DICTATORSHIP BY TAXATION

Now that Prime Minister Hawke has indicated that, like his Treasurer, Mr. Paul Keating, he favours the greater use of indirect taxation, it becomes clear that, like Mr. Hawke's famous first summit, the coming Tax Summit will endorse a policy already agreed upon in the citadels of power. Spokesmen for Big Business have long been urging the imposition of higher indirect taxation in order that direct taxation might be reduced. A feature of the first Summit was the alliance between Big Government, Big Business and Big Unions.

While the nexus between Big Business and Big Government will probably be maintained at the Tax Summit, it may prove more difficult to persuade the Trade Unions leaders to accept the shift in the taxation burden. In all the speculation concerning the "re-structuring" of the taxation system, there has been no suggestion that the present total burden of taxation is excessive and should be reduced.

As our regular and better-informed readers know, it is mathematically impossible under present debt financial policies to reduce total taxation. Any serious attempt would result in major economic as well as social disasters. Heavy taxation is essential to continue paying interest on the huge debt structure. There are the growing social welfare payments of different kinds. Any suggestion that they be reduced would be an act of political suicide. Lower taxation could be offset by creating more debt money in the form of a bigger budget deficit, which would be no solution, as increased taxation would be required to service the higher debt. Apart from this, the Hawke Government is committed to reducing the deficit.

Mr. Eric Risstrom of the Taxpayers' Association predicts that Australians are faced with a 5 percent retail sales tax, and that not even food would be exempt from the tax, which would also apply to services. Mr. Risstrom says that the Taxpayers' Association had warned the Government that a big shift in indirect taxes would increase the cost of living, put pressure on wages and reduce the spending power of savings.
As demonstrated by the introduction of taxing methods designed to curb the "cash economy", and the Assets Test on pensions, a growing army of taxation officials is required in an attempt to police the taxation system, which has become an instrument of oppression. Taxpayers know from bitter experience that in spite of all the policing, allegedly to catch the "tax dodgers" this does not result in any taxation reductions.

Total taxation could easily be reduced substantially by the simple process of writing black instead of red figures when deficit credits are created. The current deficit, if created as a debt free credit, at the cost of administration (probably no more than 2 percent at most), could be used to eliminate, for a start, all forms of indirect taxation, this resulting in an immediate fall in many prices with a consequent increase in the purchasing power of the consumer. Other steps could follow, including the financing of adequate retiring pensions for those prepared to leave the production system at an earlier age, say 55. This would help Australia's young unemployed to find a place in the production system.

Australia, along with all industrialised nations, is rapidly moving to a situation where either there will be modifications to present financial policies, or there will be mounting social disorders. Fortunately there is a growing realisation of the realities of the crisis now gripping the world, which hopefully, will, under the pressure of events, eventually result in a challenge to financial dictatorship.

(Essential Reading: "Dictatorship by Taxation", by C.H.Douglas, price $1.40 from all League of Rights' bookshops).

BRIEF COMMENTS

Drought is not the basic cause of famine, not only in Ethopia, but in other parts of Africa. Africa has experienced drought conditions throughout the whole of the recorded history of the continent. The effects of drought were minimised by the skills of the Europeans as witnessed by South Africa. The "liberation" of much of Africa, and the loss of European skills, has witnessed a major decline in food production. Many of the famine-ridden countries were previously food exporters. It is not surprising that some of the "Liberated" countries are now calling for the "exploiting" Europeans to return. Those "useful innocents" who assisted the Marxist programme in Africa might at least now do the decent thing and apologise for the disasters they helped to inflict upon the unfortunate Africans.

Multiracialism in the United Kingdom continues to produce growing friction. The Commission for Racial Equality has decided to prosecute 69 people for signing a petition urging the Greater London Council not to move an Indian family into a vacant flat on their estate, this resulting from the eviction of one family who had allegedly been intimidating Blacks and Asians. Is that what Australians want? They should learn from the bitter experience of those suffering from the policy, which the Grassbys continue to urge upon Australians.

Northern Territory Senator Bernie Kilgariff is to be congratulated for taking the initiative and proposing in a private member's bill, to be introduced in the Federal Parliament next month, that the Aboriginal Land rights (Northern Territory) Act be amended. Senator Kilgariff says that previous Federal Governments, both Liberal and Labor, have ignored his frequent requests to appoint a committee to oversee the NT Act. Senator Kilgariff says his bill is designed to take the pressure off Northern Territory, where 49 percent of the Territory was either under Aboriginal ownership or claim. The land claims movement has "gone beyond all reason", he says. There should be some interesting developments.

"The Australian Jewish News" of January 4th reports, "Almost one in three Israelis accept something of Rabbi Meir Kahane's racist philosophy with regard to the Arabs". The founder of the violent Jewish Defence League wants Arabs removed from Israel and all areas, such as the West Bank, controlled by Israel. There are reports that the much-publicised Ethiopian Jews are to be settled on the West Bank. How do exponents of the "Chosen Race" doctrine equate this with Christianity?

INTERNATIONAL SUBVERSION BEHIND NEW CALEDONIA 'INDEPENDENCE'

"It was as obvious as red, white, and blue, that French President Francois Mitterand was not welcome in New Caledonia". - The Sun (Melbourne) January 21st.

We have been suspicious for some time that International Communism has been stirring the pot in New Caledonia as the Kanaks are well organised and have access to modern weapons. We have heard the "rumours" of the training being given to the Kanaks by Colonel Gadaffi, also. The American Ambassador to Paris has expressed fears that a Granada type situation could develop in New Caledonia, and this is just what the Kremlin master strategists would welcome.

It is of significance that the American Ambassador was attacked because of his remarks by the leading French Communist Party newspapers and in Moscow, Tass accused him of interfering in French internal affairs. Moscow would never do such a thing, of course! The "official" policy of "independence in association with France" seems to us to be the beginning of the end of French control of the Island, and the beginning of control of the Island by the forces of revolution. After that, what? Another Granada, a Socotra, a Seychelles? By no means out of the question.

Meanwhile, Mr. Bill Hayden and his fellow Fabian Socialist/Humanist ideologues in the Australian "Labor" Party do all in their power to whip up anti-French sentiment at home over the French underground nuclear tests at Muraroa, simultaneously revving up anti-British sentiment at home over the British atomic tests at Maralinga and elsewhere: all part of the subversive psychological warfare against nuclear weapons, French control of a possible Communist base in the pacific (as intended by Moscow), and Australia's historic links with Britain.

We stress that the above policies of psychological warfare are being carried out by Fabian Socialists, aided and abetted by "Socialist Left" Communists. Politically astute Australians will not only have to watch the New Caledonia "chapter" closely, but also they will have to watch Mr. Bill Hayden and the Department of Foreign Affairs, which is almost certainly well penetrated by agents of subversion. The purpose of the recent visit by President Mitterand to New Caledonia in our view is to give "independence" the full approval associated with Presidential authority. The New Caledonian French smell appeasement and withdrawal just as the French "colons" did in Algeria some 25 years ago when Charles de Gaulle sold them out.