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an Aussie's viewpoint on Australia's first daily Internet newspaper.
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Thursday, 26th February 1998
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Pauline Hanson’s One Nation given go ahead to meet in Ipswich City Council buildings

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party has received permission from the Ipswich City Council to hold branch meetings in the Barry Jones Auditorium of the Global Info-Links building.

Mayor John Nugent said One Nation’s Oxley branch would be allowed to hold its branch meetings in the Council owned-buildings.

Council voted in July last year against allowing One Nation to use Ipswich Humanities Building for the launch of the Oxley One Nation branch.

The move generated Australia-wide comment when Councillor Paul Tully said it was a ban on One Nation Party using council buildings.

Cr Nugent was forced to defend the decision as a ruling on an individual application by One Nation was refused because of the violence at the party’s launch at the Civic Hall on April 11, 1997. Ironically Cr Paul Tully was one of the protesters at that meeting. (Seen here on the right with a bow tie).

Council censured Cr Tully for his actions on August 6.

Cr Nugent said he had sought the opinion of councillors on the new decision.

“The One Nation Party made an application to hold their branch meetings there,” he said.

“I contacted all the available councillors. A majority of them said if it was just their branch meetings, they should be allowed to do that.”

Cr Nugent said there was no council by-law or decision preventing political parties using council buildings.

Cr Tully could not be contacted for comment.

The "ten commandments" of the MAI

An extract:

For Citizens

1. You shall have no rights to livelihoods, to work, to food, to water, to safe environment.

2. You shall have no rights to work and livelihoods and to economic security.

3. You shall have no other identity or morality except that of being consumers on the global market place.

The Hindmarsh Bridge claims yet another victim.

Yesterday Australia's newest High Court judge Ian Callinan was forced to withdraw from the  Hindmarsh Bridge case after admitting his memory on his previous work on the case had been inaccurate.

Earlier this month Callinan refused to remove himself from the case despite cries from the ALP and the lawyers for the Aboriginal women making the claim.

The ALP's shadow attorney-general Nick Bolkus released a letter which proved Callinan had given advice to Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Herron.

"I think for a new judge an early stumble is something that doesn't help the image," Bolkus said.

A group of the Ngarrindjeri women are challenging are challenging the federal Hindmarsh Bridge Act which allows the construction of a bridge 80 km south of Adelaide. They are part of the same tribe which embraced Pauline Hanson earlier this month calling her "The Messiah" for  her stand that ATSIC should be disbanded.  The group supporting Pauline Hanson are sick of the divisive claims being made by their kin.

What everybody seems to have overlooked is that women have, under tribal law (the basis of the Mabo decision), no claims on the basis of native title. The politically correct lobby are so blinkered, so bigoted that their one-eyed view point ensures that this fact is kept from the general Australian population.

Betraying the victims of the “Stolen children”

Extract from the article by Ron Brunton:

"Whether John Howard should apologise to the “stolen generations” for the actions of previous governments for which he personally had no responsibility, one thing is certain: as the organisation that is responsible for such an unworthy report, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission should apologise to all Australians: Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal."

Politically correct Australia demands selective "racism" cases for refugees

A few days ago we covered the case of a white South African woman who is trying to claim refugee status in Australia. She said yesterday said she would not argue if people called her a racist because of her appeal to stay based on her being white.

"I don't mind if they're racist allegations. I'm looking at it as an individual and I cannot live there (South Africa)," Cheryl Kennedy told ABC radio in Perth today.

"If it's as a result of race, well so be it, but don't think it's only race in South Africa. There is definitely a major criminal element as well which the government is doing nothing about."

The Immigration Department has refused her refugee application but the single mother-of-two refuses to return to the crime and violence of Johannesburg.

She said immigration authorities were wrong to find she did not qualify under the refugee convention as a person persecuted for racial, religious, political or social grounds.

"As far as I'm concerned, I do fall under that. A lot of my persecution was a direct result ... purely because I'm white and because of the social group I belong to," she said.

Ms Kennedy came to Western Australia on a 12 month tourist visa but soon decided to apply to stay as a refugee.

"It's so difficult to tell anyone about it (life in South Africa) because it just sounds like a fairy tale, a bad fairy tale. You don't see it until you leave," she said.

"When I landed in Perth, I knew there was just no way I'd go back."

