KEY POINTS:
CANBERRA - The government has ordered the Australian cricket team's tour of Zimbabwe be scrapped, Prime Minister John Howard says.
"The government through the foreign minister has written to the organisation of Cricket Australia instructing that the tour not go ahead," Mr Howard told the ABC.
"We don't do this lightly but we are convinced that for the tour to go ahead there would be an enormous propaganda boost to the Mugabe regime.
"The Mugabe regime is behaving like the Gestapo towards its political opponents. The living standards in the country are probably the lowest of any in the world, you have an absolutely unbelievable rate of inflation.
"I have no doubt that if this tour goes ahead it will be an enormous boost to this grubby dictator."
"We do have power over people's passports," he said.
"We have made our position very clear. We've written to Cricket Australia, I think Cricket Australia does understand our position."
Cricket Australia has been reluctant to announce a ban on the September one-day series because that would have made it potentially liable for a A$2.4 million ($2.7 million) compensation payment to Zimbabwe.
Mr Howard said a government ban, which would avoid incurring a fine, was the best course of action, even though it pained him as a cricket lover.
"It's pretty obvious to me that the players and the body wanted to act in conformity with public opinion but in the end, not surprisingly, they wanted a situation where the decision was taken by the government and not the players," he said.
"I don't think it's fair to leave a foreign policy decision of this magnitude on the shoulders of young sportsmen.
"It's much better, in the end, for the government to take the rap.
"I hope the rest of the cricketing world understands that and it would be a very good idea if the rest of the cricket world adopted the same attitude towards Mugabe's regime.
"I'm not going to stand around and allow some kind of aid and comfort be given to him by the greatest cricketing team in the world visiting his country."
The propaganda victory President Robert Mugabe would get from an Australian cricket tour of his country would far outweigh any benefit it could give to children and young cricketers in the African country, Mr Howard said.
He called on other African nations to take a sterner line against the Mugabe regime.
"This country is a disaster. It has an appalling HIV-Aids problem, its living standards have sunk to rock bottom, it's got an inflation rate which reminds you of the Weimar (Republic), pre-Nazi Germany which we read about in our history books," Mr Howard said.
"It's an appalling situation."
Mr Howard said he was sceptical about allowing the tour to go ahead on a neutral venue, as Zimbabwe's cricket team could face persecution from Mugabe's henchmen if they participated.
- AAP
