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BRIEFINGS DANUBE BLUES: Eastern Europe is marching to different economic drummers. 2 UNO’S DOUBLE TROUBLE: No future for Nicaragua's fragile democracy? 3 HOW GREEN WAS MY BALLOT: Who xvas who in the Green electoral zoo. 5 COLUMNS PROFILE: Clive James: too clever by half. 7 LETTER FROM EPHESUS: Henhouse Blues: Diana Simmonds cries fowl. 8 CHINA SHOP: Bob Carr recalls the East European revolution. vr h ■M LOAN 9 LETTERS; ALR goes conservative? 45 CONSUMING PASSIONS: - *r-> 1991 CD, qr not CD? j UNtv: * ' r 46 LOOSE CANNON: A bright union hope calls it quits. fASL BIRT lioftARr 47 DEAR DR. HARTMAN: Clichis can be fun 48 FEATURES WOMBS FOR RENT: Surrogacy has been draped in the respectability of science. But Janet Wright feels it's earned its shock-horror reputation. 12 A PROTECTION RACKET? The debate over protection has reopened. Sue McCreadie argues that Left protectionism is not enough. 16 PHEW1 Our cover story. Labor's record fourth election victory was a knife-edge thing. Dennis Altman argues that it makes the ALP one of the world's few dominant social democratic parties. David Burchell casts a critical eye on media and Left accounts of the 'sullen electorate'. And ALP strategist Wayne Swan assesses the vote. 20 THE ELECTION ISSUE THAT WASN’T: Opinions are coming round to consumption taxation. But it's off the electoral agenda. Peter Groenewegen thinks it shouldn't be. 30 MATTERS ARISING GROPING FOR POWER: Do election ads actually work? Jan e Inglis asked adman Brian Slapp. 36 THE POSTMODERN CONDITIONER: Postmodern products have M ichael Dwyer in a lather. 38 GREEN HILLS: The presenter of ABC TV's environment program interviewed. 40 REVIEWS UNCLE OSCAR: The Academy Awards: all that glisters... 42 SUMMIT TO THINK ABOUT: Donald Home's latest bundle of ideas. 44

AUSTRALIAN LEFT REVIEW: 116: APRIL 1990 EDITORIAL COLLECTIVES - SYDNEY: Brian Aarons, Eric Aarons, Hilda Andrews, Malcolm Andrews, David Burchell, dare Curran, Jim Endersby, Gloria Garton, Jane Inglis, Sue McCreadie, Carlotta McIntosh, Peter McNiece, Diana Simmonds. MELBOURNE; Louise Connor, Jim Crosthwaite, David Ettershank, James Gray, Kate Kennedy, Anna Kokkinos, Caroline Milbum,Pavla Miller, Ken Norling, Olga Silver, Giselle Thomas, Janna Thompson. BRISBANE: Nicola Doumany, Jane Evans, Howard Guille, Mike Kennedy, Colin Mercer, Michael Meadows, Jeffery Minson, Rob McQueen, Marg O'Donnell, Tony Woodyatt. MANAGING EDITOR: David Burchell. PRODUCTION EDITOR: Jane Inglis. ADVERTISING: Mike Ticher. ACCOUNTS: Hilda Andrews (Sydney); Olga Silver (Melbourne). DISTRIBUTION: (Newsagents): Wrapaway, 36A1,34 Fitzroy St, MarrickviUe 2204. (Bookshops and other outlets): Manic Exposeur, 23 William St, Abbotsford 3067. LAYOUT: Jim Endersby. COVER GRAPHIC Harry Williamson & Partners. TYPESETTING: Gloria Garton. PRINTER: Spotpress, 105-107 Victoria Road, MarrickviUe 2204. PUBLISHED BY: Australian Radical Publications, 635 Harris St, Ultimo 2007. All material ©ALR 1990. Permission must be sought to reprint articles or reproduce graphics. CORRESPONDENCE: ALR, PO Box A247, Sydney South 2000. PHONE: (02) 2817668; (02) 2812899. FAX- (02) 2812897. ALR welcomes contributions and liters. CONTRIBUTIONS MUST BE TYPED, DOUBLE-SPACED ON ONE SIDE OF THE PAPER ONLY. They will be returned if accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. A style guide is available on request Arrangements for electronic transmission of articles - either on disc or by modem - can be made. Ring the ALR office for information. Views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the editorial collective. 2 BRIEFINGS Danube Blues

The eastern contours of nevertheless subservient to the global Hungarian economists checked Europe's new order have be­ capitalist market, falling ever behind their calculators to discover that trade come a little clearer recently. For the West in its isolation. in fully convertible currency would the first time in the Soviet-led Trade within Comecon is carried cost their economy $1.5 billion next trading bloc's 40-year history, out in transferable roubles, a unit of year. The Soviet Union, keen on the prospect of selling oil and coal at Comecon's Eastern European accounting rather than a convertible currency, set up specifically for intra­ world prices, shifted its position, members have come together pressing for the introduction of hard demanding either the bloc trade. Most trade actually occurs on a barter basis - Soviet energy and currency trading as early as 1991. organisation's radical overhaul raw materials in exchange for low- Soviet energy at market prices would - or its dissolution. quality Eastern European manufac­ cost Eastern Europe an additional $10 tured goods. At its best, the system billion a year, not to mention the los­ A meeting of the seven Warsaw ses industry would suffer without the Pact countries, plus Vietnam, Cuba accelerated the industrialisation of near-feudal peasant societies like Bul­ Soviet market. The Eastern European and Mongolia, in mid-January under­ garia. For Vietnam, Cuba and Mon­ countries still do half to three-quarters lined the tensions implicit in the golia which joined in the 'sixties and of their export business within the former allies' divergent - and compet­ bloc ing - reform courses. "Comecon must 'seventies (Yugoslavia has special change or die", warned the Hun­ status) the bloc offered markets for At the cutting edge of market garian Prime Minister, openly con­ their sub-standard goods and access reform, Hungary's and Poland's to imports at below market prices. In testing Moscow's position that the economic woes attest to the difficul­ Eastern Europe, single factories were bloc, as well as the Warsaw Pact, are ties in store for the region. At the IMF s key to European stability. The Third able to produce enormous quantities behest, the Solidarity government is World countries' objections were of mediocre, uniform goods at prices implementing weekly currency casually dismissed. that its partners could never afford devaluations which have fuelled hy­ from the West. perinflation (450% last year) and "Comecon is an obsolete organisa­ record unemployment. tion," said the Romanian repre­ At the same time, the implementa­ sentative. "It has never worked and it tion of the stalinist model of develop­ With wages frozen, the standard of doesn't work now." The system of ment generated the conditions that living is expected to drop by 20% this have led to popular resistance from bloc trading, they asserted, had year. In Hungary, where a third of the 1953 to the present. Rather than tan­ paralysed competition and held back population already lives at or below gible benefits, workers saw only fewer technical development while creating the poverty line, food and housing consumer goods and chronic poverty and shortages in member costs jumped 35% on January 1. Under shortages. Even trade within the bloc countries. The delegates resolved the country's rapid integration policy, gradually to adopt hard currency ac­ never worked efficiently. The transfer aimed at attracting foreign invest­ of technology which was not sold, but counting and world prices, reforging ment, inflation is expected to more given at cost, blocked its movement. trade contracts on a bilateral basis. than double the government's initial Since the late 'seventies, trade within 19.5% estimate. Without consulting member states, Comecon has stagnated even further, Stalin created the Council for Mutual while trade with the West has grown. Criticism of the tough measures, rare at first, has begun to mount. The Economic Assistance in 1949 to Their guaranteed markets, rouble- counter the West's Marshall Plan. In based value relations and anachronis­ drive to boost competition was sup­ posed to benefit the consumer, says theory, the body was based on tic industries now leave the bloc 'mutual aid' and socialist principles members decades behind the West in Hungarian economist Imre Voroos, such as the common ownership of the their effort to compete on the world but "the 'liberalised' prices move only means of production and the integra­ market. However, the implications of in one direction - upwards. It tion of sodal and economic policy. In an over-hasty transfer have since proceeds unbridled without the fact, the bloc operated as a Soviet-run forced the six to rethink the maverick slightest analysis of the economic con­ monopoly which imposed lopsided charges they made in January. 'The ditions necessary for it. trade agreements and production transition has to be gradual to take "Without genuine competition, plans on Eastern Europe to Soviet into account balance of payment shifts liberal prices are just a present to the gain. and other negative aspects," said the supply side, and the piper is paid by Designed to protect the East from Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister. the consumer. In a dearly monopo­ Western competition, Stalin's fabri­ 'W e are looking for a soft landing and listic way, prices are simply agreed cated 'socialism in one bloc' was not a hard landing." upon by the producers."

ALR .APRIL 1990 BRIEFINGS 3

In recent weeks, trade unions have started to grumble, threatening strikes if pension and wage compensation - not part of the IMF program - is not swiftly instituted. Although over a million Poles could be unemployed this year, the government has prepared a social security net for only 400,000. The farmers' union, Rural Solidarity, warned parliament that the austerity program would cause major agricultural strikes if farms *• were not given special credit terms. Their reform courses lock the East­ ern Europeans into competition for Western aid and investment, but their existing relations are still vital to their non-rouble exchange. Budapest also reduce military-related nuclear ac­ economic survival. Although still announced that it would cut exports tivities, ban chemical weapons and vague, several proposals for Central to the Soviet Union this year by 20% jointly cut military expenditures. European corridors and bilateral co­ and indicated its interest in bilateral The pacts alone, however, cannot ordination, exclusive of the Soviet trade with the Baltic states. All three deter the threat of political instability Union, are under discussion. Their are now working on the total as austerity courses take full effect. goal is not new blocs, but flexible, co­ withdrawal of Soviet forces from their The people of Central and Eastern operative trade alliances designed to territory, possibly by 1991. Europe have found their voice, and offset the blow of integration, as well A rehabilitation of a regional goodwill toward reformers has al­ as provide some protection, however Danube-Adriatic-Alps confederation ready grown thin. Strikes and popular minimal, against the potential between Warsaw Pact member Hun­ protest may slow the pace of economic might of a united Germany. gary, neutral Austria, non-aligned marketisation, but neither trade Old grudges over sour business Yugoslavia and NATO member Italy unions nor opposition parties offer a deals and minority questions are is also in the works. The "common political alternative. The hardship being patched up. Prague and War­ economic zone" would reforge his­ ahead for Eastern Europe is now only saw linked the krone and zloty in toric trade links which once connected a question of magnitude. January, bypassing the rouble. In Western Hungary, Slovenia, lower *■ February, Hungary and Poland estab­ Austria and the Italian Alps. The three PaulHockenos - a freelance lished a joint bank to facilitate trade in countries might also join forces to journalist living in Budapest. UNO’s Double Trouble

Penny O'Donnell is a freelance jour­ The feeling among the Sandinistas He's the CIA's man here but he's also nalist in Managua, Nicaragua. She spoke now is that while they've lost the much more pragmatic than the sort of to Mike Ticher about the future following majority they are still the major politi­ loony right element of the UNO, the recent elections there. cal force in the country because they which includes people like the vice- The atmosphere is just extraor­ are the only single party that has 40% president, VirgiUo Godoy. They are dinary at the moment. The of the vote. The Coalition is made up much more interested in sweeping the Sandinistas completely out of power determination and energy of fourteen different parties which basically agreed only on one thing - and reversing all the decrees made by among Sandinista supporters that Violeta Chamorro should be the the Sandinistas, with the exception of and their incredibly strong candidate in the election. Decree no.3, which was the expropria­ fighting spirit is more reminis­ Chamorro has to deal with two tion of Somoza's property. cent of the insurrectionary main factions in trying to hold the In response to this threat to the period than of a defeated politi­ Coalition together. One is aligned to a achievements of the present revolu­ cal party. It's a very interesting group around Alfredo C6sar, who tion, the Sandinistas' position is that time because the victory of the used to be in the political directorate the election has been held in a con­ UNO has been marked by a of the Contras and was also the head stitutional framework and that the notable absence of celebration of the banking system under the San­ transition of power will happen con­ among its supporters. dinista government in the early years. stitutionally. The constitution main­

ALR: APRIL 1990 4 BRIEFINGS tains the army and the Ministry of the The outcome of these two situations cal change (in the media for example) Interior intact, which essentially • the FSLN's determination to main­ and a huge influx of American culture, means that it allows the FSLN to main­ tain control of the security forces and clothes, customs, habits, food, etc, tain its dominance of those institu­ UNO's lade of political mastery over which will suffocate what has been an tions. Whether it will be able to do so the Contras - is almost certain to be an incredibly strong and vivid political in practice is now one of the most upsurge in violence in general, and culture. important political issues. the formation of rightwing This process may not be a deliberate The FSLN's political demands now paramilitary death squads in par­ strategy, but it will be the inevitable are simply that the new government ticular. People fear a return to killing result of the opening-up of the should do what it said it would do, and torture as the pro-Contra forces economy to private enterprise, and principally in the economic field: that attempt to take power away from the American ideology. For example, the the boycott be lifted; that the war be army. message that's coming from ended; that the Contras be So the transition may produce a Washington now is that it's not even demobilised; and that people's living functioning government but, at the a matter of handing over the army, but standards be raised of disbanding the army. immediately. The Why would Nicaragua need opposition'seconomic an army? It's exactly the plan envisages an al­ same process as in Panama, most instant reactiva­ one of their first decisions tion of the economy; was to disband the army so and if it doesn't occur, that there will never again be their support will be­ a military force in Panama come disillusioned that can defend itself against very quickly. the United States. And that's Another major basically the object of question which over­ American policy here too. shadows the political Nicaragua is already debate is, of course, changing. Exiles are starting the future of the Con­ to arrive. tras. The conciliatory image which Chamor­ For example, on the front page of La Prensa, which is ro has so far presented the UNO newspaper, it was to the outside world reported only two weeks on this issue is highly misleading. Immedi­ after the election that the ex- ately after the election, director of one of the she sent a delegation television channels had ar­ rived to say that he'd to Honduras to talk to returned to reclaim his TV the Contras, sup­ station which had been posedly to insist that taken from him in 1979. they demobilise. But when this delegation He expects that the law of arrived and were private property will be questioned by the Honduran press, same time, there seems likely to be an respected and the government will they maintained that they were there enormous amount of violence and ter­ give him back his television station. simply to make a courtesy call and ror. In the best of worlds Nicaragua It's hard to see what the Sandinistas were not asking the Contras to do any­ might end up like Costa Rica, with a can do to resist these forces. Histori­ thing. bit more social consciousness and a bit cally, events have caught up with Few people believe that UNO will more of a social program than most other Central American countries. But Nicaragua. In some ways it resembled be able to control the Contras. Certain­ the kind of revolutionary society we ly, their capacity to do so will depend a more realistic possibility is that we're heading for a situation similar all thought might happen in the entirely on the United States. The 'sixties, but which in the 'eighties is to that of El Salvador. Americans themselves, although thought of as slightly fantastic. delighted at the election result, Together with the obvious physical haven't got an easy situation on their threat to Nicaragua, which the Con­ Now that reality has caught up, it's hands. The most reliable indicator of tras will represent if the US fails to going to be very interesting to see their position now will be their at­ restrain them, is the more insidious what a revolutionary party, which titude towards the Contras. The cultural domination. This is an in­ won its way through a guenilla war, prospects for their demobilisation are credibly politicised society, but it is can do in what is essentially going to not encouraging at this stage. about to undergo a massive and radi­ be an ideological battle.

ALR: APRIL 1990 BRIEFINGS 5 How Green was my ballot

"Yes, we can print in green ink ex-ALP Leichhardt councillor Tony is an amazing amount of unity on the on recycled paper" (pre-elec- Harris and Hall Greenland. ground", there was nevertheless con­ tion sign in Sydney printers). Together with the Democratic siderable bitterness about the lack of Socialist Party (formerly the Socialist cohesion among green groups. The While the environment is nearer the Workers Party), the Aboriginal Land three significant players were the top of the political agenda than ever Council and the remnants of the Peak Groups (whose membership before, voters wishing to register a Nuclear Disarmament Party fled by dwarfs all the others put together), the 'green' vote in the election had no Robert Wood), they formed the Green Sydney Greens and Dunn's group. clear choice of candidates. The be­ Alliance, which stood candidates for 9 Naturally, each had a different wildering array of alliances, grouplets lower house seats and ran a Senate perspective on the reasons for the and individuals which stood for both ticket. All candidates calling themsel­ failure to present a united front. the Senate and the Hall Greenland of the House of Repre­ Sydney Greens said that sentatives had few unity in the future will major policy differen­ be a question of "the ces, but their failure to Peak Groups being unite on a common tac­ prepared to accept a tical approach led to democratic set-up" and widespread confusion reforming what he and unnecessary describes as their "top- duplication of resour­ down" structure. His ces. view was echoed by Deborah Brooks, cam­ This failure was high­ paign co-ordinator for lighted by the decision Dunn's group, who saw of the mainstream en­ "formal executive vironmental organisa­ bodies (making) tions to put the bulk of decisions without con­ their support behind ~ sulting the member­ the Democrats (except £ ship". in Western Australia *8 and Tasmania), and to ^ Feelings ran equally recommend the direc- |3 as high in the other tion of preferences to * direction. Jeff Angel of the ALP, rather than the Total Environment supporting green can- | Centre characterised the didates. Nowhere were a, 'democracy' of the the splits between the Green Alliance as 'Peak Groups' (the "making up policy at Australian Conserva­ public meetings" and tion Foundation, The Wilderness ves Green (with the exception of was highly critical of their "amateur" Society, the Nature Conservation Green Independents) were related to, approach to campaigning; "The green Council and the Total Environment or sanctioned by, this group. movement has to appeal to a much Centre) and green candidates deeper The other Senate tickets were the broader base of people than the estab­ or more damaging than in NSW, with Irina Dunn Environment Inde­ lished leftwing vote in the state. The no less than five 'green' Senate tickets. pendents (Dunn, Harry Recher and Green Alliance has no bloody idea how to reach those people. All they Many of the problems in NSW arise Peter Prineas); Robert Wood (NDP); the Gruen Party (a bizarre collection were offering us was failure and from the fact that the name 'Greens' is defeat" registered with a particular group of rural environmentalists claiming which has failed to agree on strategy descent from German Baptist settlers The same conflict was also evident With the Peak Groups and some of the in Australia); and the Democrats. over the conditional support of the other candidates. The Sydney Greens, Despite the claim by Dunn's office Peak Groups for the ALP. Sue Salmon who say they got sole rights to the during the campaign (echoed by al­ of the ACF was at pains to deny that name "quite by accident", are led by most all the other groups) that "there the relationship was a dose one: 'The

