THE REALITIES OF THE PEACOCK AFFAIR

Events continue to confirm our view that in spite of its numerical majority in the House of Representatives, the Fraser Government was delivered a mortal blow at the last Federal Elections, and that only a major change of financial policy could reverse progressive disintegration. The government has now suffered two disastrous developments, the exposure that the $340,000 a year Information Unit, established allegedly for disseminating reports on government policy, had been used by the Liberal Party to assist in the last Federal elections, and the resignation of Mr. Andrew Peacock from the Ministry.

All that needs to be said about the Information Unit affair is that it provides further evidence of how Australia is being moved towards the complete totalitarian state. Hitler was reported to have said that although he might lose the military war, his' opponents would eventually succumb to his ideas. How right he was: "National management of the economy" is National Socialism under another name. And Hitler would approve of an "Information Unit" to serve the party in power.
As for the Peacock resignation, this has nothing whatever to do with any philosophic or policy differences; it is in part a personality clash.

The basic cleavage concerns power. As one observer has said, "It is a case of the wrong man saying the right things about Malcolm Fraser." What the electors are witnessing is a sickening display of the reality of party, power politics. And there will be more to come. Prom the backbench at Canberra Mr. Peacock will seek to make himself the focal point of a growing concern amongst the government backbenchers about the performance of the Fraser Government. We stress again, there are no basic policy issues involved.

Well aware of the near disaster at the last Federal elections, nervous back-benchers are going to become increasingly worried if Prime Minister Fraser's popularity continues to fall. Mr. Peacock looks forward to the day when there is a revolt against Mr. Fraser, a call in the Liberal Party for a "spill" of the leadership positions, at which stage he will offer himself for leadership.

On the Labor side, the power struggle is also under way, but not quite as dramatically as in the Liberal Party. Mr. Bob Hawke is playing a subdued role at the moment, carefully cultivating his new image, but waiting for any serious stumble by ALP leader Bill Hayden. Then there is Premier Neville Wran, while Shadow Minister for Keating has his supporters for ALP leadership. But the whole party game has now openly become a blatant power game, with the political writers having a field day at present with their endless trivia, describing politics as some type of theatre.

Perhaps, the corruptness of the party game, which has nothing to do with policies and principles, has to be demonstrated to the electors in all its revolting details before they will unite in sufficient numbers to call a halt. With a worsening finance economic crisis, further social disintegration, a badly shattered government, and a changed Senate in a few months, the Australian stage is being set for major convulsions. Now, as never before, is the constructive work of The League of Rights required. The League has no power struggle problems because it is primarily concerned with service, not, with power.

ENOCH POWELL WAS RIGHT!

It was Karl Marx who said that the British would never make their own revolution; foreigners would have to make it for them. The destructive Brixton racial riots have proved Mr. Enoch Powell right. And although Mr. Powell's warnings over the years have been described as "extravagant", it was encouraging to note that in the House of Commons discussions following the Brixton disaster, Mr. Powell demonstrated his statesmanship. He is feared by all parties as the man who could set Britain aflame if he spoke irresponsibly at this critical moment. Press reports say that the House of Commons held its breath when Mr. Powell rose to ask a question of Deputy Prime Minister and Home Secretary, Mr. William Whitelaw.

Mr. Powell asked, "In reference to these events and in view of the prospective growth in the relevant populations, will the Home Secretary and the Government bear in mind that they have seen nothing yet?" Looking a little strained, Mr. Whitelaw replied, "I will bear in mind anything the Right Honorable gentleman has to say."
In his moment of justification, Mr. Powell chose to be judicious. But he is right, and the British politicians responsible for massive non-European invasion of Britain, now know he is right. And fear for what is to come.
The reaction of all Australians to the Brixton affair should be to make every endeavour to ensure that Australia does not suffer the same plight as the British.

We have seen no reported comment by Mr. Al Grassby responding to the short letter published in "The Australian", asking him to explain the benefits of the multiracial society in Great Britain! The multiracial society has been a disaster everywhere. Australians still have time to avoid the disaster now afflicting the British. Politicians should be told that non-European immigration to Australia must be halted.

