Recent stories exclusive to (how to) subscribe/rs of the Australian National News of the Day:
One
Nation Birthday Party on Pauline Hanson's farm 10th-12th April
One
Nation state and federal candidates meet in Toowoomba 4th -5th
April
Hindmarsh
Island Bridge case thrown out by High Court 2nd April
The
Hindmarsh Island Bridge farce revealed 31st March
UN
agrees to make our fresh water a "global commodity".... beware farmers -
your fresh water dam WILL cost you! 28th March
Courier
Mail's national affairs reporter Peter Charlton attacks MAI concerns and
breaches ethics guidelines 28th March
The
US Government's global "Cablesplice" project, fact or fantasy? 26th
March
Current topical links (available to all readers):
[Links to the MAI]
[Queensland
One Nation State Election website]
[One Nation Federal Web
Site]
Archive of weekly features (available to all
readers):
[The
Canberra Column]
[Economic
Rationalism]
Today's
Headlines
an Aussie's viewpoint on Australia's
first daily Internet newspaper.
Since
October 1995
One Nation introduce Community Based Referendum Policy
Extract from the policy launch speech yesterday:
Welcome, I am Dorothy Pratt, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation candidate for Barambah and Queensland State spokeswoman for Community Based Referendum.
I am pleased to announce Pauline
Hanson’s One Nation has formulated a policy for direct democratic
involvement of the Australian people.
The policy is called Community Based Referendum and will be taken to the polls as an issue at the next state and federal election.
Community Based Referendum is an important policy that simply says you have faith in good sense and fairminded attitude of Australians.
Community Based Referendum will give the ordinary people of Queensland the opportunity to directly address the issues of real concern which are all to often swept under the carpet following each election.
Community Based Referendum will grant the people of Queensland the right and ability to initiate legislation directly.
Full speech and CBR policy from this link
Dorothy Pratt and Pauline Hanson joined by Heather Hill (state candidate for Ipswich in photo on right)
While Hanson speaks for the people and proves it, News Limited demonstrate their editorial bias
News Limited's Courier Mail is a very unique paper in the media empire's repertoire. You see The Courier Mail is actually owned by a private Murdoch company, Crudon Pty Ltd. The editor Chris Mitchell is about an unethical as they come with his writing being nothing more than the results of a phone call from Murdoch family directives.
In the words of John Swinton, the former Chief of Staff of the NEW YORK TIMES, called by his peers, "The Dean of his profession." who when he was asked in 1953 to give a toast before the New York Press Club responded with the following statement.
'There is no such thing, at this date of the world's history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it.
There is not one of you who dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone.
The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting to an independent press? We are the tools and vassals for rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks; they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes'
A few weeks ago I revealed that I am currently taking The Courier Mail to the Australian Press Council for what I consider to be blatantly biased reporting. The text of my complaint, which has been submitted to The Courier Mail for answer, can be seen here for the first time.
Today we have another classic case of media bias by this sick excuse of a balanced newspaper. Today they reveal that Pauline Hanson's One Nation are now expected to come close to gaining the state seats of Hervey Bay, Barambah (Dorothy Pratt above represents One Nation in Barambah) and Gympie.
In the front page article headed, "Hanson a real poll threat - research", a leaked Labor Party research document reveals that One Nation is attracting 26% of the vote in Hervey Bay - just 3% short of the National Party. The ALP attracting 35%. The research was conducted with 350 voters about two weeks ago. The paper goes on to say that One Nation will win seats and determine the outcome of many others making preferences a very big issue.
The article concludes with Labor Party state secretary Mike Kaiser confirming that the survey results are authentic and has resulted in the ALP showing its true yellow belly by now saying that they should not give their preferences to any candidates in seats held by National Party candidates.
Hidden right at the end of this article is the following statement referring to the Community Based Referendum policy launch:
"At a One Nation policy launch, held in a Brassall aerobics centre, Ms Hanson said the party would work out a policy on workplace relations "soon". However she said she was "disgusted" that sacked waterside workers had taken their children to the picket line.
"Ms Hanson and One Nation's candidate for the state seat of Barambah, Dorothy Pratt, released a key policy for the party that would allow the electorate to pass their own legislation.
"Ms Hanson said "if One Nation won government" voters would be able to put forward ideas for new laws.
