THE THREAT BEHIND FREE TRADE

by Jeremy Lee
Rebuffed by the majority of nations attending the recent Chiang Mai, Thailand, conference of APEC, Prime Minister Howard has now signed a bilateral ('one-on-one') free trade agreement with Singapore. In doing so he has followed the lead of the Helen Clarke government in New Zealand.

An article in The Press (NZ, 18/9/2000) reported New Zealand Finance Minister Michael Cullen saying he hoped the trade agreement with Singapore would be in place by January 1st. The article said:
Since New Zealand and Australia forged a Closer Economic Relations agreement, trans-Tasman trade has surged. The same could be expected from the Singapore pact…"

Concern has been expressed by New Zealand's Trade Union Federation that the Singapore Agreement could be used to get products from Indonesian sweatshops into New Zealand through the back door. It feared textiles, clothing and shoes could be made on the cheap on Indonesian islands just off the coast of Singapore.

With Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines rebuffing Howard's preferred multilateral free trade plans through APEC, the Prime Minister has now opted for a one on one agreement with Singapore. The Weekend Australian (18-19/11/2000) reported:
"....Singapore has initiated bilateral negotiations with four APEC nations - New Zealand, Japan, Mexico and now Australia ...."

Australians should not be lulled into thinking the arrangements are purely about trade. One part of Closer Economic Relations with New Zealand is the free movement and residency of citizens between the two countries; hence the large shift in immigrants from New Zealand to Australia without the need for passports or visas. New Zealand immigrants are not counted as part of Australia's overall immigration intake.

A news report from Tom Allard in Brunei on November 16th, which appeared on the Internet, warned that the free movement of citizens between Singapore and Australia. including automatic residency is on the agenda of the agreement Howard intends to sign with Singapore. This needs confirmation as soon as possible. Readers are urged to write to their Federal Members asking them to confirm or deny this possibility.
The implications are grave.

Immigration Minister Ruddock's task - already creating horrendous problems - would be impossible with a steady stream of immigrants from Singapore, without visas and passports. Singapore, only a few kilometres from Malaysia, would develop a whole lot of unanticipated new 'export' industries.

DOES PETER THINK HE'S JOSEPH?

The position of Australia's primary producers, and the towns and rural industries that service them, is now critical. The floods in New South Wales and parts of Queensland are the last straw. In the third disastrous year in succession at least 1 million tonnes of grain have been lost in New South Wales, and the damage so far is estimated to exceed $600 million. Even before the water has receded, bank foreclosure on bankrupt farms is being canvassed. It has already started on Queensland's Darling Downs.
It must be cheering news to farm families as they gaze on waterlogged fields to know that their title deeds are now forfeit.

The suggested remedies are pitiful. National Party members are wringing their hands without actually taking a stand. Politicians are asking banks not to foreclose for three months. Interest-rate subsidies are being tentatively suggested. At most such palliatives can only prolong the agony. Farmers must somehow find seed and fuel for next year's planting. They have a further wait for a possible harvest. Every day of that period the debt they cannot pay hangs over their heads, and the interest mounts. Subsidising the interest does not, therefore, make it payable.

Into this scenario this week ventured our noble Treasurer Peter Costello in gumboots. In his keeping is not only the biggest tax yield in Australia's history, but a huge surplus boosted by a massive price-rise in petrol and diesel - the fuel which is the life-blood of the farmers who hope to plant again.. Almost half the cost of fuel is tax, which fills Costello's coffers. Sane people would think that the Budget Surplus would immediately be used as a disaster fund to keep our producers alive.

They are not the only ones suffering. The level of poverty right across Australia is at record levels. There are funding crises in every area of life, while the Government keeps excess revenue over expenditure for political purposes. How Costello was able to look into the eyes of desperate Goondiwindi farmers beggars belief. He is like the Joseph of the Old Testament, who dispossessed the Egyptian people

Genesis: Chapters 41 to 47
According to the story, the Egyptians had seven good seasons, during which the government bought all their grain. There followed seven bad seasons, during which the government sold the grain back to starving people. When the people ran out of money, the government dispossessed them of their livestock, and finally of their land. Genesis 47: v. 18, 19 records the people as saying to Joseph (the Treasurer): "We will not hide from my lord that our money is all spent, and the cattle are my lord's. There is nothing left for my lord except our bodies, and our lands. Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we and our land will be slaves for Pharaoh. So give us seed, that we may live and not die, and that our land may not be desolate...."

