tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/abc-1434/articles
ABC – The Conversation
2024-03-05T19:12:15Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/224502
2024-03-05T19:12:15Z
2024-03-05T19:12:15Z
Is Australia’s golden age of third-party fact checking over?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579706/original/file-20240304-30-6eo258.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With the rise of disinformation, third-party fact checking has grown into a billion-dollar global industry. But debunking false claims is time-consuming and costly, and recent developments suggest it may have hit its peak and is slowing down.</p>
<p>The ABC’s recent <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2024/02/21/abc-rmit-fact-check-partnership-abc-news-verify/">announcement</a> that it will dissolve its third-party fact-checker partnership with RMIT University, known as ABC RMIT Fact Check, and replace it with an in-house unit called “ABC News Verify”, suggests Australia is not immune to global trends.</p>
<p>Duke Reporters’ Lab’s most recent <a href="https://reporterslab.org/misinformation-spreads-but-fact-checking-has-leveled-off/">census</a> of third-party fact-checking units across the world found the number of active units fell from 424 in 2022 to 417 in 2023. While this is a small drop, it signals the first contraction in the sector since its initial census in 2014, which recorded a mere 59 units. </p>
<p>Is this cause for concern?</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/misinformation-how-fact-checking-journalism-is-evolving-and-having-a-real-impact-on-the-world-218379">Many studies</a> have shown that third-party fact checking works to disabuse people of false claims in the media and online. </p>
<p>“Third party” refers to the external verification of controversial claims by an organisation independent of the initial publishing outlet. </p>
<p>But a growing number of studies also show the limitations of fact checking in countering the spread of mis- and disinformation.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/misinformation-how-fact-checking-journalism-is-evolving-and-having-a-real-impact-on-the-world-218379">Misinformation: how fact-checking journalism is evolving – and having a real impact on the world</a>
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<p>Our recently published <a href="https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/21078">study</a> found that Australian third-party fact checkers were highly trusted. However, even after receiving and trusting a fact check – in this case about a false social media post involving former prime minister Scott Morrison during the 2022 floods – a third of respondents said they would engage with the false information anyway. </p>
<p>They did so mostly for political reasons, known as <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2703011">motivated reasoning</a>. It tells us that presenting facts alone is not enough to stop people sharing falsehoods, and it may be one reason why global momentum behind third-party fact checking is slowing.</p>
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<p>The Australian fact checking industry has a short and rocky history, beginning in 2013 – a decade after the United States. Early adopters like PolitiFact Australia, ABC Fact Check and The Conversation’s FactCheck have come and gone, in part because the work is both time- and resource-intensive. </p>
<p>In the case of the ABC, its original in-house unit was <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-18/abc-fact-check-unit-to-close-14-jobs-to-go/7425638">axed</a> following 2016 Coalition budget cuts. It then got a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/feb/14/abcs-fact-check-unit-relaunched-in-partnership-with-rmit">new lease</a> of life in partnership with RMIT University in 2017. </p>
<p>Our study tested public trust in four current Australian fact checkers: RMIT ABC Fact Check, RMIT Factlab, AAP and Reuters Fact Check – an international fact checker operating in Australia.</p>
<p>Overall, trust was highest in the soon to be disbanded RMIT ABC Fact Check. But there was one important exception: respondents who strongly identified as right-wing on the political spectrum.</p>
<p>These voters regarded ABC RMIT Fact Check as the least trusted. This finding mirrors studies about media trust in Australia, which also finds the ABC is ranked highest overall, but <a href="https://www.canberra.edu.au/research/faculty-research-centres/nmrc/digital-news-report-australia">lower</a> for right-wing partisans. </p>
<p>Our study’s findings suggest that accusations of left-wing bias levelled at the ABC, particularly by right-wing partisans, may intersect with its fact-checking role with RMIT, and foreshadows criticisms that its new unit might encounter. </p>
<p>This is because the politicisation of fact checking – a longstanding feature of the sector in the US – has reached Australia. </p>
<p>To counter concerns of fact-checking bias, the International Fact-Checking Network (<a href="https://www.poynter.org/ifcn/">IFCN</a>) was established in 2015 to try to ensure standards of impartiality and rigour. Meta has since made IFCN accreditation a requirement of partnership when it signs up third-party fact-checkers to test doubtful claims on its social media sites.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/facebook-wont-keep-paying-australian-media-outlets-for-their-content-are-we-about-to-get-another-news-ban-224857">Facebook won't keep paying Australian media outlets for their content. Are we about to get another news ban?</a>
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<p>During the referendum campaign, the impartiality of third-party Australian fact checkers drew headlines. </p>
<p>In its report titled the “<a href="https://www.skynews.com.au/business/media/the-fact-check-files-inside-the-secretive-and-lucrative-fact-checking-industry-behind-a-foreignfunded-bid-to-censor-voice-debate/news-story/31915e1eb03b029b86a2f03aac19338b">Fact Check Files</a>”, Sky News Australia accused RMIT FactLab (a separate entity from RMIT ABC Fact Check) of working with Meta to “censor Voice debate”. As reported by The Conversation at that time, the story was the <a href="https://theconversation.com/voice-referendum-is-the-yes-or-no-camp-winning-on-social-media-advertising-spend-and-in-the-polls-208956">second</a> most-shared article on social media involving the referendum according to Meltwater data, reaching millions of users.</p>
<p>The story focused particularly on RMIT FactLab’s fact-checking of Sky’s own reports, which is found to contain falsehoods. The Sky report also revealed the factchecker’s IFCN accreditation had expired – a breach of Meta’s own terms and conditions. This led the social media giant to temporarily suspend RMIT FactLab from its paid role fact checking Meta’s social media content.</p>
<p>The conservative Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) later added to the controversy, releasing a <a href="https://ipa.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/IPA-Research-The-Arbiters-of-Truth-Analysis-of-biased-fact-checking-organisations-during-the-2023-Voice-Referendum-FINAL.pdf">report</a> in November 2023 arguing that RMIT ABC Fact Check, RMIT FactLab and AAP FactCheck had all unduly focused their efforts on the “no” campaign’s claims, resulting in a form of censorship.</p>
<p>In a soon to be published survey of 3,825 Australians after the referendum in late November, we found trust in RMIT FactLab had suffered as a result?. The survey also showed about a quarter of respondents reported using third-party fact checkers during the Voice campaign, and overall public trust in fact checkers was high. </p>
<p>However, among self-identified right-wing supporters, we see a different story with increased levels of distrust, particularly in response to RMIT FactLab – the central target of the Sky News reports.</p>
<p>RMIT FactLab recorded the highest levels of distrust among conservatives, followed by RMIT ABC Fact Check.</p>
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<p>The claims of bias against RMIT FactLab follow the path of politicisation and polarisation seen in the well-established US fact-checking sector. This trend further underscores the role of motivated reasoning in opinion formation and the insufficiency of relying solely on fact-checkers – whether external or internal – to combat fake news. </p>
<p>Effective <a href="https://opal.latrobe.edu.au/articles/report/Fighting_Fake_News_A_Study_of_Online_Misinformation_Regulation_in_the_Asia_Pacific/14038340">mitigation</a> of misinformation and disinformation requires a multifaceted approach. This includes fact checkers, but also measures such as bolstering public media literacy, regulating platforms, supporting quality journalism, and fostering collaboration among policymakers, politicians, academics, technology platforms, and civil society to promote responsible discourse.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224502/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Carson receives funding from the Australian Research Council to research media and political trust DP230101777 and has had research grants with Meta examining fact checking, fake news, future newsrooms and the Voice to Parliament. She serves as an academic expert on Meta's global misinformation advisory group, and is also on the research advisory body for Australia's Public Interest Journalism Initiative.</span></em></p>
Third-party fact checking appears to be in decline around the world - and Australia is not immune.
Andrea Carson, Professor of Political Communication, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/222988
2024-02-22T19:20:05Z
2024-02-22T19:20:05Z
ABC’s House of Gods: a bold and compelling exploration of contemporary life in an Australian imam’s family
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576400/original/file-20240219-16-42nfsl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C9%2C2140%2C1486&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>House of Gods is a gripping new Australian TV drama. It reveals the inner workings of an imam’s family and community, and the corrupting effects of power, ambition and secrets on family and faith. </p>
<p>Set in Western Sydney, the saga commences on election day at The Messenger mosque. Sheikh Mohammad (Kamel El Basha) is a progressive, charismatic contender for the esteemed position of head cleric. But he is embroiled in controversy when a young woman unexpectedly plants a kiss on his cheek while posing with him for a selfie. </p>
<p>The seemingly harmless gesture swiftly snowballs into a scandal dividing the community and sparking a clash of ideologies within the mosque’s tight-knit community. </p>
<p>Although Sheikh Mohammad eventually emerges victorious over his conservative adversary Sheikh Shaaker (Simon Elrahi), the triumph is tainted by a startling revelation. Sheikh Mohammad’s adopted son, Isa (Osamah Sami, also co-creator and writer), has struck a clandestine deal with a corrupt official to secure his father’s win in exchange for hefty monthly payments.</p>
<p>The cleric’s efforts to bridge the gap between multiple generations and connect Islam with modern life in Australia is at the heart of the story. But unaware of his son’s dealings, an intricate web of lies, bribes and familial rivalry soon emerges, set against the backdrop of mosque politics. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/black-comedy-political-drama-and-a-documentary-about-a-cult-what-were-streaming-this-february-222146">Black comedy, political drama and a documentary about a cult: what we're streaming this February</a>
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<h2>The realism of lived experience</h2>
<p>Sami’s performance as Isa is spot-on, thanks to his firsthand understanding of growing up as the son of a progressive Shi'ite cleric. His personal background brings depth and authenticity to the character, making his portrayal truly compelling.</p>
<p>Fadia Abboud’s direction is enriched by her deep understanding of the Arabic community, lending genuine realism to every scene. Take, for instance, the conversation between Sheikh Mohammad and the local football coach, where the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-shia-sunni-divide-78216">historic tensions between Sunni and Shi’ite faiths</a> are delicately portrayed. Both characters navigate their differences with respect and caution, reflecting the nuanced dynamics within their community.</p>
<p>The inclusion of Arab, Middle Eastern and Muslim actors adds an authentic touch to the drama. Their performances capture the cultural and social subtleties reminiscent of my own Arabic family and community. Through expressive body language, lively facial expressions, and intense physical affection, the actors animate the passionate social dynamics often characteristic of Middle-Eastern societies. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576401/original/file-20240219-28-andlwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three Muslim men." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576401/original/file-20240219-28-andlwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576401/original/file-20240219-28-andlwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576401/original/file-20240219-28-andlwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576401/original/file-20240219-28-andlwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576401/original/file-20240219-28-andlwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576401/original/file-20240219-28-andlwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576401/original/file-20240219-28-andlwy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The casting of Arab, Middle Eastern and Muslim actors lends an air of genuineness to the drama.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC</span></span>
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<p>Sky Davies’ cinematography captures both private and public moments with striking compositional intention. The beautiful garden scenes where Sheikh Mohammad converses with his eldest daughter, Batul (Maia Abbas), under a luminescent grape vine, reference the central role dappled light plays in the intricate designs of mosques. </p>
<p>Integrity shines through the costume and set design and in the meticulous portrayal of Muslim dress and architecture. These elements reflect a profound understanding of how faith influences the transition between private and public life, adding credibility to the storytelling. </p>
<h2>Mighty heroines</h2>
<p>Sami was joined by co-creator and associate producer, Shahin Shafaei, along with Blake Ayshford and Sarah Bassiuoni. Shafaei and Bassiuoni come from Iranian and Egyptian families. Their collective experience provides valuable insights into the female experience, enriching the depiction of Muslim women beyond Western stereotypes of female oppression. </p>
<p>The struggles encountered by characters such as Batul, her younger sister Hind (Safia Arain), and her mysterious best friend Jamila (Priscilla Doueihy) echo real-life challenges. For instance, the scenes at the swimming pool vividly illustrate the women’s desires and rebellions, as well as their activism and resilience in advocating for women-only hours at the public pool.</p>
<p>Batul and Hind are mighty. Their rivalry hinges on their personal freedoms and to what extent they conform to community expectations. This ensures that they negotiate power and agency <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/23/as-muslim-women-we-dont-need-you-to-speak-for-us-and-we-dont-need-to-be-saved">within their own cultural context</a> – refreshingly removed from Western standards. </p>
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<span class="caption">The depiction of Muslim women moves beyond the Western stereotypes of female oppression.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC</span></span>
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<p>Sheikh Mohammad champions his daughters’ freedom, sparking discussions on gender equality and underscoring his progressive views on women’s roles in the Islamic community. A notable instance is when he appoints his daughter, Batul, as vice president of the mosque, defying traditional expectations and causing shock in the community.</p>
<h2>Written by Arabs, featuring Arabs</h2>
<p>The lead performances are outstanding. El Basha is a Palestinian screen and stage actor, theatre director, playwright and producer. He gained critical acclaim in 2017 when he <a href="https://www.abouther.com/node/5191/entertainment/music-film-television/jserrors/aggregate?page=3">won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor</a> at the 74th Venice International Film Festival. In House of Gods, the actor again shows he is adept at capturing a proud and principled man who values his dignity and honour.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576403/original/file-20240219-30-54tww8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men, one young and one old, talking." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576403/original/file-20240219-30-54tww8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576403/original/file-20240219-30-54tww8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576403/original/file-20240219-30-54tww8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576403/original/file-20240219-30-54tww8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576403/original/file-20240219-30-54tww8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576403/original/file-20240219-30-54tww8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576403/original/file-20240219-30-54tww8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Director Fadia Abboud infuses each scene with an intense realism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC</span></span>
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<p>House of Gods is more than just an Australian television series. It’s a bold and unflinching exploration of contemporary life that is thought-provoking, authentic and complex. With its intricate plot twists and nuanced characters, it has the capacity to showcase the depth and diversity of Australian storytelling worldwide.</p>
<p>Abboud remarks that House of Gods:</p>
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<p>stood out as original and risky. Importantly, it wasn’t an ‘us’ and ‘them’ story. The dilemma didn’t come from our relationship to the West and racism. It was a powerful drama, with no big-name Anglo actor, which always seemed to be needed in shows with non-English speaking communities.</p>
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<p>For many in the Australian Arabic community, including Abboud, seeing a project created and written by Arabs featuring Arabs as lead characters is an exciting and welcome development.</p>
<p><em>House of Gods is on ABC and iView from February 25.</em> </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/shayda-this-unflinching-portrayal-of-domestic-violence-marks-a-profound-shift-in-australian-cinema-212535">Shayda: this unflinching portrayal of domestic violence marks a profound shift in Australian cinema</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222988/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cherine Fahd does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
House of Gods is a gripping new Australian TV drama, written by Arabs, featuring Arabs.
