LAND RIGHTS, A WARNING OF THINGS TO COME

Last year the League of Rights was hammered from pillar-to-post for exposing the subversion behind the land rights campaign. The left-wing reaction, however, was unable to stem a wide reaction in the community. The League showed how Australia would be divided into racial ghettoes, with disastrous consequences to the nation's defence and communications. We warned that 1985 would see the attempt to subject the States to a national and uniform land rights bill under the "external affairs" power. The League, despite the massive attack launched towards the end of the year, did enough to force the debate into the open. Our warning has now been picked up by others.

The Bulletin (March 12 '85) had a cover headed "NEW LAND RIGHTS PLAN CREATES ......... AUSTRALIAN APARTHEID". The leading article by David Barnett is hard-hitting and deserves wide attention:
"... When the process is complete, there will be legislation in every state with consonant commonwealth laws to over ride it where differences occur. All vacant crown land in the country will then be up for claim by an Aborigine who can produce anthropological support for an inherited association or make a case for need. Also up for grabs will be all commonwealth national parks, provided the claimants are prepared then to negotiate to keep the areas going as national parks.
The successful Aboriginal claimants and, in the Northern Territory, claimants have been very successful indeed - will then have a form of title called "inalienable freehold" which will guarantee that it will remain their property and the property of their descendents forever no matter what vicissitudes may befall them. They will have no worries about the introduction of wealth taxes, assets taxes or death duties. Not only that they will be able to seal off their holdings from the rest of the country. They will have the right to close their borders to other Australians. If the experience of the Northern Territory is any guide, that is just what they will do. The Territory has become a series of South African style "bantustans".
Our Australian apartheid has one difference: instead of being unsuccessful, attempts to keep the blacks in, it amounts to successful attempts to keep the whites out... Already 33.7 per cent of the land area of the Territory has been converted to inalienable Aboriginal freehold and claims are outstanding for another 13.2 percent.
When they are granted, just under half the territory will have been alienated - a total of 453,660 square kilometres..... These areas are also occupied as if they were foreign enclaves. The land councils set up to govern the Aboriginal land also control access. Other Australians cannot enter these territories unless they obtain permits from the councils. These permits can be and are withheld. One must face the fact that the tensions developing in the NT ... may spread to the rest of the country and particularly to WA. Africans do not like apartheid in South Africa. Non Aboriginal Australians do not like it much in the Northern Territory. Holding has a very difficult year ahead of him."

The Bulletin should be congratulated for its warning, late though it may be.

SEX-POLICE NOW IN ACTION

THREAT TO THE NEW ZEALAND TOUR OF NATIONAL DIRECTOR

BRIEF COMMENTS

"News Weekly" has featured the information (N.W. 6/3/85) that the Soviet Union has conducted no less than 24 missile tests in the Pacific Ocean area since 1978. Not a word from the Left-wing of politics. Not a word from that self-righteous fellow, David Lange, of New Zealand, but plenty of noise about an American missile test.
Remember our old "friend" Edward St. John, of Sydney? He was a great League hater in his time. He was a Liberal Member of Parliament for a brief period back in the sixties he fell foul of the Party. He has re-emerged in print in The Australian (March 14th) to tell Australians that they are at enormous risk in allowing American bases and installations on our soil and in allowing visits of American nuclear-armed naval vessels. So now he sees only one hope: "The only hope for the human race now lies in a worldwide peace movement to persuade the nuclear powers to abandon the insanity of the arms race, lest we all perish..."
Dr. Leslie Kemeny summed the crux of the matter up recently, and this was printed in last week's O.T.Bulletin viz. "If we do not want to have a reliable ally with nuclear weapons, we might as well cease spending any further money on defence, because conventional weapons, by themselves, are useless protection against a determined aggressor who possesses nuclear weapons...
As for Mr. Edward St. John's "worldwide peace movement", we can be sure that the Soviet Union will have that well and truly under control before it got off the ground, as they have with other "peace movements"...
"Peace" to the trained Communist is a form of war: psychological warfare. Similarly "war" must come so that "peace" may be established; a Communist "peace"; naturally. George Orwell saw it all with crystal clarity over 40 years ago -"war is peace", "freedom is slavery", etc. etc.

