Once upon a time, the Australian government declared it did not support Israel nor the Islamic, in the Six Day war — it was to stay ‘neutral’.

Whitlam says his government was “blackmailed by some Jewish hero’s, on the other side of the world to the conflict.”

History reveals… https://t.co/uwvD88ePjw

An excellent, thought provoking Australian documentary called "Brazen hussies"  aired on ABC 1 on Wednesday  March 7th 2023  the night before International Women's Day.  It was released in 2020 but I had not previously seen it.  It was about Australian women's battle for social and economic equality in  the 1960s and 1970s.
 

This article gives a 'good cop bad cop' analysis of Australia's two party history since the fall of the Whitlam Government. It looks at the evolution of economic theory and foreign involvement in wars over this period.

As United States whistleblower Christopher Boyce (aka 'the Falcon') revealed on SBS Dateline on 18 February 2014, after the CIA helped to destroy the Whitlam Labor government in 1975 it attempted to consolidate its victory by buying influence amongst newer leaders of the Labor Party.

Consequently, when Labor finally won office again on 5 March 1983, the reforms of the Whitlam government were abandoned. Instead the Labor government of former ACTU President Bob Hawke helped pioneer in Australia the adoption of neo-liberal 'free market' economic policies that would later be adopted around much of the rest of the world. Australian finance and industry was exposed to globalised international competition, including the removal of government control over the Australian dollar's exchange rate (i.e. the “floating of the dollar”) by then Treasurer Paul Keating in December 1983. Government services and the public servant numbers were reduced. Also publicly owned assets were privatised with no electoral mandate – QANTAS, TAA (the domestic air service), the Australian National Line shipping company and the Commonwealth Bank.

Since 1983, Labor governments have generally played the role of 'good cop' whilst Liberal/National Coalition governments have generally played the role of 'bad cop'. Prior to his defeat in March 1983, 'bad cop' Malcolm Fraser imposed a 12 month wages freeze during which the value of real wages fell 9.1% as a result of cost of living increases not being matched by wage rises. Subsequently the 'good cop' Hawke Labor government with the help of ACTU President Cliff Dolan imposed the Prices and Incomes Accord on the Trade union movement. The accord allowed restricted wage rises and promised increases in social spending.

Labor has also backtracked away from Gough Whitlam's opposition to war. In 1991 the Hawke government sent troops to fight in Operation Desert Storm after Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein had been tricked into believing that the United States would not retaliate should Iraq take action against neighbouring Kuwait for slant-drilling into Iraq's oil fields. Sanctions imposed against Iraq after its 1990 invasion continued until until after Saddam Hussein was overthrown after the 2003 invasion. This continued even after bleeding heart' Paul Keating became PM in December 1991. Many hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died as a result. One estimate puts the death toll at more than 1.5 million including 750,000 children under the age of 5. Other wars, which gained bipartisan support from the Labor Party include the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and the invasion of Libya in 2011.

Both sides of Australian politics, with a only a few honourable exceptions, are shamefully complicit in the United States' proxy terrorist war against Syria which started in March 2011. In that war, 210,000 Syrians have so far died at the hands of jihadist invaders from nearly every corner of the Muslim world and a number of other countries . Australia expelled the Syrian ambassador under the pretext that the Syrian government had allegedly massacred 108 of its citizens, including 34 women and 49 children at Houla on 25 May. This allegation that the Syrian government had massacred Syrians in a region particularly renowned for its strong support for the Syrian government is contrary to common sense and all credible eyewitness and forensic evidence.

Both sides of parliament have also sided with the neo-Nazi government of Ukraine which came to power in February 2014 as a result of a CIA-orchestrated coup. Both sides have also unquestioningly accepted the lying mainstream newsmedia narrative that the 298 passengers, including 27 Australians, aboard Malaysian Airways Flight MH17 were murdered by East Ukrainian self-defence forces with a BUK surface to air missile on 17 March 2014. This is contrary to all eyewitness and forensic evidence, including the photos of the pilot cockpits apparently riddled with cannon shells on both sides indicate that MH17 was shot down by 2 Ukrainian Sukhoi 17 fighters.

Both Labor and the Coalition have voted in Parliament to support dragnet collection of all our Intenet and telephone communication meta-data by our spy agencies. This is in spite of whistleblower Edward Snowden's warning that this has never prevented even one act of terrorism.

The above are only some examples of how corrupt Australian and global politics has become since 1975. However while there is still a free and open Internet, and a trade union movement with capable leaders we still stand a chance of reversing the damage and re-establish a quality of democracy comparable to what we once enjoyed.

You can help by using the Internet to help tell the truth, and by contributing an to http://candobetter.net and other alternative newsmedia sites and by spreading the word. This article is published at http://candobetter.net/node/4321 .

"Edward Gough Whitlam
Thank you for bringing my brother home from Vietnam.
Thank you for my university education.
Thank you for my health care.
Thank you for fostering the arts and giving me pride in my country.
You are honoured in China for being the father of normalising relations with that nation.
Born in this house, how sad and ironic that your birthplace is being torn down by an international investor.
Rest in peace."
(Anonymous tribute placed on wall of Whitlam's birthplace, with flowers).

Last Thursday demolition of 46 Rowland Street Kew was stayed by Planning Minister Matthew Guy with an "Interim Protection Order for the birthplace of Australia’s 21st Prime Minister, the late Gough Whitlam". Before the notice was posted, flowers were placed on the fence plus a tribute from an anonymous donor which speaks for many, reproduced above.

City of Boroondara's Submission to Heritage Victoria for Inclusion of "Gough Whitlam's House" on the State Heritage Register

Mayor Coral Ross sent this to me and said to circulate it as it is a public document. In my view it is first class and should be of interest to many.

http://www.boroondara.vic.gov.au/-/media/Files/Your%20Council/Building%20and%20planning/Heritage/Heritage%20controls%20properties/Ngara-46-Rowland-St-Kew-citation-150514-docx.docx

See the listing of 46 Rowland Street Kew Vic 3101 on realestate.com.au http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-vic-kew-115438563 What monstrous vandalism to demolish this house and garden for what undoubtedly was planned to be a wall to wall Mc Mansion. Thanks Vita for alerting us.

Report on Foreign Ownership of Residential Real Estate due in November 2014

The Economics Committee of the House of Representatives have delayed its report on foreign ownership of residential real estate, originally scheduled for release on 10 October 2014, now due sometime in November. There were a number of articles in yesterday's Australian Financial Review. It appears that information about the approvals system in Australia for foreign purchases of residential real estate has been leaking out in a positive flood. Speculation is that the committee report might be a whitewash but it is obvious that the issue is very serious.

On Saturday afternoon, yesterday, a Channel 9 news crew were at 46 Rowland Street Kew at Gough Whitlam's house. They said that they were preparing for a film on the above subject but were not sure when it would appear - maybe after the news on Monday 27 October 2014 - tomorrow.

The Age article, Murdoch editors told to 'kill Whitlam' in 1975"(27/6/14), excerpts of which appear below, confirms my own recollection of the Whitlam years, as an early teen. Back then, I had naively regarded Rupert Murdoch's Australian newspaper as progressive and on the side of justice and truth. As I recall, the Australian and Bruce Petty, whose cartoons it published at the time, had opposed the Vietnam War and had supported Gough Whitlam and the Labor Party in 1972 and 1974. So I read the Australian almost every day and believed what I read.

Suddenly, some time after the 1974 mid-term election, the Australian's editor 'informed' me and other readers that supporting the Whitlam government had all been a "terrible mistake" on their part. He apologised and promised to rectify the mistake. I was disheartened, but continued to read the Australian and trust its judgement.

