Friday 20th June 1997
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The inexcusable persecution of Pauline Hanson by the Courier Mail and other News Limited papers is now backed up with mocking cartoons which should and will shock Australians around the country.The clickable image on the left displays a woman walking down a cat walk in a Ku Klux Klan robe with a commentator saying, "And now to evening wear... and this stunning little number designed by David Duke specially for Pauline..."
As a One Nation supporter I find the cartoon in extremely poor taste especially as the paper carries a story on page one under the heading "Farmers label Hanson a wrecker" part of which reads:
"It was revealed that Ms Hanson has more federal police security than Prime Minister John Howard and her office fears people demonstrating against her would 'probably kill her in the streets'."
In fact Ms Hanson's security bill is now costing Australian tax payers an estimated Au$23,000 per week. Security is also costing One Nation a fortune. At the Newcastle launch One Nation paid Au$16,500 while tax payers footed a bill for Au$120,000 just to enable Ms Hanson to exercise her right of free speech.
At the Newcastle launch Ms Hanson said, "I cannot begin to describe the difficulties that have been associated with me being here tonight... but beating them (protesters, the Newcastle Council, and minority and multicultural groups) has been a huge cost both in time and money.
"Tonight's exercise in freedom of speech is costing us (One Nation) Au$16,500."
The game that the mainstream media are now playing in Australia breaks every rule of democracy. It is blatant, it is deceitful and hopefully it will backfire in the faces of those who would see our democratic rights put at risk.
Can you imagine the outcry by the do-gooders and the mainstream press if someone posted a cartoon of, for example, Aboriginal Social Justice Commissioner Mick Dodson with boomerang in hand dragging a farmer through the mud ... but it's alright to portray Pauline Hanson at times like this as a member of the Ku Klux Klan - a group she has never ever had any contact with.
John Howard had feelgood pictures taken of him with Australian cricket captain Mark Taylor while rain washed out play at Lords yesterday.
The free spending Federal MPs who have been quick to harass Ms Hanson with accusations of misusing her travel allowance and being away from her electorate should look in their own court as it was revealed yesterday in Parliament that:
Pauline Hanson's One Nation Official home page."The national interest of Australia supports very strongly the stand that I'm taking on greenhouse gases," Mr Howard said.
"I mean we are in a special situation and I'll be putting that.
"I'm asking that the same freedom of movement be allowed for Australia.
"I'll be explaining to British companies when I address the Confederation of British Industry next week and I'll certainly be putting my situation in relation to that again to President Bill Clinton when I see him in Washington".
At least we know where Senator Ron Boswell stands, now that he's ritually kicked the Ku Klux can. It's time we put people like the Senator to their proof.
Jack McLamb, a retired Arizona police officer decorated numerous times for bravery, spoke recently in Brisbane. Far from sounding like a 'wacko', he sounded like a Christian, conservative, patriotic American. He did point out, however, that there are over 130 unexplained cilivian detention centres (concentration camps) in the USA waiting to receive somebody, and American patriots are starting to think it might be them. McLamb's claims have now been confirmed by many sources.
Likewise, "The Strategy" newspaper, by any objective assessment, is a Christian, conservative, patriotic newspaper. It does express the view, however, that Australian politicians are serving interests other than those of the Australian people and concealing the fact. And when an Australian Senator like Boswell alleges that his country's conservative partiots represent a threat to the State, he simply confirms those suspicions.
Graham Strachan.
Internationally respected Adelaide academic, Associate Prof. Paul
Corcoran wrote the following article titled 'Hanson Makes an Ideal Target' for The Sydney
Morning Herald of 16 June '97:
Contempt for the easily-led mob is in fashion again; cruel epithets
about class & culture are now acceptable.
For months commentators have indulged in amateur psychology to
"analyse" Pauline Hanson & her supporters. Journalists, academics & ABC intellectuals
have, as you know, achieved a diagnosis: No one in their right mind could support the
views endorsed by That Woman.
The Pathology of those who do is easily summarised. In recent years,
"ordinary" Australians have been besieged by great changes in traditional values:
unemployment, a global economy, women's liberation, new technology, "threats" to
Australian identity from Aboriginal activism & Asian ascendancy.
The momentum to create this brave , rationalised, competitive new
world was generated by a decade of Labor & marshalled into a powerful new vision by Paul
Keating. As a result, complacent denizens of the Aussie Arcadia are suffering from a
terminal case of "change fatigue". They have lost their way, their identity & their
leader.
The diagnosis that "change" was just too much for the plebeians
supposes great masses of ordinary people hunkered down, pathetically trying to fend off forces
that extraordinary, clever people welcome with open arms. Among these baffled masses are
10 or 15 % who refuse to suffer the tumult in silence. These, needless to say, are
the racists, the "Hansonites" who have been roused from their torpor by a noisy symbol
of their frustration.
