THE PLANNED MURDER OF RURAL AUSTRALIA

by Eric D. Butler
It is now official that traditional rural Australia is to be sacrificed on the altar of debt finance and a soulless internationalism. The Age, Melbourne, of April 7th, carries a report by Nicholas Johnston from Canberra, which begins,

"The National Farmers Federation yesterday supported a call by the head of the Australian Bankers Association for struggling farmers to leave the land before they were forced off by banks." Mr. Rick Farley, Executive Director of the NFF, supports comments made by Mr. Alan Cullen of the Australian Bankers Association, who says that farmers, particularly woolgrowers, "had to prove their long-term viability or leave their farms".

Mr. Cullen makes the breathtaking claim that "The banks have really put a lot of effort into getting it right in the farm sector ... They (the farmers) have got to accept that they are in business and that it hasn't worked out for reasons which may have nothing to do with anything but bad luck. The banks can't carry them forever".

The banking system provides a most valuable bookkeeping service, with a licence from the Federal Government to carry on that service. As every informed person knows, they have the power to create the bulk of the nation's money supply in the form of financial credit. But unlike the primary producer, they do not create any real wealth. Wool, for example, is real wealth and while, of course, drought is a major problem, it is the very system of debt finance operated by the banking system, which is directly and indirectly responsible for the crisis gripping the wool industry.

We have the idiotic suggestion from France that the Australian wool industry can only revive itself by either burning the big stockpile or dumping it in the seas. Much more sensible would be to dump the debt into the seas and to treat wool as real wealth for use in the future. But Rick Farley will have none of this. He openly defends the present debt system and says, "My organisation has been saying for many years now that it is better for farmers to leave with some dignity and some equity rather than getting into a situation where they stretch out their operation and finally leave with nothing."

This is a call for a progressive surrender by rural Australia, with no end in sight because no permanent solution is possible under debt finance. What happens to rural Australia will determine the very future of traditional Australia. It is much later than many realise.

As a chilling supplement to Mr. Eric Butler's contribution, the following report comes from a Queensland correspondent.

DUNKIRK SITUATION FOR AUSTRALIA'S PRIMARY PRODUCERS

The ghastly situation which has come to a head in drought stricken Queensland is finally forcing leaders to face issues they have found it easier to ignore for the last 20 years. Strangely - or perhaps not so strangely - in the deluge of letters and statements appearing in the rural press, none have urged the National Farmers Federation into action. It is almost as though the organisation is a 'non-event'; written off in peoples' minds as though it is past redemption and hope. It is a minority of leaders, speaking more as individuals with nothing to lose than spokesmen for the legion of bureaucracies which broke farmers have somehow funded with millions of dollars, who are now "telling it like it is".

Former State National leader Russell Cooper, writing in the Queensland Country Life on April 8th, called for a "radical financial solution". "…Debt will have to be forgiven to a considerable extent; credit will have to be extended over a long period at negligible rates of interest," he said. He added, "Poor market prices, droughts, exposure to foreign imports and savage Government imposts have torn the viability of rural Australia to pieces. Canberra bureaucrats want to get rid of at least 30 percent more farmers to satisfy their need for economic rationalisation of the rural sector. Every man, woman and child, every politician of all persuasions, every organisation, town and country, must rise up as one to protect the major productive sector that has made this country what it is…"

Noted Queenslander Hilary Russell of Jimbour was quoted on the front cover of the same issue as saying: "Last week 500 desperate landholders, some of whom had traveled 750km, overflowed the Charleville Hall to bring their plight to the notice of the RAS advisory committee," she said. "That same day Mr. Goss chose to denigrate our Queen and sought to remove all references to the Crown from State oaths, affirmations and legislation. Bear in mind that $50 million of Queensland taxpayers' money has already been spent on the Gold Coast Indy Grand Prix and a few more million will go the same way next year ..."

Queensland Graingrowers President Ian MacFarlane wrote: "... As I sit, wait and ponder on whether or not Simon Crean will react to the desperate message from Charleville, I can only guess at how much pressure farmers can apply or for that matter, are prepared to apply if the Minister does nothing. Will the politeness shown in Charleville continue? Will our heritage of the landed gentry - that desire to always fight by the Marquis of Queensbury rules - hold us back? Will pride and the "stiff upper lip" of our Anglo-Saxon background stop us showing our true emotion and our despair at the hurt and suffering of those farmers pushed to the brink? I hope not! If we do, the rural sector can only expect to be ignored."

