Darby Report 293 Thursday 8 April 2004 May You and Your Loved Ones Receive All the Blessings of Easter
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Darby Report 293 Thursday 8 April 2004 [email protected]. Mail: PO Box 401 Manly NSW 1655 Australia NOTE NEW PHONE NUMBER: Phone +61 2 9972 9316. Mobile 0402 558 947 = May you and your loved ones receive all the blessings of Easter. We pray for the safety of all the brave individuals around the world who are defending liberty and peace against all forms of international terrorism. Click here to visit the Darby Report Blogspot, kindly established and maintained by Dr J.J. Ray Please add the following line to every email you send in the next week: The news & views waiting for you: www.darbyreport.da.ru CONTENTS OF DARBY REPORT 293 To return to this menu: Ctrl/Home (DOUBLE) CLICK ON THE ITEM YOU WISH TO READ Container for Ghana NSW Planning Nightmare Keating Revisited NZ Opposition Leader Brash Focuses on Tax Reduction ABC Bias UN's Internet The Threat We're Ignoring Now How 9-11 happened Linking Al-Qaida and Iraq More Rubbish from Senator Kennedy (endorsed by Mark Latham) Zim: Paul Laughed Windbag meets windmills Why do they hate us? Richard Butler and the Ukqwitt Register An Utterly Stupid Labor Idea and the Dickman-Darby Alternative Letters to the Editor Work in Progress: 200 Poets of the People (6 files totalling 974pp) (web update is six months behind the current state of development) ÅPLEASE PATRONISE DARBY REPORT ADVERTISERSÆ 9Action_Business_Brokers 9Alain_Woolf’s_Hypno_Comedy 9At_Call_Limousines 9Attention_all_poets 9Beyond The Razor Wire 9Colleen_Mathews_Art_ 9Dine_with_Darby_@_Harry’s_ 9Donate_used_computers 9Engine_Room_Internet_Coy 9The Flying Doctors (RFDS) 9Wonderful Yacht Available 9Giltinan’s_Tennis_&_Squash 9Good_Links 9Independent_Funeral_Services 9Islam_Unveiled 9Kerry_Collison_the_author_ http://www.geocities.com/proudofthetruth/DarbyReport292/index.html - Summer 9Neutral_Bay_Village_Shoe_Repairs 9Pay_Darby_with_Bartercard 9Planning_a_Big_Event 9Redback_Surf_&_Snow_ 9Seeking to build your business? 9Soviet_Brutality 9Work_of_the_Salesians This issue’s quotation, helpfully selected by John Woods: "Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime." -- Potter Stewart Presentation method Each Darby Report is presented as a website, accessed by clicking on the titles of individual articles (above), or by choosing one of the following links: Darby Report 279 Darby Report 280 Darby Report 281 Darby Report 282 Darby Report 283 Darby Report 284 Darby Report 285 Darby Report 286 Darby Report 287 Darby Report 288 Darby Report 289 Darby Report 290 Darby Report 291 Darby Report 292 Darby Report 293 The Darby Report may be distributed widely by any medium. Michael Darby is willing to address any gathering in the cause of individual liberty, is available to perform poetry in an honorary capacity at schools and nursing homes, and may be called upon as an expert compère and popular entertainer for charity fundraisers of all kinds. He also likes to make a quid, and gives great value as a performance poet and comic, so employ Darby as a featured performer and superb motivator at conferences and conventions. The tireless North American correspondent for the Darby Report is Erich Kern. Opera singer Andrew Heggie is our man in Manchester, Eric Bruckner provides the French connection, Jamie Whitelaw writes from South Africa, Dr JJ Ray is our erudite Queensland source and Dr. Hal G.P. Colebatch in Perth is the wise man of the West. The Darby Report frequently carries material from Zimbabwe´s courageous Eddie Cross, Cathy Buckle, Paul Themba Nyathi and Jenni Williams. Kerry Collison is our authority on Indonesia and South East Asia. Unsigned articles in the Darby Report are the work of Michael Darby. Views expressed by contributors to the Darby Report are not necessarily shared by the editor. Michael Darby writes and publishes as an individual, not as a representative of any organisation. In particular, Michael Darby is not a spokesman for the Liberal Party. Container for Ghana Sincere thanks to all Darby Report subscribers who have contributed used computers, clothing, tools, bicycles, typewriters, stationery, sportswear, tools, balls for all sports, toys and other items for delivery to Ghana and distribution to rural schools under the auspices of the Consul General for Ghana, Kofi Osei. I’ll be loading the container at the premises of Storage King, 27 Mars Road, Lane Cove West on Easter Saturday morning 10 April. So if you can spare any of the abovementioned items or related items (or packing material) to fill the vacant spaces, please bring them to Storage King between 9am and noon. If another time would be more convenient for you, please phone me on 0402 558 947. NSW Planning Nightmare Carr Hits Applicants for $4 Million Rather Than Reform Peter Seaton MP Media Release 6 April 04 The Carr Government