Australian National
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Sunday
27th September 1998
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Since
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Between the One Nation lines
In the last few days before the federal election I thought that the extract
below from the article by Peter Cox in the Sun-Herald today was
particularly relevant:
(The
article is recorded in full in the USA at this link):
Of course media moguls and politics in Australia are
inseparable. The moguls are looking to win political favour to change the
rules so they can expand their empires in a mature media market. Kerry Packer
needs to change the cross-media rules so he can gain equity control of the
Fairfax group and be allowed to keep his Channel 9 television network.
So it was no surprise to see him endorsing Howard this
week as he did in the last election with great success. Though he did not
get the cross-media rules changed in the last term of government as he wished,
he did get a tremendous gift from the government on the terms for digital
TV in the future.
Now if they can affect support for Labor - imagine the damage they can do
and have done to the credibility of Pauline Hanson's One Nation in
the lead up to the Federal election. Further proof that we live in a society
which symbolises democracy but nothing could be further from the truth.
Pauline Hanson attends Adelaide function:
Adelaide 26th Sept 1998
One Nation Campaign Dinner at the Stonyfell Winery.
Attendance : approx. 300
Pauline Hanson, David Oldfield, Len Spencer and All of the South Australian
One Nation candidates were in attendance. It was a private function - no
media allowed or wanted. Three hundred people had a three course dinner
and most made some new friends.
Pauline made no long winded political speeches nor pleas for our votes nor
shallow promises nor did she tell us lies.
She told a few amusing stories and asked that we not believe everything that
the media choose to publish concerning Pauline Hanson. She gave credit to
the many candidates and their teams and only wanted us to help them if we
could during the rest of the campaign.
Pauline did not leave until she had visited EVERY table. She shook hands,
signed autographs, had photos taken, was warm, friendly, and so naturally
pleasant ! Adelaide had very successful day.
The Crows won the footy. Pauline won us !.
Three hundred people were extremely impressed by Ms Hanson.
Rose Thomson
David Cairns and Co Media management update
Despite writing to the company about their
alleged illegal
access to the anotd archives I have yet to hear a whimper out of
this "credible" media group.
FINANCIAL WARFARE TO LEAD TO DEMISE OF CENTRAL
BANKING?
By Michel Chossudovsky (professor of economics at the University of
Ottawa, and author of "The Globalisation of Poverty, Impacts of IMF and World
Bank Reforms", Third World Network, Penang and Zed Books, London, 1997.)
"Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand
indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds
of men". (Franklin D. Roosevelt's First Inaugural Address, 1933)
(TiM Ed. The preceding FDR statement would probably
be considered as sexist by today's PC standards.)
OTTAWA, Canada - Humanity is undergoing in the post-Cold War era an
economic crisis of unprecedented scale leading to the rapid impoverishment
of large sectors of the World population. The plunge of national currencies
in virtually all major regions of the World has contributed to destabilizing
of national economies while precipitating entire countries into abysmal poverty.
The crisis is not limited to Southeast Asia or the former Soviet Union. The
collapse in the standard of living is taking place abruptly and simultaneously
in a large number of countries. This Worldwide crisis of the late twentieth
century is more devastating than the Great Depression of the 1930s. It has
far-reaching geopolitical implications. Economic dislocations has also been
accompanied by the outbreak of regional conflicts, the fracturing of national
societies and in some cases a destruction of entire countries. This is by
far the most serious economic crisis in modern history.
The existence of a "global financial crisis" is casually denied by the Western
media, its social impacts are downplayed or distorted; international institutions
including the United Nations deny the mounting tide of World poverty: "the
progress in reducing poverty over the [late] 20th century is remarkable and
unprecedented..." The "consensus" is that the Western economy is "healthy,"
and that "market corrections" on Wall Street are largely attributable to
the "Asian flu" and to Russia's troubled "transition to a free market economy".
