"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing"
Edmund Burke
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16 September 1988. Thought for the Week:
"Most of our political evils may be traced to our commercial
ones."
James Madison, one of the Fathers of the U.S.A. Constitution |
SOME MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS?Last week the media generally demonstrated how it has double standards. The reaction - or lack of reaction - to the outrageous performance of Mr. Charles Perkins, Secretary of the Commonwealth Department of Aboriginal Affairs, who led a protest march to the National RSL headquarters, demonstrates that apparently any Australian public servant who can claim he is of part Aboriginal background, is not bound by the same constraints which apply to other public servants. How would Prime Minister Hawke react if a senior official of the Treasury Department led a protest of irate taxpayers against an organisation to protest against a taxation measure? There have been three occasions over the past year when Charles Perkins has blatantly violated the tradition that Civil Servants do not engage publicly in politics; they are there primarily for the purpose of implementing the policies of the elected representatives of the people. If they wish to engage publicly in politics, they should resign from the Public Service. They are not compelled to stay there. In September of last year Mr. Charles
Perkins publicly criticised the leader of the Federal Opposition,
Mr. John Howard, stating that "He has no policy on Aboriginal
affairs and he is largely an irrelevant politician with an
irrelevant political party." Mr. Charles Perkins heads a Public Service Department funded by the Australian taxpayers. Its funding was substantially increased by the last Budget. The RSL reflects the views of large numbers of Australians, including some of Aboriginal background, in calling for an end to a policy, which permits anyone who claims to be an Aborigine getting benefits ahead of other Australians. A genuine Aborigine, the Rev. Cedric Jacobs, is one of those highly critical of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and its parasitic activities and recommends that it be abolished, and that any funds be allocated to Local Councils who can co-operate with local communities of Aborigines to implement programmes of genuine benefit. The new National President of the RSL, Brigadier Alf Garland, who has already made it clear that he is going to play a different role on immigration and associated matters than did his predecessor, Sir William Keys, has become a target of abuse by the media hatchet men, who invented the story that the Brigadier was calling for blood tests to ascertain which Australians should receive the special benefits allocated to people calling themselves Aborigines. Such are the low standards of much of the media in Australia today. |
BRIEF COMMENTSThe Hayden Papers reveal Prime Minister Hawke's dedicated support for Zionist Israel. Even former Labor Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam, was forced by Hawke to make a humiliating back down on a resolution concerning Israel at UNESCO. Whitlam was the Australian representative at UNESCO. Mr. Whitlam had voted in favour of a relatively moderate resolution concerning Israeli policies in occupied Arab territories. Mr. Whitlam pointed out that the resolution was not one, which could prejudice "central Israeli interests." But Whitlam was forced to back down, even though operating within the guidelines established by Foreign Minister Hayden. Zionist leaders have demonstrated time and time again their tremendous influence on Western governments. Now that the Australian electors have severely rebuffed those Municipal Councillors advocating a YES vote on the Local Government question at the September 3rd referendums, it is to be hoped that Councillors will realise that they have to be more constructive; that they must reject the Fabian strategy as consistently advanced by Mr. Gough Whitlam. In 1974 the Whitlam Government held a referendum asking for the constitutional power to make direct grants to Local Government. Almost a lone voice, the League of Rights warned of the Fabian strategy. Although Whitlam obtained a YES vote in NSW and Victoria, the other States rejected the proposal and the total national support only reached 47 percent. But Gough Whitlam persevered and, speaking as a member of the Constitutional Commission, told the Australian Council of Local Government associated in Adelaide on November 12th 1986, that it was State governments, which were preventing Local Government from being properly recognised. Local Government could bring tremendous power to bear on both State and Federal Governments if united to advance constructive alternative financial policies to those being imposed today. It now emerges that the late Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev was kept in office for six years after a stroke left him clinically dead. He was led around, "dead on his feet" by officials and relatives who wallowed in corruption. But the Soviet does not have a monopoly of faking the truth about political leaders. It was revealed after the Second World War that American President Roosevelt was virtually a dying man during 1944. Running for a third term amidst widespread rumours about his health, official statements were issued that there was nothing wrong with his health. To demonstrate how robust the President was, he was driven in an open vehicle through a snowstorm. What the public did not see were the heaters under the rugs. The sick and dying Roosevelt went to the infamous Yalta Conference shortly after his inauguration early in 1945. Yalta was a major victory for Stalin. Shortly after his return to the USA, Roosevelt was dead. The President of the Sporting Shooters' Association of Australia, Mr. Ted Crane, the former Labor voter who led the successful anti-gun control legislation threatened by the Victorian Cain Government, has now entered the political arena at the Victorian State Elections. Ted Crane says that if re-elected, the Cain Government would re-introduce the gun control legislation. At the recent conference entitled "Gun Control Australia", held at the Melbourne University, Crane directed a few well aimed shots against media, charging that since the Queen and Hoddle street shootings, the media had censored pro-gun news, distorted facts, selectively published violence involving guns, and depicted shooters as "Rambos". Premier John Cain will not be happy to have the gun control issue raised during the State elections. He must remember what happened to NSW Labor Premier Unsworth. Cain's biggest asset is Liberal Opposition leader Jeff Kennett, who has been wishy-washy on most basic issues, including the Local Government referendum question. |
WOULD THE PEOPLE' S LAW WORK IN AUSTRALIA?From a "Symposium On Constitutionalism", by Professor Geoffrey Walker:"In Australia it is sometimes objected that the direct legislation system would not work in Australia because a majority always votes 'no' in referendums. People who advance that view should, of course, be asked how they reconcile it with any notion of popular government. But in any case it is a misconception. If one looks at the referendums held at the state level since federation, one finds that two thirds of them have been approved. "It is true that of the 38 proposals to alter the Commonwealth Constitution that have been put to referendum, only 8 have been carried. However, all the rejected measures were calculated to increase the power of the Commonwealth legislature or executive government in Canberra. One can be for or against such a policy, but to say that the people do not want to give any more power to Canberra is not the same thing as saying that they always vote NO in referendums. Serving politicians sometimes object that direct legislation is inconsistent with the Westminster of government. But we have never closely followed the Westminster model in this country; in fact we have led Westminster in introducing democratic reforms. We were well ahead of Westminster (and the United States for that matter) in the adoption of universal manhood suffrage and the vote for women; we pioneered the secret ballot, and indeed the idea is so closely associated with Australia that Americans still call it 'the Australian ballot'; if we had been content to tag along behind Westminster, we would not have a written constitution at all. History suggests that if we adopt the initiative and referendum system, Westminster will follow us …We must ensure that 1988 is remembered, not just as a bicentennial of a beginning, but as a beginning in itself the beginning of the Australian people's struggle for independence from the rule of the rigidly disciplined parties, from a tunnel visioned bureaucracy and from the courtier class of political intellectuals that has waxed fat on the pickings of usurped power. Politicians should note that next year, too, is a bicentennial - and of a more momentous event than that of 1788. For Paris in July, 1789, wrote an eternal lesson for all those elitists, in all countries and all times, who believe that some people are born to rule over others..." Electoral comment authorised by E.D. Butler, 145 Russell St., Melbourne. |
FROM 'THE ECHO'(Geelong, Vic.): This letter ("Echo", 23/8) published
over the name of an "H.Pfiefer, Belmont (Geelong suburb): |