From the Port Macquarie News:

Racism outrage: Pamphlet condemns Muslims
By LYNN HORD
Wednesday, 16 August 2006

A LETTER drop of pamphlets denouncing Islam and multi-culturalism has left some Port Macquarie residents incensed.

One woman was so horrified she immediately penned a letter to Prime Minister John Howard and sent a copy of the offending material to local MP Rob Oakeshott.

“I am outraged that this material is allowed to be promoted as our Australian way of life,” said the Port Macquarie woman, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals.

“To me it is in the same vein as the Ku Klux Klan,” she added.

The materials that have elicited such strong reaction are anti-multicultural pamphlets from the Free Australia Movement and the Australia First Party.

The former is a six-page booklet about Islam, claiming it is an ideology that if ignored, could orchestrate the end of the Australian way of life.

The latter equates multiculturalism with genocide, stating that it is “an extremist anti-Western political ideology … that wishes to snuff out the existence of all white-populated countries”.

Member of the national council of the Australia First Party Dr Jim Saleam stands behind the content of his party’s publications.

While he has no knowledge of who made the letter drop in Port Macquarie, he has no problem with Australia First material being disseminated as long as it is in an “appropriate manner” and bears the Australia First mark.

Dr Saleam said his party did not have an affiliation with Free Australia Movement.

People of the Hastings could see more of Australia First in the next few years. Its political aspirations include registering as a party by October this year (it was de-registered in 2004) and running a candidate in the 2008 Port Macquarie- Hastings Council elections.

The party claims the Hastings area was a stronghold for Australia First when the party was formed in 1996.

Dr Saleam said: “We don’t have a group that’s formally constituted there at the moment but we are re-activating members who were recruited by the party’s founder Graeme Campbell.”

Wauchope Uniting Church minister John Queripel called the party’s arguments illogical, while Rob Oakeshott said the party should put its money where its mouth is.

“These publications don’t have the guts to put a local contact. I challenge them to give me a call and I will happily talk to them about how being a united nation will always beat being a divided one – a diverse Australia is the way forward,” the MP said.