Evolution of the Global Financial Crisis
The plunge of Asia's currency markets (initiated in mid-1997) was followed
in October 1997 by the dramatic meltdown of major stockexchanges around the
world. In the uncertain wake of Wall Street's temporary recovery in early
1998, largely spurred by panic flight out of Japanese stocks, financial markets
slid back a few months later, reaching a new dramatic turning-point n August
with the spectacular nose-dive of the Russian ruble. The Dow Jones plunged
by 554 points on August 31st (its second largest decline in he history of
the New York stock exchange), followed in September by a dramatic meltdown
of stock markets around the world. In a matter of a few weeks (from the Dow's
9,337 peak in mid-July), $2,300 billion of "paper profits" had evaporated
from the U.S. stock market.
The ruble's free-fall had spurred Moscow's largest commercial banks into
bankruptcy, leading to the potential take-over of Russia's financial system
by a handful of Western banks and brokerage houses. In turn, the crisis has
created the danger of massive debt default for Moscow's western creditors,
including the Deutsche and Dresdner banks. Since the outset of Russia's
macro-economic reforms, following the first injection of IMF "shock therapy"
in 1992, some $500 billion-worth of Russian assets --including plants of
the military industrial complex, infrastructure and natural resources-- have
been confiscated (through the privatization programs and forced bankruptcies),
and transferred into the hands of Western capitalists. In the brutal aftermath
of the Cold War, an entire economic and social system is being dismantled.
"Financial Warfare"
The Worldwide scramble to appropriate wealth through "financial manipulation"
is the driving force behind this crisis. It is also the source of economic
turmoil and social devastation. In the words of renowned currency speculator
and billionaire George Soros (who made $1.6 billion of speculative gains
in the dramatic crash of the British pound in 1992) "extending the market
mechanism to all domains has the potential of destroying society". This
manipulation of market forces by powerful actors constitutes a form of financial
and economic warfare. No need to re-colonize lost territory or send in invading
armies.
In the late twentieth century, the outright "conquest of nations" meaning
the control over productive assets, labor, natural resources and institutions
can be carried out in an impersonal fashion from the corporate boardroom:
commands are dispatched from a computer terminal, or a cell phone. Relevant
data are instantly relayed to major financial markets - often resulting in
immediate disruptions in the functioning of national economies. "Financial
warfare" also applies complex speculative instruments including the gamut
of derivative trade, forward foreign exchange transactions, currency options,
hedge funds, index funds, etc. Speculative instruments have been used with
the ultimate purpose of capturing financial wealth and acquiring control
over productive assets. In the words of Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad: "This deliberate devaluation of the currency of a country by currency
traders purely for profit is a serious denial of the rights of independent
nations".
The appropriation of global wealth through this manipulation of market forces
is routinely supported by the IMF's lethal macro-economic interventions which
act almost concurrently in ruthlessly disrupting national economies all over
the World. "Financial warfare" knows no territorial boundaries; it does not
limit its actions to besieging former enemies of the Cold War era. In Korea,
Indonesia and Thailand, the vaults of the central banks were pillaged by
institutional speculators while the monetary authorities sought in vain to
prop up their ailing currencies. In 1997, more than 100 billion dollars of
Asia's hard currency reserves had been confiscated and transferred (in a
matter of months) into private financial hands. In the wake of the currency
devaluations, real earnings and employment plummeted virtually overnight
leading to mass poverty in countries which had in the post-War period registered
significant economic and social progress.
The financial scam in the foreign exchange market had destabilised national
economies, thereby creating the preconditions for the subsequent plunder
of the Asian countries' productive assets by so-called "vulture foreign
investors".6 In Thailand, 56 domestic banks and financial institutions were
closed down on orders of the IMF, unemployment virtually doubled overnight.
Similarly in Korea, the IMF "rescue operation" has unleashed a lethal chain
of bankruptcies, leading to an outright liquidation of so-called "troubled
merchant banks". In the wake of the IMF's "mediation" (put in place in December
1997 after high-level consultations with the World's largest commercial and
merchant banks), "an average of more than 200 companies [were] shut down
per day (...) 4,000 workers every day were driven out onto streets as
unemployed".