Those interested in matters of Education will recall that there have been attempts to censor fairies, and hobgoblins, and witches, elves, etc., out of children's books. These, apparently, are a bad thing, and may cause some sort of psychological damage to tender minds. The Little People have been screened for evidence of sexism, chauvinism, racism, and a few other "isms". Look out Enid Blyton; the multiculturalisms are monitoring the Pipes of Pixieland! Before you go through that Looking Glass, Alice, be sure that Al Grassby isn't on the other side!
But now there is a breath of fresh air. And most welcome it is. In an article in The Australian (March 12th) from Charles Seabrook of Cox News Service, we are told; "In the past some researchers have suspected that, because the stories often involve witches and other mischievous characters, the folklore of Little People might be detrimental to a child's mental well-being. "Now scientists say that the imaginary characters not only are harmless but may be crucial for normal child development". A Dr. Olness of the University of Minnesota, a children's specialist, observes that Little People stories are common to every part of the world, and help them to deal with the real world, which they cannot understand in their early childhood. It sounds like common sense to us.

As we write these lines we have the astonishing situation in the Victorian Legislative Council (Upper House) election where the result has been decided by a Pick-a-Box draw! Democracy in action, Comrades! The Upper House deciding seat of Nunawading was a dead heat; as recount of the seat's 110,000 votes resulted in a tie. The local returning officer, under Victorian electoral law, chose to hold a lottery (Mrs. Leonard could have cast her personal vote) and Labor was the winner. It's all constitutional; but what a situation! It seems obvious to us that a By-election would now be the fitting way to resolve the issue if more than a mere lip service is to be given to democracy. There is no doubt that we shall see some political upheavals in Victoria, and further a field this year.

TAXED TO THE HILT

The following statement has been issued by the N.S.W. Council of Australian League of Rights;
"In preparing public acceptance of changes in the method of collecting tax in Australia, the media have publicised the Government's proposal to introduce a broad based indirect tax on goods and possibly services".

It is obvious that discussion on this issue will be the main feature of Mr. Hawke's public relations exercise projected as a Tax Summit for July. "The reasoning behind shifting the tax collection from income to more indirect taxes is obvious. The public is conscious of what is taken out of they packet, but oblivious to the tax percentage included in the price of goods. In other words, the level of personal tax has reached its limit and another source must be exploited. "We have yet to read of any suggestion in the media that our tax levels are already too high, and that our stagnant economy is due to an 'overkill' of private enterprise and individual initiative.

"Every government budget, irrespective of the party in power, has produced an overall increase in the amount of tax collected. "It doesn't take an expert to realise that a 10% loading on all goods will accelerate the rate of inflation and further limit the purchasing power of the consumer. Already indirect taxes of 7½%, 20%, 32%, are levied on many goods, which are collected and paid to the Taxation Department by the wholesaler. This cost of collection is already a sizeable cost burden on a section of the business community. As unpaid collectors for the Tax Department, they are liable to penalty if the tax is not paid monthly, irrespective of whether the customer's account has been settled or not. A tax on all goods would extend this burden to all engaged in the business of supplying goods or services.

"An explanation f or the increasing demand for 'more and more' by the Government is well summarised in an editorial which appeared in the National Farmer, Dec. 12, '84. 'Since 1973-74 Federal Government spending has soared to 375%, add that of State Governments by an average of 280%. Inflation during this period was 184%. Even more outrageous is the fact that accumulated debts and deficits of Australian governments have doubled in just 3 years from $45,000 Million to $90,000 Million. Such a burden may take generations to pay off. Even today it requires the entire export earnings of wool, wheat, and meat, simply to service the interest payments....'

"There will be no reversal of this foolhardy policy until the electors make it clear to their representatives in Parliament that 'enough is enough'.

WHAT IT DOESN'T SAY