Day after day the tone against Whitlam and Labor grew louder, more high pitched and more hysterical.

Little did I realise that this sudden turnaround was a direct result of Rupert Murdoch instructing his editors to "kill Whitlam". The recently released secret US diplomatic document indicating that the then US government was aware of Murdoch's covert instruction to his staff when Australians had no idea of it is shocking (see #app1">Appendix). One cannot help but wonder whether this media subversion of our democracy was a component of the CIA's campaign to overthrow a government of which it disapproved, a campaign to which Christopher Boyce and others have attested._{#fnEgw1" id="txtEgw1"> 1  #fnEgw2" id="txtEgw2"> 2} 

However, by the time of the October constitutional crisis with the help of more knowledgeable adults including my father, I had seen through the lies and had stopped reading and buying the Australian.

A feature of the campaign of destabilisation is that it included industrial action, by the ostensibly more left wing components of the Trade Union movement with the support of then ACTU President Bob Hawke. This is strikingly similar to the campaign of destabiliation from 1953 until 1964 against the government of the then British colony of British Guiana led by Dr Cheddi Jagan, which included an 80 day general strike against the government's budget, beginning in April 1963:

"The CIA arranged as it had on many similar occasions, for North American and Latin American labor organisations, with which it had close ties, to support the strikers with messages of solidarity and food, thus enhancing the appearance of a genuine labor struggle."_{#fnEgw4" id="txtEgw4"> 4} 

The 'left-wing' ideological cover for this destabilisation of both the Jagan and Whitlam governments is the circular, supposedly Marxist, argument that every worker who works for a capitalist in a capitalist society is exploited because the employer pays the worker less than the full value of his work and keeps the 'surplus value'. As no financially viable business could not be extracting 'surplus value', then, by definition, every worker is exploited. If by ending 'exploitation' businesses can no longer operate, then socialism would surely be the consequence of capitalist economic collapse.

On Sunday 13 December, the day after Whitlam was defeated at the elections, I watched, in bewilderment, on the early evening television news Bob Hawke, then leader of the ACTU meeting talking cordially with Prime-Minister-elect, Malcolm Fraser and promising him the full cooperation of the trade union movement that was never given to Gough Whitlam._{#fnEgw5" id="txtEgw5"> 5} 

This cooperation set the stage for timidity in the trade union movement's opposition to the Fraser government and the emasculation of trade union power in 1980 when Malcolm Fraser amended Sections 45D and 45E of the Trades Practices Act._{#fnEgw6" id="txtEgw6"> 6} 

#app1">Appendix: Excerpts from Murdoch editors told to 'kill Whitlam' in 1975

From the Age, 27 June 2014 by Phillip Dorling

News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch directed his editors to "kill Whitlam" some 10 months before the downfall of Gough Whitlam's Labor government, according to a newly released United States diplomatic report.

The US National Archives has just declassified a secret diplomatic telegram dated January 20, 1975 that sheds new light on Murdoch's involvement in the tumultuous events of Australia's 1975 constitutional crisis.

Entitled "Australian publisher privately turns on Prime Minister," the telegram from US Consul-General in Melbourne, Robert Brand, reported to the State Department that "Rupert Murdoch has issued [a] confidential instruction to editors of newspapers he controls to 'Kill Whitlam'".

...

News Limited newspapers savaged Whitlam and strongly backed opposition leader Malcolm Fraser, so much so that journalists at The Australian took industrial action in protest (my emphasis).

The Labor Party was crushed at the polls and did not return to power until 1983.

Mr Fraser _{#fnEgw3" id="txtEgw3">3}  acknowledged Murdoch's support but said the newspaper proprietor's political role is easily overstated given the collapse in public support for the scandal-ridden Whitlam government.

"Rupert had influential newspapers, certainly, but I don't think it affected the election outcome," Mr Fraser said.

...

News Corporation did not respond to questions about Mr Murdoch's role in the political events of 1975. ...

Footnotes

See update here. Yesterday, Thursday 23 October, was another turbulent day in pre-election Melbourne as the fate of the childhood home of Gough Whitlam at 46 Rowland Street Kew hung in the balance. We were under the impression that the demolition of the house would continue so I dressed in black and went to the site about 1 pm with flowers to leave on the fence and so pay a suitable tribute to Gough Whitlam. (I called up lots of people as the Leader Newspaper said they would send a photographer.) Imagine my shock at seeing a media scrum in the street outside the wire fence with more cars arriving all the time. (Included at the end of this article are the NFIRB's guidance notes on foreign investment in real estate.)

Planning Minister Matthew Guy had just announced an "Interim Protection Order for the birthplace of Australia’s 21st Prime Minister, the late Gough Whitlam". (Hence the media) An application will be referred to the Heritage Council with a request to include the place on the State Heritage Register. The Minister's representative arrived and ceremoniously pinned the notice on the wire fence at the property. Channel 9, 10 and 2 were there plus the Age and the Leader newspapers . Thanks to Michael and Caroline Petit for representing community interests. A number of people turned up with a portrait of Gough Whitlam on the famous "It's Time" poster!

See the Age today 23 October 2014 by Mark Hawthorne, Clay Lucas and Nadia Wu. "Planning Minister Matthew Guy's backflip to save Gough Whitlam's childhood home."

See earlier Age article of 22 October 2014

I understand that under Foreign Investment Review Board rules, [See attached guidelines 2 and 3 at end of this article] a foreign buyer has two years to demolish an existing home to make way for a new dwelling. We have asked planning experts to investigate the current provisions for foreign purchase of residential real estate in Australia and the implications for the destruction of heritage buildings in our cities. The threatened destruction of Gough Whitlam's house has been a graphic example.

Action Alert: Someone attending the media gathering yesterday was told by workers on the site that they were packing up for the day but would return on Saturday to continue with the interrupted demolition. There is still a giant skip left on the site. (It was intended that the interior fittings including stained glass windows be removed.) Report any untoward work in progress to me on Mobile 0408022408 or Boroondara Police Station. I have mentioned to Boroondara Council these concerns. A number of people will be meeting at 11 am on Saturday morning on the nature strip outside the house to check out what's happening. So stop by! Bring a bunch of flowers to put on the fence. Melways Map Reference for 46 Rowland Street Kew is 45 H 7. There are few street signs so one can get lost!

Other important announcements yesterday in a day of planning madness include Planning Minister Matthew Guy's announcement that Royal Park (or what will be left of it after the EW Link is built) will be included on the State Heritage Register. We will be giving you more detail in the next bulletin. Also we are waiting to hear the results of Tony Murphy's Supreme Court action.

NOTES AND ATTACHMENTS

"Guidance Note 2 - Foreign investment in Australian Real Estate"
"Guidance Note 3 - Foreign investment in Australian Real Estate"

The Australian government seemed to be boldly seizing the initiative to defend Australia's energy resources against a background of worsening international events. As other old colonies across the sea rose up and nationalised their oil reserves, there are signs that the Whitlam Government was planning to do the same, when it was cut down. When I was engaged in a research thesis that I finished in 2002, I approached the history of the Whitlam government at an angle from which it had not previously been approached. This article is based on an extract from Sheila Newman, The Growth Lobby and its Absence in Australia and France, 2002. (This is a new URL that does not require log-ins)

Initial Reaction in Australia to the First Oil-Shock

With regard to population policy, the will to population stabilisation was present at the level of ALP party politics and at a popular level as well in the early 1970s._{#fnEgw1" id="txtEgw1"> 1} ALP policy was heading towards one of population stabilisation before the Whitlam government was elected._{#fnEgw2" id="txtEgw2"> 2} The strategy of reducing immigration in order to alleviate the pressure of population growth in the cities was debated and adopted at the ALP's June 1971 policy conference in Launceston._{#fnEgw3" id="txtEgw3"> 3} On 13 October 1972, Tom Uren, who was to become the Minister for Urban and Regional Development, referred to the role of immigration in affecting urban population pressures._{#fnEgw4" id="txtEgw4"> 4} In a policy speech opening the 1973 election campaign Whitlam also referred to the changes to immigration policy.

