Monday 23rd March 1998

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Recent stories exclusive to  (how to) subscribe/rs of the Australian National News of the Day:

News Limited bucket opposition to the MAI. 21st March
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

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

Hanson success - Beenleigh meet now makes 40 state candidates for One Nation

Saturdays' excellent meeting at the Beenleigh Police Youth Club  has now added twelve more candidates to the fight for gaining the balance of power in Queensland.

The candidates, seen below, are representing seats in South East Queensland.

The list of candidates can be seen here.

Despite this incredible development the biased News Limited Courier Mail totally ignored the meeting today. I have been informed News Limited's trashy Sunday Mail (which I no longer bother getting) had a two centimetre report on the meeting claiming that Pauline Hanson said that 'immigrant students pass on disease to Australian students through musical instruments'.

I was at the meeting and I can tell you first hand that that is total rubbish - she never made that statement at the Beenleigh meeting.

The grass roots support that One Nation is getting defies the picture that News Limited has tried to present of the party as one in chaos, one that is splitting up into factions, one that is destined to failure and one that is led by an ignorant woman who does not know what she is talking about.

Instead of covering the development we have major stories in today's Courier Mail about state government plans to allow state forests to be used by gun associations and an old tax building that turns over Au$10.5 million.... stunning stuff when before our eyes we have the arrival of a third political force in Queensland that has been totally ignored.

Is this selective censorship? Yes...

Rod Kemp changes tack on the MAI.

After previously claiming that the MAI was good and "accusing Ms Hanson of “scare-mongering based on ignorance” Assistant Treasurer Rod Kemp displayed his own ignorance yesterday as the MAI started to explode in his face.

On Saturday he wrote to the Weekend Australian

"The Government would not agree to the MAI if it did not permit exceptions or if it required that exceptions must be repealed after a particular period of time."

Winding back of exemptions is a cornerstone of the MAI.

From his letter one is therefore led to speculate on whether Kemp believes the MAI is already as good as dead, and if so whether he is engaging in a political tactic to capitalise on this eventuality. Thus if the treaty collapses will he in retrospect claim government "success", on the basis that he acted in the "public interest" by opposing the rollback provisions?" Of course...

"Australia's would be traitors can expect to be joined in this quick switcheroo by their fellow compradors of other OECD countries. Now that its clear to the Trans World Oligarchy, and to the political puppets who serve their interests, that the MAI can't be had without sewing the seeds of a world-wide people's movement to install meaningful democracy and deinstall class rule and neoimperialism, the traitors who would have sold us out must make a fast political U-turn - to try to trick people into believing that they are patriots who have saved them from it."

Not my words, but well said.

Shutting up the truth

Senior Liberals have threatened to sue anyone who has been behind the leaking of documents which have led to the call for Prime Minister John Howard's mate, Resource Minister Warwick Parer, to stand down.

David Jull, himself a victim of falling on his own sword last year, said yesterday, "I'm just looking for somebody I can sue", after someone tattled on Senate hopeful David MacGibbon.

"This seems to have flared out as a result of the pre-selections - some of the tactics are from the Noel Crichton-Browne handbook and it's got to be stopped right away," Jull said.

Sources close to dumped Liberal Senator David MacGibbon said that the leaks had been falsely pointed at him and he wants to sue as well. MacGibbon said he was furious about the claims and his effective dumping from a Senate ticket after he was put third (almost unwinnable) . This after the allegations had been made against him.

The Liberal Member for Forde, Kay Elson, yesterday denied that she was the source of the leaks, saying, "I haven't been involved in that, not ever accused anyone, nor lobbied nor looked for numbers or ever mentioned the Senate before they went to pre-selection (for the Senate)".

Yesterday the ALP's Industry spokesman Simon Crean (an ex-ACTU stooge) led Labor's attack on Parer saying, "We do have further information that there is another family company which has not been declared (by Parer). Was the Prime Minister aware of this other undeclared company?"

Political:

Cheryl Kernot, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission (HREOC) and family values.

Princess Precious is now being referred to as a "tart" after the Sunday Mail ran a front cover colour picture of her dressed in red during a fashion shoot.

I feel sorry for Kernot as the Sunday Mail, in their attempt to promote the ALP bandwagon, really blew this one with the public response being that the image of a bloated Kernot sitting on a red couch in a red gown was anything but flattering.

Kernot, who is supposed to be the ALP's new front for the Aussie battlers, is a complex lady... as disclosed in a report by News Weekly on August 24, 1994, where they reveal how Kernot was behind the attempt to give queers the same rights as traditional families. 

In this report her allegiance with the discredited, politically correct HREOC is exposed. HREOC had this statement in their report seeking the equal footing of queers:

"As noted by the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations and the Australian Council for Lesbian and Gay Rights, 85% of HIV positive people in Australia are gay and bisexual men. As a result of the high level of prejudice against lesbians, gay men, bisexual, and transgender or transsexual people, these people are often not supported by their nuclear families and rely on members of their particular community/ies for care and support.

"In the case of carers of people with HIV/AIDS, leave which extends beyond leave in case of illness, is vital to secure the necessary care for people with HIV and to provide necessary arrangements for the funerals of those who die of AIDS or an AIDS related condition."  

You say:

Subject: Pauline Hanson

Do not silence Ms. Hanson. Australia is a free country with freedom as a tradition. It is important that she and her followers have a chance to join the public discourse and that they not be shouted down or prevented from putting out their message. If you believe in freedom, it is imperative to put up with all views without fear and even those that a person may not like.

I offer no opinion pro or con with regard to her views.

What I do maintain is that a free society should allow all viewpoints a voice and let the public learn and make up its own mind. We have had monumental struggles in America over such issues and many views that were once unpopular (such as civil rights) later became popular and even the law because people who were viewed negatively in the beginning were allowed a voice and to continue pushing the envelope of public opinion.

Please do not silence the Pauline Hanson's of the world. We need a free flow of ideas.

John Douglas, USA

Subject: Media and the truth

Pauline is entitled to her opinion and it is important in a democracy that all points of view be heard and that people have the opportunity to spread their ideas. This is better for society for a lot of reasons and provides a safety valve for pent up frustrations. I do not pass judgment on her views, which I may or may not agree with in whole or in part, but I certainly defend her right and the right of all of us and also her opposition to put out their view for public discourse.

To the hacker and others who would silence her voice, I would remind you that many good social changes have been wrought in western democracies because views that were unpopular eventually caught on. People should have that right and the rest of us should have an unfettered right to read and hear her view along with the others, so please cease and desist from efforts to silence her.

Let the public discourse and thought flow freely for all of our benefit and then an enlightened and caring public can vote and decide issues on the merits.

Social:

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Another perfect day in paradise. Cooler now - really pleasant.

Have a good one.

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