If the rest of the Australian mainstream media and blogosphere made as many factual errors as journalist Andrew Bolt there would barely be a handful of people left in this country who were using the Internet to read news and current affairs.
Crikey's Pure Poison outed Bolt for his latest blunder in The Herald-Sun on 31 August 2010 set out here:
Read more »
My camera still worked then I fell over again, and this time hit my face on the ground. Dexter and Sasha were doing their job, turbo-charging up the embankment.
I screamed out but nobody took any notice of me. So much for melodrama. I was also experiencing cramp in my legs which is my kidney problem adding to my circumstances. The real problem is that the thread on my shoes has worn away.
A few things might have happened but didn’t. I could have been wearing my glasses. And I could have brought a new camera. Therefore, I consider myself fortunate.
Here are the final photos: Read more »
from Crikey .....
Keane essay: the myth of governmental competence
Canberra correspondent Bernard Keane writes:
It's time to stop searching for a grand plan that explains the Universe and accept that Nature is imperfect, argues Professor Marcelo Gleiser.
From the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:
Einstein spent the last thirty years of his life looking for the unifying force, as did the brilliant pioneers of atomic physics, Heisenberg, Pauli, and Schrödinger. Read more »
From Newsweek:
“Why have there been no great women artists?” asked American art historian Linda Nochlin in a landmark 1971 essay.
Four decades later, her question still stands: while a handful of Western female painters, sculptors, and performance artists—Frida Kahlo, Louise Bourgeois, Marina Abramovic—have achieved the same level of fame as their male counterparts, the West’s elite art world continues to be dominated by male artists, curators, dealers, and collectors. Read more »
Reading the various ill-informed commentaries on the gay adoption bill proposed in NSW a common name kept coming up, Dawn Stefanowicz (pictured left), writer of the book Out From Under . No doubt 'book of month' at the Fred Nile Sunday afternoon readers circle, Out From Under recounts Stefanowicz's troubling childhood after being raised by a gay (and would appear quite randy) man during the 1960's and 70's. Read more »
The close contest for government in the House of Representatives means that little attention has been paid to the remaining close contests in the Senate.
Overall the Senate has been a success for the Greens. They have gained a seat from Labor in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, and one from the LNP in Queensland. Labor has also gained a seat from the Liberal Party in Tasmania.
You can keep up with the Senate count via my exclusive Senate calculators using this link. The Calculators will continue to update with latest counting every 15 minutes until the result is final.
Two seats remain in doubt. At this stage the DLP are favoured to take the final seat from the Liberal Party in Victoria, while Family First are still an outside chance of grabbing the final seat in South Australia from the Liberal Party. Read more »
Carefully verballed more like it
In a further embarrassment for the Coalition over costings the National Centre for Economic Modelling at the University of Canberra distanced itself from claims it had helped model the policies.
"We never spoke to the Coalition," said NATSEM director Alan Duncan. "We did work for the Parliamentary Library that the Coalition may have asked for, but we had no relationship with the Coalition itself." Read more »
I love anything that mixes my appreciation for science and love of art and culture. I recently stumbled upon an article in the Electronic Journal of Biotechnology entitled Art, biotechnology and the culture of peace written by Edgar DaSilva.The Australian is carrying a report of a speech by Mark Scott, Managing Director of the ABC, who has declared that those (private) media-organised events, such as the ones at Rooty Hills and the Broncos Club in Queensland, must not be allowed to occur again.
“The events, the venues, the panels, the hosts should be set by a totally independent panel and commonly understood, a year before the date of the election,” Mr Scott told the festival’s New News 2010 Conference.
“In discussion with the campaign directors, it was clear to me that they wanted the reach of free-to-air television and were happy to use ABC talent to host,” he said.
“But finally, there was no way either was going to upset a monopoly Murdoch newspaper in the pivotal swing state three days before polling day.
“The thought of what The Courier-Mail would do to the candidate who didn’t show to their sponsored event was chilling to contemplate.” Read more »
Quick question for the national media: why was it not until after the election that you applied real pressure to the Liberals to have their platform costed by treasury? I know you were busy beating up without checking inaccurate stories – and outright lies – in order to harm Labor – but surely some of the effort you put into the “leak” diversion could’ve been allocated to the “dodgily avoiding costing” story. You know, the one which directly impacts on either the Liberals’ ability to deliver their promises, or the country’s bottom line over the next three years.
If I’d been tricked into voted for the Liberals, I’d be feeling pretty betrayed about now.
(Hat tip @mjcp, @MichaelTurtle, and @LeslieCannold for “budget smugglers”.) Read more »
The Coalition made four kinds of mistakes in its costings according to the Treasury; the understandable, the inexcusable, the inexplicable, and those resulting from a failure to comprehend the nature of the process.
Although concealed from the public at the time of the vote, the decision of Andrew Wilkie to go with Labor on the basis of the costings suggests they've come at a price.
