Lang Hancock, “It all comes from the earth,”
The Australian, December 1, 1977, p. 8, as a letter to the editor.

SIR — Reference is made in several newspapers, including your publication of November 26-27, 1977, that I did not attend a breakfast with Mr Whitlam.

I feel there is no point in the lesser lights in the mining industry having breakfast en masse with Mr Whitlam. I believe it would be far better if the top mining bosses (who probably no longer eat breakfast) met with Mr Whitlam’s bosses (namely the Caucus rabble behind the Uren anti-uranium faction) and explained to them some of the depth charges that they are setting to destroy the mining industry and hence Australia, such as the repudiation of contracts, inter-union deliberately engineered strikes, resource tax, super tax, variable deposit rule, anti-profit, anti-risk capital propaganda, etc.

Admittedly, Whitlam was the first Labor leader ever to remove the political wing of the A.L.P. from total Trades Hall domination, nevertheless he is subservient to the will of Caucus at all times.

The mining industry could do worse than borrow a luxury Boeing from one of the oil-rich sheikhs and take the whole of Caucus to some of the major sources of strategic minerals without which civilisation cannot exist. If they have any intelligence at all it would educate them as to the real reasons for Australia’s growing legion of unemployed. In fact, it would not do any harm to include the “trendy Libs” from Mr Fraser’s Cabinet (brothers with the Cairns/Uren Caucus faction) for good measure also.

Unless Caucus, the press, the Canberra bureaucracy and the unions learn that everything comes from the earth and that we should be earning foreign exchange and not borrowing it to maintain our dollar, then there is no hope for Australia.

In fact, we stand every change of being taken over by a more virile and industrious race — the recent influx of South Vietnamese who are hardy enough to brave the turbulent seas in open, unseaworthy junks is a case in point.

LANG HANCOCK
Victoria Ave
Dalkeith, WA