QUEENSLAND PREMIER'S BLEAK PREDICTION FOR LABOR

There were two Labor leaders at last weekend's centenary celebrations of the origins of the Australian Labor Party at Barcaldine, Central West Queensland, but each struck a very different note. There was Prime Minister Bob Hawke, fresh from his alleged success in waterfront negotiations, informing all those prepared to take him seriously, that he was going to stage what would be a miraculous political comeback and lead Labor to another victory at the next Federal Elections. Such is Prime Minister Hawke's ego that we have no doubt he actually believes what he says. But the other Labor leader, Queensland Premier Wayne Goss, warned that the Labor Party "was about to enter what will be a bleak period in the forthcoming decade around this country". That could prove to be an understatement.

With the exception of Queensland, where the Goss Government is still sustained by the atmosphere left by the Fitzgerald Inquiry into Corruption, the Labor Party throughout Australia has reached unprecedented levels of unpopularity. The extinction of what was once described as the brightest star in the labor galaxy, former West Australian Premier Brian Burke, has deepened the gloom for Mr. Hawke, who has made some bad choices of "mates".

Premier Goss paid a tribute to the spirit of the leadership of the young Labor Party in the 1890s when the Labor Party had been born out of the big Shearer's' strike of 1881. But Goss did not point out that those who pioneered the Labor Party were a very different breed, with a different set of values, compared to the trendy intellectuals who dominate the Labor Party today. It was the early Labor Party, which played a major role in the establishment of an immigration policy aimed at developing Australia as a homogeneous European nation. It was the Federal Labor Party of Andrew Fisher that established the Commonwealth Bank.

With all its faults, the early Labor Party was a nationalist party. It supported the protection of Australian industries, and the traditional value system on which the nation was founded. The first serious "rot" set in with the introduction of the socialisation objective by "Jock" Garden at the 1921 Labor Party Conference. But even the anti-Marxist element within the Labor Party, predominantly of Irish Roman Catholic background, were able to live with the situation, satisfied that socialisation was not Marxist in intention and did not conflict with the strong condemnation of Communism by the Papacy.

Slowly but surely the Fabian influence had its effect, with a major breakthrough for Fabianism when Dr. Herbert Evatt stepped down from the High Court to join the Federal Labor Party early in the Second World War. Evatt lost no time in attempting to erode the Federal Constitution. When Evatt became leader of the Party following the death of Ben Chifley, and narrowly lost the 1954 elections because of his failure to face the reality of Marxist penetration into Australia, he was responsible for the "great split" in the Labor Party, which kept it out of office for two decades.

The nearest it came to gaining office during that period was in 1961, when the electoral backlash against the "credit squeeze" imposed by the Menzies-Fadden Government, resulted in Arthur Calwell missing out by only one seat. Calwell was the last of the traditional Labor leaders, a genuine nationalist and strong supporter of the nation's traditional immigration policies.

The election of Gough Whitlam as leader opened the door for the "new breed" type of Labor politician. When Whitlam came to office in 1972, it became obvious that the Labor Party was to start moving in a very changed direction. For example, the Shadow Minister for Immigration, Mr. Fred Daly, was a vigorous supporter of the traditional Labor Party policy on immigration, giving addresses, which today would have him labeled as an "extreme racist". The Fred Dalys started to be phased out. The incredible Al Grassby burst on to the Federal political scene.

Whitlam forgot the essential feature of Fabianism, gradualness, and tried to "crash through", as he put it. The result was that in 1975, the Governor General, Sir John Kerr, asked the Australian electors if they wanted Whitlam to continue. They didn't. But they elected a Fraser Government without ascertaining if Fraser was going to move off the path being travelled by Whitlam. Seven disastrous years passed during which the Fraser Government made it clear that it was infected with the same centralist and internationalist disease, which the Whitlam Fabians had fostered. The end result was the re-election of Labor under the dedicated Fabian and internationalist, Bob Hawke, in 1983.

"The evil that men do lives after them," wrote Shakespeare. The Hawke Government has not only completely changed the face of the Australian Labor Party, but in seven years has progressively stripped Australia of its defences - political, economic and constitutional. Under the slogan of "internationalisation", this stripping of the nation's defences continues. Prime Minister Hawke and his senior Ministers frankly admit what they are attempting.

