Media
-
A last hurrah from Graham Freudenberg on his 80th birthday
May Day 2014 – fittingly the day of Neville Wran’s memorial service at Sydney Town Hall – may well turn out to be the day when the Labor Party began to see its way ahead. Not because of the event itself, although it certainly was a marvellous celebration of a great Labor era. But it Continue reading »
-
Walter Hamilton. Yasukuni Shrine and why it matters.
Yasukuni–Japan’s Patriotic Lightning Rod The Shinto shrine known as Yasukuni sprawls over ten hectares in the centre of Tokyo near the northern edge of the Imperial Palace grounds. Here are enshrined 2.47 million ‘deities’––the spirits of Japanese military personnel and civilians on war service from conflicts going back to 1853, including around 1,000 convicted war Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Taxes – public or private
The Commission of Audit has recommended that a Medicare levy surcharge be applied to individuals earning more than $88,000 a year and $176,000 for families. This is designed to force high income earners to take out private health insurance. This is one of the most economically stupid and dangerous proposals that I have seen for Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Anzac and hiding behind the valour of our military.
For those who may have missed this. I have reposted this earlier piece about Anzac and hiding behind our heroes. John Menadue There is an unfortunate and continuing pattern in our history of going to war- that the more disastrous the war the more politicians and the media hide behind the valour of service men Continue reading »
-
We were warned about lobbying.
In my blog of April 19 2014, ‘This is about more than a bottle of wine’ I referred to the need for major reforms in lobbying. Three and a half years ago the ICAC in NSW brought forward proposals to better manage lobbying and avoid corruption. The Recommendations of the ICAC are still relevant today. Continue reading »
-
Simon Rice. Racial vilification, social values and humility
I have spent a professional lifetime trying to get people to know about (let alone respect) anti-discrimination law, and suddenly everyone knows about ‘section 18C’. For all the wrong reasons. A right reason for knowing about 18C would be because it is offers guidance on what can fairly be said and done on the basis Continue reading »
-
Rod Tiffen. Abbott contempt of court.
After the 2013 election, the ABC satirical program The Hamster Decides responded to an election night comment by the columnist for the Australian Chris Kenny that the ABC’s funding should be cut with an animated version of Kenny having intercourse with a dog. Kenny demanded an apology and then sued for defamation. It is unusual Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. The war on asylum seekers
For political purposes the government has deliberately embarked on a policy and a language to militarise the asylum seeker issue in the same way the Howard Government did in the “war on terror”. It is designed to highlight the government’s resolve, to play to our fears about a threat and to lessen our rights to Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. The Carbon Tax and Flat-Earthers.
Despite all the political rhetoric and hysteria, the evidence is mounting almost daily that the carbon tax is largely working as planned and that its impact on electricity prices is quite small, particularly compared with the ‘network costs’, the poles and wires, which have been the main drivers of increased electricity prices. But the flat-earthers Continue reading »
-
Mark Gregory. NBN – ageing copper network and structural separation.
The Australian telecommunication industry is in crisis and centre stage is an ageing copper network that some would have you believe is good for another hundred years and others argue it is time to move to an all fibre access network. But the problems extend far beyond copper versus fibre and go to the heart Continue reading »
-
Chris Geraghty. The ABC and Scott Morrison
The ABC has been much criticised, by our Prime Minister no less, and by the silly bullies on some commercial radio stations, for not being patriotic enough, for not barracking for the home team. Disloyal journalists published a story that some wounded, unwelcome refugees who had been intercepted on the high seas by our navy Continue reading »
-
Walter Hamilton. The ABC and its Japanese Cousin.
If the board and management of the ABC need to firm up their ideas about the proper relationship between a public broadcaster and the government of the day they might consider what is happening in Japan. NHK, that nation’s public broadcaster, is a $7bn enterprise largely funded from television licence fees, with a board of Continue reading »
-
John Menadue. Alcohol and violence on the streets — the tip of the iceberg.