In the modern Australia, Pharaoh has been replaced by the trading banks. The "gang-of-four" (Westpac, NBA, ANZ and the now privately-owned Commonwealth) have between them made another record profit this year of $8.4 billion. Our government is now suggesting they wait a few months before taking their pound of flesh from desperate rural people. The monstrosity of this position is so embracing that none dare speak of it.

What could be done? Back in 1972 when the ALP was seeking office, its Federal Rural Policy drew attention to the staggering debt crisis affecting primary producers. It pointed to dying rural towns and the drift to the city. It went on:
"....Labor's debt alleviation policies would take the form of making available to potentially viable properties long-term, low-interest loans to pay off immediately the crippling high-interest short term loans, which many producers have been forced to accept from financial institutions and hire purchase companies. 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 principal and interest in order to allow farmers to strengthen their position ...."

The policy went on to emphasise that the Commonwealth Bank, at that time a 'peoples' bank', would be used for the purpose. Subsequently the same Labor Party sold the Commonwealth Bank - to pay off part of its debt to other banks!

GST WOES CONTINUE

The Herald Sun (17/11/2000) pointed out that the post GST slump had resulted in a drop of at least $1.5 billion from Victoria's economy. But it pointed out that "Treasurer Peter Costello battle to hold on to his first GST Budget Surplus had won plaudits from an international ratings agency.

The Herald Sun has found:
* BANKRUPTCIES jumped 5 percent in July, the GST's first month.
* RETAIL sales fell 6.4 percent in the September quarter compared with last year…
* UP TO 15 percent of small businesses could be wiped out by a GST cash-flow crisis expected to hit by March of next year. "Accountants also claim they cannot cope with tax-related paperwork which the Howard Government promised to cut…"

On November 20th The Herald Sun added these comments: "A third of small businesses failed to meet the GST start-up deadline for business activity statements. Despite up to 600,000 late lodgments, Tax Commissioner Michael Carmody is confident of clearing his last major GST hurdle by the end of this month…"

The GST effort appears to have dealt a heavy blow to small business confidence, with the latest Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry survey recording a plunge in expectations. The survey found many people thought their business outlook was deteriorating. GST uncertainty, petrol prices and higher interest rates were all partly to blame…

KONRAD KALEJS

by Betty Luks
Upon asking an old friend if the Australian/Latvian communities were helping Konrad Kalejs in any way - even moral support - I was told he didn't know, but he was not getting involved. He went on to justify his stand by reinforcing how he felt about Communism. Of course! he was as 'anti-communist' as ever, "and wrote letters to the papers, even to the Latvian papers", but on the issue of 'war crimes' and Konrad Kalejs he didn't want to get involved.

When asked what was the situation back in Latvia he informed me that with the collapse of Communism, the former-KGB-mafia had taken over the collective farms, industries and other state-owned enterprises, claiming them as their own ('privatised' them) and these same political gangsters were the 'neocapitalists' - the 'new' ruling elite. In which case, what my old friend couldn't, or wouldn't, see was the same political gangsters are in control of Latvia, as before, and Mr. Kalejs' hope of a fair hearing and justice would have 'buckley's'.

My old friend may be 'anti-communist' but I am not sure that he is 'pro-justice'. I now understand what Christ meant when he said, "... And whatever measure you deal out to others will be dealt back to you..." If we Australians - including my old Latvian friend - do not care about the plight of Mr. Kalejs, then the time will come when Australians could come under such 'international' legislation and come before the same type of political gangsters in positions of power - and who will care about us?

Having closely followed the Adelaide 'war crimes' trial, and later acquittal, of Mr. Ivan Polyukhovich I can say it was with a sense of thankfulness I knew he lived out the rest of his life in peace. That the man was charged with such 'crimes' let alone brought before the courts was a great injustice. I attended as many days of the committal hearings as possible and, sadly, counted so few from the 'captive nations' association publicly giving him and his wife moral support.

