AUSTRALIA: TARGET OF THE NEW COLONIALISM

by David Thompson
"Garnaut's report strikes at Hawke's conscience. It goes to the very essence of Hawke's achievements as Prime Minister and his place in history. Hawke knows this. It is a report conceived within the philosophy of internationalisation of the Australian economy which Hawke and Keating have adopted as their primary task during the 1980s." Paul Kelly, Weekend Australian (25/11/89).

In 1988, Mr. Hawke commissioned Dr. Ross Garnaut, his trusted former economic adviser, and chairman of the Rural and Industries Bank (the W.A. State bank) to produce a report on Australia and the North-east Asian Ascendency. The report was unveiled at a Sydney conference on November 22nd, attended by senior Australian political and business figures, and powerful Japanese financial interests. It urges a rapid and deep integration of the Australian economy with the new economic dynamos of Asia: Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and of course, China. The first objective is to attract massive foreign investment to Australia.

The Japanese fully support the Garnaut Report, with the world's second largest institutional investor, Dai-Ichi Mutual Life Insurance, preparing to invest in the Australian stock market in a big way, having an investment portfolio of $141 billion. The report calls for abolition of Australian tariff barriers by the year 2000, massive Asian investment, Asian competition in our transport industries, rapidly stepping up the Asian immigration programme, compulsory Asian language, history and cultural studies in all Australian schools and a higher priority for foreign relations with the region.

BUILDING THE JAPANESE EMPIRE
In effect, the report consists of the groundwork for a steady programme of psychological preparation for the complete Asianisation of Australia. We are to be included in the Pacific Basin (Economic) Community, which Hawke himself is pushing strongly. The Japanese are expected to be a major force in this.

As the Asian component of David Rockefeller's Trilateral Commission, the Japanese are strong supporters of the New International Economic Order. The price of Australia's participation in "the world's fastest growing economic region" - North-east Asia - would initially be the elimination of our textile and footwear industry. These are protected by the Tariffs. These products are being manufactured in China. The Pacific Basin (Economic) Community would, in reality; be a new Empire - a Japanese Empire consisting of a number of economic and financial colonies, including Australia. Why does Japan need colonies? For raw material, yes, but their most pressing long-term need is to capture stable consumer markets. The Japanese industrial giant is welcome in any corner of the globe as a consumer of raw materials, but the competition for clients to consume the finished product becomes deadlier every day.

JAPAN/AUSTRALIA MULTIFUNCTION POLIS
A former Australian Ambassador to China, Dr. Ross Garnaut, became Hawke's senior economic adviser in 1983. It was under his influence that Hawke and Keating embarked on a programme of internationalising the Australian economy, beginning with the floating of the dollar. However, none of the media reports are telling us (if the media has picked it up yet) is that since 1987, Dr. Garnaut has been serving on the joint Japan/Australia Steering Committee managing the Feasibility Study to determine how best to develop the Multifunction Polis concept! That is, the building of a Japanese-financed, high-tech international "City of the Future" in Australia.

Only one journalist even mentioned Dr. Garnaut's proposal for the M.F.P. in his report. The proposal for the M.F.P. is due to be put before the public in February, and presumably Hawke will have to deal with it in the election campaign. It will be a sensitive issue. Is Dr. Garnaut charged with preparing a favourable public climate for an election campaign on Japanese investment? The media are pushing the desirability of Japanese investment very hard, as well as Asianisation in general. We are being told that we cannot survive financially without it.

JAPAN A MILITARY ALLY?
Can Australia survive if we tie our economy to the fortunes of the Japanese economy? Notwithstanding its tremendous financial clout, I believe that the Japanese economy is potentially very fragile. They have few natural resources. They are about to undergo tremendous political change, with a government racked by scandal. If, for some reason, the international markets began to close to the Japanese Industrial Machine, the economy would begin to crack. It cannot be slowed down - it depends on ever more "growth" - as do all economies that operate on the same insane financial rules of a "favourable balance of trade".
The spectre of Australia being tied to a disintegrating Japanese economy does not bear contemplation; if it crashes, it will be a massive crash!