Cherine Fahd, Associate Professor Visual Communication, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/223002
2024-02-14T02:07:03Z
2024-02-14T02:07:03Z
‘A blood sport feigning as government’: what the ABC’s Nemesis taught us about a decade of Coalition rule
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<p>For God’s sake let us sit upon the ground</p>
<p>And tell sad stories of the death of kings.</p>
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<p>Shakespeare, Richard II</p>
<p>ABC-produced post-mortem documentaries on national governments have a distinguished pedigree. The latest instalment, Nemesis, dealing with the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison years, is the fourth of these series since the pioneering Labor in Power screened in 1993 chronicling the Hawke-Keating era. The Howard Years (2008) and The Killing Season (2015) followed examining respectively the Howard and Rudd-Gillard governments. </p>
<p>The changing tone of the titles of these series is telling. Though Labor in Power and The Howard Years had their fair share of preoccupation with leadership rivalries, they were also concerned with the substance of the governments. By contrast, The Killing Season and Nemesis focus predominantly on the leadership wars that blighted Australian politics between 2007 and 2022.</p>
<p>The most striking takeaway from Nemesis is that the Coalition’s decade in office from 2013 to 2022 was a time of abject irresponsibility. Rather than dedicated to delivering effective public policy, the Coalition spent a large part of that time consumed by infighting and ravaged by a cycle of treachery and retribution. It was blood sport feigning as government. And even when the leadership stabilised under Scott Morrison from August 2018, there was little guiding purpose.</p>
<p>There is no questioning that Nemesis is a significant piece of television documentary making. Eighteen months in creation, it is based on interviews with 60 participants. Mark Willacy, the reporter and interviewer of the programs, was surprised how easy it was to recruit the interviewees. Their motivations for participating were a mixture of a debt to posterity, vindicating actions and score settling.</p>
<p>But there are also some notable non-participants, most conspicuously Tony Abbott, who became the first former prime minister to decline to be interviewed in the three-decade history of these programs. We can only speculate why Abbott, who is also unusual among former prime ministers in not having written an account of his term of office, refused to participate. Perhaps his “action man” persona disinclines him to reflection, perhaps the memories of his unfulfilling two years in office are too painful to revisit, or perhaps he recognised that participating would only mean further debasement. Other high profile non-participants include Julie Bishop, the senior woman and deputy leader of the Liberal Party for the majority of the Coalition’s term in office, and Peter Dutton.</p>
<p>For keen students of Australian politics, Nemesis contains few major revelations. The series mostly confirms what we knew. But to witness the sheer awfulness of the era distilled into four and a half hours of television is both gripping and sobering.</p>
<h2>The Abbott years</h2>
<p>The first episode deals with the Abbott years. It is remarkable how early his prime ministership unravelled, beginning with the government’s first budget delivered by Joe Hockey in May 2014, notoriously invoking “a nation of lifters, not leaners”. It was a catalogue of swingeing cuts and broken promises (Abbott had pledged no cuts to health or education during the 2013 election campaign). When some Liberal colleagues dared to broach with the prime minister the budget’s breaches of trust, he dismissed them with angry invective.</p>
<p>The Abbott government never really recovered. The prime minister’s other problems included internal resentment at his overbearing chief of staff, Peta Credlin, and his own leadership idiosyncrasies. The latter was exemplified by his captain’s call to knight Prince Philip on Australia Day 2015. This rendered him a national laughing stock. </p>
<p>One new thing we learn about the Abbott years is that the prime minister proposed deploying the military to Ukraine in the wake of the downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 by Russian-backed separatists that killed 38 Australian citizens and residents. He was thankfully talked out of the plan by Angus Houston, who Abbott had appointed as a special envoy to Ukraine to repatriate the bodies of the Australian victims. </p>
<p>The end for Abbott came less than two years into the job. Easily forgotten, Nemesis revisits the so-called “empty chair spill” of February 2015, prompted by a backbencher motion to declare the leadership vacant. </p>
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<p>Despite there being no challenger — Malcolm Turnbull was biding his time until Abbott’s leadership “burnt down to the water line” — the spill motion garnered 39 votes providing a comical scenario of a sizeable minority of the party preferring an empty chair to the incumbent. Chastened by that result, Abbott then caused incredulity among colleagues by proclaiming that “good government begins today”. Effectively his leadership was now on death watch, with Turnbull and his allies circling and counting numbers. </p>
<p>In September 2015, Turnbull struck. He sanctifies the challenge as in the national interest: “I owed it to Australia”. Scott Morrison was party to the deposition and would be rewarded with the position of treasurer in Turnbull’s government, though he characteristically dissembles about the role he and his lieutenants played in Abbott’s fall. Nemesis has a delicious footnote to Turnbull’s ousting of Abbott. The former recalls that in the weeks that followed he reached out to inquire about his predecessor’s wellbeing. According to Turnbull, Abbott did not welcome the approach, telling him “to fuck off”.</p>
<h2>The Turnbull years</h2>
<p>Episode two, the most compelling of the series, commences with the Turnbull prime ministership’s buoyant beginnings. The public were relieved to see the back of Abbott and welcomed enthusiastically the ostensibly progressive Turnbull. He soared in the polls. </p>
<p>But his leadership was compromised from the start. Attorney-general in the government, George Brandis, refers to the Faustian bargain Turnbull had made to win the prime ministership. He had agreed to not rock the conservative boat in crucial areas like climate change and same sex marriage. With time, this eroded his authenticity.</p>
<p>Turnbull’s hope was that a decisive election victory in 2016 would empower him to assert his true political colours. Yet, as Nemesis records, the opposite happened. The double dissolution election of July was ruinous to his leadership. The eight-week campaign was too long, his performance on the hustings uninspired. Losing the electoral fat that Abbott had won in 2013 and returned to office with the barest majority, the result diminished Turnbull’s authority and emboldened his conservative critics, not least a vengeful Abbott.</p>
<p>As Nemesis tells it, notwithstanding some achievements on the international stage led by Turnbull and Julie Bishop, there were few bright spots for the government after that. The successful same sex marriage plebiscite of the second half of 2017 occurred on Turnbull’s watch but, fascinatingly, Liberal champions of that measure are grudging about his leadership on the issue. The suggestion is that he was circumspect in his advocacy, fearing a right-wing blowback.</p>
<p>As when he lost the Liberal leadership to Abbott in December 2009, it was climate change policy that finally lit the fuse under Turnbull’s prime ministership. The National Energy Guarantee (NEG), a policy crafted by Josh Frydenberg, was meant to end the climate wars but instead became a lightning rod for conservative dissent in the winter of 2018. With the NEG meeting resistance in the Coalition joint party room, Turnbull retreated, symptomatic of his prime ministership.</p>
<p>The fulcrum of Nemesis’s narrative of Turnbull’s prime ministership is a blow by blow account of his extraordinary week-long overthrow in August 2018. For this cause, he would dig in and fight. With regicide in the air, the week opened with Turnbull endeavouring to salvage his leadership by calling a surprise spill motion. Dutton, the right-wing hard man who Turnbull scathingly describes as “a thug”, challenged for the leadership, losing relatively narrowly. Eric Abetz, Abbott’s henchman, recalls mirthfully that at that point Turnbull’s leadership was “over and out”. Revenge was sweet.</p>
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<p>Mortally wounded, Turnbull nevertheless remained determined to stave off Dutton, the conservative’s candidate. A revelation about events during that febrile week is that Turnbull considered heading off his opponents by calling an election. It is a remarkable admission, and we are left to wonder whether the governor-general would have granted an election in those circumstances and if the government would have completely imploded in the event of him taking that course. </p>
<p>In recounting his downfall, Turnbull seems strangely blind to the parallel between his deposition of Abbott in 2015 and the conservative insurrection of August 2018. It takes chutzpah for him to protest that the latter was “an obscene parody, a complete travesty of democracy”.</p>
<p>With support leaching away, including the defection of senior ministers, Turnbull bowed to the inevitable. Choosing not to stand in a second leadership ballot, it became a three way contest between Dutton, Bishop and Morrison, with the latter manoeuvring through the middle to prevail. Morrison insists he only entered the race when it was clear that Turnbull’s leadership was terminal. Turnbull alleges otherwise, accusing Morrison of having “played a double game”. The episode ends with Turnbull offering another pungent character assessment, this time of his successor: “duplicitous”.</p>
<h2>The Morrison years</h2>
<p>Nemesis concludes with Morrison’s prime ministership. The leadership conflict might have been over but it still has many unedifying moments. Being most recent, the story is familiar with even fewer surprises. It errs towards generosity to Morrison, not fully capturing why his leadership became a byword for inauthenticity, a prime minister whose obsession with the theatre of politics consistently trumped substance.</p>
<p>The documentary springs directly to Morrison’s self-proclaimed “miracle” re-election of May 2019. Christopher Pyne puts a more realistic note on the result observing that many in the Coalition “decided they had won the election because they were geniuses as opposed to the fact that we had won because Labor had thrown it away”. As a consequence, a “lack of humility infected” the government.</p>
<p>The episode recalls many of the notorious statements made by Morrison, which by suggesting he was evading responsibility, was a bully or lacked empathy, corroded his public image, especially among women voters. “I don’t hold a hose, mate” (after disappearing to Hawaii in the midst of the Black Summer bushfires), “she can go” (monstering Australia Post CEO, Christine Holgate), and “not far from here such marches, even now, are being met by bullets” (about a women’s justice rally at Parliament House) are examples.</p>
<p>Asked about the comments, Morrison admits to poor choices of words. Yet, he is equally quick to complain of his words being “weaponised” and to protest that he was misrepresented. The effect conveys that he continues to struggle to accept responsibility. An unfortunate habit of smugness when explaining himself adds to this impression.</p>
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<p>Nemesis shows that the COVID pandemic was both a blessing and curse for the Morrison government. Fighting the pandemic gave the government a purpose that it otherwise lacked. The early decisions such as creating the national cabinet and intervening in the economy headlined by the JobKeeper program were its finest hours. </p>
<p>Things went awry, however, as the pandemic progressed. Political game playing resurfaced and tensions with the premiers festered. And then, of course, there were delays in procuring and distributing vaccines. Health bureaucrat Jane Halton is damming: “manifestly we had longer lockdowns than we actually needed to have because we didn’t have supply and rollout as others”.</p>
<p>Nemesis devotes considerable time to the AUKUS pact and the reneging on the agreement to buy submarines from France. Morrison paints AUKUS as the proudest legacy of his prime ministership. He was concerned that the French built conventional submarines would have been “obsolete before they got wet”. He is unfazed that French President Emmanuel Macron labelled him a liar: “I’ve got big shoulders”. Turnbull, who signed the agreement with Macron for the purchase of the French submarines, provides the critical commentary on AUKUS: “Morrison sacrificed Australian security, sovereignty and honour”.</p>
<p>The picture that emerges of the final months of Morrison’s prime ministership is of a divided government that was a spent force. A commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 brought relations with the Nationals to breaking point. It was too little too late to change the public’s opinion that the Coalition was a laggard on climate change action.</p>
<p>Morrison then expended dwindling political capital by fruitlessly pursuing religious rights protections, causing ructions with Liberal moderates. Nemesis draws a connection between Morrison’s evangelical religious faith and this prime-ministerial frolic. The viewer is also invited to draw the dots between his faith and his politically disastrous and morally culpable handpicking of the anti-transgender Liberal candidate Katherine Deves to contest the 2022 election.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-morrisons-can-do-capitalism-and-conservative-masculinity-may-not-be-cutting-through-anymore-183118">Why Morrison's ‘can-do’ capitalism and conservative masculinity may not be cutting through anymore</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>Morrison’s colleagues are unsparing in assessing him as politically toxic by the time of the 2022 election. Some even approached Treasurer Josh Frydenberg about challenging Morrison’s leadership: Frydenberg rebuffed their overtures. Tim Wilson, like Frydenberg a casualty of the Teal insurgency, compares the depth of public sentiment against the prime minister to “having a 10,000 tonne boulder attached to your leg”. </p>
<p>Morrison’s secret commandeering of five ministries was the sting in the tail of his prime ministership. Nemesis records the shock and appal of his colleagues when those actions were revealed. His explanations of his behaviour are unpersuasive as are his expressions of contrition. He says he has apologised to former treasurer Frydenberg and that they have “reconnected and as good a friends as you could hope for”. Frydenberg puts it differently: “it impacted the relationship and does to this day”. We are left with the suspicion that once again Morrison is bending the truth.</p>
<h2>A decade of banality and pettiness</h2>
<p>What can we take away from all this? Participants in the documentary draw on classical allusions in making sense of the chaos. We are told, for instance, that the leadership feud between Abbott and Turnbull was Shakespearean. Yet what Nemesis exposes is the banality of these events and the pettiness of the actors. One searches vainly for a sense of higher mission or nobility of bearing. </p>
<p>None of the three major protagonists emerge well. Abbott is deeply eccentric, leery of criticism and hopelessly incapable of adjusting to the positive tasks of governing; Turnbull is bloated with self-regard, merciless about the faults of others and yet timorous when he had the chance to make his mark; and Morrison is deceitful and bullying, a man whose governing declined into vacuity.</p>
<p>There have been other occasions in the past when national leadership has descended into tawdriness. The Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard years were defined by internecine warfare, but at least Gillard exhibited resoluteness in the way she governed and dignity in the way she left office. </p>
<p>The post-Menzies Liberal triumvirate of Harold Holt, John Gorton and William McMahon were respectively overwhelmed by the office, reckless and pygmy like. We can go back further for episodes of leadership delinquency to the debilitating feuding between Earle Page and Robert Menzies on the eve of the second world war and even further to the egomaniacal and conflict ridden prime ministership of Billy Hughes. </p>
<p>Yet arguably the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison era represents a nadir when it comes to Australian national leadership.</p>
<p>Focussed on the blood-letting and human follies of the Coalition years, Nemesis is silent on the bigger forces roiling national politics, the eroding bases of the major parties and a hyperactive and polarised media to name the obvious. </p>
<p>The task of leadership has become more fraught in this environment. Yet this does not afford an alibi for the degraded governance of 2013-22. Successful incumbents from the past — Alfred Deakin, John Curtin, Ben Chifley, Robert Menzies, Gough Whitlam, Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and John Howard — provide a template for prime-ministerial achievement in all seasons. It begins with being steadfastly bound to a larger purpose, without which politics can easily degenerate into destructive vanities and mindless absurdities as Nemesis painfully illustrates.</p>
<p>As ghastly a spectacle as it presents, this is its powerful lesson.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223002/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Strangio received funding from the Australian Research Council in the past.</span></em></p>
Arguably, the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison era represents a nadir when it comes to the history of Australian national leadership.
