It’s the weekend so I’m going to keep this post rather brief and open the floor for debate. News Limited is running with the headline “Dead PM Walking“, suggesting that Kevin could be rolled any day now in favour of Julia Gillard. This comes on the back of dismal polling in Western Australia which gave a two party preferred number of 62-38 for the Coalition, with Labor’s primary at only 26 per cent (!!). Granted, it had a high margin of error (around 5%), however it was in line with the WA numbers from the recent nation-wide Nielsen poll. The mainstream media are thus arguing that pressure is increasing on Rudd to come to a compromise deal on the RSPT. By contrast, Crikey’s Bernard Keane, had a wholly different take on the way things are going for Rudd. He pointed to the lack of any clear opposition from members of the public at Rudd’s community cabinet in Perth and at just how poorly the miners had stage-managed their rent-a-crowd protest.

It seems as if the poll-obsessed mainstream media is trying to engineer a self-fulfilling prophecy by ratcheting up the pressure on Rudd, a tactic which may well work if enough marginal MPs becoming worried about their future survival. The current leadership structure of the Rudd government has also been attacked in recent days as centralising far too much power in the “Gang of Four” – Rudd, Gillard, Tanner and Swan. Supposedly a shift towards a more inclusive approach to cabinet is underway, but this issue may play a role in the level of discontent among Government MPs.

Where do we all think this is going? Does the story have legs or is Rudd secure?

Many in the blogosphere have commented on the perceived right-wing tilt of ABC news reporting. Some political pundits also share this perception, with Bernard Keane remarking that the ABC “frequently marches in lockstep” with the Murdoch press, “repeating its polling spin verbatim, deploying resources to follow up attacks and giving a regular platform to anti-Labor commentators.” A controversial study published late last year supports this perception, and actually found ABC television to be the most biased media outlet of them all, heavily favouring the Coalition.

This is an organisation that, in the past, has been accused of being so far off center that it would attack Labor from the left. Yet, today, that seems but a distant memory. To figure out why this is the case, we must take a closer look at the people who control the organisation – the Board of Directors.

There are currently seven members on the board, including the Managing Director Mark Scott, five of which are Howard appointees. You might be wondering what they’re still doing there; is this another one of Rudd’s misguided attempts at maintaing the moral high-ground, similar to his retention of Liberal party apparatchiks in senior public service ranks? The answer is far more practical. According to the ABC Corporation Charter of 1983, a Director may only be removed from office for “misbehaviour or physical or mental incapacity…” or if they become “bankrupt” or “fail… to comply with his or her obligations” or miss three consecutive board meetings without leave from the Minister. Therefore we’re stuck with them until each of their respective terms are done. Let’s go through each one:

Mark Scott
Appointment ends on 5 July 2011
He’s the current Managing Director and has a history of working for the NSW state Liberal Greiner Government. First, as chief of staff to the Education Minister, Virginia Chadwick and also as a senior adviser to education minister, Terry Metherell. However, he has also been known to be a powerful advocate of the ABC’s journalistic independence when faced with right-wing criticism, most recently rebuking remarks by Eric Abetz that Tony Jones had been more aggressive when interviewing Coalition MPs versus Labor MPs. Similarly, he defended an online greenhouse calculator which Liberal Senator Mitch Fifield said demonised loggers, meat eaters and farmers who grew GM crops. He also launched a spirited attack in response to suggestions from News Ltd that the ABC should be “sold off or severely pruned”.

Keith Windschuttle
Appointment ends on 14 June 2011
If only all of the Howard appointees were as rosy as Mark Scott. Keith Windschuttle is likely the most contentious Director of them all. Once a left-wing ideologue, he started to change his tune in the mid 1980s. In recent years he has been attacking what he sees as the fabrication of Australian history. He published a book in 2002 entitled The Fabrication of Aboriginal History which exclusively criticised left-wing historians who, he claims, are guilty of misrepresentation and fabrication of evidence to support their political agenda. In Windschuttle’s view, the left has adopted the causes of Aboriginal rights, including land rights and the need for reparations, which this has led them to manipulate historical evidence.