Contrary to suggestions that ALP policy to reduce immigration was not in response to international economic considerations,_{#fnEgw5" id="txtEgw5"> 5} I would argue that the beginnings of the oil-shock_{#fnEgw6" id="txtEgw6"> 6} may be dated to well before the time of the ALP conference in Launceston, in mid 1970._{#fnEgw7" id="txtEgw7"> 7} In fact, the evidence suggests that ALP energy policy was formed as the situation that culminated in what is known as the 1973 oil-shock evolved._{#fnEgw8" id="txtEgw8"> 8} This was due mainly to the influence on ALP energy policy of the extraordinary Rex Connor, who was to become Whitlam's minister for Minerals and Energy. Connor was unusually attuned to global and local mining and energy economics and is said to have anticipated the oil-shock._{#fnEgw9" id="txtEgw9"> 9} In fact Connor claimed this feat himself on behalf of the ALP:

The national policy on minerals and energy approved at the 1971 Launceston Conference of our party has proved to be not only singularly relevant but even historically visionary in the light of subsequent events. We anticipated the world energy crisis (1973), have dealt with international currency turmoil, established a sound export pricing policy, checked the inroads into Australia of the multinational corporations, and secured the respect and understanding of our trading partners._{#fnEgw10" id="txtEgw10">10}

There was to follow an extraordinary sequence of events, as the Whitlam Labor Government emerged gloriously from many years in the wilderness only to sink, almost without a trace, like the lost city of Atlantis, along with all its brilliant policies and plans, in a series of devastating international and national events.

On 7 December 1971 Whitlam moved to recommence suspended debate on the need for Australia to establish sovereign control over the mineral resources of the sea bed off the Australian coast._{#fnEgw11" id="txtEgw11">11} In December 1972 the Whitlam Labor government took office._{#fnEgw12" id="txtEgw12">12} In May 1973 Cabinet authorised Rex Connor to confer with State Mines Ministers on the construction and operation of a national pipeline system._{#fnEgw13" id="txtEgw13">13}

The Australian government seemed to be boldly seizing the initiative to defend Australia's energy resources against a background of worsening international events. Across the sea other old colonies rose up and nationalised their oil reserves._{#fnEgw14" id="txtEgw14">14} In September 1973 Algeria suspended immigration to France. In October OPEC oil ministers used oil as a weapon in the Arab-Israeli war and Saudi Arabia, Libya and other Arab states announced an embargo on oil exports to the United States and the Netherlands. In November the Arab oil-producing states proclaimed a 25 % cut in oil production, and threatened worse; Germany officially suspended immigration from outside the European Economic Community (EEC)_{#fnEgw15" id="txtEgw15">15} and President Nixon signed the Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act (EPAA). In February 1974 Libya nationalised three US oil companies and Nixon and Kissinger announced a seven point plan to make the US energy independent. In June the IMF created a special fund to lend money to nations that had become indebted due to the high oil prices. In July France suspended immigration from outside the EEC._{#fnEgw16" id="txtEgw16">16} In Australia the government implemented progressive reduction of the new settler program between December 1972 and late 1975, from 140,000 to 50,000._{#fnEgw17" id="txtEgw17">17}

On December 13, 1974 the executive council of the Commonwealth of Australia, made up of Prime Minister Whitlam, Attorney-General Murphy, Treasurer Cairns, and the Minister for Minerals and Energy, Rex Connor,_{#fnEgw18" id="txtEgw18">18} met to seek four billion US dollars to finance national energy self sufficiency and to fund unemployment reduction._{#fnEgw19" id="txtEgw19">19} For this they sought $US 4,000,000,000 (four billion US dollars). The minute of the meeting stated,

"The Australian government needs immediate access to substantial sums of non-equity capital from abroad for temporary purposes, amongst other things to deal with exigencies arising out of the current world situation and the international energy crisis, to strengthen Australia's external financial position, to provide immediate protection for Australia in regard to supplies of minerals and energy and to deal with current and immediately foreseeable unemployment in Australia."_{#fnEgw20" id="txtEgw20">20} (My emphasis)

At this point Australia was momentarily poised on a similar policy path of self-sufficiency to France and the EEC's. But this was not to be. The Whitlam Government was brought to an abrupt and ignominious end by the associated Khemlani loan scandal._{#fnEgw21" id="txtEgw21">21}

On 16 October 1975 Governor General Kerr dismissed Whitlam from office._{#fnEgw22" id="txtEgw22">22}

The Khemlani loan objectives (stated in the above minute) had not been conceived overnight. The kind of loan was itself a method of avoiding surrendering ownership of Australian oil assets to foreign oil companies and the objectives it sought to finance were ideologically based on the premise that population and energy consumption stabilisation, plus national self-sufficiency were the way to go for the long term future._{#fnEgw23" id="txtEgw23">23} (Would national exploitation of petroleum and gas reserves have assisted paying back such a this loan?)

The Whitlam government was a government by intellectuals at a time of heightened ecological and environmental concern. This concern manifested in many contemporary conservationist activities and documents in the Australian and international community._{#fnEgw24" id="txtEgw24">24} It is often forgotten that the United States attempted to introduce a formal population policy under President Nixon, as well as energy conservation, as a result of a National Security Study undertaken in 1974._{#fnEgw25" id="txtEgw25">25} At the same time, the Australian Government undertook a national population enquiry, resulting in the Borrie Report, 1975._{#fnEgw26" id="txtEgw26">26} This conservationist and global outlook seems to have disappeared from ESSS – and to have been revised and forgotten in Australia under Fraser and subsequent economic rationalist governments._{#fnEgw27" id="txtEgw27">27}

There is no doubt that Whitlam was a sophisticated electoral player and he would probably have used anti-immigrant preoccupations in marginal seats to his advantage._{#fnEgw28" id="txtEgw28">28} International comparisons, however, testify to an over-riding motive for reining in immigration-led population growth, that of energy conservation and infrastructure consolidation. These motives dominated in France, where energy conservation efforts were considerably assisted by massive industry restructure and increased efficiency.

The evidence is thus strong that Australia's policies to lower immigration at this time reflected a similar Malthusian basis to France's. This seems even more likely when they are considered in conjunction with other Whitlam government contributions to demographic policy, in the realms of increased foreign aid for population control, subsidised abortions, subsidised access to contraception, grants to State and Federal family planning clinics, and promotion of women's rights._{#fnEgw29" id="txtEgw29">29} In addition, urban planning initiatives under the Whitlam government were complimentary to population stabilisation. These planning initiatives focused on consolidation, redistribution of metropolitan coastal growth to inland rural areas, financial support for State purchase and development of land for resale at low prices for home building, and funding and support for public housing.

Finally, the Whitlam government abolished the Department of Immigration and replaced it with the Australian Population and Immigration Council. Of the decision to cut down on immigration, Whitlam himself writes,

"The Government, due to the advent of the world recession, was forced to constantly reduce its annual targets for migrant intake. The size of the new settler program was reduced from 140,000 to 110,000 in December 1972, to 80,000 in late 1974 and to 50,000 in late 1975. On 2 February 1975, the Australian Population and Immigration council was established to assist the Government in the accurate assessment of Australia's immigration and population needs."_{#fnEgw30" id="txtEgw30">30}

Clearly Whitlam was contemplating the review of population goals for the long term. His government was, however, suddenly dismissed from office and replaced by a government with very different objectives. Had the growthist lobby groups actually managed to engineer a situation favourable to their interests or did this come about entirely fortuitously?

