MORE INFLATION DOUBLE-TALK

With the announcement that the Consumer Price Index for the December quarter showed a 2.3% rise in consumer prices, Government spokesmen, including Federal Treasurer Howard, naturally took the opportunity of claiming that the Government's economic strategy was working. The 2.3% CPI increase for the December quarter meant that the total inflation rate for 1977, as measured by the CPI, was 9.3%. The increase was 14.4% in 1976.
Many housewives are quick to point out that the CPI figures do not provide a realistic measure of inflation. Both quality and services are declining.

The 5% reduction in the inflation rate for 1977 was only achieved by a financial policy, which produced a substantial increase in unemployment and forced many business organisations to cut their profit margins to the point where large numbers had to close their doors. Those who doubt whether the discount system brings prices down might consider that for the first time since the end of the Second World War, business organisations throughout Australia had pre-Christmas sales while nearly every store announces today that it is discounting prices.

One result of the Government's policy is the intensification of the growth of economic centralism. Smaller organisations are being forced to amalgamate with bigger organisations. Treasurer Howard has made it clear that the Government's restrictive policies are to continue. The Government's task of "beating inflation" was "far from complete"! Mr. Howard said.
Mr. Howard has repeated his claim that inflation would come down to between 6% and 8% during 1978. But Mr. Howard reveals that he is a supporter of Keynesian economics with his statement that the long-term target is an inflation rate of 3%.

While wage earners would find 3% inflation preferable to 9%, the question remains, "Why should there be any inflation at all in a free enterprise economy where the real cost of production is falling as a result of greater real efficiency?" We can assure Mr. Howard and his colleagues that long before they forced an inflation rate of 3%, they would also have driven Australia towards an open revolutionary situation.

Clearly the Government's anti-inflation strategy envisages no increase in prices for primary producers, with the result that the rural crisis will continue. Desperate, heart broken farmers and graziers will continue to walk off their properties. And eventually a day of reckoning will come.

The deepening Australian tragedy could be reversed immediately by three steps:
A substantial reduction in Sales Tax, which would lower prices substantially and result in a genuine increase in purchasing power;
The use of consumer price discounts, financed by new Central Bank credits made available at the cost of administration;
And a halving for a start, of the bank interest rate.

Immediately those steps were taken, a healing process would start in the Australian nation. But rather than take any of these steps, it is clear that the Fraser Government's spokesmen are going to continue with their dangerous double-talk concerning inflation. They will be overtaken by reality.

THE RHODESIAN BATTLE CONTINUES

By insisting that there can be no Rhodesian settlement without the participation of the "Patriotic Front", Dr. Owen, British Foreign Minister, and the Carter Administration are making it clear that the Washington-Moscow axis is determined to impose a Marxist type Government upon the Rhodesian people. Dr. Owen told the British Parliament last week that while he would not "frustrate a Rhodesian settlement from whatever source it comes", he went on to say that "an internal settlement excluding one of the leading nationalist groups, the Patriotic Front, could not bring about a cease-fire during elections nor give peace and stability to a newly independent Zimbabwe."

Dr. Owen also said that any internal settlement without the "Patriotic Front" was unlikely to be recognised by the United Nations. Dr. Owen, who has found no difficulty in collaborating with the Soviet dictators on the Rhodesian issue, refuses to treat Prime Minister Ian Smith and his colleagues on the same basis. Whatever criticism may be directed at Prime Minister Smith and his colleagues, they are Western, civilised men who have demonstrated that they have been prepared to modify their own viewpoint in an attempt to get a settlement in Rhodesia which will, as far as possible, protect the legitimate rights of all groups.

Like so many of his kind, Dr. Owen has by his mean and vicious comments about Ian Smith demonstrated that, like so many modern liberals he has been so brainwashed that he does not understand that he is promoting barbarism for Rhodesia in the name of freedom. There can be no real freedom without order. Civilisation is impossible without order. Black "majority rule" throughout Africa has been a complete disaster. This is a reality of Africa that the Dr. Owens, including those at Canberra, refuse to face.

The overwhelming majority of Rhodesians, black as well as white completely reject the murderous activities of the "Patriotic Front". Increasing numbers of black Rhodesians are volunteering for the Rhodesian armed forces. Without Communist and other outside support, the "Patriotic Front" would die.
If Mr. Fraser and his colleagues at Canberra are genuinely concerned about the future of the Rhodesian blacks, they will cease supporting the Marxist liberal war on Rhodesia and show some sympathy towards Rhodesians desperately fighting to ensure that Rhodesia is not lost to the West. In the long haul of history, the stand by the Rhodesians will be recorded as one of those inspiring dramas, which move the human spirit, while that of Mr. Fraser, Mr. Andrew Peacock and Dr. Owen will be seen as shallow, and a betrayal of the basic features of Civilisation.

BRIEF CONMENTS

Government spokesmen, including Prime Minister Fraser, were emphatic before the last Federal Elections that there would be no increase in Medibank charges. But already the escalating financial costs of the Medibank monster have produced a situation where the average Australian family is threatened with at least $10 per week for health insurance. Flatly disputing that Australia's Medibank would produce the same disastrous results experienced by other countries, the politicians and the bureaucrats have insisted upon retaining Medibank.
If everyone is to be compelled to join some type of health insurance scheme then it is commonsense that large numbers of people are going to abuse the scheme. The standing of the medical profession has been sadly lowered by the growing number of doctors found guilty of exploiting medibank. Quite apart from inflation, it is as certain as the sunrise that the financial burden of compulsory health insurance will become progressively crippling. The Fraser Government should use its present strong Parliamentary position to abolish Medibank and encourage voluntary insurance.

Employment in the Australian electronic industry has fallen more than 30%, since 1973. Australian defence is now dependent upon overseas suppliers for much of its electronic equipment. Because of the importance of electronic equipment in modern defence systems, it is outrageous that Australia's capacity to defend itself should be reduced by the Government's failure to ensure that every encouragement is given for the development of a sophisticated Australian electronic industry.

Those who rely upon the media of the world to keep them informed on those power groups who are constantly planning (plotting?) the future of mankind are told little of the activities of these groups. For example, how many Australians heard anything about Mr. David Rockefeller's Trilateral Commission's tenth conference, held in Bonn, West Germany, late in October last year? Mr. Douglas London in an exclusive report in the independent American weekly, Spotlight, states that "I found myself to be the only journalist covering this event - probably the largest assembly of internationally powerful people in any one place at any one time." London was taken into custody by the German police when he attempted to photograph those arriving to attend the conference. Dr. Henry Kissinger was one of those who attended, along with his successor at the White House, Zbigniew Brzezinski. The Trilateralists were responsible for the election of President Jimmy Carter, David Rockefeller expressing the opinion that Carter "was the ideal candidate to build on."