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Getting the media to pick up the stories:

We will record cases here where we have been able to use the Internet to get the media to "pick up the story":

The threat of physical violence against Pauline Hanson by the Brisbane Anti-Racism Campaign:

GWB placed the contents of the report on the Internet in a hidden file advising very carefully selected journalists of its existence. These included:

You will notice that both the Packer and the Murdoch media empires were left in the dark.

Sattler ran the story with Hanson on Radio 6PR the next morning with little initial interest being shown in the interim by the other media contacted.

Once the story broke GWB had calls from newspapers and all commercial television stations - who ran the story that night in Queensland - treating it as a "regional" issue which was then quickly swept under the carpet.

The Queensland Times ran a front page story on the 17th July under the heading, "Hanson Assault Threat", part of which read:

"Robert Jorquera, Jim McIlroy and Martin Thomas said all other matters on the internet report had been discussed, but the fifth point (the threat of assault) was not."

Perhaps the most revealing outcome of the media interest was the phone call from a journalist with The Australian in Perth who was preparing a story on the threat against Hanson for this national News Limited paper. GWB faxed her all the evidence but the story was never run - even though there was a threat of physical violence against a Federal Member of Parliament.

A week later, on the 23rd July 1997, a spokesman for the Brisbane Anti-Racism Committee responded to the intelligence report in a letter headed: "Outright lies are gutter politics" denying that plans to physically assault Ms Hanson were discussed.

It was interesting, however, that following this allegation being raised the Anti-Racism Campaign decided, in late July, not to organise buses to the launch to the Ipswich branch of One Nation - resulting in just five very non-violent Green Left protesters standing quietly in the sidelines compared to the earlier violent and abusive protests that had attracted the television cameras in the first place.

Even more revealing was the confession by the Ipswich branch of the Anti-Racism Campaign just weeks later in early September in the Queensland Times that the Brisbane Anti-Racism Campaign intended to use violence at a branch meeting of One Nation at Ipswich. A meeting which would be attended and addressed by Pauline Hanson.

It was to be just a month later when the facade was stripped off the real "backers" of the Anti Racism-Committee.

Following One Nation's Prosper Australia Rally in Brisbane in early October where 13 protesters were arrested by police, we were able to put together tangible proof that Queensland's Anti-Racism Committee was nothing more than a violent front, like Left Link, directly associated with the ALP.

Evidence recorded here includes:

The substance behind these claims was outlined in a letter by Scott Balson to The Queensland Times on the day after the Prosper Australia Rally, Sunday 5th October 1997 (the letter was published by the Queensland Times on Thursday the 9th October 1997).

Bringing Left Link and the ALP to account:

The press release by Pauline Hanson's One Nation on the ALP's tie up with Lorenzo Ervin received absolutely no coverage except in the Queensland Times on the 18th August. We realised that something was afoot when we received an email from the web master of the ACTU just before the article was published denying that they were associated with Left Link.

The move by the ACTU web master lifted the stakes in our battle to draw the attention of the media so another web page called "Cyber Wars" was established. The overview of this development is covered later in this feature.

In the article by the Queensland Times they report that, "An ALP spokesman and ACTU spokesman did not respond to an invitation to comment on the matter yesterday".

It was at this time that Scott Balson wrote a follow-up letter to the editor of the Queensland Times once again challenging the Oxley branch of the ALP (Hanson's federal government seat) to "provide me with a public forum of their choice to allow them to either publicly ridicule me or for the ALP to be ridiculed over these and earlier statements".

Before the above challenging letter was published the editor of the Queensland Times appeared to wake up to some damage being done to a long-term relationship with the Labor Party and on the 21st August wrote an editorial trivialising the links as "net games". We responded by contacting the editor by phone and requesting the right to reply - a response which again called for the ALP to provide a public venue to debate the issue of Left Link's connection with the ALP. This letter was published in full by the Queensland Times letter page, without comment by the Editor, on Tuesday 26th August 1997.

Still the ALP refused to take up the simple challenge referred to in this letter - their deceit was becoming apparent to the voters of Ipswich.

In late August Lorenzo Ervin was back promoting a boycott of Australia and the Sydney 2000 Olympics through Left Link. Amongst Ervin's outrageous claims were the following statements carried without editing or apology by this national organisation of the ACTU:

We referred the file to our contact at The Courier Mail without any reference to Pauline Hanson's One Nation and, surprise, surprise, unlike the earlier One Nation press release, the paper ran the story on Wednesday September 3rd without any reference to the ALP tie up to Left Link. Of course, a side-glance was taken at One Nation with this comment taken out of the Lorenzo's post, "...also refers to Pauline Hanson's One Nation party as a "fascist, white supremist electoral movement".

The Courier Mail article referred to comments by spokesmen from the Prime Minister and the Sydney Olympics Organising Committee (SOCOG). We contacted both the organisations the day the article appeared in The Courier Mail and showed them how to find the Left Link post (as they did not know how to) resulting in SOCOG saying that they would "refer the matter to their legal department" and the Prime Minister's office in Canberra saying that the matter would be "referred to senior staff".

What can be only "for political reasons" such a damaging story did not even come out into the open... even after SOCOG and the Prime Minister's Canberra office were handed the evidence on a plate.

Here we had an ALP organisation promoting a boycott of the Sydney 2000 Olympics... those most affected being in the picture yet nothing was done.

It was no surprise then that just two days after the disclosure of the source of the boycott to SOCOG and the Prime Minister's office News Limited's Sunday Mail tried to set up GWB with a distorted, politically motivated and damaging lead story article on Sunday 7th September.