Resulting from the credit freeze and "the instantaneous bank shut-down",
some 15,000 bankruptcies are expected in 1998, including 90 percent of Korea's
construction companies (with combined debts of $20 billion dollars to domestic
financial institutions). South Korea's Parliament has been transformed into
a "rubber stamp". Enabling legislation is enforced through "financial blackmail":
if the legislation is not speedily enacted according to IMF's deadlines,
the disbursements under the bail-out will be suspended with the danger of
renewed currency speculation.
In turn, the IMF sponsored "exit programme" (ie. forced bankruptcy) has
deliberately contributed to fracturing the chaebols which are now invited
to establish "strategic alliances with foreign firms" (meaning their eventual
control by Western capital). With the devaluation, the cost of Korean labour
had also tumbled: "It's now cheaper to buy one of these [high tech] companies
than buy a factory -- and you get all the distribution, brand-name recognition
and trained labour force free in the bargain"...
The Demise of Central Banking
In many regards, this worldwide crisis marks the demise of central banking
meaning the derogation of national economic sovereignty and the inability
of the national State to control money creation on behalf of society. In
other words, privately held money reserves in the hands of "institutional
speculators" far exceed the limited capabilities of the World's central banks.
The latter acting individually or collectively are no longer able to fight
the tide of speculative activity. Monetary policy is in the hands of private
creditors who have the ability to freeze State budgets, paralyze the payments
process, thwart the regular disbursement of wages to millions of workers
(as in the former Soviet Union) and precipitate the collapse of production
and social programs. As the crisis deepens, speculative raids on central
banks are extending into China, Latin America and the Middle East with
devastating economic and social consequences.
This ongoing pillage of central bank reserves, however, is by no means limited
to developing countries. It has also hit several Western countries including
Canada and Australia where the monetary authorities have been incapable of
stemming the slide of their national currencies. In Canada, billions of dollars
were borrowed from private financiers to prop up central bank reserves in
the wake of speculative assaults. In Japan where the yen has tumbled to new
lows-- "the Korean scenario" is viewed (according to economist Michael Hudson),
as a "dress rehearsal" for the take over of Japan's financial sector by a
handful of Western investment banks. The big players are Goldman Sachs, Morgan
Stanley, Deutsche Morgan Gruenfell among others who are buying up Japan's
bad bank loans at less than ten percent of their face value.
In recent months both US Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin and Secretary
of State Madeleine K. Albright have exerted political pressure on Tokyo insisting
"on nothing less than an immediate disposal of Japan's bad bank loans--preferably
to US and other foreign "vulture investors" at distress prices. To achieve
their objectives they are even pressuring Japan to rewrite its constitution,
restructure its political system and cabinet and redesign its financial system...
Once foreign investors gain control of Japanese banks, these banks will move
to take over Japanese industry..."
Creditors and Speculators
The World's largest banks and brokerage houses are both creditors and
institutional speculators. In the present context, they contribute (through
their speculative assaults) to destabilizing national currencies thereby
boosting the volume of dollar denominated debts. They then reappear as creditors
with a view to collecting these debts. Finally, they are called in as "policy
advisors" or consultants in the IMF-World Bank sponsored "bankruptcy programs"
of which they are the ultimate beneficiaries. In Indonesia, for instance,
amidst street rioting and in the wake of Suharto's resignation, the privatization
of key sectors of the Indonesian economy ordered by the IMF was entrusted
to eight of the World's largest merchant banks including Lehman Brothers,
Credit Suisse-First Boston, Goldman Sachs and UBS/SBC Warburg Dillon Read.
The World's largest money managers set countries on fire and are then called
in as firemen (under the IMF "rescue plan") to extinguish the blaze. They
ultimately decide which enterprises are to be closed down and which are to
be auctioned off to foreign investors at bargain prices.
Who Funds the IMF Bailouts?
