THE AUSTRALIAN STATES AND THE PRIVY COUNCIL

"The Victorian Premier, Mr. Hamer, last night said the issue of abolishing Australian appeals to the Privy Council was only 'a straw in the wind"'. - The Australian, June 4th.

In last week's issue of ON TARGET was an item headed - "Privy Council Loss Could Destroy Federal System": and this is the nucleus of the whole issue. Mr. Hamer realises this all too well himself, for he has said "the real issue was an attempt by the Federal Government to grab wide powers without consulting the States". Fortunately, the attempt by the Canberra Socialists to by-pass the Australian Constitution with respect to State sovereignties is meeting with stiff opposition from the various States, and Mr. Hamer's solid victory in the recent Victorian elections, primarily a reaction against Canberra's indecent Socialist haste, will further stiffen them.

Mr. Hamer has commented, "The main purpose of this (U.K.) trip is to keep in the hands of the Australian people the decisions about their own future and defeat this crude attempt to by-pass all consultation or agreements." Mr. Whitlam, with consummate arrogance, has asked the British Government to ignore State Premiers' petitions over States' rights.

We are in agreement with the Victorian Deputy Premier, Mr. Lindsay Thompson, who remarked that Mr. Whitlam's request to the British Government illustrated one of the best reasons for keeping a form of appeal to the Privy Council. We are most definitely not in agreement with the Federal Liberal frontbencher, Mr. D. J. Killen, who had quite a deal to say about Australia's Privy Council links in a featured article in The Australian (June 1st). Mr. Killen has become what is now known as a "political pragmatist" it is the "in" thing for a politician to be. Principles and absolutes are now right "out", and "pragmatism" and "political realism" are right "in". It is only one jump from this attitude; this concept, to "whatever advances the revolution is right". No wonder the Communists insist upon the propagation of atheism and the attack upon all religion; for from religion comes the awareness of moral values, eternal truths, which, when enacted into Law, do provide the individual with inviolable rights. "Without religion there can be no morality, and without morality there can be no Law".

Mr. Killen, as with so many of the new 'in' breed of politicians these days, evidences a proficient display of the "new pragmatism ' in the above-mentioned article. Writing on the Privy Council issue he observes, "The mood of this country plainly is in favour of Australia fashioning its own conditions and institutions. A political cause which is not prepared to respond to that mood is an irrelevance, and will be treated as such by the Australian electorate."
He adds his coup de grace with "The merit or otherwise of keeping the way open for appeals from State courts to the Privy Council is no longer the dominant issue. It is the method of abolishing the appeals which is the chief argument."

So there. Well, the trendy small "l" Liberals may think this way, and the Fabian Socialists and the Communists most certainly do, but we don't, the State Premiers don't; and we believe that the majority of the Australian people don't wish the sovereignty of the States to be eroded by the Canberra Socialists. It is, however, a fact that there is some degree of confusion concerning the real value of the Australian Constitution, and Federalism, among Australians, but the obvious answer is to provide much-needed education on these fundamental bases of Australian government and Law not abolish them.

The major body of opinion now being gathered by the Australian Heritage Society from its current Heritage campaign indicates that Australians at large want no change at all in Australia's constitutional system. We are of the opinion that the "irrelevances ' to which Mr. Killen refers may turn out to be not the forlorn political causes among which he obviously numbers States' rights, but indeed the "with it", trendy, politicians themselves who take a "pragmatic" stand on issues such as the Privy Council appeals, and are so "mod" that they cannot be encumbered by anything so wearisome as a principle - in this instance, decentralization of government.

We can do no better than to quote the remarks of the Premier of N.S.W. on the Privy Council and States' Rights:
"Party politics aside. I think it is necessary to have an outside authority beyond the High Court...Otherwise it would be possible for any Government in the future to stack the High Court (our emphasis) with politically sympathetic judges...(This has been done in the U.S.A.Ed.) ... This could allow a future Federal Government to take away States' rights.... There is safety in the divided rule of the present system which would he lost if power were centralised in Canberra and the High Court… If power became centralised it could lead to a republican situation. " Exactly!

THE SEATS OF LEARNING: SOCIALIST STYLE

"Universities should play a greater role as organs of public service, the Prime Minister. Mr. Whitlam, said yesterday." - The Australian, June 2nd.

Mr. Whitlam spoke at a dinner given by the Harward Club of Australia. He said that he would like to see universities take part more readily in the solution of problems. So would we. What about a start on the subject of inflation? What would the chances be of the academics in the various Political Science faculties instructing their students that economic centralism forces political centralism and that political centralism takes place only with the erosion of the freedom of the individual? About nil, we'd say!

Never has so much technological knowledge been available in human history; never before have so many students been regurgitated from universities; and never before have Our Western societies been fragmenting at such a rate; and never before have our universities been used as training grounds for revolutionaries as they are now. So something is wrong somewhere; universities have been with us for many centuries, and yet our world is becoming a worse place to live in. Never before has there been such tyranny on a global scale; and poverty in what the economists and the parroting politicians term the "affluent society". Billions of dollars are spent on wars, which the politicians will not allow the generals to win. Billions of dollars are tossed into outer space, yet some old men and women go cold and hungry; some young children suffer from malnutrition as they grow up on over-processed, devitalised foods, locked in high-rise "caves" all day, as their mothers are ejected by economic necessity from their homes into factories in order to keep up with the cost of living.

