BUDGET ILLUSIONS

"The Budget submitted to Parliament by the Federal Treasurer (Mr. Bury) gave him the reputation of a capable conjurer. He produced income tax reductions amounting to $293 million a year from the sleeve of his coat and before the applause had subsided, the audience found he was concealing increases in indirect taxation totaling $239 million. This sleight-of-hand ensured that the Commonwealth would remain in a buoyant position as revenue receipts will be $805 million more than they were last year". The Northern Daily Leader, Tamworth, N.S. W. August 20.

The above comment is a penetrating observation on the essence of a budget, which has all the earmarks of a special Gorton production designed to try to avert electoral disaster at the coming Senate Elections. By making reductions in personal income tax even greater than those promised before the last Federal Elections, the Prime Minister hopes to gain the thanks of middle income groups in the urban areas at the Senate Elections before they realise that like wage increases, their benefits will be more than offset by progressive inflation.

Mr. Bury made no suggestion that he was halting inflation. In fact he spoke of "an economy still threatened by disruptive inflation. " The truth is that all inflation is disruptive and anti-social.
The pitiful increase in old age pensions is a national disgrace. The increase does not even offset the inflation of the past twelve months.
With a realistic financial policy, pensions could be much more liberal without any increase in taxation. It is an insult to commonsense that in a nation like Australia, where the major problem is distribution, not production, that those who have over a lifetime made their contribution to the building of a nation and its vast productive capacity, cannot enjoy as a right at least a modest security in the twilight of their lives.

The 1970 budget is a clear warning to the rural communities of Australia that the Canberra planners are determined to "reconstruct" them. The $30 million allocated to the wool industry is but a crumb. It is only 50 per cent of what Primary Industry Minister D. Anthony was prepared to seek on behalf of one of the most important national industries in Australia. And Mr. Anthony has made it clear that the $30 million grant is only a short term measure and must not be allowed to obscure the necessity for the "reconstruction" programme of his Socialist planners, who are insistent that the rural areas of Australia must accept what has been blatantly described by one of its advocates, as a revolution."
If the revolution is not halted, it will not only affect the rural areas, but the whole of Australia.

The $30 million for the wool industry looks miserable compared with the $15 million recently allocated to house the growing army of Federal bureaucrats. It is only slightly larger than the $25 million allocated in the budget to launch the Socialist Industry Development Corporation. There are strong rumours that when Country Party leader John Mc Ewen retires, he will take over the Chairmanship of this enterprise for the socialisation of investment, an old Fabian Socialist project.
The running expenses of the Treasury Department alone now exceed $70 million.

The budget reveals a substantial increase in the running expenses of every Commonwealth Department. There is no evidence whatever that the Federal Government is attempting to accept the "restraint" it urges upon the community. One of the biggest proportionate increases in the budget is for capital works and capital advances. The increase of $120 million is about 23 per cent. Financing capital works, which in most cases will last many lifetimes, out of taxation forces one generation to sacrifice its immediate standard of living, allegedly for future generations.

The use of a community's current income to finance long-term capital works is fundamentally wrong on a number of points. These should be financed by new long-term credits, thus enabling a major reduction in taxation.
The latest increases in postal, telephone and telegram charges are highly inflationary. Even in a period of inflation, they are outrageous and highlight the gross inefficiency of the PMG monopoly. As charges are progressively increased, the services progressively deteriorate. Increased PMG charges and increased petrol prices are going to bear particularly heavy upon the rural community. These and other increases will also quickly take from the middle-income earners the short-term benefits of small taxation reduction.

The overall result of the budget will be more inflation, and more centralisation of power. It should stimulate an even greater interest in the rapidly growing activities of the Australian League of Rights.

RIDING THE TRAIL TO MOSCOW

"Two years ago we all faced the Russian tanks. Today we face the Western 'Real politik' and honestly we don't know which is the uglier or more frightening." - Letter to the editor of The Age, August 17, signed by 16 former Czechoslovakians now living in Melbourne.

As an exercise in revealing the disillusionment of former victims of Communist tyranny who on their escape to the West thought they were going to live with people who are determined to fight against the evil of the thing they escaped from, the excerpt from the letter we have quoted above is self-explanatory. The complete letter is worthy of reprint and is a complete indictment of the policies pursued by our own Government.
Nothing exemplified this more clearly than the report in the same issue of The Age of the statement made by Mr. McMahon on Four Corners in which he used specious double talk to justify Australia's non-intervention in Cambodia, although as Michael Willisee pointed out there was as clear a case of aggression by the Communists in Cambodia as in South Vietnam. Mr. McMahon repeatedly bleated how Australia had settled for "negotiation at the conference table to settle the Cambodian issue, knowing, as he must that the Communists never negotiate unless they can get an advantage.

