Australia’s Opposition Party and the sound-bite media
UKIP’s dangerous precedent for Australian conservatives, REneweconomy, By Giles Parkinson on 6 May 2013″………modern media has trained their readers to consumer news and politics in uncomplicated sound-bites, and now want their policy platforms to be delivered in the same way. It’s worked marvellously for Tony Abbott. The Australian Opposition leader popularity is based around three-word homilies such as “Stop the boats” and “axe the tax”. Never mind the detail – these policies bear little scrutiny and are impossible or impractical to implement: In sound-bite politics, no-one cares.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that Abbott was delivered to the top job in the Coalition – and a likely prime ministership – by a highly conservative rump of the Coalition that ended bipartisan support on climate change policies. It was led by senior politicians, such as Nick Minchin, who didn’t and don’t accept climate change science. Many still remain in the party.
Even more dangerously, bipartisan support is now fracturing around renewables, despite the fact that theAustralian Energy Market Operator has found that 100 per cent renewables is emminently achievable, and not so costly, and that other studies such as Bloomberg New Energy Finance suggests that wind, and soon solar, are cheaper to build than new coal and gas fired generation – all of which needs to be replaced in the coming decades.
Despite this, all the state-based coalition governments remain married to the policy altar that deems that renewables are costly and useless, and don’t reduce emissions, and they want the renewable energy target killed or neutered.
Many of its new recruits – such Nahan, the Nationals’ Angry Anderson, the Liberals Angus Taylor and Zed Seselja, and the Canberra based would fit comfortably within the UKIP platform. As would many of the incumbents – Joyce, Corey Bernardi, Eric Abetz, Andrew Robb, Simon Birmingham, Michaelia Cash, Alby Shultz, Bill Heffernan, Ian Macdonald, and a host of others.
John Howard had just as many arch-conservatives in his own party, but he had the strength of leadership to keep the factions under control. The importance of this should not be underestimated. Even Labor’s right factions would have fought hard against progressive climate change and energy policies if they hadn’t been effectively neutered by the coalition with the Greens and the country independents.
The question is whether Abbott has the authority to keep these Tea Party and UKIP style politics under control, or even if he wants to. He owes a debt to those who thrust him into power in the first place, and has never convincingly laid his “climate change is crap” remark to rest. He may just gladly go along with those that want to extend those policies to curb renewables. Has anyone heard a Coalition politician say they shouldn’t? http://reneweconomy.com.au/2013/ukips-dangerous-precedent-for-australian-conservatives-13428
The Canberra Mainstream Media Press Gallery – a Closed Shop
How the Canberra Press Gallery shut out Independent Australia, Independent Australia, 29 April, 2013 The Canberra Press Gallery Committee has knocked back Independent Australia and its nominee from gaining representation. Callum Davidson explains what happened. by Callum Davidson A few months back, myself and David Donovan, managing editor ofIndependent Australia, agreed it was high time that the vocal and growing online community of Australian political blogs deserved a voice in the Press Gallery of Parliament House.As it turns out this is a difficult task to accomplish.”…..I hold an Advanced Diploma in Journalism and have been working freelance for a while now; but infinitely more importantly, I live a stone’s throw from Parliament House in Canberra……The press gallery is a bizarre and fascinating beast. Most of the Australian public still digest their political discourse from those guardians of information tethered to the cramped dorms on Capital Hill. All major mainstream news outlets, both television and print, have long had reporters stationed directly within our political elite. From Fairfax to News Limited to ABC, journalists mix with Federal politicians and their staffers, conversing with media opposition and rapaciously competing when necessary. But with the aspirational digital age and the declining fortunes of traditional media, would they let an outsider in?
[ David Speers Press Gallery Committee says ] “The Committee has decided to decline your request.
Generally new entrants to the Press Gallery will only be approved if they are established journalists working as such.
Your website appears to be opinion-based rather than a news site……”.
All news outlets are opinion based to some degree (some significantly more so than others) where does one draw the line? CertainlyIndependent Australia has developed a huge following not through opinion pieces, but through its original investigative reporting – that is, “new” news – such as the Jacksonvilleand Ashbygate investigations and the outstanding environmental exposés of Sandi Keane amongst many others.
