The Independent Australian

In the preceding articles Alan Fitzgerald has detailed some ALP connections  with the Chinese Government.  In The Howard Legacy, Rudd was dubbed  as the  Manchurian Candidate. This article looks at the his perform

t is generally accepted that Kevin Rudd is a detail man about running the country. Hence we can assume that four significant developments in Australia have his approval. These four developments are:

(1) Investment in the resource industries (covered below). The Chinese Government investment is so widespread and pervasive that they would have a better dossier on the resource industries in some details than the Australian Government.

(4)‘Soft power’ - e.g... the establishment of Confucius ‘Institutes’ in the universities (also covered below). 

(3) Large scale immigration of Chinese via the educational institutions so that the Chinese are beginning to dominate the professional and managerial classes. This  the theme of The Howard Legacy so that there is no need to go into it here, save to note that one of the first actions of the Rudd government was to increase immigration rates to record levels. At the same time their was little financial help for Australian universities, so that they continue to be dependent on international students. This will lead to increased dominance and will be the topic of a future article.

(4) Becoming a large holder of Australian Government bonds issued to sustain the spiralling deficit. There is no information about who is buying Australian bonds, although it is understood that such information will be released soon. It seems highly probable that the Chinese are large buyers, as they have of US bonds. Once a capital importer like Australia becomes a perennial client of a sovereign state it must influence policy.

 There has been a steep decline in the past decade in the quality and influence of Canberra’s Parliamentary Press Gallery at the same time as the ability of successive Federal Governments to manipulate and suppress information has greatly increased, according to Alan Fitzgerald*.

(from Issue 16)

Journalists have rushed to adopt a new word ‘Islamophobia’ to describe those who oppose or criticise Islam in Australia. It had to happen; for years journalists have branded people who are less than enthusiastic about the activities and claims of homosexuals as ‘homophobic’.This exaggerated label is meant to delegitimise anything said that does not endorse the aims of the homosexual lobby while it escapes any criticism at all. The idea is to close down any open debate about the merits of a situation other than to acquiesce to what is proposed.

(from Summer 2008/09 Issue No 17)

OVERLOADING AUSTRALIA
 - how governments and the media dither and deny on population.
Mark O’Connor and William J. Lines.
Envirobook. 2008. 241 pp.  RRP $19.95 Reviewed by Geoff Mosley.
Mankind is suffering from an addiction to economic and population growth which at this stage it appears only nature can cure. The justification given by the sufferers is that both forms of growth are necessary for prosperity as a result of the ever growing consumption they deliver. The fact that endless growth is impossible because the earth’s resources are finite is conveniently ignored. Discussion of the subject of growth is taboo in government circles and is rarely discussed in the media.

This year’s Australian of the Year award to Mick Dodson must rank as the most disgraceful decision made by the committee. The Independent Australian believes that awards should not be handed out just because the recipients is Aborigine or any other background, which we suspect was the case here. Worse, it overlooked Noel Pearson, who deserves the award in his own right.