AUSTRALIANS ALL LET US REJOICE AND PRAISE THE GST

by Jeremy Lee
Predictably, the Howard government has welcomed the first birthday of the GST with open arms. The Prime Minister himself has urged us not to view it in the short, or even the medium term, but for the long term benefits it will bestow on us. The political eye, apparently, can see further than the jaundiced eye of the man and woman in the street, which is inclined to take results at their face value.

And the results are foreboding. Nobody, including the politicians, claim that it has made taxation 'simpler'. The most creative spin-doctor can no longer get away with that one. As far as the 'black' economy is concerned it has, contrary to Costello's predictions, burgeoned. The Weekend Australian (30/6-1/7/01) reported:
"Small operators and householders are the true culprits of the $76 billion black economy, and the GST is letting them avoid more, not less tax, the first expert report into the problem shows. "People doing jobs on the side for cash are responsible for 55 percent of the black economy, while business takes up the remaining 45 percent, the study by Christopher Bajada from the Sydney University of Technology says. "The verdict released today ahead of the first anniversary of the GST undermines the Howard Government's core election promise that everyone would be a winner from tax reforms except tax avoiders ...."

The latest polls show 58 percent of income earners claim they are worse off since the GST was introduced. The Australian Financial Review (4/7/01) reported an Australia-wide survey by the National Association of Retail Grocers showed that the cost-of-compliance for small retailers, turning over up to $5 million, was 28.25 cents for every dollar of GST collected, compared with only 1.25 cents per dollar for the retail majors. The report went on:
" .... And small retailers faced an ongoing compliance cost of around $1,000 per month, not including the cost of preparing the business activity statement. .... The survey, conducted by accountants Hall Chadwick, involved 285 stores nationwide ...."

Meanwhile, a major nation-wide research project, conducted in every one of Australia's 632 local government areas, has come up with a picture that is going to worry the major parties. The Australian Financial Review (4/7/01) said: ".... Its conclusions, if borne out by the federal election, will bring out worries for both major parties, since they suggest that the old assumptions about the basic stability of the two-party system may be under threat, if not under siege, from an increasingly volatile rural and regional electorate .... It is possible for independents, or representatives of minor parties, to grab the balance of power ...."

And so say all of us!

MORE TAX PAIN IN THE PIPELINE

As city costs burgeon, more and more Australians have opted for home-based businesses. The change has been made easier by the IT revolution, which allows a great deal of routine paper-work once done by roomfuls of secretaries and book-keepers to be carried out by computer. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australia now has 615,000 home-based businesses, many of them employing a small number of workers. This apparently is not to the liking of the Australian Tax Office, which has in the pipeline the Alienation of Personal Services Income. This has erected another series of hurdles for struggling small businesses.

Peter Switzer, writing in The Australian (5/7/01) described it thus: "The tax office crackdown on personal services contractors threatens home-based businesses, consultants, self-employed professionals and tradespeople. The approach is insensitive and anti-business .... The tax office has savaged small business with the Business Activity Statement and the Alienation of Personal Service Income legislation. ..... Small business woes started with the Ralph Committee, which made the recommendations that inspired A New Tax System or ANTS which produced the GST. But John Ralph, who headed up the review of business taxation is a classic big-business captain of industry. Not surprisingly, ANTS has the big end of town written all over it .... This tax change could have a devastating impact on young entrepreneurs wanting to have a go in business .... By letting the tax office off the leash, Mr. Howard is worrying more than 615,000 home-based businesses run by more than 811,000 owners...."

The implications of all this were spelled out in a special front-page box in The Australian (6/7/01), when veteran economic commentator Robert Gottliebsen said: "Prime Minister John Howard and Opposition leader Kim Beazley should unite to end the retrospective bastardisation of 1.4 million Australians by deferring the Business Tax (Personal Services Income) Act for one year....... Via unfair retrospective action, tens and possibly hundreds of thousands of businesses are facing the most severe punishment possible. For many it means the end of their businesses ....."

