BASHING AND BREAKING

by Jeremy Lee
I never thought I'd live to see the day when television portrayed private homes being invaded by balaclava-clad storm-troopers in Australia; without warrants and armed, along with their automatic weapons, by no more than suspicion. We might as well be in the middle of some NYPD or Chicago Police gun-battle than in one of the old Commonwealth countries noted for their high level of individual rights. We once believed that the individual was innocent until proven guilty; that private homes could not be entered without a magistrate's warrant; that efforts were made not to distress women and children, etc.

When such principles were scrupulously observed, the police were unarmed; and woe betide those who injured a policeman. The public supported all law-enforcement officials because of the way they did their duty. Those involved in planning or co-ordinating terrorist activities deserve the full force of the law and the severest penalties. But, until convicted, if they have been accepted as Australian citizens they should have all the legal rights that go with citizenship. If we are going to argue that the situation is now too complex to allow the usual principles to apply, we should declare a state of emergency.

We have always prided ourselves, as do Canadians, Britons and New Zealanders, that we have elevated personal freedoms to a level that doesn't exist in most other countries. If we are prepared to abandon them, we become the very thing against which we claim to fight. We bow to a culture alien and inferior to our own. Few dare say that the present situation is the result of multiculturalism – but that is what it is. The build-up of large Islamic communities in English-speaking and European communities has wrought havoc with harmony and peace. Britain, France, Holland, Italy, Germany, the United States and New Zealand, as well as Australia, have built for themselves time-bombs for future generations. It has largely occurred through the efforts of sloppy-thinking idealists who have never had to face the real, on-the-ground problems of communities where cultures clash; and by the indifference of ordinary communities which are only forced to face up when it is almost too late.

WHERE DOES LOYALTY LIE?

A survey of the almost 2 million Muslims in Britain, carried out by The Sunday Telegraph (UK) in October, 2001, asked which was the most important – to be Muslim or to be British. 68 percent answered Muslim. The result is that large numbers refuse allegiance to the Queen, and will not serve in the police or armed forces.

During the same month we had a series of fires and bombs in churches in Sydney. Gareth Kimberley's excellent newsletter (now, sadly, forced to close after he was warned of possible reprisals to his family), in its October 14th, 2002, issue reviewed earlier articles as a result of the Bali bombing. One said: "A church hall was firebombed early yesterday (Oct 9 2001) and a church under construction attacked by vandals, its altar-site covered with spray-painted hate slogans proclaiming 'Osama the Great' and 'Christianity Must Die'. Vandals set fire to prayer books in the hall which is used as a temporary church by parishioners at Lidcombe's St. Ephraim Syrian Orthodox Church. The attack is the seventh in less than two weeks on Christian Churches.

Yesterday's attack was the most brazen yet as vandals showed their support for terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. Most attackers have smashed windows and fire-bombed churches, but graffiti yesterday backed bin Laden with hate messages like 'Bin Laden the Greatest', 'Holy War Jihad' and 'Kill Jews 1 by 1'.
The wringing of hands by politicians, and sanctimonious sentiments expressed at interfaith services will do nothing to alter the situation.

The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, 1/10/02) pointed out: "Sydney's Muslim population is as diverse as it is large – a microcosm of the faith worldwide. While most non-Muslim Sydneysiders could identify with the Lakemba Mosque and its predominantly Lebanese following, Muslim communities are spread across the Metropolitan area. Suburbs including Auburn, Zetland, Sefton and Dee Why, catering to nationalities from Lebanese to Sudanese, Indonesian, Turkish and Algerian, form part of the 'rich tapestry' of the growing Muslim community.

"According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the nation's Muslim community grew by a staggering 30% between 1996 and 2001, and now numbers more than 300,000. The bulk of them lives in Sydney where there are 40 ethnic Muslim communities. But there are significant differences within the Muslim community with the two main 'branches' being the Shi'ites and the Sunnis, divided by different interpretations of the Koran ...."

At least 5,000 children attend Muslim schools in Sydney, with long waiting lists. The Noor Al Houda College at Condell Park, which charges students $1,200 annually, also receives State and Federal funding. The curriculum, naturally, has an Islamic rather than a Christian focus.

Any possible terrorist attacks on Australian soil - and we have been warned of such a likelihood – will escalate interracial and religious feelings to a white-hot level, exposing the fallacy of a "happy, successful multicultural society". It will create the pretext for the Government, under the thinking of men like Attorney-General Darryl Williams, to suspend further standards, rights and liberties. Innocent Australians of all persuasions will be the main sufferers. Why on earth Australians have been led to believe they can create harmony between wildly-different races, cultures and religions when similar experiments round the world have failed dismally, is impossible to fathom. In the end we must accept that if we increase the mixture of foreign cultures further we will dash any hope of a stable future. And with the biggest Islamic nation in the world, Indonesia, directly to our north, which harbours little goodwill and friendship for Australia, it is time to face the facts.

