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Tuesday, 24th February 1998
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International:

A splash of colour

Extract from the Canberra Correspondent's column:

"The fourth election in the history of the self-government of the Australian Capital Territory has come and gone, and the world now knows that Chief Minister Kate Carnell has surfed home on a huge foaming wave of Liberal blue. Clad in a flame red jacket she landed in the Tally Room before the adoring gaze of the media.

"Your Canberra correspondent was there to watch her triumphant progress. My day began somewhat earlier, when I went down to the polling station at Campbell Primary School. The introduction of a new regulation has prohibited the posting or distribution of political material within a hundred metres of a voting point, so the local ALP and Greens were handing out how-to-vote cards at the shopping centre down the hill from the school, on the assumption that people would vote after doing Saturday morning shopping."

Japanese company owning the name "Chifley"?

Just 50 years after Ben Chifley rose from the position of a train driver to Australian Prime Minister, and not long after the Japanese tried to invade Australia, a Japanese Company, MID Sydney Pty Ltd is trying to stop The Australian Tourism Company Limited from using his name for a new hotel chain.

MID Sydney Pty Ltd owns the exclusive Chifley Towers and Chifley Plaza in Sydney. It is now using Australian consumer protection laws to try to stop The Australian Tourism Company from naming its national chain of four star hotels "The Chifley.... ". The Japanese company claims that the new hotel name would mislead customers and that the hotel group would be trading off their reputation.

David Catterns QC for the Japanese said, "They would get a benefit from the association with our strong, quality building."

What next? Will we be able to fly our Australian flag outside our home without a multinational company taking exception because we don't represent their internationalist values? 

US pushing their own barrow in Iraq

On our TV news tonight Madeleine Albright was interviewed, saying the US would pursue their "national interests" whatever they may be.

Does anyone have a good definition of what the "US national interests" might be?

The late, lamented Phil Ochs put it accurately, if somewhat vulgarly, as:
"We're hairy and horny and ready to shack
And we don't care if you're yellow or black
So take off your clothes and lie flat on your back
'Cause we're the cops of the world..."

Perhaps something like this:

1. The U.S. position is always right and everybody else must comply with it.
2. Laws made by nations other than the U.S. are intrinsically inferior and need not be obeyed by Americans.
3. Forget the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address; the real purpose of the United States is to assure the wealthy and powerful that they have a God-given right to become even more wealthy and powerful, whether at home or abroad, at the expense of the losers who have not managed to acquire enough wealth and power to protect themselves.
4. Losers, whether U.S. citizens or not, are to be persuaded that their lack of wealth and power is their own fault. If they are Americans, they were given the right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" and the right to bear arms; it's nobody's fault if they're too dumb to figure out how to use the latter in order to enforce the former. If they are not Americans, it is because God didn't think they were good enough.
5. A politician is a businessman posing as a legislator; a capitalist is a legislator posing as a moralist; a voter is a citizen who is neither and clings to the illusion that he or his heirs may become one or the other some day.

Power troubles in Auckland, New Zealand

The fourth -- and final -- 110 kilovolt trunk cable supplying power to central Auckland failed on Friday night, leaving the area supplied by only a 22 kilovolt standby cable.

Local power company Mercury Energy said it did not know what had caused the multiple failures. This power company has resulted from privatization, i.e. from intelligent use of global capital.

The power company's shareholders are actually its consumers. There is considerable controversy over the cause of the fault and who is liable, concerns having being expressed for the last 20 years. At the moment a new tunnel is being bored underground which will carry new cables into the central business district.

In the meantime Auckland is expected to be without power for at least two more weeks - and Mercury Energy has just won the privatisation contract to take over the electricity grid in New South Wales.

The Aboriginal Legal Service in Ipswich - a family affair

Yesterday, the Queensland Times (QT) carried my letter (see below) written in response to a man only known to me as Sonny Thompson. Now Sonny is well known in the QT for his two liners on the letters page.

Recently I challenged Sonny to provide me with a public forum to discuss the impact of the multilateral agreement on investment (MAI) on native title after he wrote the following: "S Balson has got to be kidding when he says that ‘Hanson’s voice is so important to all Australians’." The Australian Labor Party had previously refused to take up my "letter" challenge for a public forum - after I revealed that they had initiated Australia's involvement in the MAI negotiations in 1995.

Sonny in classic style called me a "clown" - no explanation - just a statement.

It was at this time that Pauline Hanson had met with the Ngarrindjeri women in Adelaide.

Here is the letter:

The Editor
Queensland Times

Dear Sir,

I write in response to Sonny Thompson who last week (QT 13/02) called me a ‘clown’ for taking a stand on the multilateral agreement on investment (MAI). This is the same Sonny Thompson who has refused to take up my challenge to debate publicly the impact of the MAI on native title. I am not sure who Thompson speaks for but he appears to be one of the most bigoted people in Ipswich, deflecting challenges by making misguided personal remarks on all who stand in his way. Based on recent history, I am sure that this statement will result in me being called a racist.

