THE LIBERAL-SOCIALIST-MARXIST BUDGET

No newspaper comment we have seen on the budget shows even a glimpse of understanding of the economic thinking which produced such a document in comparison to a comment made on radio in Melbourne by an unknown commentator who said that the budget had "Marxist" implications. He was probably quite unaware of the deeper implications of his remark as it was made in reference to the description of the budget as being one, which ironed out "inequalities."
Giving income tax deductions to those earning under $10,000 while maintaining existing rates for those earning above that figure is supposed to establish some form of equality so dear to the hearts of the Marxists.

The facts are that under present galloping inflationary policies, which must inevitably continue the demand for increased wage and salary rates, the Government will recoup the direct income tax deductions within twelve months, as those concerned move into higher taxable income brackets. However the indirect taxation, which is the most pernicious and destructive form of taxation, increased on many items remains and ensures that basic costs must be further inflated. Such inflationary pressures must hasten the demand for increased wages and salaries. In fact the whole exercise is a charade of sheer hypocrisy and a cynical exercise in political double talk.
Having promised taxation relief in his policy speech, Mr. Gorton had to make some gesture. He did so with one hand, which he cancelled out with the other.

Electors should make it clear to his government that they are not the idiots he takes them to be, and that nothing has been done to advance the standing of the government. The budget has in fact maintained basic Marxist economic principles of heavy and graduated income taxation, causing increased inflation and the dispossession of the individual through the consequent destruction of his equity in savings and property.

NEW ALP PRESIDENT ON "PROFITEERING"

"The new Federal president of the Australian Labor Party, Mr. T. J. Burns, yesterday issued a strong warning to employers and made a scathing attack on the Premier (of Queensland), Mr. Bjelke-Petersen... He said: today we need a united Labor movement to combat the subversive threats of big business and its disciples in the Liberal and Country parties. Almost every day we see attempts to turn Australia into a profiteering paradise at the expense of the workers." - The Courier Mail, Brisbane, August 12.

The Burns attack on the Queensland Premier was undoubtedly stimulated in part by the recent exposure by Mr. Bjelke-Petersen of the strong Communist influence in the Queensland trade union movement. Amongst those named by the Premier were Queensland Trades and Labor Council secretary F. W. Whitby, foundation director of the Communist front, the Marxist Research Foundation. Mr. Burns seeks to exploit the growing concern in Australia about inflation by charging that the "profiteering" by "Big business" is the basic cause. At the same time he expresses confidence that now that the Australian Labor movement has produced a facade of unity and with the Liberal-County Party in a confused state on many issues, Mr. Whitlam is in reach of the Prime Ministership. There is little doubt that unless the Government can do something much more constructive than it has been doing, the Federal Opposition has only to maintain its present facade of unity to win the next Federal Elections.

But, in spite of the statements of Mr. Burns, inflation would continue under a Labor Government, for the simple reason that Mr. Burns and his colleagues steer very clear of the basic causes of inflation. It may be true that a few of the bigger industrial organisations may be able to make a very moderate increase in wages out of existing profits, but it is also certain that if in future the principle of linking wage increases to profits is applied generally, this will stimulate the development of economic centralism.

In announcing that the Federal Government proposes to intervene in the hearing of the oil industry dispute before the Full Bench of the Arbitration Commission, the Prime Minister, Mr. Gorton, was correct when he said that inflation was a major threat to Australia's future. But his Government has done nothing constructive to halt inflation, and it is unlikely that its representative before the Arbitration Commission is going to put forward anything of value to counter the claims of Mr. Hawke.

If Mr. Hawke, Mr. Burns and other Labor leaders are really concerned about profiteering, we would recommend that they make a start with the policies of the Reserve Bank, which earlier this year forced an increase in interest rates right throughout Australia. It can easily be shown that increased interest rates are a factor in forcing prices up. Has Mr. Burns ever examined the operations of the present financial system, and the dominating role of the Reserve Bank? Has he ever studied the mechanics of credit creation? If he has, he must know that the greatest and most destructive profiteering in Australia is through what is virtually a nationalised credit system, dictated by the Reserve Bank. The question therefore arises: Why doesn't Mr. Burns direct his attention to this basic profiteering instead of creating red herrings?

GROWING ATTACKS ON IMMIGRATION POLICY

"Many Asians identify Australians with South Africa and Rhodesia as 'the white racists of the south', the general secretary of the Australian Council of Churches, the Reverend Frank Engel, said yesterday 'We take few realistic steps to dissociate ourselves from White Africa and to make clear that in our view racism is a blatant denial of humanity and of the gospel.'" - The Australian, August 12.

It is clear from Mr. Engel's reported remarks at a Sydney meeting of the Australian Council of Churches, that like so many of his kind he is less than honest. Mr. Engels must be aware that the great majority of Asians are only vaguely aware of where Australia is. It would be instructive to know who the Asians are who criticise the Australian immigration policy, which is a policy designed by Australians primarily in their own interests.