Paul Strangio, Emeritus professor of politics, Monash University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/221609
2024-02-01T19:05:28Z
2024-02-01T19:05:28Z
Australian media’s Instagram posts on Gaza war have an anti-Palestine bias. That has real-world consequences
<p>It’s well documented that news media influences our behaviour in all manner of ways, from how much <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1477-9552.2010.00266.x">meat we buy</a> to our attitudes towards <a href="https://academic.oup.com/her/article/30/2/359/702489">exercise</a>.</p>
<p>Journalism does not merely hold a mirror up to reality, as some <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_Whole_World_Is_Watching.html?id=00iwHPO73mkC&redir_esc=y">have argued</a>. It creates versions of reality. With every decision of which story to include and exclude, which image to show or not show, even which grammatical choice is made, our impressions are sculpted. This is especially the case with the Israel-Gaza war.</p>
<p>Research has shown, for example, that exposure to news media can induce <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0174606">Islamophobia</a>. There’s also evidence of historical news media bias against <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/17506352231178148">Palestinians</a> and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10345329.2007.12036423">Muslims</a>.</p>
<p>As the leading organisation tracking and tackling Islamophobia in Australia through its digital reporting platform, the Islamophobia Register Australia commissioned this research to assess whether there was media imbalance in the present-day coverage of the Israel-Gaza war. <a href="https://islamophobia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/IRA_2023-Israel-Gaza-War-Report_Final-22DEC.pdf">Our analysis</a> found a pro-Israel bias across the surveyed outlets.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-islamophobia-and-anti-palestinian-racism-are-manufactured-through-disinformation-216119">How Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism are manufactured through disinformation</a>
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<h2>A flammable media environment</h2>
<p>The impact news media can have on our attitudes became especially pertinent when the Israel–Gaza war began on October 7 2023, and with it, sustained media coverage. From that date, reports of antisemitism in Australia <a href="https://www.news.com.au/national/australian-jews-suffer-738-per-cent-spike-in-antisemitic-abuse/news-story/33ed1f60ff568d31ce399b325bbc03a2">increased 738%</a> and Islamophobia <a href="https://islamophobia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Website_Islamophobia-Register_28-NOV-Press-Release.docx.pdf">increased 1,300%</a>. </p>
<p>Australians brought their concerns to the Islamophobia Register Australia as anti-Palestinian racism is a <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-923X.13166">specific and documented</a> form of Islamophobia.</p>
<p>Our analysis was a focused, introductory study with the aim of looking for disparities in reporting on the Israel-Gaza war on the Instagram accounts of six of Australia’s most followed news outlets: ABC News, The Daily Aus, The Australian, News.com.au, 9News and The Daily Telegraph. We looked at their posts on the topic between October 7 and November 7 2023. We chose Instagram as the field of analysis, as the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3873260">latest global research</a> found social media is the main way people of all ages come across news online.</p>
<p>These outlets span commercial and publicly owned, legacy media and new media, digital-only and print-based, and national and state-based media. Outlets also needed to have more than 100,000 followers on their verified Instagram account. The amount of posts assessed varied depending on how many each outlet had posted. News.com.au had only four posts in the time period, while ABC News had published 63. </p>
<p>This is not a definitive analysis of potential bias in the Australian media. Its scope is small and doesn’t account for the outlets’ reporting on the Israel-Gaza war more broadly. This report is, however, an initial look that highlights some common areas of imbalance or inequality in the current approach.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-now-ranks-among-the-worlds-leading-jailers-of-journalists-we-dont-know-why-theyre-behind-bars-221411">Israel now ranks among the world’s leading jailers of journalists. We don't know why they're behind bars</a>
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<h2>Humanising the victims of war</h2>
<p>We focused on language because it’s part of the “<a href="https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/779">covert operations of war</a>”. While we assessed all posts about the conflict during the time period (not just posts with an explicit human angle), we measured them on how humanising they were because of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1530-2415.2005.00056.x">known impact it has</a> on the way audiences interpret conflict. </p>
<p>One specific tool we developed to assess the treatment of people in coverage was what we called the “humanising test”. To meet a minimum standard of humanising coverage, news outlets’ Instagram posts needed to include at least two of the three following criteria in their mentions of Israelis and Palestinians:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>provide at least a first name for the person</p></li>
<li><p>show their face, and/or</p></li>
<li><p>use at least some of their own words (translations were ok).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>This test appears easy to pass. Outlets only needed a single post that met the criteria to be successful. However, only one of the six accounts passed the test for Palestinians, while five of the six passed for Israelis.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CzAuMbbLQQA/?hl=en","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Five of the six news media accounts did not include a single post that passed the humanising test about Palestinians. ABC News was the only account to provide any posts about Palestinians that passed. The Australian had ten posts about Israelis that passed the humanising test, and not one post that passed the test for Palestinians.</p>
<h2>The power of grammar</h2>
<p>We also investigated the use of “voice”, specifically the active, passive and middle voice. </p>
<p>While the distinction between active and passive voice may seem like something only your high school English teacher cares about, it matters a lot more than just clarifying prose. It highlights who an actor is in a sentence, which really matters in discussions about war. </p>
<p>Even more important is the less-discussed “middle voice”. The middle voice exists beyond the active and passive voice, and when used in a sentence, removes any possibility of an actor causing an event. </p>
<p>In an example from our study, a post by The Daily Telegraph is captioned “bombs are falling less than 100m from where [the family] are sheltering” on the Gaza strip. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CyUZLkHMtl_/?hl=en","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Note the word “fall” used when discussing the “bombs falling” on the family. Using the word “fall” with “bomb” as opposed, for example, to “dropped”, signifies to the audience that there was no external agent involved in the bombing. If the word “dropped” had been used, even if using the passive voice without naming the Israeli army, there remains an understanding that somebody dropped the bombs, even if they are unnamed. </p>
<p>But this use of the middle voice by saying the bombs “fall” implies that the bombs fell spontaneously from the sky without human intervention, as if it were a natural phenomenon. There is no attribution as to where the bombs came from, nor who is responsible for their presence. Thus, even the suggestion of Israel as the agent of the bombs is erased in the mind of the audience. </p>
<p>The middle voice was never used for any posts about attacks on Israel, but was used by five of six accounts when reporting on attacks on Gaza. </p>
<p>Five (ABC News, 9News, The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and News.com.au) of six accounts showed bias against Palestinians in their use of the active, middle and passive voices. Meanwhile, all five accounts were more likely to use the active voice when discussing attacks against Israel. Overall, the passive voice was used more often to describe what was happening in Gaza than in Israel. </p>
<h2>Why does all this matter?</h2>
<p><em>So what?</em> you may think. But this is important, because these grammatical choices shepherd the audience – you and I – into a way of understanding the parties in the Israel-Gaza war. </p>
<p>Grammatical choices are more subtle than blatantly calling one side “the victim” or “human”, and the other side “the aggressor” and “inhuman”. Such framing therefore slips past the audience unnoticed, but creates a reflexive perception that lingers in the audience’s mind.</p>
<p>Subsequent analysis internationally has found Australian news media is not alone in its biased treatment against Palestinians. Analysis of the media in <a href="https://breachmedia.ca/palestinian-deaths-canadian-newspapers-data/">Canada</a> and the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/01/09/newspapers-israel-palestine-bias-new-york-times/">United States</a> found the same imbalance in language we identified. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/war-in-gaza-an-ethicist-explains-why-you-shouldnt-turn-to-social-media-for-information-about-the-conflict-or-to-do-something-about-it-218912">War in Gaza: An ethicist explains why you shouldn't turn to social media for information about the conflict or to do something about it</a>
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<p>The discrepancies and dehumanisation we and others have found are not merely semantic squabbles. Five of the six outlets we studied (all bar The Daily Aus) were unbalanced against Palestinians in their Instagram posts in at least one of the three categories we assessed (along with humanisation and grammar, we also looked at <a href="https://islamophobia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/IRA_2023-Israel-Gaza-War-Report_Final-22DEC.pdf">descriptive language</a>).</p>
<p>The media’s reporting on the Israel-Gaza war matters because it shapes the way the audience views the people involved in the war. These perceptions are fostered online and can translate into the way Australians view and treat each other in real life. </p>
<p>Palestinian war victims are being systematically dehumanised by large and influential parts of the media to their substantial audiences. When the media is the primary prism through which people understand the war, it must be held to high standards, and to account.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221609/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Carland was commissioned by the Islamophobia Register Australia to conduct this research and received research funding to complete this work. Susan Carland sits on the board of the Islamophobia Register Australia as an academic advisor. She was not part of any decision making that led to her being commissioned to conduct this research.
Susan Carland has previously received funding from the Australian Research Council and the Churchill Trust to conduct research into Islamophobia in Australia
</span></em></p>
Language has been dubbed “the covert operations of war”, such is the power it holds in shaping public opinion. Here’s what we found about the way Australian media has been framing the conflict.
