International:

Pauline Hanson's latest press releases are now on-line.

Here is an extract:

"Noel Pearson is warning of war and reportedly telling young Aborigines in Cape York to arm themselves. De-Anne Kelly MP is clearly aware of this as she warns of reports blacks and whites are now arming themselves in Cape York and weapons are being freely traded. I also have reports of weapons being traded, and of an Aboriginal stockpile of military semi-automatic weapons at Arukun.

"This combined with other reports of Aboriginal gun running and involvement with known terrorists means pastoralists are not over-reacting on their concerns, in particular for women isolated on properties. Rural Australia is at Flashpoint, the Prime Minister must acknowledge this and immediately call for peace among all Australians, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal."

I spent an hour on-line with AAP Reuters yesterday demonstrating the international terrorist links being made by the Nyungah Circle of Elders in Perth and exposing allegations of gun running by Aborigines in Western Australia.

A special web page with the full story and on-line links and evidence has been set-up but I have promised AAP Reuters that they will have a 24 hour head start so this page will only appear in tomorrow's Australian National News of the Day.  

Murdoch and that funny thing called tax.

Just how do the multinationals minimise tax, just how fair is the level playing field being sought by the transnationals under the multilateral agreement on investment? The Washington Post ran an article on Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and how the group minimises tax yesterday. A small extract from the article is shown below:

AN OFF-SHORE HAVEN

Here is how Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. legally minimises U.S. taxes on films made by its U.S. movie studio, 20th Century Fox, according to corporate documents and executives familiar with the company's practices. A similar process is used for home video and television programs, such as "The Simpsons," made by 20th Century Fox.

1. 20th Century Fox Productions (U.S.) produces a movie.
2. 20th Century U.S. strikes a licensing agreement for foreign distribution of the movie with 20th Century Fox Latin America Theatrical Inc., based in the Cayman Islands. This Cayman subsidiary pays a licensing fee to 20th Century U.S., typically 20 percent to 25 percent of the eventual net proceeds from the film. That license revenue is taxable in the United States.
3. The Cayman subsidiary licenses the film to distributors around the world. Revenue and profit from the film's overseas distribution flow back to the Cayman subsidiary, where they are free of income tax under Cayman law.
4. The Cayman subsidiary then pays dividends on these profits to News Corp., the parent company incorporated in Australia. That dividend is a small percentage of the total profit recouped by the Cayman subsidiary. Australia taxes the dividend income but cannot touch the money remaining in the Caymans, which is available for loans to News Corp. subsidiaries and other purposes.

Yesterday we transcribed the interview run by ABC radio on 30th November 1997 in which the "moneypower" the "transnationals" through the US Council for International Business are seeking a multilateral agreement on investment (MIA) through the OECD which will, in effect, remove the power of the governments to govern their countries and put that power in the hands of the transnationals through a clause which, simplified, states "the transnationals want a 'level playing field' when competing with small localised businesses"... so where do we, the Cayman Islands and tax advantages fall into that 'level playing field'? Better ask Murdoch that one.

Interesting that the MIA which, when implemented, will remove native title rights from the Australian Aborigines in the future has not been raised by Mr Murdoch's media. Yes Murdoch and his multinational mates will be able to take any government to an international court (with jurisdiction over our national High Court) to have, for example, native title rights removed as they are contrary to "the level playing field" as the Aborigines were given an unfair advantage in securing them. Also interesting is that Peter Costello's treasury department are in Paris right now close to signing away our democracy. Here is the complete transcript of that ABC interview.

The race debate gone wrong in the USA.

The race debate in the USA has taken an interesting twist according to the Washington Times, "An initiative that President Clinton has billed as an effort to engage the country in a frank dialogue on race relations moved to Dallas Friday in the form of a closed-door meeting with only blacks invited."

100,000 hectare native title claim to be ratified in Cairns.

In June 1996 twenty three Aboriginal parties lodged a claim over a large area of Hopevale 160 km north of Cairns in Queensland.

Today several hundred Aborigines and their accompanying band of blood-sucking lawyers will converge on Cairns to witness the final stage of the native title process. It is expected that Justice Beaumont will ratify their native title claim.

One of the thirteen claimants, Stan Darkan, said yesterday, "My father has never stopped dreaming of this day. It was too late for him. Now it has come and I am so pleased I lived to see it.

"I'm from the Thuubi clan. My land is the little bit around where the Hopevale Mission is today. It's going to be my land now, it was my father's before me and his father's before his. I belong to it at all times."