The Australian people cannot complain that they have not been told of their future destiny. And with every day that passes, the warnings by the League of Rights over the years are confirmed. But what comes after Hawke and Keating? That is the question every thinking Australian has to ask himself at this critical time. Merely replacing Bob Hawke with John Hewson would be nothing more than a change of riders on the same internationalist horse, galloping in the same direction. What is to be done? The short answer is to encourage the development of a grassroots National Survival campaign which will have as one of its major objectives, the election of at least a few genuine patriots who will insist that the present betrayal of traditional Australia must be halted. Such patriotic candidates may be surprised how much support they obtain from those Labor electors who feel that, so far from the Hawkes taking them back to the roots of the Labor Party they have persistently worked to cut those roots. They have been betrayed.

BRIEF COMMENTS

"If you are going to wait for politicians to solve your problems, then you are going to die waiting." So said Mr. Jeff Kennett, the reinstated leader of the Victorian Liberal Party, at a Geelong rally last week. This is certainly a smart comment by Kennett, but the individual can only solve his own problems when governments make it possible for him to do this. Three cheers for Jeff Kennett if he can fulfil his promise that he is going to start a drastic reduction in the size of the swollen Victorian bureaucracy. But when he takes office from the disastrous Kirner Government, he must lay the foundations for a major assault on the Canberra centralists. Failing this, he will be yet one more example of a political leader failing to give genuine relief to a desperate people.

A surge of Taiwan trade and investment in China during the late 1980s was a prelude to the historic announcement last week by Taiwan that the 48-year-old Period of Communist Rebellion was now ended, thus paving the way for closer relations with China. The Period of Communist Rebellion was declared in 1948 by Chian Kai-shek then leader of the Nationalist Government in China just prior to retreating to Taiwan in the face of the successful Community military offensive. Communist influence in the Washington Government of that period saw the U.S.A's. Second World War ally betrayed by a refusal to provide adequate arms for Chian Kai-shek' s armies. Closer relations between the two Chinas must inevitably result in great economic advances in Taiwan affecting Mainland China. This development has far reaching implications for the whole world.

A major part of the price now being paid for the recession, which Treasurer Paul Keating says, was necessary is the escalation of violent crime. Last week was one of the most violent on record in Victoria. Police and community leaders list the recession, with increased security at banks and building societies, as the major cause, and predict that there will be a rising number of attacks on people in their homes with robbery the main objective. The undermining of the Christian value system, and a heavy diet of sex and violence on television, helps to provide an environment for the type of breakdown of society now taking place.

It is high time that the Bureau of Immigration Research (B.I.R.), financed by the taxpayers, was described as the Bureau of Immigration Promotion. It was set up after the Fitzgerald Report to do objective research on different aspects of immigration. But the result has been constant issuing of reports all favouring the present immigration policy. When the B.I.R. organised a national conference on immigration last November, there were only four speakers against the present immigration levels out of 97 speakers. Mr. Bruce Ruxton was not asked to speak, nor presumably was Professor Geoffrey Blainey.

Remember those horror stories about how Saddam Hussein would have a stranglehold on the world's oil supplies if he controlled both Iraq and Kuwait? Little oil has come out of Iraq or Kuwait for the past seven months, but there is no world shortage of oil supplies.

