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Since
October 1995
Quote of the day:
"THIS EVIL EMPIRE IS NOT A FIGMENT OF THE IMAGINATION. PLANS ARE WELL ADVANCED AND IT WILL BECOME A REALITY UNLESS WE TAKE IMMEDIATE STEPS TO STOP IT"...
Paul Hellyer, in The Evil Empire.
Packer's Channel 9 follows Murdoch's line
Last week we looked at the bombardment by the trashy News Limited papers of the Liberal Party for daring to put Pauline Hanson's One Nation above the Labor Party.
The theme has now been taken up by Packer's mob with the bottom line being the argument that if you dare vote for One Nation then you are a racist - which is, of course, a cover for the fear that the media proprietors have of being hit by One Nation once the party holds the balance of power in Australia.
This is how Oates, Packer's political journalist, began his interview with Peter Costello on the Sunday programme yesterday. Note, in particular Costello's opening statement, italicised below, which is the basis of One Nation policy. One Nation is the only party to have this as a foundation stone. It is the divisive ALP and Coalition who have allowed Australians to be treated unequally.
You will note how Oates recognises the dangers in Costello's statement and tries to put him in a corner with the statement "I find it a little bit offensive".
Well Laurie Oates you are nothing more than an ugly toad... both inside and out - as your Packer-lines reveal....
Laurie Oates (LO) Peter Costello, welcome to the programme
Peter Costello (PC): Thank you very much Laurie.
LO: Before we get on to the budget a couple of quick issues. Firstly are you as racist as most of the people who are attracted to Pauline Hanson.
PC: Well, look my view and the view of my party is that all people regardless of their ethnic background should be treated equally and that in a community like ours where tolerance and mutual respect should have free play and that they should one be able to preserve their culture but two be able to be part of the great Australian nation.
LO: You didn’t really answer the question, but you know what I am driving at the Prime Minister has said that the people who are attracted to Pauline Hanson are no more racist than you or I are. Now I think that’s nonsense and I find it a bit offensive actually.
PC: Well look one of the attractions of the One Nation party is that we can all go back to some idealised view of the past and there are a lot of people who are frightened by change who might feel that the One Nation view speaks for them and lets be frank about this there are a lot of other political parties in the parliament today that are trying to pretend we can go back to the past and in some respects Labor’s economic agenda is based on that. But then there is another element to the One nation agenda that seeks to build on racial differences and we utterly repudiate that, I utterly repudiate that. That is not the kind of Australia we want to see in the future.
LO: Well Jeff Kennett and Peter Collins have had the guts to say that the Liberal Party should not direct preferences towards One nation that they should put Labor ahead of Pauline Hanson. Will you say the same?
PC: Well, as I understand it in Queensland what is going to happen is each seat is going to be making its own decision. I can tell you in relation to my own seat where there is a One Nation candidate standing against me that One Nation candidate will be last. Not because I have any love for the Labor Party but because I want to make it clear that that is not the future for Australia. The future for Australia is built on tolerance and respect and building a strong economy not some idealised an some wrong view of the past.
LO: Now wouldn’t it be good if the Prime Minister showed leadership and said what you’ve just said?
PC: Well I think the Prime Minister has shown quite a great deal of leadership in this respect. He has been very forthright during the last week in repudiating those elements of the Hanson agenda which seek to destroy tolerance and respect in our society and I think that in some of the recent radio interview he couldn’t have made it clearer Laurie in the way that he has repudiated those views.
The Courier Mail expounds its preference victory.
After a week of unprecedented media-inspired political pressure being brought to bear by the unethical Courier Mail on the Liberal Party the Liberals, as we revealed on Saturday, folded and changed their public policy on preferences to allow candidates to place the Labor Party ahead of One Nation on their "How-to-vote" cards. An unprecedented move.
The battle with the chicken-hearted Liberal Party was easy for the Courier Mail. They know that the major parties have got hearts as yellow as can be - with the mainstream media being able to bend public opinion to meet the demands of their masters when it comes to voting intentions on election day. However, more and more thinking Australians know what One Nation stand for, they also know that News Limited and the major parties are playing their age-old game of "you help me and I'll help you". The main reason that this country is going to the dogs.
A long time ago I said it would be a "worry" when the Murdoch/Packer media started portraying One Nation in a good light because it will probably mean that "deals have been done". Obviously no deals with the media have or will be done.