Which will weigh heavier with the Coalition? The ever-present desire to squeeze as much blood as possible from the mangled corpse of a once-free-enterprise Australia? Or the fact that a federal election looms ever closer?

PRIVATISATION RUNNING OUT OF PUFF?

According to an OECD report, over the last decade the world-wide figure for privatization deals was $US1 trillion ($A1.9 trillion). But this year the figure will drop to about $US100 billion. The Australian Financial Review (4/7/01) said: " ....The slowdown will continue, the OECD predicts in its 'Financial Trends' publication, released yesterday, because existing privatisation programs are maturing and the number of potential new privatisation candidates is shrinking. Governments have largely worked through highly competitive sectors such as banking and manufacturing and less competitive sectors like utilities and infrastructure are left with the assets most difficult to privatise for political and regulatory reasons ...."

Of Australia's position the OECD report said: " .... During the second half of the 1990s, revenues from the sale of assets by State and Federal Governments in Australia earned an average of $US11 billion ($A20 billion) per year, making Australia's one of the most active privatisation programs in the OECD .... Privatisation in Australia has basically affected a broad range of sectors, including banking, manufacturing, electric power, telecommunications, oil and gas...."

Only Hungary and Portugal had bigger proceeds from privatisation relative to GDP that Australia. What else could we sell? Well, there are six Parliament Houses, plus a Territory Assembly, as well as their canteen operations and "private members' bars". We could flog off the MCG, Sydney Cricket Ground and the 'Gabba. And what about the Australian Tax Office? But, it seems, we're beginning to scrape the bottom of the barrel!

THE ODD BIT OF SENSE IN THE MEDIA

We don't normally go along with much of what Greg Sheridan writes. He's a strong advocate for globalism and regionalism. But he has baulked at the proposal for an International Criminal Court, writing in The Australian (5/7/01) some eminent sense:
" .... We are going through a foolish and dangerous phase in which we are undervaluing the genuine sovereignty and prerogatives of the nation state. There are two principles in international life that are profoundly civilizing - universal human rights and non-interference by one state in the internal affairs of another. The second is not an absolute principle and can certainly be violated when some extreme action, such as domestic genocide, makes it necessary. But it is a hugely important principle, it is the only thing that protects small states from the depredations of big states. I do not believe any mystical authority or power lies with the UN. Remember NATO undertook the Kosovo operation without UN sanction. Moreover, many nations represented at the UN do not have reliable or just legal systems. It would be ridiculous, for example, to have judges from Cuba, China or Russia deciding on the legality of domestic actions in the US or Australia ..... It took a couple of billion dollars of aid bribes to make Serbia surrender Milosevic. Perhaps the same money could have convinced Serbia itself to try him. By all means punish Milosevic, but don't pretend we are moving to a system of international justice."

Meanwhile, Andrew Bolt wrote a scathing criticism of Victoria's new Racial and Religious Tolerance legislation in The Herald Sun (25/6/01), concluding: " .... These laws are unfair, elitist, unnecessary and damaging. They will please only activists and professional complainers out for cash ...."

HARASSMENT ALL THE WAY

Pauline Hanson of One Nation and Graeme Campbell, former Labor and them independent for Kalgoorlie, have reconciled their differences, and Mr. Campbell will lead a Senate ticket for One Nation in Western Australia. Predictably, within days of this announcement, Senator Ron Boswell (the grim weeper) was quoted in The Australian Jewish News (6/7/01) in these terms:
"Pauline Hanson, by accepting former federal Labor and independent Mr. Graeme Campbell to head One Nation's Western Australian Senate ticket, has lost control of One Nation to elements sympathetic to the far right, National Party Senate leader Ron Boswell claimed this week. " Senator Boswell, who faces strong One Nation opposition in his home state of Queensland, has long been an outspoken opponent of the League of Rights, the anti-Semitic, extremist organization Mr. Campbell has frequently been associated with politically ...."

