THE NEW SOUTH WALES STATE ELECTIONS

"The lesson is for him (Mr. Fraser) to start taking more notice of public concern with unemployment levels and to stop pretending to give tax cuts with one hand then imposing tax surcharges with the other, Mr. Wran said." The Sun, Melbourne, October 9th.

If Mr. Fraser really does think that the sweeping victory at the polls, gained by Mr. Neville Wran, the N.S.W. Premier, last Saturday was merely a personal victory, then he is deceiving himself cruelly. With consummate arrogance, or ignorance, or both, Mr. Fraser further observed that Mr. Wran's victory was possible only because of the financial policies of the Fraser Government. Yes, the mind boggles!
However, reality always does eventually break through, and this is that, although Mr. Wran has a good image, this had but a marginal effect on the N.S.W. Elections result.

There is no doubt in our minds that the vote was yet another rebuff to the Fraser Government particularly on the issue of unemployment. Other issues are quite clear-cut, and have been commented on by the political journalists of the media. Michelle Grattan, of The Age (Melbourne) picked up the point about Mr. Fraser's Achilles Heel, his massive backbench. We have often referred to this: we agree with her that Mr. Fraser's massive backbench - already restive - could become even more so. We think it will.
Then there is the effect of the N.S.W. vote on the imminent Ballarat Province by-election, and it must have some effect against Mr. Hamer's Government. Whilst on this point, Mr. Hamer's Government, we wish to comment on the sneaky manner in which both the Victorian Liberal and Labor Parties are attempting to evade the issue of public hostility in the Ballarat district to Fluoridation. Their "line" is that Fluoridation may be delayed until there is another "inquiry".

Those who oppose Fluoridation are not interested "inquiries" - they are interested in a referendum of local citizens on whether Fluoridation comes in, or stays out! An "inquiry" is a weak attempt to dodge the issue, as both the Liberals and the A.L.P. are committed to Fluoridation. We trust that our many Ballarat supporters will not be deceived by this "inquiry" ploy, and will insist on a referendum: "Yes" or "No" to Fluoridation!

We must agree, again, with Michelle Grattan, of The Age (Melbourne) who thinks that the Victorian Liberals will hit the panic button if there is a significant swing against them in Ballarat; and this in turn will rebound off Mr. Hamer onto Mr. Fraser - thus stirring the Fraser backbench up still further. We feel sorry for Mr. Peter Coleman, the former Leader of the N.S.W. Opposition, who has lost his seat in the N.S.W. Parliament. He's a decent fellow, but the victim of political forces are far too strong for him. The greatest overall effect of the N.S.W. Elections may well be the extra nails, which have been driven into Mr. Fraser's coffin.

FROM BRITISH 'ON TARGET' (23rd September '78)

"Vigilia" reports
"Wherever one opens the paper these days one sees calls by politicians and trade union leaders for early retirement. The universally accepted background is that unemployment is here to stay, and that a great part of the population must expect never to work (our emphasis). The reality of the situation, however, is that so-called unemployment is a self-inflicted wound, even when looked at from the point of view of 'orthodox economics'.
Jobs lost through an uncontrolled flood of imports; jobs lost as a result of joining the Common Market; jobs lost to the flood of immigrants; jobs lost in small businesses forced to contract or close down by the economic policies of the last ten years; jobs unfilled because our educational system does not produce job seekers with the necessary skills to perform them; jobs lost because their end products can no longer be afforded by a people impoverished by Common Market entry and heavy taxation - this is the reality of unemployment.
"To all this must of course be added the deliberate creation of Western unemployment as part of the One Worlder design - enthusiastically supported by the main British political parties to transfer jobs to the Third World as part of the 'looting of the West"'.