The inexcusable:
According to Treasury the Coalition counted the interest to be saved on debt from selling Medibank Private, but not the dividends it would lose as a result of the sale. It's a bit like deciding to selling a rental property without noticing you will no longer be able to collect the rent. Read more »
Bob Katter has issued his own log of claims, which is an apposite term, given that one of his claims is a return to collective bargaining (note, Bob, - this was achieved in the Fair Work Act on which you voted) and compulsory arbitration.
He also wants the right of collective bargaining extended to farmers without, it would seem, him realising that this right exists within the Trade Practices Act, again an amendment on which he voted.
At least, he seems to have the grace to accept that all his demands would not be met by either party, so here are the ones that both parties need toss quickly in the policy waste paper bin, bound for the shredder: Read more »
Nevada is a swing state, going with the party winning each presidential election since 1980. Nevada is also a rapidly growing state, having gained a second House of Representatives seat after the 1980 census, and a third after the 2000 census. Nevada is expected to gain a fourth seat after this year’s census. This year’s seat is held by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D).
Both Senate seats were held by Democrats throughout the 1960s, until one of the two seats was won by Republican Paul Laxalt in 1974, who defeated Lieutenant Governor Harry Reid.
The other Senate seat was won by Republican candidate Chic Hecht in 1982, defeating Senator Howard Cannon in an upset result.
Laxalt retired from his seat at the 1986 election, and the seat was won by Democrat Harry Reid, who had held a seat in the House of Representatives since 1982. Two years later, Senator Hecht lost his seat to Governor Richard Bryan (D). Read more »
There has been a lot mission slippage in Project Wickenby. It started off investigating tax evasion and tax havens, but quickly degenerated into into tax evasion and any offshore activity – including that well-known tax haven New Zealand.
Robert Agius was allegedly involved in a very simple scheme employing New Zealand banks to engage in round tripping. Clients would end up lending money to themselves and would claim interest payments as a tax deduction.
Under the scheme, Australian customers would transfer money to accounts in Vanuatu and New Zealand, claiming them as a business expense.
The money would then be returned to Australia less commission in the form of a loan, and a repayment would be treated as a tax deduction.
This is illegal and IMHO should be illegal. I have no problem with the tax authorities trying to prevent this sort of thing. Do we really need a special $400 million taskforce to prevent simple crime like this? Read more »
Paul Sullivan in The National: Read more »
I have to admit to a certain expressive 'ha ha' when Fred Nile was revealed to have had his office computers used to surf p0rn sites.
The famously bushy eyebrowed one - has he not heard of a Brazilian? - has spent countless years thundering in denunciation of man and woman's joy and seeing the other naked and ready to get bizay.
I can see that. What happens between consenting adults with their bodies, or those who third party view such action in the privacy of their home, is completely Fred's business. Read more »
The Hark Singers bring news updates to the New News 2010 Conference at the Melbourne Writers Festival.
Authors: Yiping Huang and Bijun Wang, Peking University
Despite its extraordinary growth performance during the past decades, China’s structural risks have also increased significantly. Premier Wen and other senior leaders have repeatedly emphasised that the existing growth pattern is unstable, unbalanced and unsustainable.
One of the most widely identified imbalance problems is the rising share of investment in GDP, which increases the risk of excess capacity and low returns. Read more »
From Science: Read more »
Peter Martin has set out the types of ‘error’ Treasury identified in the Coalition policy costings.
The Charter of Budget Honesty sets out guidelines for election costings, in order to make sure they are done on the same basis. One forbids the counting of proceeds from expected ”second-round effects” such as a saving on the dole from a job creation program. The Coalition counted such an effect because it says the National Centre for Economic Modelling told it its program would take 51,000 people off the dole.
That and a similar ‘error’ amounts to some $3.5 billion. But I’m not sure the Charter of Budget Honesty forbids second round effects. Here are the criteria.
The following are standard conventions for the preparation of fiscal costings. Read more »
A quick reflection on Day 1 of New News 2010 conference at the Melbourne Writers Festival:
There were frequent references to and much discussion about the role of the media in the recent election campaign. The mainstream media reps were mostly on the defensive blaming the political parties for the shallowness of the coverage and the poor analysis of the policies and issues. It was the bus (code for the control by party apparchicks), the debate format, the Tony Abbott’s small target strategy;
the extraordinary circumstances.
The critiques by Grog’s Gamut and other online analysts were dismissed in the main as beard-tugging. Lots of self-praise. We readers and consumers of the MSM got it wrong again. In fact the audience was also to blame as we were turned off. Strangely we avidly gobbled/googled up alternative online sources of information and debate. Read more »
In Victoria, Steve Bracks’s minority government transformed a knife-edge win into electoral longevity and parliamentary reform, write Brian Costar and David Hayward
Minority government in South Australia produced a novel solution that challenged the way the Westminster system has worked in Australia, writes Norman Abjorensen
I’m getting a little fed up with how, when a government, a politician or political party announce some policy initiative, something that may actually be worthwhile doing, the announcement seems to be inevitably reported as “outraging some powerful lobby industry” or other, and being a thing that will tip society over the teetering edge of civilisation as we know it.