The real question is, did Speers’ committee really take a close look at Independent Australia without any preconceived notions, or did they simply see it as just another “blog” and dismiss it out of hand? Is this another example of old media snobbery?……
Malcolm Turnbull recently made a rather hip appearance at the Woodford Folk Festival lamenting the current state of political media coverage.
He said:
“Broadcasters, or politicians or writers…who think that they are respecting ‘struggle street’, the battlers, … by dumbing things down into one-line soundbites are not respecting them — they are treating them with contempt.”
He urged bloggers et al to scrutinise politics and policy in the manner he believed necessary for a functional democracy. The question here is whether or not this is possible without complete ‘access’.
There are a number of brilliant online publications (with Independent Australia being right up there of course!) that do a fantastic job of sifting through the endless political data to provide material for palatable consumption to inform the public.
But, is this enough?
(For more information about how Canberra Press Gallery accreditation is awarded, please read this February 2013 Crikey article.) http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/business/media-2/how-the-canberra-press-gallery-shut-out-ia/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=IA+Newsletter%3A+Our+Samizdat+Years&utm_source=YMLP&utm_term=Read+the+story+on+IA
How the Australian media situation resembles that of Soviet Russia
The article below, from Independent Australia, talks about Samizdat. This was new to me. So anyway, I guess that the analogy is that we, in Australia, are now “informed” by the blanketing propaganda of the Murdoch media. So, we have to rely on alternative media, like Independent Australia, New Matilda, Crikey, and various blogs to learn the truth.
Samizdat n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samizdat Samizdat (Russian: самизда́т; IPA: [səmɨzˈdat]) was a key form of dissident activity across the Soviet bloc in which individuals reproduced censored publications by hand and passed the documents from reader to reader. This grassroots practice to evade officially imposed censorship was fraught with danger as harsh punishments were meted out to people caught possessing or copying censored materials.
Vladimir Bukovsky defined it as follows:
I myself create it,
edit it,
censor it,
publish it,
distribute it, and …
get imprisoned for it.[1]……History
Self-published and self-distributed literature has a long history, but samizdat is a unique phenomenon in the post-Stalin USSR and other countries with similar systems of tyranny. Under the grip of censorship of the police state, these societies used underground literature for self-analysis and self-expression.[9]…..
Australia: cult Murdoch is ruling us, and telling us what we should think
Our samizdat years, (includes 2 good videos) Independent Australia 4 May, 2013 Never before have we had a press so controlled, says Bob Ellis, with all the anti-Abbott or anti-Coalition news being deliberately minimised. “…… the Newspoll fraud continues, with Katter preferences going not to Labor but the Liberals, meaning an actual preferred vote for Labor of 49 is being disguised as 45.5, and landline surveys on holiday weekends are not adjusted, and shown as crises for Labor on days when they are winning or competitive. This is as serious as the Malaysian stuffing of ballot boxes will be tomorrow, but in Australia it has become routine.
Cult Murdoch is ruling us, and telling us what we should think. It is what Soekarno liked to call a ‘guided democracy’, where the Dear Leader conceals the bad news and gives himself 98 percent in the orderly elections.
Murdoch, a crook, derided by the House of Commons as ‘unfit to run an international organisation’, owns eighty percent of our newspapers and vigilantly decides what is in them, including Newspoll. And, as in America, where his pollster Rasmussen always showed Romney inexplicably doing well, he shows Abbott ahead still though he has lost policy round after policy round in the past two months and been repeatedly accused of criminality…..http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/our-samizdat-years/
I have been aware for a year now that Labor was competitive and the good policies ‘overshadowed’ by the Rudd challenge would eventually achieve the light of day and win for them, but now I am not so sure. It may well be that the Karl Rove-style implacability-of-attack of the broadcasters and pundits may have achieved its end, and so smirched Labor that it will lose, I fear, by one seat.
But it may not be so……http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/our-samizdat-years/
Journalists should scrutinise Australia’s politicians on their ignorance on climate change science
many Australian politicians – and the Australian media. Very rarely have politicians who reject climate science in Australia been asked to explain their justifications on scientific grounds.
According to the Political Leaders and Climate Change Index (PLCCI) published in 2010 by the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland, the number of politicians in the parliament who either don’t or won’t accept the science of climate change in Australia is significant.