The 39-year-old mother of eight and 10-year-old daughters said her husband and brother had been murdered, her house burnt down and a daughter had been menaced at gunpoint at the age of two.

"Life for people in South Africa has no meaning," she said.

"If I'd been a single person, I probably would have stayed because as a single person you think you're invincible and you would handle it; the minute you have children, the whole equation changes." Ms Kennedy, who ran her own business in Johannesburg, has been granted a bridging visa until March 4.

Her next legal option is to take her case to the Refugee Review Tribunal, which is empowered to overturn the department's ruling.

An unidentified former South African businessman now living in Perth had flown the Kennedy family from Broome, in WA's north, to Perth yesterday and was paying for legal advice, The West Australian newspaper said today.

Privatisation of the nation's electricity supply.

New South Wales under Wayne Goss has just handed the control of the state's electricity to Mercury - the offshore company which controls electricity supplies all over the world. In this age of privatisation of national assets Mercury represents all that is wrong with the new world order. (See the article by Graham Strachan on privatisation of public assets). As you will see in the comments below New Zealanders are not happy:

The power failure's in Auckland, costing business tens of millions of dollars is due to this same Mercury's mismanagement.

Mercury Directors in New Zealand gave themselves a 36% pay rise last year.

Mercury jobs in New Zealand were cut from 1141 in 1992/93 to 596 last year. Mercury knew the present system couldn't cope

The Alliance is blaming the government for the Central Business District power cuts in Auckland.

And Alliance leader Jim Anderton is calling for the resignation of the Minister who instituted the electricity industry changes along with the Chairman, Deputy Chair and Chief Executive of Mercury.

Auckland city has been plunged into darkness with shops and businesses closing and residents evacuated following the failure of all major power cables into the central business district.

Alliance leader Jim Anderton says the failure would have been prevented if the government had not made changes to the electricity industry which made profiteering more important than reliability of service.

"The jobs of maintenance staff have been cut, directors and managers have massively increased their personal pay. Mercury Energy has spent up large on takeovers and business wheeling and dealing and failed to do the most basic job of ensuring totally reliable power supply.

"The pure-profit outcome is what the National government set up the electricty companies to achieve. This is the result commentators predicted at the time of electricity industry changes. Auckland businesses and residents are the unequivocal victims of the National Party," Jim Anderton said.

Mercury Energy's most recent annual report shows that the company knew of the potential for the power system in the central business district to fail.

Mercury is building a $110 million tunnel because of the declining reliability of the existing CBD cables. The annual report states, "To have done nothing would result in blackouts or brownouts as the present system couldn't cope."

"Knowing of the likelihood of blackouts, Mercury should have had emergency maintenance projects underway. That would have eaten into its $82 million profit but it would have prevented blackouts. Instead it took a risk that everything would hang together until the tunnel project was complete. The risk has not come off and the well-being of Aucklanders as well as the viability and reliability of New Zealand businesses is at stake. This is a Third World situation," Jim Anderton said.

"Mercury has halved its staff over the last five years. In 1992/93 it employed 1141 people. That dropped to 950 in 94/95 and then to 630 in 1995/96. Now it employs just 596 people.

"At the same time Mercury has been preparing for privatisation. At present it is majority owned by the Auckland Energy Consumer Trust. In preparation for privatisation Mercury has been locked in a $300 million takeover battle with Power New Zealand. Instead of improving maintenance it has increased its profits from $21.8 million in 1992/93 to $82.11m last year.

"While Mercury was preparing for privatisation instead of improving the reliability of its service its directors were giving themselves massive pay increases of up to 40%.

"Last year, the director's fee paid to Chairman Jim Macauley increased from $50,000 to $70,000. The Deputy Chairman Michael Barnett who is quoted in today's paper as saying, 'To point the finger at mismanagement or talk about heads rolling at this stage is crazy,' received an increase from $37,500 to $42,000. Ordinary directors increased the fees from $25,000 to $34,000.

"Mercury Energy is a scandal. Its greed has put Aucklanders at risk and has endangered Auckland businesses. Its appalling conduct is the direct result of the National Government's commercialisation of electricity.

"The only acceptable outcome is for heads to roll - big time. John Luxton, as the Minister who caused this fiasco, has to go.

