Friday 3rd December 1999
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[ONE VOICE, MANY ISSUES -
Released May 1999]
October 1995
This morning I spoke to the regional Vice President of the New South Wales state executive, John Karnau. He represents nine state electorates in a massive area covering northern New South Wales (NSW).
There is a scheduled NSW executive on the 11th December at Dubbo, which Karnau will attend in his official capacity. He will be defending a recommendation by David Ettridge that he be expelled from the state executive.
Karnau's problems began when he spoke out against the administration of the Manly office in a letter dated 10th November which was faxed to members of the Queensland Executive. A week later, on the day Pauline Hanson left for the US (17/11), Ettridge responded with a demand to the State Executive that Karnau be expelled. It is quite clear that Pauline Hanson is not aware of the Ettridge edict. Karnau has been phoned and told that Ettridge "has the numbers".
In the letter to the Queensland executive, which drew Ettridge's wrath, Karnau put forward several recommendations, which make sense. These are summarised in bullet point form below.
NOTE: According to Karnau items in bold have been discussed by members of NSW state executive privately. Points in this colour have been passed by motion by the NSW State Executive. Points in normal text are his personal recommendations.
Karnau said to me this morning: "I have allegedly spoken to people and made recommendations to them with respect the administration of the affairs of One Nation from Manly office. This has greatly offended Mr Ettridge to the extent where implications were made by him which resulted in members of the Queensland executive including Pauline Hanson being branded as activists and or having contact with activists who are working with people who have had a detrimental effect on One Nation."
He continued, "I believe One Nation needs to have administration put in place at a senior executive level which is professional in administration and has some basic legal knowledge in the area of running a political party.
"The structure of the party was undemocratic; pressure has now been brought to bear to make it more accountable. Certain members of the national executive have resisted this.
"I believe that the David Ettridge recommendations for my expulsions are unwarranted. I have signed letters of support from all current active branches in my region. they have expressed disgust and dismay in the manner content of the Ettridge recommendation (to the state executive).
"There are a number of people on the NSW state executive who have ambitions to become involved at a higher level within the organisation who would not do or say anything that may jeopardise their ambitions. There are others in the executive who are well aware of the problems and who are doing their very best to overcome them."
Karnau has gone public because he, like many in One Nation, have realised that the official channels are funnelled into three boxes, "mates", "do nothing" or "expel for challenging Manly".
In short official channels only serve the best interests of the Manly office.
The appeal by One Nation against its deregistration in Queensland has been delayed until February 2000.
There are now serious concerns among One Nation executives that an adverse finding just before a state election would impact badly on the party's chances in the next state election.
A One Nation member hacked into and published a fraudulent article which purports to have been written by me. Measures have been taken to ensure that this hacking action cannot happen again.
An extract from my "confession" published on the @notd reports:
The last few weeks has been a difficult time for me and Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party. Through listening to the legal arguments in the appeal court case recently I have begun to realise that things are not quite the way that I have presented to you people.
Somebody today has given me some wonderful counselling help that I should have had months or years ago before a lot of the things in my life went astray.
I’d like to put a few things straight. I apologise to David Oldfield and David Ettridge and many others that I have been too hasty to criticise recently. I now realise that I have treated them worse than the ways I have accused the Packer and Murdoch media groups of treating One Nation.
Unfortunately I allowed things to go to my head and affect my judgment. I now realise that I should be a lot more careful to listen to all sides of a story before rushing in with harsh and often unfounded accusations.
I also realise that I have been manipulated and used by other people such as John Pasquerelli and Bruce Whiteside who are obviously biased and vindictive.
It is sadly true that most of what I have published has been merely gossip and the rest I have contorted the little evidence dishonestly for my own means. I guess when one is emotionally distressed you hear things the way you want them to be, and jump to the conclusions that I wanted to see. I have come to realise how erratic, unreasonable and spiteful I have been.
Financial difficulties have badly affected me. I have been pressing to get paid a lot more than the $xxx per month that I was being paid to run the website. I became aware that David Oldfield was against me getting paid more because One Nation has paid staff that could do the website and I was no longer affordable. I took David’s actions personally when in fact I realise he was being financially responsible. I allowed this to make me bitter and for some weeks now I have unjustly sought revenge.
The words of the article reflect a familiar style that some One nation members might recognise and some of the information, such as the payment I received, was only known by the Manly office and myself.
There is more to the article than the piece reproduced above. The article then goes on to talk about my personal life and to make claims which are not only highly defamatory but false as well.
I contacted the Federal Police in NSW at 10am today. They are now investigating the hacking.