Susan Carland, Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) fellow, Monash University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/222146
2024-02-01T19:03:24Z
2024-02-01T19:03:24Z
Black comedy, political drama and a documentary about a cult: what we’re streaming this February
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572100/original/file-20240130-15-a46qob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=11%2C11%2C3982%2C1982&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Binge/ABC/Paramount+/The Conversation</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the new year gets going and we’re all looking towards evenings on the couch again to unwind after work or school, there is again a glut of shows to choose from. </p>
<p>This month, our academics have suggested everything from a drama exploring the AIDS epidemic, to the latest outing from Marvel, to a documentary about a cult. </p>
<p>If you like your comedy black or romantic, if you want to watch a film or a series, we have you covered for what to stream this February. </p>
<h2>Fellow Travellers</h2>
<p><em>Paramount+ (Australia) and Neon (New Zealand)</em></p>
<p>Fellow Travellers picked up two nominations in the Golden Globes; I would have given it many more. But maybe the combination of political history and hot man-to-man sex was too much for the nominators.</p>
<p>Thomas Mallon’s 2007 novel about two men who fall in love in the homophobic Washington of Senator McCarthy has been expanded to explore racism and the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. But the essential tensions of forbidden love remain, even if the television series takes us into worlds Mallon chose not to explore.</p>
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<p>The performances of the two leading actors Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey are
extraordinary. So too is Jelani Alladin as a black reporter who struggles to balance his racial and sexual identity.</p>
<p>Bomer’s character is the ultimate survivor, who marries for his career and treats all relationships transactionally. Bailey’s is seemingly weaker, a right-wing Catholic who falls completely for Bomer. His transformation at the end into an AIDS activist stretches credulity, but Bailey has the skill to carry it off.</p>
<p>Fellow Travellers is politically more sophisticated than Oppenheimer and more complex in its sexual politics than Barbie. Like them it interrogates the myth of America, which sadly promises to preoccupy us over the coming year.</p>
<p><em>– Dennis Altman</em></p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-kid-called-troy-at-30-this-beautiful-aussie-film-was-one-of-the-most-important-hiv-aids-documentaries-ever-produced-218715">A Kid Called Troy at 30: this beautiful Aussie film was one of the most important HIV/AIDS documentaries ever produced</a>
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<h2>The Curse</h2>
<p><em>Paramount+ (Australia) and Neon (New Zealand)</em></p>
<p>The genre-bending black comedy The Curse is a persistent, excruciating tummy ache of a show – and that’s a recommendation.</p>
<p>Newlywed white liberal do-gooders Whitney (Emma Stone) and Asher (Nathan Fielder) arrive in the socio-economically deprived town of Española, New Mexico, with louche filmmaker Dougie (Benny Safdie) to film an obnoxious HGTV show called Flipanthropy. The wealthy couple will ostensibly “help” the community through their high-end eco-home company, but things do not go to plan.</p>
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<p>The satirical ten-part series, created and written by Safdie and Fielder, defies convention and description. It’s filmed in an uncanny, dissociative style. Very long takes, awkward framing and unsettling points of view marry contemporary surveillance cultures with the dream-like stupor of David Lynch. It’s a Rorschach test for viewers as it takes on a huge range of targets: gentrification, the constructed nature of “reality” television, vanity, racism, class, colonisation, capitalism, power, art, privilege, entertainment, taste, masculinity, loneliness.</p>
<p>The show inflicts a lot of psychic damage on the viewer, but it’s worth making it to the end. The performances are impeccable, and the astonishing finale offers what might be the biggest water cooler moment of television this year.</p>
<p><em>– Erin Harrington</em></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nathan-fielders-new-comedy-the-rehearsal-will-be-familiar-to-anyone-with-autism-188071">Nathan Fielder's new comedy The Rehearsal will be familiar to anyone with autism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Total Control season three</h2>
<p><em>iView (Australia)</em></p>
<p>Two years after First Nations MP Alex Irving (Deborah Mailman) outwitted the major
parties and leveraged the new power of the crossbench to install Paul Murphy
(Wayne Blair) as Australia’s first Indigenous prime minister, the shine has worn off Murphy’s leadership. </p>
<p>In the third season of Total Control, Murphy has sacrificed one social justice commitment after another on the altar of electoral politics and the knives are out between him and Irving.</p>
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<p>Irving is at boiling point, as her commitment to youth justice and to
securing resources for her disaster-struck regional community is constantly thwarted.</p>
<p>Her nemesis, former prime minister Rachel Anderson (Rachel Griffiths) – all
sangfroid and intrigue – has reinvented herself as a warrior for ethical, truly
representative democracy and is attempting to set up a new alliance of independents. The stakes are high, the tension palpable.</p>
<p>Filmed in Parliament House, this final season continues Total Control’s stylish, taut political drama. Consultations with political insiders informed themes of political corruption, dirty money in politics and the reconfiguration of the political landscape with the rise of independents, set against the ongoing neglect of Indigenous communities.</p>
<p>But this is no cynical exercise; there is an optimistic vision here for the real change independents could bring.</p>
<p><em>– Anne Rutherford</em></p>
<h2>Smothered</h2>
<p><em>Binge (Australia) and Neon (New Zealand)</em></p>
<p>Many of us have bemoaned the lack of rom-coms in the cinema, but luckily television is increasingly becoming a space for dynamic and interesting romantic-comedies from You’re the Worst to Everything I Know About Love. </p>
<p>A recent entry into the TV rom-com landscape is the delightful new British series Smothered, created by Monica Heisey. Danielle Vitalis stars as Sammy, a chaotic but fun twenty-something interior designer, who is disillusioned by her current dating (read: sex) life. </p>
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<p>Jon Pointing plays her counterpart Tom, a quiet, lost, old-before-his-years “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/aug/27/four-lads-in-jeans-meme-made-into-statue-in-birmingham">lad in jeans</a>.” In a classic meet-cute conceit, an impossible but alluring deal is struck between our two leads: a hot casual affair, no last names, no details, three weeks and they’re done. But of course life and feelings complicate best laid plans. </p>
<p>Equal parts absurd and sincere, this is the perfect show for those who love Nora Ephron and Sex and the City. Like these predecessors, Smothered is populated by quirky supporting characters who are inexplicably invested in Sammy and Tom’s romance, but it works thanks to hilarious performances by Aisling Bea, Harry Trevaldwyn and Lisa Hammond.</p>
<p>– <em>Jessica Ford</em></p>
<h2>Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God</h2>
<p><em>Binge (Australia) and Neon (New Zealand)</em></p>
<p>Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God charts the life and death of Amy Carlson, who in early adulthood claimed she was a divine being in communication with a host of “Galactics”, including deceased comedian Robin Williams, and built a following of tens of thousands on Facebook and YouTube.</p>
<p>The three-part documentary series begins with the discovery by police in 2021 of the former McDonalds manager’s corpse, blue from ingesting copious amounts of <a href="https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/colloidal-silver-what-you-need-to-know">colloidal silver</a> and attended by her inner circle of devotees in Crestone, Colorado. </p>
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<p>Director and producer Hannah Olsen successfully compiles several key interviews with those closest to the believed 254th reincarnation of Mother God, including testimony from Carlson’s four “Father God” partners and from those who maintained the religious movements’s online presence whilst witnessing her decline first hand.</p>
<p>The eerie use of cloud photography (“starships” coming to ascend Carlson to a higher “5D” dimension) alongside the group’s influencer-style social media livestreams and a <a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/46oBuu2KmtIUsMDFgQP89Z?si=5f34857125db4ccb&nd=1&dlsi=91f9923c750c4896&go=1">soundtrack</a> of atonal electronica makes for a unique post-millennium aesthetic.</p>
<p>Ultimately Love Has Won left me pondering the relationship between the unknowable mysteries of our existence and the myriad mental health effects of trauma.</p>
<p>– <em>Phoebe Hart</em></p>
<h2>Echo</h2>
<p><em>Disney+ (Australia) and Apple TV (New Zealand)</em></p>
<p>Among swathes of Marvel spin-offs, Echo’s bingeable five chapter run caught and kept my interest. Echo spotlights Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox), a deaf assassin who flees New York following deadly conflict with her “uncle”, Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). Fisk is “Kingpin”, a villainous businessman who lacks interstellar prowess but employs monstrous methods of controlling “his” city.</p>
<p>We open on Maya’s childhood within her Choctaw family and heritage. After a targeted tragedy – including the loss of her leg – Maya and her father move to New York where Fisk’s indoctrination begins. Present-day Maya returns home to a wary family and town. Only her cousin, Biscuits (Cody Lightning), leaps to provide support and charmingly obvious comedic relief.</p>
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<p>Kingpin’s shadow – cast by D’Onofrio’s stellar performance – looms, but Cox shines as a tight-lipped young woman at crossroads, determinedly independent, drawn to the past. Maya is a break-out role for Cox, who is herself Native American, deaf, and an amputee. Exposition and relationship-building are communicated through sign language. Sound mediates emotion and action, oscillating between manically heightened music and tense, heart-beating silence.</p>
<p>We soon root for antihero Maya, despite plentiful onscreen violence at her hand. While she debuted in Hawkeye as a heartless killer, Echo goes deeper, exploring inheritance, loss, and betrayal, via a lick of magic and a lot of blood.</p>
<p><em>– Marina Deller</em></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/marvels-echo-is-a-one-of-a-kind-superhero-and-an-inspiration-to-the-deaf-community-221148">Marvel's Echo is a one-of-a-kind superhero – and an inspiration to the Deaf community</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222146/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
This month, our academics have suggested everything from a drama exploring the AIDS epidemic, to the latest outing from Marvel, to a documentary about a cult.
Anne Rutherford, Adjunct Associate Professor, Cinema Studies, Western Sydney University
Dennis Altman, VC Fellow, La Trobe University
Erin Harrington, Senior Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies, University of Canterbury
Jessica Ford, Lecturer in Media, University of Adelaide
Marina Deller, Casual Academic, Flinders University
Phoebe Hart, Associate Professor, Film Screen & Animation, Queensland University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/221847
2024-01-24T05:10:23Z
2024-01-24T05:10:23Z
As new ABC chair, one of Kim Williams’ challenges will be to stiffen the organisation’s spine
<p>Kim Williams takes over as chair of the ABC at a moment when its preparedness to protect its journalists and the organisation’s editorial independence from external attack is under serious question.</p>
<p>It was the issue that came to define the tenure of the outgoing chair, Ita Buttrose. She proved at crucial moments to be a strong defender of the ABC’s independence against sustained attacks on it by the government of Scott Morrison, who appointed her to the job as a “captain’s pick”.</p>
<p>Unlike Buttrose, Williams comes to the job at least as a result of due process. The government chose him from a shortlist of three prepared by an independent panel, the system set up by the Gillard government but routinely ignored by its Liberal-National successors.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kim-williams-to-be-new-abc-chair-described-by-albanese-as-a-true-renaissance-man-221845">Kim Williams to be new ABC chair, described by Albanese as 'a true renaissance man'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Williams’ history indicates he brings to the job a formidable intellect, a broad understanding of the media industry and a temperament that might be cautiously described as mercurial.</p>
<p>He also brings some baggage. In December 2011, he was appointed CEO of Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited, which was later rebadged News Corporation Australia.</p>
<p>After a turbulent 20 months, during which he tried to restructure the newspapers to make them more suited to the digital age and bring about complementary cultural change, he <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/aug/09/kim-williams-departure-victory-murdoch">fell victim</a> to the brutal internal politics of News Corp, where he was resented by the editors as an outsider, and resigned. </p>
<p>Although he was an outsider in the newspaper business, he was no stranger to the media industry more broadly. In his ten years as CEO of Foxtel between 2001 and 2011, he was credited with bringing the company back from its deathbed.</p>
<p>While he spent 18 years working for Murdoch – indulging the routine attacks News Corporation makes on the ABC – writing him off as a “Murdoch man” would not do justice to the breadth he brings to the position. </p>
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<p>He is a <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/kim-williams-former-news-corp-ceo-has-more-surprises-in-store-20140407-367kd.html">classically trained musician and composer</a>, a former general manager of Musica Viva, head of the Sydney Opera House Trust and CEO of the Australian Film Commission. </p>
<p>Here he ran into veteran broadcaster Phillip Adams, who has described him as “a maker and a destroyer”. “Even as a success, there is something tragic about him.” </p>
<p>At the same time, Adams recognised Williams’ intellectual ability and they formed a formidable alliance at the commission. Adams is one of the ABC’s most treasured broadcasters, having presented Late Night Live on Radio National for 33 years.</p>
<p>Williams also has executive experience at the ABC. In 1991 he was appointed to lead the ABC’s pay-television initiative, Australian Information Media (AIM). But suddenly, in the midst of negotiations with Foxtel over its becoming a carrier for AIM’s content, Williams announced he was resigning from AIM to become CEO of Murdoch’s Fox Studios.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/antoinette-lattouf-sacking-shows-how-the-abc-has-been-damaged-by-successive-coalition-governments-221578">Antoinette Lattouf sacking shows how the ABC has been damaged by successive Coalition governments</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Adams likened this to a rat leaving a sinking ship. An ABC board member at the time, Rod Cameron, described it as a disgrace.</p>
<p>Although described as charming, Williams <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/kim-williams-former-news-corp-ceo-has-more-surprises-in-store-20140407-367kd.html">is also reputed</a> to have a ferocious temper. A former News Corp executive is reported as saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>He internalises to the point where you think his whole head is going to explode. The pressure he brings himself under, let alone the target, is truly terrifying.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Williams has also been widely criticised for lacking not just social skills but political skills. He made many enemies at News Corp but more importantly, in the context of his ABC appointment, his ability to get policy changes through the political process has been questioned.</p>
<p>The media analyst Margaret Simons <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/aug/09/kim-williams-departure-victory-murdoch">has noted</a> that while at Foxtel he failed to persuade governments of either side to liberalise the anti-siphoning laws, under which certain major sporting events may not be shown on pay TV until they have been shown on free to air. Getting more of these high-profile events for Foxtel was a key part of the business strategy to build the network.</p>
<p>She reports he also failed to advance media deregulation at the time the Gillard government commissioned the Convergence Review, which was about reviewing media policy in the light of digital technology. </p>
<p>This background suggests Williams’ tenure as chair of the ABC could be a mixture of dazzling successes and disastrous failures.</p>
<p>It may also be turbulent. The internal politics of the ABC are every bit as febrile as those of News Corp. Political adroitness will be essential not only in navigating those but in effectively representing the corporation in Canberra and fending off the depredations of politicians on both sides.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1750000022442353049"}"></div></p>
<p>Williams has made an encouraging start by saying in an ABC interview that he will treat staff concerns seriously.</p>
<p>But the ultimate test is whether he will be able to stiffen the corporation’s spine when it comes to defending its journalists and their journalism from external attack.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221847/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
At a vulnerable time for the public broadcaster, Williams has made a promising start by saying management must take staff concerns seriously.
Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/219328
2023-12-21T00:27:53Z
2023-12-21T00:27:53Z
A brief look at the long history of First Nations fashion design in Australia
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565094/original/file-20231212-17-eznnko.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5982%2C3961&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Aboriginal Display at the Brisbane Exhibition, 1914. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collections.slq.qld.gov.au/viewer/IE16333">State Library of Queensland</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, and links to old newspaper stories and research papers using outdated and potentially offensive terminology.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The ABC’s series <a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/show/way-we-wore">The Way We Wore</a> takes a look at stories of Australian fashion design and style. </p>
<p>First Nations people participated in the series and spoke about various periods and tales, looking at forced clothing policies during the Stolen Generation period, the contribution of Flinders Ranges/Adnyamathanha knowledge to the creation of the RM Williams iconic boot, and the emergence of First Nations fashion design from the 1970s and at Parisian fashion shows in the 1980s.</p>
<p>Yet, left out from the show was the rich backstory of our First Nations fashion design industry.</p>
<p>Prior to Parisian fashion shows, First Nations people showcased handmade clothing and accessories at 1800s international and national exhibitions, often as unpaid labour.</p>
<p>Earlier still, the making and crafting of animal and plant cloaks, skirts, belts, shoes and accessories were the original fashion designs.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-first-designers-and-models-of-this-world-attending-the-2023-national-indigenous-fashion-awards-211517">‘The first designers and models of this world’: attending the 2023 National Indigenous Fashion Awards</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Traditional clothing and adornment</h2>
<p>Climates, materials and stories guided traditional fashion design. </p>
<p>Items were crafted from natural materials that eventually returned to the environment.</p>
<p><a href="https://library.museum.wa.gov.au/fullRecord.jsp?recno=50097">Footwear</a> was made from animal skins, furs, and feathers, human hair and bark.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565097/original/file-20231212-28-x080ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565097/original/file-20231212-28-x080ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565097/original/file-20231212-28-x080ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565097/original/file-20231212-28-x080ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565097/original/file-20231212-28-x080ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565097/original/file-20231212-28-x080ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565097/original/file-20231212-28-x080ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565097/original/file-20231212-28-x080ps.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Group outside a bark shelter with possum skin cloaks in Victoria, photographed between 1860-1909.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/Yj7deGl9/mmlrxexxkGjo">State Library of New South Wales</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cloaks were made from <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-designers-can-learn-from-aboriginal-possum-skin-cloaks-38655">animal skin</a> and <a href="https://www.samemory.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?c=5946&mode=singleImage">plants</a>, often inscribed with designs that reflected a person’s identity. </p>
<p>Intricate jewellery and accessories included <a href="https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/184838">head ornaments</a>, <a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/explore/collection/highlights/tasmanian-aboriginal-shell-necklaces">necklaces</a>, <a href="https://australian.museum/about/history/exhibitions/death-the-last-taboo/mourning-indigenous-australia/">mourning caps</a>, <a href="https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/171926">belts</a> and <a href="https://collections.museumsvictoria.com.au/items/181154">bags</a>, some made from <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-22/pearls-and-pear-shell-in-indigenous-culture/10772586">highly traded pearl shells</a> and <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/more-than-jewellery-ancient-shell-stringing-remains-an-unbroken-tradition/2ccs8598f">rare seashells</a>. </p>
<p>Today, we are seeing a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-29/indigenous-possum-skin-cloak-culture-and-history/101739174">resurgence around the country</a> of these adornments and the role they play in healing, wellbeing and cultural practice.</p>
<h2>Showcasing at trades and exhibitions</h2>
<p>First Nations women and girls who lived on reserves, missions and schools were forced to learn sewing and many produced goods including hats, bags, baskets, jewellery and rugs. </p>
<p>These items were crafted from cultural or Western methods, using both traditional or introduced materials. </p>
<p>From the mid-1800s, their work was often produced for various tourist trades and national and international exhibitions. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565098/original/file-20231212-23-1bwxdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565098/original/file-20231212-23-1bwxdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565098/original/file-20231212-23-1bwxdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565098/original/file-20231212-23-1bwxdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565098/original/file-20231212-23-1bwxdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565098/original/file-20231212-23-1bwxdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565098/original/file-20231212-23-1bwxdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565098/original/file-20231212-23-1bwxdr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Aboriginal Court at the Brisbane Exhibition, 1914.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collections.slq.qld.gov.au/viewer/IE2813548">State Library of Queensland</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One Melbourne CBD shop stocked woven baskets and bags from Victoria’s <a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/coranderrk">Coranderrk Reserve</a>. </p>
<p>Sydney’s <a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/audio/indigenous-participation-in-australian-economies-conference/transcripts/the-economy-of-shells-a-histo">La Perouse Mission</a> sold shell baskets in the city and later exhibited them at the Sydney Royal Easter Show and in London. </p>
<p>At the 1888 Melbourne Exhibition, the Queensland section presented <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146795056">pearl jewellery</a> from Thursday Island and the Torres Strait.</p>
<p>While some of the women and girls from these institutions received pay for their work, <a href="http://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UTSLRS/2013/14.pdf">many did not</a>.</p>
<h2>Emergence of fashion within the craft industry</h2>
<p>From the 1930s, non-Indigenous textile artists and fashion designers started producing <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page26384333">First Nations-inspired designs</a> using motifs such as boomerangs, shields and “hunting stick figures”, without the permission or input from First Nations artists.</p>
<p>Partly in response to this popularity, craft centres within the missions and reserves established their own industry and several hired First Nations people to design cultural textiles and fashions. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CtIgKGhBhxb/?hl=en","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Some of this early work in the 1940s included <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230948830">bags with traditional weaving styles</a>, <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page26672951">practical linens with cultural designs</a> and unique <a href="https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/116107?mode=simple">Ernabella scarves</a>.</p>
<p>As the newspaper <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230948830">The Sun reported</a> from the Mount Margaret Mission in 1941:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>One of the most interesting exhibits in the exhibition of Aboriginal handicrafts and school children’s work at the Y.W.C.A. to-day is a bag woven from wool in a native stitch. It has been adapted from old aboriginal work which is usually seen only in tribal grass weaving.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Children’s work from these institutions were often exhibited in Australia and internationally. There was particular overseas interest in turning art from the Carrolup Native settlement onto textiles <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article159008807">for fashion garments</a>.</p>
<h2>The business of First Nations textiles and fashion</h2>
<p>Economic and cultural autonomy became more attainable for First Nations people from the 1950s.</p>
<p>Bill Onus produced <a href="https://press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p170581/pdf/ch0751.pdf">cultural furnishing fabrics</a> with non-Indigenous artist Paula Kerry for his Melbourne Aboriginal Enterprises store.</p>
<p>First Nations women from the Coffs Harbour area started <a href="https://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files//digitised_collections/dawn_index/v16/s09/3.pdf">mass-producing fashions for the tourist trade</a> using non-Indigenous designs in the mid-1960s.</p>
<p>By the late 1960s, First Nations designed textiles became a fully-fledged fashion industry.</p>
<p>In 1969, Tiwi Island clothing production and textiles had launched through <a href="https://bimawear.com/about-bima-wear/">Bima Wear</a> and <a href="https://tiwidesigns.com/pages/about-us">Tiwi Designs</a>. </p>
<p>A few years later, <a href="http://archive.maas.museum/hsc/paperbark/contemporary.html">other arts centres</a> started crafting textiles for fashion designs.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565104/original/file-20231212-19-ncjzuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565104/original/file-20231212-19-ncjzuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565104/original/file-20231212-19-ncjzuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565104/original/file-20231212-19-ncjzuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565104/original/file-20231212-19-ncjzuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565104/original/file-20231212-19-ncjzuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565104/original/file-20231212-19-ncjzuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565104/original/file-20231212-19-ncjzuv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tiwi (Aboriginal) fashion designs, 1979.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=11693062">© Commonwealth of Australia (National Archives of Australia) 2023.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Throughout the 1970s, fashion shows <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page12380699">paraded these textiles</a> and some First Nations people <a href="https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=11695949">wore the designs</a> at formal events.</p>
<p>Bronwyn Bancroft, the owner of the Sydney store Designer Aboriginals, and Euphemia Bostock and Mini Heath <a href="https://www.bronwynbancroft.com/history?pgid=kddvaeao-d276a7d8-aa23-4ddc-a389-c95ee6525f73">presented their garments</a> at the Parisian Au Printemps Department Store in 1987.</p>
<h2>The 21st Century and beyond</h2>
<p>By the start of the new millennium, Robyn Caughlan, in <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/fashion/robyn-has-fashion-game-all-sewn-up-20030426-gdgnsm.html">collaboration with Benjamin Mach</a>, was the <a href="https://www.robyncaughlan.com/fashion-designs">first Indigenous designer</a> to contribute to a fashion collection at Australian Fashion Week. </p>
<p>Two decades later at Australian Fashion Week 2023, Denni Francisco’s brand Ngali was the <a href="https://harpersbazaar.com.au/ngali-murriyang-aafw-2023/">first Indigenous label</a> to present a standalone collection.</p>
<p>Today, many First Nations labels promote their designs internationally in <a href="https://nit.com.au/02-10-2023/7916/indigenous-fashion-label-ticia-designs-makes-international-debut-in-paris">Paris</a>, <a href="https://nit.com.au/14-12-2020/1632/indigenous-couture-to-grace-milan-runway">Milan</a>, <a href="https://www.vogue.com.au/fashion/news/an-historic-showcase-of-australian-first-nations-design-at-london-fashion-week/news-story/df1a1343a0987e81cf2441ee619f98cc">London</a>, and <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-09/indigenous-fashion-designers-set-sights-on-overseas-markets/101222846">New York</a>. There are now several First Nations fashion bodies to support them in the industry. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CLQoNhwhlqX","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>These bodies connect with national and international fashion weeks and art fairs, and have insight into cultural appropriation and Intellectual Property Rights.</p>
<p>For First Nations people, fashion and style are significant channels through which culture, identity, healing and social change can be communicated and practised. </p>
<p>Learning about the foundation of First Nations fashion design is vital to understanding Australian history and advocating connection, wellbeing, expression and sustainability.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cultural-expression-through-dress-towards-a-definition-of-first-nations-fashion-201782">‘Cultural expression through dress’: towards a definition of First Nations fashion</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Treena Clark has received funding through the University of Technology Sydney Chancellor’s Indigenous Research Fellowship scheme.</span></em></p>
First Nations people have been making and crafting clothes and accessories for millennia, and for international exhibitions for hundreds of years.
Treena Clark, Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Indigenous Research Fellow, Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/218100
2023-11-20T03:16:40Z
2023-11-20T03:16:40Z
ABC chief is right: impartiality is paramount when reporting the Israel-Gaza war
<p>On November 17, the ABC’s editor-in-chief and managing director, David Anderson, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/not-our-place-to-use-terms-like-genocide-and-apartheid-says-abc-boss-20231117-p5ekrx.html">was interviewed</a> on Radio 774, the ABC’s local station in Melbourne, about criticisms of the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/melbourne-mornings/abc-managing-director-david-anderson-news-editorial-coverage/103119010">national broadcaster’s coverage</a> of the Israel-Gaza war.</p>
<p>The interview followed <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/abc-journalists-criticise-broadcaster-s-coverage-of-gaza-invasion-20231108-p5eijd.html?btis=">a well-publicised meeting</a> nine days earlier at which ABC journalists raised a range of concerns about the organisation’s coverage. These included the extent to which the ABC was relying on talking points supplied by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), and the alleged unwillingness of the ABC to use terms such as “invasion”, “occupation”, “genocide”, “apartheid” and “ethnic cleansing” when discussing Israeli government policy.</p>
<p>Concern was also reportedly expressed about what was said to be a blanket ban on the use of the word “Palestine”, with journalists from Muslim and Arab backgrounds saying there was a perception in their communities that the ABC was too pro-Israel.</p>
<p>It was also reported that senior managers acknowledged they had removed a specialist verification team because of the impact that work was having on staff. Instead, they were relying on ad-hoc advice from former Middle East correspondents.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1YiUXEdbY8U?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>David Anderson addressed many of these concerns in the Radio 774 interview. </p>
<p>In particular, he said while the ABC did include terms such as “genocide” and “apartheid” in reports of statements made by others, it was not prepared to adopt them itself. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Genocide is a claim that’s being made. It’s a serious crime. It’s an allegation of a crime. The IDF and Israel reject that. Same with apartheid. We’ll report other people’s use of that. We won’t use it ourselves.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>On the issue of alleged over-reliance on the IDF, Anderson was more equivocal. He said he wasn’t sure that was the case, but pointed out the difficulty of verifying material coming out of the war. “I think we’re trying to verify as much as we can.”</p>
<p>In terms of alienating local communities whose people are involved in the conflict, he said it came with the journalistic territory: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We know that there are some people who will be offended by reporting one perspective or another. It’s our job and what’s enshrined in our charter. We don’t pick sides.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This response has generated a good deal of heat on social media, including an allegation that Anderson is acting out of fear by the stance he has taken on the use of the terms such as genocide and apartheid.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-exactly-is-a-ceasefire-and-why-is-it-so-difficult-to-agree-on-one-in-gaza-217683">What exactly is a ceasefire, and why is it so difficult to agree on one in Gaza?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>At the heart of this discussion is one of the fundamental tenets of professional journalism: impartiality in news reporting, which includes the separation of news from opinion.</p>
<p>Impartiality is not the product of fear: it is the very reverse. It is the product of courageous efforts to be accurate, fair, balanced, open-minded, and unconflicted by personal interest, especially in the face of unrelenting pressure and highly charged emotions. It takes guts.</p>
<p>It takes guts because when damaging facts or allegations are reported, partisan interests affected negatively will accuse the journalist or the platform of favouring the other side. In no area of journalism is this more insistently demonstrated than in the reporting of the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.</p>
<p>Yet impartiality requires that important facts, once verified, be reported regardless of the anticipated blow-back. The same applies to serious allegations for which there is credible evidence.</p>
<p>Verification is foundational to accuracy. But in today’s world, journalists must navigate a landscape where fakery and misrepresentation have become not just art forms in images and text, but political dynamite. War makes the verification challenge even harder because of the combined effects of secrecy, confusion and the opportunities for propaganda.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PIzlfQ4al6M?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>In addition to accuracy, impartiality requires that the language used should be calibrated to a fair portrayal of events, and that a story should achieve balance by following the weight of evidence.</p>
<p>The question of evidence brings us to yet another fundamental principle, both of law and of journalistic ethics: the strength of the evidence required to support an allegation must be commensurate with the gravity of the allegation. In law it is called the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briginshaw_v_Briginshaw#:%7E:text=It%20essentially%20means%20that%20the,a%20standard%20ought%20be%20reached.">Briginshaw principle</a>. Getting that kind of evidence in the midst of war is difficult, but the imperatives of impartiality require that those accused should at least have the opportunity to reply.</p>
<p>A third challenge in stories where the nation has taken a clear position, as Australia has in its support for Israel, is that there is always pressure to report in ways that support the official narrative. Sometimes that pressure comes from within a media organisation, sometimes from outside and sometimes from both. It can become insidious, almost subconscious.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gaza-war-reporting-from-the-frontline-of-conflict-has-always-raised-hard-ethical-questions-217570">Gaza war: reporting from the frontline of conflict has always raised hard ethical questions</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>To partisans, these might all seem like pussyfooting abstractions. But from a journalist’s perspective they lie at the heart of good professional practice, and Anderson’s approach as outlined in his interview was that of an editor-in-chief striving for impartiality and prepared to endure the backlashes that come with it.</p>
<p>Without independent evidence, the ABC is right not to adopt for itself terms such as “genocide” and “apartheid”, but equally it is right to report others making such allegations. These highly contested and emotive terms are often used for their rhetorical power, which is the province of partisans but not of journalists seeking to be impartial.</p>
<p>Impartiality matters because it provides the bedrock of reliable information people need if they are to make up their own minds free of the manipulation that results when news reporting is tainted by partisanship. That is why it is built into the ABC charter and why Anderson is right in his determination to uphold it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218100/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Without independent evidence, the ABC is right not to adopt for itself terms such as ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid’, but equally it is right to report others making such allegations.
Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/215074
2023-11-02T19:13:32Z
2023-11-02T19:13:32Z
I was a geriatrician on Old People’s Home for Teenagers. Here’s why I joined this TV experiment
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555958/original/file-20231025-23-112he5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C20%2C6884%2C4565&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EndemolShine Australia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many people will have heard about “intergenerational practice” via the TV.</p>
<p>This is the purposeful <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/18/11254">bringing together</a> of different generations, aiming to benefit all involved. It’s the idea central to ABC TV’s <a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/show/old-people-s-home-for-teenagers">Old People’s Home for Teenagers</a>, and its predecessor <a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/show/old-people-s-home-for-4-year-olds">Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds</a>. Both show the positive aspects of mixing age groups, for the older people featured, as well as the teenagers or preschoolers.</p>
<p>I’m a <a href="https://anzsgm.org/publicinformation/">geriatrician</a>, a doctor who specialises in the medical care of older people, one of two geriatricians who took part in this TV experiment. Here’s why I got involved.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-do-people-get-old-190142">Curious Kids: why do people get old?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The benefits of mixing it up</h2>
<p>The positive aspects of mixing age groups may seem intuitive. Just think of how special it can be when grandparents spend time with their grandchildren. When older and younger people are together, each <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajag.12761">can share</a> their experiences and perspectives. Meaningful connections can develop.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555960/original/file-20231025-19-dsc0zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Addison talking with Annalise during filming" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555960/original/file-20231025-19-dsc0zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555960/original/file-20231025-19-dsc0zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555960/original/file-20231025-19-dsc0zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555960/original/file-20231025-19-dsc0zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555960/original/file-20231025-19-dsc0zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555960/original/file-20231025-19-dsc0zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555960/original/file-20231025-19-dsc0zw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Meaningful connections can develop, such as between teenager Addison and Annalise.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EndemolShine Australia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But in Australia today, many older people have no such opportunities. Multi-generational households are the exception, not the norm. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/older-people/older-australians/contents/housing-and-living-arrangements">One quarter</a> of people aged 65 and over living in private homes live alone. <a href="https://www.propertycouncil.com.au/media-releases/retirement-villages-approaching-capacity-where-will-our-seniors-live-2">Nearly 200,000</a> live in retirement villages and <a href="https://www.gen-agedcaredata.gov.au/www_aihwgen/media/2021-22-GEN-Topic-Updates/People%20using%20aged%20care/People-using-aged-care-fact-sheet_2022.pdf">around the same number</a> live in residential aged care. Both of the latter, by definition, accommodate only a single generation. </p>
<p>Intergenerational programs overcome these barriers by creating a <a href="https://shop.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/product/rip2101/">structured and supported</a> forum in which two age groups can regularly connect. </p>
<p>These programs can involve <a href="https://www.metronorth.health.qld.gov.au/news/grandfriends-reduces-loneliness-isolation">different populations</a>: from toddlers through to university students, from independent, active retirees through to aged care residents and hospital patients.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-new-project-shows-combining-childcare-and-aged-care-has-social-and-economic-benefits-99837">A new project shows combining childcare and aged care has social and economic benefits</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Programs can take several forms, for example:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>playgroups are <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1476718X211059662">conducted in</a> aged care facilities</p></li>
<li><p>childcare and aged care facilities are <a href="https://agedcarenews.com.au/2022/06/21/the-herd-proudly-blazing-a-trail-for-the-future-of-intergenerational-care-and-learning/">in the same location</a></p></li>
<li><p>older volunteers in the community take part in <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-03/ophft-making-connections-in-your-community/102908402">formal mentorship programs</a> for young adults.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>The <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33567363/">common aim</a> is to improve wellbeing, restore purpose, and bring joy to older participants, while helping to develop social skills, confidence and empathy in young people. These programs can potentially also address <a href="https://www.who.int/health-topics/ageism#tab=tab_1">ageism</a>, by creating understanding and empathy for each generation and by challenging negative stereotypes. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/kids-dressing-up-as-older-people-is-harmless-fun-right-no-its-ageist-whatever-bluey-says-212607">Kids dressing up as older people is harmless fun, right? No, it's ageist, whatever Bluey says</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>There are challenges ahead</h2>
<p>There are wide-ranging challenges ageing may throw at us – an <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21925398/">increased burden</a> of chronic disease and frailty, a decline in physical and cognitive abilities, or changes in hearing, vision and balance.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555961/original/file-20231025-15-xonqpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Maz with walker, taking a puppy for a walk, Ayden holds out hand to puppy" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555961/original/file-20231025-15-xonqpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555961/original/file-20231025-15-xonqpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555961/original/file-20231025-15-xonqpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555961/original/file-20231025-15-xonqpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555961/original/file-20231025-15-xonqpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555961/original/file-20231025-15-xonqpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555961/original/file-20231025-15-xonqpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The program encouraged both young people, such as Ayden, and older people, such as Maz, to be more active.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EndemolShine Australia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/steep-physical-decline-with-age-is-not-inevitable-heres-how-strength-training-can-change-the-trajectory-213131">Steep physical decline with age is not inevitable – here's how strength training can change the trajectory</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Changes in occupational and social roles often also occur as we get older, for instance, as older people retire from paid work or care for a sick partner. Conversely, older people may lose their role as caregivers, after grandchildren grow up, or after the loss of a loved one. </p>
<p>All these ageing-related changes can lead to a loss of social connection and <a href="https://theconversation.com/i-tell-everyone-i-love-being-on-my-own-but-i-hate-it-what-older-australians-want-you-to-know-about-loneliness-166109">loneliness</a>. Loneliness itself is bad for health. Loneliness <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41572-022-00355-9">increases risks</a> for depression, cardiovascular disease, dementia and may even lead to a shorter life span. Reducing loneliness in older adults remains a challenge.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-tell-everyone-i-love-being-on-my-own-but-i-hate-it-what-older-australians-want-you-to-know-about-loneliness-166109">'I tell everyone I love being on my own, but I hate it': what older Australians want you to know about loneliness</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>How I got involved</h2>
<p>So when a chance to become involved in Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds, I eagerly jumped on board. This featured an experimental intergenerational preschool. Young and old took part in a series of structured and supported activities such as playing dress-ups, going on walks and having a sports carnival.</p>
<p>At the time, intergenerational programs were far from mainstream, especially in Australia.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555962/original/file-20231025-29-yvrjxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Annelise and Alix walking outside on grass, trees in background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555962/original/file-20231025-29-yvrjxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555962/original/file-20231025-29-yvrjxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555962/original/file-20231025-29-yvrjxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555962/original/file-20231025-29-yvrjxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555962/original/file-20231025-29-yvrjxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555962/original/file-20231025-29-yvrjxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555962/original/file-20231025-29-yvrjxr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Annelise said she was lonely at the start of the series, but formed a bond with teenager Amelie.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EndemolShine Australia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>I joined the TV program with a panel of experts including a physiotherapist and psychologist. </p>
<p>We screened the older adults at the start of the experiment for issues such as <a href="https://dementiaresearch.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/geriatric_depression_scale_short.pdf">depression</a>, and assessed signs of <a href="https://academic.oup.com/biomedgerontology/article/56/3/M146/545770?login=false">physical frailty</a> including speed of walking, muscle strength and activity levels. We then assessed them again after six weeks.</p>
<p>While we were cautiously hopeful, the overall improvements were better than anticipated, and some of the individual transformations were extraordinary. </p>
<p>For instance, three of four participants who originally screened positive for depression had scores in the normal range by the end of the program. For one woman in her 80s her score improved by eight points on a 15-point scale. Improvements in fitness levels across the group were impressive too.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555963/original/file-20231025-15-d2fqb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Dale and Abi outside, standing on grass, trees in background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555963/original/file-20231025-15-d2fqb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555963/original/file-20231025-15-d2fqb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555963/original/file-20231025-15-d2fqb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555963/original/file-20231025-15-d2fqb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555963/original/file-20231025-15-d2fqb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555963/original/file-20231025-15-d2fqb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555963/original/file-20231025-15-d2fqb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dale was concerned about how her visual impairment affected her day-to-day life, but soon connected with Abi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EndemolShine Australia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Since then, the series has evolved to involve differing populations: from residents of aged care facilities and retirement villages, to older adults living in the community, and from preschoolers to teenagers.</p>
<p>Each program has been adapted to the needs of each group involved. At times, we have focused on a particular issue, such as loneliness, depression, concerns about memory, physical frailty and falls.</p>
<p>But in each we have continued to see benefits for both age groups, in line with what a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568163721001471">growing evidence base</a> is telling us about the potential benefits of such programs. </p>
<p>This is perhaps even more so in the Old People’s Home for Teenagers series, with the second season currently on air. The teenage participants are articulate in describing how truly valuable it is for younger people to spend enriched time with older mentors. Their confidence increases, they take on new challenges, and new meaningful connections develop, many of which continue to <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-01/old-peoples-home-for-teens-ongoing-intergenerational-friendships/102885166">enrich lives</a> long after the cameras stop rolling.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/i-think-my-teen-is-depressed-how-can-i-get-them-help-and-what-are-the-treatment-options-206702">I think my teen is depressed. How can I get them help and what are the treatment options?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>No-one is pretending such intergenerational programs are going to end loneliness for all older people, or can remove all the challenges they may face later in life. And equally, people do not need to be lonely, frail or isolated to participate.</p>
<p>Alongside the TV programs, there has been an <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/backstory/2023-10-03/old-peoples-home-4-year-olds-impact-and-success/102868168">upswing</a> in community interest in intergenerational practice, from researchers to educators to aged care providers, to hospitals/health services and schools. </p>
<p>We need continued investment into workforce training, support for such programs to develop, and robust evaluation of each program to ensure they meet the goals of all the stakeholders involved – especially those of the participants themselves. </p>
<p>The “Old People’s Home” model did not invent the concept of intergenerational programs. Nor are the models of practice used in each series the only way intergenerational programs must run. But they do demonstrate what intergenerational programs could achieve. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Learn more about <a href="https://aiip.net.au/resources/">intergenerational programs</a> in Australia and find one <a href="https://aiip.net.au/about-us/intergenerational-programs-in-australia">near you</a>. If this article has raised issues for you, or if you’re concerned about someone you know, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215074/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephanie Ward has received some financial compensation for her time spent involved in the Old People's Home for 4 Year Olds/ Teenagers series for the Australian Broadcasting Commission and EndemolShine Australia. She has previously been a recipient of a research training stipend for a PhD on sleep apnoea and dementia risk. She is a chief investigator on several studies that have received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Medical Research Future Fund. Stephanie Ward is also a geriatrician at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney.</span></em></p>
Could teenagers get on with older people and vice versa? Turned out, they could. And both flourished.
