'I love my media mogul'
If anyone doubts that there will be a federal election this year, they need only observe the spectacle of John Howard and Kim Beazley making promotional videos for rugby league, under the slogan "I love my footy".
These — so far — unpaid advertisements are not really designed to win favour with league fans, whose pleasure in the game is hardly likely to be increased by the smiling insincerity of politicians. But Kerry Packer and Rupert Murdoch have divided ownership of rugby league between them, and what party leader would risk offending the print media duopolists at any time, let alone in an election year?
Forward to reaction
"This proposition that we lost in '93 just because of the GST is nonsense", John Howard claimed on Nine's Sunday program on March 1.
The Financial Review reports that the Coalition is "planning a major new public strategy" to win public support for "tax reform" before the election. This term of course is the standard media and politicians' euphemism for the exact opposite of reform: i.e., a goods and services tax.
Similarly, attempting to return wages and working conditions to the 19th century is termed "industrial reform".
A good rule of thumb: whenever you hear a Coalition or Labor politician say "reform", substitute "reaction"; it will give you a better idea of what is really intended.
Foundation denies GST claim
The Evatt Foundation has denied a report, carried in the Sydney Morning Herald on March 2, that an inquiry by the Evatt Foundation "has swung behind support for a 5 per cent goods and services tax (GST)".
The Evatt Foundation is considered an ALP-aligned think-tank, and the Herald believed that the report would be an election embarrassment for the Labor Party.
Green Left Weekly contacted the foundation to request a copy of the inquiry's findings and was told, "The report in the SMH was wrong; the report conducted by the Evatt Foundation concerning the GST is still very much in the research stage".
The Herald claimed that "sources close to the Evatt committee that conducted the inquiry" had revealed a "consensus position" for a GST at a rate of 5%.
Virtual progress
Immediately before an election campaign is obviously the time to make a show of doing something about the promises of the last campaign that have been ignored since election night.
Small business minister Peter Reith on March 1 announced his "commitment" to reducing "red tape" for small business — one of those left-over 1996 pledges. Reith said he was going to set up an electronic "business entry point" with which small business could access government.
It is not clear whether Reith has something more than a telephone in mind.