LATIN AMERICAN UNDERBELLY TO THE US

STATE OF THE REGIONS

An article in The National Business Bulletin shows the programme for regionalizing Australia, complete with the map originally drawn up for the last Labor Government by Bill Kelty, proceeding apace. At the same time The Australian Financial Review, 30/10/02, gave details of a special Canberra launching of the "State of the Regions Report", commissioned by the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA). Dr. Peter Brain told us what we all know, that the rich are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. One answer, he said, was to provide local government with more resources, more responsibility and more accountability. Much of the inequality was driven by "unrestrained market driven dynamics". Fair enough. But if this is to be achieved by centrally-financed and directed regional governments, now dependent on Canberra for their resources rather than their home States, it is really an exercise in centralism rather than decentralization.

The article concluded: ".... Dr. Brain said redirecting GST revenue from the states to local government was one way of helping local government with their increased responsibilities ...." What an intriguing suggestion!
Treasurer Costello is adamant that the GST is NOT a Commonwealth Tax but a State one, so he doesn't include the revenue in his annual Budget. Besides, the Commonwealth is prevented by the Constitution from directly by-passing State Governments and funding local councils. Gough Whitlam said that the creation of regional governments would provide the opportunity for Commonwealth direction. So who would control or decide about shifting GST revenue from States to regions? The State Governments? There's Buckley's Chance of that! Or would the Howard Government belatedly recognize that the GST is a Commonwealth Tax after all, to allocate as it wished? In which case the whole rigged Budget, which hides the fact that Howard/Costello, against their election promises that taxes would not rise, have in fact jacked them up further, would be there for all to see.

ALGA and the Regional Government programme are a deadly threat against the Federation and the Constitution, and, as Bevan O'Regan has rightly pointed out, part of the gradual move for a republic.

DUALISM? THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM IS NOT!

by Anthony Cooney
Many of us who see evil manifest in economic and political monopoly – in tyranny – are tempted to behave similarly: we speak of 'joining forces,' of raising an 'army',... each of these metaphors implies that the reality of our situation is a dualism of good confronting evil in a pitched battle; we like to think that we are on the side of the forces of good... (sound familiar?...ed)
Without wanting to diminish the importance of the danger, I wonder if this is not giving the devil more than his due? Certainly, in Christian terms it is.

We have often observed that, in Christian doctrine, evil – far from being an autonomous 'power' – is a privation or defect of good; evil has no reality, except in so far as it feeds on good. The question is, then, can evil be obviated by 'fighting' it? Can a defect, or privation, be destroyed in battle? Or must it be 'made up'?

Is wholeness not the answer or solution to privation? Can perversion be eradicated? Or is the solution to perversion straightening? When we direct our energies towards warring against evil, are we not using a technique (a means) dissociated from our policy (end), which is the expression of a philosophy? Is not a dualistic technique in the pursuit of "Christian policy" a failure to integrate means and ends?... If, on the other hand, evil is merely privation or perversion, we subscribe to it by devoting our energy to 'fighting' it.

Correct response to the distortion of reality
The solution to this kind of evil (the only kind?) is wholeness or integrity; the correct response to the distortion of reality is the discovering of and conforming to reality – in whatever ways we can. Our problem is to conserve energy creatively, how to remain or become sane (whole, healthy, balanced). Can we solve this problem by subscribing strategically to the disintegrative principle of dualism? Or can we really overcome evil with good? How?

FLAG BURNERS 'TO BE PUNISHED'?

by Betty Luks
I see the Prime Minister's deputy, John Anderson, is proposing that anyone who treats the Australian flag disrespectfully should be fined, and The West Australian (7/11/02) is expressing outrage at the "deeply offensive act" of flag burning at the recent anti-Iraq-war rally at the Melbourne University. The West Australian columnist, Andre Malan, went on to insist that although the act is "highly offensive", there is really nothing "sacred or mysterious about the origins of the Australian flag" and suggests Anderson's proposals could be "counter-productive".

Both men's statements need closer attention.
Why is John Anderson getting his 'knickers in a knot' at the burning of the Australian flag? There have been a number of flag-burning incidents by 'rent-a-mobs' over the years; I don't remember any concerted campaigns on the part of Liberal/National politicians in defence of the flag. When did they actively defend the flag?

The Australian Heritage Society (a division of the Australian League of Rights) and the AHS' publication "Heritage" were born in response to the Whitlam government's attack on the flag in the early 1970s! Over thirty years later we are still defending the flag and all it stands for! The flag is a symbol of the values and traditions of Australia's social fabric; the very fabric Anderson and his political cronies, and their masters, have been so busily tearing to shreds!