Posted 3.30pm Queensland time:
It has come to my attention that hard copies of the hacked document are now being circulated by certain One Nation members. John Webeck, a member of the state executive in NSW confirmed that he was shown a copy this morning. The Federal police have advised that they will begin their investigations into the hacking on Monday.
I reserve the right to take legal action following their investigations.
The course sychophantic nature of The Courier-Mail is aptly represented in today's paper.
It is full of breast beating articles hailing the success of its ventures both on-line and in the traditional media.
I guess that the inclusion of articles like this does add some depth to its traditional content which reflects the political bias of its rusted-on reporters who are approved by the upper echelons of its hierarchy.
When they gave us Pay TV the politicians guaranteed that traditional free-to-air sporting events would never ever be a casualty.
Of course these assurances were nothing more than lies exploited by the media barons in their relentless drive to soak up a dollar wherever it can be found.
A Federal Government task force, that no one ever knew existed, has recommended that the restrictions on Pay TV be removed opening the floodgates for traditional sport to become the restricted sanctum of Pay TV viewers. No lesser a personage than that highly professional Federal Sports Minister Jackie Kelly commissioned former AFL chief executive Ross Oakley to come up with the tailor made recommendations.
The report sounds like an official notice from Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch to the compliant Cabinet with further recommendations that funds be raised through Internet gambling and organised tipping competitions.
The report states: "It (the task force) believes that over time the Pay TV market penetration will increase and when this occurs the Government would be able to relax anti-siphoning laws.
"The task force recommends that the Commonwealth agree to removing sports from the anti-siphoning legislation, only in return for sports paying a fixed percentage of TV broadcasting rights into a sports funding pool."
The removal of anti-siphoning will see cricket, golf and rugby disappear from free to air TV only to be replaced with more of the 1950 style movies featuring Elvis Presley and Clarke Gable.
And they call this progress!
Making the
news" -
I feel the need to clarify some of the comments made on @notd (2/12/99). My letter of resignation carried under '@notd letters to the Editor,' was authorised by myself to be used on @notd as an explanation as to why I have resigned from official positions within One Nation.
It has come to my attention that the 'How many good people have to leave' commentary by Scott Balson, could be misinterpreted. For the record, David Oldfield has not intimidated me. The comments don't actually state this, however, I do not wish the intent to be misconstrued. I will not publicly detail the people I was referring to. The only comment I will make, is that David Ettridge's letter to all members regarding Scott Balson was an attempt at mass intimidation. I know very few people who weren't offended by it.
With regards to my own situation, David Oldfield has informed me that the activities carried out by a certain One Nation member were not under the directives of the Party. Although I can appreciate this, I can not dismiss the issue.
Therefore, despite what the comments on @notd may or may not suggest, I did not resign solely on the issue of Party leadership.
Thank you to those who have supported me in my decision and those who have attempted to encourage me to reconsider. I stand by my decision. I still hold ordinary membership, and my continued involvement in Young Nation in particular, I have been informed, is welcomed.
Shondra Briton
How far is One Nation going to decline, to read another big loss Shondra Briton. And it continues to be those who have put most into the party. Isn't Manly appreciatng what has been done and how important a strong and united party is for survival. Being from Victoria just this year we've had Robyn Spencer virtually thrown out, and nationally an unreplacable Web-builder, five MP's and now Shon. Action must be taken now before it is too late.
Mark
Mark
It would take very little to get people like Robyn Spencer back on board. A 2D extraction and a proper party structure is all it takes.
Editor
In the beginning One Nation's membership grew from a spontanious explosion within the community. People came forward, started branches, sent money in, sought out how to join. It all happened of its own accord and the two Davids sat back and reaped the rewards. It all happened despite them, not because of them.
Now that the Party has stalled, as well as the membership down by 2/3rds they have not got a clue what to do. Any dill can jump on the wagon when everything is going ahead full steam and claim all the glory. The real test of leadership is when it has stopped and you have to use your own originality and make things happen.
1999 is a year when things stalled and the two Davids showed they do not have what it takes to get this party moving. They're quick to take all the glory when the party is booming along because of all the hard work of the membership but when it stalls they haven't got a clue.
That's what happens when you hijack a party. For a while things go alright because of all of the good ideas and hard work of others. But there comes a time through changing circumstance that they should have come up with their own good ideas and hard work. They have been shown to be wanting in these two areas. They are a pair of smarties who have shown nothing but contempt to the members with their outrageous constituition.
Sure the boot lickers can say nice things about them, but that doesn't count, because they have to, if they are to get on in the party.
We must put the feelers out now for a new Professional National Director.
One who has targets and must achieve them.
