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Wednesday 21st January 1998
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S C O O P:
Oxley's pre-selection candidate Anne Scott not wanted by the Australian Labor
Party (ALP)
Yesterday I received a very interesting and informed phone call from a senior member of the ALP. The call was to do with Anne Scott who has relentlessly pushed her case as being the "best" candidate for Pauline Hanson's Oxley seat.
Mrs Scott is currently at the ALP Convention in Hobart trying to drum up support for her political goals. But back home it appears her chances of being selected as the Oxley candidate are dwindling fast.
In fact, as it turns out, I was told Wayne Goss' delayed saying no to the seat to give the ALP a chance to find other candidates - Bernie Ripoli and now (yet to be announced) Wayne MacDonald. The ALP hierarchy don't want Mrs Scott - but, like everything else they do, the manner in which they deal with the problem is devious. With three going for the Oxley candidacy the ALP hierarchy will now be called in to choose and the word is that Mrs Scott will not be the favoured one. The word is that Australian Workers Union man Bernie Ripoli will be given the nod.
Last year Mrs Scott upset the ALP state leadership when she demanded an apology from state secretary over the pre-selection of Wayne Goss in Oxley after she had stood up to be counted as a candidate for the seat.
Cowardly Kernot hits the canvas
Federal Opposition leader Kim Beazley is supporting Labor candidate Cheryl Kernot's angry reaction to the media after an accident at her Brisbane home.
Ms Kernot's husband received minor injuries after a removalist's truck crashed
into their home. Ms Kernot angrily criticised the media as she left Hobart.
"It's this kind of thing that makes people really get sick and tired of your
intrusion into our lives," she said. On her arrival in Brisbane, she questioned
recent media coverage of her, saying some of it was not justified, and she
talked about the toll politics takes on family life.
She said she was considering quitting politics after the media attention she has received during the last few months since her defection to the Australian Labor Party (ALP), but indicated the view of her family would be the most important factor. "I certainly have to ask them to tell me when we reach the line where it's no longer tolerable," Ms Kernot said.
As one Labor delegate in Hobart put it, after hearing about her "spitting the dummy" at the airport after being asked a question by a member of the media, "If you're going to spit the dummy, you don't do it on national television."
Now some in the ALP have tagged her "Princess Precious" - a tag which will be big trouble for her in the future if it sticks in the party room.
However, Mr Beazley says her reaction was understandable but said her comments must be put in context. "All that she has had to say is what any politician would have said in exactly the same set of circumstances, and I might say with the vehemence that any politician would say it," Mr Beazley said.
He said she must be given privacy at this time and, like other senior Labor figures today, has spoken of the difficulty of balancing family and political life.
Let us remember that Pauline Hanson the independent Member of Parliament for the seat of Oxley has been putting up with much worse than cowardly Kernot for nearly two years.
Although Pauline has been battered at times by the vile untruths aimed at her day after day by a hostile News Limited media, she keeps on fighting back.... a feature not found in the political strengths of the ALP - even though their members are clearly behind much of the ongoing media-persecution of Ms Hanson.
It could only happen at Oodnadatta (in South Australia)
The tiny community of inland Oodnadatta is all abuzz at the moment after a camel-driver was pulled over for drink driving in September last year. The charge arose when the driver, Rick Hall (35), took a party of twelve by camel cart to a waterhole on the outskirts of the settlement.
Hall had already been told by police that he was too drunk to drive the four wheeled cart so he handed the reins over to a fifteen year old volunteer Carmal Stapleton. The long arm of the law was soon off after the itinerant camel-cart after Sgt Garry Griffiths heard Hall giving the camels "voice commands".
But the story does not end there - as Sgt Griffiths was baring down by foot on the camel-cart to make his drunk-driving charge Hall fled the scene on a calf which was hitched to the cart. Hall made his escape while hurling abuse at Sgt Griffiths. However, he did not get far before the untrained calf missed its mother (who was pulling the camel-cart) taking the startled alleged drink-driver back to the long arm of the law.
A scuffle broke out before Hall was arrested by Sgt Griffith after he was forced to use capsicum spray to overpower the camel-driver. Now Hall faces other charges including resisting arrest and assaulting the police.
Hall is to face a magistrate on the charges in March this year.
Indonesian currency still floundering
The Indonesian economy plunged into renewed turmoil today, only five days after a revised $40bn deal with International Monetary Fund raised expectations that the country was on the road to recovery.
