Recent stories exclusive to (how to) subscribe/rs of the Australian National News of the Day:
The proposed privatisation of
Telstra 16th March 1998
Queensland State Candidates meet the
people 15th March 1998
One Nation, the First Year 12th March
1998
Pauline
Hanson tackles the MAI in Parliament while the media re-writes
history 10th March 1998
Feature:
How did the Hanson phenomenon start?
8th March 1998
Presentation on
"the level playing field" that ain't 7th March
1998
B
A Santa Maria on Australia pre- and post- Hawke.
6th March 1998
Lateline report
on the MAI - 80% of Australia's economic activity is controlled by
multinationals. 5th March
Current topical links (available to all readers):
[Links to the MAI]
[Queensland
One Nation State Election website]
[Sign the "I'm so sorry Pauline"
book]
Archive of weekly features (available to all readers):
[The
Canberra Column]
[Economic
Rationalism]
Today's
Headlines
an Aussie's viewpoint on Australia's
first daily Internet newspaper.
Since
October 1995
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) launch regional news on the net.
The new ABC news service, Regional News, is worth mentioning. This new service will provide smaller regions, such as Queensland's Longreach with news about their area.
I joined a small group of about 40 at the Hub Internet Cafe in Margaret Street Brisbane at 7.30am the morning to watch the official launch which was conducted by the ABC's State Manager in Queensland, Brian Wurth (center below) and Paul Neville MP for Hinkler (right below). The mandatory photo opportunity of the two sitting behind a computer looking like they knew what they were doing is on the left. Neville's smile turned to one of concern a few seconds after the pic was taken when he noted my name tag identifying me as "Scott Balson - Office of the Member for Oxley".
One Nation candidates move on state politics level.
There are now about 40 One Nation candidates selected for the upcoming Queensland State election. We have listed about 36 at this location, with pictures and profiles seen as a link from the surname. This list shows most of those who have so far either been selected or who are waiting ratification by Manly Head Office.
The mainstream media are under the mistaken impression that only a few have put up their hands to be candidates so when this news hits the streets there will be a bit of a shake-up in the state political infighting between the Liberal and Labor groups.
I can tell you that on a Federal level the selection of candidates is being hampered by just one thing - the hard decision in selecting the best of excellent candidates in many of the Federal seats.
The naming of nine candidates in Sydney earlier this week is, believe me, just the tip of a very big ice-berg.
The Federal Election website is under construction and should be going live by the end of this month.
News Limited inspired praise of Pauline's political combatants in Blair starts with a bang.
Sir James Killen, who at 82 has put his hand up as a candidate for the seat of Blair, was given a big push along by News Limited's Courier Mail today with glowing reports about the man who is so politically-correct that he can, allegedly, do no wrong.
Under the features section in today's paper the heading "Once more into the fray", by Wayne Smith reveals a classic in one-sided reporting with Killen being portrayed as a mean and keen old political warhorse who inspired generations before and can do so again....
Here are some extracts which made me smile (knowing the classic anti-Hanson bias of News Limited)....
On Don Randall's attack on Cheryl Kernot in Federal Parliament last week... described thus:
"Deplorable and sad," said Sir James with such a savage shake of the head that it seemed he was trying to prise Randall's words loose from his memory.
"To actually read such a thing....." Another shake of the head, this one sorrowful, disbelieving. An emotional, instantly regretted outburst escaping in the heat of Parliamentary battle he could understand and perhaps forgive, but to think that Randall should launch a premeditated attack shrilly delivered from behind the protective screen of parliamentary privilege...
Maybe I am missing something here but Smith seems to read an awful lot into the shake of the head by a sly old warhorse... journalistic licence at its very best. Now if that had been Pauline Hanson reflecting on the sad state of tribal Aborigines under ATSIC the journalistic licence, no doubt, would have reflected the shake of the head as a disgust in anything not white or not European... so history is writ.
On Killen's "friends":
He sets a pace which is ferocious, even while he is being interviewed. No sooner does he settle into his chair than he springs to his feet again and rushes over to consult one of the thousand of "friends" on his crowded bookshelf.
