Monday 9th March 1998

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You won't read about it in the newspapers but Pauline Hanson's visit to Biloela on Friday was a storming success. Biloela is a small town miles from nowhere. The entire population of the area is about 3,000. An unheard of 15% of the population came out to hear what she had to say last Friday.

Here is an email from one of those who came:

Subject: I'm Sorry Pauline
Date: Sun, 8 Mar 1998 09:11:37 +1000

Dear Pauline,

I attended your meeting last Friday and with the hundreds of people there felt your courage and conviction and was (amazed) that you are not the two headed monster some of the media make you out to be. I would like to say sorry for the hurt inflicted on you by these media barons and there cronies who sell there souls for a few dollars a week.

Pauline you have a ARMY of honest Australians that do not make a lot of noise but will be right behind you when election time arrives.

Hang in there,
Richard K.
Biloela.

News Limited's Courier Mail have completely overlooked the spontaneous support that Hanson attracts in the bush with an article today perpetuating the theory that Hanson's decision to run for the lower house through the seat of Blair is doomed to failure.

Under the headline, "Knight vows to end Hanson's free reign", the only article about Hanson in the paper, the Biloela response to her visit is totally overlooked. The story concentrates on the very old Liberal "warhorse" Sir James Killen.

The old Federal seat of Moreton was held by Sir James Killen for the Liberals many years, now the former defence minister has put his hand up to seek party pre-selection for the new seat of Blair. The article states that based on voting trends for the 1996 election Blair would be a safe Coalition seat - likely to be won by the Liberal Party and that it was unlikely that Hanson would get enough votes to win outright with the other parties unlikely to direct preferences towards her. The Australian Labor Party (ALP) has already said that it would put Hanson last on the "How to Vote" card.

Dr Neil Ryan, the head of Queensland University of Technology's public policy, Dr Neil Ryan, says, "I don't think she is going to get anywhere near the 35% she is probably going to need to take the seat." He quotes the votes polled by Independents in the 1996 election - the highest being Graeme Campbell in Kalgoorlie with 35.1% in Kalgoorlie - of course Hanson's 48.61% vote is totally overlooked as "a unique set of circumstances and history was unlikely to repeat itself".

A senior lecturer at the University of Queensland, Dr Ian Ward, is quoted as saying, "When she was first elected, I said it was a fluke and thought she would be highly unlikely to get back up in the old seat of Oxley, and the move to Blair certainly didn't improve her chances."

Finally, another academic, Griffith University's school of politics and public policy lecturer, Dr Elizabeth van Acker forms the trifecta of intellectual knockouts of Hanson's chances with the following statement, "Because she won't get through just on her rhetoric - she needs some good solid policies - and at this point I don't think she'll convince people. I don't know that she is capable of winning the seat because she would need a large primary vote plus preferences, and at the end of the day it is still a National party rural area."

Somewhat surprising that the Courier Mail reporter Jeff Summerfield did not bother asking a sprinkling of voters in Blair... I have no doubt that, get away from the ill-informed, out of touch academics, a very different picture would be painted.

Sir Ronald Wilson responds to Ron Brunton's attack on the credibility
of the so-called "stolen generations" report.

Here is an extract:

The United Nations Genocide Convention of 1948 prohibited a common method of assimilating native peoples - the removal of children into the dominant society. To remove the children with the intention of destroying, in whole or in part, the racial group as such - that is, as a distinct racial unit or entity - is genocide.

The view of some officials that total separation from their families and culture was for the children’s own good is acknowledged in the report. But the motivation does not undermine the conclusion that the practice was genocidal.

New Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC) head perfect match...

The selection of an elderly Asian to head up HREOC represents another success for the politically-correct within our community.

At a time when gaining recognition in Australia is becoming the exclusive domain of minority groups to the exclusion of mainstream Australians it should be no surprise that Professor Alice Tay now heads HREOC and Susan Halliday heads the Sex Discrimination Commission.

Professor Tay has a particularly interesting chair at the University of Sydney - Challis Professor of Jurisprudence in the law faculty and is, of course, director of the University of Sydney's Centre for Asian and Pacific Law. In the realm of the politically correct Ms Halliday's appointment is not surprising either - you see she used to be the assistant director of HREOC. She is currently the assistant director of the Business Council of Australia, and chair of the Board of the National Centre for Women.

In the eyes of the politically correct it matters not that both women hold positions which, in any other professional occupation, would be seen to be in conflict with a "fair go" for all who come before them.

Look no further than the treatment being handed out to new High Court judge Ian Callinan with respect to the Hindmarch bridge fiasco!

When is advertising politically correct - when is it racist?

You be the judge about this advertisement. Click on the small image on the right to see the larger...

Just how much tax do Aussies pay?

Statement from a correspondent:

My job is in the Income Support Section, dealing with things like equality in the social security system and incentive/disincentive to work (ie. like why the unemployed don't take jobs when they are offered, or don't look for jobs at all). Recently I have been dealing with stuff that is public knowledge (such as DSS & tax/medicare rates) but I have been using it a way that it highlights where inequalities in the system lie. Are you interested in seeing some of this stuff if it may help your ONP work?

A part explanation: One of the crucial things is something called Effective Marginal Tax Rates (EMTRs), which is a measure of how much a person effectively loses for each extra dollar he earns: eg. for a couple with kids, where one partner stays at home and the working partner is earning around the $23,000-28,000 mark, for each extra dollar he earns, the family loses 34% to tax, 20% to medicare phase-in and 50% to the partner's parenting allowance &/or Additional Family Allowance tapering off. That means the family loses $1.04 for every $1.00 earned. Of course, if the kids were AUSTUDY recipients, then each kid would lose an extra 25% due the effect of AUSTUDY's parental income test on their entitlement, which means a net loss to the family of $1.54 for each extra $1.00 earned. (Please don't quote the above %s as fact - my charts show the rate is actually about 108% instead of 104%, so I must have missed out on some factor in the equation somewhere). Bottom line?

Average Australians pay an unconscionable amount of tax while multinationals pay little or none.

Political:

Howard's ten point plan to be put again

John Howard's ten point plan on Wik will be put through the lower house again this week. If it fails to pass through the Senate it will trigger a double dissolution of Australia's Parliament. 

The Democrats, under siege following the desertion of leader Cheryl Kernot, have called for the Bill to be put until after the next session of Parliament - fearing that their party will be obliterated, like the Democratic Labor Party before it at the last double dissolution in 1974.

Meanwhile the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation (CAR), headed by the new Liberal-elected chairlady Evelyn Scott, has called for a convention on native title before the subject is debated in the Senate.

This follows the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) report calling native title a mess.

Shadow Aboriginal Affairs Minister Darryl Melham yesterday accused the government of leaking the document saying, "What ATSIC's document shows us is consistent with what they've been saying on the public record that they want to push out the bodgie claims - they want the Act improved."

Meanwhile in Western Australia there is a single piece of property with 14 different native title claims attached to it and with over 700 ratified native title claims to be heard in the courts only 2 have so far been finalised since 1993 at the cost of Au$200 million.

Social:

In a drive to capture the female vote Prime Minister John Howard has said that he will have a bill passed in Parliament making superannuation part of divorce settlements - with the husband's asset to be split equally with his wife on the same basis as other assets during settlement through the Family Court.

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Another perfect day in paradise.

Have a good one.

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