BRIEF COMMENTS

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch has received a major encouragement to continue his support for the Fraser Government. The changes to the Broadcasting Act, a disastrous backward step, clears the way for Mr. Rupert Murdoch to retain control of television station 10. This will further monopolise control of the Australian media. A study of the rapidly escalating Murdoch empire demonstrates what is possible if adequate financial credit is provided. Mr. Murdoch is still not satisfied; he obviously has his sights on more possible takeovers. Following his joining Ansett Transport Industries, Sir Lennox Hewitt has been publicly suggesting that the Government should sell off part of Qantas as well as TM. Mr. Rupert Murdoch is now joint chief executive of Ansett Transport Industries. While chairman of Qantas, Sir Lennox expressed diametrically opposed views to those he is now advancing! Prime Minister Fraser strongly backed the Cabinet decision to guarantee a $US 490 million loan to Ansett Transport Industries. Millions have been spent on giving Ansett planes a "new look", which will not make them fly any better or more safely, and will help ensure that there is no prospect of lower fares. Mr. Murdoch has even turned his attention to gambling. He has proposed to the Victorian Government that Lotto Management Services, run by Mr. Murdoch, Mr. Robert Sangster and Mr. Kerry Packer, should be given the licence to run lotteries in Victoria, the licence currently held by the George Adams Estate.

Veteran journalist, Laurie Oaks, the man who "leaked" Treasurer John Howard's last budget before it was presented, says "leaks and threats of leaks help to keep politicians honest and efficient. "Politicians and bureaucrats do tell lies - they do mislead the public", he said. Oakes says that people would be amazed to know that politicians from all parties, senior public servants and Prime Ministers were behind leaks. He says that he has never known a Prime Minister who had not leaked information at some stage. We are not surprised. But it is helpful to have the authority of a Laurie Oaks, who made his comments on April 12th. We quote from "The Sun", Melbourne report of April 13th.

Remember when Australia had metric madness inflicted upon it in 1966, that the bureaucrats persuaded enough gullible politicians that the whole world was going metric, and that imperial measurements had to give way to metrics because they would not be efficient enough to handle modern technology? During a spate of recent press correspondence, most of it in "The Australian", the metric bureaucrats have trotted out the same old clichés, with other supporters of metrics expressing their sympathy for those old fogies who cannot move with the times, one asking what would young people brought up on metrics think about the "archaic" imperial system. No doubt the great majority of young Australians, enthralled by America's first space shuttle project, noticed that the whole project was described in Imperial measurements. Imperial measurements were used in the space shuttle project from start to finish. Not as easily "conned" as Australians, the Americans declined to go metric, insisting that the imperial system was perfectly suitable for computerisation and all other aspects of science and technology. It would be an excellent idea if Senator Peter Rae and his committee turned their attention to the Metric Conversion Board, and exposed its direct cost, and the enormous damage it has done in Australia, including the making of the use of imperial measurements illegal.

There are some issues that readily unite party politicians. Salary increases and those "extras" which the electors are not told about, if possible, produce almost complete unanimity. The parties are now all set to impose four-year parliaments on the people. A case could be made for four-year parliaments if constitutional changes were also made to enable electors, as they can in Switzerland, force referenda on vital issues and recall Members of parliament if they are not felt to be satisfactory. But so far from suggesting anything like this, those campaigning for a four-year parliament at Canberra also want the power of the Senate reduced. One way of helping to ensure this would be to also have a fixed term. One of the more superficial arguments in favour of a longer term is that a more "rational" economic policy could be devised. This means that unpopular measures could be imposed early in the term in the hope they would be forgotten if there were an extra 12 months before the politicians had to face their masters, the electors.
If four-year parliaments are more likely to produce more "rational" economic policies, can the advocates of the proposal point to any country with four, or even five, year parliaments where the finance economic situation is any better than it is in Australia? The United Kingdom under Mrs. Thatcher is hardly a shining example to follow. And nothing is to be learned from fixed, four-year terms in the United States - unless it is that debt generating financial policies produce the same disastrous results everywhere.
In a revealing letter in "The Age" of April 15th, Victorian Labor Senator Gareth Evans says that support for the "reform" is by far the most important and heartening, constitutional development since the traumas of 1975". But the Senator fears that if all the Senators for a State had to be elected at the same time, with a reduction in the quota required for each place from 17 percent to 9 percent, this would result in a "disproportionate influence for minor parties and independents." Senator Evans then puts forward a complicated suggestion, which he admits "takes a little time to grasp", clearly designed, as he admits, to maintaining "the party balance". It "would effectively bar those independents who are absolutely determined to run solo."