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Tuesday, 17th February 1998
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Archive of weekly features: [The Canberra Column] [Economic Rationalism]
Day by day reports on the Constitutional Conventional reports by Peter Mackay

International:

Australian Council for the Arts remain mum.

Despite a large number of email being sent to this organisation following our article in yesterday's news we have not received any official response from the General Manager Michael Lynch.

Any ideas on what steps we should take next?

Pauline Hanson by the Man who Lies -
John Pasquarelli.

For those of you who missed the very revealing Midday Show interview between John Pasquarelli and Kerry-Anne Kennerley here is a complete transcript.

Below is just a short extract from that interview in which Pasquarelli was totally discredited live on national television... it was beautiful!

(KK - Kennerley; JP Pasquarelli)

KK “OK well let’s get onto the conversations that I did have with her because I had to withdraw the story because senior management ordered me to. In terms of the show you also suggest that I said in the book and you have got it in black and white here that I said “I would never have Pauline Hanson on the Midday Show again.” Where did get that, where did you get that from?”

JP: “No you told me, you told me just around here. You told me that you got badly burnt in these situations.”

KK “Now John you are sitting here telling me that I said to you that I got badly burned by Pauline Hanson.”

JP (interjecting) “Now you are going to tell me that you did not say that about Pauline Hanson I mean in those words.. I don’t know why we are going down this track.”

KK “No, you have got it in black and white in the book that I said something to you.”

JP “You did, you said to me you didn’t like having Pauline involved in these situations that you landed up getting burnt through the feedback you ..”

KK “I said that to you in this studio?”

JP “Just around here.”

KK “Was there anybody else present.”

JP “No”

KK “John you are a liar.”

JP GRUNTS “Now you shouldn’t say that. (Audience cheers and claps) Now you shouldn’t say that.”

KK “I have never ever said..”

JP (interjecting) “Anyway you’ve said it. The first time I have been called a liar like that by a woman. (audience jeers) Pauline Hanson no doubt might be following your...

Our troops on their way to Iraq.

Well our Special Air Service recruits are on their way to Iraq to fight the war on behalf of the multinationals running the US Senate. It was only a few days ago that Prime Minister John Howard let the cat out of the bag that our troops would be behind the lines picking up US pilots shot down... while the US troops remain above the dangers on the ground our second rate troops are disposable being put in a position of high risk - on Iraqi soil... it just does not make any sense!

The official line remains, of course, that Saddam Hussein is developing weapons of mass destruction while the real reason is that the oil industry in the US want the goodies under the ground in Iraq and Hussein stands in their way.

Over a million Iraqis have died since the six day war in the early 90s... because of starvation and poverty. Inspired by UN sanctions.

The US and the UN are fast becoming the Adolf Hitlers of the modern era. When did anyone ever question what the US are doing in the development of weapons of mass destruction?

Come on....

How many times does native title over freehold have to be tested?

If you keep chipping at a stone long enough it will break. This seems to be the philosophy behind ongoing native title claims over freehold land.

The latest tax payer funded claim by a man identified only as Henrick Fourmile was against a private company Selpam Pty Ltd who own 65 hectares of freehold land near Cairns. The company sought a declaration from the Native Title Tribunal that no native title could be declared over their property prompting Fourmile to make a native title claim. A claim which was thrown out only after it had been tested by the Federal Court.

Griffith University senior lecturer in law, Justin Malbon confirmed that there were no guarantees that native title claims would not continue to be made over freehold land saying, "It is theoretically possible for the High Court to come to a different view - but extremely unlikely."

So when has that ever stopped these ridiculous native title claims in the past - after all it isn't their money that they are spending!

After all as a spokeswoman for Special Minister for State Nick Minchin said, "... some indigenous groups do not accept this position. Legislative confirmation remains necessary to put it (freehold being above native title claims) beyond doubt."

But the official Labor line was again trotted out with Queensland Opposition leader Peter Beattie saying yesterday, "It confirms the truth about freehold land - it confirms people's backyards are not at threat - it proves the Premier's threats of people's bar-b-ques and swimming pools have all been desperate scaremongering."

This is the same mob who said native title could not co-exist with pastoral leases....

Janet Holmes a Court, Australia's richest woman, sues a council while at the Constitutional Convention

Remember the smarmy images of Janet telling Australia where should we be going and why the Australian Republican Movement model was the "only way to go" while at the Constitutional Convention?

Now Janet, while dignifying her knowledge in all matters of import to Australians through her late husband's wealth and connections - has found another use for that wealth. A use commonly used by the rich and famous to protect their good names.