The multitude are to be pitied, but the audacious ones - the famous "juggernaut" - are
dangerous & disgusting or, at the very least, embarrassing. They have forgotten their place.
They've questioned authority.
Their is room for a rival theory here. Briefly stated , the amateur psychologists are the
ones who are not coping very well with change. One need only listen to the language of
ABC critics, columnists & that exotic hybrid "social researchers" to see that they are in
denial.
They are "terribly sorry", but John Howard & his Government are
"simply not acceptable", their legitimacy not for a moment conceded.
The 1996 election was a travesty from start to finish. Everything Howard & Co. have
done since has only proved the point. The temerity to institute thousands of redundancies
in the Public Service? Differ from the previous government on multiculturalism,
immigration, industrial policy? Have a position on native title & Aboriginal policy that
differs from Keating's - or at least what we all know Keating's policy should have been?
No, no. All quite unacceptable.
A colourful thread joins this denial with the Pauline Doctrines: the common folk are at
fault. In this increasingly paranoid analysis, polling data are used to show
how ordinary people, blinkered & baffled, have lost the plot.. Why else would anyone
support Howard?
Hanson's support merely reflects that for rednecks even Howard isn't
awful enough. In short order you have a nice, tight, circular argument: the villains -
villains in the original French, the "low born & rustic" - are the villains. What is worse,
most of them should know better: they used to vote ALP (Australian Labor Party).
What is striking to a student of political language is the sheer contempt towards Hanson,
especially, but also for Howard. University students of an earlier day religiously spelled
Malcolm Fraser's surname by replacing the "s" with a swastika - but they were after, all
students. The remarkable thing now is the scornful language of the 'juste milieu' - the
properly washed, laundered & comfortably "progressive" intelligentsia.
Overt condescension & contempt for the fractious, uncouth, easily deceived mob are in
fashion again. Cruel epithets about class, culture & even race are...OK! This is all happily
printed & broadcast in the respectable media over the bylines of those who believe in
themselves as fair & worthy. One normally associates such reactionary language with
18th- & 19th-century aristocracy, though even then it would have been ill-mannered to
display these views in print.
This intemperance is especially odd from those who are zealous for a Republic. For at
least a year, the wits & sages have honed their blades. One moment they sneer at Howard
& Hanson as emotionally deformed, mentally defective, morally degenerate & out of their
depth. A moment later, they conjure up tabloid imagery of monsters, fascists & social
anarchy. These terms are routinely invoked, for example, in Phillip Adam's hectares of
media time & space.
Pundits no longer even veil their class derision for "that fish & chip woman", with salt &
vinegar applied to her poor grammar & lack of education. CASUAL RACISM ABOUT
"REDNECKS" IS ALL RIGHT, BECAUSE YOU ARE SLAMMING THE RIGHT
RACE & ONLY SINGLING OUT STUPID , NARROW-MINDED, ILL-EDUCATED,
CULTURALLY BACKWARD FARMERS, OR INDEED, THE PRIME MINISTER.
(my emphasis:cf. Les Murray's 'Subhuman Redneck Poems').
The assumption here is that there is something embarrassing, contemptible & inferior
about a fish & chip shop owner may not be widely shared by those more keenly curious
about the quality of the fish & whether she makes really good chips.
Otherwise so confident in their labours as arbiters of republican morality, to hear such
language on the lips of our intelligentsia is not an edifying experience. One must wonder
about the health of our egalitarian culture & whether it is strong enough to support a
republican government. It is pretty clear the intelligentsia do not want the people much
involved in that.
The 'juste milieu' commentators are coping badly with change. The signs of hysteria are
loud & clear. The silent pain of bruised egos, lost identity & lowered self-esteem is pretty
obvious among those who talk & write about politics for a living.
So there is a point to be made about those who feel politically usurped. How this happens
in politics is not always clear. An answer in the present case is, I believe, implicit in letters
to the editor complaining that the "Hanson phenomenon" is an obsessive media creation.
You need a scapegoat to displace fear, project disgust & vent your anger. With Hanson you get the lot: better than a whipping boy - a whipping girl. What better target for hatred & scorn than a demonised woman, a perfect symbol of unruly public
illegitimacy. If that's not enough, pump yourself up on Little Johnny.
(Paul Corcoran is Associate Professor of Politics at the University of
Adelaide.)
Subject: critical email
I thought it was very refreshing to read some "clean" e-mail from people
who don't agree with One Nation. Mail like that can make you stop and think
whereas HATE mail can sometimes cause a response that is based on anger
only.
