International:

In her question to the Prime Minister in Parliament on Thursday Pauline Hanson asked, to applause from both the press and the visitors gallery,

"My question is to the Prime Minister. Would the Prime Minister please explain how this government can justify making available to Indonesia what may be as much as Au$1.7 billion when we already have approximately Au$90 million in foreign aid, Au$8 million of which is for their defence forces? Has the government considered that it is perhaps more appropriate for President Suharto to help bail out his own people with some of the billions he and his family have profited from during his time in office? Is it the policy of this government to prop up questionable and militaristic regimes with appalling human rights records?"

With their very survival now under questioning following their outlandish delay in finding Pauline Hanson "not guilty" of breaching the racial discrimination act, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) has now gone on the attack. This follows a press release by Hanson calling for HREOC to be disbanded.

Race commissioner Zita Antonios said that racial discrimination complaints had risen by 90% during the last twelve months pointing the finger at Hanson as the cause.

"There is no doubt in my mind that the very strong coverage of the race debate in this country was a factor", Antonios said, "And tied to that was the emergence of One Nation and the publicity given to the Member for Oxley.

"The facts of systematic discrimination experienced by Aboriginal, refugee, and certain non-English speaking background Australians are indisputable."

Federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Herron is expected to sack a third of the Reconciliation Council following the resignation of Patrick Dodson, a critic of the Government's Wik legislation.

Amongst those on the hit list is none other than ACTU president Jennie George.

Yesterday we compared the family views of Kernot to Hanson and came up with some startling results for mainstream Australians.

We have come across the following article which appeared in The Australian on Thursday July 7th 1994, headed: "Kernot to argue gays' case in IRC (Industrial Relations Commission)"

The leader of the Australian Democrats, Senator Cheryl Kernot, plans to argue for the rights of gay and lesbian workers before the Industrial Relations Commission.

She is understood to be the first non-government member of federal Parliament to intervene in a test case before the commission.

Senator Kernot will tell the commission the definition of the family should be broadened to encompass "primary caring relationships".

A change to the definition of the family by the commission would have serious implications in a number of legal and labour market areas including childcare and spouse entitlements.

ACTU assistant secretary Ms Jennie George has said the commission has an "overriding obligation" to apply new industrial law preventing the making of awards which discriminate on the basis of sexual preference.

But the executive director of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr Brian Noakes, said yesterday no politician should intervene in labour market test cases.

"Political intervention whether it is by the government of the day or any other form is not conducive to fostering better labour relations," Mr Noakes said.

Senator Kernot said yesterday she was confident her application to intervene in the ACTUs special family leave test case would not be opposed by the ACTU or the ACCI.

But Mr Noakes indicated yesterday he would oppose the application and said the present definition of the family, which excluded gay couples, should be applied.

The ACTU is seeking five days paid leave to care for sick members of a workers immediate family.

The ACTU had based its submission to the commission on the definition of the family under the Sex Discrimination Act, she said.

Family members are described in the Act as the spouse, de facto spouse, adult child, parent, grand parent or sibling, but not homosexual couples.

In a speech to the Melbourne press club Senator Kernot said, "In a break with tradition I have applied to the president of the IRC, Justice Deidre O'Connor, to appear before the commission to argue the case for family leave.

"The IRC should consider defining the family to encompass primary caring relationships.

"Any failure to do so would be unfair and potentially in conflict with the wide anti-discrimination provision of the Industrial relations Act.

"I will be arguing that some employees have caring responsibilities which extend to people outside the conventional legal definition of immediate family," she said.

The ACTU has already welcomed moves by the Australian Council for Lesbian and Gay Rights to intervene in the test case to advocate a broader definition of the family.

Test case hearings start next month with a decision expected late in the year.

In another article headed "Kernot's Dark Side" in today's Courier Mail Marion Smith makes the following observations about Kernot...

"We are also were the ones reaching for the sickbags when Kernot confided to Geraldine Doogue that she was weary of embodying the aspirations of all women....