It matters not that the average Australian cannot afford to take the defamation actions that the rich and famous lash out with gay abandon at whoever upset or challenge them... no this is the Australia of the elite - the elite who percolated through the Constitutional Convention like well brewed coffee - little groups of them seen here and there in the old Parliament mixing with the political "A" Team... These are the people who would dare to try to tell ordinary Australians where they should be going in the future despite the practical statement "Why change something that ain't broke?" 

Why indeed? Well while Janet was telling us why we should become a Republic her company Heytesbury Holdings Pty Ltd was preparing to sue the West Australian Subiaco City Council and its mayor, Tony Costa, over a press release issued in response to public statements by Heytesbury over unpaid rentals amounting to Au$1.2 million.

Yesterday we looked at the McDonalds case against the small community of Port Douglas. Luckily reason won through and McDonalds were told to take their big 7.5 metre monstrosity and stick it.

In this latest case Heytesbury is suing the Subiaco Council and the mayor for defamation with their QC John Gilmour saying that "We say that damage has been done to the plaintiff's reputation (because of the press release)."

Rene Le Miere QC responded for the city council saying the defamation claims had nothing to do with the Au$1.2 million the company owed Subiaco. "The statements in the news release are true," he said.

The case has arisen after Heytesbury, like McDonalds in Port Douglas, wanted to change the council's laws to allow them to develop five leases in the centre of a multi million dollar development.

The company had argues that the site was uneconomic because certain council restrictions were attached to the land. The Council's QC said that Heytesbury's proposed manufacturing development was proposed in the hope that it would be refused so that they could then default on rent payments. When the Council knocked back the proposal in February 1994 Heytesbury stopped paying rent. Le Miere said, "Heytesbury's proposal was nothing more than a device to cease payments of rent."

Now there is a much bigger issue at stake here. When MAI is signed the impact on Council's will be compounded as the multinationals like the Heytesbury's and the McDonalds won't worry with local courts. No, they will have, as multinationals, the unique fall back position of international courts and the costs to a council found breaching the MAI could bankrupt a city like Subiaco.

Here is an international lawyer's comments on the MAI and its effect on councils.

Extract:

Municipal Licenses

"The MAI’s obligations extend to the governmental allocation of concessions and licenses. Thus, issues regarding the awarding of licenses can be the basis of an investor-state dispute. Indeed, the refusal of a municipal government in Mexico to issue a civic license for a waste facility is currently the basis of a $90 million NAFTA expropriation action."

Land Use Regulation

"Municipal policies respecting land use regulation regularly impose costs upon investors. Changes in zoning that could restrict the use of land, even including historic designation, could result in effective claims under international law definitions of expropriation. While under domestic law, there can be no compensation for losses caused by changes in land use regulation; this is not true under international agreements such as the NAFTA or the MAI."

Since 1953 Multinationals have paid little or no tax.

We are delighted to bring you the lastest Austand report on foreign investment. Below are some extracts:

"As we now know, a minimum of $200 billion profit leaves Australia each year - tax free (estimate ABS, Austand). In Japan multinationals pay 52% tax on profit (KPMG). Transnationals have been, and are being given, a free ride. To cover up the extent of the foreign invasion the Treasury has manipulated the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, and has also stopped the publication of vital information - stopped publication of foreign ownership figures in the corporate sector from 1986-87. (The latest available figures on foreign ownership in other countries are: UK - 10.5%, USA - 10.3%, Japan - 2.1%, EU - 3.5% and Australia - 90%).

"The ultimate goal of our Treasury is to hand the Australian economy over to the IMF, and in turn, the WTO - both backed by the World Bank. These organisations appear to be a part of the United Nations, but as they are commercial organisations with no responsibility to any government or community, and concerned only with making money, this could hardly be the case. One must ask the question what is the IMF going to do for Australia that Australia cannot do for itself, since we have the assets, and all we need is time to straighten out the disaster that we have just outlined.

"The (Australian) media has always been controlled by foreigners. That is evident by the fact that many newspaper owners and senior editors have been knighted in the past. So the Treasury has been accustomed to involvement in media activities. The great majority of our media has fallen into foreign hands and therefore this research will have to be communicated by word of mouth or minor media facilities.

"Since Australians are currently paying 91% of the tax in the country, it shows clearly what the foreign corporations are getting away with - courtesy of the Treasury. To establish this figure we used the Australian Financial Market Report which revealed a turnover in the country of $33 trillion. And 2 per cent of this produces the figure of $660 billion. This proves beyond any doubt that Australia can be very wealthy in two years, and also proves that our Treasury has been misleading our politicians."