More recently he has also argued against the idea that there was a campaign of guerilla warfare by Aborigines against settlers in Tasmania, instead suggesting that the Aborigines staged repeated acts of theft and violence to steal “exotic” goods like flour, tea, sugar and blankets. He has questioned the veracity of claims that massacres and high fatalities occurred in the “Black War” against the indigenous peoples which led to their eventual extermination. He is also planning to release another volume in his series on The Fabrication of Australian History entitled Volume 2: The “Stolen Generations”.

This Australian equivalent of a holocaust denier certainly has no place on the board of our public broadcaster. That he is receiving a salary at the taxpayer’s expense only adds insult to injury. Perhaps this is the sort of thing John Howard was talking about when he dwelled on Australian history in his bizarre debate closing during the 2007 Federal Election.

Maurice Newman (Chairman)
Appointment ends on 1 January 2012
This appointee is on his second term, having previously resigned from the board in 2004 in protest at the Director that was elected by ABC staff. Howard subsequently abolished the staff-elected position and Maurice returned to become Chairman of the board on January 1 2007. He’s a noted close personal friend of John Howard. Clearly there’s no secret where his personal politics lie. One wonders what qualifications or experience he has that make him a suitable board selection.

Steven Skala
Appointment ends on 6 October 2010
Appointed to the Board on 6 October 2005, Steven also doubles as a Director of the neo-liberal conservative think tank, the Centre for Independent Studies. This institute brings you publications which read like Tony Abbott’s policy sheet such as Defeating Dependency: Moving Disability Support Pensioners Into Jobs, The Folly of Criminalising Cartels, Restoring self-reliance in welfare: Six arguments in favour of self funding.

Peter Hurley
Appointment ends on 14 June 2011
Peter has a long history of Liberal party appointments, first serving as the Chair of the Audit Committee of the South Australian Tourism Commission in 1997 under the then Liberal state government, and then later under Howard as a Board Member of the Australian Tourist Commission (2000-2004).

Those are the five Howard appointees. The Rudd appointees, by contrast, seem to be just the sort of people you would want running a public broadcaster that’s supposed to keep both the Government and opposition honest. You can read their biographies from the ABC site  by clicking on their names: Dr Julianne Schultz and Michael Lynch. It’s interesting to note the contrasts – that they have no long-standing Labor party affiliation, and have strong experience and qualifications.

With the ABC getting ready to launch their 24 hour digital news channel, it’s more crucial than ever that their reporting becomes more balanced. Out of the 5 Howard appointees, only one has the possibility of being replaced before this year’s election. The rest can only be replaced if Rudd gets a second term, which is essential if we don’t want to see the culture at our ABC at serious risk of a permanent shift to the right. Let’s hope he does.

Admin notes:
New features have been added to the Bludge. Check the top of the sidebar menu for the option to modify your avatar – it will connect you to Gravatar where you can create an account. (You must already be registered on the Bludge, click here to do so).

The unread comments section is also brand new and extremely useful. Rather than checking all the different stories for new comments you can keep an eye here for new comments. Note that when you post a reply it will show up in this list as an unread comment until you reload the page.

If you click on View Profile it will take you to a page which lists your most recent posts and comments. It’s a good page to bookmark if you just want somewhere that loads quickly so you can check if there are any recent unseen comments.

Don’t forget to check out our mining tax facts site if you haven’t already at www.mining-tax.com.au. We debunk some of the myths surrounding the tax and try to cut through the rhetoric.

As this is a fledgling site, we are heavily dependent on social media for our visitors. To help us grow, and to support our contributors please share this article by clicking an icon below:

Today’s AC Nielsen poll spells more trouble for Rudd this week against the backdrop of an increasingly raucous and hysterical industry campaign against the new mining tax. With a headline two-party preferred result of 53-47 in Abbott’s favour, things are starting to look a little bleak for pool old Kev. Rudd’s popularity has continued to wane and his approval / disapproval ratings at now pegged at 41% and 52% respectively. Coincidentally, Abbott’s numbers are almost identical (41% and 51%), suggesting that both leaders equally inspire disdain. The primaries show an apocalyptically low 33% for Labor and a respectable 43% for the Coalition, though I would caution that Labor’s primary is questionable. Possum Comitatus will likely do a great job of crunching the numbers later today, so I’ll leave that to him. Continue Reading

The Daily Bludge has been running for almost a month now, and in that time we have managed to gain an impressive number of readers. We are approaching 1000 unique visitors daily, and this continues to grow. Our goal has always been to promote independence in media and to further the political discourse in this country. The power to shape the media narrative has been in the hands of extremely powerful media groups for too long. Continue Reading

This piece is by Emmjay from The Pigs Arms. It was first published in November 2009.