Under repeated speculative assaults, Asian central banks had entered into
multi-billion dollar contracts (in the forward foreign exchange market) in
a vain attempt to protect their currency. With the total depletion of their
hard currency reserves, the monetary authorities were forced to borrow large
amounts of money under the IMF bailout agreement. Following a scheme devised
during the Mexican crisis of 1994-95, the bailout money, however, is not
intended "to rescue the country"; in fact the money never entered Korea,
Thailand or Indonesia; it was earmarked to reimburse the "institutional
speculators", to ensure that they would be able to collect their multi-billion
dollar loot. In turn, the Asian tigers have been tamed by their financial
masters . Transformed into lame ducks-- they have been "locked up" into servicing
these massive dollar denominated debts well into the third millennium.
But "where did the money come from" to finance these multi-billion dollar
operations? Only a small portion of the money comes from IMF resources: starting
with the Mexican 1995 bail-out, G7 countries including the US Treasury were
called upon to make large lump-sum contributions to these IMF sponsored rescue
operations leading to significant hikes in the levels of public debt.13 Yet
in an ironic twist, the issuing of US public debt to finance the bail-outs
is underwritten and guaranteed by the same group of Wall Street merchant
banks involved in the speculative assaults.
In other words, those who guarantee the issuing of public debt (to finance
the bailout) are those who will ultimately appropriate the loot (e.g. As
creditors of Korea or Thailand) i.e. they are the ultimate recipients of
the bailout money (which essentially constitutes a "safety net" for the
institutional speculator). The vast amounts of money granted under the rescue
packages are intended to enable the Asian countries meet their debt obligations
with those same financial institutions which contributed to precipitating
the breakdown of their national currencies in the first place. As a result
of this vicious circle, a handful of commercial banks and brokerage houses
have enriched themselves beyond bounds; they have also increased their
stranglehold over governments and politicians around the world.
Strong Economic Medicine
Since the 1994-95 Mexican crisis, the IMF has played a crucial role in shaping
the "financial environment" in which the global banks and money managers
wage their speculative raids. The global banks are craving for access to
inside information. Successful speculative attacks require the concurrent
implementation on their behalf of "strong economic medicine" under the IMF
bail-out agreements. The "big six" Wall Street commercial banks (including
Chase, Bank America, Citicorp and J. P. Morgan) and the "big five" merchant
banks (Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Salomon Smith Barney)
were consulted on the clauses to be included in the bail-out agreements.
In the case of Korea's short-term debt, Wall Street's largest financial
institutions were called in on Christmas Eve (24 December 1997), for high
level talks at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The global banks have a direct stake in the decline of national currencies.
In April 1997 barely two months before the onslaught of the Asian currency
crisis, the Institute of International Finance (IIF), a Washington based
think-tank representing the interests of some 290 global banks and brokerage
houses had "urged authorities in emerging markets to counter upward exchange
rate pressures where needed...".
This request (communicated in a formal Letter to the IMF) hints in no uncertain
terms that the IMF should advocate an environment in which national currencies
are allowed to slide. Indonesia was ordered by the IMF to unpeg its currency
barely three months before the rupiahs dramatic plunge. In the words of American
billionaire and presidential candidate Steve Forbes: "Did the IMF help
precipitate the crisis? This agency advocates openness and transparency for
national economies, yet it rivals the CIA in cloaking its own operations.
Did it, for instance, have secret conversations with Thailand, advocating
the devaluation that instantly set off the catastrophic chain of events?"
(...) Did IMF prescriptions exacerbate the illness? These countries' moneys
were knocked down to absurdly low levels".
Deregulating Capital Movements
The international rules regulating the movements of money and capital (across
international borders) contribute to shaping the "financial battlefields"
on which banks and speculators wage their deadly assaults. In their Worldwide
quest to appropriate economic and financial wealth, global banks and
multinational corporations have actively pressured for the outright deregulation
of international capital flows including the movement of "hot" and "dirty"
money.
