WHO IS GOVERNING AUSTRALIA'?

Remember all those promises about reducing taxation, interest rates, unemployment and inflation? On one famous occasion Prime Minister Fraser proclaimed that we were "over the hump." Australians were told that they should consider themselves fortunate to have a group of politicians dedicated to pursuing "responsible" policies.
Mr. Fraser and Mr. John Howard sought to convince Australians that they were ''managing'' the economy much better than the irresponsible Socialists who, if re-elected, would wreck everything by resorting to "printing money" by that diabolical technique known as a deficit budget. Australians were constantly warned of the evils of such budgets, something to be shunned like the Devil. But times have changed and now the Devil is welcomed. Mr. Howard says that he is welcome because he is not as big as the deficit Devil in the U.S.A. and elsewhere.

The major feature of the Budget presentation is that Treasurer John Howard now officially admits that he and his colleagues are not really governing Australia at all. It is conceded that the "fight" against Australia is being lost, with a projected continuing inflation rate of nearly 11%, that there will be increasing unemployment, little or no economic expansion, and continuing high interest rates. Why? Because of the "international recession", particularly in the U.S.A., which means that if the economic "experts" directing the American economy are unable to solve the deepening American crisis, Australians are not able, for example, to make use of their vast resources of building materials, to ensure that all Australians are adequately housed.

The logic of the Government's view is that should a nuclear holocaust devastate the Northern Hemisphere, depriving Australia of most of its foreign markets, the present Australian depression would develop into a complete economic collapse. Such a collapse would almost certainly lead to some type of civil war. The irrefutable reality is that 15 million Australians have the natural resources, the technology, and the skills to easily feed, clothe and house themselves, and to provide all the amenities of civilised living. However, the bland Mr. John Howard, who has a flair for making the most absurd and contradictory statements as if they were self obvious truths, has produced a Budget which, in order to finance the blatant politically oriented concessions, is going to require not only an estimated deficit of $1,674 million, but a continuing massive inflow of foreign credits.

The reliance on foreign investment and borrowings inevitably means that Australian interest rates will remain high. Mr. Howard is telling Australians that unless high interest rates are maintained in Australia, with their destructive effect on the Australian economy, figures in foreign bank accounts cannot be used as the basis for what are called "contra credits" in Australia. Yes, who is governing Australia?

Like every other country, step-by-step Australia is being prepared to fit into the New International Economic Order. The constant references to the "world economy", with the stress that no single nation can initiate independent policies to resolve its own internal problems, is a manifestation of a surrender philosophy. The major parties at Canberra have clearly surrendered to this philosophy, which means that it does not really matter which of the present parties are in office in Canberra.
The political power men do not, of course, see it this way, so it is truly natural that one of the greatest political confidence men Australia has yet seen, Mr. Malcolm Fraser, has produced a Budget which he hopes will clear the way for him to persuade the Australian electors at an early election that he is the best man to lead them into the New International Economic Order.

BUDGET SLEIGHT OF HAND

No one will begrudge the financial relief being given to pensioners, those buying homes, or attempting to live on social welfare, along with some tax relief. The Budget will provide some temporary easing of the financial strain for many. But a realistic analysis of the Budget reveals that much of what is given is merely a part restitution of years of the erosion of purchasing power resulting from the government's policies. And it must never be forgotten that the concessions should not be seen, as one cartoonist put it, the handing out of money but rather the handing out of how to vote cards!

Many of the concessions are, of course, available to those, which the Labor Party has suggested. And the financing is to be by the same method proposed by the Labor Party: a deficit budget. But taxpayers themselves will also help to finance concessions through a substantial increase in Excise and Sales Tax. The wide range of Sales Tax increases will contribute to keeping the inflation rate high.

