SNAKE-OIL BUDGET

by Jeremy Lee
Well, the Budget has been and gone - and what an exercise in deceit! According to the figures presented by the Treasurer, total direct and indirect taxation has fallen from $168 billion to $158.7 billion. And the Australian people are expected to believe it! There's only one problem. Nowhere in the Budget figures has any estimate been made for GST revenue! Seriously! The biggest and most onerous change to taxation since federation does not appear in the Budget figures! The reason, as explained by the Treasurer, is that, as GST revenue will be handed to the States, it is really State taxation, and the Commonwealth is merely the agent to collect it.

The ploy has been roundly condemned by commentators. Pierpoint, writing in the Australian Financial Review (10/5/2000), stated: "When it comes to rubbery numbers, it's pretty hard to beat a Federal Budget. If Blue Sky Mines produced a set of accounts as confusing as Peter Costello's, Pierpoint would be thrown deep into a dungeon ...."

Former head of Treasury John Stone was even more scathing, noting that even the Commonwealth Statistician strongly believe the GST should be accounted in the Commonwealth Budget: " .... By pretending that the GST was a State tax and the Commonwealth merely an 'agent' in its collection, Mr. Costello sought implicitly or explicitly to conceal that fact. If, as I hope may be the case [the Budget] figuring discards that particular piece of dishonesty, that will have assisted in revealing the unhappy pass to which this Government, along with most of its post-war predecessors, has reduced the Federal compact which underlies the whole constitutional structure of Australia."
Rabbit out of the hat in the 2000-01 Budget. Alas, the rabbit was dead. And it is starting to smell. It is a big-spending, big taxing Budget ...."

Nobody knows how much the GST will bring in. The minimum estimate is round the $25 billion figure. The probability far, far more. Which will mean an increase of about $1,000 for every Australian, no matter what coloured rabbit Costello tries to produce. (For a more detailed summary of the Budget and general economic position, see the May issue of The New Times Survey, obtainable from the League's Victorian office, $3.00 posted)

ADVERTISING BLOW-OUT

By now most Australians will be sick of the week-by-week arrival of glossy material explaining "the simple tax". They will be just as sick of the various chained figures in television advertisements, who would like to convince us the GST is a mixture of St. George and Joan of Arc. The fact that we are paying for this government propaganda is balm to many a wounded soul! Sydney's Sunday Telegraph (16/4/00) gave us some idea: "The Howard Government has spent more on advertising its wares than corporate giants such as Coca-Cola, Ford and Holden, new figures reveal. The figures show the Federal Government has become the 10th biggest advertiser in the country, spending almost twice as much on GST advertising as Coke did on selling its drinks. The Government last year spent $60 million of taxpayers' money to tell those same taxpayers how good it was. Most of that was due to the GST campaign, which will cost $49 million this financial year, with another $30 million worth of advertisements planned for next year. The total figure was a slight drop from the previous year's all-time high of $70 million, which was mainly due to a blitz of pre-election ads ...."

More than a million a week out of our pockets, to sell us a tax we don't want! That's representative government for you!

BLIND MADNESS

The crowning piece of idiocy on the question of illegal boat people came to light in Queensland's Courier-Mail (6/5/2000): "The Federal Government is paying to help Indonesia detain about 500 boatpeople who were heading for Australia. Immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock, who also warned up to 3,000 boat people could be heading for Australia now the cyclone season has ended, would not reveal how much the Government was paying Indonesia to keep the 500 in detention ...."

There have been recent articles highlighting the general contempt for Australia felt in Asia. Little wonder! The Indonesians must be looking forward to a lucrative new industry - receiving money from an abject Australia to do the things we haven't got the guts to do ourselves. What happens when we receive a call from Jakarta that 30,000, 40,000 or more illegal immigrants are waiting to embark? How much are we prepared to pay to keep the boats away? How do we know the figures are real? It's like the old story of the farmer who applied for a government subsidy not to grow corn. "Will I receive more money for not growing 60 acres of corn than for not growing 30?" he asked. What would Ruddock's answer be?

