DOUBLE TALK FROM TREASURER KEATING

For sheer effrontery, Treasurer Paul Keating has perhaps only one peer: the Prime Minister, currently glad handing his way around Australia demonstrating what his admirers call "the Hawke magic". Last Friday, March 31st, Paul Keating attacked the managing director of the National Australia Bank, Mr. Nobby Clark, who has predicted that home interest rates could go even higher. Mr. Clark also said that the Labor Government would lose the next elections if home interest rates went any higher. It was this statement which obviously stung the Treasurer, who said, "It's pretty disingenuous for Mr. Clark to be worrying about the Government's political fortunes when really what he's about is saying 'I have put up interest rates in the National Australia Bank, but this is the fault of the Government.'"

We hold no brief for the banks, whose activities have resulted in a rising anti-bank feeling in the community, but if Treasurer Paul Keating and the Reserve Bank are not responsible for high interest rates, then who is in control of Australia's financial policies? The truth is that Paul Keating could drastically reduce interest rates immediately if he wanted to, but he has in fact been imposing a policy, with the aid of the Reserve Bank, to force interest rates up as part of his strategy for "cooling" the economy. High interest rates are also designed to attract foreign investments into Australia. High interest rates are not unduly worrying the Government's Big Business friends who can claim tax deductions against their interest charges.

It makes good politics for Paul Keating to be attacking bankers whom he claims "are making comments in their own interests". But this is exactly what Paul Keating is doing - the Hawke-Keating strategy is to try to survive the next elections while progressively driving Australians further down the totalitarian road. Any tax cuts will be similar to the old fashioned highway robbers who gave their victims back a small pittance out of what had been taken from them.

THE COMING EXPLOSION IN PAPUA-NEW GUINEA

The late Sir Raphael Cilento, like many other authorities on Papua-New Guinea, warned that the setting up of a synthetic new nation, primarily in an attempt to appease "world opinion" was doomed to end in disaster. What has happened in Papua New Guinea is a replica of what has happened throughout most of Africa. Ignoring realities, and abusing those who opposed them as "fascists" the ideologues of the world, urged on by the Soviet, claimed that once the native peoples, generally warring with one another, had been freed from the "evils of colonialism", and provided with Western constitutions and parliamentary procedures, they would blossom into major stable nations. Events have demonstrated that this was complete fiction.

We have for some time warned about the rapid breakdown in Papua-New Guinea, sustained only by massive grants from Australia and help from other sources. The giant copper mine on Bouganville, which funds a major part of the Papua-New Guinea budget, has experienced increasing problems as a result of ethnic clashes. Riot police have been attempting to maintain law and order for some time, but the situation deteriorated to the stage where troops had to be sent in.

Right throughout Papua-New Guinea there is mounting unrest. Corruption is rife in the Government and government departments. If the growing breakdown continues with the government unable to control the situation, there could be a request for Australian troops. Papua-New Guinea shares a common border with Indonesia, and this could pose a major point of friction between Australia and Indonesia in a crisis. The question troubling many Australians is, has Australia the military capacity to do anything effective in Papua-New Guinea should there be a major collapse. Australia's military capacity has been allowed to run down to an all time low. When in office, the Opposition parties contributed to the run down. Would they do any better if returned to office?

BRIEF COMMENTS

Keener students of Australian politics are interested in what impact well known political commentator, Katharine West, will have on the next Federal Elections. As yet her proposed new party has not been formally launched. Rumour has it that this could be on the Ray Martin T.V. programme. Katharine West grew up in a very political family, her father, Sir Harry White, having been Commonwealth Parliamentary Librarian and National Librarian. She says she learned politics at the knee of Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley.

Katharine West claims to represent the "silent majority", but to date most of her stated policies are not particularly specific. On immigration, a major issue, she is quoted as saying, "Consideration of the social impact of immigration, with policies satisfactory to the people coming and the people already here." If Katharine West has been quoted correctly, she supports the dangerous proposal of an "inner cabinet…. not… accountable to Parliament. They would be top brains brought in from outside without payment" (The Australian Women's Weekly April, 1989). Unless government officials, paid or unpaid, are accountable to parliament, which in theory is accountable to the Australian people, there would be a strengthening of government by an unelected dictatorship.
The "acid test" for all candidates at the next Federal Elections must be whether or not they support the right of the electors to have a referendum on the subject of Citizens' Initiative, Referendum and Recall as operates in Switzerland.

Writing in The Herald Melbourne, of March 29th, Canberra correspondent Hugh Crawford lists those to whom Prime Minister Hawke listens. "Mr. Hawke's main business contact is still the Hungarian born tycoon Sir Peter Abeles… Frank Lowy is another industry chief who has ready access to the Prime Minister." Both Abeles and Lowy are Zionist Jews, Lowy owning T.V. Channel 10.

Perhaps it was The Age's version of an April Fool's Joke. In its April 1st issue, the Melbourne daily ran a story under the heading, "NATIONALS RISE TO LEAGUE CHALLENGE". The story underneath, from Ross Peake, Canberra, asserts that the League of Rights is challenging the National Party in the Gwydir by-election. The League of Rights is not standing any candidate in the by-election. But because there are two Independent candidates contesting the by-election, and both pledged to support the Swiss Initiative Referendum principle, while League of Rights literature has been distributed throughout the area, this is a "League challenge" to the National Party. We have no doubt that either of the two Independents would make better representatives than a party candidate, and while we would be pleasantly surprised to see either of them win, we trust that they receive sufficient electoral support to demonstrate that there is growing support for the Swiss principle. Like a cracked record, The Age story quotes Senator Boswell, the discredited Queensland Senator, referring to his "scathing attack" on the League in April of last year. Obviously Ross Peake has not read the February issue of "The Intelligence Survey". Or perhaps he writes the type of nonsense he knows The Age requires about the League.

Last week's Bulletin, in its eight page article on Australian "racists", reached a new low in using the technique of guilt by association. The front cover of The Bulletin carries a photo of a group of the Australian National Movement and their offensive placards. The League of Rights, Logos Foundation and Mrs. Jacki Butler's Council for Free Australia are all lumped together as groups who "hate Asians, Jews, left wingers, and each other". It is clear that The Bulletin's main target is the League of Rights and the Initiative Referendum principle. Clearly someone is worried about the prospect of the Australian people eventually demanding a say in their own affairs.

If public opinion polls are accurate, the Cain Labor Government looks like winning the vital by-election for the electorate of Greensborough. If the Liberals cannot win a by-election in a typical "mortgage belt" electorate, with home interest rates at a record high level, and against a State government reeling under revelations concerning over $100 million loss by its Economic Development organisation, it is striking evidence that electors do not see the Liberals as a genuine alternative to Labor. Like Federal leader John Howard, Victorian State Liberal leader Jeff Kennett blames the Federal Labor Government for the high interest rates, but offers no solutions. The Greensborough by-election result will have a major impact on national politics.

FROM CANADIAN 'ON TARGET'

WHITE AUSTRALIANS FORGIVEN

ON A PERSONAL NOTE