COALITION PARTIES CONTINUE ON DISASTER COURSE

When it finally dawned on the Liberal Party that it had lost its fourth Federal Election, there was an immediate frenzy concerning the question of leadership. While Mr. John Howard might well console himself that events have confirmed that the pro-Peacock coup against his leadership turned out to be a disaster, concentration upon the leadership issue obscures the reality that the basic problem confronting both the Liberal and National Parties is one of philosophy and policies.
Both parties are still influenced by those who felt that their best chance of winning the 1990 Federal Election was by changing their leaders. There was no suggestion that there should be any genuine alternative policies to those of the Labor Party. As has been subsequently revealed, Labor strategists conducted a campaign on the basis that the Coalition would make it possible for them to ensure that they could make a virtue out of economic hardships with the Coalition not offering any real alternatives.

One "swinging" voter summarised the situation by saying that many people like himself decided that they should stay with the Devil they knew rather than switch to the one they didn't know. The new "star" of the Liberal Party, Dr. John Hewson, campaigning in his capacity as Shadow Treasurer, offered nothing basically different than Treasurer Paul Keating. He had nothing concrete to offer on interest rates, while the horrendous national foreign debt problem was only mentioned without any clear statement concerning what the Coalition Parties would do about it. The Coalition Opposition made no attempt to highlight how the Federal Constitution has been virtually torn up by the exploitation of the External Affairs section of the Constitution. Electors questioning Coalition candidates on this fundamental issue were asked to be content with assurances that a Coalition Government could be trusted on the question.

The only potential threat to the Labor strategy emerged late in the campaign when Andrew Peacock and Charles Blunt decided in desperation to raise the Multi-Function-Polis. It is now known that this caused a temporary panic among Labor strategists who feared that by publicising the M.F.P. the Opposition might indirectly be raising an issue they felt vulnerable about - Asian immigration. Labor's media pack immediately went into action, as they did when John Howard as leader of the Liberal Opposition raised the immigration issue. Mr. Laurie Oakes, for example, suggested that a Peacock victory would be "tainted" if the Opposition managed to win by stressing the M.F.P. issue.

The Patrick McGuinness column in The Australian of March 20th was headed:
PEACOCK RIDES HOME ON WAVE OF RACISM.
Like others of his kind, McGuinness indirectly suggests that there is some type of flaw in the Australian character because Australians generally are concerned about Asian immigration. As frankly admitted by W.A. Senator Walsh, Finance Minister, once the elections were over, "Time is running out for Australia. We have only a few years to address the fundamental economic problems…" Senator Walsh has, of course, been a senior Minister in a Government that intensified the problems. And Walsh neither outlines the real problems nor offers solutions.

But the "new look" Coalition offers no salvation either. More than new faces are required. The Coalition lacks a clearly defined set of principles, a coherent philosophy and policies reflecting that philosophy. We have no doubt that Dr. Hewson, for example, like Mr. Reith, Mr. Ian McLachlan and others, is a "good bloke". But we notice that these "good blokes", so far from suggesting any departure from a financial orthodoxy that makes continuous inflation and high taxation inevitable, offer nothing but the disastrous consumption tax. John Howard says its introduction is inevitable".

There is no suggestion of a real reduction in the murderous interest rates bankrupting thousands of small and medium sized businesses. Even Ford Motor Company says it is threatened by the high interest rates. There is no suggestion of how the massive foreign debt of approximately $120 billion, now growing by approximately $20 billion a year, can be progressively reduced - except by greater production and more exports in a world where every developed nation is striving to achieve the same result. Frankly, there is no evidence to indicate that the "good blokes" of the Coalition, along with those like John Howard and Andrew Peacock, who have been tried and found wanting, are capable of offering the type of policies required for the turbulent period immediately ahead.

The future of the nation is going to depend upon a grassroots movement that will, aided by events, start to force realistic policy changes. (Essential reading for the effective grassroots campaigner: The Money Trick, price $7.50 posted; What Has To Be Done, by Chas Pinwill, $3.50 posted; A Programme For Reversing Inflation, by Eric Butler $2.00 posted.)

THE RISING STORM IN SOUTH AFRICA

Could we hear from that Eminent Person, the self-appointed expert on African affairs, Mr. Malcolm Fraser, on the escalating violence between South African blacks? With Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia, now on the way to joining the other one party dictatorships of "liberated" Africa, the fears of South African whites are escalating as they contemplated the possibility of the implementation of any type of unitary voting system in South Africa. Such a system, advocated by the Malcolm Frasers of the world, would be a guaranteed recipe for an explosion of bloody conflict in South Africa. Foreign Embassies in Pretoria are being swamped with applications from thousands of whites, many of these with British passports, who now seek to leave South Africa. It is estimated that up to one million South African whites either have British passports or could qualify for one.

The latest violent clashes between supporters of the African National Congress and Chief Buthelezi, which have resulted in hundreds being killed and thousands of houses burned down, have convinced thousands of whites that the future in South Africa looks increasingly bleak. An estimated 2,800 blacks have now died since late 1986. A proposed joint peace rally addressed by A.N.C. leader Nelson Mandella and Chief Buthelezi has been abruptly cancelled by Mandela.

While large numbers of whites may be able to flee from mounting violence and chaos, South Africa is home for the great majority of whites, particularly those of Afrikaner background. It is certain that they will fight against threatened black imposed chaos. They have sufficient numbers and the military capacity to resist effectively. But with the rest of the world inevitably being drawn into such a conflict, the result would be to intensify a global situation that, contrary to the views of the wishful thinkers, has become more volatile since the collapse of the Communist Empire.

If the worst happens in South Africa, needless to say, the liberal ideologues of the world will once again attempt to wash their hands of the bloody results of their idiocies. They do not appear to understand that a collapsed South African continent would result in millions of blacks dying throughout the whole of Southern Africa, where countries like Zambia, Zimbabwe and others are almost completely dependent upon South Africa.

BRIEF COMMENTS

Speaking at the recent funeral of Mr. K.D. Gott, Labor candidate for the electorate of Goldstein, Mr. Michael Danby said that Mr. Gott would be "greatly missed by his many friends in the Jewish community and across the board in Labor circles'. We have seen no reference to how the former Communist turned Fabian Socialist was paid $55,000 for six months during 1984, to "monitor" the League of Rights because of its successful anti-Aboriginal land rights campaign, and to prepare a report on the League. No one was able to obtain such a report. The Australian Jewish News of March 6th reported that Gott' s Voices of Hate remains the best expose of Australia's premier racist organisation - the League of Rights." Strangely enough, for many years Mr. Gott was unable to supply any copies of a work commissioned by Mr. Isi Leibler and Zionist colleagues, while the League of Rights was selling the book as a classic example of smearing. Voices of Hate should be read in conjunction with the special February 1989, issue of The Intelligence Survey. Price $5.00 posted.

Doctors John Christy and Roy Spencer, of N.A.S.A., write in Science that there is no steady warming of the globe but a random pattern of temperature change from year to year. Their results are based on satellite readings which they claim are much more accurate than land based readings on which global warming theories are based. They point out, also, that ground-based thermometers are positioned near population centres, leaving oceans and remote regions unmonitored. Slowly, the highly politicised Greenhouse Effect is coming under greater scrutiny, and being discounted.

MATHEMATICAL CERTAINTY

WHY THIS CYNICISM?

COMPULSORY VOTING