It is my firm belief that the systemic corruption in these circles has now been noted by a large number of Australians who will vote with their feet and ensure that One Nation gain a number of seats in the upcoming state election.
Last week at the Ipswich Show just about every single person who came to the One Nation stand scorned the mainstream media as presenting nothing more than trash in their "news" demonstrated by the negative way in which they presented the party. The general view that I got was that people are sick and tired of the obvious relationship between the major parties and the media. That paper-bashing of One Nation in the lead up to the election will polarise public opinion with those who have taken the time to find out what One Nation stand for voting for the party. They will do this regardless of what Murdoch throws at us.
We must be aware that the biased articles presented by News Limited last week are just the first salvo across our bows. We cannot win the war by advertising - because unlike the major -multinational-funded - parties we will be fighting this state election on a shoe-string.
Our greatest ally will be the common sense of Australians who no longer rely on the newspapers for news but who recognise that only One Nation present an opportunity for "people power" to overcome the tyrannical regime running this country.
Today the Courier Mail, in celebrating their preference-victory carry an article which presents the Liberals in a very different light to last week... isn't it amazing how the media masters change themes in mid-stride... In the article they start lining up individual Liberal candidates who now state that they will put One Nation last - trying to isolate any Liberals who dare suggest that they will put One Nation ahead of the Labor Party.
The candidates who have stated that they will put One Nation last are presented as sensible, thinking Liberals with their ethnicity being explored and highlighted as the manipulation of the upcoming state election by Murdoch's intellectual prostitutes continues unabated.
Lest we forget.
Military's Role Seen as Key to Indonesia's Fate
Here is an extract from the Washington Post:
JAKARTA, Indonesia—With Indonesia's economic hardship worsening, social unrest spreading and anti-government protests showing no sign of abating, the key question on almost everyone's mind here is: What will the military do?
While the country's university students have been at the forefront of the growing demands for political reform, most here say true change will come only through the armed forces.
Abri, the acronym by which the military is commonly known, has been the principal pillar of President Suharto's government for 32 years. And in a country where most political activity has been systematically suppressed, the 400,000-strong armed forces is the only cohesive national organisation represented in virtually every city, town and village.
But now, with Suharto facing the gravest challenge to his grip on power, one unanswered question is: Will the military allow itself to be used as a tool of repression, as happened with the People's Liberation Army in China during the Tiananmen Square student protests of 1989? Or will it instead become Indonesia's instrument for reform, perhaps adopting the students' demands for change as its own?
"My own view of the military is that they are very worried about getting ordered to crack down," said a diplomat here. "They don't want to do it. It is the ideology of the military that they are a people's army. They don't use the term, but it's part of their ethos. But the military also does not favour instability. So they are conflicted. Are they loyal to the president? At the moment, they are."
Making the
news" -
Subject: Move away from major players
Dear sir,
The major political parties cannot have two masters. They have opted to serve the dictates of transnational companies. They should not be surprised then to see big blocks of votes going to One Nation and Australia First parties.
Australians understand that they were better off when populist policies were in place.
A backlash has started against economic rationalism and globalisation and where these policies have placed Australia on the world stage. It has taken a long time for the Australian voters to see that their standards of living has dropped substantially, that the unemployment and under employment numbers are unacceptable, that treaties signed with the United Nations and other countries have been detrimental to us, that the Multilateral Agreement on Investment negotiations have been done in secret and are unacceptable to us, that foreign subsidised imports have decimated our farmers, that manufacturing in Australia should never have been allowed to go off shore and that tariffs can be beneficial.
When the Labor and Liberal parties learn to govern for the people of Australia and not just blindly follow the dictates of the world companies then, and only then, will they get the respect they once had under Menzies, McEwaen, Curtin and Chifley.
Berrick
Subject: Comments on Australian News of the Day
Dear Sir
God help this Country if One Nation does NOT get elected to the balance of power.
Reading the biased and blatantly unethical propaganda of the Courier Mail over the last week, has made me realise how much this Media circus we endure, damages our society and our country.
Wilful distortion of the facts, selective and misrepresentative quotations and high handed personal soothsaying makes a mockery of ethical journalism and objectivity.
It also cheapens and further erodes any confidence that the public may have left in the mass media, and creates the division and rumour mongering ,that a free and open press should work to combat.