AIR . APRIL 1990 6 BRIEFINGS

ALP is by no means what we want, them at arms-length from mainstream their generally good relations with the and we have had enormous rows with organisations (and many green- Green Alliance (they swapped the government. However, the reality minded individuals) with memories preferences for the Senate) were is that we're going to have one or other of their participation in the Nuclear tempered by die personal history of of the two main parties in power and Disarmament Party and role in its sub­ Dunn and Robert Wood from the NDP therefore we have to make an effort, sequent split in January 1985. Green­ days when Dunn filled Wood's Senate through the distribution of preferen­ land accepts that "the outside seat after he was disqualified from of­ ces, to achieve what is best for the perception of them as parasites and fice. environment." manipulators" is a problem, but one For the future, they feel that "the The furore over the decision of the which would be resolved by the broader conservation movement, not steady growth of the Greens. How­ Green Alliance to stand a candidate in just the ACF and Wilderness Society, ever, that seems improbable without Jeannette McHugh's marginal seat of is going to have to think about what the backing of the Peak Groups. Phillip further soured their relation­ it's doing. If you wait for total unity ship with the ALP. Their original In many ways, this division seems before supporting green candidates, choice as candidate, June Cassidy, to be a depressingly familiar re-run of you'll wait until the year 2001." withdrew after alleging harassment leftwing splits between ideological Prospects for that unity certainly do and intimidation from what Green­ purists and pragmatists. This impres­ not look promising. "The higher the land described as "ALP supporters" sion is reinforced by Greenland main­ overall green vote in this election, the who "disfigured and distorted" the taining that "it is a very disruptive better the chances of unity next time", debate at meetings of the Eastern Sub­ thing when people get into office". A according to Judy Lambert of the urbs Greens, the local group con­ parallel could also be drawn with the Wilderness Society. But of course that nected to the Sydney Greens. conflict between the 'fundis' (fun­ equation works equally well the other damentalists) and 'realos' (realists) in way round - a united voice is surely a The situation had a certain irony, the German Greens. However, such precondition for maximising the with the Green Alliance groups (in­ divisions in a party with substantial green vote. cluding the DSP) complaining of in­ parliamentary representation are per­ filtration of the Eastern Suburbs Many echoed Jeff Angel's hope that haps more understandable than the "after the election people will realise Greens and the stacking of meetings squabbling among Australia's rela­ by "anti-Green" forces (i.e. ALP sup­ that it's ridiculous to be disunited", tively tiny groups. porters). Certainly the democratic but the question is, on whose terms credentials of the Green Alliance were will they be united? If no acceptable The situation is further complicated compromise can be found, at this cru­ called seriously into question by the by the stance of the Irina Dunn group. row, which resulted in open meetings cial time for green politics, the real They confessed to "disappointment" loser will be the environment itself. As being suspended and a very public over the decision of the Peak Groups, Angel puts it: "we simply can't afford split between two different factions finding it "slightly odd in many within the Eastern Suburbs Greens. to stuff up the next three years of en­ ways".. There's little doubt that the vironmental politics in Australia". The presence of the DSP in the ranks diplomatic choice of words covered of the Green Alliance inevitably keeps stronger feelings. On the other hand, Mike Ticker

The first account of the Bannon years, indispensable because it’s told by a former senior minister without hope or desire of re-instatement. A This is a reformer’s diary o f health politics, including new information about the State ALP and uranium mining; battles between the SA Health Commission and the Roxby Downs Venturers; the passage o f legislation outlawing tobacco sponsorship; political polling and its Y uses and abuses; health and social service systems and The Political their resistance to change. Recollections of Required reading for anyone interested in the politics John Cornwall of health or the health of politics. With a foreword by Phone and mail orders welcome, credit cards accepted. Hugh Stretton $19.95 Wakefield Press Box 2266, Kent Town SA 5071 Telephone (08) 3628800

AIK: APRIL 1990 COLUMNS 7

the calendar girls' and '...meets with the way he looks? Be honest. Hugh Hefner' can be dismissed as He doesn't look good. He looks bald an old man's fantasy easily enough. and fat. He doesn't sound good. He But if he spends every waking mo­ sounds smug and self-satisfied. But ment telling (yelling) about how still, it's there. He's popular. So smart he is, then, well, it's not really why? on. Remember that Jane Fonda Be honest. This I can cope with. thing? Her sitting there (looking like Maybe I shouldn't, but I can. So I ask she does) saying how age is kinder my friends. 'Clive James. What do to men them women. Him sitting you think?' And they all hate him. there (looking like he does) agree­ All of them. 'Oh, he's very dever', ing. An in-joke, a wry laugh. And PROFILE thdy say. But they all hate him. who did we laugh with? We There's that word. The key word. laughed with him because we all Clever. The smug, unctuous dever- look like him. Not her. Clive James ness. Everyone else has a chat show The thing with Clive James is that, and you know why the guests are well, there are two things. The I hate Clive James. Smart arse, there. It's a sales gig. Fme. Our Clive punters thing is that he's funny. He bald, self-obsessed, self-indul- has a chat show and who does he sets himsdf up and he entertains. gent. Clive James. Be bitchy. have on? Chomsky, Sontag and They like him. Think about it Well, he's fat and Steiner. And why? Anything to sell? bald. No, that's not really bitchy. Yes, Clive's brain. They're there to The writers/critics thing is that Not enough. OK, let's think sell him. And I keep seeing these they want to be him. To write books about what he's done, then and TV programs and really we can be really bitchy. bad poems called things like Well.- Charles Charming something or other beginning with a 'd Well, he was the seminal (because it's always allitera­ television critic, the first per­ tive) and novels and all those son to review the crap; he other things. And they want reads difficult Russian novels to get away with it. Why him? in the original (does he avoid Why does he get away with it? the easy ones?); he has written g Why not me? He's fat and memoirs, novels, essays, col- ^ bald and ugly. I'm not. lections of criticisms and, and g then there's the TV. Chat ^ So is that it? Everybody shows, documentaries, inter- ^ hates him because they want views, schminterviews. a to be him? And everyone who doesn't hate him watches I'm beginning to think that | him. Is that it? (Forget the being bitchy about what he's £ books. I honestly can't im­ done isn't such a good idea. agine who reads his books. So look. Why do I hate him? Honestly.) What's he remembered for? large subtitles flashing (sneering) OK Be bitchy. Let's try some of Laughing at stupid Japanese folk across the screen: 1 am very dever. those oh-so-witty putdowns, like doing stupid things on stupid I am deverer than you. You are not that famous one: he looks like a con­ Japanese programs. Drinking 480 very dever.' dom full of peanuts. No, I can't even pints of water and not being al­ The books. Take the first novel, do that. He'd do it better. But O K lowed to have a piss. Pissing oursel­ Beautiful Creatures - can't imagine let's try this. He's a fat, ugly bastard. ves. Because it's funny. It may be a why it was called that. A fairly We're really getting into this now. touch racist (I don't think it is, but workman-like sub-Martin Amis- We could go for fat and bald in one there you go) but it's funny. Idiot type effort. But are we content with almighty putdown. I hate Clive television is idiot television and that? No, we're not. Tacked on the James. Smart arse, bald, self-ob- laughing at it is laughing at idiot end there's a month-long appendix sessed, self-indulgent. And I television. Moaning about racism is telling you what it all means. Ex­ haven't even mentioned the word simply missing the point. plaining all the references. Really. jealous. Not once. We can probably get' more Who cares? But he's popular with mileage from the sexist angle. Those the people who really count. The Jeremy Novick. leering, lecherous things like '...and punters. Why? Is it something to do (Courtesy Marxism Today.)

ALR : APRIL 1990 8 COLUMNS

sible, she reckoned, to become close sure they have fresh water to drink to a chicken, to ever really regret ... and, as already stated, a sig­ wringing its neck. nificant percentage of die little dears Even baby chicks turn out to have will form a rugby scrum of the good no redeeming quali ties beyond their old neck-breaking style, others will appearance. For those whose choke on mash, while even more knowledge of chicks is confined to will drown themselves - which is non-crucifictory Easter cards, it why you keep having to refresh the should be noted that these cute yel­ water by fishing out small limp car­ low fluffballs love to make a heap of casses. themselves in a comer of their But aunt Leila had kept the best warm, cosy brooder house and suf­ bit to last It is a piece of information focate one another to death as quick­ that remains vivid in my memory to LETTER ly as possible. They can also peck to this day: if the hen should become death a weakling or odd one out egg-bound, wrote the helpful Min. without a backward cheep - herice of Ag. person, immediate action is FROM the term pecking order, by the way. necessary if the bird is not to be lost. They are curious creatures. Take the bird under one arm and EPHESUS That chickens do have sen­ with the forefinger of the free hand, sibilities somewhere in their rub the vent with Vaseline to feathery heads is evident from their fadlitate passage of the egg. Henhouse blues distress at being kept in battery con­ Getting up before dawn six days ditions: they get depressed and a week to tend to suiddal and un­ Most humans in our society have quickly suicidal. friendly hens was one tiling, getting a relationship with another up before-before dawn on the It certainly doesn't explain their species at some time in their lives seventh day to bring the eggs into attraction - why so many people, • a dear dog, a loved cat, even a town was another, but the last straw year after year, used to chuck in cuddled duck. They are affec­ for aunt Leila was vent rubbing. Her good jobs and blow the super on tionately recalled with misty career as a reluctant chicken farmer their dream of keeping chooks in eyes and it can be among the came to an end shortly afterwards. most life enhancing experiences some idyllic country setting. It isn't Except for the minority of 'happy we ever know. This is not the case to get away from the stress as­ with chickens. sociated with dty living, that's for hens' who run free to kill themsel­ sure. Keeping chickens is likely to ves at leisure, being egg-bound is Cows, horses even sheep, will send a decent person round the probably the least of the modem come to recognise and be agreeable bend or into the far reaches of chicken's worries. Factory farming to their human keepers. Of all psychopathy almost as quickly as methods probably decree a slit domestic creatures, the chicken is having a 110 dedbel weekend reg­ throat or preventative drug dose, the one that never got used to it A gae pool party next door. rather than a Vaseline-covered chicken, even one raised by hand finger - which is the real problem from its first tottering hop out of the Poultry care is not for the faint with food as a profit-based industry: shell, will have daily hysterics at hearted. Many years ago, my aunt there's simply no room for your approach. It will never be Leila, - who actually never wanted humanity. And that goes for pleased to see you, nor display to keep chickens, but never mind, humanity as a quality of dvilised recognition of any kind. Sometimes unde Ben did (which is usually the people, as well as for people them­ it will go even further - keel over and way of it) - sat at our breakfast table selves. There's absolutely no room stick its feet in the air permanently one morning reading bits from the for humane people when it comes to for no discernible reason. Hen hus­ Min. of Ag. pamphlet on the happy the production of cheap eggs, cheap bandry - or wifery - therefore, is hen and how to recognise it and barbecued chook, cheap ham­ most often an emotionally un­ keep it that way. There were all sorts burgers - and the profits that go with rewarding business. of helpful hints on mites and lice - them. Perhaps the hen has the gift - which chickens love to infest them­ Betty Macdonald wrote what terrible gift - of presdenee. Perhaps selves with - basically requiring must be the definitive account of life Animal Farm was all wrong: it was henhouse hygiene routines which with hens in her 'fifties classic The the hen who really saw the shape of made Matron Sloane's operating Egg and I, and what she said then things to come in the relationship theatre scrub-up look slovenly. holds good today. Her chickens - or between animal and human. Sud­ rather, her husband Bob's chickens Then there was the care of baby denly being egg-bound begins to - drove her to despair because of the chicks: make as warm and comfort­ look logical. entirely frustrating reality of being able as possible, feed them frequent­ involved with them. It was impos­ ly with delidous bran mash, make Diana Simmonds

ALR: APRIL 1990 COLUMNS 9

don't know how long they'll be able "It will be a decade before people to keep it will be able to enjoy the fruits - that What does a social democrat is before we don't have to restrict stand for in Hungary at this time? domestic consumption to pay debts." The woman who answers the question is Anna Petrasovits, an A stock market opens next year. economics lecturer and the party The government will introduce a president. bill providing full private property rights. The government will also "Hungary is an underdeveloped guarantee investors the right to take country and notpartof Europe," she out profits in hard currency. says. "So a lot of the jobs we face would have been undertaken by MONDAY, CHINA liberals in the West. Only massive DECEM BER 25 privatisation can save Hungary. The country at this stage can do Yesterday we caught a taxi to an SHOP nothing else but adopt the views of outer suburb of Budapest to meet the banks." Janos Vargha, a biologist who, in After Marx She says there's a danger that the 1980, warned of ecological disasters necessary program will lead to on the Danube if plans for two dams Bob Carr was in central Europe "pauperisation" and strikes. The went ahead. He was the first citizen last Christmas. This is an ex­ people are exhausted and apathetic. to defy the post-1956 regime and his clusive extract £rom his diary The threat to democracy will not organisation, the Danube Circle, reflections on the upheavals come from communists. Nor from a forced the pace of change in Hun­ there, on socialism, and on social Thatcherite, free market Right. gary. Again, green politics takes on East European communism, al­ democracy. 'The Right in central Europe has though Vargha told us it was less not been in favour of free markets. It potent here than in Czechoslovakia has been in favour of autarchy. The SATURDAY, or the Baltic states. DECEM BER 23 peasant movement has been a prey to fundamentalism. Ittalks of a third Sitting in his very basic book- "The stars are being taken down," way to development. This simply lined home he outlined the special says our guide as we stand in a street means Latin Americanisation. problems a communist regime near the Hungarian parliament. Peronism." causes the environment. Industry 'They're coming off all the build­ remains technologically crude. There are Hungarian elections in ings. It's considered inappropriate Hungarian steel-making requires March and the Social Democrats to have the symbol of one party dis­ four times as much energy as have, they claim, 15,000 members. played in a multi-party state." Japanese. Ecology barely developed They speculate about getting 30% of because science remained under the The new communist leaderships the vote and argue that they enjoy control of the Communist Party. in Europe want to talk about their useful name recognition. But they Basic environmental texts - The break with old stalinist structures have no money for posters, Silent Spring, for example - were not and methods. The revolution is telephones, printing. more profound than that. It is that distributed. 'The effect was that en­ We talk election techniques, leninism is being abandoned, espe­ vironmental activity was direct mail for example. But they are cially that most basic promulgation paralysed," Vargha said. given no list of voters, they have no of the man who brought "barrack Now the new political parties in computers and it takes up to ten room discipline" to socialism: the Hungary are developing green days to deliver a letter in Budapest. concept of die one-party state. policies. Vargha is associated with In another Budapest street a the Free Democrats and is critical of SUNDAY, the Hungarian Green Party which three-storey, 17-room building was DECEMBER 24 once a district headquarters of he sees as too close to the com­ Hungary's single ruling party, the At present the Hungarian munists. Hungarian Socialist Workers' Party. economy is locked into zero growth, I asked, "Are they marxist?" The communists now call them 19% inflation (on official figures) "No," he says. "It's many years themselves the Hungarian Socialist and rising unemployment. since any political leaders in Hun­ Party and permit 40 other parties to "We are the first of the socialist gary even referred to marxism...it's register. One of the largest, the So­ countries to accept unemploy­ an unuseful theory to manage our cial Democrats, has inherited the ment," says Dr Peter Szerdahelyi, life. It's an artificial construction. district headquarters, although they state secretary of National Planning.

A IR : APRIL 1990 10 COLUMNS

said, had been fighting for the last In Prague's National Gallery we There's no third way. We have to go ten years when Dubcek had not inspect what Czech's boast is the back to find the spontaneous flow of been heard of. Besides, Dubcek is or world's largest collection of Gothic history. Capitalism is not an artifi­ was a communist. art. Cxech painting skipped the cial construction but part of that The underground is plastered Renaissance: Gothic blossomed into spontaneous flow." with political posters and the com­ Baroque when the religious wars In the days we've been in Hun­ muters are reading the fresh ones. slackened. Gallery director Dr Jiri gary local television has been taken This is a country in ferment. Kotalik is a bear-like man with click­ over by the fall of the Ceaucescu ing teeth who's known as 'The Stalin regime in Romania. Change con­ WEDNESDAY, of Fine Art'. He mentions he's tinues everywhere: a radical budget DECEMBER 27 recently met an Australian of impor­ in Poland, expulsion of old-time tance. He can't recall the name but communists in Czechoslovakia, "Welcome to Prague, especially recollects UNESCO, Paris and...the Lithuanian communists voting for at a time when we're opening our Australian National Gallery? Yes, independence. city to the world and ourselves," we know who you mean. Some con­ declares our host A desperate at­ sider him the greatest living What better way of seeing East tempt to ingratiate, I wonder? The Australian, I tell Dr Kitalik European communism than as "an small, dark intense man is Dr Peter artificial construction" interrupting Nebesky, one of five deputy FRIDAY, the flow of history? And now, ap­ mayors. His straight-backed, snap­ propriately, being dismantled? DECEMBER 28 py authoritarian style has Central We fly to Prague. The trip from Committee stamped all over it. Who Over breakfast we meet the future the airport to the city takes us past a does he think he's fooling? president's brother, Ivan Havel. modem, well designed building set With Havel we meet Miroslav It turns out Dr Nebesky is a leader back from the highway. It's called Jirasek, a social democrat who the Hotel Praha and is reserved for of the Czech People's Party, some­ worked in the chancellery of Presi­ thing of a Christian democratic party high party officials. Our contact has dent Benes, the last non-communist which holds two out of 246 seats on heard each room has a spa bath with president, and who was imprisoned the city council. As in other com­ 50 air vents. Stories about the luxury between 1950 and 1960. He munist states here there are front of the hotel abound and explain the describes the experience as "ter­ parties that declare their "non­ hostility the regime attracts. Every rible". He was made to work in antagonism" to the marxists and day, we are told by someone else, uranium mines. This took place enable the communists to say they the hotel staff prepares elaborate during the period which my govern in coalition. lunches, whether party officials turn brochure from the Klement Got- up or not. The Czech communist The Czech People's Party is such twald Museum describes as "the officials also have their country vil­ a party...except that earlier this building of the foundations of las. month, in the general political ex­ sodalism". The brochure says the citement, it claims it flexed its once- 'fifties saw "democratisation of cul­ TUESDAY, atrophied political muscles. Dr ture, education and sdence". DECEMBER 26 Nebesky became deputy mayor and Later in the day we see workers Civic Forum has taken over in the says he is busy lifting restrictions on putting up scaffolding for Havel's building of the Czech-Soviet religion. "Freedom arrived here inauguration. The democrats here Friendship Society, just off Wences- overnight," he says. Has his party and in Hungary now face oppres­ las Square. In the window three been compromised by its associa­ sive responsibility. The transition to videos broadcast footage of the 1968 tion with communists? He claims a democratic sodeties - resuming the Soviet invasion. A crowd builds up record of resistance - in helping the "spontaneous flow of history" - and the broadcast switches to the children of dissidents win access to means allowing the public dash of police clashes with protesters on university, for example. interests so long subsumed under one-party rule. I hope the disil­ November 17, the event that trig­ There is a whiff of the interim lusionment is not too quick in com­ gered the crisis. about the deputy mayor, but with ing. But when it arrives the people Inside it resembles the head­ an estimated six million believers in can critidse their leaders and vote quarters of the Australian anti-Viet- a population of 15 million there them out. That simple truth is the nam movement: student must be some kind of Christian measure of the East European scruffiness, paper cups, busy self- democratic base. Godless com­ revolution. importance. A functionary explains munism has left Prague with more why the movement insisted on architectural and sculptural sym­ Havel for the national presidency bols of baroque catholicism than BOB CARR leader of the NSW over Alexander Dubcek Havel, he any dty outside Italy. parliamentary Opposition