"Then Bornhurst (a sacked ABC journalist who had claimed wrongful dismissal) heard a whisper that Kernot had been asked to do what her more honourable colleagues were not prepared to do - table the (unsubstantiated ABC dirt file on Bornhurst) file in the Senate and thus give it the parliamentary privilege required for the muck to be published.

"This raised serious questions of abuse of parliamentary privilege and contempt of the Senate committee (who had been given the file) and the rules which govern proceedings for such beasts. "While Kernot refused to take my (the reporters) calls and explain why she had done this unspeakable thing, the story rightly got a great run and the next day I was asked to do a follow up. Kernot would still not answer any questions as to why she had chosen to breach all the rules in order to allow the trashing of another woman's good name and professional reputation but calls to her Democrat colleagues turned up another story.

"There was a great discord within the "pixies party" and while few would go on record, even fewer were prepared to defend their leader. The honourable John Woodley revealed a deep distress and an intention to take the matter further internally.

"But Kernot was a greater force to be reckoned with that I'd imagines. At 9.30 that night I was informed that the mighty Sydney Morning Herald was killing the story.

"Why? Could it have been that Conrad Black, who wanted to boost his stake in the Fairfax empire, needed Kernot's crucial support in Parliament? Perhaps the editor could tell us if there was indeed any attempt at management interference.

"In any case, I resigned in protest.....

"In the torrent of comment that followed the Kernot defection (to the ALP), Democrat founder Don Chipp, admitted he had never liked he, explained her success as being due in part to her "coquettishness". Very gallant Don. In the circles of women with attitude, it's called something rather more crude - "dick stroking". But by golly it works for women prepared to use it as a tool on their way to the top...

I'd like to see Bornhurst run for the Democrats in Dickson (the seat that Kernot will contest for the ALP). At least it would make for an interesting contest and give the voters an alternative to Wayne Swan in a frock."

Here is an extract from an interesting article headed, "Reverse Racism: Or How the Pot Got to Call the Kettle Black". The article is about "reverse racism":

"Those efforts, designed to redress the imbalances caused by long-standing discrimination, are called affirmative action; to argue that affirmative action, which gives preferential treatment to disadvantaged minorities as part of a plan to achieve social equality, is no different from the policies that created the disadvantages in the first place is a travesty of reasoning. "Reverse racism" is a cogent description of affirmative action only if one considers the cancer of racism to be morally and medically indistinguishable from the therapy we apply to it."

and another about the ground breaking counter-affirmative action developments taking place in America under the heading, "Prop 209 may spur national trend: Affirmative-action opponents are encouraged by the passage of the California initiative":

"The wording of the California measure would suggest that voters have struck down any state program offering any preference based on race or sex for any state job, contract or university admission; whether it will have such a broad effect will be settled in the courts.

"Those who fought the measure will argue in court that it violates the U.S. Constitution, including the equal-protection clause. The Supreme Court has left the door open to affirmative action, although it has ruled that racial preference programs intended to remedy past discrimination should be subject to a strict set of criteria."

You Say:

Subject: Two Questions

Dear Sir,

1) Where are all the protesters, defenders of freedom, do-gooders, holy men and general low-lives who have vilified, degraded, abused, spat at and physically assaulted the One Nation people throughout the year? All strangely silent when Pauline Hanson asked a fair and reasonable of the Prime Minister. It seems the important thing to these people is not the question, but who asks it.

2) As a Nation, if we are already in debt to the world for more than $200 billion, how can we help anyone? God help us.

Allan W. Doak

Subject: Re Little Johnny Coward

Perhaps you could give us caring, concerned, left out Aussies an E-mail address for the so-called leader of our country so that we might voice our anger directly?

Personally, I don't like my tax dollars going to help corrupt overseas dictators.

Jason E. Cole

PS: What is the name of the Australian intelligence service that accesses your page each day to find out who is saying what?

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Have a great day.

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