"His head has to go together with the top people at Mercury: Chairperson Jim Macauley and his deputy Michael Barnett were loud advocates of restructuring Mercury, privatisation and the removal of democratic control. The Chief Executive is on a salary package of nearly half a million dollars and can't even make the company do its basic job of supplying power. They all have to go," Jim Anderton said.

Ipswich Aboriginal Legal Service spokesman Sonny Thompson responds

On Monday we reproduced a letter that appeared in the Queensland Times that day. The letter, written by Scott Balson in response to Sonny Thompson, looked at corruption within ATSIC.

This letter resulted in Aborigines contacting this office to supply information previously unknown by us.

On Wednesday Sonny Thompson responded with the following:

Re Scott Balson's letter (QT Feb 23) his statement holds no substance. As for wanting to have a debate with me I don't think he would want to get that close. One more thing, I have never claimed to be an Aussie, I am an Aboriginal.

Sonny Thompson.

Here is my response faxed to the QT yesterday:

The Editor
Queensland Times

Dear Sir,

In Sonny Thompson’s response (QT 25/02) to my letter of 23/02 he claims my statement holds little substance. I am not sure which one he is referring to, but on information supplied to me earlier this week by a number of Ipswich based Aborigines (including an elder) my letter is apparently very close to the mark.

You see, sir, I learnt that Sonny is the partner of Patricia Thompson the outspoken head of the Ipswich Aboriginal Legal Service. Perhaps Patricia would like to explain why Sonny Thompson; John Thompson (Patricia’s brother-in-law); Ces Fischer (Patricia’s father); David Thompson (Patricia’s brother-in-law) and Alan Fischer (Patricia’s half brother) work for the Aboriginal Legal Service in Ipswich in some formalised capacity on salary packages which, when combined, approach $200,000 per annum. The Aborigines who contacted me called this, at best, ‘blatant nepotism’. I tend to agree with their sentiments.

Patricia Thompson has been very vocal in her anti-Hanson statements. Strange, because the Aborigines who contacted me also expressed support for Pauline Hanson’s claim that ATSIC should be disbanded. Although they are sick of the corruption within ATSIC not one would stand up and be counted because they all feared retribution.

Which brings me to the next of Sonny’s statements, he states ‘As for wanting to debate with me I don't think that he’d want to get that close.’ Is intimidation the way you operate Sonny? Let me make one issue quite clear - Pauline Hanson represents all voters in the seat of Oxley equally, irrespective of colour, and always has despite Patricia Thompson’s failed attempt to claim otherwise in the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity circus. It is our independent federal member of parliament who champions equality for all Australians - I wonder if the Ipswich ALS can make the same boast - starting with explaining the methodology behind the selection of their staff.

I am not scared or intimidated by you Sonny, I am an Aussie, I want my kids to have a fair go - just as ‘Aboriginal’ Aussies do. If you are fair dinkum about your statement: ‘I have never claimed to be an Aussie, I am an Aboriginal’ perhaps you can explain to us Aussies how your well-placed family can stoop to accept money from Aussie tax payers when you don’t see yourself as one?

For the record I voluntarily paid bail of several hundred dollars to a young Aboriginal family. The man had been taken to the watchhouse just before Christmas last year. He was destined to spend two weeks behind bars because I was told the Ipswich ALS had not responded to his calls for help.

Scott Balson, Karana Downs

Political:

Bob Santamaria dies in Melbourne

The man who single-handedly took on communism in Australia in the 1950s died yesterday. Santamaria, 82, who had a brain tumour in October last year was a devout Catholic. In 1955 he split the Australian Labor Party (ALP) when he set up the Democratic Labor Party. The split caused the ALP to sit on the back bench for over 20 years - up until 1972.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1980s fulfilled Santamaria's life long dream. He remained focussed on the ills that he saw affecting Western civilisation - multinational conglomerates, gay and lesbian activities, threats to the traditional family, abortion and consumerism.

You say:

Subject: Comments on Australian News of the Day

A lady wrote to the Newcastle Herald this week and said that Joseph Banks researched and categorised all Australian Native plants and their habitats, why didn't this happen to the native people and why weren't they protected."

Well we cleared millions of tree's and destroyed a lot of rain forests but I'm yet to see a tree walking around the nation with an apology book.