Mr. Howard's "experts" project that the increase in indirect taxes will increase the cost of living by 1 percent. The increase will certainly be higher. A number of items previously exempt from Sales Tax are now included: hand tools, drapery, manchester, soft furnishings. If Mr. Howard had been successful in imposing Sales Tax on literature last year, there is little doubt that there would have been an automatic increase this year. He has, however, found one new way to tax this year: a tax on people who use cheque accounts.
The tax is all embracing and will bear heaviest upon those who use cheques the most. The government anticipates collecting $200 million in a financial year.

Mr. Howard says that the introduction of this new tax is "consistent with the Government's desire to broaden the indirect tax base." Having been introduced, the tax can now be progressively increased. It will be one more extra cost, which business organisations will have to attempt to recover in higher prices.

The overall result of the Budget will do nothing to halt Australia's increasing race down a disaster road. It may provide Mr. Fraser with what he feels is an opportunity for an early election. But that is not certain. Mr. Fraser and his colleague should be reminded of their stated preference for longer term Parliaments, this allegedly permitting a Government adequate time for its "economic strategy" to work. Every effort should be made to ensure that Mr. Fraser and his supporters stay for another twelve months, demonstrating beyond all argument their economic illiteracy - if not worse. "Keep them in and give them hell" is perhaps the best advice we can offer. Mr. Hayden has nothing better to offer.

BRIEF COMMENTS

One feature of Mr. Howard's 1982 Budget is the projection of collecting hundreds of millions of dollars allegedly owed by tax avoiders. The well-publicised controversy concerning tax avoidance, with both the Government and Opposition involved, is completely phony. In an attempt to demonstrate that he means business concerning those who insist that they can spend their own money more profitably than the Government. Mr. Fraser is throwing over yet another principle by introducing retrospective legislation. Even many Government supporters are worried that this violation of a natural law principle is yet another step towards the totalitarian State. Once the principle of retrospective legislation is implemented, it can be extended, even to political issues.

The Aboriginal Development Commission, a Government Department headed by Mr. Charles Perkins, is funding a "National Conference on Land Rights" in Brisbane two weeks before the Commonwealth Games. Is this a clever ploy to enable tax funding of an assembly of revolutionaries before the Games start? The recent Regina Conference in Canada, at which number one item was how to smash the Brisbane Games, cost $2 million.

The July-August issue of Middle East Perspective is just to hand. This publication, published every two months, is edited by Dr. Alfred Lilienthal, author of many books on the Middle East. Highlighted in the Editor's leading article is material in a featured box, the heading of which is "Planning for 28 Years".. After this, the text runs: "Israel, even in 1954 concerned about Lebanon, had been negotiating with then-President Camille Chamoun 'as the weakest Arab link'. At a May 16th 1954 meeting attended by senior officials of the Defense and Foreign Affairs Ministry and retired Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, Chief of Staff, General Moshe Dayan, according to Prime Minister Moshe Sharett, declared: 'According to him the only thing that's necessary is to find an officer, even just a major. We should either win his heart or buy him with money, to make him agree to declare himself the saviour of the Maronite population. Then the Israeli Army will enter Lebanon, will occupy the nearest territory, and will create a Christian regime, which will ally itself with Israel. The territory from the Litani southward will be totally annexed to Israel and everything will be alright.' - From Moshe Sharett' s Personal Diary, page 96 (as translated in Livia Rokachi's Israel's Sacred Terrorism."

In our issue of On Target (August 6th), we raised the question -"Who Is An Aboriginal?" Well, a supporter from N.S.W. has written to us, and he says he knows who are not aborigines. He writes: "Faith Bandler is descended from the New Hebrides Islanders and has not one drop of Aboriginal nor Torres Strait blood. Sol Belair (Aboriginal Legal Aid) has mixed Indian and New Hebrides blood. Larry Corowa 'Aboriginal' winger with Balmain Rugby League Club, awarded M.B.E. not so long ago, is of mainly Indian blood. Bobby Sikes' mother was a white woman from Tweed Heads, and father a black American..."