Sunday, September 28, 2008

Big brother of a problem

Phil Dorling, a senior journalist at The Canberra Times had his home raided last week, & equipment seized(read:confiscated).

The Media Alliance has written a letter of protest to Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus about the AFP raid on the Dorling residence, outlining that the raid is an attack on press freedom, and that it undermines the Rudd Government's election promise to enact shield laws that adequately protect journalists and their sources.

The media union have also launched a protest against the Queensland Police Ethical Standards Division for their invasive investigation of journos that cover police issues.

The ABC claim the Qld ESD 'have been accessing the private bank details and phone records of reporters who have dealt with police officers as part of their job,' particularly in regard to stories they would prefer weren't aired.

It is perhaps notable that it was the work of journalists who sparked the investigation leading to the Fitzgerald Inquiry, which could be argued was in the public interest and in accord with the ethical traditions of pursuing accountability of government via the 'Fourth Estate.'

The head of the MEAA Chris Warren, said 'if... police investigators have been snooping into journalists’ phone records and bank accounts to try and discover their sources, this is a direct threat to the important role journalists’ play in informing the public.'

'Whistleblowers perform a service of the utmost importance to the public and if they cannot have the confidence to reveal matters of public interest without risking their jobs then the people of Queensland will be the losers,” Chris Warren said.

Though the most that journos who work in such inhospitable reporting environments would suggest, is that it's good that such treatment is finally 'on the record.'

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Crow Moon

The Crow Moon, or Worm Moon, this year brings with it for West Australians a change in government and a change in Labor leadership, with Carps resigning and the Liberal & National Parties joining forces to form a small majority to lead the government.

The impact of having a party comprised almost entirely of middle-aged and middle class non-Indigenous men, with most Liberal party women sadly having quit after the appointment of the last Libs leader - Troy Bra Snapper Buswell, cannot be underestimated in regards to representation of women's rights and interests, and also those of the state's traditional owners.

This complete lack of diversity in representation may well also bode a lack of funding and consideration of issues affecting these groups, & the next three years will require particularly strong lobbying by welfare groups and those interested parties in opposition, to ensure that women and minorities are not overlooked in favour of big business in this resources-obsessed economy.

Unfortunately, so too will this lack of diversity also impact on the balance of news presented in the WA media, which mostly already promote social exclusion and 'fear of crime' that the judiciary can readily and miraculously deflate using only the power of accurate statistics. Big business & shareholder interests in the state's only daily are seldom scrutinized by competitors, although the beleaguered outgoing Labor ministry made no secret of the bias they perceived conveyed in its content everyday. It is puzzling that in a state producing a third of the country's GDP there is so little competition in the WA media market, but hopefully in the absence of interest in disadvantaged groups by mps & journos, the real battlers may receive a few less bludgeonings in the media.

The federal environment minister is under pressure to heritage list the world's largest rock art collection, at Murujuga in the state's north-west. Colin Barnett's election promise to prevent future industrial development near the rock art may force the hand of a reluctant federal Labor ministry to place the Burrup & the rock art on the National Heritage Register. The Carpenter government was long criticized for their inaction in protecting the 40,000 year-old art from neighbouring massive fossil-fuel and mining multinationals, whose operations in the past have caused destruction of the irreplaceable art and defaced the sacred site. A campaign - Stand up for the Burrup - by a small group of archaeologists and traditional owners, has brought the threat posed by industry into the international arena and prompted widespread condemnation for the politicians dragging their heels over business interests in the region.



A story yesterday from John Pilger, try to laugh.

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Change is coming - the teflon's wearing thin

The West Australian election last Saturday has left the state in limbo with a hung parliament and deals to be done over lunches, or as Warren Mundine would say - "tea and scones."

As the dancing begins, WA Labor ministers are keeping busy doing a two step over their guest appearances at the Crime and Corruption Commission hearings over the last year, and the party is also - amazingly - fielding possibilities of renewing their links with a couple more disgraced former Labor ministers, sacked over their involvement with lobbyists Brian Burke(The man in the Panama hat) and Julian Grylls(yibbida-yibbida).

Heritage (& former police) minister Michelle Roberts is in hot water ("doesn't she look tired?"DW)for de-registering her heritage listed property without disclosing her interest in it, although her ministerial future may prove no more bleak than the rest of the *potentially* outgoing ministry.

Another former police minister, John D'Orazio (dubbed The Godfather in the media during the CCC hearings - most likely for the raspy quality of his voice), faced the harsh glare of a corruption probe last year and was subsequently kicked out of the Labor Party. He beat Labor's candidate in Bayswater & gleefully offered his preferences to the Liberals. Similarly gleeful are Perth's public servants who remain, for another fortnight, in 'caretaker mode,' which for the plebs is official terminology for '6 weeks of smokos.'

The state Labor government are copping it nationwide over campaign contributions from colourful identities, though it is a sad indictment on the lack of transparency in politics that campaign contributors from 2004 are breaking news only four years later.