Recent stories exclusive to (how to) subscribe/rs of the Australian National News of the Day:
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
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
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
How the net killed the MAI
Extract from a story by The Globe and Mail:
PARIS -- High-powered politicians had reams of statistics and analysis on why a set of international investing rules would make the world a better place.
They were no match, however, for a global band of grassroots organisations, which, with little more than computers and access to the Internet, helped derail a deal.
Indeed, international negotiations have been transformed after this week's successful rout of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) by opposition groups, which -- alarmed by the trend toward economic globalization -- used some globalization of their own to fight back.
Congratulations to all those involved in killing off the MAI. Now we need to be vigilant and to shake up those involved in signing treaties like the financial services industry agreement.
A SUMMARY OF THE CANADIAN CITIZENS' LEGAL CHALLENGE to the MAI
The Defence of Canadian Liberty Committee / le Comité de la liberté Canadienne has commenced proceedings in the Federal Court of Canada, (trial division), No. T-790-98, to stop the government of Canada from entering into the Multilateral Agreement on Investment ("MAI"). Initiating documents were filed and served April 23,1998. The M.A.I is currently being negotiated through the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), which is based in Paris, France. Canada is one of 29 member nations of the OECD. These nations are the wealthiest nations in the world. Negotiations for the MAI may be moved back to the World Trade Organization (WTO) which includes developing countries.
The Committee is a group of Canadian citizens who are very concerned about the broad scope of the MAI and its potential to undermine their freedom. They have raised a number of constitutional objections to both the process of negotiating the MAI and the substance of the MAI. This is an issue of serious national importance to Canadians. The Defence of Canadian Liberty Committee says that:
1. the MAI is unconstitutional under Canadian law because it gives rights to investors at international law which Canadian citizens do not have. This is contrary to the principle of equality before the law which is part of the Canadian constitution enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The establishment of an international tribunal where investors can sue Canada for breaches of the terms of the MAI is a surrender by Canada of Canada's exclusive jurisdiction to appoint superior court judges and is contrary to the Constitution;
2. a treaty cannot give corporations standing in international law;
3. Canada cannot enter into a binding treaty over matters exclusively within provincial competence, and the MAI is so broad in its scope that it intrudes into matters which are exclusively within provincial jurisdiction;
4. the MAI requires establishment of international tribunals not subject to Canadian law. There is no right of appeal. These tribunals require money from member countries. The spending of money by Canada to establish and maintain these tribunals without parliamentary assent is contrary to the Constitution;
5. the government of Canada has no authority to sign a treaty without a mandate from Parliament. To do so is a violation of the fundamental principles of democracy and representative government. Exercise of prerogative power must be subject to the Constitution
CONSTANCE CLARA FOGAL and THE DEFENCE OF CANADIAN LIBERTY COMMITTEE/ LE COMITÉ DE LA LIBERTÉ CANADIENNE
-VS-
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN IN THE RIGHT OF CANADA, SECRETARY OF STATE, THE MINISTER OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS, THE DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SERGIO MARCHI, THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JEAN CHRÉTIEN and OTHER MEMBERS OF CABINET
Patrick Stevedores and the Coalition Government hold secret talks
How a week can change a company's fortunes.
Last week Patrick thought they had destroyed the MUA - until the Federal Court ruled that they must re-instate the 1400 sacked wharfies.
Yesterday Peter Reith and Prime Minister John Howard held urgent talks with Patrick Boss Chris Corrigan after his company faced bankruptcy with the High Court suggesting that it might have to "employ" the dismissed wharfies for the rest of their natural lives without them actually working.... costs went as high as Au$2 billion.
The two talks followed a statement by the National Farmers Federation (NFF) lawyer in the High Court that the NFF knew that Patrick would fire its own workforce when it established its own contract workforce on Webb Dock in Sydney.
NFF President Don McGauchie yesterday used a Press Club speech to deny the lawyer's claim saying that he was mistaken.
Now it appears Patrick have offered the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) the Au$3.6 million required to get the workforce going again through the bankrupted subsidiary companies.
In the meantime the docks around Australia now hold an estimated Au$500 million in undelivered goods. The country is being bled dry.
McGauchie conceded that his 350 contract workers would now probably be displaced and that "We will certainly be employing as many (non-MUA contract workers) as we can if we are tipped out of the employment contract we have with Patrick but we certainly won't be able to employ all of them".
In a further development a former Special Air Services (Victorian branch) member, Andrew Harris, was offering documents relating to the Dubai wharf training deal for sale for the highest bidder. The authenticated documents apparently implicate the Coalition Government and Patrick in complicity with the NFF long before the latest wharf crisis.
What is Au$14 a week worth?
"If you are in a job that's great news. If you are out of a job, it is not going to help you," Peter Costello on the ruling by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to raise minimum salaries by up to Au$14 per week.
"There are still too many people in Australia that are not in work...." Costello continued. The legacy of globalisation - sanctioned by consecutive ALP and Coalition governments.
Au$14 per week will buy those with weekly incomes below Au$550 per week just enough to buy a loaf of bread and half a litre of milk a day.
Au$14 will raise their taxes.
What Au$14 will not do is fix the travesty where the multinationals pay little or no tax in this country.
Rural debt a burden ready to kill our farming industry off altogether.
The Australian rural industry is ripe for take-over by multinationals with enormous loans to banks now dominating the balance sheet. Just extraordinary low interest rates keep the farming community going.
In Queensland rural debt has reached Au$4.83 billion or an average of Au$280,931 for the 17,175 farmers and graziers who run their own businesses through borrowings.
42.6% of the farmers and graziers in debt were seen as potentially viable but experiencing debt-servicing problems while 4% were being assisted by banks as they could not service their growing debt burden. Backing had been withdrawn from another 1.6% who were seen as unviable.
Banks were charging interest rates as high as 14.5% with most loans being charged at between 8.25% to 11.25%.
When the interest rates rise as they must one day the already high interest rates charged will directly impact on about 50% of our rural industry.
The foreign owned Australian banks will have struck again.
Making the
news" -
Another perfect day in paradise.
This morning my wife and I will will be having our marriage vows re-affirmed in church.
Have a good one.
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