THE WORM TURNETH

"Saturday's by-elections for the seats of Rockdale and Bass Hill in the N.S.W. Legislative Assembly have produced such a swing against the Australian Labor Party that they could be a watershed in contemporary Australian politics." The Australian, Editorial, August 4th.

We have been advising our supporters for quite some time that the Australian electorate is volatile. Just how volatile was demonstrated last Saturday (above) but also in Local Government elections in Victoria. The metropolitan dailies are full of comment from the political documentary "industry", so we shall not just put our oar in there. We think the nationally known political commentators miss many issues; particularly grassroots issues, which vitally affect the fate of governments. This is where the League of Rights comes into its own, as we are much closer to such issues than those lads sitting at their typewriters and computers in large print and electronic media offices in large cities. We are out there on the farms, in the country towns and regional centres; right in the middle of Local Government. Yes, right down there at the grassroots.

There is no doubt at all that the average Australian voter is worried, and a bit scared. Worried, of course, about the economy. That plunging dollar - how will it effect his job; job prospects; his debt repayments; the prospects of his children: even that overseas holiday he's been saving for. That fringe benefit tax; it will be a nightmare; it will cause unemployment in small business. It's Big Brother gradually closing off all the little loopholes, further restricting the choice of options for the individual cutting off a few "perks" which made the ordinary job more worthwhile.

Resentment. Uneasiness. A growing fear of what is to come. Is this really a "Labor" party? The one our fathers and grandfathers always supported? (No, it isn't). Then the Bill of Rights. No one in the media has brought that issue into the current media convulsions to our knowledge. But we think it's a "sleeper" which has definitely had an impact over the last weekend. Also the I.D.Card, and the capital gains tax. These are the types of issues, which can turn traditional "Labor" voters away from that party. Men and women will do this, if they are concerned enough - and obviously enough were.

Is this as far as it goes? No, we don't think so. We think the anti-Labor "slide" is just starting. It will go further alright. Unemployment must jump as inflation from the devaluations of the Aussie dollar also jumps. Our standard of living must fall: there won't be the money for that bottle of Scotch; that bottle (even if a small bottle) of that favourite perfume for the special occasion. The fringe benefit tax will turn many men and women, boys and girls, out of the shops and factories and offices of small employers. We detect; we "smell" with our twitching political noses, a "different" atmosphere, climate, a sort of political aura that is now emerging from the onrush of Big Government, via the Socialists/Communists at Canberra.

This fringe benefits tax; this Bill of Rights stuff are not the traditional types of measures with which the individual has had to cope. We always knew where we were when we paid up each July to Mr. Treasurer, and when we were secure under what we understood (if not precisely) as the Common Law. One farmer said to us recently (an elderly man, allied to the soil and the seasons all his life) "everything we have always been taught is now being thrown into doubt and confusion." This is what we are talking about. Confusion and fear are now beginning to enter the mind of the average Australian; BUT if this could in some way be geared to a grassroots political educational movement, along with an appropriate action offensive, we could save this country, and give a clear cut demonstration of hope in action, to our friends abroad.

INTERESTING OPINION POLLS

Jeremy Lee reports from the Deep North
As the internationally orchestrated campaign against South Africa rolls on; two interesting opinion polls have been published this week. Firstly, on "bad guy" Margaret Thatcher, who has been slated by Robert Mugabe, Malcolm Fraser, Desmond Tutu and the ABC for holding back on sanctions. The Australian (July 31, '86) reported:
"Mrs. Thatcher has been backed in her anti-sanctions stand by the two latest domestic opinion polls. These show she's winning back public support at an impressive rate because of the South African issue. In the uproar of the past four weeks Mrs. Thatcher's popularity has soared. The support of the leader of the Labor Party, Mr. Neil Kinnock, who has demanded sanctions, has dropped to its lowest level ever. An NOP poll on South Africa taken this week and released yesterday shows that only 38 percent of British electorate want sanctions, with 42 percent firmly against and 20 percent undecided..."

