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Tuesday 19th August 1997
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One of the big lies in Australia today is that multiculturalism is a tried and true policy for the future.
In fact the policy of multiculturalism is a big risk for our society as they are only now starting to find out, when it is too late in the US.
Our story about the Uniting Church and their involvement with the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras had Left Link coming out in fits of self-righteous, politically correct indignation yesterday with an accusation that we were "gay bashing".
For the records I have nothing against people with gay and lesbian bents as long as it remains behind closed doors but I have sense of disgust when I see the flaunting of their unnatural sexual leanings in events like the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Now if that is gay bashing so be it - I wear the badge with honour.
After all "straight" people don't covert sexually in weird public parades - neither would they be allowed to get away with it - let alone be covered live by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Another public attempt at reconciliation, perhaps?
Well wouldn't you just know it while the front bench of both major Australian parties were cavorting all over the northern hemisphere on tax payer funded holidays $870 in mobile phone calls by Pauline Hanson's principal adviser, David Oldfield, was under investigation by a Senate estimates committee. This because they were allegedly made to Hanson and her staff while Oldfield was still working for a senior Liberal and education parliamentary secretary, Tony Abbott. The calls were paid for by the government and Oldfield's calls now as part of Hanson's team are paid for, yes you guessed it, the government.
So while the kids around the front seats of parliament were spending lavish amounts of tax payer money on wine trips and France and rides in gondolas through the water-streets of Venice, the bureaucratic tail of Alice in Wonderland was lashing out in the halls of parliament with the type of bias not seen since Mal Colston held the balance of power in the Senate.
Oh, and this little story about the phone bill received lead story billing in the Australian newspaper today under the heading "Hanson aide rorted Liberals, MPs told".
No such attention for the obviously "trivial" matter of Lorenzo Ervin organising a boycott of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games - promoted by the ALPs left wing extremists, Left Link.... or for that matter Ervin's up and coming web site promoting a boycott of Australian trade and tourism.
What was it that Margo Kingston said? Got to pull my head in and remember that and remember that journalistic ethics are just a matter of perception... the question remains whose?
Luckily the politics of deceit are coming to an end as Pauline Hanson builds up growing support and the sick system in Canberra is turned on its head at the next Federal election.
Remember that scuffle caught on video between the police, US Marines and Aboriginals in the early hours of an Ipswich morning some months ago? Well it looks like the magistrates court has come to a politically correct judgement.
The Ipswich Magistrate, Donna MacCallum, yesterday criticised the actions of both police and Aborigines describing the incident as a clash of misunderstandings that escalated on both sides.
"I hope both parties have learnt some lessons from this," she said.
Interesting decision when you think back on the decision by the court against that harmless old Ipswich granny Georgie Conway who was charged with assaulting a police officer when she raised her hand and gently pushed him.
But the top billing has got to go to the Ipswich Aboriginal Legal Service manager Karen Collins who said the service was disappointed with the verdicts because excessive force had been used by the police and that she was seeking legal advice on appealing the decision. She is now calling for the Criminal Justice Commission to investigate the actions of the police.
Is it any wonder that there is no "level playing field" when comparing the police actions in their approach to arresting different races or "taking that risk" in this country?
The MP caught visiting a brothel over the weekend has owned up. Liberal Federal MP for Dickson, north of Brisbane, was caught with his pants down a few days ago
An interesting article from the on-line Australian National Review - it certainly helps in bringing the media-inspired "racism" debate" into context:
Australian Racism Media Over Reaction:
by Robert Rice
THERE'S no escaping Independent MP Pauline Hanson since she and the views
she expressed on Aborigines and immigration in her maiden speech (ANR, October)
were taken up by the media. She's even been the celebrity gardener on Burke's
Backyard. The same media that promoted her has turned to denounce her and
continually harry the Prime Minister for not being `strong' or sufficiently
direct in his denunciation of her.
Mrs Hanson has been blamed for just about everything, including harm to
Australia's image in Asia, a threat to our export trade with Asia, a threat
to our tourist industry, our failure to secure a seat on the UN Security
Council, the cause of a rise in racial abuse and assault in our schools and
cities, and undermining Aboriginal reconciliation. Only drought and flood
seem immune to her omnipotent influence.
The left-liberal media has found its voice again, having recovered from the
defeat of the Keating government, and is in full cry against her with claims
of bigotry and racism, ignorance and malice. The chattering classes, who
tend to socialise with journalists, are indignant and full of self-righteous
wrath towards her, school teachers are dusting off their neo-Marxist `isms,
ethnic pressure groups and Commissioners for Politically Correct Thoughts
are demanding action and self-important persons are signing manifestos and
petitions.
