THE APPROACHING JULY 1 SHAMBLES

by Jeremy Lee
A saint might, one supposes, feel some sympathy with the Australian Taxation Office. Beset mortals haven't reached that status; but that giant bureaucracy appears to be in an awful mess. With vote-sensitive politicians bringing in amendment after amendment, a business world angry and confused by conflicting messages, a major legal scandal breaking over the Nick Petroulias affair and a deadline rushing towards us the ATO is, apparently, not a happy place.

Under the heading "TAX OFFICE IN CRISIS AS GST RECRUITS WALK FOR MORE PAY" The Australian Financial Review (11/4/2000) told us: "The Australian Tax Office continues to lose GST recruits to headhunters, as pressure mounts on field officers to meet ever more demanding deadlines. "We are far behind with our work and it can only get worse,' a tax officer working in the GST line told The Australian Financial Review. "'They are ripping people off other projects to put them on ABN processing, and the demand from reply-in-five is just ridiculous. "Tax officers said 'reply-in-five', a promise by the ATO management to respond to GST queries in five days, had put extreme stress on already stretched staff.

The claims follow a recent organisational psychologists report prepared for the ATO that found morale was appalling, with staff at all levels 'deeply disillusioned' with the organisations vision and direction....
If that's the situation among tax-gatherers, we wonder what a psychologist's report on the condition of taxpayers would say!

Costello's new "simplified tax system" is an absolute shambles. The AFR report went on to say that the morale position was the worst in 15 years, with trust between management and staff very low. The public service was being scoured for new recruits, many of whom were walking out as soon as they could. One said the new free market wage philosophy espoused by the government should result in an immediate wage rise: ".... For the first time we have the whip hand - if the Government wants to talk about market forces, I'm going to double my salary and work outside," a tax officer said.
Graduate recruits have been poached by big five accounting firms to work in GST divisions on salaries worth $20,000 more than what the ATO is paying.

"Just as we were starting to get up reply-in-five, the general manager of GST in NSW was headhunted, on an offer she couldn't refuse from a big five firm," the tax officer said. So where does it all end? Perhaps they could bus work-for-the-dole recipients in to man the ATO. They couldn't do any worse!

It looks like being an exciting new financial year! Meanwhile, a report in The Australian (11/4/2000) added "Almost 70 percent of companies admit they will not be ready for the GST in just over11 weeks. "Not only are businesses struggling to meet the July 1 deadline but the GST's impact on prices could also be much greater than officially anticipated, a survey of 870 executives by Dun & Bradstreet shows…" The article added that Dun & Bradstreet's consultant, Dr. Duncan Ironmonger, predicted that, instead of a 1.9% increase in inflation, it would rise from 2 percent to 7 percent after July. Happy days!

THE APPROACHING TIDAL WAVE

NEW ZEALAND SEES THE LIGHT

New Zealand's new Prime Minister, Helen Clark, looks as though she is turning her country aside from the 'free-trade-globalisation' path. Tariffs destined to be removed by 2005 are now to be retained. Helen Clarke announced this policy ".... in a signal to New Zealanders that jobs mattered more than "leading the pack" on international trade reform...."

The article continued: "'It is a signal to other countries that no longer can New Zealand be relied upon to be foolish,' said Acting Commerce Minister Mr. Trevor Mallard…'This sends a signal to New Zealanders that we think jobs in New Zealand are important and that we are no longer following a blind ideological approach,' Mr. Mallard said. 'In my opinion, we have lost tens, if not hundreds of thousands of jobs by trying to be world leaders in this area, rather than staying in the middle of the pack. Unilateral tariff reductions will not be the way of the future....'"

With a government whose first priority is retention of domestic industries and jobs, New Zealand has taken the first step to a turn-around. Now they need to re-capture control of their own money system and start the process of debt and tax reduction. If they do, they will be winners of the economic 'world cup'!

NOT SO SWEET

The next industry in the sights of the economic rationalists is Australia's giant cane industry - one of our biggest export earners. The wool industry is on the floor, wheat at an all-time low, despite a harvest this year of well over 20 million tonnes, and the dairy industry reeling from de-regulation. In a hard-hitting article in The Australian Sugar Digest (29/3/2000) The Australian Cane Farmers Association Chairman Warren Martin did not mince his words. After describing the farce at the Seattle WTO conference, which he attended, Mr. Martin added:
"....Federal politicians and bureaucrats have been at pains to tell the sugar industry for years how we must 'toe the WTO line'. But the messages we send to the world display weakness and subservience. We as a nation continue to 'disarm' ourselves hoping the world will see us as the bearers of enlightenment on matters of world trade.... What I saw in was not the high level talks I had hoped to witness. What I saw was high farce.

