DEATH AND WEALTH TAXES LINKED TO GST REFORMS

by Betty Luks
Last March 3rd, 2000, On Target republished a letter "Death Tax Linked to GST" which first appeared in The West Australian (February 3rd) by a Frank Starcevich. Mr. Starcevich claimed that tucked away in the fine detail of A New Tax System was legislation that would lead to death duties and wealth taxes through the proposed taxing of trusts as companies. The legislation is known as "Entity Taxation".

He wrote, "Money left in a long-term trust through a will to protect assets on the possible divorce of children attracts 47 per cent tax on the estate when paid to children. A husband and wife leaving the home to the children with the surviving spouse entitled to live in it is taxed at 47 percent of the rent value of the home. Allowing a family member to live in a house owned by a trust company is also 47 percent of the rent value."
(On March 10th we wrote of "Option 2" which will be according to the Australian Financial Review, 27-28/11/1999, a fundamental change to the method of calculating income tax, but more on that another time).

The accuracy of Mr. Starcevich's letter was questioned by a reader so we then published material from a speech by Kelvin Thompson MHR (Hansard, 8/6/1999), in which he quotes the then Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer as saying, "he would not support any crackdown on trusts that amounted to a defacto reintroduction of death duties."

The matter quietened down because of the uproar of the GST and aftermath. It has now come to the fore again as the National Farmers Federation Council. Farm Weekly, 23/11/2000, "...called for the government to withdraw the Entities' Taxation proposals, saying the approach being taken is draconian..." According to NFF president Ian Donges, "In reality, it is a wealth tax and actually taxes unrealised gains...In fact, including unrealised gains under the 'profits first' rule will mean double taxation."

PGA economics chairman, Lynne Johnston said, "The Federal Government, prompted by the Ralph Review into taxation reform, is attacking discretionary family trusts as if they were tax avoidance vehicles, when they are merely common-sense arrangements that protect the structure of the farm business."
She went on to say, "The Government is putting budget surplus records and debt reduction in front of the livelihoods of many small business operators."

It would seem Mr. Starecevich was not wrong in his original assessment!

Question
When are these farmers going to wake up to the fact that in the scheme of things they are meant for the scrap heap and taxation is a means of accomplishing this? Why on earth do they still put their faith in the National Party, or, for that matter, the National Farmers Federation? A wealth tax and death duties are policies straight from the socialists' manifesto! When are these people going to come to grips with the fact that under the present financial regime further taxes are absolutely certain - as certain as night will follow the day.

Instead of the oppressive taxes under which we labour, the citizens of this country should be receiving dividends! But this is not going to happen until the people understand the proposals of Social Credit and want them strongly enough to insist upon them.

THE PROBLEM OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

Another serious problem is the Christian Church's response to social matters. How many times, having approached your minister of religion to ask questions about government agendas and/or financial policies, have you been met with indifference, even hostility? The root of this problem lies in an idea that the Churches accepted long ago, that is, that the organised Church is to be concerned with the person and his 'salvation' only - not with social matters. This implies that the source of all social disorder and the present social disasters are in unregenerate man and any corporate social action is futile.

The consequences of this view are all around us. The idea is stated thus:
human conduct cannot be changed without first changing human nature, i.e., changing men's hearts'. That men are responsible for their actions as individuals is a certain teaching of Christianity, but is not Peter Costello responsible for the decisions he makes as the Federal Treasurer? Is he not responsible for the policies he pursues as a Liberal politician? If the system he participates in is wrong, surely it is the system that must be changed?

We were told we cannot serve God and Mammon ... Mammon is a system, a man-made system!

The Church has failed to recognise the role of mechanisms
A consequence of this view, which is very important, is the idea that there is nothing wrong with our Social Mechanisms and that if men were only good enough these mechanisms would work perfectly. Tell that to the man who has taken his poorly performing car to a technician. If only he was good enough, the car would run perfectly!

We are responsible
We must recognise that no matter how good-hearted and well intentioned we think we are, good intentions alone are not enough! We are responsible for the woes that are befalling us. We have not taken the time and the trouble to understand the ways in which the Social Mechanisms are set up and operate towards these evil ends. Just as metals can be used to produce either a plough or a gun, so systems can be designed to either serve man or control him.

Another fatal omission of the Christian Church
Another omission of the Church of the 20th century is that it has failed to appreciate the role, and investigate the objectives, of the Social Mechanisms. Some questions that could be put to the Church are: "Why lay down that the State must 'consult the common good' and 'safeguard private property' when the money mechanism makes these objectives impossible?"
"Why does the Church go on condemning usury, which it has done for the best part of 2000 years, while the Churches themselves are inescapably committed to it?"
As an example, Thomas Robertson claimed (Human Ecology) the Vatican has a large portion of its capital in the form of Italian Government fixed-interest bearing-bonds, which constitute the most grievous form of usury. Just in case you think I am targeting the Catholic Church only, I refer the reader to an article circulated by the Christian Alternative Movement last April. "Crucified Bank Customers at St. Paul's Cathedral": "This Maundy Thursday a full scale crucifix will be erected outside St. Paul's Cathedral and victims of banking malpractice from the various British high street banks will get up on the cross to graphically protest about the way they treat their customers. The Church of England owns more than £ billion of high street bank shares. Furious customers ... will launch a campaign to persuade the Church ...to either take responsibility for the actions of the banks they own or divest themselves from them completely..." (emphasis added).