In recent weeks public attention has been focused on alcohol fuelled violence in Sydney streets and the very slow response of the NSW government. But the response when it did come really only addressed the ugly tip of the iceberg. the violence on the streets. The government response was superficial – minimum mandatory sentencing, greater Continue reading »
-
Pearls and Irritations – one year on. John Menadue
I launched this blog in January last year. To date there have been 285 posts, just over 5 a week. I hope you have found some ‘pearls’ and been ‘irritated’ from time to time. Thank you for your support. I have enjoyed putting together stories that I believe are important for Australia’s future. I now Continue reading »
-
Journalists are not welcome in Nauru. Elaine Pearson
Dramatically increasing the cost of visas to enter Nauru places severe restrictions from the ability of journalists and others to let us know the truth about asylum seekers being held there. John Menadue Here’s an innovative way to discourage foreign media scrutiny of a touchy human rights issue: jack-up the cost of a journalist visa Continue reading »
-
Repost: Pink Batts – facts and fiction. John Menadue
The following is a repost from July 11, 2013. I wonder if it is necessary for the Abbott Government to rake over the past rather than concentrate on the future! The fiction is continuing in the uncritical media that only the Commonwealth Government should bear responsibility for the problems of the Home Insulation Scheme. We Continue reading »
-
Repost: Are most asylum seekers and refugees Muslims? John Menadue
Repost for holiday reading. Well, as a matter of fact, they are not. But I am sure that many commentators and a lot of the community believe that most are Muslim. The dog-whistlers like Scott Morrison feed on this assumption .According to Jane Cadzow in the Sun Herald he urged the Coalition parties “to ramp Continue reading »
-
The cost of healthcare in Australia and remuneration of doctors. Guest blogger: Professor Kerry Goulston
The cost of healthcare is unsustainable here and in many other countries. In Australia it is 9.5% of GDP, estimated to rise to 16-25% by 2025. There are obvious reasons for this—population ageing, end of life heroics, increased technology and increased use of procedures. A rapidly increasing contributor to the cost of healthcare in Australia comes from Continue reading »
-
Climate change as portrayed in ten major Australian newspapers. John Menadue
Last week the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism at the University of Technology, Sydney released a report on the above subject. It highlighted, amongst other things the unprofessional performance and influence of News Ltd publications in shaping the public debate in favour of the sceptics of climate change. This is despite the overwhelming consensus by Continue reading »
-
A somersault – back to business as usual. Guest blogger: Arja Keski-Nummi
While in opposition Tony Abbot conducted a robust and aggressive policy on boats that effected Indonesia. But now he has done a somersault in order to put the Australian-Indonesian relationship back on a more even footing. As his speech at the official dinner portrays he has gone to the other extreme and engaged in rather Continue reading »
-
How the Australian media frames North Korea and impedes constructive relations. Guest blogger: Dr Bronwen Dalton
An analysis of the last three years of coverage of North Korea in the Australian media shows a tendency in Australian coverage to uncritically reproduce certain metaphors that linguistically frame North Korea in ways that imply North Korea is dangerous and provocative; irrational; secretive; impoverished and totalitarian. This frame acts to delegitimize, marginalise and demonise Continue reading »
-
Tony Abbott’s debt to Rupert Murdoch. John Menadue
Media Watch of 9 September gave us a snap shot of what Rupert Murdoch did for Tony Abbott. It said “the final tally of (the Daily Telegraph’s) coverage in the election campaign stacks up like this.Out of a total of 293 political stories we scored only six as pro Labor. While 43 were pro Continue reading »
-
The aftermath of Saturday’s election. Guest Blogger: David Combe
David Combe was ALP National Secretary from 1973 until 1981 Just over a month ago, I received an email from an old friend – an ALP Life Member who belongs to the ‘my party right or wrong’ school of loyalists – asking my thoughts on the likely outcome of the election which Prime Minister Rudd Continue reading »
-
The election – punishing bad behaviour. John Menadue
One thing the election did was to explode the perceived wisdom that if the economy was doing well, governments are seldom voted out. But the Rudd Government was. As I have written in earlier blogs. The Australian economy, by almost any measure is one of the best performing and managed in the world. Our material Continue reading »
-
Boat arrivals are down. John Menadue
You would hardly know it if you read the Murdoch papers or listened to the Canberra bureau of the ABC but boat arrivals are dramatically down in recent weeks. How ironic it would be if even before Tony Abbott becomes Prime Minister, that asylum seekers arriving by boat have been reduced to a trickle. It Continue reading »
-
Excluding the ABC. John Menadue
It is disappointing, at least to me that the ABC has not been the host of the election debates between Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott. Instead it is has been left to Fox News, 50% owned by Rupert Murdoch, who is keen to buy the other 50% from Telstra. When will the Murdoch monopoly end? Continue reading »
-
Japanese amnesia and the contrast with Germany. Guest blogger: Susan Menadue Chun
Our four Australian/Korean children were educated in Japanese primary schools. Every summer holiday we struggled through the prescribed homework text- Natsu no Tomo (Summer’s friend). In the early August segment, there were assignments regarding WWII. They stated, “talk to your parents about WWII and write a composition about the importance of peace”. So, we talked Continue reading »
-
Foxing with the News, Japan style. Guest blogger: Walter Hamilton
On Wednesday 7 August 2013, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe acknowledged that the clean up of the devastated Fukushima nuclear power reactors was beyond the capacity of the operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). It followed the revelation that heavily contaminated groundwater is flowing into the Pacific Ocean at an estimated rate of 300 Continue reading »
-
One Minus One Equals Nothing – Also True in Journalism. Guest blogger: Walter Hamilton
As an executive journalist at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation I was concerned on a daily basis with balance and fairness in news and current affairs coverage. I often heard it said, ‘if both sides of politics are criticising us, we’re probably doing a good job’, though I never embraced this mantra. In journalism, as Continue reading »
-
Galahs and princes. Guest blogger: Walter Hamilton
What was that about Australia and the Asian Century? The umbilical cords still tie us to the past. John Menadue From Walter Hamilton: I had a choice today on the ABC Online News website of reading a story about a galah plague in a Queensland outback town or viewing the ‘first pictures’ (breathless pause) of Continue reading »