"....Currently Australia is receiving less for the raw sugar it sells domestically than any other economy in the world. Australian refineries, at March 1st were able to purchase Queensland raw sugar for less than $200 per tonne (in fact for about $180/tonne -18 cents per kilogram). Brazilian producers this month are getting the equivalent of $315 per tonne for their domestic sugar, that is 60% more than Queensland is receiving. The story in Thailand is similar, raw sugar producers are receiving today the equivalent of $545 per tonne for sugar they sell to the domestic market....Of course the price in Australia doesn't really compare at all to what domestic producers in the USA and in Europe get for their production, $632 per tonne in the USA and $1,090 in Europe…

"We are told we should be globally competitive. We are told that if we cannot do that successfully we are inefficient. This is economic rationalism in action…
Will those who are economic rationalists help me to explain their ideals to the 70-year-old man who broke down in tears last week, asking me why after years of hard work and efficient contribution to this nation's wealth, he and his farming operation have been relegated to the economic scrap heap? Will they help me explain why to the proud couple of Mediterranean extraction who, after a lifetime of productive independence, cannot come to terms of living off their children's incomes? Will they help me to explain to those who can no longer maintain the dignity of paying their council rates and buying books for their children's education why this great social experiment is in their best interests? Will they help me explain to the people who see themselves being reduced to the status of coolies by an uncaring government why this is part of a grand plan to which they too should aspire? I could go on but those people cocooned in their ivory towers in Canberra are not listening ...."

UN 'STATE-OF-THE-WORLD' FORUM

Those interested in keeping up with the UN's calendar can tap into the UN website - https://www.un.org/millennium/2000cal.htm - where they will be informed of upcoming events, culminating in another 'State-of the-World' forum, between September 2-10 at UN headquarters in New York. The agenda will be on 'global governance' - the politically correct way of describing world government.

Those who have read Martin & Schumann's "The Global Trap", or Jeremy Lee's "What Will We Tell Our Children?" will recall the descriptions of the 1985 "State-of-the-World" forum, under the chairmanship of Mikhail Gorbachev. At this it was agreed by the hundreds of multinational and political 'movers-and-shakers' who attended that the world economic system could be successfully run by 20 percent of the world work-force, and that the majority of tomorrow's humanity would live at peasant level off the hand-outs and the bread-and-circuses provided by the corporate elite. Gorbachev called for a "Council of Wise Men" to run the world.

Prior to the September 'State-of-the-World' Forum, a preparatory Millennium Forum is to be held between May 22-26, to discuss 'humanity's common future and particularly the role of the UN in confronting the great global challenges of the 21st century...."
Details about this preliminary Millennium Forum can be found on https://www.millenniumforum.org

WORLD BANK PLUNDERS THE PLANET"

by Betty Luks
Such were the (above) words painted on the banner the protesters wanted to unfurl over the awning of the building housing the offices of World Bank president James Wolfenson in Washington. The Australian (15-16/4/2000) reports both demonstrators and police are gearing up for the half-yearly meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

"Speaking more in sorrow than in anger to the media" about "...the noise outside", Wolfensohn said, "It's a bit demoralising when you see that there is mobilisation for social justice, when you think that's what we are doing every day."

First we should define the term social justice! How could the little people of the world have got the IMF and World Bank so wrong? Are they not humanitarian benefactors whose only concern is the well-being of the people of the planet? Hmm... It might have something to do with the fact that these groups "feed on human poverty...and the destruction of the natural environment." The members are "a privileged social minority" who have "accumulated vast amounts of wealth at the expense of the large majority of the population," writes Michel Chossudovsky in his book The Globalisation of Poverty.

Just in case the reader should be under the misapprehension that the groups are arms of the national governments lets us be quite clear of the facts. "While the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank constitute a powerful international bureaucracy (a bureaucracy of 10,000...Ed) - formerly under an inter-governmental umbrella - the seat of political power does not rest with the international financial institutions and their major shareholders (i.e. the governments of the rich countries). The IMF, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) are administrative structures, they are regulatory bodies operating within a capitalist system and responding to dominant economic and financial interests."

At the same time as the preparations (and protests), are taking place for these meetings World Trade Organisation director-general Mike Moore is calling for the foreign debt of the poorest countries to be written off. "But" he says conditions should apply to "institution reform, good governance, education, infrastructure, integrity in government procurement." Michel Chossudovsky says that "good governance" and other 'economic reforms' precludes a genuine democratisation, and invariably requires the backing of the military and the authoritarian state.
'Structural adjustment' promotes bogus institutions and a fake parliamentary democracy which in turn supports the process of economic restructuring."

Further reading: The Globalisation of Poverty by Michel Chossudovsky $28.50 including postage from all League book services.

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE

IRVING LOSES LIBEL CASE

The following is taken direct from Irving's website:
"(Justice) Gray rendered his negative judgment at 10.30 a.m. today Tuesday 11 April2000; we have posted a full text of this document (on Irving's website...Ed).

Who wants to be a Millionaire? From what The Guardian told us yesterday morning, the money to fund the Lipstadt libel defence came partly from Edgar J Bronfman's Seagram distillery company and two wealthy Atlanta businessmen. Money really can buy a clean conscience. Seagram's legal drug dealing operations (alcohol) have killed many more millions, and destroyed more families, than died in the Nazi Holocaust. Incidentally, Lipstadt's expert witnesses must have been hard-pressed to stay as neutral as they did, in the face of the inducements offered them.