Bob
Dear sir,
I have been following the comments of the Editor and one or two readers of News of the Day about the workings of One Nation. I am very tempted to paraphrase the late Sir Winston Churchill's famous lines "Never have so many been fooled for so long".
One of the great problems I believe we have as supporters is that we have subconsciously linked Ms Hanson and One Nation as being the same. I have no doubt that this was intentional. All those who have from time to time criticised One Nation have by subtle coaxing from Mr Ettridge in particular been accused of attacking the three. What has made this even more difficult has been Ms Hanson's own comments along similar lines.
But have we fallen into a well baited trap?.... I believe so. No organisation no matter how bad can spawn so many "white ants" in such a short time. There has to be another reason for so much concern.
Perhaps the greatest example of this was the almost sickening condemnation of the man who appeared to start it all, Mr Whiteside. I have never understood why he started something and immediately wanted it pulled down.
In recent days News of the Day has featured some damning comments from him and I have to say I am disturbed by what he writes.
Yesterday the Editor appeared to echo Mr Whiteside, by making a valiant attempt to isolate Ms Hanson from the possibility of fraud. He went on to say that ignorance is no excuse.
The question that your story prompted yesterday was this. If Mr Ettridge and Mr Oldfield have so comprehensively fooled us all, then Ms Hanson was conned as well.
As you rightly point out if Ms Hanson goes down then we all go down.
If ever this girl needed a support movement, then surely it is now. I think you have raised a facet of this whole business, the protection of Hanson, that should polarise and activate all those who believed in her.
Dan DeReszke
Hi Scott,
With still another delay in our court case, I sure hope this Legal Eagle we have is not being paid for each attendance. It was, after all, his boo boo that caused this matter not to have been finalised months ago. Yet more money wasted.
Renata.
If you want a fairer, more just and prosperous world, you must reject outright any extension of the World Trade Organization (WTO) mandate to include services as proposed by the major powers. Instead, you should review the existing scope of WTO jurisdiction and remove all references to "national treatment" as a fundamental tenet of international trade and investment. If you don't, you will never be able to develop the kind of diversified economy necessary to provide interesting and challenging jobs to your brightest young people and you will not have the tax base required to finance essential public services.
The "national treatment" clause
The "national treatment" clause is the lever by which the transnational
corporations and international banks of the five big powers are colonizing
the world to an extent previously considered impossible. As soon as your
country has a company with good prospects to expand globally, it will be
bought by one of the transnationals which will shut the company down, make
it part of the transnational's empire or move production to another country.
In the event that the choice is either to shut down the company or move
production elsewhere, trade agreements require countries to allow products
previously made within their borders to be imported from abroad without penalty.
My country, Canada, has already suffered in this way when foreign investors
bought our companies and curtailed or ended production with the inevitable
loss of jobs.
Even if the facility purchased remains in your country, the most challenging jobs will be moved to a foreign head office. Consequently, your most creative people will be denied the opportunities they want or be forced to emigrate to the country where the head office is located. Again, Canada has experienced this tragic result.
In addition, your national tax base will be eroded. Transnational corporations are ingenious at finding ways to minimize the taxes they pay in host countries. They use many devices, including the amount they charge for administration and royalty payments on patents, in order to transfer profits to a location of their choice. Meanwhile, they expect the host country to carry the major burden for the construction of infrastructure and the provision of social services.
The WTO and Democracy
In effect, globalization is a combination of colonization and corporatization.
Corporations are usurping the power of nation states and robbing them of
their ability to legislate positively on behalf of their own people. Power
is shifting to the World Trade Organization which is little more than a surrogate
for transnational corporations and the banks that finance corporations' global
acquisitions.
This development is a travesty of democracy. The World Trade Organization is now exercising de facto executive, legislative and judicial powers in much of the world. It does this in the absence of any democratic foundation and without checks and balances. It has all the characteristics of a bureaucratic dictatorship, unaccountable to any electorate. That the second millennium should end with democracy being totally undermined at the hands of countries that claim to be democratic is an unspeakable tragedy. It is a measure of the extent to which real democracy no longer exists in these countries, including Canada and the United States. Only candidates and parties with substantial financial backing from large corporations have any hope of getting elected. Once in office, they are obliged to favour corporate interests over those of rank and file electors.
To accomplish this, politicians favourable to the big corporations have been selling the idea that globalization is both inevitable and good for ordinary people. They speak of "the unquestionable benefits" of globalization without providing any evidence or data to support this myth. In fact, the "benefits" accrue largely to the officers, directors and principal shareholders of transnational corporations and the people they hire to do their bidding. Nearly everyone else in the world is worse off.
