19th January 1998
Att: The Editor
Queensland Times
Dear sir,
To answer Mrs Scott’s letter (QT 19/01), yes, I would love to stand for One Nation in a state or federal election. However, unlike yourself the on-again, off-again letter writer (depending on which way your political fortunes are pointing) I believe that I can play a more important role for the party by staying in the ‘backroom’.
I and millions of others have a commitment to seeing that our children grow up in an Australia that retains its character, its pride, and a future for our children based on the country’s comparative wealth. Whether it was Pauline Hanson or Kim Beazley who best represented this commitment to our children would not matter - we (not just David Oldfield and Scott Balson) back Pauline with everything we have got because she will bring power back to the people through CRCs and referendums (like the MAI I guess Mrs Scott hasn’t heard of those tools of democracy either).
The ALP, like the Coalition, have blown it, have lost the plot, and you Mrs Scott fall very neatly into the mould by not having the interest nor the intestinal fortitude to take up a challenge to refute the ugly and violent side of your party. You blandly call it a ‘ridiculous assertion’ while refusing to taking up my challenge.
You want to run for a federal seat but have no knowledge of the MAI! What is this country coming to! I have sent an email to others to address this issue for you through letters to the editor - I am shocked at how uninformed you and your party are on the real issues facing Australia.
On the issue of Hanson and ‘racism’ I will quote from the great lady’s maiden speech in Parliament: ‘The distinction I make is this. A social problem is one that concerns the way in which people live together in one society. A racial problem is a problem which confronts two different races who live in two separate societies, even if those societies are side by side. We do not want a society in Australia in which one group enjoy one set of privileges and another group enjoy another set of privileges.’ Now if that is racist then I am Gareth Evans! GOD FORBID!
Scott Balson, Karana Downs.