LL:ART: Editorial: Beware the lies
The following Editorial was published in The Guardian, newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of ednesday, August 21st, 2002. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. CPA Central Committee: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Guardian: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au Subscription rates on request. *** Editorial: Beware the lies Airlines and airports have been in the news lately and one headline in the Australian Financial Review (15/8/02) is worthy of comment. It said: Soaring airport prices: deregulation not to blame. It's a good example of the widespread brainwashing and cover-up that is being heard more and more in the media and from many politicians as the economic crisis deepens. The Sydney airport has only just been privatised by the Federal Government and landing costs are going to go up by 40-130 per cent according to Allan Fels, Chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Formerly, when the airport was publicly owned, price caps were in place. These these were removed on July 1 this year. It is just plain nonsense to say that deregulation is not to blame. It is a direct consequence of the removal of the price caps (deregulation) and of privatisation. Allan Fels went on to say that the private airport operators are also increasing other charges such as taxi fees, car parking rates and check-in counter rentals. Anyone parking at Sydney airport will know of the exorbitant cost of parking there. As most users of the car park are merely visiting the airport to meet or farewell departing friends they have to suffer the outrageous slug of $6 for half and hour or $12 for up to an hour. Virgin Blue refused to accept the higher fees being demanded by the airport authority for the use of the departure gates left vacant by the bankrupted Ansett. Virgin Blue has used an inadequate shed as its terminal during negotiations with the airport authorities. In the meantime the Ansett terminals are unused and Virgin Blue has now announced its intention of spending $15 million to extend its present terminal building rather than pay the $18 million per annum demanded by the airport authority for use of a limited number of Ansett gates. Such is the stupidity of capitalism as various companies push and shove to enhance their own profitability. Meanwhile the Federal Government has refused to lift the present cap of 49 per cent on foreign ownership of Qantas. Qantas chief executive, Geoff Dixon has pushed hard for the foreign ownership cap to be removed. In commenting on the Federal Government's decision, Dixon is quoted as saying that he hopes that in time, good sense will prevail in the national interest. This is yet another example of a business leader who, by playing with words, attempts to turn black into white. How can the sell-off of Qantas to foreign capital be in the national interest? The more foreign capital, the more foreign investors will repatriate Qantas earnings. Under those circumstances Qantas will cease to be an Australian icon and become nothing more than the plaything of international capital and the other major airlines of the industrialised countries, many of which are already in serious financial difficulties. These are the direct consequences of deregulation and privatisation and one after another the captains of industry and politicians are attempting to cover-up their stupidity, inefficiency, incompetence and outright betrayal of Australia's national interest. The Pacific Forum and Zimbabwe It appears that the Pacific Forum has been pressured and cajoled by Howard into supporting a resolution of condemnation of Zimbabwe. Howard attempted to justify the call for the expulsion of Zimbabwe from the Commonwealth by asserting that the events that led to the expulsion of Fiji are the same as those in Zimbabwe. This is yet another of those lies which are calculated to hoodwink the unwary. The expulsion of Fiji followed a military coup (there were two such coups) against the democratically elected government of Mahendra Choudry. There has been no such coup in Zimbabwe. The Mugabe Government was re-elected in Zimbabwe elections only last year and the Government is carrying out a land reform program that it is entirely entitled to carry out and which was the main issue in the Zimbabwean elections. Thoroughly democratic, in fact! * . -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
US/Aust fuel greenhouse diaster
The following article was published in The Guardian, newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, August 21st, 2002. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. CPA Central Committee: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The Guardian: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au Subscription rates on request. ** US/Aust fuel greenhouse disaster The world is faced with an inferno of global warming and environmental disaster while the two biggest producers of greenhouse gases, the US and Australia, fuel the fires of destruction. Concerns over this unacceptable situation flared up last week when six of the island states at the Pacific Island Forum in the Fiji capital of Suva gave vent to their anger at Australia's refusal to sign the Kyoto climate change convention. by Marcus Browning Kiribati, Nauru, Cook Islands, Niue, Tuvalu and Marshall Islands, all threatened with rising sea levels, expressed profound disappointment at the decision of Australia to tail along behind the US as the only two developed, industrialised countries to refuse to sign the Kyoto Protocol. The US is the world's biggest overall producer of greenhouse gases, and Australia is the biggest producer per capita. Instead of responding positively to these concerns of the island nations, Prime Minister John Howard opportunistically tried to hijack the Forum, arrogantly lecturing the Pacific nation leaders on good governance, threatening to cut Australian aid if it wasn't dispersed and dispensed wisely and frugally. Out of arrogance inevitably comes hypocrisy: Howard, the head of arguably the most deceitful, anti-democratic and corrupt Australian Government in history, self-righteously lecturing Australia's Pacific neighbours like a colonial overlord. Howard's performance at the Pacific Forum is in line with his Government's smoke-and-mirrors act on greenhouse gas emissions in Australia. Last week Environment Minister David Kemp produced a greenhouse gas inventory as measured by the Government's