Caving in to these demands (after hasty consultations with G7 finance ministers),
a formal verdict to deregulate capital movements was taken by the IMF Interim
Committee in Washington in April 1998. The official communique stated that
the IMF will proceed with the Amendment of its Articles with a view to "making
the liberalization of capital movements one of the purposes of the Fund and
extending, as needed, the Fund's jurisdiction for this purpose".
The IMF managing director, Mr. Michel Camdessus nonetheless conceded in a
dispassionate tone that "a number of developing countries may come under
speculative attacks after opening their capital account" while reiterating
(ad nauseam) that this can be avoided by the adoption of "sound macroeconomic
policies and strong financial systems in member countries". (ie. the IMF's
standard "economic cure for disaster").20
The IMF's resolve to deregulate capital movements was taken behind closed
doors (conveniently removed from the public eye and with very little press
coverage) barely two weeks before citizens' groups from around the World
gathered in late April 1998 in mass demonstrations in Paris opposing the
controversial Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) under OECD auspices.
This agreement would have granted entrenched rights to banks and multinational
corporations overriding national laws on foreign investment as well derogating
the fundamental rights of citizens. The MAI constitutes an act of capitulation
by democratic government to banks and multinational corporations.
The timing was right on course: while the approval of the MAI had been
temporarily stalled, the proposed deregulation of foreign investment through
a more expedient avenue had been officially launched: the Amendment of the
Articles would for all practical purposes derogate the powers of national
governments to regulate foreign investment. It would also nullify the efforts
of the Worldwide citizens' campaign against the MAI: the deregulation of
foreign investment would be achieved ("with a stroke of a pen") without the
need for a cumbersome multilateral agreement under OECD or WTO auspices and
without the legal hassle of a global investment treaty entrenched in
international law.
Creating a Global Financial Watchdog
As the aggressive scramble for global wealth unfolds and the financial crisis
reaches dangerous heights, international banks and speculators are anxious
to play a more direct role in shaping financial structures to their advantage
as well as "policing" country level economic reforms. Free market conservatives
in the United States (associated with the Republican Party) have blamed the
IMF for its reckless behavior. Disregarding the IMF's intergovernmental status,
they are demanding greater US control over the IMF. They have also hinted
that the IMF should henceforth perform a more placid role (similar to that
of the bond rate agencies such as Moody's or Standard and Poor) while consigning
the financing of the multi-billion dollar bail-outs to the private banking
sector.
Discussed behind closed doors in April 1998, a more perceptive initiative
(couched in softer language) was put forth by the World's largest banks and
investment houses through their Washington mouthpiece (the Institute of
International Finance). The banks proposal consists in the creation of a
"Financial Watchdog --a so-called "Private Sector Advisory Council"-- with
a view to routinely supervising the activities of the IMF. "The Institute
[of International Finance], with its nearly universal membership of leading
private financial firms, stands ready to work with the official community
to advance this process."
Responding to the global banks initiative, the IMF has called for concrete
"steps to strengthen private sector involvement" in crisis management --what
might be interpreted as a "power sharing arrangement" between the IMF and
the global banks.
The international banking community has also set up it own high level "Steering
Committee on Emerging Markets Finance" integrated by some of the World's
most powerful financiers including William Rhodes, Vice Chairman of Citibank
and Sir David Walker, Chairman of Morgan Stanley. The hidden agenda behind
these various initiatives is to gradually transform the IMF --from its present
status as an inter-governmental body-- into a full fledged bureaucracy which
more effectively serves the interests of the global banks. More importantly,
the banks and speculators want access to the details of IMF negotiations
with member governments which will enable them to carefully position their
assaults in financial markets both prior and in the wake of an IMF bailout
agreement. The global banks (pointing to the need for "transparency") have
called upon "the IMF to provide valuable insights [on its dealings with national
governments] without revealing confidential information...". But what they
really want is privileged inside information.