There is room here for an ideologically related political explanation.

The threat of the possibility of long term Malthusian policies was only averted because the Whitlam Government was sacked. A traditional reason given for the sacking is that the government showed itself to be so financially incompetent and procedurally unorthodox with regard to procuring finances, that the opposition had virtually no alternative but to block supply and the Governor General had virtually no option but to dismiss the government.

A political opportunity was thus created for a caretaker opposition government to step in. This caretaker government was subsequently elected to office amidst the disarray of the ALP.

Another interpretation, (reserving judgement on the quality of the Whitlam Government's policies and practices) might be that the political fortunes of this government suffered due to the impact of the global economic crisis on the Australian economy. The 25% across the board tariff reductions that Whitlam introduced_{#fnEgw31" id="txtEgw31">31} had alienated manufacturing and farmers. Changes to land planning development and housing and cuts to immigration had alienated property development, building materials suppliers, and banks and building societies. There were therefore many important and influential dissatisfied voices supporting the opposition and the Governor General. And so a way had been left open whereby the Fraser opposition might exploit any vulnerability in the Whitlam Government.

If the Whitlam Government had not run so counter to entrenched growthist interests, would the opposition have been able to mobilise such support?

The new Fraser government was a vehicle for a new ideology which not only favored the old guard that had a vested interest in high population growth, but which took their interests much further. This was the beginning of important changes liberalising Foreign Takeovers and Acquisitions law, and of greatly increased foreign borrowing for development, in exchange for equity._{#fnEgw32" id="txtEgw32">32} I will be expanding on these post-Whitlam themes at the end of this chapter and in Chapter Eight.

Notes

There had been almost continuous high immigration from 1949-1970 – although immigration from 2009 dwarfs those figures now. Whitlam related population growth statistics to high land prices and the need for more appropriate management of development. Menzies had brought in policies that favoured the private housing industry over the public housing supply. Whitlam would try to counteract this tendency which now drives homelessness and overpopulation.

In 1973 land prices increased by up to 46 per cent in Melbourne and Adelaide and 34 per cent in Sydney. The highest increases were in outer-metropolitan areas where rapid population growth exceeded the supply of serviced blocks. The Whitlam government attempted to establish Federally funded public land development agencies in each State which would "establish a presence in the market sufficient to influence the general level of land prices and the rate of development of particular areas". This was intended to "create direct competition with private developers" "with a vested interest in the escalation of land prices" by "selling to home builders at the cost of production of the block." Whitlam also attempted to stabilise Australia's population numbers and to plan for Australia to become self-sufficient. See the full thesis.

Resistance to Change in the Residential Construction Industry in Australia after 1973

As discussed in an earlier chapter of Sheila Newman, The Growth Lobby and its Absence in Australia and France (2002)_#fnEgw23">23, Australia had been unable or unwilling to educate and train enough skilled tradesmen._{#fnEgw1" id="txtEgw1"> 1} Greater funding and access to education and training were particularly important if the building industry was to change its boom and bust approach to business. The Whitlam Government's policies to improve access to training, combined with urban planning innovation, might have improved this situation, by producing skilled building workers for Australia. Like the French, Australians now had access to free tertiary education and technical and further education and training. This was a revolutionary policy, for, with the Whitlam government's plans for reducing immigration and the Commonwealth funding the States to buy up land cheaply, there would not have been the same opportunities for private speculation. This would have created pressure on the industry to change. With better skilled workers, however, the building industry would have had a greater chance of achieving modern restructuring, which would have assisted its adaptation to new conditions.

Anti-speculation Innovations attempted under the Whitlam Government : the Department of Urban and Regional Development (DURD)

Whitlam writes at some length on these issues in his autobiography and in this, as in immigration, he favoured consolidation over growth. _{#fnEgw2" id="txtEgw2"> 2} The Department of Urban and Rural Development (DURD) was created under Whitlam and was the first federal department of its kind. It was meant to be virtually co-equal with treasury, dealing with the urban budget and co-ordinating departments with urban responsibilities, but competition and tradition within the public service hampered its function._{#fnEgw3" id="txtEgw3"> 3}

Whitlam believed that consolidation of urban development through better planning and services required more Federal intervention, since the Commonwealth Government had more tax funds at its disposal. He believed that part of the problem of high land prices and inappropriate developments had come about through urban planning being a responsibility of State governments._{#fnEgw4" id="txtEgw4"> 4} He also observed that "Government programs for housing renewals swim against the tide of private urban development. In the private housing market the greatest profits are made on the urban fringe".

In his opinion, urban redevelopment of depressed inner city areas would be greatly facilitated by Commonwealth grants for this purpose. He deemed that public acquisition of development land is necessary not only to reduce land prices and provide competition for private developers, but to ensure the orderly and comprehensive development of large areas of land. He was concerned at the sacrifice of previously designated green belts and the environmental and social costs this entailed. It was debatable, he wrote, whether the land should thence be returned to private ownership, but good initial development relied on public participation._{#fnEgw5" id="txtEgw5"> 5}

He commented that land speculation had been allowed to run unchecked as private developers held the supply of land constant so that its price would increase. He wrote that during the 1960s the average price of land in Australia had increased by 182 per cent. He attributed these characteristics of the Australian housing industry and market to the ideology of previous right wing governments._{#fnEgw6" id="txtEgw6"> 6} He also commented that planning was fragmented at State level between various isolated concerns such as education, electricity supply and water supply etc., which used Commonwealth loan money for State and Local Works, with little reference to State and local planning agencies, which were often staffed by innappropriately qualified persons._{#fnEgw7" id="txtEgw7"> 7} He also attempted to introduce a capital gains tax on profits made through land rezoning._{#fnEgw8" id="txtEgw8"> 8}

He deplored the premature development of suburbs like Blacktown and Green Valley in New South Wales, attributing to them later severe social problems, including unemployment (through simple inability due to distance and transport problems of employer to access employee and vice-versa), delinquency and criminality. Blacktown, he explained, had been developed by private developers on the fringes of the city because costs of development were lower there than in land available and zoned for future development closer to the city. Blacktown lacked adequate sewerage, paving, drainage, public transport, shopping amenities and schools and jobs. Green Valley was a public housing estate that had also been built on the fringes of Liverpool. Although this estate contained 20 per cent more blue-collar workers, 50 per cent less white-collar workers, and 15 per cent more children below the age of 16, and lower ownership of private transport than the national average, it was five kilometers from the nearest railway station, had no proper bus service, and was a long way from the location of jobs._{#fnEgw9" id="txtEgw9"> 9}

There had been almost continuous high immigration from 1949-1970. In his book, Whitlam constantly relates population growth statistics to high land prices and the need for more appropriate management of development. In 1973 land prices increased by up to 46 per cent in Melbourne and Adelaide and 34 per cent in Sydney._{#fnEgw10" id="txtEgw10">10} The highest increases were in outer-metropolitan areas where rapid population growth exceeded the supply of serviced blocks. The Whitlam government attempted to establish Federally funded public land development agencies in each State which would "establish a presence in the market sufficient to influence the general level of land prices and the rate of development of particular areas". This was intended to "create direct competition with private developers" "with a vested interest in the escalation of land prices" by "selling to home builders at the cost of production of the block."_{#fnEgw11" id="txtEgw11">11}

This was of course the long-standing policy of the French government.