Digital Patriarchy by Warrigal

Wikipedia says that “Paternalism refers usually to an attitude or a policy reminiscent of the hierarchic pattern of a family based on patriarchy, that is, there is a figurehead (the father, pater in Latin) that makes decisions on behalf of others (the “wife” and “children“) for their own good, even if this is contrary to their wishes.

It is implied that the fatherly figure is wiser than and acts in the best interest of its protected figures. The term may be used derogatorily to characterize attitudes or political systems that are thought to deprive individuals of freedom and responsibility, only nominally serving their interests, while in fact pursuing another agenda; and when the pursued agenda is directly against the interests of the individuals then the result is oppression.” Continue Reading

This is a story that should never have been. Channel 7, in all of their tabloid glory, have taken to following State Labor ministers in their time off.  With complete insensitivity towards David Campbell’s family, and his mental well-being, Channel 7’s “investigative reporting” has single-handedly destroyed this man’s career and seen him publicly humiliated nationwide.

He committed no crime. He didn’t break any parliamentary rules. There are no restrictions on personal use of government cars. His “crime”, in the eyes of Channel 7 was to visit a gay sex club. As this rather sympathetic Herald article notes, “Campbell did not pay men for sex; he was in a club which does not admit minors and whose sole purpose is to provide a venue at which willingly consenting adult men have sex with each other.”

The fact that he also happens to have a wife and two children should not be cause for exposing this other facet of his personal life to the world. It is not for us to pass moral judgements on such actions; it is simply none of our bloody business. The mainstream media should be ashamed for plastering this story all over the headlines, and for including ridiculous details like the club’s website description as ”the spacious, clean and safe place to meet sexy guys”. Really, one would expect better from the Herald.

As for News Limited, they never miss an opportunity to stick the knife into NSW state Labor (not that it needs much help). “The final nail in NSW Labor’s coffin” is the editorial line penned by Simon Benson. On Campbell he writes:

Now this. Another minister forced to resign because of questions about his personal ethics.

David Campbell’s resignation raises questions about the man’s integrity. Of that there is no doubt.

Campbell didn’t resign over questions about his personal ethics. This is a man who has had the most intimate details of his personal life broadcast to the nation. He resigned to deal with the inevitable fallout within his own family. His resignation reveals nothing about his political integrity whatsoever. Honestly, Simon Benson’s role as the Daily Telegraph’s chief political reporter is laughable considering its lack of coherence and clumsy language. Furthermore he’s completely daft if he thinks the state election “can’t come soon enough for most voters” – as if we have a credible opposition in the state of New South Wales.

I suspect we will never know if David Campbell was honest with his wife and children, or if he kept his “other life” a secret from them. Either way, it’s absolutely nothing to do with his role as a politician and therefore should be out of bounds for the media. One wonders if the same fate would have befallen him if he merely had been visiting a mistress in Sydney, as I’m sure many of his colleagues do.

Update: Looks like Keneally has done the right thing and left open the possibility of David Campbell returning to a ministry position. She attacked the media for its invasive reporting but nevertheless attacked Campbell for leading a double life and betraying the trust of his family. A politically motivated hedge if ever I saw one.

“I think it is appalling that he kept this secret, particularly from his family and his colleagues.

“I also think it is appalling that we live in a society that he had to keep this secret.”

Help us reach a wider audience and share this article on facebook, twitter or Digg by clicking one of these thumbnails:

Last night on the 7:30 Report, Kevin Rudd launched a spirited defence of his record on climate change. He responded to Kerry O’brien’s continuous badgering over the ETS by displaying passion and rage that we have rarely seen. In my view, this is precisely what the Prime Minister needs to be doing. He must stand by and defend his convictions with more than just bureaucratic linguistic exercises. Continue Reading