National debt
It is time that the left-wing movements recognised the fundamentalism they are prone to, and took steps to remedy it. They cannot continue to ignore the "production" side of the economy. There is a bottom line; we must try to stay "in the black". Ignoring such factors has contributed to the growing debt we the "socially responsible" generation are leaving to the next one.
According to Max Walsh, Australia now has the highest foreign debt, per capita, of any country in the world (7.30 Report, 24/9/92). Yet the Left has hardly expressed any concern about this matter. It is commonly brushed off as "mostly private". However, about 45% of it is owed by the banks, and they are government guaranteed. Which means guaranteed by you and me.
In the Sydney Morning Herald of 30/1/92, Walsh stated that Australia is in a Depression. The Left ignored this, too. More recently, Professor Hotson made the same assessment while on his tour here. When can we expect the media — Murdoch, Fairfax, Four Corners, the 7.30 Report, GLW — to examine this as thoroughly as it covers minor gossip?
The net debt exceeds $160 billion, and is going up by more than $1 billion a month. This is despite the flood of asset sales which are consequential upon the debt. But selling an asset to a foreign buyer only reduces debt temporarily. The dividend payments from the asset accrue to the buyer each year and increase the Current Account Deficit. The Auditor General issued a report in May 1992 warning that Federal Government debt is understated at $125 billion; this report was mentioned in the newspapers for two whole days.
The Philippines and poor African countries make their interest and dividend payments to foreign lenders and investors by keeping their imports less than their exports; this is the way that they "tighten their belt". Australia, however, does not yet feel the pain in this way because we are being allowed to borrow more each month to make the payments; that is why our Current Account is consistently in Deficit. It amounts to theft from future generations. Let's get serious.
Peter Gerard Myers
Watson ACT
[Edited for length.]
Wool
While I enthusiastically agree with the tone of "Woolgrowers Beware" (GLW 17 Nov), I suggest that the article contains some minor inaccuracies.
The failure of the Reserve Price Scheme shows the greedy and short-sighted way in which the owners and managers of big organisations really behave when they face a crisis.
In 1972, the Australian Wool Commission was established to operate a price stabilisation scheme for wool. The reserve price was decided by the Minister in consultation with the Australian Wool Commission and the industry.
Although the ratbag rationalists were always unhappy with it, it operated well until 1987. Economic rationalism in Canberra then decided that the industry should be freed from the shackles of government restriction; the Wool Council of Australia (a commodity council of the National Farmers' Federation) was allowed to set the "reserve" price, which it enthusiastically increased to 870c a kg of greasy wool.
Steadily increasing prices and production tripped over a collapse in Soviet, Chinese and Western demand. When all the Australian Wool Commission's reserves were spent, the industry demanded, and got, taxpayers' money. The result was that $4 billion was spent defending a hopelessly high price of 870c a kilogram.
In their discussions about the fate of the 3.8 million wool bale stockpile, farmers and the Farmers' Federation seemed to have assumed that the wool was theirs to destroy. In fact, it was paid for by taxpayers, who will rightly expect the growers to repay every cent of the $2.3 billion debt.
The recommendations of the Garnaut report into the wool industry will do great damage to the industry. However, the farmers, through the National Farmers' Federation, have done much to popularise economic rationalism. The biters are bitten, it seems.
Desmond is perhaps marginally in error on one point — the International Wool Exchange had not been established as at 1 July. The auction system isn't grower-owned; nor are they happy with it.
Roger Raven
Applecross WA
[Edited for length.]
Professor Blainey
As the doors of debate are opened wide by historic events it is good to find that the distinctly foul odours that sometimes hang above the edifices of intellect can eventually be identified.
Professor Blainey's views on history and justice have putrified by being enclosed in a very small space — and like a foul gas they will soon be blown away by the reality of honesty. He will then belong to the dustbin of intellectuality and history.
Julia Hartley
Chippendale NSW
Not voting
I am not voting in the State Election because I no longer believe the Westminster system of government here in South Australia is free of corruption.
I will burn my voting paper in protest.
Politicians have made laws and acts in our parliaments that have been of great benefit to all in our society, but when such laws or acts benefit only a few, this could be called corruption.
I refer to the State Bank Act that benefits a few with a 6 months indemnity against prosecution.
This Act makes it impossible to investigate any persons at the root of a $3.15 billion debt, that taxpaying voters must pay back.
I would ask that the State Bank Act be repealed and a special act of parliament be passed to investigate the financial affairs of every person on the State Bank Board and all the Bannon Cabinet Ministers; but only a properly elected government has the power to do these things and it is most likely the Liberal Party will win in a landslide, I would ask them to support my protest against corruption.