Okay we get the picture painted that Killen is like a young man but with the experience to make him a treasured asset for the people of Blair... but wait as the Denmar man said "there is more":
On Hanson:
And yet there is a restlessness about him, a refusal to be pensioned off into history, no matter how revered the place for him in the parliamentary Pantheon. At first glance, it might appear that the prospect of tilting against Independent Pauline Hanson in Blair has stirred the old warhorse into life. If that was the reason, he is keeping it well to himself, "I never refer to my opponents," Sir James said. What he does refer to, constantly, is his King James version of the Bible. As ever, he knows precisely which page to turn to, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against powers, against principalities, against the rulers of the darkness of the world."
It is pure Killen, if you decline to do battle directly with Hanson, who better to champion your cause than St Paul?
Now that's not bad coming from two representatives of the Four Corners of Australia's Trojan Horse - both deep in the proverbial trough with MAI and other soul-destroying international treaties. Treaties based on the principalities and powers of financial darkness.
Classic Killen? I would call it classic News Limited biased reporting.... and these are but a few samples.
Au$595 budget profit when it cannot support health and education services
Personally, I find it quite abhorrent that the Queensland State Government's Treasurer Joan Sheldon can brag about the "best ever budget" dishing up a surplus of nearly Au$600 million while the services provided to the poor in our community are, quite frankly, laughable.
Has the state reached such a position that it can afford to salt away millions of dollars to be put to vote-pulling use at the right time while people are dying because critical services, such as hostels, hospices and nursing homes are in a critical state because of the decreasing budgets that they are forced to run on. Add to that the sorry state of government education which is being squeezed (more by Canberra) of adequate funding.
Just last weekend I joined One Nation candidates at a Mt Gravatt nursing home. They were shocked at the state of the elderly there - only because budgets had been so harshly cut that staff complained to us that people who were needed had had to be laid off.
This is the true picture of Queensland multi-million dollar surpluses presented in state parliament to make the politicians look good while people wait weeks for elective surgery and the elderly are inadequately cared for because of lack of funding support.
Making the
news" -
Parer - the man in the middle.
When is a transgression not a transgression?
When your name is Warwick Parer so it would seem. The government's minister for resources is getting deeper and deeper into the proverbial as Prime Minister John Howard continues to throw out lifelines of his ever decreasing credibility among the Australian population.
You see, if you were the small business minister (Prosser) you were given the boot by Howard so fast that you never saw it coming. However, Parer is different. Parer used to cohabit with Howard in the good old days before they got in power. They are the true-blue "stand by under all circumstances" mates. This is political mateship par excellance.
Following on revelations last week of Parer's family trust owning about Au$2 million worth of coal company Marubeni Corp.. it has now been revealed that tax payers financed a trip to Queensland last year where Parer met with the Marubeni Corp board despite his comment last week in Parliament that he had had, "nothing whatsoever" to do with the company since becoming Resources Minister.
Yesterday Opposition Industry spokesman Simon Creane took Parer to task saying, "You cannot have a coal minister owning shares in a coal mine running around meeting his business partners.
"Not only does the Minister responsible for coal mining hold coal mining shares, but he continues to hold discussions with the company executive on the mine and the industry. And he misleads Parliament by stating that he has had nothing to do with the company since he became minister."
If you go back to earlier link on Prosser (above) you will see the cases are practically identical and yet the action taken by Howard has been markedly different. A clear case of standards slipping or a breach of Howard's own standards in the interests of mateship.
Petrol price to drop in Australia
The demand and subsequently the price of petrol in Asia is dropping dramatically following the Asian currency crisis.
By early next month the price of petrol in Queensland is expected to drop to just 50 cents (Australian) a litre in Queensland... that's about 34 cents US.
A Federal Government commissioned report by Victoria's La Trobe University has turned up some fairly predictable results... but kept some academics gainfully employed for a while.
The survey of 2,500 women found that more married women were looking for sex (outside their marriage) with four in ten admitting to have had an affair at some time.
Other results included:
The only question not answered is how much money was wasted on this survey.
Another perfect day in paradise. Hot but cooling rains over night.
Have a good one.
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