Inaccuracies
A couple of inaccuracies occurred in the editing of an article I submitted for issue #22. Although they did not compromise the integrity of the article they have become the subject of some complaint. The article, "Greens (WA) meet", states the AGM was a day-long affair. In fact it lasted only two and a half hours. Also, a statement attributed to Sue Hall was in fact made by another office holder.
Frank Noakes
Perth
Questions for Bush
Now that President Bush is paying us a visit by the end of the year, there will be an excellent opportunity to hear from him first-hand:
1. How many ex Nazi war criminals are still given shelter in the US or do we presume that those crims have only come to Australia and nowhere else?
2. Why is the US ambassador speaking about freedom and democracy right in the heart of Moscow and why are his colleagues in South Africa, where neo-Nazis are active openly and publicly, not doing the same?
3. Why is the US pumping billions of dollars into Israel that is using the money to harshly oppress Arabs in stolen lands who are denied freedom and democracy?
4. Could the US not do something for the Aborigines here who have not known freedom and democracy for a full 200 years?
I believe that Mr Bush is a good man and will certainly directly and personally answer these discreet questions which in turn might bring relief to oppressed people around the world!
Henk Hout
Sydney
Stalinist terror
The failure by Communist hardliners to return to the insane age of terror and strangulation of the conscience is all the more remarkable considering the hardships endured by the people and the potential might of the forces of oppression. Stalinist terror which is as abhorred as anything the fascist regimes of Latin America are dishing up is now definitely ready for the scrap heap of history. China, Serbia and Cuba should not delude themselves into thinking they can stem the tide. On that note however the United States must cease its "better fascist than red" policy in central and south America.
Michael Rose-Schwab
Rapid Creek, NT
Banks and the budget
The crocodile tears of some Budget commentators know no end.
Firstly, we have CRA's John Ralph, speaking as a Business Council official, publicly criticising the Budget for failing to reinvigorate business investment. Now Mr Ralph happens to be deputy chairman of the Commonwealth Bank, though many wouldn't know it.
And that bank today fails dismally to reinvigorate business investment. Founder King O'Malley aimed for his bank to serve such as producers and traders, who were otherwise forced into bankruptcy by "money mongers." He saw the economy flourish because his bank undercut "the Kingdom of Boodledum."
Secondly, we have that waterweak successor to blazing Labor statesmen, Bob Hawke, fielding Budget questions with typical adroitness. He told a post-Budget dinner in Sydney he "hoped" banks would lower rates. There was "room for further reduction." We "hadn't necessarily seen" their end.
Look, this wasn't how Labor leaders like Ben Chifley acted. They didn't "hope" such things. They forced the private banks into action — largely by keeping the Commonwealth Bank under Government control and by directing it to be a vigorous competitor on the money markets.
"Australia couldn't possibly have developed 2>as it has without the Commonwealth Bank," a long-serving Tasmanian Premier, Sir Robert Cosgrove, told me early in research into 0>O'Malley and his bank. He stressed how it had achieved low interest for Government operations, industry and agriculture.
Finally, we have one Julian Beale coming out of the woodwork, revealed as Opposition spokesman on privatisation. Privatisation wasn't being "properly done' under Labor, he said. It could be lowering prices.
Liberal Beale might note that his party's founder, Sir Robert Menzies, supervised a Government-owned bank which competed vigorously on the money markets. Bank Governor Nugget Coombs says so in his autobiography Trial Balance. Remember those years of low interest and high employment?
Yet a "Labor" Government is pursuing its 30% privatisation. And Liberals like Beale propose that bank's final destruction by 100% privatisation. Good God!
Larry Noye
Canberra