Senator Boswell's words - which the League of Rights expects to survive, somehow - were echoed by public affairs director of the B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation Commission, Mr. Benseon Apple.
Following hard on these earth-shattering statements came the news that fresh charges are to be laid at Pauline Hanson's door, on alleged corruption in the original registration of One Nation in Queensland. No doubt we'll hear all the lurid details in the period leading up to the election, in an effort to deflect the obvious danger minor parties present to the two major Tweedledees-and-dums.
Corruption in international cricket is nothing when it comes to Australia's electoral process!

AUSTRALIA'S GROWTH INDUSTRY: INSOLVENCY

by Antonia Feitz
Two lines of business are enjoying not only solid but spectacular growth in post-GST Australia: insolvency lawyers and accountants. Figures from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission show the rate of business collapses is inexorably rising. In the 12 months to April, 8,469 companies were wound up, a rise of 13 percent on the previous year. And the business information firm Dun and Bradstreet reported there was a 33 percent increase in bankruptcies in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2000 (Sydney Morning Herald, 28/6/01).

A large proportion of those failed businesses were small unincorporated businesses, family businesses. They were ordinary men and women whose entrepreneurial urge to give it a go has resulted in their hopes and dreams deliberately destroyed by the Howard Government. Pre-GST many of them might have made it.

Though John Howard's father was a small businessman it seems his son has no loyalty to his origins. The Howard Government was advised the GST would destroy tens of thousands of small businesses but it didn't care. They care only for the big end of town. According to people in the insolvency 'industry' things are going to get a lot worse (but better for them!). They claim many small businesses struggling to survive are using their GST collections to pay bills because of the cash flow problem the loathed tax has created. But it's only staving off the inevitable. David Purcell, a partner with Walker Insolvency Lawyers, told the SMH that the only reason there have not been more business collapses is because the ATO hasn't yet cracked down on businesses not paying the GST. Clearly the government doesn't want to face the political fall-out of small businesses' distress - yet.

Purcell said, "There has been a rise in insolvencies already but we have not seen anywhere near the full impact. When the eruption occurs then we will have an economic calamity on our hands." Can't wait. According to the splendidly named Ms. Christine Christian, chief executive of Dun and Bradstreet, because small businesses are "at the end of the food chain" with regard to the GST they won't survive. Such is the true nature of Australia's 'prosperity': insolvency lawyers and accountants are enjoying a boom while the hardest-working biggest generator of jobs - small business - is being destroyed.

THE MEEK AND POOR WILL INHERIT THE EARTH

by Antonia Feitz
In a recent issue of News Weekly 19/5/01, the ever provocative (good on him!) R.J. Stove had an interesting piece on the European nations' collective death wish. It seems Spain's birthrate has dropped to a suicidal 1.07 children per woman. Just think: if the Spaniards don't reverse their declining birth rate, each generation will be half the size of the previous one because the replacement rate for humans is 2.1 babies per woman. But it's not just the European nations; it's the affluent nations. Japan is in the same situation. As Germany's birthrate is a low 1.38, Bavaria's Premier wants child allowances trebled so that mothers receive the equivalent of $US16,500 per child, up from the current $US5,500. That's about the mean wage in Australia!

Stove rightly commented that suggesting such a policy would "elicit howls of rage from the chattering classes in Australia". Indeed it would from our child-hating, feminist-influenced governments and bureaucracies. Why? Because any allowance that approached a real income would give families a genuine choice about using child care or staying at home. And as survey after survey has shown, most mothers - not all but most - want to be at home with their babies. Fancy that.