"Community committees of 12 electors would only have to collect 400 signatures to be able to apply to the electoral commissioner for legislative reform."
No reference to CBR, just a vague reference to some "idea" for voters to have a say...
In the above article there is a reference to The Courier Mail editorial on page 16 which is headed: "One Nation's threat to government". In this article the editor again flicks out the idea that "...it will not do so by pandering to the simplistic racism, nationalism and isolationism of Ms Hanson's party."
What a simpleton! He really thinks that the Australian public believe what they read in News Limited editorials... what his master's voice has instructed him to say on the subject... he might as well go and talk to a wall.
Full transcript of today's Courier Mail editorial here.
U.S. Arms Sales Lead Project Censored's 1998 Top 10 Censored Stories
ROHNERT PARK, Calif. -- The Clinton Administration's aggressive promotion of U.S. arms sales throughout the world leads this year's list of the Top 10 censored or underreported news stories identified by Project Censored, Sonoma State University's award-winning, student-faculty media watch program.
Researchers for Project Censored, now in its 22nd year, contend the mainstream media in the U.S. has failed to report that America's share of the global arms market in the last 10 years has grown from 16 percent to 63 percent in spite of congressional resolutions prohibiting sales of military aid and training to governments that are undemocratic, abuse human rights or engage in aggression against neighbouring states.
Worse, according to a story, "Guns 'R' Us," by Martha Honey and published in In These Times, the nation's arms sales policies are used to justify increased weapons spending and development to achieve superiority over forces U.S. arms merchants have equipped and trained.
Honey's story quotes Lawrence Kolb, a Brookings Institute fellow and former assistant secretary of defence under Ronald Reagan who said: "It's a money game: an absurd spiral in which we export arms only to have to develop more sophisticated ones to counter those spread all over the world."
Prof. Peter Phillips, director of Project Censored, said the In These Times article is the kind of journalism Americans need from mainstream media but increasingly seldom get.
Phillips stated, "Investigative Journalists are writing and printing hundreds of important news stories annually that are ignored by a major media too interested in celebrity news, infomercials, and titillation".
The arms merchants story and other censored or underreported news stories are published in the newly released Project Censored yearbook, "Censored 1998: The News that Didn't Make the News." In addition to top stories missed by mainstream media in 1997, the yearbook contains timely articles and reviews on the media, the continuing conglomerization of news and information industries in the U.S., a review of the status of previously cited underreported stories, and resource guides to mainstream and alternative media.
Project Censored is based at Sonoma State University in Northern California. It identifies stories about significant issues that are not widely publicized by the national mainstream news media. The annual project is conducted by more than 125 faculty, student researchers and interns, and community experts. The final 25 censored stories are ranked in order of significance by a panel of national judges including members of the media, authors and educators.
Here are the top ten underreported stories of 1997:
1. Clinton Administration Promotes U.S. Arms Sales Worldwide. The U.S. is now the principal arms merchant for the world, despite congressional intent to prohibit such practices, and is creating a continuing arms race.
2. Personal Care and Cosmetic Products May Be Carcinogenic. Personal care products American consumers believe are safe are often contaminated with carcinogenics.
3. Big Business Seeks to Control and Influence U.S. Universities. Academia is being auctioned off to highest bidders as industry creates endowed professorships, funds think tanks and research centers, sponsors grants and contracts for research.
4. Exposing the Global Surveillance System. U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand continue to operate secret Cold War-era intelligence system to monitor telephone, e-mail and telex communications throughout the world.
5. U.S. Companies Are World Leaders in the Manufacture of Torture Devices for Internal Use and Export. Forty-two of 100 firms worldwide that produce and sell instruments of torture are based in the U.S.
6. Russian Plutonium Lost Over Chile and Bolivia. Four canisters of deadly plutonium aboard the ill-fated Russia Mars 96 space probe remain lost after the spacecraft plunged back to earth and crashed into Bolivia.
7. Norplant and Human Lab Experiments in Third World Lead to Forced Use in the United States. Low-income women in the U.S. and in Third World countries have been targets of U.S. policies to control birth rates, often injected with contraceptive implants that lead to painful and costly complications.
8. Little Known Federal Law Paves the Way for National ID Card. The Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act of 1996 contains the framework for establishing a national ID card for the American public.