The ongoing financial crisis is not only conducive to the demise of national
State institutions all over the World, it also consists in the step by step
dismantling (and possible privatisation) of the post War institutions established
by the founding fathers at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944. In striking
contrast with the IMF's present-day destructive role, these institutions
were intended by their architects to safeguard the stability of national
economies. In the words of Henry Morgenthau, US Secretary of the Treasury
in his closing statement to the Conference (22 July 1944): "We came here
to work out methods which would do away with economic evils --the competitive
currency devaluation and destructive impediments to trade-- which preceded
the present war. We have succeeded in this effort."
----------
Michel Chossudovsky
Department of Economics
University of Ottawa
Making the
news" -
an indepth exposé of media and political collusion at the highest
possible levels in Australia.
You say:
Indigenous Apology?
Hi Scott,...."
.It is an unfailing rule in history,that, when a civilized
nation subdues one less advanced, the ultimate benefit derived by the conquered
people far outweighs any temporary loss at first suffered."
......William Francis Collier. L.L.D. 1895.
regards
WAYNE H.
FLAT TAX
THE CONCEPT OF A FLAT RATE OF TAX IS WONDERFUL SWITZERLAND
HAS A TAX CALLED TURNOVER TAX, ITS AONCE ONLY TAX OF 5% AT WHOLESALE LEVEL.
I UNDERSTAND THIS LOW TAX PRODUCES MORE THAN HALF THE TOTAL TAX TAKE OF THAT
COUNTRY.
BEING A BELIVER IN A VERY BASIC PREMISE, THAT IS THAT
THE MAIN PROBLEM WITH GOVERNMENT IS THAT IT TAXES TO THE POINT OF KILLING
THE GOOSE THAT LAYS THE GOLDEN EGG IVE LOVED HEARING ABOUT THIS BREAKTHROUGH
IN CLEAR RATIONAL THINKING.
REGARDS
IAN CARTER
Rural internat access more expensive!
http://www.saia.asn.au/Documents/medrel/98058.html
We are concerned that the actions of Telstra will make
rural access even more expensive than it is now as most ISPs use PAPL as
a part of their infrastructure and the increased cost to replace the PAPL
service will need to be passed on into the rural area customers as well.
This will certainly dilute the impact of additional
$11 million that a Liberal government would put into rural internet access
announced today by Senator Alston at the National Press Club luncheon in
Canberra.
(See
http://www.liberal.org.au/election98/policy/internet/internet.html and
http://www.abc.net.au/election98/news/stories/fe98-21sep1998-28.htm)
Also.....
http://www.saia.asn.au/campaigns/papl/index.html
http://www.saia.asn.au/Documents/medrel/98058.html
TELSTRA IMPOSE THEIR OWN INTERNET GST - INTERNET ACCESS
CHARGES TO RISE DUE TO TELSTRA'S SERVICE WITHDRAWAL
Capitalising on voter disenchantment
The Executive Producer,
Lateline,
Australian Broadcasting Corporation,
Dear EP,
One wonders whether the subject matter raised on a
recent Lateline programme has further opened up the media-induced focus on
One Nation and the appeal of that party to the rebelling natives.
The cynicism of politicians who carp at each other
over so-called policy differences and who don't seem to be listening to those
hurt by the 1980's& 1990's style of "social policy" has been building
since the mid 1980s & the present climate for the anti-establishment
protest vote was initiated by the arrogance of Messrs Keating & Costello
and encouraged by the perception of unbending, stubborn & uninspiring
leadership by John Howard and Tim Fischer.
The message that is about to be sent to the major parties'
about their apparent lack of capacity to explain in down-to-earth speaking
terms, the measures to be taken to avoid Australia being victims of the "market
forces" formed from overseas trade policies, and the benefits that can be
"gained" by the application of "economic rationalist policies" and
"globalisation", will possibly be of greater magnitude than their party polling
is probably indicating mid-campaign.
Given the mind-set of the modern-day political parties,
their "toe-the-party-line" serfs,and the ivory-tower based mandarins the
protest vote would need to be sufficient as to create a hung parliament for
the lead players to "listen" to the people.