The likelihood of a Coalition government winning in 2013 makes the public statement of personal opinions on human induced climate change an issue of national and global importance.
Your MP doesn’t ‘believe’ in climate change? Ask the tough questions, The Conversation, Brad Farrant, Fiona Armstrong, Karen Kiang, Mark G Edwards , 27 April 13 As we head into an election, you’d be justified in asking what your local member is basing their climate change decisions on.
If your MP says “I don’t support policies to prevent dangerous climate change” because “I don’t believe climate change is occurring” or “I’m not sure climate change is human caused” is this position justifiable simply because it’s his or her personal opinion?
While everyone may be entitled to their own opinion, are our elected leaders being ethically responsible when they justify inaction on climate change based on personal opinions? Sustainability ethicist Donald A. Brown, from Widener University School of Law, emphatically argues, “no” – they are not.
In a recent widely republished blog post on ethicsandclimate.org, Brown argues government officials have an ethical responsibility to understand the state of climate change science. Politicians hold crucial leadership positions where they can enact policies that can prevent or minimise great harm. These policies, to put it bluntly, affect millions, if not billions, of people around the world.
Governments and elected officials cannot ethically choose to rely on their own uninformed opinion or ideology instead of the scientific consensus. Continue reading
The Institute of Public Affairs has a radical plan for Australia
So what, exactly, is on this think tank’s wish list?
- Public broadcasting – gone. The ABC to be broken up and sold off, SBS to be fully privatised.
- Corporations to be allowed to make secret payments to political parties.
- Medicare gone for most Australians.
- A return to WorkChoices, just by another name.
- The clean energy fund and the renewable energy target – scrapped.
- Funding for sport and arts – including the Australian Institute of Sport – axed. Same for science, with the CSIRO to be privatised.
GetUp! to date on the IPA’s radical plans for Australia http://www.independentaustralia.net/2013/politics/getup-to-date-on-the-ipas-radical-plans-for-australia/ 11 April 13, Tony Abbott has said ‘Yes’ to many of the IPA’s 75 radical policies to transform Australia — but which ones? Progressive thinktank GetUp! is concerned, writes Graham Jackson.
Not-for-profit community campaigner GetUp! is another independent group highlighting the stark contrast between the Institute of Public Affairs recent indulgent dinner and the austerity plans it has for Australia. With Margaret Thatcher’s death and legacy currently in the news, GetUp’s recent email to its members (reproduced in part below) provides a timely reminder that arrogant Thatcherism is still alive and well. Call it whatever name you like, but the IPA ‘vision’ for Australia is a dog eat dog world. The alternative vision embraces the idea of community. What kind of country do we want? September 14 will provide the answer. Continue reading
Western Australia- Aboriginal and Community use radio to inform about uranium mining
Active Radio – not Radioactive http://nuclearfree.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/active-radio-not-radioactive/ Aboriginal and comunity representatives have today launched a state wide radio campaign highlighting the risks posed by uranium mining in WA. www.votenuclearfreewa.org
The campaign features a series of advertisements to be played on radio stations from the Kimberley to Kalgoorlie ahead of the March 9 state election that describe planned uranium mining as ‘today’s asbestos’ and condemn the use of Royalty for Regions subsidies to private uranium projects. The ads have been produced by the West Australian Nuclear Free Alliance, a network of Aboriginal, environment and public health representatives and organisations concerned about the long lasting and negative impacts of uranium mining on communities and country.
The ads are set to run on commercial, community and Indigenous radio stations across the Kimberley’s, Goldfield’s and the Pilbara.
“WA has an abundance of clean energy resources and resourceful people, our future is renewable not radioactive,” said WANFA spokesperson Mia Pepper.
“The Liberal and National Party’s plans for uranium mining have been flying under the radar so we have decided to put the issue on the airwaves.” Continue reading
THE AUSTRALIAN’s Graham Lloyd misled readers on the truth about global warming
it does not accurately represent Pachauri’s thoughts on the subject – namely that as discussed in this post, global surface temperatures have plateaued (though over the past decade, not 17 years), and that this in no way disproves global warming.
To hear what Pachauri actually thinks about global warming without first passing through The Australian’s filter, you can listen to interviews with him on Radio Australia and ABC News. Also see a similar debunking of this myth by The Australian Climate Commission.