Methinks Mr. Anderson's 'surge of patriotism' has more to do with the attempt to stir 'patriotic' emotions as they position us for a war against Iraq. As for Mr. Malan. Yes, as Andre Malan noted, the design was based on winning entries in a competition held in 1901 and yes, it was officially approved by our King Edward VII in 1903. But has he had a good look at the symbols on the flag and does he know how far back in time, how far back in our history, as a people, they go?
People live in time as well as space Mr. Malan, and in terms of mankind's long history, nations such as America and Australia are very recent constructs. But whether it was the families, or small groups, huddled together in miserable hamlets, scratching out an existence with blunt instruments, or tribes and clans in cultivated regions, or civilized city/states and or empires; all are older groups than modern nations.

The Australian flag declares, in its symbols, the stream of history and the values and traditions from which the modern nation of Australia sprang forth – in time as well as space. And yes Mr. Malan, there is something 'sacred and mysterious (mystical) about the origins of the Australian flag', but that body of knowledge is for you to search out.

OUT OF THE DEEP: VICTIMS OF COMMUNISM

from Father Arthur Lewis' newsletter
The news coming out of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) is heartbreaking. Zimbabwe is now ruled by a dictator who has gone mad, a megalomaniac who will stick at nothing to cling to power. Even his supporters (bought by his stolen wealth) must be yearning in their hearts for a freedom they scarcely contemplate...

Tools of Mugabe
The police have become little more than tools in Mugabe's anti-Christian terror.

Torture
It is impossible to give any true picture of the beatings and torture of opposition supporters, or of the ruthless determination with which some of the 700 of the MDC's candidates were prevented from standing in the local elections at the end of September. With four African companions, Tim Spicer, an elected youth officer of the MDC, was slung into police cells and tortured. All were beaten on the soles of their feet and kicked on their kidneys.
Father Lewis promises his readers the stories are not make up. It is all happening. But it is largely ignored by the Western media, and by the British government who inherit the responsibility for the disastrous follies of their predecessors. (We might add, and so do successive Australian governments...ed)

The sheer cowardice of successive British (and Australian ...ed) governments is demonstrated not only by their scuttle-and-run policy and the brazenness of their broken promises. What little they are doing for Zimbabweans today, is the irreducible minimum public opinion will let them get away with.

Starvation
Worse than all this is the starvation. Like Stalin and Pol Pot, Mugabe is deliberately starving to death many of his own people. James Nichol (writing in the English Church Times, October 3rd, 2002) describes villages where people are trying to survive on wild fruit, leaves and grass. Gaunt, haggard and desperate they are beginning to die. The normally pro-Mugabe Southern African Development Corporation reports that nearly half a million people need food now, and by March it will be half the population. The Roman Catholic Aid Agency, CAFOD, states that starvation can only be averted by a food truck crossing into Zimbabwe every five minutes – a logistical impossibility. The West (with honourable exceptions) shrugs its shoulders: and Tony Blair continues to talk up President Bush's war on Iraq!

THE LITTLE PIG SYNDROME

ASIO INQUIRY – POINTS FOR SUBMISSIONS

Write to the Senate Inquiry Now!! Some points you might want to make include:
• Terrorism is a real threat to Australia and the world. However, our response must be rational and uphold, not undermine, our common law rights. • Oppose detention without charge. In a common law country, even under severe threat, no person should be denied their freedom unless they are charged and brought before an independent court at the earliest possible time.
• No to new secret police services. Civil police are the appropriate authority to investigate crimes and to make arrests.
• No to political prisoners. The new definition of terrorism is very broad – this means that there is already a sweeping power to detain people who may have done nothing more than espouse a relevant opinion or speak to or meet someone who espouses a relevant opinion.
• Make our existing agencies work better. There should be a major review of the Australian intelligence analytic framework.
• Human rights are not negotiable. The amended Bill proposed by the Howard government is a totally unacceptable infringement of our common law rights.

Submissions were to be made by November 7th, 2002 (but it is expected that late submissions will be accepted). Please write, fax or e-mail now! to: The Secretariat, Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee, Room S1.61, Parliament House, Canberra, ACT, 2600, AUSTRALIA Phone: (02) 6277 3560 Fax: (02) 6277 5794 E-mail: legcon.sen@aph.gov.au

ANNUAL BASIC FUND LAUNCHED

FLAG INCIDENT HAS RELIGIOUS ASPECT

The following letter was received by the editor; we suspect it was written 'with tongue in cheek'

