This text does not take up the issue of the impacts of a GST on First Peoples, and is probably not releveant to the purposes of this list. but...i ownder if there may not be an issue with the taxing of raw or basic food which may serve as a common cause in bringing people and peoples together. I note that Senator Harradine's broad concern for social justice issues in conncetion with his negotiations for his balance of power makes no mention of the indigenous social justice package. Maybe we should remind him of his very special debt in this regard? Bruce 23 April !999 A PERFECT OPPORTUNITY The issue of the GST on raw food provides a perfect opportunity for the expression of an Australian general will, and an opportunity for a social movement to make a break with the wrongheaded past practices of economic rationalists. Those of us dependent on cash incomes are already at a disadvantage when it comes to obtaining food. We no longer have access to land for gardens sufficient to sustain us throughout much of the year. We are locked into the cash economy. With the introduction of tax on raw foods, this is a significant somewhere for the expression "Somewhere along the line, the benefits which where supposed to accrue from social living have gotten out of line". While i don't feel i could become involved in a social movement which sought to defend the right of lawyers to not pay tax on their long lunches, hey, i have a very different feeling about the right of people on fixed low incomes to be able to afford basic good food. Does a sovereign Australian people not have a right, as part of that sovereignty, to define just what kind of minimal conditions we regard as necessary and adequate for our way of life? And as we enter the 21st century, do we have a better opportunity than this to make a statement which declares the right to untaxed raw food is that minimum condition? DEMOCRATS POSITION AS A MINIMUM A preferred model for the GST - if it is impossible to avoid that regressive tax - is to exempt the raw materials necessary for cooking a meal from the GST to ensure, at the very least, people can afford to cook and eat good food. One of the few analysts who predicted the Asian collapse has also predicted an unemployment figure after the Sydney Olympic games of 10 per cent, with a million people unemployed. It's all a circus until then, of course. And while unemployed people on low income may enjoy, for a little while longer at least, an indexed benefit, my hunch is that people on fixed low incomes increases as the unemployment rate climbs. Seeking to exempt raw food from the GST may not be a matter of altruism at all but a timely action to look after the interests of the group in which we are most likely to find ourselves sooner or later. Reserving raw food from GST does not solve many of the problems which confront us at this time, but just because it does not effect such a miraculous cure should not be invoked as a reason for accepting a new low in Australian life by imposing a new level of burden on those already heavily burdened. The numbers of households in the Illawarra seeking help as a result of financial difficulties is on the increase. Those promoting the need to tax food do so in the name of administrative efficiency � to ensure that traders turned tax collectors have a relatively easy time of it. This is part of a process by which hard won social values are set at zero to enable social managers to attempt their latest experiment. Other countries have found ways of living with this new form of tax without subjecting some of the necessities of life � including food � to it. And so too, with an exercise of our collective will, can we in Australia. Bruce Reyburn 22 April 1999 ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/