Stephanie Ward, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), UNSW Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/216008
2023-10-19T08:06:10Z
2023-10-19T08:06:10Z
Cabinet Minister Ed Husic says Palestinians are being ‘collectively punished’ for Hamas’ barbarism
<p>Industry Minister Ed Husic, the only Muslim in the Albanese cabinet, has said he feels “very strongly” that Palestinians are being “collectively punished” for Hamas’ barbarism.</p>
<p>As the Middle East crisis risks raising tensions within Labor, which has a divided feelings about Palestine, Husic sought to tread a careful line, while emphasising the mounting toll of Palestinian victims. </p>
<p>“Let me put it in a way that might be difficult for some to hear,” <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-19/husic-says-palestinians-being-collectively-punished/102995306">he said on the ABC</a>. “It might also go to some way explaining why Palestinians and people who are sympathetic of them have reacted in the way that they have.”</p>
<p>He said the Hamas attacks on Israeli civilians had been described as Israel’s equivalent of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.</p>
<p>“The number of Palestinians that have been killed so far equates to the number of people who lost their lives in 9/11,” Husic said. </p>
<p>“We don’t see any public landmarks in Australia that are being lit up in red, black, white and green,” a reference to the Opera House and Parliament House being lit with Israel’s colours after the attacks.</p>
<p>“Now there will be people that are very uncomfortable with me making that remark. But it goes to the heart of what Palestinians and those who care for them in Australia […] think, which is that Palestinian lives are considered lesser.”</p>
<p>A humanitarian catastrophe was unfolding in Gaza, Husic said. There were choices that could be made to avoid that.</p>
<p>“It’s really important that we are conscious of that, and that we contribute to international voices speaking up for Palestinians, particularly innocent Palestinian families.” The 3000 deaths so far included about 1000 children.</p>
<p>It was important to say there had to be “a more strategic and precise way to hold Hamas to account, but not affect innocent Palestinian families,” he said. </p>
<p>“You’ve got homes, schools, medical centres destroyed – that’s before we even contemplate how they’ll get rebuilt. No food, fuel, medicines, water. </p>
<p>"It’s no surprise that there are some saying that this is the collective punishment being extended to Palestinians.” </p>
<p>Husic said he was very mindful of Anthony Albanese’s words that protecting the innocent was not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength. “I genuinely believe there needs to be a de-escalation.” </p>
<p>He also felt while pursuing a two-state solution was once seen as important, now “this is spoken more as a way in which we can just comfort ourselves at these points, and then when the situation and the tensions subside, nothing practically happens”.</p>
<p>Husic said he had made clear his depth of feeling for Israelis who had suffered and acknowledged Israel’s would respond to the Hamas barbarism. </p>
<p>“I have made that clear, but I’m also genuinely concerned about what happens to innocent Palestinians from this point on.” </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-kim-beazley-on-albaneses-us-trip-biden-in-the-middle-east-and-the-voices-defeat-215896">Politics with Michelle Grattan: Kim Beazley on Albanese's US trip, Biden in the Middle East, and the Voice's defeat</a>
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<p>Anne Aly, also Muslim, who is in the outer ministry, said some people said Israel had committed war crimes. Asked whether she believed that, she told the ABC it was “possibly something that could be investigated. And I think that anyone, any state or any group that commits war crimes should be investigated and should be held accountable.”</p>
<p>Deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley said Husic’s comments exposed Labor’s deep division about Israel.</p>
<p>“Cabinet ministers do not get the luxury of freelancing on foreign policy and the precedent is very clear when ministers publicly disagree with their government’s official position,” Ley said in a statement.</p>
<p>Foreign Minister Penny Wong told the Senate: “Every innocent life matters, whether Israeli or Palestinian.”</p>
<p>She said at home “our role as a government and I would say our role as a Senate is to do all we can to keep our country unified, to make sure our community feels heard. </p>
<p>"There are times where it is important that we actually put aside partisan politics and differences of views because there’s a greater purpose to what we are doing,” she said.</p>
<p>Opposition leader Peter Dutton said the Prime Minister, who will be in Washington for a state visit next week, should go to Israel.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216008/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
As the Middle East crisis risks raising tensions within Labor, which has a divided feelings about Palestine, Husic sought to tread a careful line, while emphasising the mounting toll of Palestinian victims
Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212018
2023-08-23T03:23:05Z
2023-08-23T03:23:05Z
As ABC chair, Ita Buttrose stood up for the broadcaster’s independence. It’s time others did the same
<p>Ita Buttrose <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/ita-buttrose-will-not-seek-second-term-as-abc-chair-20230822-p5dye6.html">has announced</a> she will not seek a second term as ABC chair, which means her term will expire in March 2024. </p>
<p>Buttrose’s appointment as chair of the ABC in February 2019 was tainted by being a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/09/two-media-executives-and-lawyer-passed-over-for-ita-buttrose-as-abc-chair-foi-confirms">captain’s pick</a>” on the part of then Prime Minister Scott Morrison, yet at crucial moments she was to prove a strong defender of the ABC’s independence against the predations of his government.</p>
<p>It was the issue that came to define her tenure. It had also brought down her predecessor, <a href="https://theconversation.com/abc-inquiry-finds-board-knew-of-trouble-between-milne-and-guthrie-but-did-nothing-114752">Justin Milne</a>. The manner of her appointment continued the Coalition’s contemptuous disregard of the independent merit-based selection process for ABC board appointments, and she inherited a board stained by political patronage.</p>
<p>Four of the seven non-executive directors already there had been <a href="https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/who-needs-the-abc-9781922310927">appointed outside the merit system</a> by Mitch Fifield as minister for communication.</p>
<p>Buttrose herself put ABC independence at the centre of her commitments. In a sharp departure from Milne’s temporising approach to government pressure, <a href="https://about.abc.net.au/statements/statement-by-ita-buttrose-abc-chair-on-the-publics-right-to-know">Buttrose stated</a> soon after her appointment: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I will fight any attempts to muzzle the national broadcaster or interfere with its obligations to the Australian public. Independence is not exercised by degrees. It is absolute. </p>
</blockquote>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ita-buttroses-appointment-as-new-abc-chair-a-promising-step-in-the-right-direction-112683">Ita Buttrose's appointment as new ABC chair a promising step in the right direction</a>
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<p>Within months, this declaration was put to the test when the Australian Federal Police raided the ABC headquarters in Sydney as part of an investigation into who had leaked information about alleged war crimes by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. Buttrose <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-07/ita-buttrose-says-afp-raid-on-abc-was-designed-to-intimidate/11189200">attacked the police raid</a> as a clear attempt to intimidate journalists. </p>
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<p>In November 2020, it was put to the test again. Four Corners broadcast a program called <a href="https://iview.abc.net.au/video/NC2003H040S00">Inside the Canberra Bubble</a>. In it Rachelle Miller, a former staffer to acting Immigration Minister Alan Tudge, said she had had an affair with him. She also alleged that Christian Porter, who was to become attorney-general, had been seen cuddling a staffer of another minister in a Canberra bar in 2017. Porter denied the claim.</p>
<p>On November 30, Minister for Communications Paul Fletcher wrote to Buttrose demanding answers within 14 days to 15 questions mostly about the program’s impartiality.</p>
<p>On the 14th day, December 14 2020, Buttrose <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/dec/14/abc-chair-ita-buttrose-accuses-government-of-political-interference-in-draft-letter-to-paul-fletcher">sent him a reply</a>, hitting back hard. She dismissed the 15 questions and accused the government of a pattern of behaviour that “smacks of political interference”. </p>
<p>The ABC’s managing director, David Anderson, subsequently <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/extreme-and-unrelenting-abc-four-corners-team-claim-pressure-to-stop-federal-mps-investigation-20201109-p56cu">told a Senate estimates committee hearing</a> that Buttrose had seen the program before it went to air and had supported the decision to broadcast it.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1333553873219248130"}"></div></p>
<p>Then in late February 2021, Four Corners <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-26/pm-senators-afp-told-historical-rape-allegation-cabinet-minister/13197248">broke a related story</a> saying the Australian Federal Police had been notified of a letter sent to Scott Morrison detailing an alleged historical rape by a cabinet minister in the federal government. </p>
<p>In early March, Christian Porter <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-03/christian-porter-denies-historical-rape-allegation/13206972">outed himself</a> as the cabinet minister referred to, and strongly denied the allegation.</p>
<p>He sued the ABC for defamation but the ABC defended it vigorously and he <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-31/abc-christian-porter-discontinue-defamation/100179392">discontinued the action</a>. </p>
<p>In late 2021, Buttrose went on the attack again, this time over an attempt by Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg to launch a Senate inquiry into the ABC’s complaints process, while an internal inquiry into the same issue was already on foot. She <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/radionational-breakfast/abc-chair-ita-buttrose-andrew-bragg-political-interference/13631096">called it out</a> as a “partisan political exercise” and Bragg’s effort foundered. </p>
<p>It is clear that far from behaving like a Liberal Party stooge, Buttrose has stood up courageously for the ABC’s independence, as she said she would. That will be an important part of her legacy.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1276442935781847040"}"></div></p>
<p>Yet she has not been able to imbue the organisation’s editorial leadership with the same spirit. This was shown in two recent cases where editorial independence was again under attack.</p>
<p>The first concerned the coverage of King Charles III’s coronation in May. For about 45 minutes in the lead-up to the ceremony, the ABC ran a panel discussion about the contemporary relevance of the British monarchy to Australian lives. The nine guests on the program included Stan Grant, a Wiradjuri man and celebrated ABC journalist.</p>
<p>The panel discussion provoked a backlash and drew about 1,800 complaints to the ABC. After investigating these, the ABC ombudsman found the program had not breached the ABC’s editorial policies.</p>
<p>Much of the backlash focused on Grant, and in late May he stepped aside from his role as moderator of Q+A on ABC television, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/stan-grant-media-target-racist-abuse-coronation-coverage-enough/102368652">writing in his ABC column</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>No one at the ABC — whose producers invited me onto their coronation coverage as a guest — has uttered one word of public support. Not one ABC executive has publicly refuted the lies written or spoken about me. I don’t hold any individual responsible; this is an institutional failure. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>He has since left the ABC and taken up a position at Monash University.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stan-grants-treatment-is-a-failure-of-abcs-leadership-mass-media-and-debate-in-this-country-206080">Stan Grant's treatment is a failure of ABC's leadership, mass media, and debate in this country</a>
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<hr>
<p>It was not until Grant announced his decision to step back from Q+A that the head of the ABC’s news division, Justin Stevens, finally <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/22/abc-news-chief-regrets-not-defending-stan-grant-earlier-amid-racist-attacks">made a public statement</a> in Grant’s defence, apologising for not having done so “ten days earlier”. Anderson’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/may/21/abc-boss-apologises-to-stan-grant-after-host-said-he-felt-unsupported-in-face-of-racist-attacks">apology to Grant</a> in a staff email had come only one day sooner.</p>
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<p>The second case concerns Nicole Chvastek, an experienced journalist who, until March, had presented ABC Radio Victoria’s Statewide Drive program for almost a decade.</p>
<p>Her career ended abruptly in July after a 17-month saga set in motion by a complaint from a National Party politician, Darren Chester, telephoned directly to a senior ABC executive in Sydney. It concerned the way Chvastek had covered the Morrison government’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/19/against-the-foil-of-the-morrison-government-dominic-perrottets-flood-response-has-been-pragmatic">handling of flood relief payments</a> to victims in northern NSW: those who lived in the National seat of Page got more, initially, than those in the neighbouring Labor-held seat of Richmond.</p>
<p>The details of Chvastek’s case have been <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/08/03/nicole-chvastek-abc-directive/">traversed elsewhere</a>. It remains only for me to declare that for eight and a half years I was a guest on her program discussing media issues, and the charge of misconduct arising from Chester’s complaint was not upheld.</p>
<p>In both cases, at the most senior levels of ABC editorial leadership there was a failure of an editor’s first responsibility, which is to provide a safe environment within which staff can do good journalism.</p>
<p>There have been many <a href="https://www.abcfriendsvic.org.au/demoralisation_liberal_party_strategy_on_the_abc">analyses</a> of how nine years of Coalition government attacks demoralised the ABC. But with Buttrose’s departure now on the horizon, it is time for others at the top to stand up.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I was a guest on Nicole Chvastek's ABC Radio Victoria Statewide Drive program for eight and a half years discussing media issues. I declare this in the article itself.</span></em></p>
Buttrose’s tenure as chair was tainted by being a Morrison government ‘captain’s pick’, but she nonetheless defended the ABC against tat government’s predations.
Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/209233
2023-07-19T00:59:52Z
2023-07-19T00:59:52Z
Arresting, dry and fast-paced: ABC series Bay of Fires brings a new humour to the tradition of Australian Gothic
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537708/original/file-20230717-226567-g3zaz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C8%2C5427%2C3792&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Anika Van Cleef (Marta Dusseldorp) is a high-powered “Toorak Mum”. She is CEO of an investment company she took over from her controlling father and now runs with her new partner, Johann (Nikolai Nikolaeff). </p>
<p>But Anika is betrayed by Johann and becomes the target of an attempted murder. She soon discovers Johann has hired professional thugs to murder her and her children, Otis (Imi Mbedla) and Iris (Ava Caryofyllis). </p>
<p>A mysterious police detective, Airini (Rachel House), appears in a convenience shop. To escape the threat, Anika and her children must make the forced (and reluctant) relocation to a remote Tasmanian town.</p>
<p>They find themselves in Mystery Bay, humorously characterised by a Canberra politician as a place that “nobody’s ever heard of, boasts no features, and no outsider wants to visit”. </p>
<p>Bay of Fires, the new drama from the ABC, is arresting, dry and fast-paced. It brings new insights to national understandings of city-country divides and explores small town isolation as a means of social control. </p>
<p>But perhaps most interestingly is the way it advances the genre of <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-gothic-from-hanging-rock-to-nick-cave-and-kylie-this-genre-explores-our-dark-side-111742">Australian Gothic</a> in humorous and unexpected ways. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pRFad1KQzqI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>An Australian Gothic</h2>
<p>Mystery Bay is a quiet and insular community, nicknamed Misery Bay by the locals.</p>
<p>The locals observe the strangers’ arrival with forensic attention. They are variously suspicious, hostile and strange. As we get to know the townsfolk, they open the door into a Gothic world of mystery and the supernatural. </p>
<p>The rural Tasmanian landscape has a dark power, but the haunting vistas pale in comparison to the layers of criminal activity and depraved lives eking out an existence in entangled community relations. </p>
<p>Australian Gothic began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, combining elements of traditional <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_fiction">European Gothic literature</a> – characterised by horror, mystery and the supernatural – mixed with the unique Australian landscape, history and cultural identity.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537709/original/file-20230717-81876-7bkzb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three bikies." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537709/original/file-20230717-81876-7bkzb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537709/original/file-20230717-81876-7bkzb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537709/original/file-20230717-81876-7bkzb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537709/original/file-20230717-81876-7bkzb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537709/original/file-20230717-81876-7bkzb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537709/original/file-20230717-81876-7bkzb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537709/original/file-20230717-81876-7bkzb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The locals are variously suspicious, hostile and strange.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The harsh and unforgiving Australian environment provided a fertile ground for the development of a distinctive Gothic tradition. </p>
<p>Vast and desolate landscapes, rugged coastlines and extreme weather conditions replaced European cathedrals and graveyards. Settlers faced isolation, death and the brutal realities of the convict system. They encountered other worlds through Indigenous Australian communities. </p>
<p>These experiences became a central theme in Australian Gothic literature and the sub-genre <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmanian_Gothic">Tasmanian Gothic</a>. </p>
<p>There are remarkable resonances between Bay of Fires and early examples of Australian Gothic, such as Marcus Clarke’s novel For the Term of His Natural Life (1874), which portrays the horrors of the penal colony system and the brutal treatment of convicts. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537710/original/file-20230717-226567-jzfxe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Marta Dusseldorp as Stella in the woods." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537710/original/file-20230717-226567-jzfxe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537710/original/file-20230717-226567-jzfxe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537710/original/file-20230717-226567-jzfxe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537710/original/file-20230717-226567-jzfxe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537710/original/file-20230717-226567-jzfxe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537710/original/file-20230717-226567-jzfxe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537710/original/file-20230717-226567-jzfxe9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Australian environment provided a fertile ground for a distinctive Gothic tradition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As with Clarke’s novel, Bay of Fires is set against the backdrop of the harsh Tasmanian wilderness. Both explore themes of oppression and isolation. The first moments of Anika and her children’s arrival in Tasmania clearly mark the landscape as dangerous. They hit a large kangaroo on the road to Mystery Bay and their BMW is completely written off. </p>
<p>Machines are no match for the wild animals of Tasmania. </p>
<p>The genre isn’t without levity. Joseph Furphy’s Such Is Life (1903) is a darkly humorous and ironic portrayal of rural life. Mystery Bay continues this in a dry satire of country town life. The shops won’t open for the newcomers. People are highly suspicious of them, and basic life tasks are made almost impossible by the hostile nature of local culture. </p>
<p>The Gothic tradition is extended in Australian literature in the works of contemporary authors such as Peter Carey, Kate Grenville and Tim Winton, and in film (Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Babadook), visual arts (Arthur Boyd, Fred Williams) and music (Nick Cave, The Church).</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-gothic-from-hanging-rock-to-nick-cave-and-kylie-this-genre-explores-our-dark-side-111742">Australian Gothic: from Hanging Rock to Nick Cave and Kylie, this genre explores our dark side</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Twisting the genre</h2>
<p>Bay of Fires is a continuation of this significant Australian genre. </p>
<p>It draws on the conventions of traditional Gothic literature in its reflections of the harsh realities and haunting beauty of the Australian environment and the mysterious – indeed treacherous – characters of the cold townspeople.</p>
<p>However, there is a tongue-in-cheek humour and astute commentary of social class that offers a new dimension to this established settler colonial Australian tradition. Otis (Imi Mbedla) is particularly amusing, offering ongoing critical commentary on race, class and gender.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537711/original/file-20230717-201541-y6n7x5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman and two children walk on a tarmac." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537711/original/file-20230717-201541-y6n7x5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537711/original/file-20230717-201541-y6n7x5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537711/original/file-20230717-201541-y6n7x5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537711/original/file-20230717-201541-y6n7x5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537711/original/file-20230717-201541-y6n7x5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537711/original/file-20230717-201541-y6n7x5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537711/original/file-20230717-201541-y6n7x5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The series captures dark and mysterious aspects of the nation’s past and present.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This insightful humour is a new angle on Tasmanian Gothic’s combination of horror, mystery and the grotesque. When asked by his sister why all the townsfolk are staring at them, Otis replies: “Because she’s a Toorak wanker and we are private school dickheads”. </p>
<p>This wry commentary breaks up the traditional dark and atmospheric tone of Tasmanian Gothic which, when it employs humour, is usually elements of gallows humour, black comedy or irony. Bay of Fires has a much stronger emphasis on humour and a comedy that is almost slapstick. </p>
<p>The series captures dark and mysterious aspects of the nation’s past and present which shape our national imagination and the Australian Gothic genre, all with a larrikin wit. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-deadloch-flips-the-nordic-noir-crime-genre-on-its-arse-and-makes-it-funny-208478">How Deadloch flips the Nordic Noir crime genre on its arse and makes it funny</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209233/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna Hickey-Moody receives funding from The Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>
The harsh and unforgiving Australian environment provided a fertile ground for the development of a distinctive Gothic tradition. Bay of Fires explores the genre in humorous and unexpected ways.
