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Thursday 17th July 1997

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On Monday I gave the story (through the Internet link) to selected media including Channel 7, the West Australian Newspaper, John Laws radio talkback and Howard Sattler's 6PR.

The only one that took it up on Tuesday was Sattler in Perth. The on-air interview with Ms Hanson resulted in phone calls from all commercial television channels to One Nation, with information being sought from me being provided on the basis of their balanced reporting on Hanson in the past.

The results were quite interesting with Channel 10 and Channel 7 (who I assisted) having a good grasp of the story while Channel 9 appeared to be groping in the dark a bit... sharing the same sort of experience as Queensland's Courier Mail whose page 13 two column 5 centimetre report reads as follows:

Hanson assault claim rejected

'An anti-racism group last night rejected claims it was plotting to physicaly assault One Nation Party leader Pauline Hanson.

'Ms Hanson yesterday claimed to have exposed a plan by Brisbane Anti-Racism Committee for a "Hispanic ethnic" to assault her at a demonstration.

'Party national director David Ettridge said "minutes" from a committee meeting were leaked.

'But the committee said Ms Hanson was trying to discredit it because it had been effective in rallying opposition against her party.

'"The role of the committee is to build rallies against racism, not to violently disrupt One Nation meetings," said spokesman Roberto Jorquera.'

The article then refers to an article by anti-Hanson journalist Terry Sweetman under the heading "Protests fuel the Hanson bandwagon" in which he says, amongst other things, "Now I think I was half wrong - or only half right, (when refering to extracts from an earlier article in the Sunday Mail) at least - because although the battle to expose Hanson has been won, the war against extremism is being lost."

It is quite clear except to the uninformed and bigoted (even if that includes journalists) who the extremists are - and they are not Hanson supporters.

Compare that to the front page story of the Queensland Times, who was kept informed, who ran a front page article under the heading: "Hanson Assault threat".

Here is an extract: "The information, titled, "Transcript of an intelligence report", detailed 12 points of the source's impressions of the meeting and was posted on the Internet on Tuesday.

"The fifth point says... (see above link). Three members of the Brisbane Anti-Racism Committee who were at the meeting at ACTU House at South Brisbane yesterday (Monday) denied the matter had been discussed.

"Robert Jorquera, Jim McIlroy and Martin Thomas said all other matters on the internet report had been discussed, but the fifth point was not."

Interesting... but let the Feds sort that one out. What is also interesting is the silence from the Chinese community since we assisted in the investigation by the Federal Police into the source of that pro-Hanson extremist letter sent to Lawrence Ma - the chief protagonist against Hanson.

Do you recall their role at Lord Mayor Jim Soorley's anti-racism campaign in Ipswich?

See point nine in the report: "George" is disenchanted with the Chinese community for their lack of support. He feels they - the Committee - are carrying them in their fight. Note: For an anti-racist he does not seem to like Chinese anyway.

You guessed it News Limited aren't interested in that story (the story about the Ma letter) either - or so it would appear.

For the record here are links to posts by organisers behind the protests at this Friday's Geelong meeting made on Left Link.

A convicted terrorist who is now seeking publicity in this country is our friend Mr Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin who found support from Aboriginal professor Gracelyn Smallwood (Director of Aboriginal studies at the University of Southern Queensland) who said that his tour had exposed Australia's racism to the world.

"Now Australia is in the international focus. And what the federal government are doing to our black brother, they're so naive they're actually highlighting all over the world, the racism in this country."

Ervin has been granted an extension in the review of his visa while he waits for documents to support the application before his application is reviewed.

Ervin said yesterday, "We can force the Government, those of us in America and other countries standing with the poeple here... to make serious concessions to negotiate fairer."

Pauline Hanson jump station.

Political:

Howard is talking about creating a "tax-free zone" to help compensate for the loss of employment opportunities through the closure.

"We're going to have a look at that but we can't look at that in a Newcastle-specific fashion because to start with there are constitutional requirements and constraints," he said.

"Obviously if you are going to have free trade zones in Australia there'd be people in other parts of the country who think they ought to exist in their part of the country."

Howard took the opportunity of the Newcastle visit to forecast the kind of national jobs growth "not seen in Australia for 20 years".

You say:

Subject: LL:Geelong Hanson demo

Date sent: Wed, 16 Jul 1997 12:41:42 +1000
From: Jenny Campbell gaffcam@werple.net.au
To: Leftlink@vicnet.net.au
Subject: LL:Geelong Hanson demo

I attended the Geelong anti-Hanson organising meeting last night. Drinks start at 5.00pm Friday at the South Barwin Civic Centre, so the organisers are prepared for the demo to start then. Parking will be limited. Many from Ballarat and the Western District are also coming to protest. Pauline Hanson is expected between 5-6pm and will probably enter from the back, which will be heavily protected by police.

Jenny Campbell
Militant

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Business:

Kerry Packer and his Publishing and Broadcasting Limited (PBL), are, it appears, seeing their opportunity to acquire the newspaper house slip away.

PBL's view is that unless they can expect to win control their money would be better placed elsewhere.

The public debate over the role of Packer's powerbrokers - brought to light in an excellent and brave interview by senior Sydney Morning Herald journalist Margo Kingston - appears to have done its work - with the resulting flak in Canberra causing the subject to be sidelined.

The irony is that PBL may have sold its shareholding in the Sydney Casino needlessly beacuse the sale was to generate funds for the expected take over of Fairfax. PBL's shares are currently sitting at Au$7.90 capitalising the company at Au$4.05 billion.

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Have a good one.

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