TREASURER KEATING'S PHONY VICTORY

The "world's greatest Treasurer", Mr. Paul Keating, invited the applause of his fellow Australians because of his alleged victory concerning inflation. Coming events will demonstrate that any declaration of a victory over inflation is rather premature. Because of a set of figures relating to a group of consumer items showed there had been a reduction in the inflation rate, the Reserve Bank announced a 1 percent reduction in interest rates with the trading banks then doing likewise. This slight relief will be appreciated by homebuyers in particular and by primary producers, manufacturers and businessmen in general. But the situation reminds us of the story of the man sitting on the sidewalk hitting himself on the head with a hammer. When asked by passers by why he was doing this, he replied, "Because when I stop, even temporarily, I have a feeling of relief."

The Hawke-Keating Government, drawing on the wisdom of its economic advisers, has been treating the Australian community so brutally with the depression "we had to have", that even the slightest relief lessens the pain. But it does not remove the basic cause of the pain. There is no way in which inflation can be reduced under debt-finance without inflicting the type of economic and social damage inflicted by the Hawke-Keating Government. The nation has paid, and is going to continue to pay, a dreadful price for what the Government has done. Mere statistics cannot measure the anguish and suffering of large numbers of Australians, the break up of families and a rising suicide rate. Large numbers have been scarred for life.

Paul Keating would have Australians believe that it has been all worthwhile, that gain will follow the pain. In a gung-ho comment, Keating boasts "…the 1990's will see Australia as a low inflation, prosperous economy where we'll take up the jobs that we've lost in this last recent period". Keating even had the effrontery to tell Australians that Australians should now go out and get "stuck in". This type of comment reveals that the Federal Treasurer is either a knave or a fool. Interest rates are still relatively high and with the continuing depressed state of the economy, it is going to be a long time before people are prepared to go further into debt.

There is only one period in modern history when Australians had a period of no inflation, and that was from 1943 to 1948, when a system of consumer discounts was applied. Prices rose immediately when the Chifley Government abolished the policy and the Menzies-Fadden Coalition promised to restore it in order to implement their famous 1949 election promise that they would "put the shillings back into the pound". The Fabian dominated Federal bureaucracy successfully resisted the re-introduction of consumer discounts and inflation has continued ever since.

In a desperate attempt to halt inflation, the Menzies- Fadden Government applied a major "credit squeeze" in 1961, causing unemployment to increase and was nearly removed from office. The Hawke-Keating Government will almost certainly be removed from office as a result of its disastrous programme of forcing the inflation rate down at the expense of the nation's producers and business community, who have implemented substantial discounts, or accepted much lower prices for their production.

One of the most disturbing comments has come from Dr. John Hewson, Leader of the Liberal Opposition, who in essence welcomes the lower inflation rate but says he could do even better, perhaps reducing the inflation rate to zero. Any programme, which reduced inflation to zero under present financial policies, would result in disasters that would make the Keating-Hawke inflicted disasters look like an inspiring achievement.

It can be predicted with complete certainty that the future looks increasingly bleak with the Hawke-Keating Government. This will become more obvious as coming wage increases flow through the system. With every industrialised nation in the world, including the much-publicised "miracles" of Germany and Japan, in a deepening crisis, the question of debt finance is now one of the most important issues for the whole world. The International Planners are making every effort to convince debt-shattered victims that the only hope for the future is a type of World State, starting with a New International Economic Order. Both Prime Minister Hawke and Treasurer Paul Keating are devotees of internationalisation. Our advice is for those who can, to take every possible advantage of slight respite from the fractionally lower interest rate, and to resist the lure of any further debt expansion.

THE AGONY IN RURAL AUSTRALIA

Mr. David Thompson, N.S.W. State Director and Assistant National Director of The League of Rights, has just completed a series of meetings in Western N.S.W. and files the following report:
The late 1980s were a boom time in the Western Lands Division of N.S.W., not so much for the farmers and graziers, but for the bankers. After Mr. Keating deregulated the industry, banks found themselves competing to lend funds on a scale never seen before. The Commonwealth Bank Manager in Nyngan, for example, authorised the most reckless lending spree ever seen, accompanied by assurances that tomorrow would never come! His reward was acclaim and promotion from the Bank, which fortuitously moved him to a Sydney office. Now, however, the story is much different.
Since the interest rates rocketed, the prices for wool and wheat collapsed, and natural disaster intervened, some districts stagger under loads of debt. It is a common story to hear that the bank has taken away the chequebook. All accounts are frozen. The farmer's wife has registered for unemployment. There is no carry-on finance for that crop, or for the rates, or the power and phone bills. With the fear of drought, sheep are still practically worthless. Anyone with a shed full of hay finds that it is worth many times more than the sheep. Often the hay is sold, and the sheep are shot in the greatest slaughter scheme Australia has ever seen (albeit for a pittance).