Channel 9 could learn somthing from the people who wrote that mail.
Nine's latest effort was beyond pathetic. On the "Today Show", they had a
guy dressed in black with a pointy black hat. He had a disposable lighter
and a toy dinosaur in his hands. The whole point of the interview was that
he was going to "exorsize" the demons he believes are in Ms Hanson.
I'm starting to wonder if ANYONE at Channel 9 understands the meaning of
credability.
S.E. Wagger.
Subject: Bank Interest Rates
GWB,
I have read your article on the WEB and agree wholeheartedly about the way
bank customers are now treated. As a Curtain manufacturer, I know only too
well how the bank charges can inhibit your company viability.
I recently sold my business (for a considerable loss) due to the mounting
charges and levies from both my bank and my landlord. I know run a one man
business from home writing and selling software. One of the programs for
which I have become an agent may be of interest to you or your readers.
The program is from the Interest Savers Pty Ltd. There are several programs
for checking that the banks are not overcharging interest on your accounts.
It has been found that around 93% of bank account have errors in interest
calculations and that the banks really don't care. When confronted with
proof of the errors, they generally re-imburse the account holder without
question. The four programs currently available are an Overdraft interest
Saver, a Trust Account Interest Saver, a Balance Account Interest Saver and
a Commercial Loan Interest Saver. They sell for $395.00 in one package - a
small price when you consider that one user found almost $60,000 worth of
errors in their Trust Account.
Should you be interested in the programs or even if you can detail other
cases where the banks have been incorrectly calculating interest, I would
be pleased to hear from you.
Regards,
Subject: young and accepting
It's so disappointing to see that a person of my age can so easily
accept a multi-cultural society yet others of a far greater age (and in
theory greater wisdom) find it so difficult to grasp the concept behind
what makes Australia click.
209 years ago a boat full of "boat people" came to this country. They
killed thousands of the inhabitants at the time and took all that they
had from them. These boat people were led by a captain called captain
Cook. These boat people came from England. And now, after raping this
land of all it once had they feel that they owe no apology to these
people, the aboriginals. In fact they feel, in some indirect yet defined
way, that these people that were brutally murdered owe them quite a sum.
But wait a minute these aboriginal people were cannibals, ohh that's OK
then, they obviously deserved it.
There is no conclusive evidence to support the finding that any
aboriginal people took part in cannibalism, yet Pauline, oo master of
fish and chips (should have stayed there, I like fish and chips) feels
this strange urge to publish a lovely little novel called "the truth"
and go in to depth about this vivid story. Her only possible motive
would be to provoke racism in Australia.
My point is not that Pauline is the founder of racism but a master of
the school of thought that goes by the name "ruin a country now ask us
how?".
Stop dropping acid and wake up to yourself Hanson, your the most hated
person in Australia and I can only hope that this worsens. Is that how
you want to be remembered. Your supporters are of the average age of 55,
they will all die before you can kill every immigrant in Australia, give
up, apologise and let this country out of your evil grasp.
Danny.
Email Allan Pitter
A simple and obvious example is the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (which has very well placed gay and lesbian people making policy on programming) showing the disgusting Gay Mardi Gras in Sydney live - with obscene sexual inferences that would be scorned and damned if the same type of behaviour had been attempted in the streets by "straight" people.
Organization: Department of Psychology, University of Wollongong
Subject: (no subject)
In your website you say:
The 139 Chinese boatpeople who arrived illegally on Australian shores a few days ago will cost tax payers millions of dollars in a protracted process as they apply for refugee status in this country.
They did not arrive illegally - the legality of their arrival has not yet been determined, how dare you circumvent due process of law an pronounce guilt.
Russell Noble
Geez no wonder Asians don't want to come to Australia as tourists anymore... it's not Hanson it's those bars on the windows and the big wire fences that they chuck up around the "hotel resort"... one wonders, therefore, why they allegedly paid up to Au$14,000 to make the trip in a boat which was not of the same class as normal tourist cruise liners.
Editor
The proportion of women who married younger men jumped from 11% in 1974 to 20% in 1995.
About 66% of men now married a younger woman while 14% of couples were the same age.
The report also revealed that about 56% of couples married in 1992 lived together beforehand compared to just 16% in 1975.
The report revealed a widening gap between the rich and the poor over the past 10 years with working teenagers getting paid less than in the early 1980s and a large number of children living in families where both parents remained unemployed.
In 1994 the top 20% of Australian households received about 40% of the total disposable income averaging Au$1,205 per week while the bottom 20% received about 6% or just Au$175 per week.
The buying power of low-income families dropped 9% between 1974 and 1994 while high income earners buying power grew by 2.5% over the same period.
Have a good one.
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