Thursday 24th July 1997
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Former Black Panther activist Lorenzo Kom'boa Ervin is set to leave Australia today, several weeks early.
The move will pre-empt a report which would probably see his visa being withdrawn anyway on the basis of his character. While in Australia Ervin has been stirring up racial hatred and division and calling for Aborigines to call for an international boycott of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
Former West Australian Premier Brian Burke was ordered by the chief judge of the West Australian Supreme Court, Justice David Malcolm, to be freed yesterday after spending five months in jail on seven charges of stealing more than Au$120,000 from the Australian Labor Party.
Burke's appeal was heard by Justices Malcolm, Terry Walsh and William Pidgeon yesterday afternoon. In a 2-1 verdict the court announced its decision after just 10 minutes. Malcolm said there would be no retrial.
Brian Burke broke down and wept after the verdict was given with his wife, Sue, and son, Matthew, there to witness the outcome.
Yesterday a member of the Brisbane Anti-Racism Campaign responded to allegations that the committee had discussed plans to threaten Pauline Hanson with a letter in the Queensland Times.
Here is the letter:
Outright lies are gutter politics - letter to Queensland Times, 23rd July 1997.
Pauline Hanson and her supporters are so concerned to discredit the
demonstrations against One Nation that they have resorted to outright lies.
The allegation that the Brisbane Anti-Racist Committee planned to assault
Pauline Hanson is a complete fabrication (QT) July 17). I should know, I
was there. The committee never discussed this issue nor would it support individual assaults on Pauline Hanson or her supporters. This is not the
way to fight racism.
Hanson's adviser David Ettridge, claims the Federal Police are taking the
plot to assault Hanson seriously. So seriously they haven't even bothered
to interview anyone who was at the meeting. One Nation want to brand their
opposition as violent and as an unrepresentative minority.
This is a typical politician's tactic designed to cloud the issue. The truth
is, it is racism that is violent. Already the number of racist motivated
attacks on minorities in Australia has increased dramatically.
You only have to look to the former Yugoslavia to see where politics based
on hate leads. The thousands who have rallied against One Nation want to
stop Australia going down the same road.
Mark Gillespie, East Brisbane
The comment highlighted above is untrue, we know of two people at the meeting who have been interviewed by Federal Police. Following the interview Federal Police said that they were taking the threat seriously.
Although point five has been denied several members of the committee have confirmed that the other eleven points were, in fact, discussed.
Fifteen families have withdrawn their children from the school saying that the Devil is at work.
The stranger than science event started when an 11 year old girl, Sarah Murphy, who, after a hiccup, began to shake, laugh and cry uncontrollably during a Maths class on July the 10th this year. Her father, Peter Murphy, was teaching the class at the time. Sarah fell to the ground and could not sit up for about ten minutes. The phenomenon quickly spread throughout the school with about 30 students from 11 to 16 years of age experiencing the same symptoms within a week.
All the children "touched by God" had a similar experience saying that they felt at peace and happy with their experience, but having sore stomach muscles from body spasms.
Other children who had not been "touched" accused them of faking it. The Caloundra Baptist pastor, Ken Kilah, said, "God has a plan and purpose for everyone, including schools. We're just taking it a day at a time and trusting God to lead us."
The children at the school, which had 380 students before 26 were subsequently pulled out, experienced a warm feeling of love and friendship which permeated through the entire school during this period.
The local Anglican Archbishop Peter Hollingworth distanced himself from the event saying that it was "not our business - it's an in-house thing (ie Catholic Church)".
Just suppose for argument's sake that Pauline Hanson's comments were
'hurting Asian trade'. SO BLOODY WHAT??
Where is it written that trade has to take precedence over other social
issues? Who says profits override principle? Who says profits are more
important than the other problems facing Australia? If it could be shown
that stupid journalists tripping round Asia trying to con Asian
businessmen into interfering in Australia's internal political affairs
was also hurting trade by making Australia look idiotic, would 60
Minutes desist? Not likely!
Ayn Rand once said, never fall into the trap of unquestioningly
accepting your opponents' premises, and we should reject this one. Let
60 Minutes show 'hurt' to Asian trade. So bloody what? It proves we
should be more self-sufficient and less 'interdependent'.
Graham Strachan.
Subject: Launch of One Nation at Dandenong
Don't you just love these POPULAR words that come in and out of fashion
all the time, like Racist, Nazi, Fascist etc and they all seem to be
coming from those people against Pauline Hanson, why is this so?
And in reply to Jason Keys, you mentioned that you were standing up
against racism, what racism? I would like to know what RACIST things Ms
Hanson has said, can you tell me? can any of your so called Friends that
also protest against Ms Hanson tell me? NO I don't think you can because
in the end all you morons are doing is just making a song and dance and
beating up innocent people for nothing. In a way you are just disagreeing
so that you don't have to agree with her policies, am I right? I think
so.
Lachlan Bugarin
Ipswich Anti-Racism Committee.
Pauline Hanson jump station.
Weird:
Here is a weird but true story which has spread through a small school north of Brisbane. The school, the Sunshine Coast's Caloundra Christian College has had a visit from God - or so it is claimed with 30 students claiming to have been "touched by God".
You say:
Subject: So bloody what?
The goods and services growth in Australia has been just 0.3% over the last 12 months.
Federal Treasurer Peter Costello said yesterday, "The purchasing power of a dollar measured against a basket of goods is now higher.
"The value of their (Australian's) money is not declining on them... the value of their money actually increased."
The biggest factor behind the fall in the Consumer Price Index was a 9.6% drop in the cost of mortgages - thanks to 5 cuts in interest rates in the last 12 months alone.
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