The following Editorial was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of
the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, September
10th, 2003. 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>
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1. Editorial : Corruption at home
As Australian troops, financiers and other bureaucrats arrive in the
Solomon Islands to root out corruption, establish transparency in
government and establish law and order, one made-in-Australia scandal
after another is being covered in the Australian media.
With unbelievable effrontery, Tony Abbott established a trust fund and
called it "Australians for Honest Politics". As his contribution to
"transparency" he has refused to name the contributors to his fund which
was for the purpose of tripping up Pauline Hanson and putting her behind
bars.
Malcolm Jones, a NSW lower house member of parliament, has been expelled
from the house because he rorted his living away from home allowance.
But is he the first and will he be the last?
Then there is the fund set up by some unions to fund the election
campaigns of some members of the Federal parliament. It is claimed that
the Electoral Commission was not informed of this fund which is said to
have distributed about $100,000 because of an "oversight".
NSW Greens MP Lee Rhiannon has also revealed that the Randwick Labor
Club donated $175,000 in the lead up to the 2003 State election though
the public has no idea where this money originated.
She says that the 500 Club donated $60,000 to the Liberal Party in the
same period, yet the individuals or companies responsible for giving
this money to the club are granted anonymity.
Shouldn't all this go down in the corruption column?
Is it any wonder that the Electoral Commission says that proposals that
it has made over years have been ignored by successive Labor and Liberal
governments because they would be "financially disadvantaged" by the
suggested changes.
In another field we have the successive lies being told by the Prime
Minister and his Ministers - the children overboard, the "never ever"
GST, "Medicare is here to stay", the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction,
just to name a few. But Howard and Co. are telling the Solomon Islanders
and now the government of PNG about honesty in government.
In yet another field of "high society" we have the obvious corruption
going on it one company after another. The story of Pan Pharmaceuticals
(in the next column) is only one case. Capitalism is synonymous with
corruption.
Australian politics are sinking deeper and deeper into the quagmire of
deceit, double standards, corruption in high places and hypocrisy. This
political immorality is leading to widespread cynicism about the present
political process among the Australian people. Parliament is seen as the
means by which those in control of the economic and political processes
feather their own nests and those of their corporate mates while
disregarding the interests of the overwhelming majority of the people.
While the Australian Electoral Commission does an efficient job and
attempts through its recommendations to close loopholes in the present
system it does not (and probably could not) call for the present system
by which taxpayers' money is used to fund the expenses of political
parties to be scrapped.
The CPA opposed this system from the very beginning maintaining that
political parties should fund their own election campaigns. As it is the
major parties receive millions of dollars to cover their election campaigns.
In the 1996 Federal elections alone, taxpayers paid out $32 million to
the political parties. The ALP received $12.8 m., the Liberal Party
$12.5 m., the National Party $2.9 m. and the Democrats $2.9 m. This
scheme should be scrapped.
Other urgent reforms include establishing the right of recall by
electors of parliamentarians who do not carry out their obligations in
accordance with the needs of their electors, the introduction of
proportional representation for all State and Federal elections, the
reduction of salaries paid to parliamentarians to not more than that
paid to a skilled worker and the elimination of perks and lurks at
present enjoyed by politicians. These perks are often paid by companies
in return for expected favours - and their expectations are often fulfilled.
Are these reforms possible? Yes, they are. They already exist but only
in those countries in which working class representatives are in command
of their parliaments and the economy.
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