AIR : APRIL 1990 FEATURES 11 INNER CITY CYCLES

is a specialist touring/mountain bike shop run co-operatively by cyclists. We offer personal attention and reliable after-sale service. ICC sells everything from nuts and bolts to complete custom-made bikes - and we also hire out bikes, and run occasional 'maintenance classes. Drop by or order from our mail catalogue. (Ring (02) 660.6605 for a copy.) INNER CITY CYCLES 31 Glebe Point Road Glebe Where bikes are more than a marketing concept

ALR: APRIL 1990 12 FEATURES WOMBS for RENT

Scientists argue that the surrogacy debate has been sensationalised. Janet Wright responds that

' baby-selling' is simply an accurate description of a horribly sensational reality. Women's wombs are up for rent, and scientists are playing the landlords. She scrutinises the government's draft report.

f truth is the first casualty of war, the English another woman's fertilised egg, partial surrogacy if she language is the first casualty of dishonest became pregnant using donated sperm. Iintention - especially by scientists. The CIA, Since a surrogate, according to the Macquarie Dictionary, for example, tends not to kill people, though is a deputy or substitute, the concept of being a partial surrogate is as nonsensical as, say, being nearly pregnant someone it doesn't like may be "terminated with or slightly dead. 'Total surrogacy" doesn't have much extreme prejudice". Scientists are prime of­ more going for it presuming, as it does, that providing fenders with language designed not only to mys­ original genetic material makes one a mother while nur­ tify and intimidate but to hide ugly realities: turing an embryo in one's body and giving birth does not. "terminate" is vivisectionists' jargon. Women on I'm unwilling to use the term "surrogacy" for this pro­ in-vitro fertilisation programs who find they are cedure, but since if s widely known by that name - already expecting sextuplets may be offered not selective a victory for the baby trade advocates - I'll use it for abortion but "pregnancy reduction". convenience. Lef s remain clear that the woman may be a surrogate wife, the scientists may be surrogate gods, but a woman is not the surrogate mother of the child she bears. Language is an early casualty of the National Bioethics But if you start from the premise that a woman isn't Consultative Committee (NBCC) draft report on sur­ necessarily the mother of the child she gives birth to, it rogacy, and the ethics don't look too healthy either. becomes easier to break down public opposition to child- What do we call it if a woman becomes pregnant in order selling. It's not being sold, you see. It's being given to its to give away her baby when it's bom, either free of charge rightful owners or "commissioning parents". or in return for money? The reproductive technologists The concept has a long history both in theory (Plato and their supporters including, apparently/the NBCC considered the mother was simply a receptacle in which a (which reports to the Social Security Minister), call it "sur­ man's child gestated) and in practice (the NBCC quotes rogacy". Total surrogacy if the woman was implanted with biblical precedents for men fathering children’on their

ALR: APRIL 1990 Graphic: Kerrit Leishman mother mother nominated them.has the birth- because suitability,not their of grounds the on agencies service social chosen by to be meant are parents so-called shaky payment, is receive on legal ground,since adopting even but laws adoption Australia's under happen.didn't The sale of children is specifically outlawed prin­ Nice sold. be cannot therefore it say, they property, 20th Century democracies.liberal in condemned generally is it But heirs). legitimate just as the, er, thing with the pilots is not a dispute, the dispute, a not is pilots the with thing er, the, as just ciple, but faulty logic. It means the sale is illegal, not that it of piece a not is child A child-selling. not is surrogacy slaves to give to their infertile wives so the men could have donated the sperm the child belongs to him anyway. So, So, anyway. him to belongs childthe sperm the donated couple argument is that if the man of the 'commissioning' is a particularly relevant example since one pro-surrogacy owned, intercourse withalready his wife could not he a be rape.what This steal not could man a as just that, held be­ Not recendy. until impossibility legal a marriage in towards the value of women and children, that made rape 'altruistic' surrogacy, in which the birth-mother does not does birth-mother whichthe in surrogacy, 'altruistic' just one of the best examples of obfuscation in the NBCC the in obfuscation examples of best the of one just money for exchange a of is sale.baby not a cause anyone thought it didn't happen, but because the law disturbing aspect of the drive to legitimise surrogacy. It's It's surrogacy. to legitimise the drive of aspect disturbing eot n i ms ltrtr spotn ti bac of branch this supporting literature most in and report h NC c-ps ea triooy hn t claims it when terminology legal co-opts NBCC The It's the same It's kind of word-game, with implicit attitudes This This ugly element of selling human beings is not the only ALR PI 1990 APRIL : proclaiming that the interests of the child are not not are child the of interests by the head its that on legislation proclaiming welfare child turns NBCC birth- the for glow inner warm a or income and an couple either commissioning the for child much-wanted basedcare.child tend to vanishbenefit someone work else's degrading for most the that noted have commentators Other please. toproduction children of be given away. the means surrogacy" "Commercial case. this in as hide, mystifying But areas. language many is particularly useful in when one has something jargon to of use the hence people, ordinary their for difficult too make much seem to occupation like groups Elitist enlighten. than rather paramount - shockingly anda honest bold statement. the fact, In product. a simply is itself child The mother. a - involved adults the all to benefit a is process the that convince us to pains at are Supporters private enterprise. after-effects after-effects even glanced at in the report despite plentiful harmfulthe are Nor children.their sell to women drives work- or action affirmative say, demanding, we're when and harmful do to right our of supporters vociferous claims to support women's right to use their bodies as they the means surrogacy" "altruistic and children of sale documented fromevidence the US where commercial sur- infertile an relative for or childthe far a more have common that to economicdesperation blackmail emotional the It's no news that scientific language is used to mystify mystify to used is language scientific that news no It's There's no There's discussion of the pressures on women, either report NBCC the literature, pro-surrogacy all Like precedents for precedents quotes biblical quotes men fathering men their slaves to slaves their netl wives infertile give to their to give so that men that so could have could children on children "Thereport legitimate heirs." FEATURES

13

14 FEATURES

New titles from Cambridge April 1990 The Return of No Space of Their Aboriginal Youth Scarcity Own and the Criminal Strategies for an Y oung People and Social Justice System Control in Australia The Injustice of Justice Economic Future ROB WHITE FAY GALE, REBECCA H. C. COOMBS Rob White cuts through the BAILEY-HARRIS and JOY political rhetoric and media WUNDERSITZ Centre for Resource and images of young people to Environmental Studies, examine the underlying trends This is a sophisticated analysis Australian National University of society's response to focusing on statistics available the 'youth problem'. from South Australia and discussing the exact nature of This is a powerful indictment the discrimination experienced Tin; against a society which is by young Aborigines. permitting the creation of a permanent underclass. The 052137464 2 280pp 9 tables RETURN author lectures in youth work 7 line diagrams Hardback $39.95 o f at the Western Australia College of Advanced Education Crime, Shame and SCARCITY \ouitg people ami social control in Australia Reintegration JOHN BRAITHWAIT E Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University

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ALR: APRIL 1990 FEATURES 15 rogacy is big business. Finally, die report mentions women paradoxical? Are we to presume any kind of existence is who have given up their children for adoption (and suf­ necessarily better than none? No answer. fered a phenomenal range of grief- or guilt-related traumas In fact, there's at times an air of desperation about the for decades after), only to dismiss the idea that anything report as it clutches at such verbal straws, or claims sur­ similar would Happen to women who conceive deliberate­ rogacy should be legalised since people will do it anyway ly in order to give the child up. So much for the role of the - an equally good argument for legalising shoplifting. woman as service-provider. Members of the Association of Relinquishing Mothers Public opinion worldwide seems to be strongly opposed (ARMS) and women who once worked as 'surrogates' to commercial surrogacy and, at best, dubious about the have warned of the psychological consequences of giving unpaid version. The scientists clearly need to win some up children, whether deliberately conceived or adopted support for continued public funding of their reproductive out after an accidental pregnancy, and of adverse effects technology experiments since they have proved so colos- on the children. The results (documented by Robin sally unsuccessful in creating children. (Less than 10% of Winkler in the early '80s) include grief that increases in­ women on in-vitro fertilisation programs give birth to a stead of fading over the years, inability to bond with other healthy child, and many of those women had already had adults or with subsequent children, guilt, anxiety, exces­ children naturally.) But, in the absence of any real public sive fear that any future children will die or suffer in some demand, why is the NBCC rushing to promote "sur­ other way as "punishment" of the mother and even, ironi­ rogacy"? cally, infertility. The NBCC recommends legalising sur­ There's no hurry to have the law clarified since the rogacy in the absence of any evidence that it is harmful - practice is not widespread in Australia and, anyway, can ignoring the evidence of these women and of researchers easily be covered by existing adoption laws. The only into adoption. urgency is if one is eager to reverse present trends and have Public policy on other breakthroughs such as new drugs it legalised. Which raises the question of whether the is to keep them off the market until they can be proved NBCC knew before looking at any evidence that it wanted harmiess. Why, then, does the NBCC want surrogacy, surrogacy legalised. And, if so, why is this report being considered to be a medical technique, allowed when, even presented as an unbiased inquiry? according to the committee's own report, it has not been The writers of the report say they wish to promote proved harmless? If, on the other hand, surrogacy is seen uniform legislation, but their report is the first major note as a social issue, why does the NBCC wish to legalise of discord, since all the states and territories have either something which is not being requested by any great num­ passed or are considering laws against surrogacy (in keep­ ber of people, and which is, indeed, widely disapproved ing with the international trend). In fact, the report is of? riddled with inconsistencies, which is surprising when you Our society at present accords women more dignity than look at the number of aqademic heavyweights involved. to be used as containers, and it does not allow the sale of children, however hedged around by legal and scientific Insisting that the woman is only a surrogate mother to jargon. When did we reach a point at which it became her child, the report claims this does not make her a mere acceptable to discuss the pros and cons of selling children, container, just as a kidney donor is not just a repository for or of renting out one's reproductive system as a career bodily spare parts. The obvious difference is that people option? Did it start when men were invited to 'donate' their may not, in Australia, be paid for their blood or organs, nor sperm for a few dollars to cover travel expenses? Or when can people grow kidneys specifically to sell or donate reproductive technology found ever more invasive them. Are the authors suggesting we should be able to? surgery and powerful drugs to put the Creation of human They refer to the foetus' "gestation of choice", though they life into a laboratory technician's hands? Or when we have the grace to put this in inverted commas. Whose allowed bioethicists such as Professor Max Charlesworth choice are we talking about? of the NBCC to say the question is not whether experiments The report claims commercial surrogacy does not mean could be carried out on human embryos, but only under renting out one's womb or selling a child, since "a woman what conditions they could be carried out? (From his Boyer who agrees for payment to gestate a child for another may Lecture, ABC Radio,Nov 12,1989.) Subtle changes, always very well have altruistic motives even though she receives pushipg the boundaries of what can be done to human payment for her services". So may a plumber or grocer, but beings. does that mean they're not selling their goods or services? Scientists and their supporters try to co-opt the English The report goes on to tie itself in even wilder knots: 'The language by saying expressions like 'baby-selling' and fact that a woman is paid for her gestatory services does 'rented womb' are tabloid-style sensationalism. Unfor­ not in itself imply she is selling her gestational functions." tunately, they seem like accurate descriptions of a horribly She's either paid for her labour or she isn't selling it, but sensational reality. the authors can't have both at once. Let the Bioethics Committee know what you think: The report makes huge assumptions and presents them, NBCC, Department of Community Services and without any backing, as fact. For example, the authors Health, GPO Box 9848, Adelaide 5001. claim it is "paradoxical" to say it might be against a child's I best interests to be brought into being. Why is this JANET WRIGHT is a freelance journalist.

AIK: APRIL 1990 16 FEATURES

PROTECTION Racket?

The debate over tariffs and industry policy is back on the agenda. Free market orthodoxy is underfire. But the Left's accustomed apologetic protectionism will not be enough to meet the challenge, argues Sue McCreadie.

he agenda for trade and industry policy is seems very bold and futuristic However, his vision of our now being set for the 'nineties. A spate of role in the world smacks of old formulas. Australia's fu­ ture, according to Gamaut, lies in exports of mineral Trecent reports from high-flying consult­ resources, services (tourism and education) and early stage ants and advisers has set the scene for a revival processing. Notwithstanding some lip-service to develop­ of the old debate between free traders and protec­ ment of Elaborately Transformed Manufactured Exports tionists. At the same time, the recent period of there is no analysis of this fastest growing area of the world modest intervention is under scrutiny and its less trade. than spectacular results have sparked a newer In this sense Gamaut echoes the old policy estab­ debate over the merits of 'level playing fields'. lishments such as the Industries Assistance Commission (IAC) and Treasury, with their implicit conviction that At the forefront of the call for free trade and level playing Australian manufacturing can never develop a compara­ fields was the report by Ross Gamaut on Australia and the tive advantage. This philosophy sits well with vested in­ North East Asian Ascendancy with its astonishing advocacy terests such as the National Farmers Federation and the of zero protection by the year 2000. The choice of date is, mining sector which claim to bear the costs of manufactur­ by his own admission, "symbolic" - no economic rationale ing protection. But its implementation would leave us in a is offered. weak trading position in relation to North East Asia, espe­ Gamaut hopes to bring the "great monuments to our cially Japan. protectionist past" crashing to the ground. The greatest of Again echoing the IAC and Treasury, Gamaut is a firm these monuments is the Textile, Clothing and Footwear advocate of the level playing fields philosophy. Rather "anomaly" - hence his call for the current TCF Plan to be than an industry policy based on "fine intervention", his cut short by three years and phasing down of protection preference is for "macro-industry policy for strengthening to be accelerated. competitiveness". The latter turns out to be an amalgam of Gamaut claims liberalisation and integration with the privatisation and deregulation including acceleration of North East Asian dynamos by the turn of the century will waterfront reform, private investment in ports and some nett us an extra $20 billion in exports to the region. It all private generation of electricity.

ALR: APRIL 1990 FEATURES 17

Gamaut's main protagonists in the debate are the con­ free trade bluster it has been the Hawke government which sultants Pappas Carter/Telesis, who were commissioned has taken the boldest steps in dismantling protection, with by the Australian Manufacturing Council late last year to the current round of tariff cuts (1989-92) representing a report on the future of Australian manufacturing in the 30% reduction. 1990s. At the same time, reduced protection has been accom­ The Pappas team are no friends of old-style protection panied by die introduction or continuation of positive or regulation. However, they do point out that the interna­ assistance measures such as export and research and tional playing field is not level but tilted by the assistance development subsidies, the Offsets and Partnerships and protection which other countries offer their manufac­ programs and, most notably, a number of tripartite sec­ turing industries. toral plans. But recent years have seen a retreat from Hence, the removal of protection and deregulation tripartitism, and fiscal restraint has brought pressure for won't of itself remove the disadvantages we face. It will cuts to the industry policy budget. simply leave us more exposed to these adverse slopes. The rise of the level playing fields philosophy to the "Weak industries may wither as their protection is reduced status of "dominant paradigm" in Canberra, along with while competitive adversity will allow few new traded the VEDC and 'WA Inc' disasters, has now made the manufacturing industries to replace them." notion of 'picking winners' distinctly unfashionable. It was The commitment to manufacturing is more than vested no surprise, then, that Hawke promptly poured cold water interests or nostalgia. As the Pappas team points out; "No on the Pappas' call for more government intervention. other country of significant size has been able to sustain a Yet, for the government's critics it has already gone too high standard of living over a long period without a strong far. Opponents of strategic trade policy see it as merely a manufacturing base." It queries whether tourism and more sophisticated version of the old protectionism. The education (Gamaut's growth areas) could ever expand to challenge has come from predictable quarters of the IAC fill the gap if we let our manufacturing decline further. and Treasury. The general thrust of the Pappas project will be to According to the IAC, "positive assistance" measures, promote "strategic trade policy". This requires that assis­ like traditional forms of protection, favour some recipients tance be targetted, either to whole industries or for niche at the expense of others. More fundamentally, it argues Markets, rather than across the board. that gains from tariff reform will be undermined if tariffs The past seven years of government policy have seen are replaced by alternative assistance measures. dements of both the above trends. Despite the Coalition's Coalition industry policy for this election mirrored this