But, as was said last week: AUSTRALIA IS WAKING UP!
As the dollar sinks, the GST bites, the Foreign Debt spins out of control and our children lose their way, the big crunch is fast approaching. But, all of a sudden, things are beginning to happen! Dick Smith is drawing big crowds and hurting the multinationals; communities are opening their own banks when the 'gang-of-four' pull out of town; there is a major revolt against party-politicians; corruption in high-places is being exposed; Left and Right are crossing boundaries and beginning to work together - in fact Australians - are fighting back! And the League of Rights and its supporters will be there; involved with those who are fighting back!

MORE DANGEROUS LEGISLATION WITH WIDER SCOPE

by Geoff Muirden
There are very real dangers in the so-called "Racial and Religious Tolerance" bill to be presented to Parliament next year by Victorian Premier, Steve Bracks, which would enable anyone to become an informer" reporting on people acting in any politically incorrect way in the "privacy" of their own homes. This could enable any visitor or member of the household to report what was said or done, and what was even more chilling was the comment in the Herald Sun, Thursday. 7/12/2000, item headed "Abuse ban in homes", written by Felicity Dargan, that, "defences might not be available to persons accused of vilification" which immediately opens the door to wrong and lying accusations which could not be disproved, since "truth is no defence", which is the case with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.

The entire bill, in its form as suggested in that article is totalitarian and Communist in its nature and intent, seeking to abolish privacy and establish a spy state, where rules of evidence to even prove statements made about people would be abolished. It is a disgrace that such a bill can even be considered and should already have been thrown out because of its oppressive nature.
One particular significant comment was that by a Steven Moore, that fisheye cameras in black boxes and modern digital TV cameras already have the capacity to spy on users. So while you are watching TV, the TV is watching you, just as in 1984".

Those reading this are invited to get in touch with Victorian Premier Steve Bracks, Member for Williamstown, by his address, or send a phone call, fax or e-mail to oppose this evil legislation.

Steve Bracks works at 1 Treasury Place, East Melbourne, 3002; phone (03) 9651 5000; fax (03) 9651 5298.
Home page: https://www.premier.vic.gov.au and e-mail: steve.bracks@parliament. vic.gov.au
Or contact his electoral office at: 101 Douglas Parade,Williamstown, Vic., 3016, phone (03) 9399 9022; fax (03) 9397 7227.

Dr. Denis Napthine, Leader of the Opposition can be contacted at www.robertclark.net

Further to the above Herald Sun article, John Masanauskas, Herald Sun, 11/12/2000, explains that Racists (are) to face prison according to the proposed legislation. "'Victorians could face jail for inciting racial hatred under legislation being considered by the State Government. In the meantime, the government will spend $l million consulting the public on the need for racial vilification laws..."
It seems Mr. Bracks told ethnic media representatives "the states rich ethnic diversity requires racial vilification laws".

One would think if 'the rich ethnic diversity' was the resounding success the multiculturalists would have us believe, there would not be a need to legally force Australians 'to shut up'! Certain groups, including the Catholic' Church have opposed the proposed law "for fear that it might stifle genuine debate on religious issues.'

WIELDING THE AXE OF BITTERNESS

Peace on earth, goodwill to all men?

Israelis chop down Palestinians' precious olive trees, insisting it is retaliation for rocks being hurled at settlers. The Palestinian villagers heard the power saws at midnight, racketing up the stony terraces to the hill-perched village of Hares. It is where Joshua, the Hebrew conqueror of Canaan in the Old Testament, is buried in ancient Samaria, on the modern West Bank, the 'Timnath Heres" of Joshua 33:29.

When Mr. Abed Daoud Jaber, 76, awoke the next morning, he found he was ruined. More than 400 olive trees were cut down by the Israeli army along the highway leading to three Jewish settlements. At least 110 were his. His entire olive orchard lay felled on the stone-strewn ground. "Where is God?" the old man screamed, gesturing with his cane as villagers tried to calm him. 'They cut down trees my grandfather tended! Trees hundreds of years old! I depend on my trees completely.... What will I eat now? What will I drink?"

"He is become without a brain since he saw this," said Nasfat Khufash, who belongs to a rural development committee in the vicinity. "He was sitting in the middle of the road, crying, this morning." The twisted trunks of the massacred trees rose as branchless spikes from the loamy brown earth. One, about 8 inches in diameter, revealed more than 70 growth rings when the sawdust was brushed off its surface. Lopped olive branches lay in heaps, their feathery silver-green leaves rustling in the breeze, beneath a sky as blue as a gas flame.

