Write on: Letters to the editor
Ruddock's cunning plan
Philip Ruddock and his team in the government's immigration department have concocted a cunning plan to stop refugees from making the desperate journey to Australia by sea.
It features burning ships and wild seas, ferocious snakes and enormous crocodiles, vast expanses of scorching desert. It's supposed to generate the impression that Australia is a hostile place which is really not very nice.
The likely effectiveness of this sort of ad?
Not only is it naively patronising in the extreme — almost all refugees are coming from areas which equate to hell on earth, including Afghanistan under the Taliban, where women are routinely stoned to death for revealing any part of their body, and post-Gulf war Iraq, where people are grappling with complete social and environmental devastation — but it is a First World-centric, myopic view that assumes everyone has regular access to television.
These patronising and sensationalist ads will be appearing in all sorts of countries alongside advertisements promoting Australia with Elle McPherson showcasing the windswept beaches and endless sunny skies of WA, the perfect place to spend your summer days. Mixed messages?
Mt Lawley
[Abridged.]
Lose-lose situation
The old saying "The devil is in the detail" is tailor-made for the seemingly heroic concept of widespread and accelerated establishment of forest plantations across Tasmania. The saying "Sins of omission" can equally be applied to our Russ Hinze-impersonating Forests Minister Paul Lennon, who works hard to hide the thousands of hectares of old native forests and farmland being bulldozed to make way for eucalypt monocultures.
The clearing and burning of existing native forests releases more carbon dioxide into the air than the replacement plantation can ever soak up.
Massive amounts of herbicide are used to poison competing plants in preparation for the new saplings. The infamous 1080 poison is being used on a massive scale to kill off browsing marsupials. It persists in their carcasses and can be passed on to other animals as they feed on the bodies.
Rural communities are being gutted by these companies, as whole farms, farmhouses and remnant bushland are consumed by the plantations. There are less people in the district to buy from the local stores, provide rate revenue and maintain a sense of community.
Hopeful plantation investors are watched by circling, vulturesque real estate agents eyeing off an opportunity to flog off another family farm or bush block to the forestry companies. These companies enjoy massive tax benefits and are exempt from the environmental and planning laws.
Predictably, the Forests Minister chants that conservationists have done a backflip on plantation establishments. But it not what you do, but how you do it, and this style of forestry plantation is not what it first seems.
Meanwhile, plantation establishment on private forest and farm land is not slowing the massive clear-felling and burning of old native forests. All of this brings sharply to mind another (modified) old saying, "Lose-lose situation".
Judbury Tas
[Abridged.]
Libs and big business
The time is now opportune to prepare for the next federal election.
An examination of the high percentage of the population who vote for Liberal Party candidates indicates that they do not realise that the Liberal Party is the party that represents big business and a high proportion of its electoral funding comes from this source.
It is also true that at this stage of our political evolution, big business is more blatant in making their views public. This seems to indicate that they discern apathy in the working class.
For example, in the Sydney Morning Herald 19/6/2000, concerning Liberal leader Kerry Chikarovski, the following appeared: "Business leaders contacted some front benchers over the weekend saying she should be dumped from the leadership for the good of the party". Another paragraph on the same page states, "Business is getting sick and tired of the way the parliamentary party has become bogged down on this".
At an earlier period in our history, an organisation like the Sane Democracy League would publicly make such an assessment, thereby concealing its class source of origin.
The proposal that I am submitting is that a booklet should be published at least six months before the next federal election showing the close connection between the Liberal Party and big business, as well as their donations to the two major parties.
The political and ideological composition and orientation of the ALP and other parties should also appear.
The Democratic Socialist Party has talented people who could undertake the task that I have proposed. It involves a fair amount of research and time. It will prove worthwhile if the proposed publication receives a wide circulation.
Strathfield NSW