Greenhouse Office. Kemp claimed that Australia was within striking distance of the Kyoto Protocol targets. (The Protocol's modest aim is to keep emissions at around eight per cent more than the 1990 level.) The Australian Greens labelled this as a greenwash, saying that no amount of number-crunching can disguise the Australian Government's appalling performance on global warming. The Government is manipulating the figures by claiming that some changes to land clearing and agricultural practices have brought Australia within reach of the Kyoto target. The reality is that Australia's greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel use have escalated to such a degree that by 2010 our carbon emissions will be an estimated 33 per cent more than the 1990 level. The US and Australia want the world to ignore the growing environmental crisis now taking place around the globe -- floods, droughts, cyclonic storms, increasing desertification -- climate extremes causing widespread devastation. As the Cook Islands Prime Minister, Robert Woonton, said in response to Australia's claim that the rise in sea levels is due to coastal erosion rather than climate change: If the polar caps are melting, where do you think the water's going? In a statement the Greens outlined the looming danger. For the world to avoid financial, social and ecological tragedy this century, these emissions need to be reduced 60-80 percent. This means massive restructuring to an economy based on eco-technologies like solar and hydrogen power. ** . -- -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:INFO: Bhaktiari letter to Ruddock
Dear Parliamentarian, Trade Union, Church group, Town Council, or Community group, The following letter, based on the case of Ali Bhaktiari, is soon to be faxed to Phillip Ruddock, and members of the government and opposition. It has the signatures of the ACTU, the NSW-Trades and Labor Council, the Victorian Trades and Labor Council, and the SA Trades and Labor council (UTLC-SA), as well as a number of major unions. It also bears the signatures of green and Democrat senators, church groups, and community groups including Chilout, the Edmund Rice Centre, the Coalition for Justice for Refugees, the Lebanese Moslem Association, and the Australian-Arabic Council. Now is the last chance for organisations and parliamentarians to sign this letter. If you support a just and compassionate refugee policy, and are a parliamentarian or the head of a community organisation, church, or trade union, you are urged to sign. To sign, please email [EMAIL PROTECTED], fax 02-9567-7166, or ring 02-9567-7533 John Hallam THE HON. PHILIP RUDDOCK, 6273-4144, 9482-7018 THE HON. JOHN HOWARD, 9251-5454 6273-4100, 9816-1349 CC THE HON. SIMON CREAN 6277-8444, 03-9545-6299 JULIA GILLARD MHR, 6277-8457, 03-9741-6213 TANYA PLIBERSEK MHR 6277-8513, 9550-3820 DARYL MELHAM MHR 6277-4476, 9774-5461, SENATOR BOB BROWN 6277-3185, 03-6234-1577 SENATOR NATASHA STOTT-DESPOJA 6277-3235 SENATOR LYN ALISON 03-9417-1690 RE: ALI BHAKTIARI/MANDATORY DETENTION OF ASYLUM SEEKERS Dear Minister Ruddock and Prime Minister Howard, The undersigned organizations are writing to you to ask that you allow Mr. Ali Bhaktiari and all others who have been recognised as refugees but have been granted only temporary protection visas, to remain in Australia. We urge you to end the system of mandatory detention and temporary protection visas. Mr. Bhaktiari and all others who find themselves in a similar situation to his should be given the right to seek Australian citizenship, as would have been done almost automatically only a few years ago. The organizations signed at the foot of this letter understand that there may be a need for proper processing and assessment of people who arrive on Australia's shores without documentation. However, this is a process that should be undertaken in a non - punitive and efficient manner, and should be completed swiftly. Processing centres should be, as migrant reception centres were some years ago, places in which people find a first home before integration into the wider community. They should not be envisaged as places of punishment, run by a company whose business is to run prisons, and ringed with razor- wire. Those accommodated in such places should be free to come and go as they wish, on the presumption that they may at some time in the future become Australian citizens. Mr. Bhaktiari's situation illustrates the contradictions and injustices in the current punitive policy. His situation as the holder of a temporary protection visa allows him no access to social security, medical care, English lessons, or any other of the facilities that Australian citizens take for granted. Above all he has been denied the possibility to re-unite with his family. The possibility to reunite with one's family must be considered a fundamental human right, and it is of paramount importance that he be able to do so. Life for him and for other TPV holders must verge on the impossible. At best they must be considered second-class citizens. To treat a class of people as second- class citizens, or to arbitarily make their lives impossible contradicts the Australian tradition of a 'fair go' and is morally indefensible. At the least, TPV holders should be accorded medical and social security access on the same basis as other Australian citizens. The TPV system should be abolished and TPV holders given permanent residence and the right to seek citizenship, the right to work, and importantly, the ability to reunite with their families. It is unlikely that Mr Bhaktiari and others like him will ever be able to safely return to their countries of origin. Australia has a broader moral and legal responsibility to afford asylum to those who need it. As TPV-holders, they continue to be in limbo for an indefinite period under current policy. This prevents these people getting on with their lives and making a genuine contribution to Australia. Their situation if they are denied TPVs, is even worse, as they are still unlikely to be able to safely return to their original country. Separation from family as has happened to Mr Bhaktiari, is intolerable and must be remedied immediately. Mr. Bhaktiyari's situation and that of his children illustrates the injustice that is inherent in the current policies of mandatory detention and use of TPVs instead of permanent residence. All those who are in this situation, or in any similar situation in which it is no longer possible for them to return home and
