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Friday 19th September 1997
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Its quite an easy formula actually, you tell the media that you are going to be talking about Pauline Hanson and then wait for the free publicity following your presentation.
Griffith University, home of some regular protesters at One Nation meetings, is where the Dean of Law, Sandra Berns hangs out. Yesterday she gave her inaugural professorial lecture in Brisbane and obviously felt that some Hanson-bashing would bring the crowds in. The theme was as repetitive as re-runs of manufactured Coca Cola bottles - but yes it got a prominent airing in today's Courier Mail.
The heading - "Hanson encouraging return to old days - professor."
Professor Berns is quoted as saying that One Nation attracted members who felt marginalised, "These people want to revert back to the simple times of the 1950s when the archetypical Australian was an ANZAC and a citizen mother devoted her life to breeding a stronger white population.
"It matters little that the Australia of their dreams vanished many years ago. We are now no longer living at the time of Federation."
And Prof Berns? Yes she is an import - coming from the US in 1972. Here is a bit more of her commentary, "These groups are trying to define what it was to be Australian with a throwback to a very simple caricature of an identity, which I suspect never existed."
Wrong Prof Berns. One Nation stands for putting a bit of honesty back into government - the tweedle dum and tweedle dee (Liberal/Labor) leaders of politics strut the global stage like some prancing knights when in reality they are nothing more than the pawns of Murdoch and Packer.
Yesterday we published a very revealing comparison on how far backward Australia has gone under this bi-partisan leadership with the Democrats squawking in the corner.
A very poor reflection on Australian drug regulators was exposed yesterday when a drugs expert, Justice Athol Moffitt who headed a royal commission into organised crime and drug links in the early 1970s said that Australia had the worst drug problem in the English speaking world.
"There are somewhere upward of 100,000 heroin addicts in Australia something approaching half of adults have used marijuana and Asian organised-crime gangs are moving in," Moffitt told the Sydney Legacy Club.
"The use of cannabis is now the highest of the English speaking world."
"Prohibition has been undermined and degraded. Unless you change the public perception of drug use, you cannot stop it," Moffitt said.
"Drugs are not a respecter of any class or person, intelligent or unintelligent, rich or poor."
Moffitt has spent the last four years working on a book investigating Australia's drug culture. His conclusion is firmly against "harm minimisation" schemes.
"We haven't been able to handle the major drug dealers so far," Moffitt said, "If we legalise or otherwise make illicit drugs more acceptable, we will open ourselves to organised crime.
"One the Asian crime rings get in and get a hold, it will be like nothing we have seen before.
"The Williams (his royal commission) had a solution, but it was ignored." The National Crime Authority report on Asian crime was also largely overlooked by Canberra where the so-called public representative have got better things to do like try to dig up dirt on each other.
Yet another Australian company is about to be bought up by overseas interests.
This time Memtec Ltd is under takeover attack by US Filter Corporation with an offer of US$30 per share.
Arnotts Limited - an Aussie icon is now owned by Campbell Soups (USA); Vegemite has gone the same way and Qantas and Telstra are well on the way to following the trend.
This will leave the Australians who still have jobs working for peanuts for foreign owners with the GM's speaking in yankified slang and using the callous business methods of the profit motivated multinational companies... who needs globalisation if this is what it has in store for Australia!
Making the
news" -Even Australia's good friend, New Zealand, has taken objection to Australia's refusal to budge on greenhouse gas emissions.
But the pressure is not just related to official work and meetings it appears that his VIP jet took a 1000km detour to Tahiti because its crew was not happy with its accommodation on the Cook Islands.
The 20 strong flight crew dropped Howard and snubbed the accommodation provided at Rarotonga flying on to Tahiti.
The total cost of this little luxury - paid of course by Australian taxpayers - just Au$60,000.
The governments official response was that there was no accommodation left a comment disputed by journalists covering the event who said that there were dozens of rooms left on Cook Islands - but our erstwhile "hardy?" flight crews will not be seen in budget accommodation it appears... so pull out the blank cheque book.
In your "Social" section appear two statements about the victims and offenders of domestic violence:
"Victims and offenders were most likely to be from the poorer socio-economic backgrounds and unlikely to be Australian born.
Most were from an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background."
Surely these are mutually exclusive unless we have a sub-culture of foreign born persons living within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. For once you do acknowledge the point, subtly though, that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, as a group, are from poorer socio-economic background - that is to say they are disadvantaged within our society.
Cheers,
Russell.
That point has never been in dispute - what is is WHO actually receives the billions of dollars of tax payer funds given to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission and why - because it certainly is not going to the indigenous population as it was intended.
Editor
Daiwa's Tokyo office was raided by 100 investigators after allegations that it gave kickbacks to a corporate gangster who lost 340 million yen (Au$4 million) punting on shares.
Daiwa's eight top executives resigned before the raid to take responsibility for giving illegal payments to the racketeer Ryuichi Koike.
The Australian Government immediately suspended Daiwa's involvement in the float to protect the integrity of the sale.
"Public confidence in the integrity and probity of the Telstra sale process - and of all those engaged in the sale - is paramount," Mr Fahey said.
"The government acknowledges that investigations in Japan are ongoing and that no charges of a criminal or civil nature have been brought against Daiwa," he said, "In the event that further investigations indicate that it is appropriate to do so, the suspension will be lifted and the firm will return to its role as a joint lead manager."
Have a good one.
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