THE LAST NAIL IN THE COFFIN

New Cash-Payments Tax Hammers the Small Builders
The above headings led into a featured article on the Government's new "withholding tax" in The Herald (Melbourne), August 19th. Now to be known as the "Prescribed Payments Tax Scheme", it is due to be in force by September 1st. Already we are hearing reports of thousands of extra staff being trained to police this new tax, which will be a 10% levy on turnover, (supposedly) withheld as taxation, and its purpose is to prevent cash- in-hand payments of wages to employees to avoid the payment of tax. What will be the end result of all this?

The new scheme applies to jobs costing more than $10,000; the onus will be on the person paying for the work to report same to the Department of Taxation (obviously jobs costing, say $12,000, will be "fiddled" to make them something like $9,950!). These jobs won't be reported to any Taxation Department, and will pass through the "net". As far as we can ascertain, there will be chaos in the building and contracting industries. All sorts of snags and hindrances will erupt: interruptions to cash flows, as payments must be made to the Department on a monthly basis. Many contractors will have to hire extra accounting staff to administer the intricacies of taxation matters, and this is an aspect of the burden of general business that is, in the main, overlooked, viz., the cost of employing staff in the private sector to administer government business (payroll tax, sales tax, workers' compensation, insurances, etc.)

It is clear that many small businesses will be unable to bear the extra financial pressures, and will collapse, throwing thousands more unemployed onto social security. As debt pressures force up the Commonwealth Deficit; force up inflation; force up interest rates, force up this, force up that: the various governments, including local government, must squeeze, and squeeze, and squeeze, to wring that last dollar from the community as we all edge nearer and nearer to a financial disaster.

STANDING TO BE COUNTED

Regular readers should not need to be told that events are now moving with tremendous rapidity. Australia is now in the type of revolutionary situation the League has long predicted was a certainty under policies rooted in a philosophy of centralism. The economic and constitutional crisis must deepen. Defence in depth was never more essential. The League of Rights has planned for that type of defence. But it needs the support of every member, supporter and sympathiser. Because of the situation, the League's 1983 National Weekend will be the most vital in the League's long history. "The chips are down" and this is the moment to stand to be counted on the side of freedom.
Following the League's Annual National Secretariat Conference on Friday, September 30th, "The New Times" Annual Dinner will take place at The Victoria, Lt. Collins St., Melbourne.

One of Australia's finest natural leaders, Victorian RSL President, Bruce Ruxton O.B.E., will be the guest of honour. There will be the usual outstanding panel of speakers to present the various toasts. A "full house" is essential. Tickets are $16 each and must be paid for in advance. Guests may indicate if they have any seating preferences.

On Saturday, October 1st, also at The Victoria, the League's Annual National Seminar will deal with the constitutional revolution. One of the panel of speakers will be Mrs. Babette Francis, the brilliant representative of those "Women Who Want to be Women. Both with pen and on the media Babette Francis has proved more than a match for the Senator Susan Ryans and other trendy feminists. Babette Francis will be dealing with one of the most horrendous proposals ever to be threatened against Australians, men and women, the UN convention concerning the abolition of all forms of discrimination against women.
Mr. Jeremy Lee and Mr. Eric Butler will both be giving Papers.
It is essential that supporters start publicising this seminar NOW.

Accredited actionists only will gather for the all day National Action Seminar on Sunday, October 2nd, starting with a short non-denominational, Divine service. Reports will be presented from all round Australia. Mr. Peter Nixon, Editor of "Heritage" will be presenting an exciting and encouraging picture of what is happening on the Heritage front. There will be reports from State and Regional Directors. Mr. Robert Nixon, W.A. State Director, the only person in Australian history who has challenged the Taxation Department on the subject of funding abortion on demand. Mr. Nixon claims that, as a Christian, his taxes should not be used to finance what he regards as immoral.
National Director, Mr. Eric Butler, will outline "the state of the battle" and the League's in-depth programme. There will be a report from the Local Government front. Every accredited actionist MUST be present at the 1983 Action Seminar. Limited private hospitality is available for interstate and country supporters. But requests must be made as early as possible. The 1983 National Weekend will go down as one, which will long be remembered. Plan NOW to be there.

LET'S SHARE AUSTRALIA IN LOVE AND PEACE

This is the title of a brochure, which is being given mass distribution by the "Commission for World Mission", an agency of the Uniting Church in Australia. The brochure is authorised by the Rev. John Brown, and the Rev. R. F. Wooton, of the above body. Both these names are well known to us. We cannot pretend to be theologians, of course. However, we do very much question the "theology" of some of the bald statements and assertions set out in this Uniting Church brochure.
Proper theological advice, which we have taken, convinces us that various theological assertions contained in this brochure are spurious, but in a newsletter such as On Target we choose not to deal with such. On purely political grounds, we can attack this Uniting Church brochure, which is highly emotive, enjoining members to "remember this, next time you are handed some racist propaganda". "Racism" to these people is "the belief that one's own racial group is somehow 'superior' to all others". That is not our own belief, which is that there are fundamental differences between the major groupings of mankind, and that racial tensions will inevitably grow if these same groupings are intermingled through migration, refugee plans, etc. in any but a very small degree. History proves this starkly!
We might add that the Chinese and the Japanese consider that their races and cultures are vastly superior to those of Europeans. We ourselves are not upset about this. They are "different." But this Uniting Church brochure goes on to state "people who hold these views are acting very like people of Nazi Germany, etc..."