PORNOGRAPHY THE UNWELCOME INVADER from The Australian, April 18th
"We have just returned from a brief visit to a small town in the Goulburn district of N.S.W., the place where our great-grandparents settled last century and the place that we often loved to visit as children. "The area is dedicated mainly to sheep farming and most of the farmers and their families still live those same virtues that their forefathers lived and which built this nation - hard work, perseverance and fortitude. "On this visit, we were startled to find that the general store/newsagency in the main street of the town sported a collection of pornographic 'advertising' billboards out front, the like of which one does not find in the average Sydney suburb. The shock value of the impact was all the greater because of the isolation of the town and the backdrop to it which consisted of a little more than two pubs, a post office, local hall, service station and two tearooms that never seem to be open.
"Upon referring to the material, we were dismayed to hear the woman serving explain that the store was obliged to display such material or face the threat of possible loss of licence, etc. It was evident that the woman, herself, was uncomfortable about the displays but felt helpless to do anything about the situation. "It became clear that by and large the locals strongly dislike the intrusion of such material into the town. "Local farmers around the little town in question are battling a drought which adds to the already tough financial times they are facing. Their lives dictate that they raise their children without the culturally and spiritually uplifting opportunities that city people take for granted. It is shameful that, to boot, they have to cope with the onslaught of the pornography peddlers - those who produce the material and those who contribute to its spread. That includes both the distributors who threaten newsagents with unjust regulations and the politicians who allow them to do so." (Virginia Monagle/Suzanne Corry, Gladesville, N.S.W.)

THE NEW WORLD from The Australian, May 1st
"Like a great many people, R.H. Jones (Briefs, 25/4) seeks to know the origin and meaning of the 'new world order'. "It was the slogan and motto of the Illuminati, a secret society formed by Adam Weishaupt in 1776. It is the same motto on the great seal of America and printed on the United States $1 note - Novus Ordo Seclorum. It could suggest a more equitable world but equally could mean a totalitarian world, depending upon your point of view. "Organisations working for a new world appear to include the Council on Foreign Relations, the Fabian Society, the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberg Group, the United Nations and its agencies (UNESCO, etc.) and New Age networks. "Some of the aims of the order are a world tax system, court, army, central bank and welfare State, compulsory worldwide economic planning abolition of private firearms, mandatory population control and control of education. There are indications that a one-world religion could form part of the order. (Philip Donaldson, Brushgrove, N.S.W.)

GOVERNORS: A DUTY TO SERVE THE PEOPLE from The Sunday Age, May 5th
"Ever since the sacking of the Whitlam Government, newspaper journalists have been in the forefront of those attacking the power for governors, the latest by Terry Lane (The Sunday Age, 28/4). "Mr. Lane is totally wrong in asserting that an 'unelected viceroy' can override the people. In any political crisis, the governor's legal duty is to ensure that the will of the electorate prevails. For example, the fate of the Whitlam Government was decided by the Australian voters, not by the Governor General, whose only duty is to ensure that the electorate has the final say. "If a governor finds himself forced to make politicians accountable to their electors, who else would Terry Lane suggest? Perhaps he would prefer politicians to be accountable to no one. "It has always been true that since federation, members of Parliament rather than governors have merited closest scrutiny; for after all it is their mismanagement and self-seeking attitude that has loaded us with harsh taxes from which they are largely cushioned by various perks unavailable to the community at large. (Kingsley Sutton, Hampton, Vic.)

100-POINT I.D. SYSTEM DISCRIMINATES AGAINST POOR from The Age (Melbourne), May 6th
"Since the application of identification procedures to open a bank account became a legal requirement on February 1st this year (1991), certain people in the community have become disadvantaged by our banking system. "Many people on low incomes, people from dislocated backgrounds, people unable to secure more permanent affordable accommodation and some young people are now experiencing hardship when trying to open a bank account. "These groups are experiencing considerable difficulty in gaining the required 100 points of identity verification. Different forms of personal documentation have been given a weighting towards the 100 point score. For this purpose, the most important forms of identification are passport, birth certificate, or citizenship certificate, followed by such evidence as driver's licence, or proof of being a public servant or tertiary student.
"Less privileged members of the community usually do not possess such documentation so to gain 100 points they are required laboriously to amass a more extensive range of subsidiary documentation. This involves considerable time, effort, frustration, embarrassment and frequently expense. "The few acceptable documents likely to be held by people in the affected groups gain low points. "The purpose of the legislation requiring banks to follow the new identification procedures is to assist in the detection of criminal activity and tax evasion, especially money laundering and drug trafficking. However, an unintended consequence of the procedures is the creation of dual access to the banking system - ready access for the more affluent, and problematical access for the disadvantaged. The inequity requires urgent attention." (Kerry O'Grady, Collingwood, Vic.)