Otways
Whatever did the premier of Victoria mean by saying at the last Victorian election that he was saving the Otways? The latest draft Otways plan says the Geelong and Warrnambool water catchments in the Otways forest will continue to be sacrificed for woodchips. No wonder people think these days it's acceptable for politicians to speak in tongues.
The Otways are revered because they are the source of our most precious resource — clean and reliable water, not greedy profits for a few.
People aren't fooled by the fringe of leaves along the Great Ocean Road, they know that the rainforests are threatened and need to be protected now and in entirety. Is integrity too much to expect from this government?
Yvonne Francis
Queanbeyan, NSW
Climate of fear
The US has imposed a climate of fear on the Iraqi people without reason. Thousands of innocent Iraqis have died as a result of the unprovoked attack on their country last year. But Americans are not getting off scot-free. Increasingly there is a paranoia creeping into the US psyche. They fear another, or possibly many, attacks on their own soil. They have good reason to be concerned.
Fear of retaliation is creeping into the US citizen's mindset. Even stupid Americans who get their daily injection of CBS and redneck talkback can't help but feel that their country's actions in Iraq are going to come back to haunt them. Somewhere deep down there is a carnal sense of an eye for an eye.
It's driving the increasing terrorism alerts in the US; the increasing "police state" rules at airports and shipping terminals; the increasing powers being given to customs officials and the like. On the face of it the US administration has decided that Pax Americana is the front they present to the world, but inwardly they are imposing ever-greater restrictions on their own citizens in order to fulfil or justify their foreign interventions.
It is a strange paradox indeed that the country that prides itself most on promoting individual freedoms is now imposing ever greater internal restrictions in order to protect its own citizens from its own actions overseas.
But US citizens have nobody but themselves to blame. The so-called "war on terrorism" occupies a major proportion of their daily news, and is increasingly used as a justification for interfering with their beloved freedoms. The citizens of the United States are responsible for the government that is currently in power and they are therefore responsible for the foreign policies it has implemented. Those policies are the basis of its own growing paranoia and consequent restrictions in civil liberties!
Adam Bonner
Meroo Meadow, NSW
Workers' compo
I've just read your article on the Western Australian workers' compensation bill. While I agree wholeheartedly with its sentiments there are couple of inaccuracies in it. This bill is even worse than you think it is.
WA employment minister Joe Kobelke hasn't made it easier to access common law by changing the percentage disability. The threshold/gateway to common law has been made significantly more difficult for injured workers because its based now on impairment, not disability. We are told that a 15% impairment equates to about a 25% disability, i.e. in simple terms you're going to have to be a lot worse injured to qualify for common law under this bill. The Australian Plaintiff Lawyers Association believes this will cut out up to 85% or more of all common law claims.
Also the increase in weekly benefits to $228,000 — that's only for the very small percentage of people who qualify as "permanently and totally incapacitated", i.e., you can never work again!
The vast majority will have a maximum weekly benefits of only $137,000 gross. Many seriously injured workers, who won't qualify for common law, would exhaust that in less than two years. Meanwhile, the greedy insurers keep on making enormous profits.
Please keep on spreading the word about this appalling attack on people's rights.
Gregory Doig Burgess
Senior associate
McCallum Donovan Sweeney
Perth
Horta
I did a search for Jose Ramos Horta's views on Iraq, and came across Max Lane's article; "East Timor, Iraq and Jose Ramos Horta" (GLW #529). Max forgot to mention that the reason the Interfet troops did not end up facing Indonesian troops or militia was because Bill Clinton (after a lot of pleading from John Howard), had called Habibi and told him there would be grave consequences if the Australians faced Indonesian resistance. This simple fact probably faces compulsory denial at the GLW, but it happened. Sometimes it helps to have friends in high places.
I spent all day holding a placard outside the Indonesian consulate in Maroubra when the bloodshed erupted after the referendum. I'm with Jose. Liberation sometimes means bloodshed. And sometimes even bad guys can be right.
David Tester
Sydney
CPSU
Thanks for your recent coverage about the CPSU's national management committee's arrogant decision to close the Newcastle office and put our organiser out of a job. The NMC has proposed to centralise this position in Sydney from June 30.
This decision was made in isolation of rank and file members, predominantly in Centrelink and the ATO.
A Hunter Alliance, initiated by local CPSU delegates, three local MPs and Trades Hall Council has been formed to seek to have this outrageous decision reversed.
Steve Tonks From Green Left Weekly, June 2, 2004.
CPSU delegate
Newcastle Tax Office
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