Most interesting was the quotation of a very frank opinion expressed by a French Muslim spokesman, Mohammed Saboui, who was reported as saying: "Our well-functioning 'peaceful' invasion of Europe has not been completed yet. We want to act simultaneously in all host countries. Since you keep on making more and more room available for us [by not breeding and prohibiting racial discrimination in migration policies], we would be stupid not to fully profit by it. ... You have framed laws that penalise those who utter any racist expression against us. And you can't see how blinded you are... One only respects what one fears." (Catholic, December 1998-January 1999, quoted in News Weekly, 19/5/01)

It doesn't get clearer than that. Mohammed Saboui has clearly warned the once-Christian Europeans if/when Muslims are in power there won't be any decadent Western politically-correct rubbish about anti-discrimination and so-called human rights. No, the Muslims will abide by - and impose - their strict morality on the remnant Europeans. Christians might have won the battle of Lepanto in 1571, but without a miracle in the form of a religious renaissance it's looking like the Muslims might yet win the war for Europe. If they do, good on 'em because immoral societies deserve and get annihilation.

As Stove commented, "It is tempting for us as individuals to sympathise with Muslims' loathing for the West's moral decay." Yes, all sensible people know that throughout history civilisations have been destroyed through moral decay, typically expressed in the decline of the family unit, and it looks like our civilisation will be no different. The tragic thing is that the Christian West's decline was not organic but engineered against the will of the people by deliberate government policies introduced under the guise of protecting Fabian-defined, atheistic, spurious 'human rights' and promoting such nation and culture-destroying absurdities as 'valuing diversity' in formerly homogenous nation states.

Britain is perhaps the most tragic example. Enoch Powell warned what would happen. Thirty years on it cannot be denied that he's been proven correct and his critics have been proven wrong. Yet the madness continues. Goaded by powerful but extremely unrepresentative groups such as Jewish Anti-Defamation Leagues/Commissions and B'nai B'rith, Western governments worldwide have actually legislated to make objecting to the moral decline - because of 'intolerance' - a punishable offence! That's pretty clever, don't you think?

THE 10 POINTS OF THE MANIFESTO

Those interested in "the pedigree of ideas" may recall the 10 points listed by Karl Marx in The Communist Manifesto, as essential for the drive towards Communism. In my copy (Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1966) they were all listed on pages 73 and 74. Re-read in 2001, they could well be the platform for modern western governments. The 10 points are:
(1) Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
(2) A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
(3) Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
(4) Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
(5) Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
(6) Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
(7) Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
(8) Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
(9) Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
(10) Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, &c., &c.

These points - especially No 4 - came to mind with the recent move by the Federal Government for the confiscation of property belonging to those suspected of crimes.

YOU COULD BE STRIPPED OF YOUR HOME, YOUR CAR AND EVERYTHING YOU OWN!

A news-letter from Ronald Bradley and Elaine Hollingsworth, of the Hippocrates Health Centre, Mudgeeraba, 4213 - (07) 5530 2860 E-mail: hp3@bigpond.com Website: www.hippocrates.com.au/freedom - reads as follows:

A proposed Federal law - The Criminal Assets Recovery Bill 2001 (www.aph.gov.au) - would soon allow the Commonwealth Government to immediately confiscate ALL assets of anyone ACCUSED of a 'serious' offence. They wouldn't have to convict you, or even prosecute you. Government agents would be authorized to seize all your assets - your home, car, bank-account, jewellery, everything - at any time. And you and your family would be in the street, without funds to even hire a lawyer to defend yourself against false accusations.

Similar blatantly unconstitutional "asset forfeiture" laws have existed in the USA for more than 20 years. Thousands of innocent middle-class Americans have been instantly stripped of billions of dollars in cash and property, at the flash of a badge. For horrific details, visit www.fear.org

Politicians and the compliant media may tell you "We're only going to use this law to get those nasty drug dealers who are now slipping through the cracks". We suggest that - if draconian enforcement methods such as this could achieve their goal - American streets would NOT now be awash with more and better illegal drugs - at lower prices - than ever before.

You can stop this outrageously evil legislation in its tracks. Make copies of this letter. Share with your family, friends, neighbours, co-workers. 2001 is an election year and politicians want to keep their jobs. Tell John Howard, Kim Beazley, your local MP and the media what YOU think! We can only add our own concern.

Our system is ancient, and says NO-ONE should be penalized before a fair trial and proof of guilt. Many of our safeguards are being eroded by those who claim it is to DO GOOD. Members should be asked for a copy of this proposed Bill, and what they personally intend doing about it.