should get stuck into effective planning reform, rather than slap another $4 million of new costs and charges on applicants trying to find their way through the complex duplicative and out of date planning system. Shadow Minister for Planning and Infrastructure Peta Seaton said today’s admission in the mini-budget that the Government would collect $4 million a year from development applicants to cover the costs of assessment is an admission of the crippling cost of the planning system to business and jobs. Ms Seaton said this extra $4 million in charges comes on top of the more that $15 million already reaped by the Carr Government through the Plan First levy which hits every homeowner and renovator who lodges a development application with a council. “The PlanFirst levy was meant to pay for the implementation of planning reforms. So far all we’ve seen is the tax - and nothing of the reforms’, she said. “No wonder it’s increasingly attractive to do business in Queensland and Victoria”, she said. “The Carr Government is making NSW less competitive with more property charges. “Applicants and communities in NSW routinely face complex planning rules, shifting goal posts, and government departments with duplicative or complicated requirements when development applications are considered. It’s become a nightmare’. Ms Seaton said examples like the Luna Park tower proposal application reveal sloppy and ambiguous Government planning frameworks including imprecise Local Environmental Plans and State Environmental Planning Policies, which generate hours of work for lawyers and planning experts - and thousands of dollars of costs. ‘In the case of Luna Park, the Government has announced it will to amend planning rules to get the result it wants. ‘There is no certainty in this system for applicants or communities, and uncertainty is a recipe for higher costs and community anxiety. Ms Seaton said the Government had ripped homebuilders and renovators off to the tune of more than $15M with the PlanFirst levy – but promised reforms have never happened. The Government has dragged the chain on planning reform, with a year of taskforce work and several reports issued, and the Government still to act on the recommendations. ENQUIRIES: 0427 203 402 Peta Seaton MP Member for Southern Highlands Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Planning Shadow Minister for Illawarra Shadow Minister for Reform of Government Phone: 0248 613 623 Bowral Office Fax: 0248 613 546 Phone: 029 230 2261 Parliament House Fax: 029 230 3355 Keating Revisited (By the late John Pearce) John Pearce was a popular and talented Sydney broadcaster who during his career produced many “Pearce’s Poems”. Here is one such poem, written on 3 February 1996. My name’s Paul Keating, and I’m as keen as mustard, To run Australia one more time. You know I can be trusted. But imagine Johnny Howard! I throw scorn upon The little guy from Bennelong. No, don’t trust John. He wants to sell off Telstra. And that would do much harm Against every Labor principle, selling off the farm; I sold the Commonwealth Bank and Qantas, to its last aileron Well that’s okay for me, but never trust John. John says he won’t wreck Medicare, something he once hated. Of this we must remember as I quote his speeches, dated: His promises are nothing, so let them all be gone. Every word I say is true. Can you say that of John? I go to Parliament when I can. Italian suits look sleeker Than the Aussie ones that Howard wears; and then I tell the Speaker Everything I say is quite okay, but he must frown upon The Opposition’s antics, particularly those of John. Those L-A-W tax cuts. Don’t worry, they’re still coming Don’t believe a word that Howard says, or you’ll soon be succumbing To what the surveys say; they’re all untrue, a con. You don’t have to love or like me, but, please don’t trust John. NZ Opposition Leader Focuses on Tax Reduction Dr. Don Brash writes. No. 27, 7 April 2004 In mid March, I gave a speech clarifying where the National Party stands on tax policy. I have been upfront about my view that if New Zealand is to be a country that delivers strongly rising incomes, we need to reduce tax rates substantially. In particular, I am on record as indicating that we should aim to substantially reduce personal income tax rates in New Zealand. This is not to say that in the current situation this can or should be achieved overnight, or in one large round of tax cutting. Longer term goals are one thing; short-term priorities quite another. National’s top priorities for tax reductions are tax relief for low-to-middle income families, and a cut in corporate tax rates to boost business investment. The Labour-led Government has, over the past four years, increased 15 different taxes, many of them a consequence of the decision to lift the top personal income tax rate to 39%. That move has pushed 20% of full-time workers into the top 39% tax bracket.