ALR: APRIL 1990 18 FEATURES

IAC/Treasury philosophy, incorporating promises to problems unions have faced ever since is that, while higher move away from industry specific programs and to end protection makes higher wages possible, the link was disparities in assistance. In essence, this means manufac­ never cemented. turing is to operate with diminishing government assis­ Since the 'seventies, the emphasis has shifted from tance. The Coalition's substitute for an industry policy is a wages to job security. The rise of the Newly Industrialising predictable brew of reduced protection labour market Countries (NICs) meant that tariffs and quotas were seen deregulation, wage cutting, and reform of the transport as necessary to protect local industry against unfair com­ and the waterfront. petition from sweated labour. But unions were often ac­ All this supposes that the problems of Australian cused of merely being adjuncts to employers in their manufacturing are reducible to costs. clamour for more protection. But, as the advocates of strategic trade policy point out, To add insult to injury, manufacturers abused protec­ the world is dominated by tariff and non-tariff barriers and tion. It has now become something of a cliche that subsidies to export industries. Australia also faces natural Australian manufacturing became inward-looking and os­ disadvantages due to remoteness, lack of economies of sified, with poor investment levels, appalling management scale and a commodity-driven exchange rate. These are all practices and an absence of innovation. givens. For these reasons, union thinking on trade and industry But equally important are homespun problems. We face policy has undergone something of a revolution in recent managerial incompetence, aversion to risk, lack of skill and times. ACTU defence of old-style protection ended with knowhow, and an absence the advent of the Accord and, in its of networks between firms. place, came support for planned The challenge for the Left is restructuring in the context of to define and advance its greater integration into the world own agenda in this area. But “Opponents of economy. But what does this where does the Left stand on mean for manufacturing in the key issues? strategic trade policy general, and the TCF industries in Among the non-union particular? Are they, as Gamaut Left, two opposing views see it as merely a would have it, merely a relic from have co-existed in the past. our protectionist past? A minority of the Left has more sophisticated The clothing and footwear sec­ always opposed protection tors in particular are widely con­ on 'internationalist' version of the old sidered a 'sunset industry' with grounds. Protection was little future in countries like based on an unholy alliance protectionism" Australia. Labour costs are seen as between labour and capital, the central focus of competition and pitted workers in dif­ and providing developing ferent countries against each countries with an insurmountable other. As such, it was regarded as chauvinistic and comparative advantage. The industry's opponents im­ detrimental to working class solidarity. plicitly believe that the resources would be better However, the majority of the Left has tended towards employed elsewhere. The industry itself, like its op­ support for protectionism and has favoured a self-suffi­ ponents, sees no alternative to protection or decline. cient model of the economy which maximised import sub­ But, in a number of ways, protection has not necessarily stitution (and thereby minimised the traded goods sector). served the industry well. For one thing, flat penalty rates The Hawke government's drive to modernise and inter­ have been applied to out-of-quota imports, which have nationalise the Australian economy through reduced afforded greatest quota protection to the low-cost end of protection and export-led growth is therefore anathema to the market. That is the end which is most price sensitive much of the Left. A decade ago it would have been and hence most vulnerable to competition from low-wage anathema, too, to the unions. Traditionally, unions sup­ countries. ported tariffs almost unreservedly. The logic went like this: This has directed the industry into non-competitive higher protection meant higher profits, which provided areas. It has encouraged an obsession with price- and the scope for higher wages. cost-cutting and a lack of attention to non-price factors Indeed, the link between wages and protection goes to such as lead times, fashionability, quality and marketing. the genesis of the wage-fixing system. The Excise Tariff Act This type of protection went hand-in-hand with of 1906 attempted to make exemptions from tariffs on Taylorism, with long production runs and high segmenta­ inputs contingent on the paying of a "fair and reasonable tion of task. This in turn condemned workers to repetitive, wage". The Industrial Commission was subsequently narrowly skilled jobs. asked to rule on what was a "fair and reasonable wage", a In male-dominated industries, strong bargaining power request which resulted in the famous Harvester judgment and trade demarcations meant that the mass production inaugurating the basic wage. The Excise Tariff Act, having formula has been compatible with reasonable wages. served a useful role, was later overturned and one of the However, in female-dominated areas such as clothing it

ALR: APRIL 1990 FEATURES 19 has gone hand-in-hand with undervaluation of women's Industry policy needs to be integrated with environ­ work and low pay. This means that the industries had the mental goals. The new 'conserver economics' championed luxury of double protection: tariffs and low wages. The by parts of the green movement in many ways echoes image of the industries is poor. simplistic old Left formulas for self-sufficiency. Of course, But recent changes in both consumption and production 'conserver economics' goes further, with calls for no have opened up new possibilities for the sun to rise again growth, de-industrialisation and cuts to both consumption for TCF industries in advanced industrialised countries. and production. Industry policy is unfashionable in such circles and labour and capital are seen as equally part of The break-up of the mass market by new production the 'old order'. techniques and more diversified consumer tastes means that long-run mass-produced goods are no longer what's Unless we can unhitch growth from environmental required. There are many niche markets to be catered for. damage, the tension between adding value to production Quality and fashion are increasingly important. Retailers and protecting the environment will be unresolvable. New are demanding shorter runs and shorter lead times. All this forms of incentives and intervention are required to en­ places a premium on non-price factors: design, flexibility courage the development of products and processes which and marketing. On the production side, revolutions in are more environmentally friendly. technology and work methods make shorter runs and Trade and industry policy also needs to be more inter­ shorter lead times possible. nationalist. Unions have pointed out that consumers don't All these factors tilt the balance of competitive ad­ have an innate right to the fruits of sweated Third World vantage for many types of garments away from low-wage labour. But, in the past, Australian unions have found developing countries where lead times are too long and themselves at odds with Third World counterparts due to the costs of holding inventory too high. Above all, in terms their defence of protection. New ways are needed to extend of servicing the home market, physical proximity is becom­ solidarity to exploited workers in these countries. Certain­ ing very important. ly, neither the old left support for Fortress Australia nor a spurious free trade internationalism is an adequate Even so, it is unlikely that TCF could survive without response in the late twentieth century. ♦ some protection in the foreseeable future. Zero protection is a recipe for annihilating the industries. And while the current phase-out of quotas may stimulate restructuring, SUE McCREADIE is national economic research officer for this, in itself, is not enough. The TCF Plan recognises this the TCF unions in Sydney. by providing a 'positive assistance' package. It is on the delivery of the latter that manufacturers in TCF and other industries part company with the unions. Employers still prefer their handouts with 'no strings'. But surely if anything is to be learned from past industry assistance, it is that assistance without strings doesn't deliver the goods. The real problem is that, for decades, there were no conditions imposed on beneficiaries of protection: no re­ quirements to modernise equipment, to invest in R&D and training, to adopt enlightened management practices, or provide decent wages and conditions. The union move­ ment has argued for assistance to be made public and its delivery tied to workplace consultation on investment, 1fee Wildewes? Society S-ws training and work organisation. In that way it provides unions and workers with a lever against management and fi* Hie Greei^g-CiPfs creates an internal catalyst for change, i.e. the workers ^ 9Unwpofi St" q-j themselves. f'AcJWno. The current revival of the debate opens up new oppor­ A25 Ed * 44 A PL tunities for the Left to influence the policy agenda. But the GM j L(not-. M ilnck. Left agenda for industry development also needs to go beyond mere defence of 'strategic trade polic/ and ad­ A in - Sf- dress wider social concerns. Different trade and industry policies have different gender outcomes. The most highly Protected industries are those with the highest concentra­ A "SI tion of women workers. Without adequate labour adjust­

AIR: APRIL 1990 20 FEATURES

PHEW!

Labor's record fourth win was a cliffhanger. Dennis Altman argues that it underlines Labor's considerable resiliance as a political force. David Burchell takes issue with the explanations of electoral disenchantment. And Queensland ALP campaign manager Wayne Swan is interviewed on the significance of a complex poll. With TEETH intact

The election was 'a kick in the teeth' for Labor. Or was it? Dennis Altman argues that it demonstrates Labor's success in adapting to a changing political universe.

n Steven Eldred Grigg's novel Oracles and groups: the traditional Labor working dass and the new middle class, that fairly well educated, largely salaried Miracles, set in New Zealand in the 'thirties, section of the population who make up an increasing Ione character says: "We didn't expect much segment of the Australian population. The rise of this from the Labour government and of course our middle class, as against the self-employed and small busi­ expectations were richly fulfilled." But her fami­ ness people who are so important in the Liberal Party is ly voted Labour nonetheless. one of the reasons for the success of Labor over the past ten years. That might summarise the attitude of most of us who As the election campaign wound up, old dass loyalties filled in our ballots for Labor this time. The government seemed to surface in ways that we had been told are long won because of its ability to hold together two crucial out of date. The Prime Minister invoked traditional images

ALR. APRIL 1990 FEATURES 21

of the Labor Party as the party of fairness and equality as be critical of much of what this government has done, but against the conservative bastions of privilege, and Liberal there would be even more had they not recognised the very preoccupation with the capital gains tax gave some different environment in which they need operate. credibility to this distinction. The very success of seven years of deregulation and As the Democrats sought to position themselves on the restructuring perhaps allowed for a new rhetoric of com­ Left, despite their refusal to follow the logic of this in their passion, just as George Bush promised to make Reagan's distribution of preferences, Hawke and Keating stressed American a gentler, kinder nation. The party which had that the old divisions between the parties of capital and deregulated much of the economy now promised to stand labour were still relevant. This election the Prime Minister fast against the deregulation and privatisation of Peacock, put himself forward, not as the friend of Abeles, Murdoch Howard and Stone, even though the Liberals promised to and 'Bondy', but as the true leader of 'the people', with a take the economy further and faster along the Keating continuing concern for equity and social justice. track. The great success of the Hawke government - a success A cynical view would say that the ALP was, again, unmatched in our history, and indeed in the history of all misleading the public and hiding the reality that a Labor but a few northern European countries - is to have estab­ government would do nothing to reverse existing ine­ lished a party based on the trade unions and the moderate qualities. This is the Tweedledum and Tweedledee' theory Left as the dominant political force in Australia. To do this of Australian parties (ironically one of the authors of that required the jettisoning of a great deal of old Labor myths description. Bob Catley, was the Labor candidate for and shibboleths. But in a period when new right conser­ Adelaide). A variation holds that the major difference vatism seemed dominant in many other western countries between the two parties is their attitude to the union this was by no means an unimportant achievement. movement, a choice, if not an inconsiderable one, between The Labor Party of Hawke and Keating is different from co-option and confrontation. that of Curtin and Chifley, even from that of Whitlam and Labor ministers would take considerable exception to Cairns, but so too is Australia. Those who bemoan the these views, and in a sense they would be right. Despite collapse of Labor traditions ignore the ways in which our their determination to restructure the economy, a surpris­ society has changed: the impact of massive immigration, ing number of the Hawke government's policies have, in Women's assertion, environmental issues, the economic fact, been about equity, even when the government has boom in the Eastern Pacific, have introduced new seemed callous and uncaring, as in their treatment of the restraints and new possibilities. There are many reasons to young unemployed.

ALR. APRIL 1990 22 FEATURES

I don't buy the media line that the solutions of free searching and realignment. The electoral support for the market economics are the only responsible possibility for Democrats and the Greens suggests there is a larger con­ Australia. Had we regulated foreign exchange dealings stituency for radical change than seemed true several more severely, for example, the national deficit might years ago. currently be much less of a problem. Nonetheless, it is The challenge for the next Labor government is whether difficult to cling to the idea, which seems to fascinate the they can combine economic realism with sufficient im­ Democrats at the moment, that a small and dependent agination to embark on the sort of genuine reconstruction economy such as ours can insulate itself from the workings which would go beyond the stress on productivity and of the global market-place. The Accord, the introduction exports of the past seven years. Increased productivity is of Medicare, expanded school places, some support for important, but it seems to have become a new cargo cult, women's issues and at least some of the welfare reforms of without suffidentquestions being asked as to the costs and the Hawke government have meant that most Australians benefits of immediate economic growth. I suspect that have been better protected from the vagaries of interna­ increasingly Australians are willing to demand more tional capitalism than is true in many other countries. change - and to pay the price this demands - than the This seems a prescription for a very limited sort of politidans recognise. The government is starting to recog­ politics: can we expect no more from our governments nise this in environmental concerns. Its attitude to urban than a few bandaids for those who are dumped by planning, to education (where Dawkins has pursued both cyclones? Is Labor bound to do more than preside over the commendable aims of greater access and extraordinarily adjustment of Australia to the needs of international reactionary programs of centralisation and bureaucratisa- capitalism? tion), to Aborigines (all but ignored in the campaign) will A romantic Left has increasingly come to argue that all test its ability to look beyond the balance sheet. social democracy is irrelevant to the modem world, that The temptation for those on the Left to give up on the the assumptions about economic growth and develop­ Labor Party has been considerable over the past seven ment which make expanded welfare possible, are themsel­ years. For reasons I've argued elsewhere this seems to me ves what need to be questioned. I strongly agree with the to be a mistake; an electorally successful Labor Party is a latter part of this statement. But I would argue that in the prerequisite but not a suffident condition for real change. years to come we will need social democratic solutions The challenge for an intelligent Left is to convince enough more, rather than less. That is, we need to encourage of the electorate of the justice of its demands for the ALP collective solutions rather than individual ones if we are to find it politically attractive to implement them. Not since to deal with the implications of ecological decline. the period leading up to Whitlam's election in 1972, In an era when the planned economies of Eastern Europe referred to by Donald Home as "the time of hope", has the lie shattered and the media triumphs the final victory of Left enjoyed such an opportunity to influence the long the market it may seem difficult to develop policies which term political agenda. seek to use the regulatory powers of the state. Yet in DENIS ALTMAN is director at the Institute for Social Jus­ practical, as distinct from ideological, terms there is tice and Human Rights at La Trobe University, Melbourne. evidence that the demand for new government initiatives is growing. In both Britain and the United States one sees a growing resistance to cuts in government services in health and welfare, and a new commitment to public transport as necessary to curb the excesses of the motor car. COMING-UP IN ALR Even in Australia there is a growing realisation that the dream of every family owriing their own house and garden means expanding urban areas and stretching public ser­ ☆ Eastern Europe and us - a vices in ways that have considerable social costs. roundtable discussion. We should not underestimate the effects on domestic ☆ Yoshio Sugimoto on the politics of the democratic revolutions - in Eastern Europe, Chile, South Africa - which have shaken old alignments, Japanese model. and opened up possibilities unimaginable even a year ago. ☆ The end of the Cold war can unfreeze many of the fixed Living standards and assumptions of post-war politics, and allow for a period of Labor's record. political innovation. Far from the fall of the Berlin wall meaning the end of ideology, it means in fact the opening ☆ Whose babies? - the US up of new areas for political debate in which the me-first legal battles over individualism of Reagan and Thatcher comes to seem as reproductive technology. irrelevant as the tyrannies of East Germany and Romania. Unlike the 1980's this decade promises to be a good one ☆ Post-Fordism - miracle or for the Left: internationally the rapid move to detente can mirage? only help the forces of change, while domestically the conservative parties will go through a long period of soul

AIR: APRIL 1990 FEATURES 23 The PARTY game

It was the election of a 'disenchanted' electorate. Not for decades had so many voters given the major parties the cold shoulder. But why? David Burchell argues that some media and Left analyses were right offtrack.

hree years ago before the last federal elec­ the origins of this disillusionment, its objects and its im­ tion, in an article in Australian Society, 'Par­ plications for the party system. ties under Siege', I argued that the major In the first instance, both the media and large sections of T the Left were oomplidt in a subtle slippage, an intellectual parties were felt to no longer 'represent' their sleight of hand. For the hard Left the formula is a ritual: constituencies in the way they once had: "the ties there is disillusionment in the electorate because there is of appeal between party and supporter had be­ no choice between the parties. Labor has become (or al­ come perilously thin". Certainly the place of the ways was) simply a 'second capitalist party7, carrying out major parties as major parties was not under the bidding of multinational capital. Its reformist project serious threat But what was a matter for serious (not that the hard Left ever supported that even when it was supposed to have existed) has been abandoned. This, discussion was that "what we are seeing at we are told, is the politics of Tweedledum/Tweedledee. present is a serious bout of refashioning and It is worthwhile pausing to consider that the Coalition, realignment of the stuff of party politics in this had they been elected, were either publidy committed to country such as has not been seen in this country or strongly implicated in all of the following: dismantling since the Second World War". Medicare, privatising all significant public enterprises, privatising childcare, rerouting superannuation, gutting If the article raised interest in thinking circles back in the wages system, mining Kakadu, cutting off the dole 1987,1 certainly never heard of it Yet now the 'crisis of the after nine months and winding back the small progress major parties' has been the leitmotif of the entire 1990 made by Aboriginal people these last seven years. This is election campaign. One could be forgiven for thinking that not the stuff of Tweedledum/Tweedledee politics. the media had no other intellectual tool with which to make That image is an old theme on the Left. It had great sense of events throughout the entire six weeks since mid- currency during the Whitlam years (though few will admit February. Feature article after feature article in the quality to such sentiments now!), but of course even stronger dailies reiterated the theme of 'disillusionment' with the sentiments were voiced during the Chifley years, and in major parties, almost as if that in itself sufficed as political the 'thirties, espedally by Communists. In every sig­ analysis of the campaign. nificant period of Labor rule, in other words, some left There is little doubt over the level of unhappiness in the critics have purported to find no real difference between electorate over the choices it faced in this election . The the major parties. It could be said that sodal-democratic 0ft-cited opinion poll in the Sydney Sun Herald in the governments by their nature always disappoint: but cer­ second week of the campaign which claimed that a third tainly they always disappoint those who have, or daim to °f all voters were 'swingers' was a little dodgy - but the have, millenarian expectations of them. trend was unmistakable. Never since the days of the DLP As for the media, it had a particular sympathy with the ^ad so few voters indicated their allegiance to one or other cynidsmin the electorate-not least because it mirrored the ‘ the major party groupings. Where media analysis, like media's cynidsm about the electoral process. To a large ^ c h analysis on the Left, went seriously astray was over extent this is self-inflicted. The media has created the media

ALR: APRIL 1990 24 FEATURES Sons

ALR. APRIL 1990 FEATURES 25

all have taken a hammering in the last decade. And no pinch be said to go back to the chaotic Holt-Gorton-Mc- radical and credible alternatives have taken their place. Mahon years, when the party seemed tom between small-1 At the same time the vision of the Right is more frag­ liberalism and a rerun of Menzies-style conservatism. The mented and ambiguous than it was in 1945, or even a Fraser years, that oasis in the unhappy last two decades of decade ago. The New Right, that ghastly spectre of the the Coalition, in retrospect look very much like a pale 'eighties, has in a few countries taken hold of the reins, but imitation of the Menzies years with the difference being in very few actually taken hold of the agenda. Radical that, rather than managing growing prosperity, Fraser solutions from the Right seemed credible a decade ago, managed industrial decline. when national economies like those of Britain and the US What makes the phenomenon much more acute today were manifestly ailing and prime targets for a 'short, sharp is the pervasive lack of conviction in the ability of any shock'. But today, after the monetarist electrodes have been government to rescue us from the spectre of slow, drawn- removed, the patient's condition seems far less radically out industrial decline, with its 'banana republic' accom­ altered than the Right had hoped. It is now a matter for paniments of falling living standards and marginalisation debate in Britain, for instance, whether Thatcherism' ever within the world economy. really controlled the agenda in the manner then suggested In that sense the vote for small parties and independents by more forward-thinking elements on the Left And in and the Greens and Democrats was not so much a vote Australia, as the Liberals' decision to retread Peacock against the major parties qua parties, but against showed, the radical Right prescription for the 'eighties too 'government' itself. One strongly suspects that had the has taken a bit of a beating. „ Democrats miraculously found themselves holding the On both sides of politics, then, there is a perceptible balance of power in the House of Representatives after this absence of overarching vision such as animated in par­ election, and thus involved in the business of governing, ticular the post-war years. Indeed, where such visions their current popularity would fall correspondingly as a exist, on both Right and Left, they tend to go hand in hand result. Likewise, a significant element in the appeal of the with economic 'hard-thinking' rather than grand social various Green electoral options at the present time is their ideals. Award restructuring and superannuation are not perception as being 'outside the political system', and populist rallying cries. Nor, for that matter, are labour particularly outside the all-pervasive economic ground market deregulation' and 'microeconomic reform'. Of rules of debate. course, this doesn't signal 'the end of ideology', as recent To a large extent, then, the current political air of disil­ revivals of the concept might claim: ideological as well as lusionment is negative in origin, and those on the Left who political conflict is alive and well. But its technical, even take it as a starting-point for radical advance will probably technocratic, expressions today hardly serve to embed it in find themselves quickly disappointed. The fact that the the popular imagination. electorate is unimpressed by the mainstream political op­ This is in one sense what it means to say that the parties tions does not mean that it is about to leap into the arms of no longer 'represent' their constituencies. There was a time snake-oil salespeople either of the Left or the Right. But the when, however fitfully, the economic and social program present moment does have another, much more positive, of Labor and the Left spoke to many people as being the face for the Left. Who would have thought ten years ago, natural program of an economic class. To others, the pro­ for instance, that we would see an election fought out over gram of the Right represented a supra-dass national har­ the terrain of childcare and green politics? mony based on the right-to-rule of a homogeneous elite. That a dear plurality of voters believes the environment Neither of these propositions makes much sense today. to be the most significant issue at the present time in itself Whatever daims sodalism had to be the 'natural' cause of suggests that the political tide has turned rather strongly 'the working class' lost its last shred of credibility with the from the exceedingly narrow economic agenda of the last ignominious collapse of Eastern European puppet decade. Rather than arguing for 'more and bigger* from a regimes. relatively static economic cake, the Left might do better to Nor does 'Accord politics', with its national, hegemonic focus on widening this agenda further. If the economic aspirations, look like the program of a spedfic and iden­ debate can embrace environmental sustainability, for in­ tifiable class - particularly when it explidtly involves res­ stance, why can it not incorporate the economic and ter­ toring profit share at the expense of wages. In this climate ritorial needs of Aboriginal people (as it has, for instance, the only thing ultimately ensuring that certain people be­ for Maori people in New Zealand)? come 'natural' Labor voters (let alone 'natural' sodalists) On the whole, the prospect for progressive causes seems is family custom or tradition. At the same time the Right brighter now than after any of the previous three elections seems more palpably than ever in the grip of particular of the Hawke era. That this is not paying dividends for the 'special interests': after all, not even small business (let Left suggests that perhaps the Left has not yet freed itself alone the CAI or MTIA) can agree on backing a suffidently from the straitjacket of a previous era. It should Liberal/National election campaign! not mean that we need subside into despondency and Of course, these trends are not exactly new. After all, it despair. Nor, for that matter, should it lead us to seek was the Whitlam government which first made a dedsive succour from the prevailing disenchantment with the break with the dass-corporate politics of the old-style ALP. political process - a disenchantment which ultimately can A^d the crisis of direction in the Liberal Party could at a only bode ill for any democratic project.

