SWISS CONCEPT 'CATCHES ON' IN CANADA

Eric D. Butler reports
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney continues to enrage the great majority of Canadians by insisting that he is going to impose the General Services Tax (G.S.T.) whether the people like it or not. Even a proposed amendment to the legislation, excluding books and magazines from the G.S.T. is being rejected, the government claiming that any amendments can be made later after the legislation is in place. But it is certain that once the G.S.T. is introduced, there will be no amendments, except those designed to increase the rate of tax.

But there is a ray of light in the situation: The Federal Government's attitude is helping to generate increasing interest in the adoption of at least some features of the Swiss system of the electors' veto. Independent Western Canadian M.P. Mr. Alex Kindy, from Calgary, Alberta, has moved a private Members Bill at Ottawa, seeking an amendment to the Canadian Constitution to permit electors to initiate binding referenda on any matter falling under federal jurisdiction. Kindy is a former Conservative M.P. who was expelled from the Conservative Party after representing the clearly expressed views of his electors by opposing the G.S.T.

In moving his bill Kindy stressed what is now generally accepted throughout the English-speaking democratic countries: The traditional parliamentary system has broken down and is so far removed from the needs and interests of the voter that it requires an overhaul. The most significant reaction to Kindy's bill was that the two major Canadian parties, the Conservatives and the Liberals, united in strongly opposing it. In spite of their conflicts concerning who should govern Canada, the major parties reject any proposals that would enable the electors to break up their cosy little world in which they take turns in exercising almost complete power.

Mr. Kindy said, "We have a system which, in effect, places our leaders for a period of five years in a position that is quasi-dictatorial. In Canada we need a system of checks and balances. This can be provided by a direct poll of people, a referendum process." He went on to say that party solidarity snuffs out individual initiative observing, "If you trust people, you'd be amazed at how good the judgment of the average person is".

Government opponents of the Kindy proposal made the astonishing claim that there was nothing wrong with the present system, the Liberal Opposition also agreeing, claiming that the only problem was the policies of the Conservative Government, and that all would be well if the Liberals were in office!

While the major parties easily crushed the Kindy bill in the House of Commons at Ottawa, the moving of the bill has resulted in a growing discussion across the nation. Ugly incidents in Ontario, where militant English speaking activists oppose the imposition of compulsory bilingualism, and the unrest in French speaking Quebec, are focusing increasing attention upon the urgent necessity for the adoption of the basic principles of the Swiss system in Canada - if the nation is to hold together. Genuine unity is only possible through decentralisation and diversity. The Kindy move is a significant contribution to a growing grassroots movement across Canada. I have yet to meet one person on my current lecture tour who does not agree that Canada needs a major constitutional change to avoid disaster.

MIDDLE EAST MYSTERY UNRAVELS

from Jeremy Lee
Following the recent "On Target" report concerning the United States Ambassador April Glaspie’s discussion with Saddam Hussein prior to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, comes further revelations. The Australian (November 9th, 1990) reported: "The United States was aware Iraq was planning a significant political move four months before the invasion of Kuwait, a leading authority on the Middle East, David Pryce-Jones, has claimed. Pryce-Jones, a British author, journalist and academic, said his information was based on U.S. reports that claimed President Bush and the U.S. Secretary of State, Mr. James Baker, had met in April to discuss suggestions that a military move was about to start in Iraq. But the silence from the U.S. had led the President of Iraq, Mr. Saddam Hussein, to presume he had tacit approval to proceed with the invasion...."

As our previous report showed, it was not simply silence from the U.S. President Bush's Ambassador in Iraq, April Glaspie, was instructed by James Baker to convey to Hussein the information that the U.S. was "not concerned" with any dispute between Iraq and Kuwait. It is the same James Baker who is currently trying to drum up sufficient support from the national leaders whose troops are currently supporting the U.S. in Saudi Arabia to launch the first strike.
He is being urged on by Israel, who is facing an embarrassing new bout of publicity as a result of its defiant Palestinian population, now threatening to alienate those Islamic nations supporting America, and also from a previous U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, whose article in The Australian (November 5th) stridently called for military action. It seems increasingly clear that Hussein was implicitly given the "go ahead" for his invasion by devious U.S. leaders who were looking for a scapegoat in an even grander design.

The Victorian Certificate of Education

by Barry Tattersall
"For many years the West has been trivialising the curricula of its schools. Australia, usually the last to follow any current fashion and always determined not to learn the lessons of overseas experience, has finally caught up. "Over the past 20 years or so, we have cluttered our school programmes with many new subjects, usually locally developed and providing a knee-jerk reaction to some topical social issue. In most schools, these new courses were correctly identified as being of less academic rigor and less suitable for preparation for tertiary education. At the very least, competition for tertiary places was based on the results of competitive external examinations in the more academic subjects.

"But now Victoria, under the influence of the Socialist Left and its 'equality of outcome' philosophy, has institutionalised the trivia by the introduction of the Victorian Certificate of Education (V.C.E.). "This certificate is awarded to all students who participate in the final two years of secondary schooling, regardless of the subjects studied or their success in them. As long as a student completes the required work assignments, he/she will have satisfactorily completed the course. There will be no discrimination in our education system, thank you!