The destroyed trees lent an air of Old Testament wrath to the 2-month-old struggle between Israelis and Palestinians. So far, more than 280 have been killed, all but 35 of them Palestinians. Even olive trees have become targets in the cycle of provocation and reprisal.' Some 4,495 olive trees had been cut down as of November 9th, according to figures kept by the Palestinian National Authority's Ministry of Environmental Affairs.

Hares is in the West Bank, which was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel has established more than 150 Jewish settlements in the occupied territory. The village has been road blocked by the Israeli army, preventing people from taking olives to market or to oil presses outside the village, Khufash said. Losses from destroyed, rotted or unpicked crops in Palestinian areas amount to $120 million this year, according to the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction. Jewish settlers driving past the felled trees yelled insults at foreign reporters.

"What are you doing here, you rubbish?" one shouted. 'Take pictures! Take pictures!" called another, sarcastically. Interviewed later, the settlers complained angrily that Hares village children were throwing stones at their cars as they passed by, using the olive groves for cover. One settler showed a deep dent on his van just above the windshield. Another came over, cursing, and tried to kick in the car window of the reporters' vehicle, just for talking to the aggrieved Palestinians.

But the villagers were angry, too. They said the army's response was a devastating blow, out of proportion to the situation and punishing adults for the actions of children. They took reporters to a site 100 yards from the highway, where 20 trees had been cut down, seemingly too far from the road to serve any security purpose. An olive tree in these parts is like an interest-bearing bank account, yielding up to 35 pounds of fruit year after year. Olive harvesting is a time honored family ritual. The velvety-purple fruit is knocked off branches with sticks, or plucked from ladders onto underlying tarpaulins by stroking each leafy branch gently.

One farmer, Abdullah Hamed Suleiman, 62, who lost 71 trees to Israeli chain saws Thursday, said the destroyed trees represented $ 4,000 a year in income, from olive oil he sells to Jordan. "For us Palestinians, an olive tree is exactly like a son," Khufash said. "It is not a matter of money. You do not sell your son for money.''

Distraught at their loss - the villagers said more than 1,000 olive trees had been cut down in recent months - the settlers invited reporters, over coffee and orange sodas, to hear them spin theories about the olive tree massacre and vent their wrath against the Israeli settlers who live in neat, barracks-like apartments on hilltops throughout the region. Three settlements, Ariel, Revava and Burkan are near Hares, and settlers must pass beneath the village on their way to and from work. "The olive trees gave us food. Now they are only fit for the fire," said Nawaf Suf. "We believe they want to deprive us of our livelihood, drive us off the land and make common laborers of us, so we have to go to the cities and work for Israelis."

When old Jaber escorted reporters to his ruined grove, he collapsed in a pile of lopped branches and moaned. At precisely this moment, Yona Shay, a 31-year-old Jewish settler who sells plumbing fixtures for a living, pulled over beside the road and began arguing with the Palestinians. The odds - eight of them, just one of him - didn't seem to faze him. "There are a minimum of 100 stones being thrown every day from beside this highway. By now 200 cars have been hit with stones," Shay said. "Men, women and children have been injured by these stones. ... I didn't cut down any trees myself, but I would have if I could have." The old man clambered across the ditch and went chin-to-chin with Shay. "It is as if you cut my throat!" he shouted. "If someone gives you a punch, do you turn the other cheek?" Shay answered calmly. "If we get hurt, we have damage, we have to do something back."

In the nearby settlement of Revava, a 38-year-old computer repairman named Yitzhak Hillel defended the army's destruction of the olive trees. "We spoke to the army many times about the stone-throwing, and they did nothing. My feeling is, every time I come back home from work, I feel like a duck in a shooting gallery."

An hour before sunset, the rock throwing resumed. The minarets of Palestinian villages glimmered white at the summits of the brown hills, which rolled into a wide wasteland of rocks, tufted here and there with olive groves. Two squads of Israeli soldiers took up positions along the highway and began firing sporadically as rocks landed on the road. Just past the stretch of lopped trees, a large white stone caromed defiantly off the asphalt a few yards in front of the reporter's car.
© MER MID-EAST Realities by Michael Browning, Larry Kaplow, Cox News Service.

POLITICIANS ARE OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY

The "Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition" (West Australia) Bill 1999 has been in the WA Parliament for over a year and was near finalisation in November when the WA Greens realised it posed a threat to that State's very strict quarantine laws. Dr. Christine Sharp MLC disclosed that independent legal advice provided to the Greens was that the passage of the bill would make it extremely difficult for WA to use its own quarantine laws to prevent importation of New Zealand apples if the Federal Government endorsed the proposed importation protocol being circulated by "Biosecurity Australia".

Biosecurity Australia's draft import risk analysis has caused alarm throughout all States; the lifting of the 80-year-old ban on the importation of NZ apples into Australia will make contamination of Australian apple and pear orchards and other plants with Fire Blight only a matter of time. "Moreover" Dr Sharp said, "the scope of the trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Bill goes much wider to all biological contaminants and may pose a serious threat to other agricultural industries."

Those who want to know more can contact Dr. Sharp on 9764 1440/327