Yet the abyss beckons according to Clubs Australia executive director Anthony Ball …
… said the undertaking to implement a mandatory pre-commitment system for all poker machines across Australia as well as to limit ATM cash withdrawals to just $250 a day were completely untested.
He said the measures would close rural clubs, cost jobs, inconvenience recreational gamblers and club users, and do nothing to alleviate problem gambling.
“Julia Gillard wrote to Clubs Australia and committed herself to consultation in developing gambling policy. Read more »
Here’s a fresh thread for all things worth discussing over the weekend. We’ll update with TV details as they come to hand — but for those looking to find an alternative to Insiders on Sunday morning, Radio National’s Background Briefing will be looking at the changing church-state relationship in Latin America.
Have at it.
I use Google Analytics to track the statistics around this blog. I noticed this morning that the US Federal Reserve had visited a couple of times in the last 24 hours (I am still in Hong Kong doing battle with evil speculators ;-0). Anyhow, this is the ouput of the frequency with which various organisations have visited this blog over the very recent past according to Google. Note that these are just the most frequent visitors--there are many more. Note: you will have to click on the image to see it clearly. Read more »
Stephen managed to rattle some feathers over his piece the other week that the case for the ABC may no longer exist in the Internet age. He argued (i) that the ABC, being subsidised, provides unfair competition for others; (ii) that good reporting is a public good but is now amply and independently supplied by the Internet; and (iii) that diversity is important and the ABC’s role in providing that is no longer essential. Read more »
Author: Renu Kohli
India’s labour market is in for a vigorous shake up over the next few years. The inexorable march of market forces, and their interplay with the structural and political dynamics of the country, could end up drawing many unemployed persons into the job market.
9AM
Refreshing change. Indigenous media panel.
Speaking Up: Telling Indigenous Stories and the Opportunities of New Media
Kerry Klimm (Kinnected) with Leigh Harris (Blackvine Media Group), Kerri-Lee Harding (Yalarry Indigma Media), Bess Nungarrayi Price and Rita Cattoni (Indigenous Community Television).
Rita & Bess showing a cross selection from Indigitube of community produced video.
Rita:
Needed to get back TV access as web limited in remote Australia. Now have weekend satellite broadcasting thanks to WA govt. ICTV Alice Springs based.
Bess:
Storytelling for indigenous people: learn, listen, tell stories essential for traditional survival. Mobile phones now everywhere in communities. Enthusiastic use of new media.
Kerri-Lee: Her story - 15 years broadcast expereince.in mainstream and indig media. Family grew up on Cherbourg Mission QLD. Now freelance journalist about to work with Koori Radio. Read more »
Two pictures on page one of the Sydney Morning Herald this morning show us a lot about the way Australia is governed. Read more »
Rosa DeLauro's Introduction to Alan Wolfe and Ira Katznelson's new book: Read more »
Victoria is often held up as a leader in health – but in at least one area, it is behind the ball.
Sarah Jaggard, Community Mobilisation Policy Officer of the Australian Drug Foundation, is hoping that a new call to ban the secondary supply of alcohol to minors may be taken up by the Victorian Government.
Sarah Jaggard writes:
I hold the issue of secondary supply of alcohol to young people close to my heart, so you can imagine my thrill when this popped up in my daily lunchtime perusal of the news: “New Victorian alcohol laws recommended after inquiry…the Victorian parliament should make it illegal for anyone other than a parent, guardian or spouse to supply alcohol to children in homes, an inquiry has found.”
Tossing my lunch aside, I conducted a swift bit of Googling and found that the Victorian Parliament’s Drugs and Crime Prevention Committee have tabled their final report on the Inquiry into Strategies to Reduce Assaults in Public Places in Victoria. (You read the report in its 368 page glory here) Read more »
Linda Asher in the San Francisco Gate:
In his celebrated fiction ("The Joke," "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting," "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"), the world-renowned writer Milan Kundera has always shown a penchant for the witty essayistic aside. His book-length study, "The Art of the Novel," singled out for special praise the philosophical novel of Marcel Proust, Robert Musil and Hermann Broch, with its love of reflection and rumination. Read more »
Fashion writing is finally coming of age. Yesterday afternoon's London Evening Standard: Read more »
Blogotariat is a platform to enhance the role of blog commentary and its growing influence on Mainstream Media and the political process – the great contest of ideas essential to a civil society. If you wish to contribute editorially or add your blog please use the Contact menu to send some info.
Like all sites, this one is best viewed in anything but Internet Explorer. Do the world a favour and use Firefox.