Steve Dunn

Subject: Guilt Trips & Aboriginal Political Clout

Dear Editor,

In News of the Day yesterday, Wednesday 25/2 Colin asks about Aborigines: "The part I can't understand is, what is driving this push to continually highlight all the alleged bad things that happen to Aborigines, and to hang a guilt trip on us n-i.p. What is in it for them, and where do they get the political clout?"

My response to Colin is that it is in their nature. For 50000 years they have existed by doing nothing except sleeping in the sun and putting it over on other fellow Aborigines. The women did the work while the men sat around telling each other what terrific chaps they were. Consequently they have an arrogance that leads them to believe that because they are who they are they should own the country outright to the exclusion of all others and that all n-i.p.s should work for them while they sit around and do nothing except have a good life and that only good things should happen to them while others must take the hard knocks and do the work. They also believe that their culture should be imposed on all others. This attitude has also been reinforced by do-gooders and those with an axe to grind.

This is exemplified by what is happening on the cattle stations that have been bought and given to them in the Northern Territory and West Australia. They immediately put in a white manager who they pay a salary only while the tribe takes the profits from the property. Possibly one of the aboriginal owners works at running the cattle, the rest sit back and have a good life.

Not all aborigines are like this of course and there are plenty of n-i.p.s who think the same way. I know personally a number of n-i.ps who refuse to go to school, college or work and support themselves by dodging back and forth between the dole, Austudy and other forms of taxpayer (worker) funded social welfare.

Aborigines get their political clout from a number of sources. First of all the churches who could not exist without the guilt trips that they put on their congregations. Christian churches and in particular the Roman Catholic church use guilt and the threat of damnation to control their flocks. The church hierarchy have jobs to keep and use the Aborigines as the most recent in a long line of so-called victims to support so that the church has a cause to recruit its members around. In addition the churches and in particular the Jesuits, do not recognise the rule of secular authorities. God, through the Pope, is their only authority and any thing that the Jesuits can do to bugger up the power of the people and their governments will be done. Destroying secular authority in the long run gives the church more power over the population and that is their ultimate aim.

A second source of political clout is individual politicians. These politicians are exemplified by Gareth Evans and his ilk whose only aim is to appear good on the international political arena and who would abandon the Australian people for a career in the UN. Any internationalist cause that comes along will be supported by these people at the expense of the national sovereignty or the self -determination of the Australian people.

There are also those politicians that actually believe in a world government and sell out the people for their own personal ideals. Indigenous rights is the latest internationalist catch cry. It is the lever by which national sovereignty can be eroded. These politicians are the ones who, in the name of racial equality, set up racist structures such as ATSIC and Nunavut. All of this is with the complicity from the High Court judges whose job it is to protect the people and the constitution that we have set up for ourselves but who actively support internationalist policies by twisting the meaning of the constitution to suit themselves.

Then there are the nutters such as Cheryl Kernot, Natasha Stott-Despoja and other members of the Democrats and other groupings such as the Greens who appear to believe that money grows on trees and that we should give every thing away to the most useless members of our society.

Remember also that it is the goal of the Fabian Socialist movement to remove private land ownership from individuals. What simpler way of removing this ownership is there than using the indigenous peoples issues to take all land ownership from n-i.p.s and give it to the indigenes. In Australia this is particularly useful because once the land is all owned by Indigenes the public outcry will be such that the government can take it all back from this extremely small minority with no problem. They could even be suppressed by force if necessary. Hey, Presto! What have you got? A Socialist state with all land ownership in the hands of the government.

The Labor party is riddled with Fabian socialists and the Coalition is riddled with religious groupings. What chance do the people have?

G.P.Briggs

Subject: Government rejects white refugee

It's not really a surprise is it? With all the political and media worship of Nelson Mandela the government is not going to risk criticising his regime. South Africa is heading toward cival war, and the chances are that the government will have this woman's (and her children's) blood on their hands.

How can the Australian government criticise affirmative action for blacks when they do the same thing themselves?

So much for their stated concern for oppressed minorities. Where has Amnesty gone? Don't they represent white people?

We all know what the result would have been if the applicant wasn't white. Chinese get refugee status on the grounds that they are only allowed one child.

Gweilo

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Another perfect day in paradise.

Have a good one.

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