John Menadue
Publisher and Editor
Callum Foote
Associate Editor
Subscribe to our newsletter
Author Archives: Quentin Dempster
Assange: Still waiting… for your right to know
We’re all still waiting … for your right to know. The right of the public in our democracies to know what’s really going on is being tested at this very moment at the Old Bailey in Merry England.
Les Miserables – Killing the ABC in a time of national emergency
Empty chairs at empty tables … where my friends will sing no more. (Les Miserables – the musical). The departure of many of the ABC’s most experienced journalists, producers and presenters has immiserated the public broadcaster.
The ABC’s five-year plan is spin for managed decline
Ita Buttrose and her ABC board have produced a glossy five-year plan to cover up the fact the ABC is in accelerating decline through Morrison government de-funding.
Posted in Media
Leave a comment
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. BuzzFeed out: So much for diversity in Australia’s media
Two years after Australia’s competition watchdog green lighted the biggest consolidation of media ownership here in more than 40 years, the withdrawal of online start-up BuzzFeed has exposed its misjudgment.
Posted in Media
5 Comments
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Let ‘er rip!: Snowy 2.0 project now an integrity test for Gladys Berejiklian
The New South Wales Berejiklian Government now faces an integrity test over the fast tracking of final approval for the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro electricity project in Kosciuszko National Park.
Posted in Infrastructure
10 Comments
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Catholic Church duplicitous and unaccountable in needs-based school funding says Malcolm Turnbull
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has detailed private conversations with a Catholic Church leader to substantiate claims that the church has been duplicitous and unaccountable in distributing taxpayer money within its school system.
Posted in Politics
8 Comments
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Google and Facebook versus News Corp/Nine as Australia’s newspapers are declared “terminal”
With Australians about to lose their local and metropolitan newspaper coverage the competition watchdog sent to the rescue is facing the prospect of litigation from tech giants Google and Facebook.
Posted in Politics
4 Comments
QUENTIN DEMPSTER supports Pearls and Irritations.
Pearls & Irritations has become an exploratory platform for thinkers and analysts out to both share their insights and knowledge and test themselves against an informed peer group.
Posted in Commendations
Leave a comment
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. The Frankenstein effect – why whistleblowers are needed now, more than ever
If we’re not properly informed .. we can create monsters. This is called the Frankenstein effect. Whether you’re a taxpayer, a citizen, a consumer or a shareholder expecting to live in a free and fair society with peace and prosperity, you … Continue reading
Posted in Media
3 Comments
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. New nuclear arms race brings higher risk of global catastrophe
The world is at its highest risk of a global catastrophe in decades, thanks to an unpredictable resumption in the nuclear arms race. Veteran defence and security analyst Brian Toohey has warned that talk of war between the West, and … Continue reading
Posted in Defence/Security, World Affairs
2 Comments
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Press Freedom – thank god for Annika Smethurst’s underwear drawer
Thank god for Annika Smethurst’s underwear drawer…. that’s all I can say. Never in the history of Australia’s battered democracy has the secret state and its understandably paranoid intelligence agencies been exposed by the undergarments of a Murdoch reptile.
Posted in Politics
9 Comments
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Why the Libs cannot be trusted with the ABC..
2 March 1996. Journalist: The commitment to maintain (ABC) funding in real terms … does that stand?Senator Alston (on behalf of incoming Prime Minister John Howard): Absolutely. 6 September 2013. Incoming Prime Minister Tony Abbott: .. and no cuts to … Continue reading
Posted in Media, Politics
2 Comments
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Berejiklian government in danger in NSW election
With just two weeks to go to the state election, a political dispute over Sydney’s Allianz stadium has galvanised New South Wales voters.
Posted in Politics
Leave a comment
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. The ABC is now fighting for its survival (Speech delivered on 7 February 2019)
In trying to defend the ABC as an institutional pillar of a fearless free media in Australia’s robust democracy, first, we have to confront paranoia.It comes in the form of constant Murdoch Press complaints that the ABC is biased and … Continue reading
Posted in Media
10 Comments
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. PM’s anti-corruption commission is a picture of impotence (The New Daily, 14.12.18)
No public hearings? Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s proposed Commonwealth Integrity Commission is deeply flawed in its current conception under the authorship of Attorney-General Christian Porter and the Attorney-General’s department.