ALR: APRIL 1990 26 FEATURES The great ESCAPE

Wayne Swan was campaign director for the ALP in the Queensland election victory in December, which was widely regarded as Labor's most professional campaign. In the federal election he helped organise the national campaign. He spoke from Queensland to David Burchell the day following the election.

It looks like the great escape. On election night it was quite evident that scrutineers' reports were considerably more reliable than the com­ I don't know about that. It was an election the Liberal Party always could have won, and they lost. It doesn't say puter estimates. Likewise during the election cam­ paign, it seemed clear that the parties' own qualitative a lot for the conservative side of politics in Australia. polling was much more reliable than the results of the The most remarkable thing seems to be that outside major public polls. Victoria the Labor losses were fewer than most people The public polls were wrong all the way through the were expecting. campaign. The parties simply employ more sophisticated I don't think anyone was surprised by that. Victoria was polling techniques. always a problem. There was an expectation that we could Was it the interest rates election? win seats in Queensland, and we've probably won two. Interest rates were obviously very important. But ob­ But even in Western Australia, while there are some viously homebuyers weren't convinced the Coalition extremely close results, the damage does seem to be could do any better. Even in the mortgage belt seats there quite small. weren't big swings in Queensland. It was very much an election which concentrated on As predicted, Democrats and Greens played an impor­ leadership. And I think overwhelmingly people preferred tant role. But did Labor lose any votes through Hawke to Peacock. It was as simple as that. leakages from the smaller parties? Some would argue that state issues were the most Obviously we lost votes, but it seems they all came back important factors. to us in preferences. There were clearly quite a lot of Clearly they were important, and they had a very bad disaffected Labor Party people, traditional Labor voters, effect in Victoria. There's no doubt about that. Otherwise who parked themselves in the Democrats and then came why didn't the swing occur in other states? back. Likewise it seems Labor's overall share of the vote Was it an election between Joh Bjelke-Petersen and nationally has fallen considerably, but also so have the John Cain? Obviously Queensland was the saviour for National Party. the ALP. It hasn't fallen considerably. I think it's a bit more than that. The ALP in Queensland The primary vote has. has been putting itself back together in a very effective way There was obviously a strong trend towards minor par­ for well over two years. I think we're now really seeing the ties. If you look at the two-party preferred votes in benefits from that. People don't move to you if they don't Queensland, we increased our votes in all our sitting seats. think you're a real alternative. And people obviously do Our primary vote fell one or two percent, but you expect see us as the most serious alternative in Queensland. Joh that when there are more candidates. So I don't know that Bjelke-Petersen might be able to be blamed for some of the the primary argument works. I think on a two party reasons why they're on the nose in Queensland, but it preferred basis you'll probably find if you disaggregated doesn't necessarily explain why the vote didn't go to the the vote from Victoria, that the Labor vote would be up. Liberals.

ALR: APRIL 1990 FEATURES 27

Paul Keating has a new set of 'beautiful numbers' to celebrate

Another obvious thing is the resilience of the Labor Yes, I think so. There have been changes in the forms of vote in marginal seats; even in Western Australia there political communications. People's politics aren't trans­ was remarkable resilience. mitted as much through the family as through the Yes, I agree. It was indeed remarkable. television set. Traditional family patterns aren't what they were. People are exposed to a much wider range of influen­ So does that suggest that Labor is the 'natural party of ces in terms of their political behaviour. And the government' now? electorate's more educated so it becomes more discerning. No, I don't think anyone's the natural party of govern­ Once upon a time you could stand outside a polling ment in Australia. The two-party system is clearly break­ booth and more or less predict how people were going ing down. The party who will win elections in Australia in to vote by how they looked. These days it would be the years to come will be the party which is most credible, extremely difficult to do that, and in some parts of which is the best organised, with the best leadership. Australia it would be impossible. So this isn't a one-off result for Democrats and Inde­ That's right. pendents? But in some other countries that sort of process has They'll come and go. I don't know that this establishes been taken to sound the death-knell for the old labour any particular trend in that sense. But I do think the tradi­ and social democratic parties, at least in their tradition­ tional voting patterns are breaking down, and it's affecting al forms. That obviously hasn't been the case here. the Liberal Party as much as the Labor Party. These processes are eroding traditional allegiances, cer­ Does this mean in the long term Labor might have to tainly. But they're eroding the traditional base of the other establish some closer relations with the Democrats? parties at the same rate. Ultimately it's simply a case of I don't know about that. It's not the Democrats as such. which is the better led and which is the better organised. The pool of non-swinging voters is just getting smaller all Yet the Labor heartlands have traditionally been more the time. And that affects both parties. homogeneous than the Liberal heartlands, surely. So Obviously there are particular political reasons for that one might expect that Labor's support over the long in the short-term. People are discouraged by the ap­ term might be at more risk. parent inability of the parties to promise big reduc­ You might think that from living in Sydney. But that's tions in interest rates, for instance. But over the long certainly not the case in states like Queensland and term are there underlying social trends? Western Australia.

ALR: APRIL 1990 28 FEATURES

Well, in NSW I tend to think of Wollongong and out of twenty-four seats. They're certainly never going to Newcastle as traditional Labor heartlands. Yet that be what they once were. seems to be a less automatic connection than pre­ So is the only sensible option for the Coalition to viously. become one party? Well, we've got different Labor heartlands, and I don't Yes, I'm sure it's the obvious option. But, then, I don't think it's been a big problem. think the Liberal Party would want them. What should Labor be doing over the long term to try Several things struck me about the campaign. It to ensure that these trends run in Labor's favour? seemed clear from quite early on that Labor was trying I suppose it's the old balancing act, really. It simply can't strongly to differentiate itself from the Coalition: by let itself become too dogmatic or out of touch with the presenting an image of plain speaking and caution on community. economic promises; and over values. It was quite a But it used to be that someone would instinctively say while since I'd heard Paul Keating getting stuck into 'I'm a Labor man' or 'I'm a Labor woman'. May it not elements of business the way he did in this campaign. be that in the future you won't see commitment of that And Bob Hawke stressed social justice theme more type or of that order? prominently than previously. Was that a deliberate strategy? I don't think so. You've got a different society, haven't you? Things will never be the way they were, say, thirty I don't know that it was a conscious strategy. However, years ago. There aren't as many people in blue collars. But we certainly did try to avoid too much rhetoric because the it doesn't mean to say that you won't have a white-collar electorate was obviously pretty cynical. I think it was Labor man or woman. important to' draw the basic distinction in values between the parties as we did. That's why Medicare was so impor­ The whole theme of the media coverage was that the tant as a theme. major parties were on the nose. And the buzz word was And the capital gains tax. For a while it looked like a disenchantment. loser, yet Labor persisted. Yes, it was true, although I don't think it was as big a Well, it was certainly better than talking about interest trend as they said. And also I think it reflected how dis­ rates! enchanted they themselves were in media. What influence did the campaign have? But what was it precisely that people were dis­ I though the Liberals could have won the election if enchanted with? That wasn't always made nearly so they'd won the campaign. Yet they lost the campaign. And, clear in the media account. first and foremost, they lost it because they didn't judge Exactly. And because it was partly their own view which the public mood; and they didn't judge the right themes. they were projecting onto the electorate. A lot of people People repeatedly said that there was something about obviously would have liked Labor to say, The country s Andrew Peacock they weren't happy with. stuffed, but this is the way we're going to fix it up'. But it just wasn't possible to provide answers like that. They could have coped with that. Peacock was certainly their biggest liability, but I still believe they could have The Age ran an interesting piece where the reporter won if they'd constructed their campaign properly, which went to a qualitative market research session, and they didn't People didn't believe they had the answers, so asked people if they thought politicians were telling they certainly shouldn't have been trying to tell them that the truth about Australia's plight. They said no. He they did. They would have been more effective if they'd asked did they think the leaders should come out and simply said: Throw them out; it's time for a change'. say, 'Look, Australia's going down the gurgler and we don't have any simple answers'. They said yes. He They did seem to be highlighting their weakest point. asked what they thought would happen to the first That's exactly the point That was the fundamental party to say that. They said: oh, they'd lose, of course... failure of their campaign. They spent the whole campaign illustrating to people why they shouldn't vote for them. Exactly. And that's the typical swinging voter: a mass of contradictions. That's why politicians are pretty reflective But was there another side to Peacock's low of the electorate. They tend to reflect the consciousness of credibility? When people say they don't like particular the average swinging voter. politicians it's probably partly about personalities; but it's surely also about what they exemplify about the People now are writing off the National Party federal­ party's policies and image. Peacock couldn't explain ly. After the Queensland election you cautioned things, but he wasn't given much to explain. It wasn't against writing them off too quickly. What do you just his vagueness that hindered his ability to explain think now? their industrial relations policy or their health policy. Yes, they're in deep trouble. Obviously Queensland is a And that came through to the electorate as a lack of different case because of the decentralised nature of the substance. state. And they're still the major conservative party here. But after the federal result you might even have to think So: Labor's won a clear majority? twice about that, because they've probably only got three I think so. Yes.

ALR: APRIL 1990 SUBSCRIBE! 29

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ALR: APRIL 1990 30 FEATURES The ELECTION issue that WASNT

Commentators of all persuasions agree that Australia will probably get a consumption tax before long. Both major parties are thought privately to endorse the idea, though they publicly disowned it in the campaign. Peter Groenewegen is a longtime left advocate of the consumption tax road. Here he argues that it's time the Left made up its mind on the issue.

espite its massive defeat at the National needed expansion in some social welfare spending is well understood by those, such as ACOSS, whose requests for Taxation Summit in 1985 the issue of such additional spending have been rebuffed on the broad-based consumption taxation con* ground that income tax rates need to fall. Dtinues to resurface in Australian economic policy The recent changes of mind on the issue on the part of debate. Many of its former opponents at the Tax some on the Left in part reflect the major error in the Draft Summit now support the notion of broad-based White Paper on Tax Reform which the government issued consumption taxation, reflecting the changing on the subject back in 1985, and which then helped rob the economic circumstances of the intervening five idea of support In short, the White Paper planned to years. introduce broad-based consumption taxation by a hybrid retail tax which was unable effectively to eliminate Its importance as a source of revenue for financing producer goods from the tax base, instead of going the public expenditure growth is increasingly being ap­ generally preferred value added tax route. preciated in the post-Summit era by those who do not think If we do require a consumption tax to expand social that a small public sector is a good public sector. The spending, then a value-added tax rather than a retail sales revenue potential of a value-added tax for financing much- tax should be supported by the Left, since the latter cannot

ALR: APRIL 1990 FEATURES 31

Yesterday's luxuries hove a habit of becoming today's necessities."

easily generate substantial revenue. A retail sales tax is, of the many advantages which are said to flow from such therefore, generally supported by those wishing to seek an initiative by tax analysts across the political spectrum. restraints on public sector growth. This, in itself, is a salutary warning that the consumption Since 1985 the documentation in support of the supe­ tax debate is too complex politically and economically to riority of value added tax has increased substantially. In be dismissed simply as a conservative sleight of hand. addition. New Zealand's introduction of value added tax Many of the arguments in favour, as well as the disad­ under the more neutral title, Goods and Services Tax, has vantages, of broad-based consumption taxes were dis­ greatly allayed the fears of many observers about its sup­ cussed in the Draft White Paper released by the federal posed detrimental consequences - fears largely derived government at the time of the Tax Summit. It may be useful from the often fictitious accounts of the horrors of the to reiterate those official arguments as a starting point for British experience in the early 1970s. discussion. Changed perceptions of the relevance of broad-based Firstly, a broad-based consumption tax would enable consumption tax r'eform, together with greater apprecia­ some rationalisation of Australia's existing indirect taxes tion of the importance of choosing the right instrument by on goods and services. In the context of the economic and which to effect it, make a re-examination of its advantages political difficulties associated with the personal income and disadvantages timely in the present straitened fiscal tax and the high marginal tax rates which were then in circumstances. Such a re-examination is particularly im­ force, a broad-based consumption tax would, it was ar­ portant on the Left, since myths have tended to gued, ensure that income which avoided or evaded income predominate over realism in left debate on tax issues - tax would bear some tax liability when spent. though of course the Right is by no means immune to such At the same time, the reduction in marginal income tax mythologies. For those unable to cast their minds back to rates allowed by the revenue from such a broad-based Joh's infatuation with the Laffer Curve then being pushed consumption tax would, in turn, reduce incentives to avoid by leading sections of the stockbroker fraternity, aspects of or evade income tax. Furthermore, because a consumption the Coalition's election campaign tax policy will provide tax does not affect interest income and therefore has a plenty of examples of wishful and inaccurate thinking on neutral effect on present consumption and saving (unlike the tax front. the double impact on savings associated with the personal It is also worthy of note that neither the Coalition nor the income tax) a consumption tax regime is conducive to Labor government in Canberra is currently willing to nail increased personal income tax levels and hence more the consumption tax flag to their policy mast, irrespective favourable to economic growth. This last point has become

ALR: APRIL 1990 32 FEATURES more important recently, given the general personal would be, and goods therefore are less competitive in savings crisis identified in Australia by many commen­ overseas markets under a selective sales tax of the tators. Australian variety than with a broad-based consumption Further, a broad-based tax covering all consumption at tax like value-added tax. a uniform rate is more administratively efficient in that it Another advantage of broad-based consumption taxa­ requires fewer resources for the Australian Tax Office to tion is the simplification of the existing tax structure, par­ assess and collect, and its operations are less costly for the ticularly if this tax reform is implemented with the firms which collect it on behalf of the government. co-operation of state governments, and leads to replacing Such a approach to implementing the tax likewise a number of so-called 'nuisance' taxes. creates less distortion on die consumption decisions of Last, but not least, as a partial substitute for income tax, individuals and households because it does not interfere a broad-based consumption tax can impose tax liability on with the relative prices of consumption goods - a charac­ non-residents on short-term visits to Australia who, teristic which, in addition, increases horizontal equity or generally speaking, are not liable to Australian income tax the equality of treatment to taxpayers in equal circumstan­ but whose personal consumption spending would be com­ ces. prehensively taxed under a consumption tax regime. This claim to fairness on the part of a broad-based Given the growing importance of the tourist industry consumption tax has been much misunderstood. It needs (despite the current problems created by the domestic to be understood that selective sales taxes of the type airline dispute) broad-based consumption tax may help to currently used in Australia fail to treat people with similar spread the tax burden relative to the benefits of public incomes equally because of differences in their consump­ services enjoyed. Australia's current sales tax, rebatable on tion patterns. items for export purchased by short-term visitors, does not often fall on general purchases by such visitors, like meals Leaving aside the deliberate discrimination introduced or other personal services and entertainment. In short, the by extra heavy taxation of tobacco products, alcoholic advantages of moving to broad-based consumption taxa­ beverages and motor fuels - a situation not likely to be tion have expanded rather than diminished since 1985. abandoned when a broad-based consumption tax is intro­ duced - the current wholesale sales tax by its rates and its One major reason for the rejection of the broad-based exemptions discriminates between users of various consumption tax strategy at the Tax Summit in 1985 was products. the perception that it would tend to hit low income groups and other underprivileged people relatively harder than A passion for crystallised fruit as against fresh fruit the well-to-do. The reason for this perception is quite incurs a sales tax liability in Australia. Ending a meal with straightforward. Consumption declines with levels of in­ cheese rather than with after-dinner mints escapes such tax come so that a uniform rate on consumption spending falls liability, while those preferring artificial flowers to natural proportionately relative to income as that income rises: a flowers have to pay sales tax for indulging this taste. More clear sign of a regressive tax. generally, those preferring to read books for relaxation are A low to medium income family with dependent not sales-taxed on their leisure requirements, while those children which consumes all, if not more, them its regular whose hobby is photography are taxed at the maximum income - by borrowing or by running down past savings - rate. at best pays a rate on consumption in terms of income Apart from the penalties imposed on taste by selective equivalent to an income tax rate. If the household tem­ as against broad-based consumption taxation, selective porarily consumes more than its income, its situation taxes like Australia's wholesale sales tax impose penalties deteriorates. A high income family, even with many de­ on activities, a form of discrimination which broad-based pendent children, consumes considerably less than its in­ consumption taxes avoid. come: hence its consumption tax rate in terms of income By concentrating on commodities sold at wholesale and falls considerably below the equivalent income tax rate. exempting most services, the existing consumption tax This problem can be redressed in several ways. One regime discriminates against the manufacturing sector. suggestion which surfaced both before and during the Tax Supporters of a strong manufacturing sector for Australia Summit was to target consumption taxation to luxury should therefore push for a broad-based tax on consump­ goods and exempt all necessary consumption items. tion which can effectively tax services. European consumption tax experience, as well as The current sales tax regime likewise favours imported Australian economic research, suggested that this would over domestically-produced goods, since the valuation transform a regressive tax switch to something ap­ procedures tend to understate the value of imports rela­ proximating proportionality in tax burdens if not progres- tive to equivalent goods produced domestically. This is sivity. despite the 20% valuation surcharge imposed on imports The difficulty with this procedure is partly administra­ to prevent this tax preference to importers. Exporters, on tive. Exemptions and multiple rates impose substantial the other hand, although not required to pay sales tax on additional costs on tax administrations and taxpayers the value of goods exported, may pay sales tax on inputs which are of no benefit to the community. More important­ used in the production of those goods, for which they ly, the task of classification which this type of tax regime obtain no exemption. Hence costs are higher than they imposes is endless, since yesterday's luxuries have a habit