"All subjects are to have the same value; competitive examinations will be abolished; universities may have to introduce their own entrance exams (and probably remedial numeracy and literacy courses as well!), and able children will be bored, unchallenged and under prepared to gain the most from their future educational opportunities. "Parents will need to oversee their children's education much more thoroughly than they have in the past. They must encourage their children to study the most academic subjects (mathematics, history, etc.) of which they are capable, and to leave the less academic offerings (dance style, media, etc.) to their leisure time.

"Parents must urge their school administrators to use a standard tertiary education admission test to ensure their children are prepared as well for tertiary education as are children from the other States. "A test of this type is already available and is highly regarded both here and overseas. The Scholastic Aptitude Test (S.A.T.) is used in the United States and by teenagers from the U.S. in many countries of the world. It is available in Australia and is widely accepted by Australian Universities.
Many Christian schools in Australia are already using the S.A.T. as a good indicator of educational performance and achievement. "In fact, a sufficiently wide use of the S.A.T. could allow schools to by-pass the V.C.E. altogether for tertiary selection purposes.
"Non-government schools will readily take these precautions on behalf of parents and will prepare their students to the best of their academic potential. However, students at the government schools are the cause of greatest concern, especially those with academic aspirations and ability.

The V.C.E. was designed to be a 'leveler' so that students in these schools, from the working class suburbs particularly, would achieve similar results from their final two years at school, as students from the private schools and from better backgrounds. But this sort of crude social engineering will discriminate against the very students it is supposed to help. Because of the lack of external examinations available to all, from all backgrounds and schools, the name and reputation of a school will determine the response of an employer or tertiary institution to a presenting student under the new system.

"The V.C.E. is just another symptom of a very sick society. Victoria is very ill - financially, socially, politically and educationally. Most of us know this. What we fail to recognise is that we are also spiritually sick, and our spiritual illness is the cause of all our other illnesses.

SUBSIDISING THE SOVIETS

by David Thompson
The Chairman of the Australian Wool Corporation, Mr. Hugh Beggs, believes that a turnaround in the marketing of wool depends upon the Australian Government making lines of credit available to the Soviet Union. The Australian (8/11/90) reported Mr. Beggs as saying that negotiations, with Government approval, were already well under way with the Soviets:
"A.W.C. advice and help to Government has resulted in extensive diplomatic and financial negotiations taking place between Australia and Russia... this will result in a provision of a credit facility similar to that given to Poland some years ago. This would enable Russia to resume wool purchases soon.... "

At what interest rates will the Soviets be offered credits? Mr. Beggs does not say. At the rates available to desperate Australian farmers - 17-22%? Certainly not! If it is possible to make credit available to one of the most brutal regimes that the world has ever seen when it is on its last legs, is it not possible to make credit available to our primary producers to keep them on their properties? Why offer the Soviet Union better interest rates than our own farmers?
Where is the Opposition? Is the Opposition strongly objecting to subsidising the Soviet Union to buy wool, while woolgrowers go broke, because of high interest rates? Is the Opposition demanding that if we can subsidise the Soviets to clothe their children with our wool, then we should first do so for needy Australian children? No, they are not.

Opposition leader John Hewson is reported as endorsing the idea, suggesting that counter trade agreements be established between Australia and the U.S.S.R., with Australia exporting wool, and receiving Soviet goods and services instead. What possible goods could Australia import from the Soviets? Food, perhaps, when the Russian people are at the point of open revolt because of food shortages?

Ask Some Hard Questions
A number of questions should be put to Messrs. Beggs, Hewson, Fischer, McLachlan, etc. What rate of interest will the Soviets pay? Has the Soviet Union yet paid the outstanding account for the last shipment of wool, $153 million? What collateral are the Soviets offering? Is it not true that instead of subsidising the Soviets to "buy" wool for which they may never pay, and for which they have no collateral, we could be subsidising the stockpiling of our own wool? At least we would have the wool for collateral, and the farmers on their properties.

The Future of Wool
The future of the wool industry will not be decided by what happens in the Soviet Union - or Red China. It will be decided by the resourcefulness of Australians. The key to the future is to master the application of finance, before debt, inflation and usury destroy the bush. The most efficient farmers in the world can overcome drought, flood, fire and plague. They shall be beaten only by their failure to understand and apply finance. And of course, by the betrayal of those who claim to speak in their interests.

A YACKANDANDAH ACTIONIST (VIC.) sends us some interesting information. This actionist stated that Gough Whitlam was viewed on T.V. some little time ago addressing some Brisbane supporters of the A.L.P. The matter arose of people being dispossessed of their savings. According to Gough Whitlam, the solution was a simple one. All that was necessary was the proclamation of Part 4 of the Commonwealth Financial Corporation Act. The actionist asks why the so-called Opposition didn't raise the matter. This actionist raised the issue with his Federal Member, who replied: Thank you for your letter enquiring about the Commonwealth Financial Corporations Act passed through Parliament in 1947. "Actually this Bill was passed in 1974. "It is true the Act was designed to give uniform control by the Reserve Bank over all financial institutions right across Australia. "While the Act received the Royal Assent, Part 4 of the Act that dealt with the power of the Reserve Bank over Financial Institutions was never proclaimed. "I have made enquiries as to why this is so and have been informed that it is only because the Government at that time and Governments since that time, have not felt it necessary to give the Reserve Bank these powers …."

'FLEXIBLE' LAWS FOR MINORITIES WILL TEAR AUSTRALIA ASUNDER