Land rights
Th Aboriginal Land Rights controversy could so easily be resolved, and in the process the word "Rent" could be used to replace words like "Tax" and "taxation" in some areas.
Let us agree that land titles were not extinguished: that the land that belonged to the people still belongs to the people.
In consequence of this agreement rent then becomes payable on all alienated land, and subsistence and services rendered becomes a RIGHT and not a charity.
Richard Chiffings
Gosnells WA
The nincompoops' politician
At last! The nincompoops of Australia have a voice. With one foul speech, Hanson has made herself the hero of narrow-minded whites everywhere. It's so simple! Problems of unemployment, falling standards of living, fear of the future can all be solved in one easy step. Don't blame the system. Blame the migrants, aborigines, and rampant youth. Send them away, or better still, put them in the army. That'll teach them good old fashioned values!
Hansen's comments would be laughed out of a civilised society. In Australia in 1996, they're embraced, and not just by the white supremacist bores. Behind Hanson there stands a far greater threat, a far more insidious and powerful one. For all her bluster, Hanson has no power. The Liberal Party, however, does. The Coalition's racism, while cleverly shielded by Hanson's hyperbole, is the real enemy. Cuts to ATSIC, cuts to migrant services, threats of deportation and more had all been bagged by Howard long before Hanson came along. Hanson is merely the puppet to entertain the crowd. In the run to knock her down, we cannot ignore the ones who hold the strings.
Graham Matthews
Brisbane
Racism
Why are the media giving so much publicity to the harmful opinions of Pauline Hanson on indigenous Australians and Asian immigrants? The ruling class need a scapegoat to divert public attention away from their reactionary policies, particularly when funding for health services, tertiary education, scientific research and social services are being eroded.
From their point of view it is far safer and better for public indignation to be diverted away from the Coalition government and focused upon indigenous Australians and Asian migrants.
The following passage from Marx's Capital is as true today as it was in 1867 when it was first published: "Labour cannot emancipate itself in the white skin while in the black it is branded".
The instigators of racist slander should be reminded of the maxim of Abraham Lincoln: "You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time.
Bernie Rosen
Strathfield NSW
Nationalism and the bush
An often neglected factor in the re-emergence of nationalist ideology is the desertion of the smaller farmer by neo-liberal politicians.
Interest rates on farm debts rose to over 30% in the late '80s. Drought relief is often too late and not enough. Regional infrastructure has been mauled by successive non-interventionist governments. Ecological disasters evoke disharmony, as happened in South Africa. The National Party has consistently voted against farmers. Take the GST, for example.
Racism may be understood as a scapegoating due to a decline in social, human and physical capital, all of which must be re-invented and rebuilt in regional Australia. The social impact of neo-liberal market specialisation is that of isolation and distrust.
The corporatisation of the bush must be understood, and resisted with a view to empowering the new rural poor. We must smash racism at it's base by substituting chauvinistic myths with the necessary counter-illusion of farming as a cooperative and ecological activity mirroring the growing maturity of Aussie rural culture.
Matthew Davis
Midland WA
The new PC
Pauline Hanson made here maiden speech in parliament on September 10 and yet both sides of politics dragged their feet in condemning it. Kim Beazley waited a month before he denounced Hanson by name. Prominent Liberals including Rob Borbidge, Jeff Kennett and John Howard took six weeks. The latter is still refusing to refer to Hanson by name. Why the wait?
The answer is simple. Neither of the two major political parties really care about the hurt and damage that was done to Asians, Aboriginals or other minority ethnic groups by Hanson's speech. This is evidenced by the bi-partisan approach to the question of East Timor's self determination and those East Timorese seeking asylum in Australia.
There is, however, one minority group that politicians are extremely careful with, so as not to jeopardise their interests: big business.
Mike Seccombe said it beautifully in the October 31 edition of the Sydney Morning Herald, referring to the joint motion against racism: "procrastination ... ended suddenly two days ago (due to reports of) the damage being done to Australia's ... trading prospects in the region" (my emphasis).
From this it is obvious that freedom of speech exists until you offend a very special minority group. Do we have here a new code of Political Correctness?
Tristan Webb
Manly NSW
[Abridged.]
For future generations
Population levels for Australia are in the news again. And so they should be as we are already grossly over-populated. But whatever population levels we reach, little thought is being given to what resources future generations are going to use.
The whole debate seems to be tinged with lunacy, with one economic expert recently tipping a level of two hundred million people. At the same time we are exhorted to export, export, export in the national interest.
Those exports are in the national interests of the major industrial powers like the United States, Japan, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, but not in Australia's. Exporting our finite mineral wealth without concern for the needs of future generations is like selling the roof off your house sheet by sheet while knowing full well that it will rain sooner or later.
Those leaders, white and black, who are now applauding the expansion of mining will be held in utter contempt by those future generations deprived of their inheritance by thoughtless greed.
Col Friel
Alawa NT
Greens
Dave Riley misrepresents me. True, I accused the Greens of crossing class lines during the state election. Dave says that I did this because they "were considerate of the Coalition policies". But Dave knows that the Greens went beyond this. Any objective assessment would reveal that the Greens delivered a National Party government.
The Greens decided on their line according to Singer and Brown because of an "unprecedented commitment (from the Nationals) to leapfrog beyond Labor policy on a number of contentious issues". The stupidity of these remarks is breathtaking. Here in Queensland we have to live with the awful reality of the National Party and the truth is that the Greens did decide the election.
Now Libby Connor's letter was different from Dave's. She dealt more in smears. No, I am not in the AWU. No, I have never, not ever, received any favours for my politics. Yes, I would prefer to live under a Labor government than a National Party one. Yes, I am a revolutionary communist and hope to have the courage to remain one.
But these things are trivial. Behind Ms Connor's attack-dog style is the crisis in the Greens. They sold out and pinned everything on the electoral strategy. Now they are anathema on the Left and their support is declining. In the Lytton by-election the Green vote collapsed. Hence Connor's Rottweiler snarls. You see the dream of a Senate Seat for the beloved Leader is receding ever so rapidly.
Gary MacLennan
Brisbane QUT
CJC
Although the Queensland government has attacked the Criminal Justice Commission, this does not automatically mean that the CJC is an effective force against corruption as assumed in the story by Bill Mason (GLW #251).
Members of the Whistleblowers Action Group have found the CJC useless or even harmful. Similarly, the NSW branch of Whistleblowers Australia recently condemned the Independent Commission Against Corruption for its failure to respond to whistleblower complaints and to protect whistleblowers against reprisals.
It seems that some official anti-corruption bodies so quickly make their peace with the organisations they are supposed to investigate that their main function is to give the appearance of acting against corruption while letting it continue pretty much as before.
Brian Martin
Wollongong NSW