The prompt for the Sunday Mail/Maher article could have been the contact with SOCOG or the information that we carried on-line on Wayne Goss or this web site....

On the 1st October 1997 at the height of the federal politician's travel rorts drama we again contacted the Prime Minister's Office and this time even went to the trouble of sending them a hard copy of the Boycott Sydney 2000 post by Lorenzo Ervin on Left Link.

Nothing was done, except the Left Link archive suddenly changed its signature at the bottom of each post the next day to read:
"Publication of a message on this list does not indicate endorsement by either LEFTLINK or the New International Bookshop."

The bi-partisan relationship between the Coalition and ALP rule of Australia obviously came through... despite the implication to Australia of the Lorenzo Ervin post.

To date, although fully informed, no News Limited or Fairfax publication has dared to expose the promotion of the boycott of the Sydney 2000 Olympics by a group within the ALP ranks (namely Left Link).

It was no surprise then, on Tuesday 22nd October 1997, the ALP leader Kim Beazley said without fear of ridicule, and I quote, "I will never place myself in a position where I encourage in any shape or form threats to the Olympic Games".

This comment being made by Beazley after Aboriginal groups had gone abroad complaining about Howard's ten point plan on Wik... and linking it with a boycott.

The Goss government document shredding whistle blower report:

From our experiences in getting the media to pick up the threats of violence against Pauline Hanson we had  already learnt a very simple and obvious lesson, stay away from Packer and Murdoch's media empires as any story would be distorted before it was released.

We contacted just two journalists with information on our Internet based release of the Goss government shredding debacle.

The Goss shredding story, we were assured, was to be released in September in the Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax) newspaper - but the timing clashed with the government's decision on media ownership and the story never appeared.

Queensland's Courier Mail took an interesting slant on what should be a story that would end any political ambitions that Wayne Goss might have.

There is, however, an interesting twist in the Goss Government's infamous Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) Fitzgerald report into former National state premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen with the Courier Mail running a full page story on how the CJC harrassed another whistleblower at this time... without once referring to Wayne Goss being state premier at the time.

Cyber battles with the "opposition"

The reaction to the Ervin release on Left Link was telling - both the web masters of Left Link and the ACTU showing the pressure by attempting to go on the attack. This strategy failed but the cyber-war had begun.

A full background to the cyber-wars is now on-line.

Confronting the Australian Labor Party:

This is what Kim Beazley's (current leader of the ALP) father said about the Australian Labor Party:

"When I first joined the Labor Party (in the 1940s), it was made up of the cream of the working class. When I left it (in the 1970s), it was made up of the scum of the middle class."

Oxley Labor leading candidates Mrs Ann Scott and Wayne Goss:

Enough coverage was received to create public awareness on the source of the protests, but it was only when the Queensland Times in Ipswich published a letter by Scott Balson on Saturday 19th July that the link between the ALP and the extreme left wing groups was finally revealed by the media.

Ann Scott, the leading contender to challenge for Oxley for the Australian Labor Party at the time, wrote on Thursday 24th July in reply to the letter, "Scott Balson's comments would be laughable if they were not so serious.".

This led to a letter war between Anne Scott and Scott Balson which ran off and on for several months.

In late July Mrs Scott's aspirations were upset by Wayne Goss, former Labor Party state premier of Queensland, who suddenly showed extreme interest in the seat of Oxley following a redistribution by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).

The redistribution by the AEC of the Oxley seat was viewed by many as just another tool being used by bureaucracy to try to unseat Ms Hanson. Although clearly unimpressed with the action Ms Hanson nevertheless decided not to lodge a complaint even though over 30 complaints were lodged by others with the Commission. One of those who objected and was happy to "tell the world" was Ann Scott who wrote in the Queensland Times on the 30th August,
"The voters of Oxley may be interested that I have personally lodged an objection to the AEC to the proposed boundary changes.

"It does not surprise me that Pauline Hanson has not lodged any objection. Once again she has proved that she is less concerned about representing the best interests of the people of Oxley, and more concerned about the number of sympathy votes she can pick up by claiming that she is being victimised by the major parties."

Claiming victimisation? We have never heard Pauline Hanson say that although we know that she is being victimised by both the major political parties and the media.

Ann Scott's comments drew a response from the Labor state secretary, Mike Kaiser, who claimed that her action was aimed at "boosting" her chances against Wayne Goss. Anne Scott went on the offensive demanding that Kaiser apologise for his remarks. We never did hear if he took this step.

It appears however, that even in Labor branches, friction can be found - even though you won't often find any evidence of this in the News Limited papers. It took an article in the Queensland Times, on the 13th September 1997 to reveal the deep split in Labor ranks in Oxley.

Labor's "new" leading candidate for Oxley, Wayne Goss:

Through our links on the Internet our attention was drawn to a report in which serious allegations were made of a cover up by the former Goss government who were accused of shredding documents being sought by the courts. The information being sourced from the public record and a Senate report.

Brisbane Lord Mayor (Labor) Jim Soorley:

Early August provided an excellent opportunity to confront Lord Mayor Jim Soorley on his home turf during question time at a Labor party branch meeting.

The mayor had taken a very negative anti-Hanson stance being instrumental in organising the "rally against racism" and subsequently comparing Pauline Hanson to Adolf Hitler.

I asked the mayor a simple question which revealed that the mayor knew blindingly little about critical issues which he spoke about at public meetings as if he had all the answers - a very frightening scenario for all Australians.

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