|
April 2001 - Letter to the editor:
Cash for Minister a denial of democracy.
|
We read with dismay that the communications
Minister Richard Alston is "selling" his meeting rights at $7,500
a pop, and then his minder's official defence of this rort being that people
in the IT sector can still gain access to him (Age 16 March 2001).
As far as we are concerned the latter statement is a lie.
We have been trying to meet with him since 1998 without success to discuss
IT matters and internet censorship policy, only to be told that he is "too
busy" to see anyone such as ourselves.
We are a GST paying small business in the publishing and IT sector, run
several internet domain name servers (originally in Australia, but now
we've moved mainly offshore because of the poor legislative regime in this
country) and employ a number of people.
Alston's own actions have forced us to invest in the United States creating
jobs there, rather than here in Australia, which is something we would
have preferred.
Clearly Mr. Alston and the rest of the Liberal Party are more concerned
with looking after their own personal interests rather than actually listening
to their own constituents or properly managing the economy.
In our case we are Alston's immediate constituents and our business in
Doncaster is just over a km from Alston's electorate office in Box Hill
(which seems to be closed for 90% of normal business hours).
Our own lack of access to government ministers such as Alston is mirrored
by numerous other small and medium business operators and yes, it seems
that unless you are one of the chosen few who can call on special favours
and bailouts (including Johnny Howard's little brother), then you are in
the cold as far as this government is concerned.
When Alston's party gets thrown out of office next election - because of
the recession his own government has caused, he will only have himself
and his party to blame.
Raymond Hoser,
Kotabi Publishing and IT,
Physical address:
41 Village Avenue,
Doncaster, Victoria, 3108,
Australia:
Phone:
Home: (03) XXX
Mobile: 0412 777 211
E-mail: adder@smuggled.com
This letter was sent to several
media outlets including the major Sydney and Melbourne papers. None published
it. The only exception was The Strategy April 2001 (vol. 10 (no. 113), page 15) a newspaper
available only by subscription and with a reputation for telling the truth,
regardless of whether or not it upset's Australia's self-appointed ruling
elites.
For the real news we suggest you subscribe to the
paper. For further details e-mail:
Strategy@net-tech.com.au