Then along will come the MAI and the multinationals who will, for overseas financial gain, reclaim this "native title" land lost by Australian people (such as pastoralist) for their own interests. And both the Liberal and Labor bi-partisan governments know this....

Political:

The Federal Treasurer, Peter Costello, the man at the centre of Australia's involvement with the MAI, has said that if a double-dissolution comes next year through rejection Howard's ten point plan on Wik, the Coalition will concentrate on tax as a platform for re-election - steering clear of the Wik issue.

"Let me make this point, for every year we lose (on tax reform), that's more job opportunities we say goodbye to," he said on Channel 9's Sunday programme.

You Say:

Subject: Comments on Australian News of the Day

To The Editor,

Well here we go again, I was reading the Saturday edition of the Courier mail 6/12/97.

When I got to page three who do I see non other than the sweet innocent face of Cheryl Kernot. I notice the name under the same picture spells her name Kermot, however, by Whatever Names she is known by these days, it is apparent there is a move afoot to Smooth Over her self serving defection and make out she is "Some Kind Of Victim" of the event.

I am sure that for her Former faithful Believers, it is going to take a little more time than the time left until the next election. Does she think for a moment that her followers are going to follow her to the Labor Party? and believe that she is now the victim of circumstance.

One paragraph of the mentioned article she says she still felt the Pain of not telling them in advance, then in the next paragraph she states how excited she is about the future with the prospect of being on the front bench in a , (get this) A Labor Government.

What she has failed to mention is that she would be bound to follow Labor Policy ,dictated, as has always been by the, Behind The Scenes party members and follow their directions in the very same policies and to vote along Party Lines who's views she had condemned in the past. (Is this hypocrisy or am I stupid).

Does she think for a moment that the general community will see her move as nothing but a hopeful grab at the possibility of being a "Labor Prime Minister" and that any belief in Doing It For The People is a joke. But Wait, that claim will come, as soon as the next election gets underway and she finds these same policies so important to us.

I also notice the mentioned story moves on to page 27 where an attempt there is again made to draw a mental picture showing her as sweet school teacher with little students gathering around her in some " Adoring Fashion ".

Well comparing the early photograph of a young innocent school teacher with the current " Much Older Hardened Politician " takes a lot of swallowing.

This reminded me of the Flogged Image of Paul Keating as a young band leader. An image that hardly compared with the Paul Keating we came to know ( To our Horror ).

Is this the only sort of Journalistic Propaganda we can expect these days.

The students she taught would be Grown Up voters now wondering if the principals of "Fair Play" taught at school, even slightly resemble the activities of the " Cheryl Kernot Of Today.

Lets face it Kim Beazley would not have been the leader if Carmen Lawrence had not fallen over. Cheryl Kernot is seen by the Party Faithful as the only possible replacement. Who else could they put in if Kim Beazley was their prior best choice?, Gareth Evans? He He He.

Another reason for Cheryl Kernot to Jump Ship would be the knowledge that a lot of people who have voted democrats in the past only because they did not want to vote for the Major Parties will now switch to ONE NATION.

A failing Democrat Party would trigger a Leadership Challenge and Cheryl's head would have been on the block.

I believe politically she has left the LIFEBOAT and is now swimming over to the TITANIC to be sucked down with the wreckage that One Nation will leave behind in both major parties.

Tony Fitzpatrick

Business:

The Asian currency crisis is being turned on its head today in a report by News Limited's Courier Mail with the following claim, "Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad acknowledges that bribery and corruption are widespread in Asian economies. Had the foreign debt been employed for profitable investment, then the foreign debt problem would have been relatively small and trivial if their currencies had been determined by market forces instead of government interference.

"Rather than allowing the banks and their business borrowers to take the consequences of their self-inflicted unprofitable loans, Asian governments have used taxpayers' money to bail them out. Not only has investor's money been lost but taxpayers' money has been wasted in a futile attempt to keep unviable businesses afloat.

"Asian economies will be prone to such financial crises as long as government interference in currency markets continues and they encourage the culture of political rather than business decision making."

Those in the know know that:

George Soros and his moneyed "thug" mates associated with the World Bank have upset the Asian economies through currency manipulation. The prize is weakened economies that will make Asian countries eager signatories to the MAI in return for financial stability.

Dr Mahathir Mohamad said all this in his speech to the World Bank earlier this year.

The big winners will not be the people  or the nations, "The MAI is a fetter on the future sovereignty of nations. And worse than that, its being developed by six or seven men in the backroom in silence, and supposedly in the best interests of all of us."

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Lovely rain last night... thunderstorms and wind.

Cloudy and cooler this morning.

Beaut day in the global office ahead.

Have a good one.

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