Under State President of the United Graziers Association, Bill Bonthrone, a demand has been made for a list of measures starting with a three-year moratorium on interest and capital repayments. We suggest to the UGA that three years is now too short, and that Mr. Crean's attention should be directed to the 5-year moratorium his own party put forward in its Federal Rural Policy in 1971 - long before the intensity of the existing catastrophe, and before we had lost the 127,000 farmers who have been driven off since then.

Miraculously, through the work of a new and self-funded rural movement - The Union of Farmers - three brilliant tools have been made available with the potential for a tremendous breakthrough for rural Australia. They take the form of three videos - the first a graphic and hard-hitting guide in self-help steps for farmers threatened with foreclosure, "DEFY AND WIN". It cannot be recommended too highly.

The second, by the Union's Executive Officer Jeanine McRae, "FOR WOMEN ONLY", throws down a graphic challenge to Australian women everywhere. Many are already shouldering tremendous burdens on behalf of their families.

The third, only just available, scripted by Jeremy Lee, is called "THE MONEY GAME". By far the most professional and ambitious video we've seen, it contains two hours of original footage, dramatic interviews with Australian producers in city and country, and some invaluable history on such topics as money, the Commonwealth Bank, King O'Malley and the 1971 ALP programme for a debt moratorium.

It is now urgent that these three videos be got to all besieged producers and communities throughout Australia. All readers should arm themselves with these videos, organising their own video evenings, making contact with rural spokesmen and news editors, shire and city councillors and church groups.

The prices of the videos, available now from all League addresses, are as follows: "The Money Game", by Jeremy Lee, $32.50 posted; "For Women Only", by Jeanine McRae, $23.50 posted; "Defy and Win", by Grant Bird, $23.50 posted.

BRIEF COMMENTS

The Federal Government suffered a rebuff in the Federal Court last week when it sought to have dismissed British historian David Irving's appeal against his banning from entry into Australia. Spokesman for David Irving, Mr. Murray Pope of Veritas Publishing Pty. Ltd., commented in a news release that "it would appear that the new Minister has intentions of using whatever power and legislation he can to prevent Mr. Irving from gaining his day in court". In rejecting the Government's application, Justice Robert French listed April 30th for the main hearing concerning the David Irving case. So determined is the Government, reacting to Zionist pressure, to keep David Irving out of Australia that we will not be surprised if it seeks to appeal a decision favourable to Irving on April 30th.

The Australian Jewish News of April 9th carries the menacing headline; WA MAY ACT ON HOLOCAUST DENIAL. The report says that well-known West Australian Jewish leader Doron Ur has met with the new Liberal Attorney General Cheryl Edwardes to request that that State's legislation concerning incitement to racial hatred be amended "to specifically identify Holocaust denial as form of racism". The Jewish News report says that Ms. Edwardes told Mr. Ur "she would consider his proposals" and referred them to other departments.
The Doron Ur request echoes that of Australia-Israel Publications Director Mr. Jeremy Jones who has advocated that Holocaust denial be identified as a form of racism. Jones claims that "Holocaust denial is a very real and common tool that racists use to spread contempt and hatred towards Jews". If Australia, starting with Western Australia, adopts the blatantly totalitarian proposal now being advocated by Zionist leaders, even if granted a visa to visit Australia, David Irving could be arrested if he mentioned the Holocaust in any of his lectures. Zionist leaders are making it clear that they are determined to move Australia towards the totalitarian abyss.

COMMUNISM TAKES ON A ROSY TINT

from The Australian, 5/4
So our cultural commissar, Comrade Phillip Adams, is annoyed to find that he has an ASIO file and is anxious to find out who the 'dobbers' were. If successful in smoking them out, he will no doubt visit them with the harassment promised, this proving conclusively that protection of ASIO sources is justified.

"Adams's claims are well worth examination. He admits to being a member of the Communist Party, active in the cause and attempts to portray the party, as a crowd of idealistic dreamers expecting power via osmosis, not bloody revolution. Never, he says, did the party constitute a danger to Australia. "However, during his days as a member, the party was a model of Stalinist orthodoxy. Try telling those who resisted communism in the union movement, such as Laurie Short and others, that the CPA's objectives were neither revolutionary nor violent.

