statesman who defused an Indonesia standoff while reaffirming Australia as America's most trusted ally.
Media cynics, meanwhile, are demanding to know where the much-vaunted free trade agreement with the United States is in return for Canberra's armed commitment to the Washington war on terrorism. And where is there a deal to help Canberra control the illegal immigrants boating here via Indonesia?