Has Mr. Engel ever criticised the immigration policy of Malaysia, which is much stricter than Australia's? We would also be interested to know what Mr. Engel's Asian friends have to say about what is happening in Kenya, Uganda and other parts of Africa, from which the Asian is being expelled. Mr. Engels must know that the South African Government offered to help finance Indians to re-settle in India, but that the Indians preferred to stay in South Africa under the "police state".

In Rhodesia the small Asian community lives in harmony with the rest of the community, both African and European primarily because of the Rhodesian Government's policies. So far from dissociating themselves from the South Africans and Rhodesians, Australians should be giving them every support to stand firm in the face of the return to barbarism in most of the rest of Africa. Bringing Asians to Australia in increased numbers will start to generate new problems in Australia without solving any in Asia. Christian clergy who advocate policies, which will create problems where none exist, problems that have not been solved in other parts of the world, should be strongly censured.

DINNER AND SEMINAR

The Annual New Times Dinner on Friday September 18 is a highlight even for those supporters eligible through association and support to attend. Limited vacancies are still available. Supporters should encourage a wide attendance at the Annual Seminar the following day, Saturday September 18, held at The Federal Hotel in The Collins Room beginning at 2p.m.
Three leading speakers will be heard on different aspects of the menace of Centralism.

Melbourne readers are also reminded of the Social Dynamics Course to be conducted on Saturday, September 5, by Mr. Eric Butler at the Isabel Younger Hall, 110 Keppel St. Carlton. Students should bring a luncheon pack for their evening meal. Tea and Coffee supplied.

ARE POLITICIANS INCOMPETENT?

"It is an established fact that successful business requires competent people at management level. Obviously the people governing and running Australia are incompetent. Incompetent by virtue of the fact that they have no qualifications for the job they have undertaken to do. To put our house in order, I consider that the first step in the right direction would be to set up a standard of education for politicians and if this standard is not met, the application be firmly rejected." - Extract from a recent letter to a Brisbane paper.

Never particularly popular, politicians today are regarded with more contempt than ever. The more highly centralised government becomes, the more highly paid the politician, with greater opportunities to benefit himself, the more difficult it becomes for the man of integrity to enter and be successful in politics. Generally speaking, the greatest integrity amongst Australian politicians is to be found amongst the unpaid Municipal Councillors. In most cases these Councillors resent being described as politicians!
But they are in fact members of the third division of the Australian governmental system, and within the limits of their powers demonstrate more correctly the proper role of a political representative: to represent those who elect them, to fashion policy and ensure that the experts implement policy.

Some of the greatest disasters in Australian Federal politics have been well educated in the conventional sense. But to suggest that no one should be permitted to stand for Parliament, to offer himself as a representative of his fellows, unless he has a University degree, or has taken a management course, is to completely misrepresent the correct role of a Member of Parliament. The primary role of a Member of Parliament is to represent his electors on policy matters - the results they want- and to insist that the appropriate experts in the Civil Service carry that policy into practice.

Policy making is at present in the hands of the permanent economic "advisers" many of them Socialists, with politicians little more than public relations men attempting to persuade their electors that the policies they have endorsed are the best offering, or are "inevitable." It is only necessary to consider the most destructive of all Federal policies, inflation, to see the truth of the situation. All steeped in Marxist-Fabian economics, known as Keynesian economics, the "advisers" insist that inflation is "inevitable", and that the best that can be done is to control it by varying interest rates, through high taxation, and periodic credit restrictions.
It is a misrepresentation of the situation to say that the Members of Parliament are "incompetent" and "mismanaging" the nation. They are rubber-stamping what the real managers are doing.

There will be no improvement in the situation until the electors take the necessary action to ensure that their politicians insist that the permanent officials are on tap instead of being on top. The first essential for a man offering to enter Parliament is integrity, and an understanding of the correct role of a representative. It would certainly help if more MPs had some knowledge of history, and the menace of centralised power. A few members with a grasp of realistic economics could expose the menace of the Marxist financial and economic policies being imposed upon the community. But any campaign to suggest that all that is required is the replacement of "incompetent's politicians by a set who are "more educated" and "competent", is a dangerous red-herring.

The grass-roots movement being nurtured by The Australian League of Rights seeks to elevate the Member of Parliament from the position where he is little more than a messenger boy for the permanent economic and financial planners, to being a representative of those who pay his salary - his electors.

A LAST WORD ON IMMIGRATION

The following letter from The Age, Melbourne, August 11, needs no comment.

SIR. - Although only a visitor to your wonderful Australia I trust you will permit me to offer a comment on the letter from the Australian students who have written you from Harvard on Australia's immigration policy. In the States there is more unrest, violence, poverty and general sociological troubles which can so clearly be seen to stem directly from "the colour problem" that anyone who urges the introduction of the problem into Australia is either an idiot or a traitor. - Hiram P.Figgis (New York).