The success of these policies was patchy,_{#fnEgw12" id="txtEgw12">12} mostly due to opposition from institutionalised vested interests. A South Australian land commission was created in 1973. In New South Wales (March 1975), Victoria (May 1975), and West Australia (May 1975) Urban Land Councils, with inadequate statutory authority and which were obliged to go through other State authorities were created. Queensland was in the process of confirming an agreement to establish one when the Whitlam Government fell. Tasmania reluctantly established an Interim State Land Co-ordination Council in October 1975, which never met._{#fnEgw13" id="txtEgw13">13}

Whitlam compares the impact of the powerful land commission in South Australia with the relatively impotent urban land council in Victoria. The South Australian commission received a total of $28.8 million from the Whitlam Government and $4 million from the Dunstan State Government and acquired 1920 ha of urban land, 1094 ha of rural land and 654 ha of non-urban land between 1973 and 1976. By 1977 it was providing 70% of new residential allotments. According to Whitlam this kept land prices down and guaranteed better land development and planning._{#fnEgw14" id="txtEgw14">14}

The situation in Victoria was much different. The Urban Land Council there only marginally affected land prices, according to Whitlam. He also writes that the Council only purchased land when demand was low, which helped out developers who could not otherwise have capitalised on this land and therefore maintained high land prices. Furthermore, the Land Council resold the land to builders at close to market prices. (We need to remember that in the Australian system developers and builders are usually separate concerns, with the former generally much better financed than builders and the latter working on very small profit margins, due to the initial cost of land bought from developers.) Whitlam's observation is that the Victorian Liberal Goverment (and the New South Wales and Western Australian governments) acted in accordance with the private land market and against the public interest. He provides evidence that, using public money, the Victorian Housing Commission purchased land at well above market price in 1973 under the Minister for Housing in Victoria, Vince Dickie._{#fnEgw15" id="txtEgw15">15}

The Hamer Government in Victoria achieved another remarkable feat, which has not received any critical comment, to my knowledge, although it has been recently documented in Australian immigration literature. This was the successful passing of an amendment to the Local Government Act whereby non-citizens became eligible to vote on council elections and to run for local government election._{#fnEgw16" id="txtEgw16">16}

Leonie Sandercock was moved to write a book about the corrupt Victorian Housing Commission, which engaged in land speculation under the Hamer Government in Victoria :

"... the VHC [Victorian Housing Commission], as much as any private speculator, assisted in the maintenance of the land boom in Victoria by paying to other speculators urban prices for land which was at the time of purchase zoned as farming land, thereby contributing to land price inflation and making it more and more difficult for low income workers to enter the land market, and thereby adding clients to its own waiting list. And this amazingly counter-productive policy was pursued because the State Government, at a Cabinet meeting on 16 July 1973 (after six months' concern at the likely consequences of the establishment of a land commission on the Victorian land market), decided to try to pre-empt this Federal program by allotting to the VHC the role of land banking and development."_{#fnEgw17" id="txtEgw17">17}

These and other speculatory activities under the Victorian government resulted in an Inquiry and criminal proceedings, and such was the extent of this land speculation that it impacted on the Federal Liberal government that followed on from Whitlam's and resulted in the removal of Treasurer Lynch in December 1977._{#fnEgw18" id="txtEgw18">18} This is ironic because it was Lynch, whilst in opposition, who had instigated the events that led to Whitlam's fall from government. One cannot help but wonder if this was pure coincidence or if Whitlam's strategies to frustrate land speculation, combined with his policies reducing migration, had not significantly added to the number and dedication of his enemies in the Victorian Liberal Party. This would be a very interesting and difficult object of future study but is not within the purview of this thesis.

If Whitlam's land development and housing reform strategies had succeeded, in combination with much reduced net immigration and, arguably, policies for lower energy use, it seems likely the housing industry in Australia might have adapted to a much lower rate of population growth and household formation. However these measures were doomed, along with the Whitlam government.

Leonie Sandercock, in her close analysis of the subject in the Transaction edition of Property, Politics and Urban Planning_{#fnEgw19" id="txtEgw19">19} with hindsight almost concludes that the Australian State based political system may make it impossible to reform land speculation traditions. She nevertheless concedes that Whitlam did succeed in influencing State Labor governments, although he failed with State Liberal governments. She also allows the possibility that Whitlam might have succeeded in establishing greater long term changes if the economic problems of rising unemployment and inflation had not undermined the government's ability to finance these changes and if the government had not been brought down. Her introduction to the Transaction edition is of documentary interest in its own right, if you depart from the premise that the she is revising a book that was written on the cusp of an era of great social and environmental optimism and confidence, just as the global effects of the oil shock related world recession had taken hold of Australia._{#fnEgw20" id="txtEgw20">20} Her concluding paragraph is poignant:

"If the left is to put its energy behind practical reforms of this kind, it will need to redirect its thinking away from grand schemes based on the premise that capitalism is about to collapse ... Now that the prospect of a continued, unlimited increase in material wealth has faded, we need more than ever a worked out conception of the good society - that is, an ideological stand - if we are to discuss policies intelligently._{#fnEgw21" id="txtEgw21">21} [My emphasis.]

In this section we saw how Labor, under Whitlam, attempted to curb land and housing speculation. The success of these innovations was limited by external events, the short life of the government, and institutional resistance by those with focused benefits in speculation. If Whitlam's innovations had succeeded, along with the maintenance of low net overseas immigration, according to my argument, then we might have seen a similar picture in Australia to the one in France in Figure 7.3. That is, there might have been a similar huge drop in the number of property development and building companies, to the extent that their ultimate regrouping would have been as a much smaller and more efficient sector, with substantially modified technologies, modes of production and organisational forms. According to this argument, the industry would thereby have lost its dependence on high immigration and a major immigrationist force in Australia would thus have become spent. Without the traditional recourse to population pressure and population competition to drive up land and house prices, property inflation and prices would have become substantially lower. Money might have been invested in new industries. The long-term demographic outlook of Australia might have been stabilisation at a smaller population.

In fact, the property development and building industries did go through a doldrums between 1974 and 1986_{#fnEgw22" id="txtEgw22">22} and these doldrums did coincide with a net fall in overseas immigration between 1972 and 1979.

In the end, however, Fraser reversed Whitlam's innovations and there was ultimately a return to high immigration. This, plus progressively more liberal access to foreign capital, progressively more banking deregulation, and progressively more globalisation of the property market, under successive governments, seem to have restored the old speculative system in good health. I will introduce these changes in the next section and then go into more detail about their nature and impacts in Chapter Eight.

NOTES

See also: Mark Latham, who opposed "Your Rights at Work" campaign and supported Howard in 2007, says Albanese shouldn't be Labor leader of 9 Oct 2013; Labor Leadership Contenders' Views on East West Link - Albo opposes it! of 6 Oct 2013.

Update, 28 Nov 2013: No mention was made of Syria by Albanese, Shorten or the audience in the leadership debate of 24 September. (Whilst this could have been because of time constraints, it seems a surprising omission.)
On 20 April, 2013, Anthony Albanese, a candidate for the national leadership of the Labor Party by membership ballot,₁ expressed ₂ his support for Syria₃. This is contrary to how much of the senior leadership of the Labor Party has acted. ₄ For two and a half years they supported the United States as Syria has tried to defend itself against invasion by proxy terrorists armed, paid for and supplied by the United States. This war has, so far, since March 2011, cost 100,000 lives.

Although Labor is no longer in Government following its defeat at the elections of 7 September 2013, Anthony Albanese's support for Syria is a welcome change to the collusion of senior members of the previous Labor Government with the United States in its war against Libya and the proxy terrorist war Syria. Kevin Rudd, as "roving" Australia Foreign Minister in the Middle East in March 2011, colluded with the United States to help create the international environment that enabled the U.S and its NATO allies to bomb and invade Libya in 2012. Since then, both Kevin Rudd and former Foreign Minister Bob Carr have colluded to help facilitate the terrorist war against Syria by the United States.