Posted in Politics
5 Comments
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Mass media power plays and the death of Fairfax
The competition regulator ACCC has now green-lighted the death of Fairfax Media Ltd., the governance entity what has been a foundational influence on public interest journalism in Australia since 1831.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Google vs News Corp in Australian algorithm war
It’s Google versus News Corp Australia in a battle over the way algorithms can be controlled to drive internet search engine traffic.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. A short history of the ABC. Part 2.
The Senate will be enquiring into political interference at the ABC. Quentin Dempster provides useful historical background to that inquiry.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. A short history of the ABC. Part 1.
The Senate will be enquiring into political interference at the ABC.Quentin Dempster provide useful historical background to that inquiry.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. ABC: Frontrunners to replace Justin Milne emerge (the New Daily, 27.09.18)
The Morrison government is to appoint a new ABC chairman immediately as fallout continues over the sacking of managing director Michelle Guthrie.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Government moves ABC chair Justin Milne to the exit ramp (the NewDaily, 27.09.18)
The Scott Morrison government and the ABC board are moving to pressure ABC chairman Justin Milne to resign as soon as possible.
Posted in Media
2 Comments
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Was there a political motivation behind ABC’s Michelle Guthrie sacking?
The unexpected sacking of ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie has raised one big question, among the many.
Posted in Media
Leave a comment
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. ‘Because it’s wreck-able’: Anger mounting at decision to end Fairfax.
The proposed end of Fairfax Media as an entity governing the editorial output of The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review and regional newspapers has provoked mounting anger by some of Australia’s most prominent journalists.
Posted in Infrastructure
5 Comments
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. The new coalition that is really governing Australia.
There’s a new coalition governing Australia. On Thursday it was personal tax cuts and the contentious elimination of the 37.5 per cent tax bracket from 2024.
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Australia’s sledge hammer to crack foreign influence pedlars.
New laws to protect Australia’s democratic governance and economy are about to be determined, now with heightened fear about Chinese influence. Draft bills before federal parliament cover electoral funding, cybersecurity and espionage and a new enforceable regime of self-registration for … Continue reading
Posted in Asia, Politics, World Affairs
2 Comments
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Now only 4 cents a day: ABC Board planning public campaign
A meeting of the ABC board in Sydney on Thursday is expected to plan a roadshow campaign to take its case for triennial funding to the public.
Posted in Media, Uncategorized
1 Comment
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Positions vacant: NBN Co’s ‘death seat’.
After Mike Quigley and Bill Morrow, who’s next for NBN Co’s CEO ‘death seat’? It can be called an executive death seat because the NBN’s business plan to start recouping the cost of the Turnbull government’s mis handled $49billion multi-technology … Continue reading
Posted in Infrastructure, Politics
2 Comments
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Emma Alberici’s now more critical tax cuts ‘analysis’ reposted by ABC
After a bitter dispute between ABC management and their star chief economics correspondent, Emma Alberici, the ABC today reposted her ‘analysis’ of the Turnbull government’s plan for big corporate tax cuts.
Posted in Media
3 Comments
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. Has the ABC buckled to PM Malcolm Turnbull by removing critical ‘analysis’ of the claimed benefits of corporate tax cuts?
The ABC’s chief economics correspondent Emma Alberici stands by her ‘analysis’. Significantly the ABC, through Ms Alberici’s editorial superiors Gaven Morris, the director of ABC News, and Alan Sunderland, director of editorial policies, do not.In a promoted article posted on February … Continue reading
Posted in Media, Politics
13 Comments
QUENTIN DEMPSTER. The ABC’s selective publication of classified documents: “gutless kow-tow” or responsible journalism?
The ABC has been blasted by journalist critics over its selective editing of the national security classified and Cabinet-in-secret documents it received from a “bushie” who discovered them in discarded filing cabinets.
Posted in Media, Politics, Uncategorized
1 Comment