Mr. Douglas Christie, the barrister who defended Hungarian/Canadian Imre Finta, the first person to be charged with 'war crimes' in the western world warned us, "There is no end to the tactics of the enemies of freedom and justice. They never sleep. They never quit. When one old man like Mr. Finta is finally vindicated after years of legal battles... they just push for appeal and start a new attack. Those who love freedom and justice must be just as determined... We owe it to God, our heritage, ourselves, and our descendants to maintain forever just laws and a just application of laws."

A letter from you to the Minister for Justice and Customs, Senator Amanda Vanstone could be just the thing to 'tip the scales' in Mr. Kalejs' favour.

BASIC FUND

The Fund now stands at $5,558.80. The target is $60,000 and we have a long way to go to reach it. Will you give a thought to the work of the League as we put out this appeal.

The League of Rights branches out into so many fields of endeavour. From the outstanding work of our small staff and helpers in the Melbourne 'hub' to the action groups spread from near the southernmost tip of West Australia to near the northern-most tip of Queensland. An important achievement (this year) has been the setting up of the League's website. There is now a substantial League of Rights presence on the 'web' and the content is first class. Information is now available to those who want to know more about Social Credit and the Australian League of Rights.

For those supporters who do not have access to the internet, you will be pleased to know many of C.H. Douglas' and Eric Butler's works are on the web - for all the world to read. Funds were needed for the physical and technical side of it - funds that came from the giving of our supporters to the Basic Fund. For this we thank you - as we also thank those who give generously of their time and talents.

In the coming year the Australian Women On-Line website will be worked on. There are hours and hours of work to go into the setting up. The goal is to make it a help in every way to Australian women. There will be major thrusts to promote the Social Credit truths such as a series of 'workbooks' for home and group study. Again funds are needed, but we will multiply the 'value' of the donations as we draw on those volunteers who give so freely of their time and talents.
Will you give your financial support, no matter whether a large or a small amount, towards these services of the League of Rights - a service and educational movement we are so privileged to be part of.

LETTERS

To The Age (Melbourne, 18/11/2000):
"it is a pity that The Age could not have found an impartial reviewer of Penguin Books' The Irving Judgment instead of Professor Robert Manne (18/11) who has published a number of polemics against David Irving during the last twenty-three years. "It is also regrettable that Manne resorted to unacademic language ('the sewer of historical revisionism') and gross misrepresentation of his intellectual opponents ('a small band of right-wing fanatics', 'Most Holocaust deniers are simply cranks').
"Justice Gray's High Court judgment in Britain may well not be the last word on Irving and his career. A similar devastating judgment against the equally courageous writer Count Nikolai Tolstoy was later overturned on appeal to the European Court of Human Rights; and in the process it became public knowledge that sinister attempts had been made in Britain to deprive Tolstoy of a fair trial.

"Many of the critics of the received version of the Holocaust are men of high academic qualification and great personal integrity, who have risked public defamation, severe fines, loss of professional employment and even goal in what they see as the disinterested pursuit of truth. A few errors (deliberate or not) and a few tasteless remarks by Irving do not in themselves provide final proof that 'between five and six million Jews died unimaginably horrible deaths' in World War Two (as Manne floridly puts it).

Until The Age and other major media give the revisionist case fair article space to debate the issues, Australians should remain open-minded about this momentous controversy" - Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic.

NOT BAD 'BIKKIES'

from The Chronicle (11/11/2000):
"A report on the contributions .to the Parliamentary Superannuation Fund of five retired Federal politicians indicates that, collectively, they contributed $628,546 (an average of $125,700), and upon leaving Parliament the total payout for the same five politicians was $10,890,000 (an average of $2,178,000). Not bad bikkies for a few terms in Parliament!

"Total payouts in this instance exceeded total contributions by almost $10.25 million. No worries - no doubt the taxpayers of this country footed the bill for the balance! - G. Patch, Toowoomba.

Good quote: Who would've thought Malcolm Fraser would become a Socialist and Gough Whitlam a Socialite?