The above video is cause to hope that Labor may to return to its past tradition of opposing unjust wars as exemplified by the withdrawal of Australia from the Vietnam War by the newly elected Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in December 1972. Had Labor as a whole so vocally opposed the war against Syria, the level of the political discussion during the election campaign would have been raised and the outcome of the 7 September elections may well have been different.

Footnote[s]

#fn3465_1" id="fn3465_1">1. #txtSubj1">↑ Nominations for the ballot of Labor Party members for the National leadership closed on 20 September, according to an ABC report.

#fn3465_2" id="fn3465_2">2. #txtSubj2">↑ The included Youtube broadcast was embedded in the Crikey article of 2  2013 by Andrew Crook, Support for Syrian missile strike could test Labor unity.

#fn3465_3" id="fn3465_3">3. #txtSubj3">↑ As appears to be mandatory, Anthony Albanese also expressed his support for 'multi-culturalism'. Whilst Syria can rightly be held up as an example of different cultures living in harmony alongside each other for centuries, most notably, between Christians and Muslims, the same cannot be said for Australia, where multiculturalism has been used since the 1970's as a smokescreen to enable governments to impose high immigration.

As a consequence, native Australian workers have had their working conditions reduced or have been replaced altogether. The most infamous example is Section 457 visas by which employers are able to import workers with the supposed skills they claim to need in preference to properly training their own workforce, with on-the-job training or apprenticeships. 'Temporary' backpacker workers are employed in industries such as fruit-picking where that work was once available to low-skilled native workers or university students on summer vacation.

An equivalent process has occurred in the United Kingdom as documented by Tony Gosling in Labour's surrender monkeys dare not criticize Britain's conscript economy of 16 August 2013 in Russia Today.

Another effect of high immigration, welcomed by by landlords and property speculators, is to ensure a scarcity of housing stock, thus driving up the prices that can be demanded of tenants and home-buyers.

#fn3465_4" id="fn3465_4">4. #txtSubj4">↑ how this was dealt with in the Federal Labor Parliamentary Caucus, would be very interesting to know, as much of Bob Carr's most explicit and determined encouragement of U.S. military aggression against Syria followed Anthony Albanese's speech.

Perhaps Bob Carr's sudden resignation from the Senate is not such a mystery given the failure of President Obama, John Kerry, himself, Kevin Rudd and their international allies to win international diplomatic support for their war plans.

Sadly, Kevin Rudd has not resigned from Parliament and it can't be completely ruled out that he will again attempt to contest the national leadership. However, Bob Carr has vanished completely from public view. Nothing more has been posted to his web-site Thoughtlines with Bob Carr since 2 Sep 2013.

In an interview on the 4 Corners program, The Battle For Syria, on 4 October 2012, Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr said to Kerry O'Brien, "... perhaps an assassination ... is what is required ... ."

Carr's support for the assassination of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is consistent with allegations that for 40 years he was an agent of the United States Government within the Australian Labor Party. His relationship with the CIA is the subject of Bob Carr: Washington's man in Australia in the Melbourne Age of 8 April 2013 and the article, by Murray Hunter, Is Bob Carr a spy? of 11 April 2013 in the Independent Australian, which cites evidence from the Age article and which we republish below. The US, which Carr uncritically supports, has used assassins, and worse, against the people of Korea, Vietnam, Chile, Argentina, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and now Syria. A number of its own Presidents including JFK and a number of popular American political leaders have also fallen to the bullets of assassins.

See also: Assange slams Carr as a 'well-known liar' in the Sydney Morning Herald of 31 May 2013.

How Australian governments helped kill 3.3 million Iraqis

Since 1990, Australia has participated in two illegal wars against Iraq._#fn1">1 The Hawke Labor Government led Australia into the first war of 1991 whilst the Liberal/National Coalition Government of John Howard led Australia into the second war of 2003. In addition, Australia participated in the imposition of sanctions which have prevented vitally needed food and medicine from reaching the people of that devastated country. It is now well known that the pretexts used to launch these wars, including the Kuwaiti Incubator babies story and the claim that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) were lies.

According to one estimate, 3.3 million Iraqis, including 750,000 children consequently died. To escape death through war, disease or starvation, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis fled. According to Wikipedia, 1,300,000 fled to Syria.

Syria, which gave refuge to Iraqis fleeing Australian aggression, now bullied by Australia

No aid has ever been sent by Australia to help Syria deal with the consequences of Australia's shameful past actions. Instead, on 27 May 2012, Australia's foreign Minister, Bob Carr, expelled the Syrian ambassador and tightened Australian sanctions against Syria supposedly in reprisal for the demonstrably false claim that the Assad Government had masssacred its own supporters at Houla on 25 May.

Carr calls for the assassination of Assad

Prior to that on 4 October 2012, in an interview on the 4 Corners program, The Battle For Syria, Bob Carr said to Kerry O'Brien, "... perhaps an assassination ... is what is required ... ."

Carr's support for the assassination of the Syrian President seems consistent with his alleged 40 year record of being an agent of the United States Government within the Australian Labor Party . The US, which Carr uncritically supports, has used assassins against the people of Korea, Vietnam, Chile, Argentina, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and now Syria. One of its own Presidents and a number of popular American political leaders have also fallen to the bullets of assassins.

Carr's record has been documented in the Age article Bob Carr: Washington's man in Australia of 8 April 2013 by Phillip Dorling and by the Independent Australian article Is Bob Carr a spy? of 11 April 2013 included below.

The above introduction was written by Geoffrey Taylor for candobetter.net.

#IsCarrASpy" id="IsCarrASpy">Is Bob Carr a spy?

Republished from Independent Australian admin in Australian history, International, Politics on 11 April, 2013 12:01 am / #commentspost">24 comments

The Age exposes the Australian foreign minister as an "agent" under US influence; Murray Hunter asks -- is U.S. influence in Australian politics destroying policy objectivity?

Foreign Minister Bob Carr (image courtesy ABC).

JUST AROUND a week ago in Beijing, Australia's Foreign Minister Bob Carr entered the US-Korea conflict by trying to persuade the Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi to adopt sanctions against North Korea.

On Monday (8 April), an investigative journalist from The Age, after going through 11,000 cables from the U.S. embassy in Canberra and consulates in Sydney and Melbourne, leaked by US Army Private Bradley Manning and published by WikiLeaks, found that the current Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr had been briefing the US embassy since the 1970s on both the internal decision making of the Australian Government during the Whitlam Labor Government (1972-75) and internal workings of the Australian Labor Party (ALP).

Bob Carr has been Australia's foreign minister for 12 months, replacing Kevin Rudd, who resigned after challenging Julia Gillard for the prime ministership. Carr has been involved in the Australian Labor Party for more than 40 years and was New South Wales premier from 1995-2005.

Carr began his relationship with US embassy officials in the mid 1970s, when he was president of Young Labor and education officer of the NSW Labor Council. According to The Age investigative report Philip Dorling he would regularly brief the US Consul General over labour issues and the prospects of the Labor Government in Canberra. From the information gathered from Carr and also NSW Labor President John Ducker, intelligence reports on Australian politics and labour issues would be sent onto Washington. Leaked US cables to WikiLeaks also indicated that the former Labor Senator Mark Arbib was also a "protected" US embassy source passing on information and commentary on Australian politics.

Bob Carr is very well known for his staunch support for the Australian-US alliance as an non-negotiable pillar of Australian foreign policy and often dismisses critics as being in "emotional silly expression lacking in any substance and characteristic of the silly leftwing fringe of the ALP".