GENETICALLY-MODIFIED POSTPONEMENT

QUEENSLAND SEMINAR TAPES

The following tapes are available on speeches made at the very successful Queensland seminar of the Australian League of Rights:
1. Welcome and Opening; An exercise in Social Credit - Terry Rogers.
2. The Victorian Racial Vilification Legislation - Betty Luks.
3. Port Arthur Revisited - Wendy Scurr.
4. Deceit or Terrorism - Andrew MacGregor.
5. The Strategy of Tactics - Sunday Session - Graham Strachan.
6. What is Social Credit? Betty Luks.
7. The Current State of Rural Queensland - Selwyn Johnston. A Challenge from a Young Australian - Damien Symonds.
8. The League of Rights, The National Party & the Rural Disaster - Jeremy Lee
9. The State of the Dairy Industry in Queensland - Dr. John Kingston MLA.

COST: $5.00 per tape, including postage. Money, with order, from: CVA TAPES, PO Box 987, Inverell, NSW, 2360.

WEST AUSTRALIA'S STATE WEEKEND

Saturday, August 11th - 35th Annual Seminar & Dinner for the Australian League of Rights. "Globalism or Nationalism".
Speakers: Jeremy Lee - "The Money Trap", Joan Torr - "A State of Fear" and Betty Luks - "The Individual's Role in a Threatened Society".

Sunday, August 12th - Australian League of Rights "Action Day". Venue for both days: Perth - Rose and Crown Hotel - Guildford - Phone: 08 9574 6042 For further inquiries and information please contact Maureen Burton, State Secretary: Phone/Fax: 08 9574 6042. After hours: 08 9574 6260

SCHEDULE for Australian League of Rights Tour July/August 2001 with speaker Mrs. Betty Luks, National Director:
Sunday, July 29th - Cranbrook - Murray & Jan Pope - 08 9826 8055
Monday, July 30th - Albany - Murray & Jan Pope - 08 9826 8055
Tuesday, July 31st - Ravensthorpe - Alan Burton - 08 9839 6025
Wednesday, August 1st - Collie - Norm Wiese - 08 9734 4066
Thursday, August 2nd - Harvey - Nigel Offer - 08 9729 3325
Monday, August 6th - Bullsbrook - Helen McKenna - 08 9571 3595
Tuesday, August 7th - Moora - John Broad - 08 9654 9030
Wednesday, August 8th - Morawa - Ed Valentine - 08 9971 1175

SOUTH AUSTRALIA'S STATE WEEKEND : August 18th & 19th

Seminar: Saturday, August 18th - 10am to 5pm. "Centenary of the Federal Commonwealth". Venue: Christ Church Parish Centre, O'Halloran Hill, South Australia. Admission $12 per person.
Speakers: Wendy Scurr & Andrew McGregor, "Defence, Deceit & Terrorism at Port Arthur"; Jeremy Lee "Constitutional Provisions for a State Bank"; Betty Luks "What is Social Credit?"; Bishop John Hepworth, "Arrangement of Power in British History".

Dinner: Saturday, August 18th, from 6.30pm "Frank Bawden Memorial Dinner" Cost: $22 per person, 3-Courses. Bar facilities are not available, please BYO alcoholic drinks.

Action Conference: Sunday, August 19th. Admission $12 - includes lunch.

Wendy Scurr & Andrew McGregor meetings - "Deceit & Terrorism at Port Arthur" Victoria: Melbourne - details to be finalised.
Horsham: 8pm, Saturday, August 11th. CWA Hall, McPherson Street; Phone 03 5382 4720 or 03 5382 6400
Nhill: 2pm Sunday, August 12th, RSL Hall, Clarence Street; Phone 03 5391 2166
Edenhope: 8pm Monday, August 13th. RSL Hall, Phone 03 5586 4240

South Australia: Pt. Pirie: Wednesday, August 15th - details to be finalised.