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Thursday, 15th January 1998
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Archive of weekly features: [The Canberra Column] [Economic Rationalism - coming soon]

International:

Pauline Hanson's mother dies.

Pauline Hanson's mother, 78 year old Hannorah Seccombe, died at a Gold Coast nursing home at the age of 78 yesterday morning. Pauline's mother played a major parental role in forming the determination of mind and character that is Pauline the politician. This aspect of Pauline's strength is covered in the book, "Pauline, the Hanson Phenomenon" by Helen Dodd.

Our thoughts are with you at this time Pauline.

Australian Labor Party start to split over native title

The leader of the Australian Labor Party in Queensland, Peter Beattie, has foreshadowed a growing split between the left and Right factions of the Party.

He said he "wished to find a compromise" on Howard's ten point plan on Wik as the current uncertainty was costing thousands of Queenslanders their jobs.

He warned that the state Coalition would use the Wik debacle to maintain the balance of power together with the Nationals and Pauline Hanson's One Nation party if the Wik debate continued to fester.

"We can't afford to have an argument over Wik at the national conference (in Hobart next week)", Beattie said, "I think we can't wear our heart on our sleeve. We have to find a compromise, a sensible outcome."

Federal Opposition (ALP) Aboriginal Affairs Minister Daryl Melham contradicted Beattie calling for a strongly worded conference motion to reinforce the ALP's hardline position on Howard's proposed Bill.

"Native Title is the most important issue facing Australia in 1998 and the Labor Party is not going to walk away from it," Melham said.

Beattie hit back saying, "If we don't come out of this conference with a job strategy then we will not win government. Jobs are more important than any other issue."

Interesting where the ALP so-called moralistic stand on Native Title goes when the minister's jobs are on the line when the people call for them to be accountable at the ballot box.... one should not be surprised at the lies, and subversion of this party -when one understands the role of their fringe groups in undermining Australia's democratic principles.

The Washington Post - U.S., IMF Assurances Not Quelling Doubts on Indonesia

Here is an extract from an article in the Washington Post:

"JAKARTA, Indonesia, Jan. 13—As a half-dozen people press the counter of a shabby, humid money-changing shop to swap U.S. dollars and Indonesian rupiah, an employee of the shop named Bachridjal sits barefoot on a bench next door and explains why he believes his nation's currency may soon strengthen after its breathtaking plunge in recent weeks.

"Bill Clinton called our President Suharto, and that guarantees that the IMF and other big countries like Japan give support to us," he said. "What they are doing will help the rupiah to become stable. That is why many people are now buying rupiah."

"The Clinton administration and the International Monetary Fund are doing everything they can to promote such thinking. To give Indonesia's battered currency a lift, and thereby quell the latest eruption in Asia's financial crisis, U.S. and IMF officials visiting Jakarta this week have issued public assurances that the Suharto regime -- after initially baulking -- is ready to adopt far-reaching measures aimed at curing the nation's financial weaknesses. The IMF's deputy director, Stanley Fischer, is holding out the prospect that a major economic package will be unveiled as early as Thursday.

"But while economists and analysts say a strong and credible economic package is necessary, many question whether that alone will reverse the rupiah's slide and help restore financial stability in the troubled region.

"A major reason for the flight of capital from Indonesia, these experts say, is the fear that the 76-year-old Suharto is ailing or losing his grip on power -- or both -- and that the lack of a strong successor leaves this nation of 200 million vulnerable to violent tumult. The last change of leadership -- which was 32 years ago, when Suharto seized power in a military coup -- came amid a nationwide rampage that included murderous conflict among the archipelago's diverse ethnic groups. Hundreds of thousands died.

"According to financial sources in neighbouring Singapore, money has been flooding recently into Singaporean real estate from Indonesia's wealthy ethnic Chinese minority, which has been the target of rioting by majority Muslims during periods of social unrest."

ICSID and the MAI

The jackals circle around the world economy. Here is an extract:

Why Would the Bank Group be Interested in the Establishment of the MAI?

"Long before the MAI had gained the attention of the NGO community, the ICSID (International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes) published an article in its Fall, 1995 Foreign Investment Law Journal entitled "Towards an International Agreement on Foreign Direct Investment?" Written by University of Athens Law Professor A.A. Fatouros, the article discusses the need, as well as a proposed methodology for establishing an international treaty on investment.

"In his article, Fatouros says that one of the main justifications for an international investment treaty is that "there is today no comprehensive instrument covering all facets of FDI and encompassing all (or a majority of) home and host countries. An international legal framework may in fact be said to exist, but it is a patchwork (or mesh) consisting of many kinds of norms and instruments, operating at several levels, at varying levels of normative intensity and with extensive gaps as to coverage of issues as well as countries."(3)

"By establishing a "bill of rights" for investors, the argument behind the MAI goes, the private sector will be more willing to assume risk and do business in the developing world. The terms of privately-driven development--the regulatory and legal frameworks underlying foreign direct investment--will be standardised, clarified, and strengthened. The private sector will have internationally accepted, transparent, and predictable provisions to invest under. If agreements are not honoured by hosting governments, the private sector will have a set of rights and the means to seek recourse under an agreement that supersedes the existing "patchwork" of domestic, host-country regulation and current international law."

Political:

The first Pauline Hanson's One Nation 1998 Queensland State Election press release was posted yesterday. The press release by Dorothy Pratt, One Nation's Barambah candidate, queries the credibility and accountability of state Coalition ministers.

Sport:

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Another perfect day in paradise.

Soft intermittent rain has now broken to reveal another warm and balmy Queensland day.

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