With such rigid advice to the prime minister and cabinet at a time where many academics and commentators like Professor Hugh White of the Australian National University are calling for a re-appraisal of this alliance and much more strategic engagement with China, it is very difficult to see how the Australian Government's pending 2013 Defense White Paper will signal any major shifts in policy on this matter.

At the very least, hanging on to the Australian-US alliance without any objective appraisal and redefinition may not serve the country's strategy interests in the Asia-Pacific Region well if the U.S. continues a competitive stance against China.

These revelations add to past suspicions by many in the labour movement about members of the party and government (when Labor was in power) who have been involved in close relationships with U.S. officials.

Labor suspicion of U.S. intelligence operating in Australia mainly stems from the election of the reformist and nationalistic Whitlam Labor Government in 1972, after 23 years in opposition. Whitlam immediately pulled Australia out of the Vietnam conflict, recognized the Peoples' Republic of China, campaigned for a nuclear free Indian Ocean, spoke up for Palestinian rights in the United Nations, and opposed French nuclear testing in the Pacific.

In 1973, the then Attorney General of Australia Lionel Murphy led a raid on the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO), the equivalent to the U.S. CIA, over concern with the organisation's involvement with the training of fascist Croatian groups, and the launching of terrorist operations from Australian soil. According to the Hope Commission back in 1977, ASIO was handing over to the CIA information on Australian opposition politicians and kept files on all ALP members.

The Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) was assisting the CIA in undertaking clandestine operations in Cambodia and Chile, even though Australia was officially neutral in Cambodia and supported the Government of Salvador Allende in Chile, without the knowledge of the Australian Government.

Many felt that when the Whitlam Government took measures to control the operations of the US Naval Communications Station on the North-West Cape of Western Australia, the Defence Signals Directorate in Melbourne, the Joint Defense research facility at Pine Gap and Nurrunger in South Australia, that the U.S. became vitally concerned.

After Whitlam discovered that ASIO and ASIS had secretly assisted the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975, he dismissed the heads of both organizations. Whitlam then hinted that he may not renew the Pine Gap agreement with the U.S. due for signing on 9th December 1975, which would have severely dented U.S. intelligence gathering ability. Labor mythology believes that the U.S. ambassador to Australia at the time, Marshall Green, had a hand in the dismissal of the Whitlam Government in November 1975 by the then Governor General Sir John Kerr. Of course, Kerr's time working for a closely aligned Australian intelligence organization to the U.S. OSS, the forerunner of the CIA, has always added spice to such conspiracy theories.

After Whitlam discovered that ASIO and ASIS had secretly assisted the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975, he dismissed the heads of both organizations. Whitlam then hinted that he may not renew the Pine Gap agreement with the U.S. due for signing on 9th December 1975, which would have severely dented U.S. intelligence gathering ability. Labor mythology believes that the U.S. ambassador to Australia at the time, Marshall Green, had a hand in the dismissal of the Whitlam Government in November 1975 by the then Governor General Sir John Kerr. Of course, Kerr's time working for a closely aligned Australian intelligence organization to the U.S. OSS, the forerunner of the CIA, has always added spice to such conspiracy theories.

During the first week after the dismissal of the Labor Government, the army was on stand-by at their barracks in case there were mass demonstrations. However, it was the Australian Council of Trade Unions then president Bob Hawke who summoned the labour movement to be calm. US diplomatic cables also implicate the former prime minister, saying he regularly conferred with the U.S. Consulate in Melbourne during his ACTU years. It was generally believed that the Labor Attaché at the U.S. embassy in Canberra was in reality the CIA station chief (McKnight, D., "Labor and the Quiet Americans", The Age, February 20, 2003, p15). The future Hawke Government, elected in 1984, went on to implement many pro-U.S. initiatives, and prevented public disclosure of documents relating to the Nugan Hand Bank during his term as Prime Minister, which were believed to implicate the CIA with drug trafficking and organized crime.

This is the first time that leaked U.S. documents have confirmed what many believe to be the truth surrounding U.S. infiltration within the Australian Labor Party. The issue is likely to be very quickly dismissed in Australia by the argument that the U.S. is an ally. However, within these documents there is some proof and support that the U.S. has meddled in the affairs of the Australian union movement and political parties for many years. What is even more astounding is that some Labor politicians showed disloyalty to their party to a foreign power during the Whitlam years.

Bob Carr has been forthright in exposing past politicians as members of the Communist Party of Australia, so should take the accusations against him seriously, either stepping aside for the duration of an inquiry or resigning outright. David Combe's relationship with a Soviet diplomat Valery Ivanov back in 1984 led to swift action on the part of the Hawke Government at the time. In the interests of transparency and sovereignty, the Australian Federal Police and ASIO should conduct an inquiry.

Somehow I doubt this will happen.

Footnotes

#fn1" id="fn1">1.#txt1">↑ See UK Chilcot Inquiry: "The Iraq War Was Unlawful". Unanimous Legal Opinion of Foreign Office Lawyers of 4 Jan 2013 by Carl Herman on #10;<p>This work is licensed under a <a href=" http:="">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License

#YarraAbbas">See also : Yara Abbas, Syrian TV Reporter Assassinated in Qussayr, republished from www.syrianews.cc/yara-abbas-syrian-reporter-assassinated-qussayr

Martyr Yara Abbas Syria’s Ikhbariya TV Reporter

This article was first posted as a comment to an article by Tim Murray, but I decide to turn it into my own blog entry after it was pointed out that the size of this comment caused Tim's article to be dwarfed.

Tim Murray, in his excellent article "Is the home-building industry the prime mover of our ecological ruin?" of 31 December 2008 wrote:

"The former Premier of New South Wales, Bob Carr, once offered Australia a choice. It could sustain jobs and economic security by using its brains, by being a smart economy, by adding value to the products it produces and by transforming manufacturing. Or it could continue to be a 'lazy Australia' that depends on job growth simply by driving up population numbers and depending on the growth you get by building homes and shopping malls. And that is indeed what is it has done, adding a third to its population in less than three decades."

These words point to the essence of the problem.

Population growth is an 'easy' way for those, who have guided this country's destiny for at least the last three decades, to enrich itself. But, the evidence, not to mention, common sense and basic intuition, tells us from the point of view of this society as whole, we can only become poorer and not richer as a result. Firstly, the access of each one of us to our natural resources must necessarily be reduced on average, and secondly, although, less intuitively obvious, increasing population size, once an optimum population size has been passed, creates dis-economies, rather than economies of scale. It costs more per head of population as our cities become more packed, to build and maintain the infrastructure necessary to provide, transport, water, electricity, health care, education and other essential services. However, paradoxically, as we become poorer an average and as we steal ever more wealth from future generations, a small elite become wealthier.

The way to become wealthier as Carr implied was to build up a manufacturing and science base using the talent we already have within our shores. This indeed happened, when Australian had a population of only 7 million between the First and Second World Wars. Although not a well understood fact Australia, as a result became largely self-sufficient and, through the strength of its manufacturing base able to sustain a navy and air force and an army with eight fully-equipped divisions by July 1942, was able to deter the Japanese from persuing their plans to invading Australia in March 1942, even before their defeat by US forces at the Battle of the Coral Sea. This country was a world leader in technology. This is the thesis of Andrew Ross's "Armed and Ready - the industrial development and Defence of Australia 1900-1945" of 1995. Although largely ignored since 1995, it has yet to be challenged bay any comparable work. This was the subject of a discussion on Online Opinion and I made use of it in an article "The myth of the Howard Government's Defence Competence" of 21 November 2007.

Had Australia maintained that technological lead, I believe that we would have been a more prosperous nation as well as a more equitable and democratic nation and we would have stood a greater chance of achieving sustainable technological base. However it seems that it appears that it suited an elite within our society which has come to guide our destiny to throw all that away in order to be able to enrich itself at the expense of the rest of us and this process continues today.