We would not 'blame" universities for this state of affairs; we do maintain that the products of our universities are having no effect on the situation. We do agree with Mr. Whitlam when he says: "It remains a matter of conjecture whether free universities as we know them will survive in the twenty-first century". But we are sure that our reasons for thinking so would be far different to those of Mr. Whitlam's.

However, we can only shake our heads in wonder and sadness when Mr. Whitlam says: "They (universities) will be man's chief ally in the struggle to preserve our freedom and our species, from destruction." So far from this being the case, the universities of the Western world are belching forth streams of teachers, political "scientists", economists, sociologists etc. by the tens of thousands; many if not the majority, infected with a collectivist concept of society; many atheistic; many Marxist. The economists are drilled into swearing blind allegiance to Keynes and his system of economics (which has taken his name) the application of which makes certain the triumph of State Capitalism (i.e. Socialism).

We recall that President Nixon is now devoted to Keynesian economics - we think his devotion will wear thin as he is confronted with the inevitable and ensuing wave of inflation as a result of his mammoth deficit Budgets, au Keynes! It can be argued whether or not there is any point in turning out more and more graduates, especially in the social "sciences", whose training is oriented towards a collectivist society, the very nature of which conflicts with that freedom of the individual which Mr. Whitlam says he relishes.

MR. CREAN SOLDIERS ON

"The Federal Treasurer, Mr. Crean, is flying to Paris for the annual ministerial conference of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development." - The Australian, June 4th.

Mr. Crean is superbly confident that he holds the Australian economy with a firm rein. His moment of truth" will come with his August Budget, for we find it difficult to foresee that taxation, direct and indirect, will not be increased. The wave of inflation from Mr. Snedden's $600-odd million deficit Budget (1972) augmented by the cost of Mr. Whitlam's handouts are already backing Mr. Crean into a fiscal corner. He is closing many taxation loopholes; e.g. the Life Insurance dodge; the mining shares "escape route": and Collins and Pitt Streets farmers ' foxholes. But will these be enough to prevent general taxation increases by the Treasury? We strongly doubt it.

Mr. Crean is scornful of those economists who claim that inflation is part and parcel of the modern finance-economic system. Such as economist is Professor Paul Samuelson, recently in Australia, and a Nobel Prize winner in economic "science". We are sure that Professor Samuelson will be most upset by Mr. Crean's scorn. Incidentally we share Professor Samuelson's view on this particular matter. Mr. Crean is sure that inflation can be contained and cured; but he does not tell us in what ways. He says that economists who make assertions such as the one above are more interested in pushing their particular theories than in doing anything constructive concerning the problem of inflation.

Mr. Crean's centralist slip showed when he gave his opinion of the six Australian States' representatives and their protests in London concerning the States' rights issue; he said - "They should behave like Australians, and not six snapping States." Our comment is that they ARE behaving like good Australians; better Australians by far than the Socialists in Canberra who are doing their all to destroy Australian federalism, and with it decentralisation of the powers of government, which principle, when applied, is in itself a protection for the rights and freedom of the individual.

It must always be remembered that governments increase their powers only at the expense of the individual; the more power which a government has usurped - the less power (control of his own affairs) has the individual. The Whitlams, and Cairnses, and Casses, and Camerons of this world don't think this way. Such men believe that they can do all manner of wonderful things for their fellow man if only they have the power; and no doubt Mr. Crean feels this way also.

However, he shall be put to the test in the near future as he finds that his own pet economic theories will not produce the cures and remedies for the further blast of inflation that is heading towards the Australian economy. Mr. Crean has said that he doesn't trust public opinion polls - he was asked to comment on a very recent public opinion poll which showed a 6% slump in the popularity of the "Labor" Government. We don't hold that these public opinion polls are always infallible; but we are willing to wager that this particular poll is fairly accurate, Mr. Crean asserted "I'm sure that if you took one in six months time it would show Labor ahead again." Obviously, Mr. Crean is in for some nasty shocks as the economy snaps back at him, as he himself sees the States snapping at Canberra.

BASIC FUND

Please continue to send in the donations to the Basic Fund. Many of those who have left their donations to the "last minute" are now forwarding same to the League. The Fund will be filled; however, a big sweep at the target will allow the League to do some extra planning, and to be that much "bolder". A fuller report will be given in the ON TARGET in a week or two, after we have finalized the accounting of the Fund.

BOOKS: Keynes at Harvard - by Zygmund Dobbs. Chapters include - Fabian Socialism, American Fabianism, J. M. Keynes, The General Theory, Keynesianism a Socialist Manoeuvre. Price -$2.24, post-free.
TEDDY BARE: The Last of the Kennedy Clan: by Zad Pust. A full and searching examination of the Chappaquiddick affair of July, 1969 involving Senator Edward Kennedy; the mysterious "drowning" of a girl, and a political scandal that was hushed up. Price $3.24.
FABIAN FREEWAY: The High Road to Socialism in the U.S.A., by Rose L. Martin, A few copies of this classic have become available. Price $2.20, post free.

All books from Box 1052J, G.P.O. Melbourne, Vic. 3001 .

ON TARGET BULLETIN

Major Factors Causing Deficiency of Purchasing Power: Growing Mountain of Debt