9. Mattel Cuts U.S. Jobs to Open Sweat Shops in Other Countries. Thanks to NAFTA and GATT, the U.S. toy industry has cut a one-time American workforce of 56,000 in half and sent many of the jobs to countries where workers lack basic rights.
10. Army's Plan to Burn Nerve Gas and Toxins in Oregon Threatens Columbia River Basin. Despite evidence that incineration is the worst option for destroying the nation's obsolete chemical weapons stockpile, the Oregon Environmental Quality Commission has authorized the Army and Raytheon Corp. to build five incinerators at the Umatilla Army Depot.
Making the
news" -
Prime Minister John Howard pulls out the taxpayer cheque book to try to score browny points in northern Queensland.
They used to call him "Honest John" but the desire to maintain power has gone to Howard's head.
Yesterday he was pulling out the chequebook while trying to recover ground lost to One Nation.
He promised to spend Au$600,000 in funding on the environment in the far north, the money being part of an Au$18 million Australia wide allocation from the Au$1.25 billion National Heritage Trust fund.
He also took a swipe at Murrandoo Yanner, the co-ordinator of the Carpentaria Land Council saying that his opposition to the Century Zinc mine was bad for Aborigines.
"This thing has been going on now for the whole time that I have been Prime Minister," Howard said.
"It is just the ridiculous stark example of why this native title issue has got to be resolved."
Subject: Birthday weekend
Dear Sir,
Well done for the birthday bash coverage. The only thing that had me a little frustrated was knowing you were doing day-to-day coverage and I couldn't (or didn't know where to) send an e-mail message of support/congratulations. Maybe next year?
Cheers,
Mark Bransdon.
Subject: Multinational ownership of Oz
I read your brief report alleging that Franklins has funded the current union-busting operation to the tune of $100 million. It would be very desirable to get some definitive documentation on this - at the moment it is hearsay.
In case you haven't seen it, the following article by Michael McKinnon (in Canberra) was published in the Adelaide Advertiser and also in the Brisbane Courier Mail on 14 January 1998. If his report is correct, then it is reasonable to conclude that Australia has been relentlessly milked by multinationals over a long period of time. This is consistent with the substance of your recent report in the GWB web site (and in the Georgist web site, and the 28/10/96 SMH article by Paul Cleary), even though the sources used by McKinnon and the others are not "well documented".
John Hermann
Economic Reform Australia
-----------------------------------------
100 BIG FIRMS PAID NO TAX
by Michael McKinnon in Canberra
About 100 multinationals operating in Australia and each earning more than $300 million a year paid no tax in 1996, an Advertiser investigation has found.
Australian Tax Office documents reveal that just under 40 large multinational companies did not pay any tax in 1994, 1995 and 1996.
Multinationals can avoid tax by transferring profits to low or non-tax countries and also by inflating expenses or cutting income to show no profit. This was done in order to escape having to pay tax.
About 55 per cent of multinationals or companies with so-called "offshore-related party transactions" paid no tax in 1996.
The Tax Office is auditing more than 50 multinationals - which represent many more individual companies - with combined turnover worth more than #1 billion. By comparison, about 10 million salary and wage earning Australians are expected to contribute $62 billion to government coffers this financial year, with the average earner on about $30,000 paying about $6500 a year.
The Tax Office is using a mixture of audit and service programs, including consultation and education strategies, to ensure multinationals pay a fair amount of tax.
Multinationals are required to lodge a special form - a schedule 25A - with the Tax office.
In 1996, more than 7700 companies claimed multinational status.
And the number claiming multinational status is increasing according to the Tax Office, reflecting the growing global nature of trade.
Yesterday, a Tax Office spokesman said the significant number of large dollar turnover companies with offshore-related party dealings that pay little or no tax was an issue for the Australian community.
'But it should be noted that, at the other end of the spectrum, less than 20 multinational companies paid over $3 billion in tax in 1995, some 21 per cent of all company tax," he said.
"The obvious question which arises is how can a business exist in a market over a lengthy period - sometimes decades - if it never makes a profit?"
The spokesman said the Tax Office could not reveal the identities of any of the multinationals not paying tax.
He said the Tax Office had a program of audits of transfer pricing dealings of multinational enterprises, and some 43 legislative changes had been introduced by the Howard Government to enable Australia to get its fair share of revenue.
Another perfect day in paradise.
Have a good one.
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