Notwithstanding Bob Carr's very apt comments, I just cannot accept that he was ever sincere. Of course, he always sounds sincere, but his actions, and even his words, on other occasions belie these words.

Listen to Bob Carr's moving words, at an ABC sponsored public 'forum' on 18 September 2008, about how we were all warned as far back as the 1970's about the perils of global warming and then ask yourself how a man with this knowledge could have then been responsible for the massive expansion in NSW open cut coal mining which is not only helping to fuel global warming, but also destroying NSW's own environment.

Although this was supposed to be a 'forum', in the typical style of Bob Carr who, throughout his career has avoided critical scrutiny even more determinedly than the fabled Count Dracula avoided sunlight, limited question time to 10 minutes.

However, the written comments at the end of the page give an overwhelmingly damning verdict of his legacy. Here are some:

"Bob Carr should have done a lot more reading when he was in office -- reading the reports about the shocking state of the health, education, transport and infrastructure of NSW. Then perhaps he would've done something about it. Or perhaps he would have arranged a succession plan when he vamoosed out of politics before it came crashing down.

"Or perhaps he should've spent less time reading job offers from banks with connections to road-building firms.

"Bob Carr has always had pretensions of gravitas, but we don't have to prop up his delusions.
We are paying for his superannuated retirement, so could we give no public air time to his irrelevant ponderings -- his actions mean that his mental meanderings have no credibility."

This drew a defence:

I don't find Carr enormously stimulating, but you clearly don't have anything coherent against him - apart from his unsatisfactory chin. Harold Bloom - he of the Western Canon - paid tribute to Bob Carr as the only senior politician whom he respected as an intellectual: www.podcastdirectory.com/podshows/2890398.

... which, in turn drew a further response:

"I'm not searching for deep intellectualism in my politicians. If I were, Malcolm Turnbull and Tony Abbott would rank well ahead of Bob Carr on sheer intelligence (although I know intelligence is not the same as intellect). I would say Harold Bloom didn't get around enough if he really thought Bob Carr was the only senior politician whom he regarded as an intellectual, or maybe he never met Edward Kennedy, Sir Edward Heath, Enoch Powell or dare I say it, Edward Whitlam _#main-fn1">1 (what is it with Edwards?).

"You are being disingenuous when you say we complain only of Mr Carr's chin. We are complaining about his sale of public assets, his close relationship with businesses that profitted under his government, and the general ineptitude of his government."

Further comments:

"... Then was the disgraceful Workers Compensation Reform. Instead of making those who caused the problem pay he made the workers and community pay. ...We do not deserve these indecent preaching pratts but we have them."

"The collective disdain toward Carr in this blog gives me a glimmer of hope in humanity. There are actually people out there who are switched on to just how ridiculous this country has become. Our governments consist of individuals that could be considered criminals by any rational court."

"Give me a break. 'Human Decency' would demand an apology from this 'retired', at great public expense, ex-professional politician that never had real job or a degree from the university of life and probably the worse leader ever of this state, to the long suffering taxpayers and people of theONCE great State of NSW, for what he and his party have done to us. He should have the "Human Decency" to apologize. Tsk, Tsk ..."

"This is the man who recently gave his full moral support to Morris Iemma's and Michael Costa's attempt to privatise their electricity assets of NSW in spite of the fact that Iemma had ruled that out prior to the 2007 elections and in spite of the fact that 79%-86% of NSW residents opposed privatisation - all quietly forgotten, at least, that is what he no doubt hopes.

"It is most strange how Carr seems so much more passionate about events in other times and the politics of other lands than he ever was about the political and events in the time and place, where as state Premier and potential federal Labor leader and, hence, potential Prime Minister, he could have made a lasting and positive impact on Australian and, possibly, world history. Of course, it is a matter of record that he did not and his administration will be remembered as one of the most inept, secretive and anti-democratic in the history of this county.

"I wonder if Bob Carr has ever contemplates how figures like himself are likely to be viewed in future times by people trying to understand this age through the fictional and non-fictional works of our time." - James Sinnamon

"It is sad indeed that Australian political life is so reduced that Bob Carr passes as 'interesting' and an 'intellectual'. In general Australian politicians lag about 20 to 30 years behind informed opinion on matters outside of their field of interest - personal power and privilege."

"Bob didn't show much human decency when he sold off Prince Henry Hospital, when before he was elected he promised he would save it.

"Long term illnesses, such as aids, mental illness and long term heart recovery, just to name a few, had this beautiful position on the coast to recover in. But he sold it off under the pretence of changing the laws to protect coastal lands, which actually just gave him the power to do what he wanted.

"Medical teams were disgusted and sad, because they knew they would never have such great teams and means for recovery again.

"Where is the decency in that? So I guess we have answered the question."

"Demonstrably, Mr Carr must have only a theoretical interest in human decency.
Practically, he squattered the housing boom in NSW during the 10 years that he was Premier with the result of infrastructure breakdowns, health meltdown, etc of essential services.

"Pity that a well read man such as Bob Carr only make sounds which practically signify nothing in what he did.

"There are basic flaws in a political system that rewards such hypocrisy."

"He is giving himself credibility but NSW knows bob the builder of tolls and tolled tunnels and fire sales of Acer Arena lowest bid wins and Sydney Showground foxy giveaways

"We get to pay the pension indexed to their former self served salaries... in addition to an office with staff a minder and a travel expense free ride....

"Parasites never leave the host until the host is totally consumed.

"If they have obviously stitched up a consultancy job in the private sector with prior intimacy ... then the perks should be suspended until they are needy.

"It would be 'humanely decent' if they gave up the perks until they are retired at 65 with a pension closer to the average wage and fund their own office and staff and carr transport.

"Take the Ted Mack pledge not to drain our Treasury for the purpose of supporting the people not the servants of the people... Ted was decent, nobody else has the decency he walked the talk and left no toll for his life's work."

"Bob carr.

"Decency?

"Why this man isn't in gaol is unfathomable.

"I notice that the very bank who owns the toll roads in sydney is now his employer.

"If this man is a letter of letters then the best place he should be writing his comments and memoirs should be behind a locked door. It is people like Bob Carr who have become a gnawing cancer in society, from their actions they encourage more illegal activity, thus throwing Australian society into the depths of the developing world. ..."

I could write pages more about Bob Carr's many other crimes against the environment, democracy, accountability and social justice. Whilst his environmental accomplishments were substantial in his early years, particularly his massive extension of NSW's National Parks, I think those accomplishments and all his fine words about population control should more properly be regarded as 'bait' to cause people environmentalists to forgive him for a massive slew of other pro-business and anti-environmental policies. To get an idea how 'bait and switch' is used , view Barrie Zwicker's deconstruction of the phony US dissident Noam Chomsky in the YouTube broadcast "The Shame of Noam Chomsky and the Left gatekeepers". I think Carr is a kind of fake-Malthusian variant of Noam Chomsky.

Footnotes

#main-fn1" id="main-fn1">1. #main-fn1-txt">↑ Edward Gough Whitlam is more widely known as 'Gough Whitlam'. Bob Carr has repeatedly spurned the legacy of Gough Whitlam, but had Gough's Government retained power, he would have prevented the population growth that Carr claimed to be against. Furthermore the Department of Urban Planning (or something with a similar name) which was abolished by Malcolm Fraser would have constrained the damage that developers were able to cause to our cities. For all of his flaws Gough Whitlam is an intellectual giant in comparison to Carr as the poster pointed out. Moreover, unlike the do-nothing government of Bob Carr, Gough's Government implemented far greater number worthwhile reforms (although most have been, sadly, subsequently dismantled).