The rupiah fell to a near record low, ending Asian trade at around 10,150 to the dollar, as banks and companies with foreign debts bought dollars to repay loans. And the US rating agency Standard and Poor's warned that the deterioration in the currency meant that Indonesian banks might need up $15bn recapitalisation to deal with defaults on loans. Indonesia's total external debt is estimated at around $140bn, of which some $66bn is corporate debt.
This is the second time the rupiah has fallen below 10,000 to the dollar this month. The currency has tumbled over 75 per cent since early July when the region's economic crisis began.
The rupiah's fall to a record low of 11,000 to the dollar earlier this month triggered a wave of panic buying of foodstuffs. The past week has seen food riots in East Java province, with mobs looting shops after the prices of essential goods rose.
The rupiah's fall cast a shadow over South-east Asia, depressing the Singapore dollar, the Thai baht and the Malaysian dollar. Regional stock markets followed suit, dipping more than one per cent as yesterday's bullish sentiment evaporated.
Making the
news" -
The Courier Mail headline blasts out the News Limited paper's bias, "Beazley Unites Labor on President and Wik", after a week of internal brawling has displayed the ALP's leader for what he is - weak. The paper's article gives the impression of a strong leader - an impression which is at odds with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's 7.30 Report which stated the obvious when expressing surprise that he had allowed the infighting for the position of party president to linger for so long.
Greg Sword was pulled in front of the media late yesterday afternoon by Kim Beazley with Sword announcing that he would withdraw unconditionally from the devisive challenge. Barry Jones, the current president, will thus be re-elected unopposed.
"It (the challenge) had really reached the point where a line had to be drawn in the sand," Beazley said, "His (Sword's) decision... is not a product of any arrangements. There is no hidden bottom line."
Now haven't we heard porkies like this before from the ALP - and so many times!
Subject: letter
Subject: Re Keepers of the flame
Kim Beazley urges the labor Party to consider itself "Keepers of the
flame of Australian dignity"?
This from the party that took away the dignity of the average Australian
by:
Keepers of the flame of Australian dignity?
Yeah right
Jason
NOT!
Today on ABC radio Trevor Parrott when attacking One Nation, warns the electors of Barambah that they would not be so foolish as to elect an independent and lose all the advantages of having a Government member (and presumably a Minister) representing them. Is this an attempt at bribery, or blackmail? Is he suggesting that this Government favours it's own electorates in dividing up the cake over the other half of the State. Can this be legal? I haven't heard a whimper from the ALP about it. Perhaps they do the same thing. Is the Government handing out favours to Liz Cunningham's electorate to get her support in Parliament?
If it is legal, then Dorothy Pratt as a member of a One Nation GOVERNMENT, not independent Mr. Parrott; can remember your advice. It is rather stupid advice though. How in the world can you convert the opposition electorates by ignoring them? One Nation or a coalition of independents would not be that stupid. They are a new breed of politician, called HONEST.
In closing, may I take the opportunity of thanking Alison Cotes and the Courier Mail, for her clever article " Wicked Witch"? It can only win One Nation enormous support in the city. News Ltd. fail to realize that nearly every bush family has relatives in the City, and send articles out of papers like the South Burnett Times that do print the truth about Pauline, and these in turn show their neighbours. I think the local grapevine is bigger than the Internet. Bigger than the Courier Mail anyway.
Philip Madsen
Subject: How to fix an ailing economy
Editor : News of the day
Isn’t it strange how Thailand and Malaysia are sending home all their foreign workers to reduce unemployment problems now that their economies are in trouble?
Don’t the Asian leaders realise that increased immigration creates jobs and boosts the economy?
After all, isn’t that what all the Australian "experts" claim? Surely these Asian countries should be increasing immigration to help fix their economies - that is if they allowed immigration in the first place.
Maybe the Asian leaders have discovered the lie, or never believed it anyway. You know the lie: "Increased immigration boosts demand which is good for the economy". The trouble is, increased demand is not much use unless there is money and confidence to back it up. There is already an over supply of demand in Australia - who doesn’t want a better car, TV, stereo etc.? Jobs are in short supply, and those people lucky enough to have a job have no job security, and don’t want to risk spending their money even though they might like to buy goods and services.
It’s a shame Australia can’t send our excess non-citizens back to where they came from, to help fix our economy. Of course this is a ridiculous suggestion - it would be racist if Australia did this. There is a different set of rules for Asian countries.
Gweilo
Another beautiful day in paradise.
Sunny, warm and just Queensland.
Have a great day.
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