M X : APRIL 1990 FEATURES 33

"The derelict keeping warm with a flagon of sweet muscat pays more tax than the well-heeled consumer of Grange Hermitage.

of becoming today's necessities as living standards rise tion for their loss of real income implied in this change, as over time and costs fall with the extension of production long as their situation actually warrants it. Such compen­ associated with a growing market. sation can either be provided by additional increases in Furthermore, and often irrespective of incomes, one social security benefits, automatic if these are indexed to household's luxury is another's necessity, hence the ar­ changes in the official cost of living estimates, or by target- bitrary selection of goods for one or the other category ting concomitant income tax cuts in such a way that they imposes penalties on consumption, preferences which proportionately benefit low income taxpayers. often are only imprecisely related to taxable capacity dif­ A comprehensive compensation package was devised ferences. by Treasury in consultation with the Social Security The exemption of food items in general makes it difficult Department at the time of the 1985 broad-based consump­ to differentiate, for tax purposes, King Island Brie from tion tax proposal. Kraft cheddar, imported pate from Vegemite. Likewise, This was found wanting, however, on a number of blanket exemptions of clothing eliminates tax liability for counts. One criticism was that its concentration on com­ an outfit from Best and Less or Fosseys as well as the finest pensation in terms of losses in current income reflected the in designer clothing purchases from the most exclusive fact that low income families with dependent children may boutique. Hence, blanket exemptions of items like food finance high consumption levels during this stage of their and clothing impose the same inequities which an excise lives by going into debt. Compensation arrangements on wine used to inflict on the derelict keeping warm with which fail to account for this possibility leave such people a flagon of sweet muscat, who paid more tax than the and households worse off. well-heeled consumer of Grange Hermitage. Data on consumption patterns of Australian households The best response to the adverse distributional conse­ suggests that consumption spending often exceeds income quences of consumption taxation is to be found outside the in low income households with dependent children and ^ax system. This was first realised by Denmark when it among the aged, some of whom are not covered by social introduced a single rate value added tax with few exemp­ security payments. tions, and later by the Australian government in the broad- Any package of compensation for a move towards based consumption tax policy option put before the Tax broad-based consumption taxation should reflect this, and Summit also take into account other criticism of the 1988 compen­ The answer? Compensate those disadvantaged by a sation package designed by the government. The fact has ^ove towards general or broad-based consumption taxa­ to be faced, however, that administrative complexity

ALR; APRIL 1990 34 FEATURES prevents design of a compensation package which will criticised at the Summit would have been averted. If im­ meet every eventuality. plemented in a well-designed policy package, the benefits At the same time, distributional consequences at the top of broad-based consumption taxes in terms of horizontal end of the income scale should not be ignored. Although equity and neutrality can be reaped without distributional a broad-base consumption tax may raise the amount of tax inequity or adverse effects on growth and employment. paid by high income groups who at present have substan­ As the Draft White Paper also indicated in 1985, a broad- tial opportunities for tax avoidance, this by itself will not based consumption tax strategy could be implemented by ensure overall progressivity of the tax structure after the a variety of tax instruments of which extending the change. wholesale sales tax, introducing a retail sales tax or using Achieving this requires supplementary wealth taxation a value added tax were the three options considered. either in the form of reintroduced death duties, or regular A more extensive wholesale sales tax of the type current­ wealth ownership taxesof the type levied in various OECD ly in use in Australia is not a strong starter in this context. countries, or a combination of both. Effective exemption It cannot tax services, has administrative problems in from saving for many would otherwise generate too much determining sales values which favour certain sections of wealth inequality. Apart from the adverse distributional business over others, and is therefore technically inferior consequences of a broad-based consumption tax policy, for the task. critics have raised the potentially adverse macro-economic On the other hand a retail sales tax which, in theory, can consequences on inflation, economic activity levels and tax all consumption transactions at the retail level is employment opportunities. theoretically equivalent to a value added tax which effec­ Some adverse consequences on the price level are in­ tively does the same. The difference between these two evitable if a consumption tax is indeed to be introduced, instruments: and one with quite significant practical con­ but they need not become long term if neutralised in a sequences - is that the retail sales tax is levied at the single once-and-for-all price change. However, this requires that stage of retail only while the value added tax is imposed income groups other than social security beneficiaries at all stages of the productive chain with tax levied on the should not seek compensation for this cost of living in­ sales (output) of each firm offset by the tax paid on its crease via the wage system or other mechanisms. Trade inputs. union co-operation in this matter is indispensable for a This method of assessment and collection of a value successful implementation of a broad-based consumption added tax, known as the invoice method, cumbersome tax strategy. though it seems at first sight, is in fact the source of its Even then, a once-and-for-all inflation change can cause superiority over the retail sales tax. Rather than being havoc in financial markets in an open economy like collected in one go at the retail stage like a retail sales tax, Australia with its unrestricted foreign exchange and capi­ the value added tax is gradually paid on the value added tal transactions. The precise inflation effect of a broad- (sales less purchases) over all stages of production. Hence, based consumption tax is not easy to estimate, depending small service providers at the retail level could be ex­ as it does on the rate at which it is to be imposed and the empted but still pay tax on the inputs required for their taxes which it is going to replace. The 12.5% tax proposed industry which has already been collected at a previous in 1985, which was intended to replace completely the stage of production. wholesale sales tax, was estimated to induce a jump in the Likewise, the fact that all producers and sellers feature price level of approximately 6-7%. twice in the tax transaction framework as purchasers (en­ More important fears were expressed about the income titling them to tax credits) and sellers (making them liable effects of the policy as a result of its tendency to depress to tax payments) provides a mechanism for keeping them aggregate demand in the economy. A revenue neutral honest since their tax liabilities, as tax credits for others, package which lowers income taxes and restores the lost provide a useful opportunity for cross-checking. Thus a revenue by a uniform consumption tax would, it was value added tax is more difficult to evade than a retail sales argued, lead to a reduction in demand. This in turn would tax. Furthermore, value added tax can more easily provide lead to substantially lower levels of economic activity and rebates for tax paid on inputs which, after all, is a feature thereby to significantly higher unemployment. inherent in its method of collection and which is particular­ However, most of the modelling carried out on this ly useful for effective exemption of export industries from before the Tax Summit exaggerated this effect. Analysis the tax. prepared by the National Institute of Economic and Social A value added tax Was not proposed in Australia in 1985 Research for the ACTU and the government at the time of because it was believed it would take too long to introduce, the Summit showed that if the package proposed by the was too complex for taxpayers, particularly in small busi­ government was implemented as planned, it would have ness, relative to retail sales tax and, from British ex­ minimal adverse income and employment effects. This perience, would be too politically unpopular. Introduction was because much of the impact on demand from the tax of the Goods and Services Tax in New Zealand suggests switch was offset by increased demand from the compen­ that these beliefs rested on rather poor foundations. In sation package. In short, if adequate compensation for the short, a value added tax is now generally real income losses imposed on disadvantaged groups had regarded as the best way for implementing a broad- been provided, the adverse effects for which the policy was based consumption tax.

ALR: APRIL 1990 FEATURES 35

There is one further option. With the current high inter­ economic ills, as some have portrayed it - if only because est in consumption tax as a vehide to enhance personal of its influence on personal savings. Nevertheless it can saving, the Monash Centre for Policy Studies has revived undoubtedly be a useful tax reform if implemented in a the notion of a direct consumption tax. This simply ex­ package of carefully designed income tax cuts and com­ empts all income devoted to saving or investment from pensation for the disadvantaged, and if it is supplemented taxation, hence, by definition, taxing all outlays on con­ with appropriate wealth tax forms. sumption expenditure. To be consistent, all expenditures Most of its benefits in reality arise from eliminating such as the running down of cash balances and bank distortions inherent in the current system of wholesale deposits, is counted with consumption spending and sales tax giving preference to services relative to manufac­ hence liable for taxation. This form of expenditure taxation tured goods, and to importers as against exporters. While has the advantage that it can be applied at progressive there may be benefits for growth from the encouragement rates, with rates for high consumption spenders capable, of savings, such benefits are easily overstated, particularly in prindple, of exceeding 100%. in the current panic about levels of savings in Australia. Although, at first sight, these are attractive features of Broad-based consumption taxation, in short, is a useful this type of tax, its real administrative complexities have tax reform option for the rationalisation of Australia's meant that no actual tax administration has been willing current indirect taxes - taxes which are dearly less effident to implement it. In practice, it adds to all the complexities and horizontally equitable. These benefits in themselves of income tax administration the difficulties of defining make the policy worth pursuing, and not one to be dis­ saving (or investment) spending which, if not carefully missed out of hand by the Left - even if some of its current done, create all sorts of avoidance opportunities for the and past advocates may have rather different reasons for rich. Indirect consumption taxation is therefore the in­ pursuing it. variably preferred route by actual taxadministrationsfrom which to reap the benefits of broad-based consumption PETER GROENEWEGEN is Professor of Economics at Syd­ taxation. ney University. Responses to this article will appear in A consumption tax is not a panacea for Australia's upcoming issues of ALR.

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ALR: APRIL 1990 36 MATTERS ARISING

GROPING for POWER

The parties have become ad agency 'products'. But does election advertising actually work? Jane Inglis talked to Brian Slapp.

Q: How much have the major par- think of political ad campaigns? Now enough TV advertising to be very ties spent on this election campaign? for some specific answers. cynical about it" A: A lot. Brian Slapp (formerly a creative Not to mention being groped by Q: Did it pay off? director with advertising multi­ Andrew Peacock. He did it in the national Ogilvy and Mather) high­ Liberals' ads, and liked it so much he A: Probably not. lights the last point as one of the kept on doing it on his walkabout Q: Who's a pretty boy, then? pitfalls in ad campaigns - the dif­ campaign trail. What sort of message, A: A hawke, or maybe a peacock - ference between TV editorials and indeed, would theelectorate get about depends. ads. In editorials the public sees the a Liberal government from that? politician in a news clip or inter­ Apart from false and real images of viewed on a current affairs program politicians which vary in editorial ap­ sk a reasonable question being questioned on issues of concern and get a generic answer. pearances and ads, Slapp points to the to the public, providing (or attempt­ different message the public receives It's all in the packaging A ing to provide) answers and informa­ - the difference in information, or lack and advertising - or perhaps it tion, with all their individual thereof. "Invariably the TV editorial is isn't, depends on how one looks mannerism and quirks. far more probing and far more in at it, really. And this is the case during the depth that TV commercials can ever Australian election campaigns may period of government between elec­ expect to be. That is where you're real­ not be as long as US elections (about a tion campaigns. In an election cam­ ly going to get any information, and year there) or as costly; but we do paign ad, of one or two minutes, the when you see a TV commercial jux­ seem to have an awful lot of them and public sees "this magically trans­ taposed with that, all it does is high­ the notion of a slick, quick sell, par­ formed person with much better light the shallowness and glib nature ticularly on TV, is becoming de rigeur. grooming and make up in a totally of the TV commercials." Not to men­ But does it really work, as politicians different presentation". They look tion the disingenuity of the politicians and their political machines would "false" because they are transformed and their campaign directors regard­ like to believe, and ad agencies would "into totally artificial entities", Slapp ing the intelligence of the voting like them to believe? says. public. The non-specific answer is - it "I think it works against them be­ It's what you say, how much you depends. Like all advertising it is cause they are so glib, so slick. 1116/ re say about it and where you say it simply selling a product, though there obviously contrived. These are people The major parties concentrated on are pitfalls in that exercise. Unlike who are not being seen in their natural the economy during the election. A other products, for example, this one habitat or in their natural manner and sign, perhaps, of an increasingly (the politician and political party) is mood. They're obviously scripted. economic literate public. But, as Slapp on public view, 'working' as it were, Very few of them feel comfortable or points out, "the electorate's main con­ for anywhere between 18 months to believable when reading a script. And cern is how the economy affects them three years between ad campaigns. I think people have been exposed to personally in their daily lives", yet the What does an advertising person

ALR: APRIL 1990 , points for seeming andhonesty points more , - - track to take and why. Such humilitywhy. Such toandtake track --

don't really believe that, "there's no "there's that, believe really don't people feels Slapp Labor. under ets tellingHawke example for promise', 'election an get we voter, individual And where there was an appeal to the terms". global and "in national generic, issue the addressed politicians Photo: John Fairfax Sons real honesty" in it.in real honesty" us we'll have an extra $50 in our pock­ believes Labor's program is the best the is program Labor's believes but admitting fallibility is somethingis fallibility admitting but and generally anathema to politicians, accidentalalmost is part Hawke's on everybody else but did too', then con­ what misinterpretedwe up, screwed not ads) that, as Slapp puts it, 'OK, we human when he (inadmits editorials, no no politician would normally come at really he that electorate the vinces wasto going to happen inflation, and though she's not running for govern­ running not though she's I slig h pltcl rdc be­ product political the selling lI* ment). Haines, Jannine for perhaps (except ue a Sap ons u, we're out, points Slapp as muse, Slapp thinks Hawke wins more more wins Hawke thinks Slapp But But it's not all honesty and altruism Mather), inMather), that more "the you tell, the another quotes He ividuals". d between TV ads and print media ads print media andads TV between a out and buy go politician.... it about as you can." So, if you want to refrigerator, or a fairly significant pur­ more you sell". Common sense, really. personality, (founder Ogilvy David of Ogilvy and in­ as advertising us seasoned for it in hat's w know order to make their decision. The The decision. their make to order in presented) briefly and terestingly buyer/voter potential the provide to par­ in ads &A Q Liberals' the and - much as know to want you chase, a or car motor a buy to want you "If to want all we - greedy "basically factual and educational and informa­ educationaland and factual it's ever "While have. should it and with page". dailies major in ads sized Liberals placed full page, broadsheet page,broadsheet full placed Liberals in­ cleverly, (albeit information with ought that one believes Slapp ticular. tive, and really is relevant, I believe I relevant, is really and tive, clever, the message but deliver didn't the on words hundred a "probably Slapp is referring to the difference difference the to referring is Slapp He thought the graphic was quite quite was graphic the thought He ALR PI 1990 APRIL : n h cs o Paok n sm of sums and Peacock of case the in ing voters if give they a didn't bugger swing­ be swinging wouldn't They are. the voters who probably that's that suggest I And concerned. really are who People it. read will people better yet, perhaps one of the parties parties the of one perhaps yet, better tired very of lot a be There must out. all this all is the endless opinion polls the substance.of party the would prefer he say didn't figures, much at all three than more have topoliticians much don't say; or the if particularly intentional, is tion the possibility that the lack of informa­ who was in power." exemption for registering their their registering opinion yet again for on election day. But, exemption Perhaps they could apply for a special polled people in market research land. carry institutions other and parties and blow-driedpollies. cording to the ratings. Wandin Valley ac­ lose or win and network TV a to to barrack for a political candidate tied should invent its own Max Headroom would be simply overrun by tanned by overrun simply be would Of course, Of as Slapp admits, there is Of course, a rather costly factor in factor costly rather a course, Of 38 MATTERS ARISING

The POST-MODERN Conditioner

From Vidal Sassoon to Redken, the post-modern invasion of private life has Michael Divyer in a lather.

ore than anything else, The Vidal Sassoon conditioner in­ tion from the French of Foucault's post-modernism has variably evokes an array of perturbing posthumously published treatise on had an unsettling effect vignettes. It is difficult seriously to aerobics and die culture of the modem M apply to your scalp something which gym. Decore. Hmm, perhaps the hair- on my ablutions. Jean-Francois sounds like a rather silly amalgam of care equivalent of Derrida's concept Lyotard certainly has a lot to the names of various post-war of difference. answer for. novelists and political commentators. It certainly makes me want to defer As an adolescent I revelled in the Lathering up, I am alternately and differ to a cheaper brand. And the simple pleasures offered by the subur­ reminded of Gore Vidal and the bite list goes on. Gone is the generic ban family bathroom. A leisurely bath and flair of American literature over bathroom anthropology of yesteryear. in a hot, brimming tub; a half hour of the last forty years, or of Donald In its place we have Henri Palmolive, blissful solitude as I thumbed through Sassoon's eulogies to the pragmatism famed at the £cole Normale tattered, dog-eared copies of New of the self-styled Peppones of the Sup^rieure for his stunning work on Statesman and other mildly radical Italian Communist Party. The slightly the semiological implications of tribal foreign journals. I even enjoyed my off-pink colour of most of the bottles deodorising rituals. What you newly acquired ritual of shaving. which clutter the bathroom shelves is thought you did in the privacy of your Now, confront me with the eclec­ therefore perhaps rather appropriate. own bathroom becomes the template ticism of an Alessandro Mendini The Redken container is quite natural­ of all subsequent global human be­ designed bidet and I simply bind up - ly a more astringent hue, although I haviour. what Freud and his acolytes would always thought Livingstone went into Of course, I realise the psychologi­ have quaintly diagnosed as a case of the House of Commons, not cos­ cal implications of this sort of absur­ infantile anal retention. Studio Al- metics. dist name-assodation. Or I hope I do. chimia design simply plays havoc The further recesses of the cabinet with my bowels. An analysis by Lacan would undoub­ reveal more contemporary, and tedly reveal it was some mix-up in my I find that I can no longer wash my fashionably French, intellectual mirror stage" formation, and all this hair with any sense of propriety. The trends. After all, marxism or any nonsense therefore was a reflection on bathroom cabinet in my house con­ philosophy with even the faintest hint me (sorry Jacques, that should be a fronts me daily with a myriad of dis­ of crimson is definitely no longer de reflection on the function of "I"). concerting labels (seemingly my rigeur in our ivory towers, let alone flatmate's sole contribution, bills our marble effect bathrooms. Take Which probably means that aside, to the collective expenditure of down the Che poster from behind the Heidegger really had nothing to do our household). I am beginning to toilet door. Socialism is pass6 even to with the manufacture of soap. Not confuse whether a label is a signifiant the armchair revolutionaries who directly at any rate. or a signifie, let alone understand the began to inhabit the university com­ I am not ashamed to admit that I felt semiological relationship between the mon rooms after the rebellious year of comfortable and secure with moder­ packaging and what is actually inside 1968. nism. Certainly, I had my doubts the bottle. It's back to Eco, I suppose. Body Shop is obviously a transla­ about structuralism but, well, didn't