Council on Foreign Relations
"This U.S. body of top politicians and businessmen, founded in 1919 to promote a One World Collectivist State has effectively controlled all U.S. governments since 1932. Nearly all candidates and virtually all-key Cabinet members have been C.F.R. members.
"In recent years the C.F.R.'s power has been so exposed in journals like On Target that a new strategy has emerged, to portray the C.F.R. as a bunch of has beens and thus to divert attention from them. Newsweek (March 28th, 1977) reported: 'Since the end of World War II, U.S. foreign policy has been dominated by... the C.F.R....of late even some of the Council's elders have grown alarmed by a sense of the Organisation's waning influence ... the Trilateral Commission ...is... the real supply depot for the Carter Administration.'
"What is the reality? David Rockefeller founded the Trilateral Commission, another One World group, and is Chairman of the C.F.R. When Carter replaced Ford the C.F.R. men left twelve Cabinet key posts, including Treasury, Secretary of State, and National Security, and these were replaced by twelve other C.F.R. men! (end of British On Target items.)

WHAT GOES ON IN NICARAGUA?

To most Australians Nicaragua is a little republic somewhere in the Americas; if they have heard of it at all. There has been news of some sort of fighting there - probably some little dictator trying to oust some other little dictator: you know what it's like in South America! But there's much more to it than that. Weekly Review (U.K. October 4th) gives quite a deal of inside information concerning the "trouble" there. Because of limitations of space we are able to quote only briefly from the article, but this should be enough to provide supporters with the general picture.

"Using the ... Sandinista National Liberation Front as its armed spearhead against the Republic of Nicaragua, Havana (Cuba) strategists expected to topple the Government of President Anasatasio Somoza Debayle by the end of November and replace it with a coalition front under firm Marxist control. Embattled Nicaragua has been fighting for its life and the fate of Central America is hinged on the final outcome of desperate fighting, much of which is yet to come following the recent 12 day 'civil war' which cost approximately 1,500 lives...
"American intelligence has confirmed that at least 600 F.S.L.N. guerillas have been trained at the Minas de Frio training camp in the mountains of Eastern Cuba. Instruction for the guerillas included commando type raids, road ambushes, sabotage, demolitions, arson methods, and Communist agitprop techniques. By September 1978 at least 500 of these F.S.L.N. insurgents had been infiltrated into Nicaragua in groups of approximately twenty, many entering through Costa Rica. It was largely this group, which provided the hard-core revolutionists who staged the teenage uprisings in Managua, Granada, Penas Blancas, Masaya, Leon, Chinadega, and Esteli on, or shortly after September 8th. At least 100 more F.S.L.N. guerillas are in Cuba awaiting deployment for action inside Nicaragua, tentatively scheduled for November." (end of quote).

BRIEF COMMENTS

Mrs. Barbara Treloar, the authoress of Fleeced ($2.45 posted from all League offices) recently had a letter published in a Queensland newspaper. She said in part:... "In particular, we (the Wool Owners Organisational Lobby) are concerned that the dominant and electorally immune Treasury influence is not conducive to retaining representative government in Australia. "In recent times, beginning with the Bolshevik Revolution, deliberate political policies to aggravate inflation, unemployment and high taxation have been employed to create pre-revolutionary conditions. There are alternative policies. "It is the essence of democracy that we ensure that our institutions serve us to increase our freedom and security...."

Mr. John Bennett, the Secretary of the Victorian Civil Liberties Council says that Australia is slowly becoming a "snoopy" society. He listed as evidence:
the 1976 Census
abuses of privacy by the media
exchanges of computerised information between private and public agencies
and others.
We were especially interested to read his remarks on journalists and privacy; viz, that "investigative journalism" often was, in fact, an invasion of privacy. We have all witnessed the spectacle of T.V. current affairs prima donnas getting away with flagrant invasions of privacy, when what they really needed was something more robust and old fashioned!

Mr. J. Bjelke-Petersen has been giving the World Council of Churches some well-deserved scrutiny. As quoted in the Toowoomba Chronicle (Sept.27th). The W.C.C. has just given a grant of $15,000 to the Nth. Queensland Land Council to combat racism. Mr. Bjelke-Petersen said the grant was an exercise in deception, as the Nth. Qld. Land Council was a self-elected group of extremists. He went on: .."The Council has no official standing and has been repudiated by the Aboriginal people, the Qld. Government, and the Federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Mr. Ian Viner."