If Sonny Thompson is a dinky di Aussie then perhaps he would care to explain to me why a large group of Aborigines in Adelaide, sickened by the Hindmarsh Bridge fiasco brought about by the ALP in 1995 (under Robert Tickner), have fallen behind Pauline Hanson and her One Nation Party.

The Ngarrindjeri Aboriginees not only attended one of her meetings at the Pioneer Hall in Adelaide, but embraced Pauline and addressed the meeting calling on ATSIC to be disbanded. Amelia Campbell, spokeswoman for the women and children of the Ngarrindjeri Aboriginees confirmed that unless Aboriginees have a family member working at ATSIC, your chances of benefiting from their assistance is next to nothing and that ATSIC is a corrupt organisation run by Aboriginal Mafia.

This is clearly evidenced by the fact that many connected with ATSIC are driving expensive cars and living with great comfort while the majority of Aboriginal Australians live in squalor. It is difficult to determine how much of the billions and billions of dollars in funding for Aboriginal Australians actually reaches the people in real need and helps them but some report that less than 20 cents in every dollar is actually spent to the genuine benefit of the Aboriginal community. The rest is chewed up by dubious administration, paid out in questionable fees, misappropriated or simply stolen.

In fact what is of interest is how the mixed-blood Aborigines have used ATSIC to the detriment of the tribal Aborigines out in the heart of Australia (as a matter of historical record tribal Aborigines do not accept mixed-blood Aborigines into their tribe).

One of the great ‘politically correct’ fallacies is that Aboriginal women or mixed-blood Aborigines can make native title claims under tribal law - they cannot. Yet they do despite the Mabo ruling being based on tribal law. The farcical claims being made over the Hindmarsh Bridge is being made by women - women who have no rights in this area under traditional Aboriginal laws - but ‘white’ Australian ‘political correctness’ has caught up with this grey area justifying the unjustifiable.

I trust that Sonny is not related to someone associated with ATSIC and, if he is, perhaps here lies the reason for his verbose comments in the Queensland Times?

Scott Balson, Karana Downs

Sources:

Adelaide Meeting
One Nation press release
Father Brenden Walters on Native Title and tribal law

I had two telephone responses during the course of the day yesterday. One from a well-placed white lady who said that I had laid myself open to a defamation action from the Ipswich Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS).

Why the ALS I could not understand - ATSIC maybe....

Then the answer came in a phone call I had while eating dinner.

An Aboriginal elder phoned me and after congratulating me on the letter said that he wanted to share some information with me.

What he told me blew me away.

You might recall the blatant ongoing attacks on the good name of Pauline Hanson by one Patricia Thompson, the head of the regional ATSIC and ALS office. Thompson was also one of the parties in the complaint to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission - claiming Pauline Hanson was being racist.

Now it goes without saying that Ms Thompson feels very threatened by Pauline Hanson's stand on ATSIC... and so she should - what I heard last night from the Aboriginal elder made me realise how threatened.

The Ipswich branch of the Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) is, I learnt, a family affair. Not just nepotism but blatant misuse of a position of trust by Patricia Thompson.

Here are the employees at the Ipswich ALS:

Patricia Thompson - in charge - salary estimated at Au$54,000 pa. Perks: Company car for personal use, petrol card, mobile phone...

Sonny Thompson (yes the letter writer) - (Patricia's de facto) - salary estimated at Au$34,000 pa. Perks: Company car.  Works night shift for the Ipswich ALS four nights a week (Monday to Thursday) at the Ipswich Police Station as an intermediatery for Aborigines arrested by the police.

John Thompson (Patricia's brother in law) - on parole for the murder of a woman (shot with a gun) in Silkstone in the 1980s - works out of the Ipswich ALS on a salary of about Au$18,000 pa. Believed to enjoy playing games on the ALS computers.

Alan Fischer (Patricia's half brother) - salary estimated at Au$37,000 pa. Position: Prison Liaison Work Service. 

Ces Fischer (Patricia's father) on the board of the Ipswich Aboriginal Legal Service - salary unknown.

It goes without saying that the Aboriginal population in Ipswich are outraged at the manner in which Mrs Thompson has run the Aboriginal Legal Service as a family business - while it is being funded by tax payers and the Aborigines out of favour get little or no assistance whatsoever.

"They're not there to get on the gravy train, I never went into politics for the pay."

You say:

Subject: Politically correct churches

Hi,

Your article on Sunday about the politically correct churches of Australia confirmed my own conclusions about these churches.

As a Christian I am very disappointed that these churches are obsessed with aberrant sexual behaviour and/or supporting policies of inequality and racism. In fact I have seen a couple of these churches that have attacked Pauline Hanson through that letter addressed to Christians, even deny the Christian gospel in their efforts to be seen offering a politically correct religion.