ALR: APRIL 1990 MAHERS ARISING 39

everyone? In spite (or perhaps be­ thy cultural cringe would know the studying this sort of drcumlocutional cause) of his oh so dever critics, I al­ details. Roland Barthes, a leading drivel, he took the easy way out and ways thought that E P Thompson was structuralist theoretidan and another hung himself. on die right track when it came to the progenitor to the post-modern condi­ While, in the 1960s and 1970s, a sort pondng about of the French intel­ tion, died after being run over by the of chic gauchisme was the intellectual ligentsia. Thompson is not what you French equivalent of a Mr Whippy vogue, our post-modern age has would describe as a philosopher's ice-cream van. thrown up more unlikely, and more philosopher. He calls a spade a spade, worrying, cultural heroes. Any sort of and accordingly Althusser a "freak of The untimely, and some would not progressive or marxist thought has intellectual fashion". I suppose that hesitate to say unfortunate, demise of been summarily dismissed, and the most practical approach to my Michel Foucault, was also shrouded replaced with the proto-fasdst dogma predicament, if I ever want to regain in peculiar and still generally un­ of philosophers like Nietzsche. The some sense of normality in the revealed circumstances. By 1970 'crisis of representation' in Western bathroom, is to stop trying to take Foucault had earned suffident reputa­ thought of which post-modernism is post-modernism seriously. Boyd tion to be awarded a personal chair at the most sucdnct and sustained ex­ Tonkin, in a book review last year in the College de France. Yet, he failed to ample, has led to an apoplexy of our New Statesman & Society (May 26, produce the imposing corpus of work philosophical traditions. The intellec­ 1989) adopts an appropriately conde- hinted at in the first volume of His- tually conceited among us may find , scending attitude to the whole scene. toire de la sexuality. In hindsight, his this smart or trendy but, personally, I Tonkin suggests that post-modernism proposed Les Perves would have think it warrants a little more concern. "thrives among loose definitions and probably made an interesting (and il­ I am not openly hostile to all that messy data". He daims it is ultimately luminating?) read. post-modernism has to offer. "just a weary late modernism Clio is more enjoyable, albeit ex- that owes more to the moustache mm ^ pensive, to read than Cleo. Some Marcel Duchamp scrawled on ; of its other manifestations would the Mona Lisa than to the grand also appear to be inescapable. It designs of a Pound or a Picasso". seems not unlikely that we will The correct approach is, there­ "The | all be living both with it, and fore, to treat post-modernism, gjf § within it, for a considerable along with other phenomena deconstructionists period of time. It is interesting to like David Frost or flared note that Craig McGregor, one of trousers, as just a temporary cul­ seem to hove similar four judges for the annual tural aberration. After all, when awards of the Royal Australian you look with any depth at the problems with life in Institute of Architects, estimated subject, or at least its foremost ga . that three-quarters of this year's philosophical exponents, it is at the academic fast entries were essentially post­ best slightly amusing, and at modern or influenced by post­ worst rather ridiculous. lane." modern ideas. The whole French intellectual Rather, it is the underlying and tradition from the structuralists spurious premises of this type of onwards is rich with the bile of designer philosophy which allay sdentifidty, anti-humanism and anti- The deconstructionists seem to my sensibilities. Post-modernism historidsm. Far be it for me to suggest have similar problems with life in the ultimately leaves us with nothing to that this can lead to life-style academic fast lane. Jacques Derrida's believe in - no prospect of human problems, but just look at the facts. critique of the persistence of a progress. It is a system of thought Louis Althusser may well have been metaphysics of presence in Western which flourishes in negation. More or la plus grande intelligence metaphysi­ thought did little to help with the less cutting off your philosophical que that Jean Lacroix ever taught, but more physical charge of possession of nose to spite your face. that didn't really help his wife. Helene drugs in the Eastern bloc (Czechos­ ► Althusser was found dead in the lovakia). The pervasive intrusion of post­ modern ideas into all aspects of couple's flat in the rue d'Ulm in It would also appear that it is not thought is not something which we November 1980. In a state of complete only the French who develop these can hope will inevitably subside, but , delirium, Althusser confessed to sorts of life-style problems, but only makes more pressing the need strangling her. A magistrate sub­ anyone even slightly tainted with a for stout defence. I can't speak for sequently found him to be, in legal Gallic brush. The Greek philosopher anyone else, but I know that I will parlance, "unfit to plead". Nieol Poulantzas obviously suffered certainly continue to read Das Kapital Other heroes of the post-war French as a result of reading a little too much in the bath. intelligentsia fare little better. Any of this French structuralist and post­ self-respecting Australian academic structuralist theory in its original. MICHAEL DWYER is not a with a normally developed and heal­ Faced with the prospect of a lifetime contemporary French philosopher.

ALR .APRIL 1990 40 MATTERS ARISING

GREEN Hills

TV's first environment issues-based program finishes on the ABC this month, after a ten-week series. Jess Walker talked to presenter Nick Stuart.

bviously the environ­ take some of the emotionalism out of put it to one of them that he had a ment's been flavour of the debate and look things from a conflict of interest between the people the month recently. scientific perspective. I was an ordi­ he was representing in government O nary current affairs journalist when I and accepting money on a consult­ What were you trying to do in A began working for the ABC. When I ancy basis from the timber company. Question of Survival which came to A Question of Survival, I didn't He answered that yes, he was wearing might distinguish it from the come with any preconceived notions two hats, but he didn't see that as a rash of media environment in mind or any real desire to preach. conflict of interest. That was an angle coverage? But when you step back and look at that we would have liked to explore in Although the environment has the scientific point of view, when you much more detail but, because of time, been covered by many programs allow these facts to mount up, when we had to let it go. before, what hasn't been done is get­ you see exactly what's being said by Also in that particular story, there ting beyond the chasing of chainsaws everybody and start looking into the was the issue of Third World and the sludge file coverage, to look­ basis on which they're saying things, development and the conflicts that ing at the entire problem. Current af­ it becomes very clear that it is impor­ the villagers face which would fairs has been very good at focussing tant, that it is something that needs to have been useful to bring out.. on the end result the toxic waste that be said. And it's a story that's, by and The individual people there are comes out of factories and where it's large, not being tackled by a lot of the faced with so many dilemmas. And being dumped, the cutting down of mainstream media who often reduce we could only begin to explore some trees. But it hasn't put it into perspec­ environmental stories back to stories of these problems. For example, they tive. What we've been trying to do is about conflict between interest groups hold land in common in the Solomon say that mainstream thought has got or about who's going to win the next Islands - a joint land ownership sys­ to adapt to environmental logic. We election. tem. When you start introducing can no longer just base our decisions Do you find that the eight minute money into the economy it breaks on economic logic It's got to be a logic quota for each story is enough? down the land ownership system, and that includes some of the environmen­ it also breaks down customs. And tal factors and imperatives which are The difficulty with all the stories when you destroy the customs you're imposing themselves on us. that we've covered so far is that there hasn't been enough time to go into all changing the way in which people How easy is it to be dispassionate the complexities. I went to the live, not only because they can no in looking at the issue given that Solomon Islands to do one of our first longer live off the land but also be­ the environment is such an emo­ stories on the logging of rainforests cause their society begins to breaks tive topic? there. The person who owns the com­ down. We just couldn't possibly cover A Question of Survival sprang out of pany carrying out the logging is a that in the format available. the TV science unit - the unit which Queenslander. Two of his former Issues like the greenhouse effect, normally produces Quantum and employees are involved either in the for example, create an enormous similar programs. This helped us to provincial or national government. I amount of controversy. Most

ALR: APRIL 1990 MATTERS ARISING 41

Nick Stuart and his co-presenter Catherine McGrath.

people agree that it exists, but the dedded to leave that issue, whereas part of everybody's portfolio. There is extent of it is hotly disputed. How anyone who is doing it from the point definitely a gap in the market there do you, coining from the ABC of view an American or European pro­ and I wouldn't be surprised if we see science unit, decide who to gram would have had to cover that some of the commercials trying to pick believe? issue because it's vital there. In the up the idea. Most of the time we've tried to fol­ case of the Solomons Islands logging You come from a current affairs low the mainstream of scientific story, we could have gone to Sarawak background. Would you say thought. We haven't done that ex­ or Borneo or the Amazon - the story's you've been converted through clusively; for example we ran a story the same in each case. But because this working on this program? was at Australia's back door, because on solar power, and the scientific com­ I'm always wary of any journalist it's been done by Australians, because munity is far from united about the who says they are converted, because the logs are coming back to Australia, effectiveness of solar power. So we we are trying to retain an objective hopefully people will notice that and spoke to a professor who has been approach. But it's certainly fair to say will see the relevance and importance working on solar power for the last 20 that all of us have now seen the impor­ for an Australian audience. years and tried to put his work in tance of it, and that we are doing context. We simply indicated where Do you think there is a future for something that we believe is a con­ there are scientific doubts, and let in­ a series of this kind as a permanent tribution to that. We have differences dividuals make up their own minds. fixture - one which perhaps also among ourselves about the best way If there is a wild claim that can't be has more of a current affairs com­ to approach the issues, but we are substantiated, we don't use it If it's a ponent? agreed about the importance of at contentious claim but a significant least addressing them. body of scientific opinion believes in Yes. Quantum is doing a certain Is there likely to be a second it then we'll put it forward, but we'll amount from a different direction. series? also balance it with other people who Countrywide looks at issues like soil don't think the same way. degradation - possibly the worst prob­ The second series all depends on lem that we face at the moment in reaction from the audience and how How did you decide on the Australia - as well as urban and well we've done our job. We see no balance of local and international transport issues. And the 7:30 Report reason why there shouldn't be, be­ issues? looks at the Green parties and the rise cause the issues are there and the in­ Obviously, we tried to give the pro- of the green movement. Where there's terest is there. I suppose the question an Australian flavour. That's a gap is that no-one's bringing these is whether or not we've done our job wty, for example, there isn’t a story separate strands together. Environ­ in interpreting them. ab°ut acid rain. There is scientific ar­ mental issues are still perceived as JESS WALKER is a Sydney freelance gument about whether or not add rain being, if you like, one government journalist writing about ls seriously affecting Australia. So we minister's portfolio. Really, they're environmental issues. 42 REVIEWS Uncle Oscar

For over 60 years lucky people have versus commercial crap reigns to this televised across the globe every year, been winning little gold statues. day. to a seemingly ever-expanding Adrienne M cKibbons looks at the In 1934 the statuette was 'officially' audience. history of the Oscars and this year's given the name Oscar. When the There have always been more crop. Academy's librarian first saw the serious issues raised than the presen­ statue she claimed "it looks like uncle tation format During the 'fifties con­ It all started back in 1929 when, Oscar". This was considered a siderable ramifications arose over derogatory term until Walt Disney blacklisted writers being nominated. on May 19 in the Blossom Room used the name in his speech, when Carl Foreman was nominated for his of the Hollywood Roosevelt winning the award for the creation of script of High Noon. However, by the Hotel, Douglas Fairbanks Mickey Mouse. The name stuck. night of the Awards, in 1952, he had presented 12 awards - the first By 1940 an innovation had been in­ moved to England, considered un­ Academy Awards presentation. troduced which, like the name Oscar, employable whether he won or not Janet Gaynor, who won the first continues to the present day. All the Foreman was not the only writer af­ ever Best Actress award, fected by the blacklist. The conse­ commented: "As you quences were felt in Hollywood danced you saw the most for many years. important people in Hol­ In 1958 George Seaton, Presi­ lywood whirling past you". dent of the Academy, announced that there would be no commer­ This first presentation was cial interruptions to the more like a private party ceremony, as the industry itself presented by The Academy of was sponsoring the show. Not Motion Picture Arts and Scien­ surprisingly, this announcement ces. It was only open to Academy gained more applause than any members - no press, no audience. winner. (Consider watching the For the 1989 awards (presented Awards without commercial in­ last month, on March 27) there terruptions today!) will be at least 22 awards and six There are, of course, as many special awards handed out by a fascinating details to recount multitude of presenters and seen about the Awards as there have by millions worldwide. been about the ceremonies: cer­ Since 1929 there have been tainly every year has something controversies, startling omis­ to remember itby. What has been sions, continual surprises and an this year's moment? ever-growing media attention to an surprise of the Awards having been The Best Film award of 1989 was event that is, in itself, a business. lost when they were mistakenly pub­ really a tussle between three films: (Receiving an Oscar can add huge lished early one year, the Academy Driving Miss Daisy, with nine nomina­ returns at the box office.) As far back introduced the sealed envelope. It tions in all; Bom on the 4th of July,a total as the 'thirties people both inside the heightened the suspense and put in of eight nominations; and Dead Poets’ industry as well as commentators motion a ritual seen at almost every Society, with four nominations. were learning not to take this event award ceremony. Despite Daisy gaining nine nomina­ too seriously. In 1943 the Awards became a more tions, including Best Rim, for some In 1931 Helen Hayes won Best public affair, the private industry inexplicable reason director Bruce Actress for a contrived tearjerker party was coming to an end. 1944 saw Beresford missed out on a Best Direc­ called The Sin of Madelon Claudet. This the Awards broadcast in their entirety tor nomination. A totally illogical prompted Irving Thalberg (con­ across America. The presentation had move. sidered the boy genius of Hollywood), moved to the famous Grauman's If the film can gamer so much credit when considering whether to put Chinese Theatre. another tearjerker into production, to and its three lead actors are all say "Let's face it, we win Academy The Awards have grown, been nominated, it stands to reason that Awards with crap like Madelon refined, categories added and taken much of the credit must go to the Claudet". The controversy over art away until we have what is seen director. It's not as if Beresford is

ALR -.APRIL 1990 REVIEWS 43

Kenneth Branagh, with his wife Emma Thompson, creating history in Henry V

. Steven Spielberg, who the Academy the treatment of Indians by Hol­ nominated films this year have had a seems to openly dislike. lywood! release in Australia. It is therefore hard to speculate on the most deserv­ ' Still, there was one Australian The other landmark was Kenneth „ director in the running. The Best ing. The other category that often Branagh's achievement of simul­ remains an enigma (as to what shaped Director award was a close competi­ taneously being nominated as Best tion between Peter Weir and Oliver the voters' choice) is the Best Foreign Actor/Best Director in the same year Language Rim. The main competition Stone. It was a very slim chance that for the same film. This phenomenon r either of the Britons, actor/director was between Cinema Paradiso, from has happened only three times: Orson Italy, and the magnificent bio-pic Kenneth Branagh or Jim Sheridan, Welles for Citizen Kane, Woody Allen were likely to go home with an Oscar. Camille Claudel. Cinema Paradiso is a for Annie Hall and Warren Beatty for wonderful film, has the added ad­ And Woody Allen is always a long Reds. Branagh had only a slight chance shot, playing his clarinet in New York vantage of being very sentimental, to succeed in either category, especial­ and its topic is cinema itself. the night of the ceremonies. ly with Tom Cruise as competition for ' The actor stakes this time had a Best Actor in Bom on the 4th of July. The bottom line in the race for Os­ couple of landmarks. Two black ac- cars is that the technical awards are America's attitude to the Vietnam ' tors were nominated - Morgan more likely to go to those who conflict was almost a guarantee for - Freeman for Best Actor in Driving Miss genuinely deserve them, without Bom to win a number of awards. Daisy and Denzel Washington, for other factors being a consideration. It Director Oliver Stone has become the Best Supporting Actor in Glory. Glory can make a real difference, in the new liberal conscience filmmaker of is an ideologically sound film about documentary and short categories, to the day. (It is unfortunate that his the American Civil War with a a career and getting another film off films are so over-rated, because of . predominantly black cast. the ground. their content) Washington's graduation from TV to With actors, directors best films, features combined with the content of In the Best Actress category the real music, etc, while the competition may the film would have stood him in choice was between Michelle Pfeiffer be real to each individual nominated, good stead, as much to award the film for The Fabulous Baker Boys and Jessica to us the audience, it is more a case of ' ' as the actor. There was, of course, Tandy in Daisy. Tandy has sentiment who we like the best and whether the Marlon Brando in A Dry White Season, on her side because she has been Academy will agree with our choice. another ideologically sound film around as an actress for a long time. ADRIENNE MCKIBBINS is a - about South Africa. One category that never receives freelance film writer/researcher, and But the last time Brando won an the attention it should is the documen­ regular contributor to Filmnews. She award (for The Godfather), he sent an tary. An Oscar can mean a great deal also produces and presents On Screen, ^dian woman to announce that he - for example whether the film will be a radio program on cinema on could not accept the award because of seen outside America. None of the 2SER-FM, Sundays at 2pm