Those parties that are locked solid into these proposed
policy packages and the economic theories designed to accomodate them, will
always keep mouthing off over differences in policies in the media-covered
political arena to the contrary but the people want action, not words, to
solve Australia's debt and unemployment problems created by the deficits
& social policies of the Whitlam-Fraser-Hawke-Keating-Howard
governments.
The Treasury bureaucrats have so brainwashed the relevant
economic spokespersons that a set path of policies should be implemented
& damn the voters.
They don't count in the main scheme of things.The same
seems to apply with the departmental heads in the other portfolio
divisions.
A focus on job creation and health issues by the Kim
Beazley-led Labor Party is a good sign in many ways for their supporters
and some of those affected by 1980-90 economic theories that the pre-Keating
caring touch in the party has probably returned. The job focus however does
hide their lack of initiative in proposals for taxation reform.Industry policy
is not the be all and end all for solving Australia's job problems.
The Howard-led Liberals are proposing a GST in its
tax package and Labor is proposing all sorts of goodies but no significant
change to the Wholesale Sales Tax system. The proposed return of the Capital
Gains Tax by Labor will send retirees financially bankrupt,depending upon
the sum value of their assets & the income earned by them. Not much choice
for the electorate is there!
The business elite people of the ilk of Mr Brack see
the GST package as a means to an end in building business confidence in employing
people in order to assist in the reduction of the 8% plus national unemployment
rate (and the 25+% youth unemployment rate?).
The advocacy of a new bid to amend the Workplace Relations
Act and the unfair dismissal laws in an attempt to argue the case for small
business with less than fifteen (15) employees being allowed to retrench
all or any of them without fear of a court case for wrongful dismissal which
they may well lose money on in the event of a court defeat.
The unionists would then be able to argue the case
against the Industrial Relations reforms being considered by the government's
spokesperson Peter Reith. However,the ACTU will focus on the Liberals and
business councils' union- breaking plans as an incentive to distract the
voters from corrupt union practices with a scare campaign on job security
for people in the workplace. Job security is achievable without the need
for scare tactics & antagonistic anti-jobs Industrial relations reforms.Scare
tactics work well occasionally but they invariably tend to backfire on those
who create them & those stupid enough to mount a counter- attack. Creating
even further voter disenchantment.
The Senate will be the centrepoint on many of the above
matters if Labor, the Coalition,or a major party dependent upon Independent
support is formed in the House of Representatives.
If the newspolls were a clear indicator of voter sentiment
then the Hanson phenomenon would be less noticed by the media and the concerned
rural voters who are potential vote winners for One Nation.
But such is the unpredictable element of voter intentions
the candidates standing as Independents or for One Nation are quite capable
of taking votes normally destined for the major parties.
Polls that show low numbers for the "others" column
do not take into account the mood of the voters within each specific electorate.
Those on the fringe of metropolitan areas and in provincial/rural areas do
vote according to their own conscience. This makes newspoll surveys in the
electronic and print media a less than accurate tool for pre-election voting
intentions.
The poll that counts is on election day. In this instance,
October 3rd,1998.
Adrian S. Mackay
Student of politics
Another perfect day in paradise.
Have a good one.
Recent stories exclusive to
(how to)
subscribe/rs of the Australian National News of the Day:
Fairfax on
trial- 23rd September 1998
Where the politically
correct hang out - 20th September 1998
A brief lunch time
controntation with Jeff Kennett- 8th September 1998
One Nation's
Primary Industry Policy- 7th September 1998
One Nation's Tax Policy-
4th September 1998
One Nation "Media
Adviser" shows true colours- 1st September 1998
One Nation
Federal Fund Raiser - 21st August 1998
B'nai B'rith's
discriminatory and un-Australian "Racewatch" - 18th August 1998
Four Corners become
"Flawed" Corners - 11th August 1998
The Nicholas
Street Rally - 4th August 1998
Their first
day in Parliament - 28th July 1998
The 60 Minutes
debate/debacle - 26th July 1998
Return to Australian National
News of the Day
#
See GLOBE International for
other world news.
anotd