Economic "success"
This new economic system (under which we have all been living since central
banks adopted the ideas of Milton Friedman and his colleagues at the University
of Chicago in 1974), is really a reversion to the boom-bust system in effect
prior to the Great Depression of the 1930s. It can only be judged by its
"success". A look at the data shows that neo-classical, monetarist (globalized)
economics has been a monumental flop. In Canada, for example, our performance
has been humiliating. From 1949 to 1973, real domestic output increased by
an average of 4.9% a year; for the 25 Friedman years, growth has averaged
2.8%, a reduction of 43 percent.
At the same time, both inflation and unemployment have been far higher. From 1949 to 1973, the Consumer Price Index, our inflation indicator, rose y an average of 2.86%, whereas from 1974 to 1998, it rose by 5.62% a year, on average, an increase of 97 percent. Unemployment for the earlier 25 years averaged 4.74% and for the last 25 years, 9%, almost 90% more men and women unemployed and looking for work since the monetarist counter-revolution began in 1974.
Even in the great United States the comparison is dismal. The average increase in GDP was down by 38% and unemployment has been 42% higher in the monetarist era. Their federal debt soared by more than 1000 percent.
It is the global statistics, however, that make one shudder. For the years 1950 to 1973, the average annual compound growth rate of per capita GDP was 2.90 percent. From 1973 to 1995, it was down to a disastrous 1.11%, more than a 50% reduction. Neo-classical monetarist economics, which is the cornerstone of a globalized system, has been a disaster for the world and especially for its poorest people.
Individual and national rights
And now the big powers want to extend WTO jurisdiction to health care and
education because big corporations want to take over these areas. Just say
no! Health care and education are too important to be put in the hands of
foreign corporations for whom profits are more important than a healthy,
well-educated populace looking for equality of opportunity.
Agriculture is another area for concern. A few large companies want to control world food supplies. Unfortunately, they have the support of the United States and some other governments. It is profoundly important, both strategically and from a humanitarian standpoint, that this trend be stopped and some semblance of self-sufficiency in food be maintained in nation states.
Y2K marks a turning point for the world and for the WTO. While the time clock moves inexorably ahead, the globalization clock must be turned back. The WTO should be stripped of its dictatorial powers. The ability of large corporations to subvert democracy should be curbed. "National treatment" should be scrapped so that each sovereign country will have the power to decide the terms and conditions on which foreign investment is welcome and the extent to which it is welcome. And each country should have the right to protect its own industries - if it is willing to accept the consequences from other countries. After all, that is how the major powers became major powers. In a just world, they should not deny the same right to their smaller and weaker neighbours.
Yours sincerely,
Paul Hellyer
Is the WTO the second attempt to pass the MAI?
Immigration has gone too far, the country has reached saturation level with every country on earth represented speaking their own tongue, many walking around in their national costume. Many Anglo/European Australians ( now there is a new term that didn't exist not long ago) feeling as if they are in a foreign country. But if they object they are silenced by being called racists. We now have older Australians who thought English was our language, our Polititians were there to represent the people, our soldiers went off to war to stop us being taken over by foreigners and a thousand other myths our leaders have sold us out on .
We have new Australians who have been told this is a multicultral country and so they feel quite at home not to fit in, speaking at the top of their voices in foreing languages, neither careing or thinking it may be offensive to the locals (actualy it is the same as whispering in front of someone - very bad manners) wearing various national costumes and invariably taking over entire suburbs.
Even if these people made some effort to fit in, enough is enough.
It is not a fair go on the rest of us, immigration is way out of control and needs to be stopped entirely. If Australia wants to increase the population, it must be made more economically possible and Australian mothers be encouraged to have more children.
Peter
from the global office:
Another perfect day in paradise.
Have a good one.
exclusive to
(how to)
subscribe/rs of the Australian National News of the Day:
Balson's trip to
Sydney - 26th to 29th November
Whiteside calls
for a Royal Commission into One Nation - 25th November 1999
The One Nation
Appeal - 23rd November 1999
Ettridge's
Whiteant list and
Whiteant
Alan Esson speaks out - 20th November 1999
Balson banned from
One Nation meetings in New South Wales - 15th November 1999
Balson resigns
as One Nation Web Master - 5th November 1999
Is David Oldfield
fair dinkum? - 3rd November 1999
The Courier-Mail's
lies - 1st November 1999
The Republic
Debate - 10th October 1999
The National Young Writer's
Festival - Newcastle - 30th September to 4th October
The Patriotic Movement
forum - 26th September 1999
The Multilateral Farce
- DFAT and WTO - 22nd September 1999
The Victorian
State Elections - 18th September 1999
1999 One Nation
Queensland State AGM - 4/5 September 1999
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