The smear
Hereafter the brochure becomes just inane. "We believe that Australia should welcome a closer living relationship with the people in the part of the world where we are - Asia and the Pacific. These can enrich us all thus: "A sense of history and heritage which is both ancient and deeply religious". What history does our race share with Polynesians or Melanesians? How can paganism be "deeply religious"? Do we, as Christians, modify our beliefs to "enrich" ourselves with the paganism of Hinduism, or the fatalism of Buddhism? The Uniting Church says "We welcome Asians and Pacific Islanders here because we love them and need them". Do we?

BRIEF COMMENTS

Mr. Peter Robinson, commenting in The SunHerald (Sydney, August 21st) doesn't pull his punches. He said that the "sophisticated southern media try to portray Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen as a clown, but "the true clown up there in Queensland is the new Liberal leader - Terry White." Mr. Robinson correctly states that no government could accept a man who voted with the Opposition. We expect the Liberals to suffer electorally at the forthcoming Queensland State election.

A man to watch on the Australian political stage is Queensland's new Deputy Liberal leader, Mr. Angus Innes, although he is certainly backing a lost cause (at least in the immediate future) in backing Mr. Terry White against the Premier of Queensland. However, nothing stands still in the political arena. Leaving Britain at the age of 16, he "went it" alone through Scandinavia, Europe and Asia Minor. He was in Malaysia during the emergency as an Army lieutenant; then ended up in the Northern Territory police as a detective. Then a law course at the University of Queensland; then politics.
Speaking on the "new" Constitutional situation in Australia, as a result of the High Court "Koowarta" and "Franklin Dam" decisions, Mr. Angus Innes said "This new situation can now only be changed by holding a referendum on amendments to the Constitution ... unless Canberra voluntarily commits itself to limit its power or agrees to consult with the States before entering international agreements. (This will happen when pigs can fly".. On Target).

"Right now there are groups of United Nations bureaucrats working on agreements, protocols, or conventions on food, traffic, health, and land ownership." "If there is to be a momentous change to our Constitution it should not depend on the particular attitude of one High Court judge. It should be done by all Australians after hearing the arguments put to them fairly by all views." We couldn't agree more.

Tax Robbers 1
From Letters, The Australian, August 17th; from "B. Shaw", Gosford, N.S.W.
"The ever increasing impositions of direct taxes by the State and new exactions such as withholding, financial institutions and superannuation taxes make many thoughtful citizens question the moral basis of taxation. "Every individual has the right to life and property and his person and property are inviolate under universal law. "As part of his property rights, every individual has the right to the fruits of his labor to dispose of as he will, freely and without coercion of any kind. "The taking by force of an individual's property whether it be his money, earnings, or personal effects is classified universally as robbery. It follows that any person or group of persons who takes property of any kind by force is a robber. "It makes no difference to the victim whether his property is confiscated at the point of a gun, or by state edict, his property rights have been violated. "The really frightening aspect is that there is to limit to the depredations that may be made against peaceful citizens by rapacious governments."

Tax Robbers 2
From "Hilda Brooks", Indooroopilly, Qld.
"The servility of the public in suffering the plundering by governments of their private purses augurs ill for the future of this country. This public attitude will allow governments' profligacy and extravagances to know no bounds. "Prime Minister Gladstone said that money earned should be "left to fructify in the pockets of the people."
"Professor F. E. Finer, Gladstone Professor of Government and Public Administration at Oxford University, in a talk on the B.B.C. stated that many people assert - tacitly, at least - that the entire national product belongs, as of right, to the State and that you and I are entitled to take home and spend only what, by grace and favour, it fancies it can spare. "I propound the counter axiom: nothing, whatsoever, one single penny, belongs of right to the government. Just the reverse: it is entirely the product of one person's or another's individual efforts and earnings. Taxation has to be justified.
"There is no justification for over $1000 million being taken from the Australian taxpayer-consumer and given in foreign aid in the past financial year. Many of the recipients of this aid are now threatening our own manufacturing industries (or have already initiated their demise).
"There is no justification for an annual tax burden for every man, woman, and child in this country of $4,000. Unless, of course, we are happy to live under a totalitarian regime. If not, perhaps it is the taxpayer who should withhold money from the Government."