ELECTORATE FUEL TAX ANGER

"A Petition Against Excessive Fuel Tax"
The constituents of the Murray Electorate in Victoria have given a massive "thumbs down" to their Federal Member's support of the Howard Government's high fuel tax policy. In a snap poll conducted in a major Shepparton shopping centre (October 26th) 90 percent of the 600 voters approached, put their signatures to a petition protesting against the excessive fuel tax. The petition is quite specific, advising Dr. Stone - the sitting Member - that if she continues to support this high Tax the voter will place her last on the ballot paper at the next election.

Diane Teasdale. P.O. Box 6277, Shepparton Victoria 3632 wants voters in all the electorates to take up the idea. The wording of the petition is: - "A Petition Against Excessive Fuel Tax" To the Local Federal Member of Parliament, "We protest against the Governments excessive fuel tax. If you continue to support this high tax we will place you last on the next ballot paper."

RAA-MTA PETROL TAX CAMPAIGN

The Royal Automobile Association (RAA) and Motor Traders Association (MTA) in South Australia have initiated their own campaign against the rise in petrol prices. All members of the RAA were sent out a card addressed to: My representative in the Federal Parliament - With the following message to be sent to every South Australian Federal politician.
"I am a constituent in your electorate and I am angry at Mr. Howard's failure to keep his promise that petrol prices would not rise as a result of the GST! I am also angry at the Federal Government's refusal to remove automatic indexation of fuel excise. I am tired of paying more and more fuel taxes. Please respond and tell me what you are doing to ensure the Government acts on these issues."

The RAA and MTA will make sure the card is delivered to the appropriate politician. They report 60.000 members have already sent in their cards.

LIBERAL 'COLD-BLOODED CYNICISM'

by Betty Luks
Sunday Herald Sun columnist, Adrian Tame (12/11), spilled the beans about the Howard Government's cold-blooded cynicism" as the GST takes effect. He tells his readers "a former staunch and prominent member of the Liberal Party" admitted the Government was expecting Australian businesses to fail at the same rate as did New Zealand's businesses when the GST was first introduced there.

"I was at a Law Institute seminar on the GST where one of the speakers said we could expect the same attrition rate in Australia" (as New Zealand), revealed Tame's informant. 'The Government was expecting it, They're quite prepared for it. They see it as a flushing exercise - cleaning out the riffraff."
Tame asks, surely "no government could be as suicidally uncaring and fiscally careless as to introduce a system capable of fracturing the nation's economic backbone"? Surely "the cost in human terms would be sufficient deterrent" he queries, "All those broken dreams, all those hard working, resourceful men and women thrown on the scrap heap".

We were told, "By their fruits you will know them", not by their words but by their actions, in which case we have to say, That is correct! This Government does not care about the broken dreams, and that hard workingmen and women are being thrown on the scrap heap! They are NOT concerned about the cost in human terms.

Gerard McManus, Sunday Herald Sun (19/11), reports internal surveys undertaken by the Australian Tax Office show as many as 45 percent of the first quarterly Business Activity Statements so far lodged have mistakes in them. They vary from minor mistakes through to the entire form having to be returned to the taxpayer to be completed again. Is it only a matter of time before the ATO starts fining these taxpayers for their mistakes, as already happens in New Zealand?
Reportedly, in New Zealand, more than half the revenue raised from the GST comes from fines and other penalties for late or inaccurate information.

Fifteen years since OT first brought up the possibility of a GST
On Target raised the issue of such a tax when Hawke was in power in 1985. Sadly, our worst-case scenario is 'coming to pass'. But, there is more to come - if we don't make a stand. Take up your responsibility and exercise your freedom! Do what the voters in the Murray Electorate have done - as a starter. At the very least, send a personal letter to your Member of Parliament. Don't forget the Senators.

We are informed the situation will be worse when the next quarterly Business Activity Statement has to be lodged and GST paid. With holiday time upon them and ready-cash being short, many businesses will be too cash-strapped to rake up the claimed amount of GST.

Meanwhile Adrian Tame writes, "...accountants are working 15-hour days and failing to cope with the load. Ninety per cent of them say they will fail to meet the first three-monthly BAS deadline for 60 per cent of their clients. ." So the Tax Department has been obliged to talk of waiving fines for the 400,000 late finishers!