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an Aussie's viewpoint on Australia's first daily Internet newspaper.
Since October 1995

This on-line paper is now archived for perpetuity in the National Library of Australia

Sunday, 25th January 1998
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Archive of weekly features: [The Canberra Column] [Economic Rationalism]

International:

The FSIA and MAI new pages of links

There is an updated set of links on the MAI and the FSIA.

Quote of the week on such an important issue:

From MAI inside report on meeting held on 15th January 1998:
New Zealand, Mexico, Korea and to a lesser extent Australia are still resisting environment and labour text fiercely. Increased domestic pressure on all of these, particularly New Zealand, would help. Australia did not appear to have anyone attending the consultations.

Can you believe Australia does not even worry to attend the meetings!

One Nation branch launch at Mortdale.

Commentary by Peter Cook:

This evening at the Woronora Lodge Masonic Hall at Mortdale a rather extraordinary thing occurred... A PHON meeting without lots of protesters

Those who did turn up to try and convince the guests in their bizarre and unique way that they are wrong to support her were nearly outnumbered by police.. It is estimated that there were less than 60 protesters outside at any given time, and there were over 50 police assigned to defend the attendees, with about 20 on site and the rest nearby in case of emergency..

A rather hilarious occurrence was when the people inside heard the protesters scream "Racists welcome, Migrants not".. we all killed ourselves laughing

The attendees at the meeting were the usual mix.. numbering about 150, 15 were under 25, 100 were middle-aged, mostly couples and the rest were elderly..

There were five speakers at the meeting: Three were the local candidates.. One discussed the Hurstville branch, one discussed local issues and the other was (to quote him) giving the people the medicine, that is giving a long and not so sweet talk on why this countries society and economy was in such a poor state.. the fourth was David Oldfield, Pauline Hanson's Political Adviser, who discussed issues such as the MAI, and answered questions on the party from those who asked.. such as why did Pauline make that video.. the last speaker was a memorable speech by a young man saying that Pauline Hanson is not just standing for older people, and gave a very insightful and emotional presentation.

We also raffled off a few bottles of liquor, and by the time that was over, our allotted time in the hall was almost up.. The funny part is that the protesters left just minutes before the guests did, allowing us to get out of there without any injuries...

Interesting that, despite a Left Link post calling for protesters, very few appeared.

Obviously there were no "attendance" payments made at Mortdale.

Indonesia set to implode.

Extract from the Washington Post:

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Jan. 23—When a country's currency falls by more than 80 percent in six months, strange and terrible things are bound to happen to its economy. In Indonesia, the strange already is happening -- and the terrible may be only days away.

Prices for basic staples such as cooking oil have skyrocketed, scores of construction projects have been halted and the banking system is on the verge of collapse.

Companies are so strapped for cash that, with a week-long Muslim holiday approaching, the widespread assumption among top business executives is that many firms will not reopen.

"They're trying to do it very quietly so even their employees won't know yet. A lot of companies just won't open after Idul Fitri," a Jakarta-based banker said, referring to the celebration at the end of the month-long Ramadan fast. "You get your employees out of town for a few days -- and then you just don't open again."

For anyone wondering what it means for an economy to "melt down" or "implode," it is starting to happen here, in the world's fourth-most populous country that only half a year ago was one of Asia's proudest tiger economies.

Political:

You say:

Subject: Pollies - who needs them?

A bus load of politicians were driving down a country road when all of a sudden the bus ran off the road and crashed into a tree in an old farmer's field. the old farmer after seeing what had happened went over t investigate. He then proceeded to dig a hole and bury the politicians.

A few days later the local sheriff came out, saw the crashed bus and asked where all the politicians had gone. The old farmer said he had buried them. The sheriff then asked the farmer, were they all dead?

The old farmer replied, "Well, some said they weren't, but you know how them politicians are."

john hamilton

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

Re-defining the Relationship Between Government and the Governed

After more than  nearly a century of centralizing decisions in Canberra, people are beginning to express a desire to reclaim power from government. The  main motif of the confident and expansive use of federal power is fading into history. To replace it, Australians are looking for  a post-industrial model of governance that relies less on central bureaucracies and more on citizen and community initiative.

This year's (probable) election will almost emphatically indicate that Australians will want radical changes in government. Yet while the nation's political and media elite (& this includes the Australian News of the Day's  perspective) persists in viewing this phenomenon in ideological terms as a shift to the right, its origins are technological. Instead of blaming Johnny Howard or Kim Beasley and his 'bovver' boyz, defenders of Australia's ancient regime of freedom and democracy ought instead to be pondering the political implications of the personal computer and"real time" global communication.
Just as the Industrial Revolution disrupted the rhythms of a predominantly agricultural society, the techniques of the information economy are reshaping the social and political order of 20th century Australia. Specifically, they are diffusing information - and therefore power - from large institutions to individuals. This decentralizing tendency, in turn, has the ability to change the way we organize private and public institutions.

During the 1980s, businesses began dismantling corporate hierarchies that prevented them from swiftly adapting to fast-changing global markets.
Now it's government's turn. to "reinvent" the federal government for the Information Age. So far, its focus has been on shrinking the federal workforce and making agencies work better. That's progress, but a more fundamental task beckons: returning power and responsibility to local institutions and individuals.

In their haste to shrink government, the Liberal and  Labour Parties have missed this essential aim of devolution. They propose folding welfare and other federal programs into block grants and dumping them on the states, offering States  more flexibility in return for less spending. But block grants merely reshuffle responsibilities. The point is to reduce state as well as national bureaucracy and to redefine the relationship between citizens and their government.

Independent public entrepreneurs are the only way of creating a civic alternative to bureaucratic mainstream Party political problem-solving.

The emergence of a "new citizenship" movement, which would unite civic practitioners and theorists of civil society, is the only way to the rebirth of civic consciousness in Australia
. An Australian Civic Declaration, for example, would  urge national policymakers to consult citizens, not just political elites, and to revisit some basic questions:
Which tasks are properly the responsibility of citizens or community institutions, and which require direct governmental action? How can citizens get more involved in public decisions, to prevent 'experts' and political professionals from dominating that process? How can we better gauge the impact of government actions on the character of our citizens or the health of our social institutions, especially the family?

Such questions rarely arise in conventional left-right debates. Modern liberalism defines its very purpose as affirming governmental activism. On the contrary, say conservatives, government is the problem, not the solution. They are both wrong. It's clear that Australians don't want a paternalistic state superintending every detail of their lives. But there's scant evidence that they want to disable government as an instrument of common purpose.

This new independent citizenship initiative represents the only REAL third choice in Australian politics. It is defined by four key themes: reciprocal responsibility; catalytic government;civic culture; and civil society.

God Bless Australia and you all

Independent Candidate for the Federal Seat of Blair? mm!
Barry Sampson Searle
Managing Director, OZ One Press Pty Ltd

P.S. By the way Scott that 'heart of gold' you have endowed me with is never misplaced
but often shines brighter some days than other!

PPS Please don't censure my letters, Scott.... it's not as if it's a matter of available space!

Would never dare doing that Barry!

Editor

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Have a good one.

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