The mathematics dictate that "growth" cannot go on forever, and competition for markets must eventually result in increasing conflict of some type. The Asianisation of Australia would mean that we would be directly involved in that conflict. Could Australia be forced into the position of being a Japanese ally in a conflict, which could conceivably develop into military conflict? Can the Japanese Yen do what the Japanese Imperial Army failed to do fifty years ago? This must be forced into the election campaign as a major issue.

We suspect, from his initial reaction to the Garnaut Report, that Hawke dreads this happening; it is an extremely sensitive issue. He must be forced to either campaign on the developing Sino/Aussie relationship, including the M.F.P. proposal, or reject the whole sorry concept. So far, the League is the only warning voice on what is clearly a crucial issue.

PHILLIP ADAMS RECANTS - AGAIN

In his column for the Weekend Australian in June, Phillip Adams produced the extraordinary confession that he and his left wing/communist mates were wrong about China. After the horror of the tanks rumbling through Tienanmen Square, Adams wrote: ... I weep for my own idiocy. How could I have been so stupid? ... We weep for our own gullibility. We are choked with shame for our own foolishness...Like the Fabians who fawned over Stalin in the 30s, we allowed ourselves to be seduced by what remained, at heart, a brutal regime..."

Now, five months later, the world watches incredible changes in the Soviet Empire, best illustrated by the bulldozing of the Berlin Wall. As the hated Wall crumbles before our eyes, where are Adams and his colleagues? To give him credit, Adams is again recanting! In his column (25/11/89) Phillip Adams wrote:
"Trouble is, if the inexorable forces of history have truly been stopped in their tracks, we, the incurable romantics of the Left, have been proven to be utterly, unutterably wrong…. "Yes, there were a few small problems, such as Stalin's pact with Hitler and forced collectivisation. But the death of 20 or 30 million Soviet citizens was, after all, in a good cause… we coms and even ex-coms were capable of dazzling rationalisations. We'd readily concede that the Revolution had had its ups and downs and the Party had made its mistakes. But we had seen the future, and it was bound to work one day. All it needed was a little fine tuning ... Now instead of the State's withering, we've got this overnight collapse. It's all very perplexing. Not to mention bloody embarrassing...Comrades, we were wrong. Indeed, it's hard to recall any moment in history where so many people have been so wrong for so long... Good God, even when I went to Moscow time and time again, and wandered around Poland and Czechoslovakia and East Germany and China, I somehow managed to couch my criticisms in the great excuse of historical context - when that was no excuse at all."

THE 'LOUD AND CLEAR 'MESSAGE TO HAWKEATING LAND

"The South Australian campaign was dominated by interest rates - it turned into a referendum on the issue. The State Government was well respected; John Bannon is the most popular Premier in the country. Federal factors were clearly a big cause of the swing that nearly demolished a Government that was travelling well in its own right." - Michelle Grattan, in The Age (Melbourne), November 27th

That just about says it all. Traditionally, no doubt, voters in State elections vote according to their concepts on state issues. The pollies themselves, have been saying that the "intelligent" Australian voter (we are always more intelligent at election time! Have you noticed?) differentiates sharply between Commonwealth and State issues in elections. Not this time, apparently: interest rates are hurting too much. Yes, the Liberals came close, but not close enough, as Miss Grattan observes. Why? Lack of sufficient confidence, seems the obvious answer; and this reasoning is borne out by the lift in support to the Australian Democrats. We consider this to be in the nature of a protest vote.

Whether or not the South Australian electoral result will have an effect on the Queensland result on December 2nd (1989) cannot be claimed with certainty. Our view is that a Goss (A.L.P.) win is not a foregone conclusion by any means: we suspect that the mass media, particularly in the South, are frantically promoting Wayne Goss. Our view is that a Cooper-Inness coalition Government is just as likely.