"Similarly, the rationalising of Stalin's crimes is pathetic. Granted, the estimate of between 40 and 60 million exterminated by his regime is comparatively recent. However, it was known for years that he and his organised thugs were systematically eliminating counter revolutionaries, revisionists, anti-party elements and Trotskyites.
"Add to those the hundreds of thousands imprisoned for such 'crimes' as being Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Ukrainian, or merely for daring to hold religious beliefs.

"Foreign communist parties were regularly subject to all the purges prompted by power changes in Moscow and slavishly followed Soviet policy on all issues. Internationalism was merely the mask for the subversion of democracy by a bloody dictatorship. Those who owed allegiance to the cause are complicit in its crimes - there is blood on their hands.

"Adams protests too much and his attempts to use moral equivalence to justify himself is absurd. ASIO was nothing like the STASI any more than Australia is like the former East Germany. "ASIO was acting in accordance with its charter and appropriate Acts of Parliament in monitoring Adams and his ilk." (Jacob Patterson, Howrah, Tas.)

MAP MYSTIQUE

from The Australian, 5/4
Yet again The Australian (31/3) gives credence to claims that Australia is a part of Asia. The proof offered for this ever growing nonsense is based on what I call gravitational geography, the eye naturally flowing downwards when looking at a map. "Remember back in the mid 60s when gravitational geography was used with great success to prove the inevitable advance of Communist China on Australia? Commentators and political leaders who derided the silliness of that are now themselves fooled by the same illusion.

"To see what I mean, turn the map of the world sideways. Suddenly the perspective is changed and the eye does not flow naturally down over several thousand kilometres from the heartland of Asia to Australia. Instead, the eye sends Asia flowing towards Europe. "You see more clearly our true position in the world, a massive continent beyond the islands that form the distant, fragmented outer rim of Asia. "Nevertheless, we are repeatedly told by the media and by politicians that Asia is the new promised land and, in response, millions of Australian devotees endlessly chant the mantra that our country is geographically situated there. No amount of indisputable geographical fact seems able to shake the illusion." (Paul Raffaele, Neutral Bay, NSW)

IS FREEHOLD LAND REALLY PROTECTED?

from The Australian, 7/4
The individual's right to own freehold land is an issue for debate in a discussion paper entitled Review of Preservation and Enhancement of Individuals' Rights and Freedoms issued by the Queensland Government's Electoral and Administrative Review Commission in June 1992. "This paper makes two startling allegations. "One is that neither the Magna Charta nor the Bill of Rights 1688 specifically recognised the right of subjects to hold property free from interference by the monarch (State), that is, in freehold tenure.
"The other is that there are no enforceable components of the International Bill of Human Rights for countries (governments) to recognise the right of private ownership of property.
"The United Nations backs this stance. Its Commission on Human Rights is unable to agree on a text for the inclusion of a right to ownership of property. "The issue for discussion is 'Should the right to private ownership of property be recognised in a possible Queensland Bill of Rights?' The underlying theme from these sections of the paper is that ownership of property would be reduced to that which is necessary for a 'decent living'.

"Already some Queenslanders have experienced a reduction of their rights to property ownership under the guise of the Environment and Heritage legislation, which absolutely prohibits them from altering the physical or structural appearance, or ownership of Heritage listed property without government approval. "This prohibition does not apply to the Government, of course, which recently overruled its own departmental advisers in the Treasury Casino affair.

"Will the Queensland Bill of Rights overrule the Australian and Queensland Constitutions? "Which government department will determine what property is necessary for a 'decent living'? "Who will debate and decide the issues raised in this paper? "Why have the Government and Opposition maintained absolute media silence on these issues, which affect the majority of Queenslanders? "Will current freehold land owners be compensated?

"I find it inconceivable that a government of our country could even consider debating the issue of whether or not the individual has the right to freehold land ownership. "I suggest those who are interested to learn the answers contact their local State Government and Opposition Member." (Bevan Conroy, Airlie Beach, Qld.)

DRIVE FOR REPUBLIC

from "In Brief" (The Australian, 7/4)
Sir James Killen's letter on republicanism seems to say what I have felt very strongly, for some time - the Australian monarchy is the only thing between us and dictatorship and that is the real reason for Keating wanting to axe it." (William Stephens, St. Lucia, Qld.)

"I believe what we are witnessing is an attempted abortion of an ideal rather than the birth of a republic. I doubt that these waffling hijackers, even under the inspiration of a new red flag, could effectively frame a snapshot of a Constitution." (Vince Plummer, Carina, Qld.)