Viv Forbes, “HEALING THYSELF,”
The Australian, January 11, 1979, p. 6, as a letter to the editor.

Why is Mr Fraser telling us to set aside politics in his new year message? It is surely his job to stop politics from intruding into the private and economic life of every citizen.

Let’s look at a typical Australian whose birth is registered by the Government. He will then be hounded by bureaucrats and tax collectors for the rest of his life.

They will: inspect his toys, regulate his education, provide his library books, mollycoddle his sports, set his working hours, register his occupation, dictate his wages, tax his first pay packet, license his marriage, inspect his house plans, medicate his water supply, provide his power, connect his telephone, monopolise his mail.

Manage his buses, trams and airlines, build his roads, broadcast his news, print warnings on his cigarette packets, control his travel, monitor the health of his children, control the price of food, put levies on his production, subsidise his competitors.

Monopolise the marketing of his products, confiscate his land, put quotas and tariffs on the best products available in the market, tamper with the value of his money, metricate his measurements, censor his entertainment, legislate on his family arrangements;

Judge his religious beliefs, prescribe his drinking habits, regulate his retirement, register his death, and put taxes on everything that moves.

All of this was inflicted on us by politicians and their hired officials, yet the chief politician, Mr Fraser, is telling us to set aside politics. Would that we could.

Our advice to Mr Fraser and his ilk on both sides of our Houses of Parliament is this — “Physician, heal thyself.”

VIV FORBES
National secretary
Progress Party
Indooroopilly, Qld

*****

Jim Fryar, “Bedevilled,”
The Australian, January 29, 1979, p. 6, as a letter to the editor.

The recent letter by Mr Forbes (11/1) points starkly at the degree of government interference in the affairs of the individual, from birth to death and thereafter.

For this state of affairs to exist is an indictment of our basic misunderstanding of the nature of government as an institution.

Mankind has been bedevilled throughout history by two major misconceptions in this area.

The first is the idea of government as an omnipotent authority.

This is strongly favoured by those in power and those who seek to obtain power from this source.

This attitude appears to be derived from the idea of the natural order of the insect world, in some cases, and divine intervention in others.

The second is the idea of government as a servant. It is fairly popular, being based on the belief that, by establishing such an institution, all the resources of the world can be brought to our disposal, regardless of means or effort, similar to the cargo cult.

This is the idea promoted by pressure groups, those wanting something for nothing and governments facing elections.

Government is in fact nothing more than an expedient — a convenience.

In order to protect our natural rights, we have evolved government as a means to regularise a system of laws to this end.

As such, we can only vest in government such powers as we as individuals possess.

Most of the matters mentioned by Mr Forbes are actual violations of this principle.

It is not surprising, therefore, to hear Mr Fraser asking us to set aside politics. If I were acting in this manner, I would not want people to talk about it either.

JIM FRYAR
Glastonbury, Qld