Did Murdoch’s The Australian Misrepresent IPCC Chair Pachauri on Global Warming? 25 February 2013 by dana1981 As we have discussed many times at Skeptical Science, although the warming of global surface air temperatures has slowed over the past decade due to a preponderance of La Niña events, the rate of heat accumulation on Earth has not slowed at all. In fact over the past 15 years, the planet has accumulated more heat than during the previous 15 years (Figure 1). That’s global warming.
Unfortunately many people (often even including climate scientists) mistakenly equate the warming of global surface air temperatures with global warming. That is simply inaccurate. Approximately 90% of global warming goes into heating the oceans.
So the reality is that global warming continues unabated. Despite this reality, an article by Graham Lloyd in The Australian (paywalled) claims that the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Rajendra Pachauri agreed that there has been a 17-year pause in global temperature rises. Unfortunately we don’t know exactly what Pachauri said on the subject, because Lloyd did not quote him directly (which is a red flag). Continue reading
Paladin, Ashurst – now Roger Helbig trys to shut down Antinuclear – we must be having an impact
Here’s what Roger Helbig sent me today: ” Your first immediate action is to take my name out of your
e-mail subject line. I have already advised WordPress and I will make
every possible effort to take down your WordPress blog and eliminate
your ability to ever have another WordPress blog.” along with a lot of other threats of legal action.
This humble little website is now in the company of some much more illustrious sites. For example – “It has come to our attention that an 
individual by the name of Roger Helbig, has been going to great effort to damage our reputation” http://www.salem-news.com/
There are dozens more .. you see, Roger Helbig makes a profession of harrassing and preferably shutting down, any voices that criticise the use of depleted uranium.
Also
Murdoch press – THE AUSTRALIAN – caught out on climate change error
The Australian corrects the record on climate change Crikey, CATHY ALEXANDER | JAN 17, 2013
The national broadsheet has issued a correction for a recent story which claimed rising sea levels were “not linked to warming”. Read what was in the story, and what was wrong with it, here.
The Australian has issued a rare correction on climate change, for a story which claimed rising sea levels were “not linked to warming”.
The story, which appeared under an “exclusive” tag on Tuesday and was written by environment editor Graham Lloyd, was based on a recent scientific paper in the Journal of Climate. Lloyd wrote that “the latest science on sea level rises has found no link to global warming”.
Crikey read the research paper, looked into Lloyd’s three articles on the subject, and highlighted inaccuracies in the way the research was presented(read Crikey’s stories here and here). A correction appeared in The Australiantoday, and the original story has been taken down….
The Australian has been criticised in the past for running stories which some perceive as misrepresenting the science on anthropogenic climate change, but it has rarely issued corrections on its climate change stories.http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/01/17/the-australian-corrects-the-record-on-climate-change/
Story of David Bradbury’s nuclear/uranium journey on film
A first wave of David Bradbury’s critically acclaimed filmography is now available for immediate streaming video on ScreenZone.tv:
http://www.screenzone.tv/products/jabiluka
http://www.screenzone.tv/products/hard-rain
http://www.screenzone.tv/products/public-enemy
http://www.screenzone.tv/products/blowin-in-the-wind
ON THE FRONTLINE: A ScreenZone interview with David Bradbury, 15 Jan 13 “……DB: My current film examines the three stages of the nuclear film cycle on a very personal level. It started when I met an aboriginal woman called Isabelle Dingamah (sic) about four years ago, and I started to film her story. She is one of the traditional custodians of the land at Roxby [Downs]. As a little girl she’d had the British atom bomb dropped on her and her family when she was 18-months-old. It’s kind of Shakespearian.
It’s unfolded organically, which is how I make my documentaries, and filmed as I go. Continue reading
Australia’s media quality and independence down the gurgler if Murdoch/Abbott win 2013 election
Firstly, there will be no legislation to inhibit the absolute freedom
of the press in Australia. They will be able to print any damn thing
they want. Truth will be shredded and thrown out the window, personal
privacy of targeted individuals will be rampantly invaded and their
characters destroyed.
Murdoch will insist on selling the ABC
Australia will never again abstain in a U.S. promoted vote in the
United Nations. Australia will return to lockstep the US in
international affairs.
