GOVERNMENT FEELING PRESSURE ON TAX CUTS

"Cuts in income taxes and indirect taxes have been recommended to governments by the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development." The Australian, July 28th.

The O.E.C.D. in its mid year survey advises that member nations should initiate tax cuts as part of existing methods of stimulating economies without adding inflationary pressures. The O.E.C.D. also added that such cuts would need to be accompanied by moderation in wage demands. One can understand the Government's sense of frustration over the giant Utah Company's decision to grant a $95 per week rise to its 1,750 miners, and its "apprehension" that demands for a flow on from the various unions will now take place. This could really upset Mr. Fraser's economic applecart. So much for "moderation" in wage demands.

We must recall the Government's recent pay rises to itself; and Mr. Fraser's grand gesture in "allowing" all the backbenchers to take the rise, but not the members of the Ministry. This was only a childish Public Relations stunt; the savings would be but a drop in the ocean, and anyway, these could be regained in some "special" allowances, or some other little fiddle. Perhaps a jolly jet set jaunt at our expense.

There are, however, indications that the Government is coming under pressure over tax cuts. The Age (Melbourne, July 31st) reports that the Federal Government has backed down on its plan to tax family allowances in the Budget. We consider that the outcries, even so far, have had their effect, and also that the League's campaigning with its Anti- Sales Tax brochure is making the Government quite nervous. Especially nervous will be the large number of backbenchers who are nothing but "division fodder": quite expendable.
We do disagree with a former Victorian Liberal Party official, now a Tertiary College lecturer, who said that there would be no Federal Labor Government in Australia this century. We don't consider it unrealistic to foresee a Federal Labor Government coming to office at the NEXT Federal Elections; nor do we consider it unrealistic to foresee a Labor Government coming to office at the NEXT Victorian State Elections.

DR. S. DRASKOVICH STRIKES 'PROBLEMS'

BUTCHERY IN RHODESIA

The following letter was published in "The Toowoomba Chronicle" (Qld.) on July 10th. It requires no introduction:
"Soldiers of the Rhodesian Security Forces, men hardened by years of terrorist warfare, wept openly when they arrived at the scene of the butchery of Pentecostal missionaries near Umtali, Rhodesia. "A tiny baby, not three weeks old, had been bayoneted to death: three small children, all under five years of age, had been bayoneted to death. Five women had been clubbed to death and their mutilated bodies left for the soldiers and journalists to see for themselves. Three white men had also been killed. All had been unarmed against the bestial, Marxist inspired, heavily armed terrorists, members of Robert Mugabe's Patriotic Front.
"Both Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo said they were stepping up the murders of whites, and Nkomo made this pledge, publicly, at his recent birthday celebrations. Yet at present two representatives of Britain and America are in Salisbury trying to persuade the black moderates and whites to sit round a negotiating table with these two fiends who ordered not only this savagery, but also the murder in cold blood of three members of the Red Cross, Swiss Nationals, two Roman Catholic priests, German nationals, two young Salvation Army missionary girls, British subjects; twelve Pentecostal missionaries, British subjects.
Then there were the murders of two elderly persons - husband and wife, South African citizens; a black man buried alive while his wife was beaten to death. Again, some black people, - men, women and children were herded into a hut, and when they tried to escape were shot and bayoneted to death.
"It is obvious that men such as David Owen (who spent 9,000 pounds sterling on photographs of himself, at the British taxpayers' expense last year to give away to his toadies.. .On Target), Andrew Young, and Cyrus Vance condone these tragedies, for they actually go and discuss Rhodesian affairs with the men responsible for these ghastly atrocities and even refuse to recognise the present settlement in Rhodesia, insisting that the bestial Leaders of the Patriotic Front should be made welcome at a negotiating table.
"In all honesty, would 'Chronicle' readers like to negotiate with such men? Would they like to be ruled by such men?

It is unbelievable that civilised men, such as the journalists and statesmen of the West, actually seem to approve these terrible deeds, and even to encourage them. It is strange that these educated people cannot see that, although white themselves, they are doing all they can to exterminate the white man from the earth. After all, the white man is in the minority, is he not? He is not a polygamist, as are those of the black and coloured races!" (Mrs.) Maureen Martin, P.O. Box 304, Vaalwater 0530, Republic of South Africa.

THE COST OF RED TAPE

"Government paperwork cost Australian companies at least $80 million last year in direct and hidden expenses." The Australian, July 29th.

A firm of Public Relations consultants has just released this information after a detailed inspection of the affairs of one hundred and forty five of the leading Australian companies. We are not surprised: this just confirms what we have always considered to be the case. Furthermore the demands of the Department of Taxation and the Statistics Bureau would probably double that cost. Public bodies, which also soak up moneys from private companies by way of wasted time and effort, are the Prices Justification Tribunal, the Trade Practices Commission, Corporate Affairs Commission, and the Industries Assistance Commission. Then there is the "lost opportunities" cost: this is unfathomable. It is the business that has been lost because executives have been tied up filling in forms and coping with bureaucrats when they should have been chasing business. And is there any daylight ahead? No, the problem is getting worse. A number of large companies, through bitter experience, hold the view that Parkinson's law applies to Government agencies ... "They start off small, but in no time they take over a whole floor and start dreaming up new demands to make".

BRIEF COMMENTS

Mr. Bob Hawke, President of the A.C.T.U. and of the Australian Labor Party, has just been given a second five-year term as a Member of the Board of the Reserve Bank. That economic "expert" Mr. John Howard, Federal Treasurer, announced the re-appointment. We can but assume that Mr. Hawke approves of Government economic policy, as the Reserve Bank is the tail that wags the Government Treasury dog. However, there is the odd occasion when the Treasury and the Reserve Bank have their little differences.

Mr. Justice Michael Kirby, the Chairman of the Law Reform Commission, has warned that human rights in Australia could be in danger. We agree with the judge. We don't altogether agree with his added remark that the danger would come, not from wicked people, but though the erosion of rights by oversight. We think that there are people in Parliament, now, wicked enough to deliberately erode our rights in order to pursue a political ideology. But of course we do have to contend with the ignorance and mediocrity of politicians in general.