As a One Nation member, I have seen many Christians supporting Pauline Hanson in her fight against inequality, racism and greed. Many Christians support Pauline Hanson in her stand for Australian workers, industry and way of life. It's only the politically correct church leaders who support the greedy and the racists with their deceptive condemnation.

Fortunately for them the gospel of Jesus Christ is about love and forgiveness, not condemnation and guilt. This is obviously a lesson they still have to learn.

Thanks,
Peter.

Subject: Telstra Sale

Dear Editor,

I ask why, when many Australians could not get as many shares as they wanted in Telstra, the government found it necessary to place shares for sale on foreign stock markets. Do they consider that Australians good enough to own their own companies?

G.P.Briggs

Subject: DON'T MENTION THE WAR!

Why do so called 'rational thinking' Australians always seem to want to blame someone today, for the things that happened yesterday.

One of your readers - S.E.Wagger - seems to think that 1998 homosexuals (aka - Gays & Lesbians) were behind the 'stolen children' / lost generation debacle of many years ago. Most of the gays, lesbians and self confessed faggots attending this years Mardi Gras parade weren't even born when the aforementioned incidents occurred!.

Also let's not forget ordinary heterosexual males and in some bizarre cases - females - have and still are committing extreme acts of violence against children. Let's parallel this with the two major world wars.....what on earth do present day Germany / Japan / America / UK have to do with what happened 50 - 80 years ago?

Get real folks...the real enemies are the banks - the bureaucrats and of course the political bullshit with which we are surrounded every single day.

B PICKERING

Subject: Greenspan Article

I remember when THAT female used the word xenophobic to try to put Pauline Hanson down on National TV. It is typical of a pseudo educated elite to use a combination of "buzz" words that really only mean, "Shut up you ignorant twit." As an electrical technician, talking to the general public, I would say electric current. Not "electrostatically or magnetically directed planetary electron migration." Well its time that we ordinary ignorant uneducated twits stand up and answer back. "Cut out the bullshit mate! If you don't know how to speak common English about common housekeeping (economics) then don't speak at all, you pedantic twit."

Buzzwords are used whenever there is need to cover up a BIG LIE and politicians are well trained in their use. Economists are a form of politician, who never agree on anything other than to prop each other up to explain why nothing ever happens as they said it would.

The Greenspan article covers up the most important BIG LIE of all. International Finance have controlled nations, Governments and banks, for a long time before de-regulation; simply by having citizens under their control in every nation. If any private business were to print its own money to pay its bills and lend to other people and charge interest there on, they would all end up in jail. Yet, and anyone can prove this in any library, despite the buzzwords, this is exactly what happens when the private banks lend money to Governments or let you get credit on your bankcard. NEVER let an economist be your accountant. Anyone wanting references for proof, just e-mail.

Philip Madsen

Subject: South African Refugees

It will be interesting to see if the politically correct have any sympathy for refugees if they are white people.

White woman seeks asylum here By Alec Russell in Johannesburg, Saturday

A WHITE South African woman who says she has been robbed 12 times and mugged five is seeking political asylum in Australia, claiming that it is not possible for whites to live under black rule.

In what could become a test case for the white minority, Cheryl Kennedy has told the Australian Immigration Department that she was driven from South Africa by crime and reverse discrimination.

She says she had three cars stolen, her house burnt down, one of her daughters had a gun held to her head, and her father and brother had both been shot - her brother fatally.

Mrs Kennedy claims she deserves refugee status on the grounds that white people are singled out by criminals because of their race and the politics of their attackers.

She also cites the affirmative action policies of the African National Congress-led Government, saying they discriminate against whites.

The department has turned down her application, but she intends to take her case to Australia's Refugee Review Tribunal.

Kennedy, 39, a cleaner, who is staying in Broome with her two daughters, arrived in the country last year on holiday.

She began her fight for asylum after failing to qualify for residency under the Government's system, which judges candidates primarily on qualifications and wealth.

Her case will be followed closely by whites, particularly English-speakers, as after a four-year, post-election honeymoon South Africa appears to be polarising along race lines again.

Gweilo

Business:

That ignoramus supremo, Federal Treasurer Peter Costello, who has never investigated what MAI actually means has but "thinks that it is good" now supported the idea of a complete sell off of Telstra. Yesterday the Telstra sell-off was muted by that American import - Telstra's chief executive Frank Blount.

The treasurer parroted Blount's comments that there was no logic in "the Government retaining a majority stake in the carrier".

"There's no logic in the public owning one-third and the government owning two-thirds," Costello said.

This just months after the undervalued sharefloat saw Australian "shareholders" in the company lose billions in just hours.

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Another perfect day in paradise.

Have a good one.

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