Wednesday 17th February 1999


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Since October 1995

Away on business.

I apologies to @notd readers for the slim page today.

I have been up at the Sunshine Coast... took the images below this morning before returning.

Eat your hearts out!

Conflict of Interest

Reproduced in the public interest:

(I have agreed to post this because I find their characateur of Pauline Hanson just a little bit sick.

It has come to my attention that there is a major conflict of interest happening within the Brisbane City Council regarding the contracting of web services.

Several months ago the BCC hired a Mr. Gregory Baxter to take over the position of Web Services in the Marketing Department, a Council department known for its less then professional dealings with the public sector, Mr. Baxter's role includes amongst other things deciding and grading (point system) which local web developers are worthy to be placed on the BCC's "Preferred Suppliers List". The point system is made up for five categories each category scoring 1-5, 5 being the highest. If you replied to the Council's 'Expression of Interest" then most likely you are on the "Preferred Suppliers List" how you rate depends on your relationship with Mr. Baxter and Mr. Bradley Wood.

Mr. Gregory Baxter became a director of the company Xession Multi Media one month before he applied for the position at the Council. He is featured on the Xession website at (screenshots of the site have been taken for the records).

We have just acquired a copy of the Brisbane City Council's "Preferred Suppliers List" and we noticed Mr. Baxter's company is listed not only as a preferred supplier but also with a 25 point rating. The questions we are posing are:

• DO YOU think this is a conflict of interest as Mr. Baxter is on the panel? HOW MUCH work has Xession Multi Media been given since Mr. Gregory Baxter joined Council?
• HOW MUCH work did Xession do for Council before Mr. Baxter joined the Marketing Department?
• DID Xession go through the same screening process as all of the other companies?
• Xession have already announced on their website that they are a preferred supplier so we have been told. HAS your company been notified, as far as we know other companies haven't been notified?
• We are going to go public with this very soon but we need your support if you think this is a valid request. This is not a personal attack on Mr. Greg Baxter but more a concern the Brisbane City Council tolerates this sort of trading.

We also hear that Mr. Baxter has moved into the lucrative 'City Web' market. City Web is the BCC's corporate intranet, originally designed by Greg's old company Web 21. As far as we know City Web is owned by River City Technology and they are doing nothing to stop this at the moment.

The marketing department has nothing to do with this but Mr. Baxter has slipped in and is dealing out the web contracts to his mates. He has to be stopped.

Why is River City Technology letting Mr. Baxter get away with this or are they unaware.

We would like you to mail or phone Council with your concerns to:

Brisbane City Council
Attn: Mr. Robert Carter
Chief Executive Officer
Phone: 07 3403 8888
Subject: Web Development Conflict of Interest
Express your concern that this is still happening in our City. We will remain anonymous till this matter goes public and we get some support form our peers, as there could be ramifications for the company we work for. We will continue to pursue this till we see justice happen. Equal Trading. We understand that legal action CAN be taken against Council if you choose.

Our contact address.

Thank you for your support
Concerned Brisbane Web Developers

Book banning

Dear Whoever

I wish to vigorously protest at Dymocks' blatant censorship of the recently published book 'Murder by Media' by Scott Balson. ('Interactive Presentations Pty Ltd')

Are we living in a dictatorship, where 'doublespeak' like 'defamation' is used to justify the sort of enforced silences that existed in the erstwhile Soviet Union and its unfortunate satellites?

If the truth is no longer a defence, then is this a dictatorship or a democracy? As Ayn Rand said in her seminal work "Atlas Shrugged!": 'There`s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when they're aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime, that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws.'

I hereby request that Dymocks restore 'Murder by Media!' to its book-stores at its earliest possible convenience. In the meantime, I will be advising my friends, relations, colleagues and associates _NOT_ to purchase any item from Dymocks stores and/or to consider seriously whether any of the other numerous titles Dymocks stocks could be 'possibly construed' as defamatory and subject to legal action...private or OTW!!!!

cheers!
(jimbo!)

Book launch

G'day Scot.

This may be repeat, as an email I was typing last night disappeared when I pressed a couple of keys, and all went blank, including my head.

So, I saw in the Courier mail that your book has been taken off the shelves. Since I have one could you please let me know why. After I read the book, I have been telling a few people to buy it and spread the word. Now it's gone. However, there's know doubt that you will be going to get some publicity, which may help.

