Letter written in response to Sonny Thompson who wrote in the Queensland Times on 16th January:
"S Balson has got to be kidding when he says that ‘Hanson’s voice is so important to all Australians’."
16th January 1998 (appeared 21st January 1998)
The Editor
Queensland Times
Dear sir,
In response to Sonny Thompson’s letter (QT 16/01) may I say that I wish I was ‘kidding’ when I said that ‘Hanson’s voice is so important to all Australians’.
The reason that I and millions of other Australians have turned to Pauline Hanson is because they have recognised that there is something terribly wrong in our current political system. I do not support Pauline Hanson because she is a dynamic, slick, fast-talking career politician because obviously she is not. She makes mistakes, she is not politically correct but she has more heart and guts than the combined federal ALP.
The entrenched Labor and Coalition parties are too busy playing party politics to really care about the Australian voter. If you don’t believe me Sonny then I have a challenge for you. I doubt whether you will have any success with the Labor Party (who purport to support Wik) because they have refused to accept my challenges in the QT in the past. Ask the Labor Party to provide me with a forum so that they can challenge me when I expand on my claim summarised below.
As a bit of background I will start by quoting from an ABC Radio report (Background Briefing Sunday 30th November 1997) in which Sharif Seid of the Australian National University’s Research School of Social Studies, said, ‘A (multinational) foreign investor can challenge the government on the basis that Australian government has given a more favourable treatment to the Aborigines than the foreign investor. But here countries are allowed now to make reservations where certain provisions of the MAI would not apply. So I expect the Australian Government to make some reservations on this area, land titles and Aboriginal rights. But again, these reservations are temporary because every country is required 1) to make no new restrictions on foreign investment; 2) to roll back, to withdraw, current restrictions through time. So even if certain reservations would be made now, after a certain period of time they should arise again, that is Australia will be required to withdraw that reservation and then this land title legislation will face extinction.’
Now this is an issue which directly effects Aborigines - the extinguishment of native title by foreign companies - Australia started negotiating MAI under the (Federal) Labor government and have continued to do so under the Coalition.
Pauline Hanson is the only MP who is taking a stand against the multinationals. We have been warned of a probable double dissolution over Wik taking place this year - while waiting in the wings are multinational companies who will, on this issue under MAI, be above the High Court’s jurisdiction.
If the Labor Party refuse to respond on this issue Sonny( as I expect they will), I challenge you to provide me with a venue to publicly demonstrate what I am talking about. All I need is a phone line and power and a fair go to present my case. You will soon realise why Pauline Hanson’s voice is so important to all Australians.
Scott Balson, Karana Downs.