THE ESCALATION OF VIOLENCE

The bloody violence in Auckland, New Zealand, on the occasion of the last rugby match between South Africa's Springboks and New Zealand's All Blacks, was a further demonstration that the promoters of revolution are determined to escalate their attacks on orderly society everywhere. The use of a plane to "buzz" a lawfully assembled group of people, to drop missiles, one hitting a rugby player, the tearing of pickets from the properties of people living near the football ground, these and other weapons being used against the police, demonstrated beyond all argument that those responsible for this violence are not concerned about human rights. They are demonstrating how mindless mobs can be used to break down law and order.

While many Australians, like New Zealanders, have been shocked to learn that the revolutionaries could create havoc and bitterness in a tolerant society, there is still a tendency to believe that Australia will not experience violent revolution on a major scale. The part Aboriginal senior public servant, Mr. Charles Perkins, last week made a threat, which must be taken seriously. In an interview in "The Bulletin", Mr. Perkins threatened that unless the Queensland Government agreed to the demand for aboriginal "land rights", thousands of aboriginals would be organised to prevent the Commonwealth Games from being held in Brisbane next year. Mr. Perkins made it clear that violence would be used.

Running true to form, Prime Minister Fraser has refused to condemn Mr. Perkins. Mr. Fraser says he will resist any attempts at the coming Commonwealth Conference in Melbourne, to have Australia censured over its Aboriginal policies. He is going to concentrate upon having South Africa made the major target for criticism. And, of course, to try to earn the goodwill of the Mugabes by stressing his devotion to helping the underdeveloped nations through the New International Economic Order. But, like so many other useful innocents, Mr. Fraser is going to feel the backlash of the revolutionary forces he is assisting. His anti-South African campaign is assisting the Soviet strategy in Southern Africa, while at the same time his internal policies are assisting those revolutionaries attempting to exploit the "aboriginal land rights" issue. Australians have been warned!

TAX REVOLT UNDER WAY

Former Industrial Relations Minister Andrew Peacock indicated last week that he has assessed the way the political wind is blowing on the Sales Tax issue. In his address on the Budget last week, Mr. Peacock emerged as a man who has discovered that the Australian family is being severely penalised by the Government's financial policies. While stressing that he supports the Government's policy of reducing inflation (which is similar to supporting motherhood) Mr. Peacock said that the Government's policies were placing the greater burden on the people who could least afford to pay.
"In the past 12 months the average family has been faced with increasing taxes and charges on all fronts. Higher interest rates, higher petrol prices, higher health charges and now higher sales tax across the board with little or no compensating increase in real disposable income."

Not surprisingly, political reporters state that Mr. Peacock's speech has helped to swing a growing number of Government backbench votes behind Mr. Peacock. Some say that Mr. Peacock may now nearly have the necessary 42 votes needed to defeat Mr. Fraser in a leadership contest. But before electors get too carried away, they should recall that Mr. Peacock was until recently a senior Minister in a Government, which, in spite of pre-election promises to reduce both interest rates and taxation, has progressively increased financial burdens.
In Opposition, Mr. Fraser also made some excellent speeches condemning high taxation, particularly increased indirect taxation, which inflates the cost of living and stimulates progressive demands for higher wages, often associated with destructive industrial action. However, granting that Mr. Peacock is more concerned about advancing his political future than in the plight of Australian families, he has correctly assessed what the majority of Australian people are worried about.

The Victorian Liberals have joined the revolt against the 1981 Budget because they are also concerned about their political future. Taxing building materials while at the same time increasing interest rates can only be described as subversive. The Australian Book Publishers' Association says that the 2.5 per cent Sales Tax on books will increase prices by up to 15 percent, pointing out that the Government clearly intends to make the public pay the cost of collecting and administering the tax. Exemptions will require a mass of paper work.

While the Australian Democrats are desperately attempting to get themselves "off the hook", they are also starting to get the message that unless they can demonstrate they have made every effort to halt the Sales Tax increases, their political stocks will slump.
What is required is a concerted effort by all groups affected by the Sales Tax increases, to encourage electors to unite to apply every possible pressure to the politicians. A victory by the electors will demonstrate that the political system can be made to work. And it will increase national morale.

BRIEF COMMENTS

Former Australian Prime Minister Sir William McMahon has voiced the private feelings of many Members of the Federal Coalition, with his criticism of Prime Minister Fraser's anti-South African attitude. Mr. McMahon said on the ABC's programme AM, that he supported the South African military campaign in Southern Angola, pointing out that it was designed to clear the area of Soviet backed terrorists. South African journalist and writer Ivor Benson will be bringing an up to date report on what is happening in Angola and SouthWest Africa (Namibia).

Tasmanian readers report that at a meeting in Hobart, Immigration Minister MacPhee conceded that the majority of Australians opposed the Government's immigration policy. But he said he was working to change public opinion. He rejected the view that his job was to reflect public opinion. However, there is a growing upsurge of feeling about immigration and several reports stress that the Government parties at Canberra are fearful of a growing concern about the race issue. The lead by the Victorian Branch of the Returned Servicemen's' League has been like a catalyst in the situation. Even Federal ALP leader Hayden is reflecting the growing concern about immigration, drawing attention to the fact that many of the migrants from Vietnam are not genuine refugees, but have come to Australia for economic reasons. There is also the question of how many could be Communist agents. The U.S.A. has tightened up on the flow of Vietnamese "refugees". Increased pressure on the Federal Government will help ensure that there is a constructive change in Australia s immigration policies.

The following appeared in "The Australian" of September 14th: "The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries plans to hold another emergency meeting soon to try to agree on oil price adjustments to counter the world oil glut. With plentiful supplies of crude oil on world markets, falling prices, and OPEC's biggest producer, Saudi Arabia, sticking rigidly to its moderate stance on production and pricing, it seems unlikely the meeting will dramatically lift prices."
Remember those horrendous stories about the world oil shortage? And the urgent necessity to increase prices? International oil monopolies and governments have been the biggest beneficiaries of the big increase in oil prices. They are now satisfied - for the time being! with present prices. But no doubt there will eventually be another "crisis"! (The World Wide Oil Scandal, by Jeremy Lee - $1.30 posted - is even more revealing now than when it was first written).

In the first on the 1981 Boyer lectures, Professor John Passmore, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and University Fellow at the Australian National University, warned against having too high a regard for governments: "To expect too much from governments, to ascribe to them a degree of knowledge and wisdom which they neither have nor can be expected to have is the surest path to cynicism, to disillusionment with the political process", he said. Professor Passmore said that the electors might be tempted to revert to the Socialist alternatives if it found that the "monetarist" Fraser Thatcher-Reagan policies were not satisfactory. There is no hope of a genuine free enterprise system of economics operating under financial policies, which generate increasing debt, and demand higher taxation. Social debt polices must be replaced with Social Credit policies.

Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen' s comment on the Budget: "The sales tax slug is a sure recipe for higher inflation and social unrest within the community, one wonders just what reasoning prompted this move by a government which has long talked about tax restraint."
We doubt if Mr. Howard and his colleagues are capable of any logical reasoning concerning finance economics. But the authors of policy understand what they are about: creating conditions for the further centralisation of power.