Also where is your National news website? How much? I am not a financial member of ON but I do donate, and am extremely sympathetic to the Party and the alternate vote it creates to terrify the standing groups.

Also an article in the mail written by a Michael Duffy about the past immigration policies is something you should read. Give me a fax no. and I'll send it.

If you and the others you mention and Duffy, Sheehan got together, you could write a combined story of deliberate treachery {immigration}, by the decision making elite that would have more impact that Hanson, and could swing the support back to ON.

I feel very strongly about this, as I speak to a lot of southern "refugees" fleeing the south where they have lived for over one hundred years and are now the Australian "displaced" My disillusionment with the feds is complete.

Thanks
Alan V Webb

Privatisation

Dear Scott,

On Tony Delroy's Latelife program last night ( ABC-MON 11 PM ) the question was opened for debate regarding the proposals by the NSW (LIB) and the SA government to follow Jeff Kennett's example in Victoria and privatise the states power network.

Most callers were overwhelmingly against the proposals ( opposition was quoted as being 65% ). It would appear that ON's stance against the privatisation of our resources and once publicly owned utilities is being echoed by many concerned people in this country. Many good arguments were raised in the program against the economic rationalists ( EC-RATS as one caller referred to them as ) and these proposals which would effectively place householders and the industries of these states, and the States ability to control and plan economic growth and development, at the whims and mercy of overseas shareholders and management.

One caller from Victoria had some quite detailed information of the Victorian governments breakdown of the various components of the system and of the subsequent sale of individual components to various companies. She also had research which showed how the maintenance of the grid had been allowed to slip after privatisation and of the cost cutting in that essential area which had taken place. Also she had evidence of how the benefits to consumers , such as lower tariff charges to non industrial users and householders, as promised by Kennett have proven to be a hoax.

With both major parties in NSW flirting with the privatisation of that state's electricity grid ( the Libs are even offering voters $1000 in cash rebate as inducement to vote for the proposed sell off ), ON has a tailor made issue to campaign on. I hope someone in the NSW executive can obtain a transcript of the debate as the points raised by the participants would greatly assist candidates and in structuring ON'S campaign.

Have a good day
Steve Milson

Murdoch

I read somewhere that Murdoch has meetings with his chief editors and they agree on broad editorial lines. The article was pointing out that Murdoch dosn't *tell* them what to say (as Balson thinks), but that people who strongly agree with the Murdoch worldview are naturally promoted. It's quite odd really. Big business favours conservative government, yet the media, which is BIG business, seem to be dominated by the left.

As a former Murdoch editor (at NY Post) I would agree with the article's assertion, rather than what I would take to be Balson's. The penalty for disagreement with the general Murdoch line is dismissal. The real point here is the growing divergence between pro-business conservatism, which is globalist, has few national loyalties or attachments to Western middle and working classes, and the kinds of cultural conservatism represented by Pauline Hanson. The big business agenda is lower taxes, less regulation, and open borders: its leaders ( Murdoch is hardly unique in fitting the description) fly so much and are so accustomed to thinking of themselves as citizens of the world and responsible to a global network of shareholders that the agenda of people who like things the way they are, or even more, the way they were in the 1950's, seems hopelessly reactionary. Big business is more a revolutionary force than a conserving one.

George Orwell

"At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas of which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is "not done" to say it... Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the high-brow periodicals". George ORWELL, 1945, Introduction to 'Animal Farm.'

He was very prophetic, wasn't he.

Antonia

from the global office:

Another perfect day in paradise.

Have a good one.

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exclusive to  (how to) subscribe/rs of the Australian National News of the Day:

"Murder by Media" withdrawn by Dymocks bookstores - 13th February 1999
One Nation "split" - 6th February 1999
Paff and the red light - 3rd February 1999
Launch of "Murder by Media, Death of Democracy in Australia" - 22nd to 24th January 1999
One Nation's Queensland State Conference - 27th to 29th November 1998
Dual Citizenship and politicians- 20th November 1998
Where Prize Turkeys Gather - 17th November 1998
A time with Heather Hill - exclusive interview with One Nation's first Federal Representative - 25th October 1998
A day with Pauline - exclusive interview after the Federal Election - 22nd October 1998
It's YOUR ABC? - 17th October 1998
The Federal Election - 3rd October 1998

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