Many farming families find themselves in limbo - unable to run their properties properly, and unable to leave, unless they voluntarily offer the property for sale, knowing it will be given away. Banks maintain that they never force mortgage sales. Rather, they await bankruptcy proceedings from other creditors, thus starving out once viable primary

AWAITING MIRACLES
Why then, do farming families stay? In many cases, only they know. But perhaps they await minor miracles, or just a return to policies of bygone days. At some meetings in the West last week, audiences were astonished to hear some elements of Labor's 1971 rural policies: "There is ample proof to show that high interest rates are imposing severe burdens on export rural industries ... Labor's debt alleviation policies would take the form of making available to potentially viable rural borrowers long term low interest loans to pay off immediately the high interest short term loans... At the same time a Labor Government will allow a holiday period of up to five years for potentially viable farmers as regards the repayment of principle and interest in order to allow farmers to strengthen their financial position." How was this to be paid for? The A.L.P. policy pledged that such policies would be financed through the Commonwealth Bank at the best rates the nation could afford. In the event, they aren't holding their breath, waiting for Mr. Keating to rediscover Labor policy that seems light years away from what is now happening.

DELIBERATE POLITICAL BETRAYAL
There is no doubt that both primary producers and secondary industry has been betrayed. Imports of all kinds flood in; particularly food and small manufacturing items, which we once produced ourselves. Why is this? It is because the Whitlam Government committed Australia to the Lima Declaration, which commits us to transferring some of our industries to Third World countries. Thus, companies like John Shearer machinery and Black and Decker are now going offshore to produce equipment that is then imported! Whitlam began the dismantling of tariff barriers, and Hawke, the progressive Fabian, continues the process, submitting Australia to the "global market". The Opposition, far from urging a reversal in policy, simply bleats that they will better manage the same destructive policies. Without a dramatic change in policies parties such as the National Party will simply disappear in rural Australia, as they deserve to do. They have long been the handmaidens in the most cynical of betrayals.

ESSENTIAL READING
Copies of the following are essential for rural campaigning: The Lima Declaration: $3.00 posted. Labor's Federal Rural Policies: By Dr. Rex Patterson, $4.00 posted. Operation Bankwatch By Jim Cronin, $4.00 posted. The above may be ordered from David Thompson, P.O. Box 39, Robertson, N.S.W., 2577, or from Heritage Bookshop, P.O. Box 3, Boronia Park, N.S.W., 2111.

THE WEEK IN BRIEF

The Victorian Bar Association has accused the Federal Government of undermining the rule of law and democracy in Australia by its attacks on the Industrial Relations Commission. Council Chairman, Mr. David Harper, Q.C., said that the Federal Government's threat against the Commission since the national wage case had weakened the status of judicial bodies. The Federal Government had attacked the institutions best positioned to protect democracy against the encroachment of executive power. It had placed the rule of law and the freedom of a civilised society in jeopardy.

Writing in the Melbourne Herald Sun of Saturday, May 18th, Professor Geoffrey Blainey reminded his readers that it was not the disgraced Brian Burke who had been the first Labor leader to make a specialty of raising large sums of money from businessmen for election campaigns, but his "mate", Prime Minister Hawke. "Even in the 1974 Federal elections, six years before he (Hawke) entered Parliament, he was raising funds from entrepreneurs for the Labor Party.

RECESSION APATHY IS INEXCUSABLE From The Age (Melbourne), May 10th
"In his article, What's the Gain in All the Pain? (3/5), Mr. Peter Smark mentioned that an unnamed economic commentator had suggested to him that there was no credible view that there are alternatives to the present policies which have led to recession, and look like perpetuating it for some time. "I, and I believe a number of others, would take the view that there are policies that would reduce the length and depth of the present recession; and that some of these could also help to keep down inflation - notably ones in which a temporary cut in indirect taxation would play a major part. "By contrast, further easing of monetary policy is likely to do little to stimulate the economy, and is quite likely to increase inflation.
"Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the present recession is the almost complete absence among spokesmen on both sides of politics of discussion of proposals to minimise the length and depth of the recession - or even to advance arguments as to why they believe that no such measures are possible. As the social and economic costs of failing to adopt appropriate forms of expansionary measures mount up, this silence becomes even less excusable. "Moreover, there now seems to be a risk that the Government will interpret what it (virtually alone) sees as signs of the bottoming of the recession as an excuse for further failure to take appropriate forms of expansionary action.
"Finally, whatever action may or may not be taken to reduce the size and duration of the recession, it is an urgent matter that steps be taken to see that the social and economic costs of it are no longer inflicted disproportionately on those groups in the community least able to bear them." Jim Perkins (Parkville, Vic.) (This is Emeritus Professor J.O.N. Perkins, Department of Economics, University of Melbourne.)

PAPER CHASE from The Australian May 15th
"There is an enormous waste of energy along the interstate route Newell Highway from Melbourne to Brisbane. "For example, one driver told me he carried a full load (12 tonnes) of toilet paper from Melbourne to Brisbane. When he had unloaded, he reloaded 12 tonnes of a different colour, consigned to where the first load came from. "One load was yellow, one load was pink. "What disgraceful waste pollution, road damage and danger." (D. Stevenson, Port Macquarie, N.S.W.)