Inevitably, the government, driven by media comment, gets into a funk and
wants to be seen to be doing something against the great She Devil From Oxley
and announces it will spend $5 million, no $10 million, on an anti-racism
campaign, while simultaneously grovelling towards any Asian government or
newspaper that points the finger at Australia. The grovelling of course has
nothing to do with the moral issue but fear that Mrs Hanson's views might
cost us money.
It is all getting out of hand and becoming ridiculous. On any international
comparison, Australia is not a cesspit of racism but a remarkably tolerant
society which has accepted massive change with little opposition. We are
far less racist than the Japanese or Chinese, for example, and our immigration
programs do not discriminate against persons on the basis of race whereas
those of all Asian nations do. Japan, the richest country in the region
has a deplorable record when it comes to (a) the treatment of non-citizens
and (b) the admittance of refugees.
Malaysia discriminates against non-Malays (Chinese and Indians) in employment
and business opportunities; mixed-race persons are subject to discrimination
or social ostracism in many of these countries and have no redress at law.
And if we lift our eyes beyond the Asian region, we see that Australia is
a beacon of tolerance compared to Africa, the Middle East, South America,
much of Europe and even the US itself, where the rhetoric of civil rights
is not often matched by the reality.
In Israel, Arabs are the subject of policies of discrimination and loss of
civil rights (the High Court has just sanctioned torture as a means of obtaining
information from suspects held in custody); in Saudi Arabia the practice
of Christianity is outlawed, and in the Balkans, Serbs, Croats and Bosnians
happily kill each other because of religious differences.
Given that until about 30 years ago the official bi-partisan policy of this
nation was the `White Australia Policy', we should marvel that there is so
little racism in this country, rather than exaggerate the little we have.
This isn't to say that Aborigines haven't borne the brunt of it since European
settlement but billions are being spent on Aboriginal welfare to redress
the problems of the past and about 13 per cent of the Australian landmass
(with more to come) has been returned to Aboriginal control. Australia is
a mecca for migrants because of what it is, not because of what it should
become. Let's stop the breast-beating; attempts at social engineering and
enforced conformity, and accept we're not bad.
Making the
news.
Dirt appears to be the operative word in Queensland politics at the moment it seems that the Liberal and Labor parties have plenty of it on each other. This follows the release of the Terry Lewis sex files on leading coalition politicians last week.
Now the Liberals have hit back with a former senior policy adviser to (you guessed it) Police Minister Russell Cooper saying that he will reveal the traudy secret sex lives of past and present politicians in state Labor party ranks.
In a letter to Peter Beattie (the state Labor leader) dated August 17th Russell Greening said he would pursue this line of attack if the Opposition questioned Mr Cooper in Parliament today on whether there was a link between a police "dirt file" and the controversial memorandum of understanding between the Coalition and the police.
Its all starting to smell a bit high... but then the weather has been warm of late in Queensland... and if Wayne Goss' government could get off scott-free for shredding files wanted by the courts well after all, what the heck, this in kindergarden stuff...
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 12:35:04 +0000
X-Url: http://www.gwb.com.au/gwb/news/head.html
PAULINE HANSON
Is a wanka.
From: Matt matthew.b@mail.stpeters.qld.edu.au
Reply-To: matthew.b@mail.stpeters.qld.edu.au
To: gwb@gwb.com.au
Subject: Comments on Australian News of the Day
Toyota, a Japanese company, despite the terrible inditement of Pauline Hanson and her "racist" policies, has decided to invest over Au$1 billion in developing a new manufacturing plant in Melbourne. (I am of course being deliberately tongue-in-cheek here) but it is a trifle ironic that One Nation has been accused of driving business away.... and here we have one of the biggest manufacturing investments in years taking place in Australia.
Of course little Johnny Howard was quick to claim the glory saying that this "was a very good day for Australia".
It was, of course, his decision to extend the tariff policy a few months ago that triggered the decision. Funnily, a fundamental strategy of the One Nation party is to keep tariff protection in place yet the newspapers somehow forgot to mention this very relevant and very important point.... I wonder what would have happened if an equally negative policy had reflected on this decision?
You don't have to be Einstein to guess that answer.
Howard said, "We believed then that it would give the industry predicability, we believed then that it would attract investment and we believed then that it would stabilise the employment market and create new jobs.
"This is a very good day for the industrial future of Australia. It is a reminder of the fundamental support of long investment in Australia."
Toyota's world president Hiroshi Okuda said that the tariff policy "signals a genuine commitment to the continued development of Australia's automotive industry."
Labor's industry spokesman, Simon Crean, (back from a tax payer paid visit overseas to France) perhaps summed up little Johnny Howard best when he said, "This was a position in which the Prime Minister was dragged kicking and screaming".
Dare I say it? Another gorgeous day in paradise.
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