• The GREAT SUPERANNUATION RIPOFF.  Some time past the Australian Taxation Office raised revenue by taxing contributions to PAYE taxpayer superannuation schemes, (excepting the parliamentary scheme) resulting in prepayment of income tax by retirees. In light of recent taxation rebates and reductions by lugubrious John Howard, my questions are:

1. Can this prepaid tax be used to fund the health care rebate due to retirees?
2. When the GST is introduced and income taxes are reduced, will those retirees who have prepaid tax be entitled to an annual refund of their prepaid taxes?

• Since the failure of US prohibition in the 1920's it seems axiomatic that legislated prohibition does not result in eradication of the offending goods, rather it serves to increase their supply and is a sure recipe for the forced incubation of a new criminal provider class.  Lugubrious John's vigorous enforcement of drug prohibition seems to have accelerated those established trends.  I fail to see how "zero tolerance" as promoted by President Clinton will do anything except accelerate growth in use as happened in the USA.   Mr. Kennett and Federal health minister Wooldridge might have got it right with their controlled distribution, a method that seems to have been successful in Switzerland.

• It is an Australian axiom.  Every job has it's perks.  My garbo expects alcohol every Xmas.  So most Australians are probably bemused by IOC concerns about the travel rorting of representative Coles.  Cabinet minister McGauran merely refunds any federal travel money he inadvertently overspent. So why can't Coles do the same?   (He needs a good spin doctor to tell him to say that he thought that the people in Salt Lake City were giving him free accommodation and free travel because they thought he was such a great guy.)

• The Pinochet Principle discovered by the English Law Lords (expanding jurisdictions & innovative applications) will hopefully eventually apply to the perpetrators of the Queensland shreddergate.     An eminent QC has explained that the whole Queensland cabinet could be vulnerable to charges under the crimes act if they ordered the destruction of documents that they knew might be subpoenaed.  Would be perpetrators of fraud inside government would do well to remember that information trails continue to exist, and that expanding data processing capabilities will allow unimagined future insights into what seem now to be adequate cover-ups.  Shredding the evidence might well prove to be even more dangerous than leaving it be ....

KURDISH SPIN

Clinton is desperate to survive Monicagate.  If it was given the right spin in the home market, the establishment of a strong position against the already vilified Saddam might well be the winning strategy.  (Of course Saddam was never particularly culpable.  After all, he did obtain US permission before he invaded KUWAIT.  Just like Suharto cleared it with Australia before invading Timor)

1. There are 20 million KURDS, spread through Turkey, Iraq & Iran.  None of these countries wants to surrender strategically valuable land in this oil rich region for a Kurdish nation.
2. Turkey is a vital & essential partner of the USA against IRAQ.
3. The CIA has admitted involvement in the capture of the KURDISH separatist leader Ocalan.
4. Harder to believe is the disclaimer of MOSSAD.  Imagine the pressure that the US could apply to Israel.  Perhaps the Israeli leadership was responsible?
5. The pressure can be measured by the involvement of the Greeks, traditional enemies of Turkey.