AUSTRALIANS HAVE 'RIGHT' TO BECOME HEROIN ADDICTS

by Alfred King
It is within living memory for many readers when homosexuality was both illegal and taboo socially. Today it is taboo to criticise sodomy. Common sense tells us that man and woman were meant to be together and that anything else is a perversion - literally a turning away from the truth. In recent times we have seen homosexuality first publicised, to raise it to a higher level of consciousness in our minds, then legalised. But this is never the end. The majority of decent Australians were then falsely condemned of infringing on the fabricated "rights" of perverts. Further ground must be conceded. Gays demand to be allowed into schools to 'educate' our children that perversion is not perversion, but a desirable way of life. The rot goes very deep.

At the recent election for the Lord Mayor of London, one policy that all the candidates advocated was homosexual marriages. Now we see the same strategy unfolding with regards to drug use. It is not that long ago that a drug problem was unheard of in Australia. Now the Victorian Government, strongly supported by the media, intends to openly promote addiction through the establishment of supervised injecting houses for heroin users, because "the existing prohibition and enforcement strategies have failed to stop the flow of heroin onto Australia's streets". No one doubts that they have failed.

The Age reports, "According to an issues paper released by the government's Drug Policy Expert Committee, a gram of heroin, which three years ago would have sold for $600, can now be bought for $25. It is evident even from a casual stroll along Russell Street and adjacent areas of Melbourne that people continue to buy this illegal drug openly, and to inject it in circumstances that can easily result in their death."

How will injecting rooms reduce the addiction rate or the drug crime related rate? As one person phoning in commented, "...we need politicians who are responsible to the people, not merely to the economic rationalist agenda. As long as the people are weak, our children will die in unprecedented numbers because we as a society are not brave enough to push through the required legislation to end this slaughter".
Or another, "... safe injecting rooms? All it means to my son is that the government is saying it is OK to hit up. How am I supposed to educate him otherwise?"

Rather than honestly recognise that current policies have failed because they have been the wrong liberal-internationalist ones, the Establishment urges us to run harder down the same road. The argument is closely controlled. We are not allowed to consider turning back to what we know from experience does work. In the present climate, it is relatively easy to bring heroin into Australia, there are big rewards for doing so, and little in the way of punishment if you are caught.

The Age, April 20th, interviewed John, a 23-year-old junkie from country Victoria in Russell Street, Melbourne. "There is no control that's what causes all the problems". City Patrol Constable Kasia Bartnicki says she has only been on the job since February, "I had no idea but my eyes have been opened, it's everywhere." Another constable comments, "You might look at people like this as the poor victims, and that might be true, but obviously someone's getting rich off them And they are just over on the next corner."

Before we turn to tax-payer funded injecting rooms as "the only solution", may I suggest, off the top of my head, that we try offering $5m to anyone able to identify a drug dealer to the police. Then once convicted, as a punishment, perform the public disembowelment of such individuals. Let us then see what effect this has on the amount of heroin entering our country. This is our country. We are in control of it. We can take whatever measures are necessary to protect ourselves.

The Age, on the other hand, begs to differ. "Firstly we must accept that heroin is here to stay. No matter what efforts we as a nation make, nothing will stop this drug coming in." The old 'inevitability' argument again - conditioning us to accept that we are powerless and therefore to stop trying to resist evil. And the hackneyed phrase "be open to new ideas". There is nothing new about drugging people, yet they claim they hold 'the enlightened side of the debate'. The Age, of course, has determined a long-term strategy of compelling Australians to becoming a nation of heroin users.
In its editorial of April 20th, it openly boasts "The Age has long urged supervised injecting houses".

