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an Aussie's viewpoint on Australia's first daily Internet newspaper.
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Saturday 30th August 1997
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"Foreigners pulling up their roots in their homelands after a short visit to the Realm blew their minds with the intention of planting them here, do so because they have found the happy hunting ground in this life - or so they believe.

"They hope to use their abilities, education, training, experience and savings to start up a business, intermarry, integrate, pay taxes, employees, buy property, build homes, become respected members of society, giving and getting a fair deal.

"Alas they are reasonable hopes in other countries, but impossible to realise here. For one, no matter how well they have honed and perfected their respective skills if they are in fields restricted to locals they are legally prohibited from entering them.

"For another, if they wed Thais neither of them is permitted to purchase land. The argument that Thais can and do own real estate in their own homelands falls on deaf ears. "As you choose to live in the Kingdom, you are subject to its laws."

"A foreigner remains a foreigner regardless of how long he resides here or how fluently he learns to speak the language. Even if he acquires Thai citizenship, the local community withholds integration. He may have the customs and mores down pat, nevertheless he lacks the requisite prejudices.

"Every nation inculcates their children with convictions of superiority - moral, intellectual, inherent - the Land of Smiles no exception. Any Thai who doesn't accept this as gospel is regarded as unpatriotic, if not disloyal. Foreigners aren't expected to accept this because they are outsiders who don't know any better."

Vicnet, an initiative of the state library and multimedia department of Victoria, has joined the ranks of Left Link in promoting anti-Australian links.

I remember Vicnet well - when I was project co-ordinator of Global Info-Links the Vicnet team was hot on our heels with their own Victorian library-based initiative.

I phoned Vicnet at 4.40pm yesterday afternoon because my request to have Pauline Hanson's One Nation added to the list of political parties three weeks earlier had not been answered or acted upon.

Here is that email:

Date: Sat, 09 Aug 1997 14:10:11 +1000
From: gwb@gil.com.au
Reply-To: gwb@gwb.com.au
To: adrianb@vicnet.net.au

Subject: Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party

Dear sir,

Could you please add Pauline Hanson's One Nation to your list of political parties.

You will find it at:

http://www.gwb.com.au/hanson.html

What I got when I tried to contact Adrain who maintains the Vicnet political links page was the following response from the Vicnet help desk:

"Thank you for contacting Vicnet, we are sorry but because of illness the helpdesk will not be available on Friday night."

On closer examination of his page I noticed that some extreme left parties like Militant had been added since my email (updated 12th August) was sent with the description for Militant's link going as follows, "for struggle, solidarity and socialism. Now very active in Australia." Amusing and ironic that this link is situated directly above the link to "Official Australian Government Home Page". This from a library which is supposed to represent freedom of thought and speech - but censorship of One Nation's link goes unquestioned.

This has caused me to do some research into Vicnet which, despite being in a Liberal run state, appears to have been hijacked by the equivalent of the extreme left's Nazi party on-line - Left Link.

I tried Vicnet's main phone number and spoke to Neil Sheddon about the situation.

. SB: "What is your policy relating to linking sites to Vicnet's political pages?"

Neil Sheddon, web developer, "I am not familiar with the content of that section of the Vicnet site. We offer a service for all sectors of the community. We would not reject any and wish to keep a balanced approach."

SB: "We requested the listing of One Nation several weeks ago - our request was not answered and we have not been linked, do you know why?"

NS: "We have not generally had a policy in rejecting links. I would not like to comment on Adrian's behalf."

However one does not have to dig very far to find the bias coming through. For example how about signing the "Petition against Pauline Hanson" link listed under Current Issues and Events - obviously the Liberal Party are, strangely, following Labor's lead with Left Link.

Obviously Liberal leader Jeff Kennett does not realise the dissension going on in his own ranks... or there again maybe he approves of links by the state library to Militant, on face value it would appear so.

I will let you know how the issue develops.

While dong some research in Hansard I came up with this eye opener about how devious the Australian Labor Party are - and how the media let them get away with it. The case in question is none other than the Hindmarsh Bridge affair (see questions without notice). Despite three attempts to get a simple answer from the master of deceit, ex-Aboriginal Affairs Minister Robert Tickner, during Parliamentary question time the Coalition failed...

These are your accountable ALP ministers.. move on tweedle-dum.

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Have a good one.

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