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Letters to the Editor:

Larry Anthony's police minders

Rosie Lee recounts an intimidatory brush with police at the 
A&I Hall, Bangalow, when she and a friend handed out leaflets in 
front of Larry Anthony (Echo, June 29). What could be more 
meritorious and appropriate than representing the 162 imprisoned 
refugee children, who cannot speak for themselves, before the 
Minister for Youth & Children's Services on World Refugee 
Day?

The pair were interrogated by Larry's four burly police minders, 
prompting Rosie to ask whether all electoral candidates will 
receive the same degree of protection. Unlike other candidates, 
Larry needs police protection, Rosie, because he is afraid of 
being arrested by a citizen outraged by his complicity in crimes 
against humanity.

He told our anti-Iraq war delegation that he fully supported the 
war and that there were no differences between himself and the 
Howard Government on this issue.

Forty-three Australian legal experts judged the invasion of Iraq 
illegal. There was no discernable threat to the US, Britain or 
Australia; UN inspectors scoured Iraq for any shred of evidence 
of WMD-nothing was found then and nothing has been found during 
the following 448 days of searching.

In violation of Article 39 of the Geneva Convention Australian 
troops were enthusiastically dispatched with a send off based on 
lies and deception. International law was smashed when the first 
of 3000 US missiles belted into Baghdad, a city of 5.6 million, 
of which 50 per cent are children.

The US has mostly ignored its legal obligations to avoid 
targeting civilians (even the British military complained about 
the US policy of "shoot first question later") and not causing 
untold environmental harm, by using cluster bombs and depleted 
uranium ordnance.

Australia, as a member of the Coalition of the Willing, is 
therefore complicit in crimes against humanity.

Additionally, our troops hand over Iraqi prisoners to the US 
military when the US has refused to ratify the Convention Against 
Torture and so we violate the same treaty which we have ratified 
(six weeks ago I wrote to Attorney-General Ruddock and US 
Ambassador Schieffer about this but have had no replies).The huge 
level of support I received after unsuccessfully trying to arrest 
Prime Minister Howard, prompted me to start GROVIL — Grassroots 
Resistance Opposing Violations of International Law — whose 
purpose is to facilitate the citizen's arrest of MPs complicit in 
crimes against humanity.

To this end, promised donations (one person offered $1000!) have 
enabled GROVIL to offer 10 awards of $500 each for citizens who 
arrest MPs; after the event they just have to send the evidence 
of the arrest and contact details to grovil@resist.ca, to claim 
their reward (police officers are encouraged to apply!).

Once an arrest has occurred the arrestee must hand over their 
charge as soon as possible to a magistrate or to the police. 
GROVIL is gratified that Larry now has police minders. This will 
make it easier to consign him to police custody once arrested.

As Larry and other Coalition MPs gear up for an election, let 
them beware of the hand they shake: it could be the one that 
arrests them!

Gareth Smith
Nuclear Disarmament Party candidate for Richmond
Byron Bay, NSW

As a member of the ALP for over 30 years as well as President 
of the Mascot Greek Orthodox community I was asked by the Botany 
Municipality to represent it at the Water Board for a few years 
in the 1990s. During this time I had the opportunity to visit and 
study the dams and sewage systems of NSW and Sydney in 
particular.

I was surprised to find that there were only seven dams. 

The first of them was constructed in 1889 and the last, which 
also happens to be the largest, was constructed in 1950 (see 
Table below).

From 1960 until the present, it is my understanding that there 
have been no more dams constructed despite the fact that Sydney's 
population has grown significantly since then.

Minister, I will refrain from making any further comments 
regarding the importance to any community of having a sustainable 
supply of potable water, because I am sure you are quite well 
aware of it. Suffice to say something needs to be done urgently 
to remedy what appears to be a patent undercapacity, one that has 
been adequately illustrated in recent times.

Name & Address supplied

Dams & Reservoirs       Completed     Capacity(ML)
Prospect Reservoir      1907          8.870 
Cataract Dam            1907         94.300
Cordeaux Dam            1926         93.635
Avon Dam                1927        214.360
Nepean Dam              1935         81.365
Woronora Dam            1941         71.790
Warragamba Dam          1960  2,057,000

Enclosed is some money to help keep our paper going. (Much 
appreciated — Ed.)

I write happy in hearing of the political demise of Harradine, 
although I haven't heard him during the Iraq debate; we all had a 
gut full of him during the Vietnam issue.

He rolled in the gutter with the worst of them and interfered 
with our Tasmanian Union voices against our involvement against 
the Vietnamese people, particularly our then AEU.

He and his henchmen rolled our District Committee of which I was 
a member in Branch No. 2 Hobart.

(Hooroo to another Pope product!)

Larry Gowland
Tasmania

Because of your article on Merlin Luck's Big Brother 
protest I have written to him, and also to Gretel Killeen 
(not a fan letter!).

How often have we wanted to confront the people, nine out of 10 
people who avoid eye contact, when you are looking for public 
support for a petition, in the street. But it is not something 
can do. But he did it; confronted the people who watch Big 
Brother with a reality most of them would turn away from. 
Brilliant.

To quote, and sanitise one slightly, the brilliant song by The 
Herd: "Wake up! This country needs a f****** shake-up".

Vanstone! Release the refugees, now!

Stephen Langford
And nine others Paddington, NSW

Flagpoles, school mottos, saluting and marching in step... 
Education Minister Brendan Nelson is preaching the gospel of 
nationalism as a substitute for school funding.

Australia's public schools are already doing an excellent job of 
promoting values. They don't need to be told how to suck eggs by 
the Minister. What they do need is money to buy books, repair 
buildings and employ staff.

Nelson wants to distract us from the central issue — public 
school funding — so he beats the drum of national pride, proving 
once again, in the words of Samuel Johnson, that patriotism is 
the last resort of scoundrels.

Adequate funding for state schools? Run that up the flagpole and 
I'd salute.

Linda Gale
Secretary, Progressive Labour Party
Kensington Victoria