The latest hysteria about the One Nation preferences is at least a very illuminating peek at Packer /Murdoch's paranoia about their fast unravelling grip on power in Queensland.
We should take heart, the depths to which they sink is a measure of our success and the popularity of Pauline Hansons One Nation!
Best Wishes
T.Benge
Subject: Comments on Australian News of the Day
Dear Sir
This is the first time I have felt the need to criticise the GWB "News of the Day".
Yesterday's un-signed little jibe at the MUA was pathetic at best. One would expect the 'mug' who wrote it to put his name to it.
Maybe it was sent by a disgruntled farmer? Someone who has poisoned the land so much that;
(1) It erodes away
(2) the salt now rises to the surface
(3) the rivers turn "green with algae" (pun intended)
Or maybe it was sent by someone who likes to see trained killers become
wharfies? Let's not beat around the bush, S.A.S. soldiers are trained to
kill.
Or maybe it was sent by someone who is tired of getting their arse kicked
in the courts?
Whoever wrote it needs to realise one important factor. "PETER REITH MUST
RESIGN"
From
S.E. Wagger
If we had not published it we would have been accused of being biased.
A range of views promotes discussion. Discussion is good.
Editor
Subject: Multiculturalism - the alternative
Dear Sir,
Please find enclosed story on Multiculturalism - the real alternative
Tony Price
Do we need a replacement for Multiculturalism ?
Multiculturalism came into Australian political life it’s had it’s span and now it’s got to go. It’s like a housekeeping operation you don’t keep something around just because it’s there. When something goes from your home it creates a gap and you’ve got to try and fill it. This applies to policies as well. For example multiculturalism it’s a dysfunctional policy but it must be replaced with something else. There is a need for some positive approach so when people come to Australia they integrate and understand the Australian way. You could say “don’t bother just let people find their own way”. The problem with this is that it tends to encourage the development of separate cultures so people don’t integrate. This is the same end product created by the official policy of Multiculturalism.
I think everybody has got their own experiences on integration so I will give you mine. I came here from Wales in the UK in the mid seventies and I didn’t know very much about Australia. Most of the books by English authors tended to concentrate on Koala bears and the flowers in the Simpson Desert. They have pictorial value but aren’t very helpful in understanding Australia or Australians. I read a book written by an Italian migrant called “They’re a Weird Mob” it’s an amusing book and worth reading. It’s not the place but the people that really matter- your ability to integrate and relate to them. You learn this first hand from an Aussie better than from a book. This is the key for integration - regular contact with one or more Australians who can actually tell you what goes on and how things work.
I was lucky - a number of people helped me. I was living in Brisbane at the time and one of my neighbours was a retired school teacher then in her seventies. She had been the teacher at Mutdapilly State School and came from that district - a farming community just west of Ipswich. Since I was a country person I could relate to her stories, ideas and interpretations of events. There were other Australians too where I was working (U.Q.) you need an Aussie mate in a job situation - it’s big help.
So when the Multiculturalism policy is scrapped as it must be there is an alternative. Like a neighbourhood system which in my case occurred by accident but which could be coordinated and assisted while still operating on a voluntary basis. Societies (eg. voluntary associations that help migrants to integrate) have operated very effectively in this area - their role should be expanded and encouraged.
Tony Price
Another perfect day in paradise. Getting cooler now.
Have a good one.
Recent stories exclusive to (how to) subscribe/rs of the Australian National News of the Day:
Unethical trifecta
expose Courier Mail's intellectual prostitutes - 9th May 1998
MIGA - son of MAI
exposed - 8th May
Just me and Pauline - 5th May
One Nation breakfast
- 4th May
Just who are the
Mont Pelerin
Society - 3rd May
The Internet and
the DEATH of the MAI - 30th April
Launch of Pauline
Hanson's re-election campaign - 29th April
Second One Nation
protest surprises Bob McMullan - 28th April
Sultan
of Brunei buys up big tracks of Australia - then negotiates Indonesian
"settlements" 25th April
Maritime
Union of Australia win in the Federal Court 22nd April
Just
who is behind the dock war? 19th April
One
Nation Birthday Party on Pauline Hanson's farm 10th-12th April
One
Nation state and federal candidates meet in Toowoomba 4th -5th April
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