The bias of The Age's reporting is breathtaking. Consider, for example, the headline "Proposals for a trial of supervised injecting rooms yesterday drew widespread support among drug experts, the only complaint from youth specialists who argued that underage addicts should get the same opportunity as adults to use them." Injecting yourself with a lethal drug is now being touted as an 'opportunity'. No doubt over time this will be further developed by the media until it is seen as 'uncool' not to be an addict.

NATIONALS IN TERMINAL DECLINE?

by Phillip D. Butler
The Victorian by-election in Benalla (triggered by the resignation of former Victorian National Party leader and Deputy Premier Pat McNamara ) has demonstrated the party is in decline - it could be a 'terminal' state. This is the second by-election lost by the Coalition since Kennett was swept from office. The 'safe' Liberal seat of Burwood, and the 'safe' seat of Benalla (15% margin in 1996) in National Party heartland, have gone to Labor. The Benalla voters have never voted in a Labor candidate before this - and the seat was created in 1904!

Both Kennett and McNamara sold out the rural and small business sector, cut off community services, allowed the roads to deteriorate and amalgamated the local councils - even though when in Opposition they blocked Labor from doing just that! Kennett - in Opposition - said he would never force councils into amalgamations unless it was agreed upon through referenda. As soon as they came to power, they did just that!

Council and Municipal amalgamations were forced through and the State's assets were 'flogged off'. It was National Party member Roger Hallam who oversaw the forced amalgamations of councils and municipalities; that is why the voters are giving the National Party more of the same medicine they gave Kennett and the Liberals. It should not be forgotten McNamara backed the push for a republic even though his own grassroots Party members instructed their MPs to vote against the republic.
The present Liberal leader Denis Napthine and NP Pat McNamara tried to explain away Kennett's routing at the last State elections as 'a protest that went wrong'. Mind you Mr. McNamara will now walk away with a nest egg of $800,000 worth of superannuation.

Russell Savage, Independent, made the point the Nationals want to keep their snouts in the political-perks-trough. The sad fact is all major parties have become the playthings of the 'money men'. Each State - under Liberal or Labor - has lost its own banking institutions with not a word of protest from any major party But the Coalition haven't seen anything yet. Just wait till the GST 'kicks in' - then go to the polls!
We will probably see the remains of the Coalition in Opposition for a very long time. The Canadian backlash against the imposed VAT (GST) was of such force even the Prime Minister of the day lost her seat.

BASIC FUND

ISRAELI SPY SCANDAL ERUPTING?

From MER
Middle East Realities Website: Israel is excused and protected by many in Washington, feared by many others. At no other time in American history has this city been more penetrated by both Israeli intelligence services and by a large contingent of American Jews working at the highest levels of the American government and "dually loyal", no matter how offensive other American Jews find this apt term to be.
It is all but forgotten here that during Bill Clinton's first campaign the President of the main Israeli lobbying organization was overheard bragging that his organization had penetrated the Clinton campaign with many operatives and Clinton would be their man in the White House. And that, in fact, is what has come to pass.

Much of the media, too, fits into this overall picture of Israeli influence with the most senior persons at many of the major news organizations linked to the Israelis and American Jewish lobbying groups in various ways. The names include Wolf Blitzer, Larry King, Ted Koppel, Rich Kaplan, Lester Crystal, Steven Rosenfeld. And it is for this reason in fact that major stories of this kind are held back by most of the liberal establishment media until they are forced to carry some sanitised version; and thus as in this case, the investigation and publication is done by those associated with the conservative right-wing of American politics.

Even so, the sheer magnitude and audacity of what could now emerge as the biggest spying scandal ever for Israel since the "Lavon Affair" is potentially politically explosive.
(For those who have forgotten, in the 1950s Israel used Egyptian Jews to create terror incidents against Americans in Egypt aiming to disrupt developing U.S-Egyptian relations.)

This exclusive story about what may become the biggest Israeli spy scandal ever is to be published in the upcoming issue of INSIGHT Magazine, a conservative weekly, spun off a few years ago from Washington's second newspaper, The Washington Times.

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