We will be bringing more Austand revelations over the next few weeks.

Labor lies on the net?

This comment from aus.politics by David Moss just about sums up the ALP. (By the way David Moss is the Liberal Party's web master).

Now we all know about Labor lies during the last election campaign, and how the $10b black hole was exposed as soon as treasury was allowed to tell us. I would have thought the ALP would be through with all that though, at least until the win another election. Not so however.

I was browsing their website today, reading about what happened to "soapbox", and I came across a very interesting claim. The ALP claim they were the first Australian political party with a WWW site. They further claim they were one of the first in the world. Now anyone who has been on the net for more than a couple of years knows this simply isn't true.

How can I be so sure of this ?

Well, because I put the first officially endorsed material about the ALP on the WWW myself. Just after I put the Liberal WWW site on the web.

In fact the original ALP site is still available on my unbiased Australian Politics Resource under "political parties", along with the more recent ALP links.

Anyone interested in which really was the first Australian political party on the WWW might like to look here.

The ALP was the first Australian political party to register a domain, but they were a long way from being first on the Web.

Unfortunately I cannot show off the original Liberal Party site. I was forced to delete that from my resource after a concerted letter writing campaign by ALP supporters in 1996.

The ALP seems to have some sort of pathological inability to tell the truth, even on trivial matters like who was the first Australian party on the WWW. If they will lie about little, easy to discover things like this, what hope do we have of them telling the truth about difficult to discover things like policy costings ?

Wake up to yourselves Labor !

Australia needs an opposition it can trust almost as badly as a good government. You are letting us down badly in opposition, until you lift your act you have Buckleys chance of getting beyond that.

David Moss,

Politics

Party	Feb 13-15	Jan 30-Feb1	Jan 16-18	Dec 12-14	Dec 5-7	Nov 21-23	Nov 7-9	Oct 24-26	Oct 17-19	Oct 10-12	Sep 26-28	Sep 19-21	Sep 5-7	Aug 22-24	Aug 8-10	Jul 25-27	Jul 11-13	June 27-29	June 13-15	May 30-June 1	May 16-18	Election - March 1997
Coalition	40%	44%	42%	41%	40%	37%	39%	39%	39%	43%	42%	43%	41%	42%	43%	42%	42	43%	44%	43%	41%	47%
ALP	43%	40%	43%	41%	44%	45%	43%	45%	45%	39%	37%	37%	40%	39%	37%	36%	40%	37%	36%	37%	37%	38.7%
One Nation	3%	4%	3%	3%	2%	4%	3%	2%	3%	3%	5%	4%	4%	5%	6%	7%	6%	6%	7%	7%	9%	N/A
Democrats	3%	4%	4%	5%	5%	3%	4%	4%	5%	5	5%	6%	5%	5%	4%	5%	4%	6%	3%	5%	4%	6.8%
Greens	4%	1%	1%	3%	2%	2%	2%	1%	1%	2%	1%	2%	3%	2%	2%	3%	2%	2%	2%	1%	2%	1.7%
Others	7%	7%	7%	7%	7%	9%	9%	9%	7%	8%	10%	8%	7%	7%	8%	7%	6%	8%	8%	7%	7%	5.8%

Fascinating... according to NewsPoll the Greens have quadrupled their vote and now have a bigger following than both the Democrats and One Nation!

You say:

Subject: Pasqurellie

Just a message to let you know that just now Kerrie Anne on National TV "MIDDAY" 9 called Pasquer whatever a Liar for telling an untruth about Pauline, and warned everyone that if they bought the book It contained lies! ????? that it was a vendetta etc.

Phillip Madsen

Subject: Qantas

Hello

I am not a member of One nation at present but have the form which I will send into you. I have a matter which you may be interested in...

Qantas Airways currently ran an ad in various Australian papers advertising positions for International Flight Attendants. In this add, the following details were displayed:

Native in one of the following languages:

• Cantonese
• Mandarin
• Thai
• Indonesian
• Japanese
• Vietnamese

Daniel Collins
Box 209, 4878
Queensland.

The LOCAL BULLETIN

Watch out for next months edition of THE LOCAL BULLETIN we will be featuring a story on a local Brookfield resident who if she makes it to the year 2000 will have had a life that has spanned 3 millennium..Yes its true!....

So this woman has been alive for over 3000 years? As an editor, I'm surprised that his knowledge of vocabulary is so low. "She will have lived to have experienced 3 different centuries" would be a much better way of saying it...

Alan Howard

As I said earlier, best read in the dark... what do you reckon Barry (The paper's editor?)

Editor

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Another perfect day in paradise.

Have a good one.

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