On the same session Mr. McMahon bowed to that force of "world opinion" in excusing Australia's decision for not supplying arms to South Africa, whose cause is Australia's cause when it comes to taking steps to offset Soviet Penetration of the Indian Ocean. No wonder the 16 Czech's are completely dismayed with Western flabbiness. Their letter follows:

Sir, It is getting closer to the second anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and we regard this as an appropriate moment to express our gratitude. We would like to thank the Australian Government for sending Mr. McEwen to Moscow to encourage trade between the USSR and Australia. Business is business. We would like to thank the Australian Labor Party for sending Mr. Whitlam on a friendly visit to the same city. All roads lead to Moscow. We would like to thank the Australian culture lovers for enjoying their Bolshoi. Politics and art don't mix. We would like to thank the Australian protesters for ignoring the Czechoslovakian issue. Only some oppression is worth protesting about. And finally we would like to thank the organisers of the Moratorium for supporting vehemently the Government of North Vietnam, one of the few governments that supported the invasion of Czechoslovakia. Two years ago we all faced the Russian tanks. Today we face the Western "Realpolitik" and honestly don't know which is the uglier or more frightening."
Signed by 16 former Czechs now living in Melbourne. (Names and addresses supplied.)

A.B.C. PLEADS FOR IMMUNITY

"The General Manager of the A.B.C. (Mr. T.S.Duckmanton) yesterday strongly defended the Commission's right to determine its programmes without Government interference." - The Age. Melbourne, 22nd August 1970.

Mr. Duckmanton was addressing some 200 Australian and overseas scientists at the national convention of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, in Canberra. He went on to say that the A. B.C. was suffering more than just criticism from its detractors; it was, he claimed, suffering harassment. Mr. Duckmanton, from the reports in the Press, made no mention at all of the principal complaint brought against the A. B. C. by its critics. That of persistent continual, left wing bias. This was without a doubt the underlying reason for the blow-up earlier this year when the Postmaster General, Mr. Alan Hulme, recommended specific cuts in expenditure in A.B.C. current affairs programmes: specifically "This Day Tonight", and "Four Corners". Any regular observer of these programmes cannot but have been struck by the persistent, continual favour being given to the views of personalities of a strong Leftish persuasion; especially left-wing academic.

It has been noticed that there has been an improvement in recent weeks, with the appearance of such men of a "conservative" approach as Mr. Norman Banks, and even the controversial Dr. Frank Knopfelmacher. Mr. Santamaria, also, has appeared more than once. We know that the A.B.C. does turn out a really splendid job with cultural programmes. Many of the musical and drama sectors of the A.B.C.'s telecasting time just cannot be matched in quality by the commercial channels. But we are paying heavily for it, and we do have a right to expect the best. The whole point of importance is that the A.B.C. is a Public instrumentality, operating on Public Funds. It is NOT sovereign in itself, and MUST be responsible to the people who PAY for it, through the people's instrument of government, PARLIAMENT.

The A.B.C. must be responsible to Parliament if it allows its current affairs programmes to be manipulated in such a way as to support subversive views, then it has to take the consequences. Mr. Duckmanton made rather cryptic remarks towards the close of his address. He said, "There are more and more people behind campaigns. LEAGUES, (our emphasis) lobbies and pressure groups - people who are unidentified and often unidentifiable. Society, I suggest, has a right to know who these people are. These are the manipulators - and the philosophy of manipulation may also be worth examining in some depth."

At least the Australian League of Rights is not an unseen manipulator, as its views are published for all to see.

DINNER AND SEMINAR

DR. CAIRNS AND DIALECTICS

"The Vietnam Moratorium would take the right to use public streets for mass rallies if the right to use them was not granted, the Labor M.P. for Yarra, Dr. J.F. Cairns, said yesterday". The Australian, 25th August 1970.

Firstly, the "Australian" should smarten up its level of accuracy in reporting. Dr Cairns, is the M.H.R. for Lalor: the electorate of Yarra no longer exists. Dr. Cairns went on to say that "we have to take that right by methods of peaceful insistence." In other words, if the law of the land does not approve or allow a certain action, one has only to take it by "peaceful insistence" and everything will be hunky-dory. This, of course, is utter rubbish, made worse by its manipulation to the end of fostering the campaign of Communist revolution for Australia.

What did seize our interest in Dr. Cairns' address to the NSW Moratorium trade union committee in Sydney was a remark of the highest significance. He said "Sometimes we have to take a step backwards to keep in front." If any reader does not already know the word DIALECTICS, then it becomes a matter of urgency that he familiarises himself with it, and all that it stands for, without delay. The Communists are masters of the Dialectic in fact Communism is often described as the philosophy of Dialectical Materialism. Ignorance of Dialectics among Western leaders enables International Communism to score point after point in its steady advance to world power. (Read "Dialectics" - Communist instrument for World Conquest: price 45 cents, post-free. Order from Box 1052J, G.P.O. Melbourne Vic. 3001)