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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, MARCH 4, 1983
PAGE 6
Mr. Fraser, a fiscal conservative, has pursued a tough monetary policy. He
has cut the growth of public service and slashed welfare outlays.
Yet
Australia, feeling the effects of world inflation and reduced markets for
its exports, is suffering from 10.1% unemployment and 12% inflation. The
ambitious Mr. Hawke, representing the union-backed Labor Party, pledges his
own version of a "jobs bill" proposing to create 500,000 jobs over a three
year period.
Prime Minister Fraser is campaigning hard to capitalize on the public's
irritation over continual strikes by Australia's powerful trade unions. He
proposes, if reelected, to hold a referendum on curbing union strength.
Mr. Fraser says the March 5 election
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is about responsibility."
He is
gambling on popular support from a regularly-inconvenienced public to do
what no Australian leader has done before: tame the unions. Problem is,
many of the voters in highly unionized Australia are also union members and
regard challenger Hawke highly.
One thing to watch in case the high-flying Hawke wins: the Australian Labor
Party, in power, would be less cooperative with the United States. During
the terms of Fraser and President Reagan, the U.S. and Australia have seen
pretty much eye-to-eye on defense matters with regard to the Australasian/
Indian Ocean area.
This would undoubtedly change under a Hawke government, reverting possibly
to the frosty relations that prevailed between the two countries during the
prime ministership of Gough Whitlam, immediately preceding that of Mr.
Fraser. Reports the Australian mewsmagazine, THE BULLETIN,_ in its February
15, 1983 issue:
[The ALP) opposes the stationing of United States ships or forces
at Cockburn Sound in western Australia.
The party also has
called for a nuclear-free zone for all of the southern hemi
sphere. Both these policies, if pursued in office, could lead to
differences with the Reagan Administration which is committed to
the expansion of its naval role in the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
Australia's Morality Connection
As bad as Australia's labor strife is, there is something more fundamen
tally negative occurring in Australia--a moral undermining of the national
character similar to that in Britain and America. Radical social reformers
are having a field day. British journalist Paul Johnson recently visited
Australia and filed a lengthy report which appeared in the SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
of January 2, 1983. Here are a few pertinent excerpts from his article
entitled "Whatever Happened to the Lucky Country?"
In the Sixties the phrase "the Lucky Country" was coined.
In
fact, there was little luck--nothing but hard sweat and peril•...
There are far more tales of heroism and sacrifice in the pene
tration of the Australian outback than in the whole history of
the American Far west.
Still, you can see what they mean by lucky. South of Brisbane,
Queensland's Gold Coast stretches away into azure infinity. It
makes Florida seem dingy, California very second-rate, Hawaii a
marine slum•..• Not that Australians feel lucky at present. The