ALR: APRIL 1990 44 REVIEWS Summit to think about

Ideas for a Nation, by Donald argued and justified, the ideas are of­ Even where a traitmightbe claimed Horne. Published by Pan Books. fered as simply 'good to think with'. as specific to Australia, this is not be­ 1989. Reviewed by Tony Bennett And should the reader disagree, well, cause it partakes of some general na­ that's fine. Advanced as they are with tional characteristic, but is rather due the lightness of the ironist, not even to the particular circumstances In the note of warning Home commits himself to the last- prevailing in specific sectors of which prefaces his latest ditch defence of any of his ideas. Ex­ Australian society. There is not, then, book, Ideas for a Nation, Donald cept, that is, for one: the conviction as others have argued, a distinctive Home recommends "a cheerful that ideas matter and that, as the Australian accent. There are things (but intelligent) Australian su­ primary agencies of change, they are Australian - but they are not all perficiality" in considering the especially important for nations. Australian in the same way. role of ideas in national life. This, in a nutshell, is the message of In this respect, Ideas for a Nation the book: that nations can be changed turns out to be something of a What he means by this is amplified and that ideas are among the primary graveyard for ideas of the nation as in a later chapter where, suggesting instruments of their transformation. It Home puts more than one national that the Australian reputation for su­ is thus that Home, speculating on the holy cow - mateship, for example - perficiality should be intellectualised, forms in which the bicentenary of through the mill of a critical he argues for a style of thinking that federation might be celebrated in denationalising argument. Nor is the will be satisfied with the flat com­ 2001, closes on an optimistic note. An­ future Home wishes for Australia a plexity of the surface of things. Such ticipating that, by then, republicanism particularly nationalistic one. Rather, thinking, he argues, would limit itself will have triumphed, and sexism and his ambition is that Australia should to the pragmatic concerns of 'whaf racism banished - and offering this be foremost among nations in its ad­ questions, secure in the knowledge vision as a contrast to the doleful vocacy and implementation of the that they are invariably more intel­ rhetorics of empire, race and sex principles of liberalism, humanism, ligent than the contrived profundities which have marred past Australian democracy and the Enlightenment. Its of 'why7 questions. celebrations - Home's wager is that nationalism, he also suggests, should Nor, he suggests, should the prag­ good ideas for the nation will win out be cosmopolitan in its promotion of a matist who is concerned with such over bad ones. multicultural pluralism and diversity. matters be too serious; a degree of Yet Ideas for a Nation is not an espe­ There is, in this regard, a symbiosis playfulness and ironic distancing is cially nationalist book. Indeed, between the book's argument and its always to be recommended. And she Home's investment in the nation is form. For it is clearly Home's view or he might just as well be cheerful. largely a pragmatic one: he recognises that the more questions of nation are Much of this - a nationalised ver­ the importance of nationalist feelings posed with the sort of intellectualised sion of Brecht's advocacy of crude- and sentiments simply because they superficiality, ironic playfulness and thinking - is conceived as a largely are there. Taking issue with those optimistic cheerfulness he recom­ well-directed polemic against 19705- critics who contend that transnational mends - as opposed to deep rumina­ style leftist obscurantism. Yet it also economic relations have diminished tions on the national geist - the more serves to set the scene for the final the force of nationalism, Home con­ likely we are to arrive at the destina­ section of Ideas for a Nation. Here, in tends that such critiques "require tun­ tion he would have us reach. response to that most pragmatic of nel vision of demanding intensity" - questions - What is to be done? - citing recent developments in Eastern On both counts Ideas for a Nation is Horne addresses the question of Europe to support his case. Home, welcome. As 1988 fades into memory Australia's future by raising a set of then, does not spiritualise nationalist and 2001 looms over the horizon, disconnected and incomplete obser­ sentiments but, rather, in recognising Home has usefully sought to set the vations, thoughts and interrogations. their considerable social force, stres­ agenda for the debates which will, no Rather than distracting attention by ses their role in establishing programs doubt, grow apace as the prospect of attempting to be too coherent, as he for action. both the millenium and the anniver­ puts it, his purpose is merely "to Shaped by its formation as a sary of federation draws closer. He throw up some ideas". modem industrial nation of colonial has also, in his advocacy of a relaxed The ideas are advanced in a manner origins, much of Australian society and somewhat detached approach, which - and, again, Brecht springs to and culture, Home argues, can be un­ suggested a productive manner of mind - invites the reader merely to derstood as a response to circumstan­ conducting those debates. consider them. Advanced not as ces Australia has shared with other This is enough for a book to ac­ theses which have to be elaborately nations. complish; and it might have been ac­

ALR: APRIL 1990 REVIEWS 45 complished better had Home been ing ideas as a necessary prelude to capacity as Chairperson of the content to do this and no more. Unfor­ changing society. A program for Australia Council. Yet it's also clear tunately, the conjunctural force of change, in Home's view, depends on that he views it as the task of people Home's intervention is somewhat seeing things differently. with ideas - intellectuals and critics - weakened because he encumbers his It's not that this is wrong. Nor does to make up for the lack, as he sees it, "ideas for a nation" with the weight of Home view ideas as sui generis or as of an autonomous Australian bour­ a set of more general arguments, all having equal access to agents geoisie capable of being economically mostly derived from his earlier works capable of implementing them. Per­ innovative in the national interest concerning such matters as the role of haps more insistently than in his ear­ While I find this unconvincing, I ideas in sodal life, the public culture, lier writings he stresses the manifold doubt Home would regard the mat­ the changing fates and fortunes of inequalities of power which make the ters I have raised as contrary to his class theory and so on. As a result, the notion of a free market in ideas purpose in publishing Ideas for a Na­ edge is taken off those of his ideas ludicrous. What is missing, however, tion. Shortly after the book's publica­ which he is most concerned we should is any sense of the respects in which tion the Australia Council announced think about precisely because they get ideas, if they are to become effective, that it would hold a National Ideas tangled up with more doubtful and, must be capable of being translated Summit (held last month). often, more poorly-stated theoretical into systems of administration and positions and contentions. How the process which Home has machineries of government as well as sought to initiate will turn out will Some of the difficulties I have in programs of action. depend on the input of others. If these mind are occasioned by his use of the And behind this is a more worrying can echo Home's enthusiasm, if not concept of 'the public culture' - a individualism which manifests itself perhaps all his enthusiasms, and be potentially useful term which, how­ in his advocacy of the creativity of offered in the same open, democratic ever, here and elsewhere Home simp­ intellectuals - whether artists, writers, and pragmatic spirit, his cheerful op­ ly overload s in hying to make it do too scientists or engineers - as the best timism may prove to have been jus­ many things. Similar difficulties at­ means of Australia's economic advan­ tified. tend his enthusiasm for the view that cement. Some of this is attributable to TONY BENNETT teaches in reality is a social construct and the Home's familiar advocacy of the Humanities (Institute for Cultural stress he accordingly places on chang- economic benefits of the arts in his Policy Studies) at Griffith University.

The evidence of the 'eighties is that point towards a wages, tax and huge overseas borrowings since economic policy that can work for financial deregulation have fueled the majority of Australians. expansion, and that only 40 cents in Even less should it blandly sug­ every dollar of profit was invested in gest that we all agree with old- productive assets. Stutchbury seems fashioned economic theory which so to believe that the Accord aim of blatantly serves the interest of capi­ reducing inflation has been achieved tal, and which rules that organised - a rate of 7.8% is hardly a success. workers or community organisa­ The profits have been largely tions have no role to play in the al­ wasted in speculation and con­ location of resources and the spicuous consumption. On the politi­ distribution of the benefits of cal description I think he's right. economic activity. Had we got a LETTERS Most ACTU officers believe in con­ Liberal government it would have servative economics, that one been a clear test of the theory that person's pay rise is another's job, that wage cuts encourage bosses to hire Superficial the wage increases gained in 1981 more workers, to produce more caused a recession in 1982. And most wealth for all! Michael Stutchbury's column ACTU officers have worked closely As it is workers will have to fight on wages policy in CALR 114) is with Keating to allow the big transfer harder to ensure productive, ecologi- sloppy and superficial, doing of wealth from wages to profits. cally-sound investment and a boost little credit to a left magazine. But the obvious economic disaster in sodal resources to ensure long­ He contends that low real wages created by the deregulated specula­ term economic viability. tive splurge of the '80s ought to sug­ under the Accords of the Hawke Peter Murphy gest that the theory used by Keating government and the ACTU in fact Surry Hills, NSW. stimulated job creation and invest­ and his admirers is wrong. A Left ment, entirely reversing the main as­ review should say more than the ob­ ALR welcomes letters. Please send sumption in the original Accord that vious - that a wage/tax deal will be them to: ALR, Box A247, Wage cuts led to economic decline. used by Labor in the elections and ______Sydney South 2000.______COLUMNS 46

While I was talking to Barry Stahl, Paddington. They have over 40,000 who runs the shop, Nancye Hayes, titles in stock and offer a mail order the star of 42nd Street, rang to ask for service that covers the globe. a record and Barry, of course, Folkways was built on the belief agreed to take it 'round to the that "there's more to music than the theatre and leave at the box office for Top 40" - especially when the Top 40 her. It's that kind of service that has was dominated by British and US made the shop - and its mail order music Australian music of every service - world famous. kind is thier speciality and they'll Ava and Susan's still sells lots of sell it to you seven days a week, up LPs. They've had to let the little sil­ until 9pm on weekdays, or 6pm at ver discs in, but are still restricting weekends. them to a couple of racks. Stahl, too, Their stock also covers every­ CONSUMING is certain that the LP is being killed thing from Brecht to the blues, Inti- off. His CDs cost about $26 on Illimani to songs of the Spanish PASSIONS average, while the LPs have crept Civil War, Woody Guthrie to the up to $19. Watergate hearings. The Prices Surveillance Warren Fahey, who gives his job CD or not CD? Authority (PSA) is currently inves­ title as "chief larrikin", reckons that tigating Australian record and CD the stock is now about 50% LPs, Sydney seems to have as many prices and, inevitably, some people with the remainder being half CDs specialist record shops as Mel­ are arguing that a complete and half cassettes. But he also feels bourne has specialist bookshops. deregulation of imports would that CDs are gradually taking over Two of the best are side by side bring down prices. and has noticed that more and more in the Town Hall Arcade, under None of the specialist shops like of the more obscure titles they stock Sydney Town Hall. the idea. Much of their range is too are now being released (or re- specialised to be in direct competi­ released) only on CD and cassette. At Shop 19 is Michaels Music tion with cheap imports. A shop like Fahey is deeply sceptical of the Room, among whose 8,000 titles Ava and Susan's earns it's bread and PSA's investigation into record there isn't one record - like most butter from the big selling prices. He shares Barry Stahl's con­ classical music shops these days it's soundtrack hits, like Les Miserables cerns about keeping the inde­ compact discs (CDs) only, plus a and Chess. If the mainstream chain pendent retailers afloat but - since few cassettes. stores all have cut-price import Folkways is also the home of the Lar­ Ms McPhee, who runs Michaels, copies on sale, they'll take a lot of the rikin recording label - he's also wor­ says they stocked records until 1989 specialist's turnover. ried about how independent but they were selling so few by then Barry Stahl is certainly not Australian labels and wholesalers that they could no longer justify the panicking, but he's not overjoyed by will survive deregulation. A small space. While the classical music fans the prospect of deregulation. If it company like Larrikin may not be did go off records, she also believes does come, he's concerned that no able to keep up in an import-based that the recording companies killed specialist will be able to match the price-cutting war with the multina­ off the LP. They stopped releasing clout wielded by the big chains, who tional major labels. While Fahey has new recordings on LP and pushed will undercut the independent no doubt that cheaper records up the prices for LP titles. By the shops on most top-selling titles. would be better for everyone he's time the average classical LP cost While it might mean cheap best­ certain that they'd mean fewer $20 and CDs were only $25, no-one sellers for the mass market, the Australian records and fewer wanted LPs any more. specialist shops may gradually dis­ specialist shops. Michaels has a well-informed, appear and with them, the range of Folkways' policy has always been helpful staff and a superb range of music they sell. to refuse to stock sexist or racist music Their phone number is (02) Ava and Susan's is absolutely un­ material and they've even given up 2671351. beatable in its field and the shop's plastic bags in favor of paper ones. But if you prefer Cats to Chopin atmosphere is terrific. It's phone Wrap up warm when you shop at and Showboat to Stravinsky, then number is (02) 264 3179, or you can there - its customers are so cool you you try next door, at shop 20. Ava fax your mail order requirements on may catch a chill while shopping, and Susan's specialises in musical (02)264 3177. but the staff are eager to help. Their and movie soundtracks and nostal­ Sydney's ultimate specialist phone number is (02) 361 3980. gia - and is the only shop in music shop would have to be Australia that does. Folkways, at 282 Oxford Street, - Jim Endersby

ALR: APRIL 1990 47 COLUMNS

An impassioned plea in 1989 by unionism covered 59% of the the Anti-Treason Co-ordinate, workforce." signed by Turner, denounced the And on opposition to amalgama­ "cover up" of the illegally sitting tion: "If we were to go from 300 to MPs who owe allegiance to foreign 20 unions overnight^ there would be powers. 280 union secretaries who would It asked: "Why are all political have to surrender the Amex card parties and the news media united and the keys to the Commodore." in this dangerous conspiracy to mis­ lead the people of Australia? Why Back to the 'fifties are we subjected to foreign-made The pre-election issue of the laws? Clerks Union magazine The Clerk "Selling eggs outside the Egg put some noses badly out of joint in LOOSE Board is severely punished. Nation­ the upper reaches of the ALP and al betrayal is a greater crime than union movement, according to murder. Loose Cannon's sources. "Does the law now apply only to In a rambling and almost in­ the people and not the government? coherent editorial, FCU national This is just a little of the story of president John Maynes got stuck A foreign threat? treachery and deceit being practised into Medicare and the health system generally. On March 8, the Sydney Morning today." Herald plastered a story across page Just before the SMH story, George What Maynes describes as "the one reporting fears by MPs that they Turner addressed a rather peculiar so-called health scheme" is, he says, may be sitting in parliament illegal­ meeting at the Estonian Club in "a scandal", with waste and inef­ ly. Sydney lawyer, Mr George Sydney's Surry Hills. ficiency in government expenditure where the public come last". Turner, threatened to test in the The meeting was one of a series High Court a little-known provision called by the Conservative Speakers Maynes' analysis of the Hawke of the Constitution which appears to Club whose literature notes that it is government is truly sophisticated: bar anyone with dual citizenship "an educational division of the "it suffers because of a lack of real from sitting in parliament. Australian League of Rights". opposition and the dominance of At least nine have formally the Left in its ranks." Other articles renounced their dual citizenship in­ Berry bails out had veiled attacks on the Labor cluding Peter Baldwin, David The union movement has lost an government's tax and family Bedall, Carolyn Jakobsen, Lewis articulate and thoughtful official, policies. Just the thing when Labor Kent and Chris Puplick. Quite an Peter Berry, secretary of the ACT faced its most difficult election since achievement, but who is George branch of the Building Workers In­ 1983. Turner? dustrial Union. Many predicted a Elsewhere, the pre-election issue According to the SMH, he is a great future for the 37-year old. But of The Clerk has the smell of the councillor on Sydney's Strathfield an interview in the Bulletin last Sep­ 'fifties: Laurie Short (I thought he Council. He also led a Senate team tember would not have endeared was in the FIA?) inveighs against in the March election under the ban­ him to some trade union officials. "the hard Left", and an anonymous ner 'Independent EFF - the EFF His main message was far article recalls the glory days when standing for Enterprise, Freedom removed from the optimistic Maynes and the boys kicked out the and Family. But Loose Cannon has rhetoric which union leaders are Commies in the clerks in 1952. done some digging. wont to disperse to their members. Another article on Hawke's attack on the Left was so good they used it George V Turner, a member of the Unions faced a declining future, he twice. lunar right, heads a whacky crew argued, because of changes in the called the Anti-Treason Co-or­ composition of the workforce due to Trouble is, even The Clerk lets slip dinate, which leads the fight against technology. They had to deliver far what a lousy union the FCU is. In an Fabians, fluoridation, marxists, better services to members and article on the 3% super payment it satanists and supporters of world "market" themselves to women and admits: "Some unionists are only government. It warns of world dic­ young people using modem techni­ now receiving award rights to super tatorship based on subversion by ques. when others received the same "virus invasion of the population"; He also said: "It is at the union benefits in 1987." and has published several booklets, office level where the ignorance and But then the FCU has for decades among them Conspiracy Behind apathy is greatest - where people doubled as a sheltered workshop for World Change and AIDS and the -don't want to understand. They are incompetent and conservative World Government Plot. still living in the 'fifties when craft union officials.

ALR: APRIL 1990 COLUMNS 48

ing aspect of this unique plan, the next date. Thus they share the built-in participation of the object! responsibility for sexual initiation, They ring you, and you say, "Oh, Hi. reducing your level of anxiety. Here Why have you rung?" Thus you are a few words of guidance for this throw the object off guard and gain all-important second date. the advantage. Then, in Step Two I recommend that you go some­ you invite the object out to dinner. where which offers the opportunity Why dinner? It's intimate, you can for physical relief. Perhaps a walk maintain eye contact, but you've got on the beach (cliches can be fun). Or something to do, if you need to fill perhaps you could walk a dog in any uncomfortable silences. Most around the grounds of a large important of all during the dinner, psychiatric hospital. Or go to a do not touch the object dance. Most important of all, you DEAR DR,■ The aim of this dinner is to get to drive the car on the night, because it know the mind of the object. Be­ will give you that all-important HARTMAN cause this isn't about some sense of power and control which is 'seventies one-night stand. What necessary to reduce anxiety. you want in the 'nineties, with AIDS On this second sodal encounter Cliches can be jfun and herpes and privatisation, is on­ you must remember to touch the going commitment. And so you object as often as possible, even if Hello patients, need to know their mind. Now, if apparently inadvertently. I per­ you discover during dinner that you sonally recommend that, early on in As the weather begins to cool, don't like their mind, there's no and the time for snuggling under the evening, you look the object harm done. Just part company as right in the eye and say something warm covers on rainy Sundays is friends. But if you do like their about to come around again, the like, "We're going to get off together mind, you are now ready for Step tonight, aren't we?" or "Let's fuck" thoughts of many of my patients Three. have been turning to the question or whatever is appropriate to your of psychosexual loneliness. STEP THREE is my favourite sodal context The object will laugh step. It's my own innovation. Step nervously, not unlike yourself. But In recognition of your plight, I Three is a simple flamboyant you'll have got it off your chest and present for you now, the famous Dr romantic gesture. For example, why you won't have to spend the whole Mary Hartman Five Point Plan For not send a telegram, "Lovely night night worrying about when it's Getting a Boy or a Girl, Depending Love Mary." finally going to be said. on Your Sexual Preference. This But sometimes, patients, I STEP FIVE, of course, is IT. We plan is a simple kit of sexual tools, a wonder if you can go past choco­ don't give detailed information staged seduction which will enable lates and flowers when it comes to about it Other health professionals even the most foolish fumbler to get Step Three. I think perhaps the cover that area, and we don't like to the object of their desire into the cot women's movement threw the baby interfere in the way the market, with charm and finesse. And isn't out with the bathwater when they sorry, the profession, has been that something we all need in the shied away from such gestures in divided up. 'nineties! I want to assure you that the early years. this plan was not developed in some Just one final word of warning. If academic ivory tower. Not at all! The simple fact of the matter is you do find yourself late one night This plan is based upon years of that women love chocolates and sitting in a car with an object and back-breaking work out in die field. flowers, and chaps aren't known to you hear yourself saying something knock them back either. But use really pathetic like, "Can I come in­ STEP ONE. Ring the object of your own discretion. The simple side for coffee?" for God's sake, your desire when you know for sure aim is to send a dear message of DON'T DRINK COFFEE! If you do, they are not at home. I repeat, ring sexual interest your tension will rocket into a ball when they are not at home. And of anxiety in your stomach. leave a simple message, for ex­ So to STEP FOUR. And again we ample, "Mary rang", and your see the exdting partidpation of the As soon as you get inside the telephone number. The aim of Step object. Because, after they receive object's front door, grab them and One is to get the object thinking your flowers or whatever - any am­ kiss them as quickly and as hard as about you in your absence. Thus biguity which existed during the you can! you begin the all-important process dinner evaporates. of building sexual tension. Now they know exactly what is Send your problems to Dr STEP TWO. The object returns going on and, in a flush of exate- Hartman's secretary, Julie your call. Here we see another excit­ ment, they ring you to initiate the McCrossin, d o ALR.

M S : APRIL 1990 2nd floor 17 elizabeth street melbourne 3000 tel 03 614 2859

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