If Rupert Murdoch wins in 2013 , (includes video) Independent
Australia, 29 Dec 12
Rodney E. Lever provides a chilling preview of what will happen if
Rupert Murdoch gets his wish and Tony Abbott & Co win the Federal
election next year. LET’S JUST PUT our thinking caps on for a minute
and imagine what Australia would be like if Rupert Murdoch gets his
wish and in 2013 installs a coalition government led by Tony Abbott,
Joe Hockey, Julie Bishop and Mal Brough. Continue reading
Murdoch’s AUSTRALIAN news compares wind energy proponents to paedophiles!
The day The Australian died, Independent Australia
28 December, 2012
Professor Stephan Lewandowsky reports on the exchange that finally,
completely, destroyed Australia’s national newspaper credibility.
“………In May 2012, The Australian ran an opinion piece by Mr James
Delingpole in which he riled against wind energy under the title:
“Wind farm scam a huge cover-up.”
Wind turbines actually constitute an increasingly important tool in
our arsenal of alternative energy to wean the planet off fossil fuels;
however, Mr. Delingpole begs to differ. Among other arguments, Mr.
Delingpole cited an unnamed Australian sheep farmer’s opinion that:
“The wind-farm business is bloody well near a paedophile ring. They’re
f . . king our families and knowingly doing so.”
Yes, that did appear exactly as quoted in The Australian. Continue reading
Surprise, surprise, the Murdoch press pushes Climate Change Denialism
Biased newspaper reporting on the carbon pricing mechanism, The Conversation, By David Karoly, Christian Slattery, Kathryn Townley and Kerrie Haria Adams from University of Melbourne.) 18 Dec 12,
The Australian print media have been criticised for inaccurately reporting the carbon pricing mechanism (CPM), and in some instances for actively campaigning against the Gillard government. Research from the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism, before the start of the carbon price, reinforced these claims. It found an overwhelmingly negative coverage of the carbon price by News Limited papers in a study of ten national newspapers.
Following the introduction of the carbon price, an undergraduate research team from the University of Melbourne has confirmed these findings in an analysis of The Age, Herald Sun and The Australian.
We found that these newspapers are contributing to an uninformed and inadequate public debate on the carbon price and Australian climate change policy…….
The carbon price follows logic set out in the Stern Review. It advocates for investment in climate change mitigation now, to ensure continued economic prosperity and minimise later economic costs from climate change impacts or delayed climate change mitigation.
Not only was this fundamental argument barely mentioned, discussion of climate science was almost non-existent. This is critical to public perceptions of the carbon price, as without reinforcing the motivations for introducing such a policy, readers are less likely to believe it is necessary….
the overall media coverage does not discuss the need for action on climate change, nor does it balance the short-term economic costs against long-term gains. http://theconversation.edu.au/biased-newspaper-reporting-on-the-carbon-pricing-mechanism-11373
Origin and Energy Australia – ignorant critics of wind energy community acceptance
But for Origin and Energy Australia to assert that there isn’t a social license to operate for wind farms in this country is preposterous given their small part in actually developing wind projects
What would Origin and EnergyAustralia know about wind?, Climate Spectator, 21 Nov 2012, Tristan Edis
Origin Energy and EnergyAustralia (formerly TRUenergy) were on the front page of The Australian newspaper yesterday claiming the renewable energy target couldn’t be met because of community opposition to wind farms.
According to Origin Energy, wind farms are causing greater angst in the community than coal seam gas. And Energy Australia felt the around 300 MW of wind installed each year was “already testing the limits of community acceptance.” EnergyAustraia’s CEO Richard McIndoe was cited by the newspaper as claiming that the social licence wasn’t there to ramp up construction of wind farms.
This sounded rather interesting because I regularly talk to people heavily engaged in developing wind farms. These people attend community meetings, talk with local landowners, and deal with planning approval hearings – and this is very different to what they’ve told me. Every one of them of course has a horror story to tell about some particularly challenging people they’ve had to deal with in getting planning approvals. Often these people live several kilometres from the nearest turbine, or even outside of the local community, such as just about everyone involved in the Landscape Guardians and the Waubra Foundation.
But they generally find that if you take the effort to consult extensively within the community, you can get a large proportion of the community on-board. So it poses the question – do Origin and EnergyAustralia actually know what they’re talking about?… Continue reading
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 