If you want your vote to be powerful, then vote to change the acts that conceal corruption in the Westminster system.
I believe that in an open and accountable system of democracy, when the people say "jump" the government must reply "How high, Sir?" then curtesy.
Barry Oxer
St Peters SA
White ribbon
Women everywhere in Australia live in fear of violence. Violence against women in our society takes a variety of forms including physical assault, psychological and emotional abuse. Not all violence against women leaves visible scars. The many forms of violence against women lie on a continuum which runs from sexist jokes to domineering forms of behaviour, sexual harassment, partner assault, sexual assault, and murder.
At least one in three women will be raped or sexually assaulted at least once in their lifetime. Approximately 80% of these women know their attackers. 97% of offenders are men. One in three families have at least one incident of domestic violence. 95% of offenders are men. 70 Australian women die each year at the hands of their partners.
Many men will never commit an act of physical violence against women, but the men who do are known by us all. Our silence distances the problem from our lives. So, while not every man engages in acts of violence, we can all be a part of the solution by speaking out against men's violence against women on a personal and societal level.
The white ribbon campaign is an international campaign encouraging men to consider their own behaviour on a personal day to day basis, and to speak out against the epidemic of violence against women in our world. The campaign, originating in Canada in 1991, is this year being held throughout Australia by Men Against Sexual Assault from the 5th to the 12th of December. The most visible white ribbon campaign activities will occur in this week, including tens of thousands of men wearing white ribbons to show their responsibility for ending violence against women. Funds raised in this week through the sale of ribbons and donations will go to women's services, shelters and education programs about men and violence throughout the year. So look out for distributors of ribbons in your area. Volunteer your support if you have the time and support this worthwhile campaign.
Benjamin Pennings
East Brisbane
Tasmanian PSA
It was with some amusement that I read in GLW on November 3 1993 page 9 that "The right-wing TPSA has done next to nothing recently as hundreds of State public servants have been sacked."
I know that facts often get in the way of a good line but a lack of facts also reduces the credibility of your publication.
Firstly the TPSA is not a right wing union — whatever that means these days — and anyone would be hard pressed to find one instance to substantiate such a categorisation.
Secondly, and far more importantly, not one single member of the TPSA has been sacked throughout recent years of Government cutbacks. The TPSA is, indeed, one of the few unions that has successfully fought sackings in the Tasmanian Public Sector in recent years. While some workers have been sacked they have either been non-union members, or members of other unions.
We regard members' job security as our first and highest priority and our success rate in fighting the sackings of members has been 100%. Not too many unions can claim that.
Greg Vines
General Secretary
Hobart
Germs
Lara Pullin (Write on, GLW #123) should take care with her perception of "obvious and unavoidable facts". In her keenness to line up behind Rob McKinnon-Lower's attack (GLW #119) on the practice of immunisation she misses out on some of the detail.
Ethel Hume "exposes" Pasteur as a charlatan and is ignored because she is a woman. Bechamp is a "medical genius" but Pasteur who copied him is "an incompetent charlatan." None other than Rene Dubos (the man cross-referenced by every keen homoeopath) thought that airborne germs weren't a factor in disease at all. (If so, what got off the boat with Columbus or was borne westward with Cortez? Did the Spanish offload topsoil to devastate the indigenous population of the Americas or was a good Latin sneeze enough?)
These "facts" still keep coming.
Doctors commonly falsify test results. About 90% of people with HIV never get AIDS. (Never? What's "never"? Millions more carry Mycobacterium tuberculosis but don't get TB unless modern capitalism facilitates it — as the poor get poorer so too does their immune system.) Vaccination, suggests McKinnon-Lower, is linked to AIDS, herpes and syphilis. MS, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, cancer, leukaemia and chronic fatigue syndrome are all "linked" to vaccines because a "growing number" of medical practitioners think so.
Do we note a trend here? Are we overwhelmed by "obvious and unavoidable facts" or something else? Contrary to what Lara Pullin may believe, I do not consider that GLW should provide a forum for the unsubstantiated assertions that dominate McKinnon-Lower's article. The efficacy and wisdom of mass immunisation programs is one thing, and the role of germs in the process of illness is another, but our distrust of the medical industry should not then be translated into a willing endorsement of just any alternative view regardless of how poorly presented. I'm with Jane Reed (Write on, GLW #120) on this one: Dear editor, please spare us from the embarrassment of such obscurantist biology. In future we'll take our politics and our science neat. McKinnon-Lower's contribution is neither.
Dave Riley
Nundah Qld