Stand up Christopher Browning, the only real expert among them: He was paid £27,632 by Professor Lipstadt and Penguin Books Ltd. His fee was bettered however by team-leader Professor Richard Evans: £70,181 - what will your common room colleagues make of that, Richard!

Well then, they may say, what about Dr. Peter Longerich, who is somewhat junior to yourself: he drew £76,195: that should pay for a few English lessons, eh. Professor Hajo Funke, the Berlin University's glittering and totally objective expert on the German far right: £92,558 went his way - what's the German for "Now that's a lot of moolah"? And then there is Professor of Architecture Robert Jan Van Pelt, who was paid £109,244 despite only one flaw in his background - he never qualified as an architect.

Now how many newspapers reported that little detail emerging from his cross-examination by Mr. Irving?" David Irving has announced he will appeal the court ruling. Make up your own mind...read the court transcripts posted on his website.

AFRICAN AIDS EPIDEMIC

DEFENCE MINISTER BATTLES TO MAINTAIN PRE-SELECTION

by Antonia Feitz
Defence Minister John Moore is facing a battle to maintain pre-selection in the seat of Ryan, which he's held for 25 years. His challenger is a young barrister born in Hong Kong who is secretary of the Queensland Chinese Forum and who joined the Liberal Party in 1996. He has 300 new members supporting him but denies branch stacking. He said, "If they are saying [it's branch stacking] because my supporters are of a certain Asian background and therefore they are ethnic, and therefore there's some connotation that's negative and they shouldn't be in the Liberal Party, then I think that is part of the reason the party is in a mess and there is not a perception of openness and tolerance."

But the Liberals have told the challenger to pull his head in. Well, The Australian reports that he has been "counselled". He's not impressed. "If this is an attempt to silence me the repercussions may be significant to [sic] the Liberal Party", he said. Goody!

Public in fighting in the Liberal camp: enjoy it while it lasts. Branch stacking is yet another reason why party politics are on the nose. The sooner we make the major party politicians irrelevant the better.

IRATE READER'S LETTER TO EDITOR

The League has been accused of 'adding to the fragmentation of the conservative vote' by an irate One Nation supporter. We are publishing his letter but will take no further correspondence on the matter:

"Sir: I thought that one of the aims of the League is to save the country, not to aid and abet the fragmenting of the conservative vote, by misinformation and emphasising differences, as appears to be the aim of other papers and organisations. In the March 31st On Target Jeremy Lee wrote of Scott Balson being expelled from One Nation. Let me set the record straight.
Scott Balson - order of events: (1) membership lapsed. (2) mis-information about D. Oldfield appeared on his website. (3) resigned as webmaster as a result of (2). (4) Sent cheque to renew membership, which was returned. (5) was banned from speaking at One Nation events because of misinformation.
"Graeme Campbell: It has been brought to my attention that Graeme Campbell believes One Nation shouldn't have stood a candidate against him. (1) people of Kalgoorlie requested to be able to vote for One nation - surely a reasonable request. (2) the result of this on the polls did not materially affect his base (see election results)." - From Irate 'One Nation' reader, S.A.

"GST AND THE FORGOTTEN TENANTS"
the following appeared in The Age, April 14th:
"It would seem that the media, which are regarded as a 'watchdog' for society, are choosy about who they watch out' for. "People who live in rooming houses, and who are some of the most vulnerable members of our community, will bear the brunt of the GST on their rents. Apart from rooming-house and caravan-park residents, no other tenants will pay GST on their rent and it seems that no one really cares. The media have printed stories about the impact of the GST but have not bothered to give coverage to rooming-house residents. These are homeless and forgotten people since the closure of the institutions, and they deserve support or coverage on this sensitive and discriminatory issue." C. Power, Footscray West.

SUPPORTER'S LETTER TO THE PM

"Sir, It is my understanding that the following quotation appeared in The Age, 6th October 1998, and was attributed to you whilst you were "Leader of the Opposition".

"'The Prime Minister (Bob Hawke) and government members (should) not hide behind the argument that there is some kind of mandate out of the last election. That suggestion is invalid, not only in terms of the number of votes cast, but also on the simple proposition that when people vote at an election they do not vote only on one issue. The mandate theory of politics from the point of view of proper analysis has always been absolutely phony.' E.Q.
"In view of your more recent claim that you have a mandate to introduce a GST from the last election, when I understand the total primary votes for 'Coalition' members was less than 40% of the total, could you please explain the above quotation?
"I entirely agree with that part of the statement attributed to you that: 'The mandate theory of politics from the point of view of proper analysis has always been absolutely phony.'
"To try and make an election of individuals to the parliament into a referendum about something else, reminds me of those well known works of Lewis Carroll such as 'Through The Looking Glass', with its poem on Jabberwocky.

"Granting that you desired a referendum on the New Tax System (GST) and that you had profound knowledge of the use of mandates, why in the blazes did you not put a referendum on the GST before the Australian people at election time?" David Barton, New South Wales.

TRADITIONAL DEFENCE OUTMODED