Dear Sir, The recent flag-burning incident, and the patriotic move by Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson to make it illegal to burn the Australian flag led me to comment on the 'sleeping' religious aspect of our flag. Some people say that anti-discrimination laws make it imperative that the Australian flag be destroyed. You see, followers of some religions are affronted if they see any cross publicly displayed. Even the Southern Cross is a cross, while the Union Flag is really three crosses in one. Not one may remain, if we are to be true to political correctness. We must NOT discriminate against any religion etc., etc.
Work to eliminate crosses and churches has been going on for some time in Indonesia, so our politicians who are fervent anti-discrimination people could help in this work here in South Irian (Indonesian activists' name for Australia). Also, there ought to be equivalence in the number of non-Muslims and the number of Muslims who are raided by ASIO as suspected Islamist terrorist contacts, irrespective of the seeming logicality of that proposition, if we are to put anti-discrimination at the top of the agenda.
Regarding the proposed anti-burning law, Mr. Anderson ought to remember the "implied" right to free speech that the Australian High Court invented out of thin air, and the ruling by the US Supreme Court that burning the US flag was protected by the constitutional right to free speech, even if not a word was spoken or written!!! I'm sure that ruling will be quoted by Australia's judges!
Our politicians are working so that Australia can be made more migrant-friendly, and less comfortable for the indigenous people and for those who since 1788 have governed it by right of conquest (not under "terra nullius", in spite of the errors of our legal and political fraternities). Yours faithfully, J. Iqbali (address given). The West Australian, "Save the flag," Ben Ruse. Tuesday, November 5th, 2002, page 1.

Letter to Editor, Herald Sun, 21/10/02:
Who provides the Indonesian military with its arsenal, or should I say weapons of mass destruction? It is the US.
'Crocodile Tears', Mitcham, Vic.

SYDNEY CONSERVATIVE SPEAKERS' CLUB

BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS

There are a number of books currently promoted by the League which 'fitted together' make a 'whole'. Not only do they give examples and tell the story of what is happening around us, but give us pointers for finding our way around the obstacles ahead. Most folk will be taking a break – even a short one – over the coming Christmas Season. Now's the time to order your reading matter:

"Charles Ferguson: Herald of Social Credit" by Michael Lane. We are reminded there are two phases of Life and any normal society organizes itself to cultivate both phases - The Productive Phase & the Leisure-Privacy Phase. One is organised through industry and commerce and contains the social vitality. The other ensures the development of free and originating personalities. Want to know how to achieve that objective, which, surely, all normal human beings desire? Charles Ferguson has presented us with a method. "Charles Ferguson – Herald of Social Credit" ... $11.50 posted.

"Human Ecology and Social Credit: The Legacy of Tom Robertson" by Michael Lane. Tom Robertson was a 'canny Scot' who studied the modern systems such as economics, finance, education, religion – and found them all wanting. (We were told 'the Sabbath [systems, institutions] were made for Man not Man for the Sabbath [systems, institutions].) Michael Lane looks into Tom Robertson's work and reveals why they are not functioning as they should. "Human Ecology & Social Credit" ... $9.50 posted.

"Clifford Hugh Douglas" by Anthony Cooney. Although writing on what background knowledge there is publicly known of C.H. Douglas, in the introduction Anthony Cooney writes: It may astonish the young people of today to learn that when, fifty years ago I first attempted to share with others the truth about money, which I had discovered in the works of C.H. Douglas, people would smile kindly, pat me on the head and explain to me that, "There has to be a pound's worth of gold, however microscopic, in the vaults of the Bank of England, for every pound note printed and issued." If people can now smile at such notions it is because almost a century ago C.H. Douglas revealed to a disbelieving world the simple truth – banks create money out of nothing! "Clifford Hugh Douglas" ... $5.50 posted.

"Social Credit – Asterisks" by Anthony Cooney. It usually takes at least a generation, and often longer, for the avant garde ideas of a genius to be understood and accepted by the general mass of people, to become part of the mental landscape. The body of knowledge known as 'Social Credit' is gradually 'percolating' through to the awareness of the general public. Cooney's 'Asterisks' will help form the substance of the 'landscape'. "Social Credit – Asterisks" ... $8.50 posted.

"The Great Harlot" by Peter Lock. Peter explains simply and clearly the important and essential difference between usury and interest. His chapter on the Commonwealth Bank will clarify your thinking on a nation's right to create and control its own money supply. Read about the essential nature of human associations and their interrelated systems of Sociology and Economics. Peter Lock has drawn on the works of C.H. Douglas, D.J. Amos, Paul Hellyer and Michael Rowbottom. "The Great Harlot" ... $15.00 posted

"Hilaire Belloc" by Anthony Cooney. An introduction to this celebrated thinker and writer. He challenged the state on social and economic issues by contending that the dignity of man as a rational being require both freedom and security. The reader comes to realise the importance of the interpretation and writing of history. Douglas said 'history is the crystalisa-tion of politics'. "Hilaire Belloc" ... $6.50 posted.

"One Sword at Least – G.K. Chesterton" by Anthony Cooney. Readers are challenged to discover Chesterton for them-selves; a man who, in his time, withstood the attacks of both capitalism and socialism. A very moving story. "One Sword at Least – G.K. Chesterton" ... $8.00 posted.