Here in Australia, The Bulletin (August 5th) reported - under the heading "The Government's winning streak comes to an end",
"If an election had been held in mid July the Hawke Government would have lost, the latest Morgan Gallup Poll shows. In the poll, support for the government slumped 4 percent while support for the Liberal-National coalition climbed 4 percent..." It is probably too much to say that the South African issue is the sole reason for the reversal in the Hawke administration's fortunes. Its dismal failure in the economic field obviously has something to do with it. But it's harder to explain the Opposition's rise in favour. It has not offered any positive alternatives financially; but it has refused to "tow the Fraser line" on South Africa, and this must have some bearing on the Poll figures. All this indicates that the massive use of international propaganda is not as potent as once it was. "You can't fool all the people all the time."

Enough is coming out about the dismal human rights records in Uganda, Nigeria, India and Zimbabwe to convey to the public something of the monstrous hypocrisy over South Africa. The public can also sense the double standards involved in the issue of selling subsidised wheat to the Soviet Union, which is burning, gassing and detaining people without trial in Afghanistan, as well as brutalising its own people in the Gulag Archipelago.

Mrs. Thatcher needs an indication that not all Australians follow the "Malcolm Hawke" or "Bob Fraser" line, and have not been hoodwinked by the atrocious media sanctification of Bishop Tutu and Robert Mugabe. Australia's Liberals and Nationals also deserve commendation on the first real stand they've taken in a long time. They won't earn any credits from the ABC. But the polls indicate that, on this one, the opposition is right.

THE MURPHY AFFAIR

We had to pinch ourselves when reading the Editorial of The Age (Melbourne) August 2nd. The Age is often referred to in media circles as "the Spencer Street Soviet: it's office and printing complex lies in Spencer Street, Melbourne. We certainly would have expected editorial policy to lean heavily in favour of whatever Mr. Justice Murphy said and did. But no; we weren't right this time. We take the most relevant extracts from The Age editorial, with most of which we agree:
"The latest developments in the Murphy affair presents Australians with what is at once a personal tragedy and a constitutional crisis. The primary tragedy is the news, now confirmed by Mr. Justice Murphy himself, that he is suffering from cancer in an advanced stage and that he probably has not long to live. Everyone must sympathise with him and his family and admire his courage. Lionel Murphy has always been a fighter.
"Unhappily, and this too is typical of the man, he has compounded the tragedy by now taking a course of action that must further damage not only his own reputation but also the two great institutions he has served - the High Court and the Federal Parliament. His decision to resume his seat on the bench of the highest court in the land even while a parliamentary commission of inquiry is investigating his fitness to occupy that bench is wholly improper. His unilateral announcement that the allegations against him are either untrue or do not constitute misbehaviour, and that therefore he will not attend any further hearings before the commission of enquiry, shows contempt both for the three-judge commission and for the Parliament which appointed it.
"What is even more deplorable is the readiness of the Government, in the shape of the Prime Minister, Mr. Hawke, and the acting Attorney General, Senator (Gareth) Evans, to accept and even applaud his action. In the meantime, one thing is absolutely clear, the lesson of the whole bizarre Murphy saga is that no government must ever again appoint an active party politician to the High Court.".

There are many Liberals who now consider that the appointment of Sir Garfield Barwick to the High Court (he was a Foreign Affairs Minister of dubious worth) was a serious mistake. Particularly as unfavourable allegations have been made concerning his advice to Sir John Kerr during the climax of "The Dismissal".

BRIEF COMMENT

Not at all well known is the coming challenge to the Fringe Benefits tax by the Queensland Government, under Section 114 of the Constitution, which reads: "A State shall not, without the consent of the Parliament of the Commonwealth, raise or maintain any naval or military force, or impose any tax on property of any kind belonging to the Commonwealth, nor shall the Commonwealth impose any tax on property of any kind belonging to a State (our emphasis)... O.T.) We wonder if Mr. Justice Murphy will be sitting in judgement on this challenge; his judgements thus far have been centralist and anti-federalist. Certainly a decision by the High Court against the fringe benefits tax would be welcomed by the whole Australian electorate.

The stinging rebuff to the Victorian Socialist/Communist Government in the recent Local Government elections will give a marvellous fillip to all those actionists who have been boring away for past months on the amalgamation issue. The Cain Government must now be considered as "on the ropes", and it appears that it could well be defeated at the next State election. Now is the time to increase the pressure on the Cain Government.