Anna Hickey-Moody, Professor of Intersectional Humanities, Maynooth, National University of Ireland, RMIT University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/206080
2023-05-22T08:52:30Z
2023-05-22T08:52:30Z
Stan Grant’s treatment is a failure of ABC’s leadership, mass media, and debate in this country
<p>The treatment of Stan Grant that has driven him off the ABC is a case study in how content on the professional mass media can fuel social media toxicity, especially on issues such as race.</p>
<p>It does not require the professional mass media to be overtly racist to accomplish this, but to send signals of intense disapproval that trolls then use as the basis for their racist attacks.</p>
<p>Grant himself clearly sees this. In <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-19/stan-grant-media-target-racist-abuse-coronation-coverage-enough/102368652">his statement</a> on ABC Online announcing his decision to step away from hosting Q+A on ABC television, he wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Since the King’s coronation, I have seen people in the media lie and distort my words. They have tried to depict me as hate-filled. They have accused me of maligning Australia.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>He does not accuse the professional mass media outright of racism, and indeed it is difficult to find outright racist statements there.</p>
<p>Instead, he reserves his accusations of racism for social media, writing: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>On social media my family and I are regularly mocked or abused. This is not new. Barely a week goes by when I am not racially targeted. My wife is targeted with abuse for being married to a Wiradjuri man.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The professional mass media’s contribution to the racism he writes about is more subtle. It is to be found, first, in the singling out of Grant from the other members of the ABC panel whose discussion as part of the ABC’s coronation coverage has led to the outrage driving Grant away.</p>
<p>A review of The Australian newspaper’s coverage of the controversy in the period between the coronation and the day following Grant’s announcement shows that Grant was named 11 times: that’s more than the other panel members, Craig Foster, Julian Leeser and Teela Reid, put together.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stan-grant-stands-up-to-racist-abuse-our-research-shows-many-diverse-journalists-have-copped-it-too-206063">Stan Grant stands up to racist abuse. Our research shows many diverse journalists have copped it too</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>He was portrayed as the personification of all that was said to be wrong with the panel discussion. Yet Foster, who was there as a representative of the republican movement, and Reid, an Aboriginal lawyer, were just as outspoken, in their own ways, about the effect of the monarchy and its place in Australian life.</p>
<p>But Grant is a tall poppy whose performance as the moderator of Q+A was already the subject of controversy, and the attention directed at him reflected that well-established stereotype.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1659504986605375492"}"></div></p>
<p>Second, <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/hero/coronation-coverage-proves-black-armband-view-of-history-still-holds-sway/news-story/c5202f79eb4ff80cc78cfc45626f608d">some of the language</a> used to describe Grant’s words – “rant”, “tirade”, “steam-bath of emotion” – was calculated to intensify antipathy towards him. </p>
<p>That is all the trolls need. From there, the hate speech launches off into territory that will not be described here beyond a general statement that it involves varied references to skin colour and attitude.</p>
<p>This is not to say Grant or anyone else should be immune from criticism. Grant is frequently criticised for his interviewing style, and his views are open to legitimate challenge. But the line is drawn at the point where the criticism becomes personal: where his motives are impugned or his race invoked.</p>
<p>The professional mass media well understands the effects its work can have – for good or ill – on those engaged on social media. But it fails to give sufficient weight to this when making judgements about the portrayal of people who are vulnerable to being trolled: women, people of colour, ethnic and religious minorities.</p>
<p>It may be that the lack of diversity, especially in the upper echelons of media organisations, including the ABC, accounts for at least some of this failure.</p>
<p>In the aftermath of Grant’s announcement, Osman Faruqi, formerly a journalist at the ABC and now culture news editor of The Age, wrote a scathing assessment of the ABC in this respect. He <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/stan-grant-s-forced-exile-should-be-a-wake-up-call-for-australia-the-media-20230519-p5d9u3.html">writes</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The higher up the organisation you go, the fewer and fewer diverse faces you see […] contributing to a culture that is, at best, dismissive of the needs and concerns of staff and audience who aren’t white and, at worst, actively hostile to them.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Perhaps this goes some way to explaining the ABC management’s appalling lack of support for Grant, his fellow panellists and the journalists who conceived and executed the coronation coverage when they came under severe attack from reactionary elements in Australian politics.</p>
<p>Grant himself called it out, saying no one at the ABC offered a word of public support:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Not one ABC executive has publicly refuted the lies written or spoken about me. I don’t hold any individual responsible. It is an institutional failure.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This was obvious even from the outside. Not until Grant had announced his withdrawal from Q+A did the director of news, Justin Stevens, come out with a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/melbourne/programs/drive/justin-stevens-on-stan-grant-abc-news/102378614">statement of support</a>, saying the attacks on him were abhorrent and unacceptable. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-yindyamarra-how-we-can-bring-respect-to-australian-democracy-192164">The power of yindyamarra: how we can bring respect to Australian democracy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>And then, finally, the editor-in-chief, David Anderson, broke his silence. He <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-21/stan-grant-apology-review-racism-response/102374582">apologised</a> to Grant, saying he was “dismayed” at the “sickening behaviour” he had been exposed to, and announcing a review of the way the ABC responds to racist abuse of its staff. </p>
<p>These are fine sentiments, about two weeks too late.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1660505621844885506"}"></div></p>
<p>Where were they when some unnamed source inside the ABC was <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/abc-coronation-coverage-to-be-investigated-by-ombudsman/news-story/cf267bbf4204f5e3f726101fe9cb5dd7">briefing The Australian</a> that complaints about the coronation coverage were being referred to the organisation’s ombudsman and that senior management were reviewing the way the coronation had been covered?</p>
<p>Leaving the field open while your people are attacked is not the way to run a news organisation. A robust defence was called for when the whips were cracking, but it has taken Grant’s stand to bring it forth.</p>
<p>That defence is set out in the organisation’s editorial policies on impartiality: the requirement to present all principal relevant perspectives on an issue. The coronation was first and foremost an intensely political event, freighted with religious and political history, overlaid with spectacle. The journalists who devised the panel understood this and brought in the principal relevant perspectives: monarchist, Indigenous and republican.</p>
<p>As this article was being written, ABC staff were taking matters into their own hands, walking out in support of Grant. Leadership is coming from the bottom.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206080/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Denis Muller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The national broadcaster’s management has finally condemned the racist abuse directed at their high-profile presenter and apologised too him, but it has come far too late.
Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204492
2023-05-04T12:10:32Z
2023-05-04T12:10:32Z
The firings of Don Lemon and Tucker Carlson doesn’t mean the end of hyperpartisan cable news networks
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523059/original/file-20230426-20-hol5pe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=684%2C19%2C3747%2C2750&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Then-CNN anchor Don Lemon speaks during a Democratic presidential debate in Detroit on July 31, 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/moderator-don-lemon-speaks-to-the-crowd-attending-the-news-photo/1165418659?adppopup=true">(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Television host <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/the-view-celebrating-tucker-carlson-exit-mourn-don-lemon-termination">Sara Haines</a> of ABC’s “The View” spoke for many viewers when she celebrated the departure of right-wing television host Tucker Carlson from the Fox News Network.</p>
<p>“I am happy to know someone like him no longer has the platform he had built,” she exclaimed. </p>
<p>Similarly, CNN anchor Don Lemon’s ouster on April 23, 2023 – the same day as Carlson’s – generated an equal amount of celebration from conservatives. </p>
<p>One of them was <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/04/24/nikki-haley-trolls-don-lemon-over-firing-hawks-beer-koozies/">Nikki Haley</a>, the presidential candidate and former governor of South Carolina, whom Lemon had previously described as a woman past her prime when she <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/elections/100000008772357/nikki-haley-president-2024.html?searchResultPosition=2">launched her 2024 campaign</a>.</p>
<p>Lemon’s dismissal is “a great day for women everywhere,” Haley exclaimed. </p>
<p>In this age of hyperpartisan news programming, both Carlson and Lemon proved talented at providing perspectives that confirmed their audience’s view of the world.</p>
<p>It is not clear why Lemon and Carlson were fired, but in my view as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=YBntiP0AAAAJ">media scholar</a>, they were removed because they no longer provided the benefits their employers expected. </p>
<p>Instead, I believe they had become potential threats to the networks’ audience shares and advertising revenue. Rather than a victory for women or truth, I view these firings as an effort to sustain and grow corporate profits. </p>
<h2>Hyperpartisan news media</h2>
<p>The advent of <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520347878/the-anatomy-of-fake-news">cable news</a> in the 1980s created more channels for audiences to watch, and thus fractured the audience long dominated by networks NBC, ABC and CBS.</p>
<p>The internet, smartphones and social media <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Lets-Agree-to-Disagree-A-Critical-Thinking-Guide-to-Communication-Conflict/Higdon-Huff/p/book/9781032168982">further fragmented audiences</a>. As <a href="https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/hate-inc/">journalists</a> and <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520347878/the-anatomy-of-fake-news">media scholars</a> have noted, the solution for many media companies in the 1990s was to target their programming to a single demographic instead of trying to attract a larger, general audience. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-165X.2009.tb01921.x">Scholars</a> and <a href="https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/hate-inc/">journalists</a> note that in order to attract a targeted demographic, cable news media relied on hyperpartisan reporting that framed news stories as liberal versus conservative. This approach proved viable, as subsequent studies found that television audiences preferred news outlets that confirmed <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/2018/05/15/fake-news-social-media-confirmation-bias-echo-chambers/533857002/">their political views</a> and attacked <a href="https://www.livescience.com/3640-people-choose-news-fits-views.html">their political rivals</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-165X.2009.tb01921.x">Liberal outlets</a> focused on <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520347878/the-anatomy-of-fake-news">confirming liberals’</a> <a href="https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/hate-inc/">views</a> by introducing <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/chris-hedges/empire-of-illusion/9780786749553/?lens=bold-type-books">caricatures</a> of conservatives who could be easily villainized. The inverse was true at conservative outlets.</p>
<p>By 2021, in my view, the unintended result of such partisan programming was that audiences perceived that the <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/17/poll-we-have-met-the-enemy-and-it-is-us-459948">No. 1</a> threat to their lives was other Americans.</p>
<h2>Carlson’s duplicity</h2>
<p>In this cable news environment, Carlson started working at <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/24/business/media/tucker-carlson-career-history.html">CNN</a> in 2000, moved to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna8049787#.W6cJZVInaRs">MSNBC</a> in 2005 and arrived at Fox News Channel in 2009, where he became a megastar with his own program, “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” in 2016. </p>
<p>Whether it was accurate or not, “Tucker Carlson Tonight” provided far-right ideological content that drew an average of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/tucker-carlsons-exit-fox-news-may-be-ratings-bane-advertising-boon-2023-04-25/">3 million nightly viewers</a>, and Carlson became the highest-rated personality in cable news media. </p>
<p>Among Carlson’s falsehoods were that <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/dec/18/tucker-carlson/carlson-falsely-claims-immigrants-are-dirtying-pot/">immigrants were mostly</a> responsible for polluting a U.S. river; that the <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2017/aug/17/tucker-carlson/tucker-carlson-wrongly-says-united-states-ended-sl/">U.S. ended slavery</a> around the world; and that <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2014/aug/15/tucker-carlson/carlson-guns-dont-kill-people-bathtubs-do/">more children died</a> from drowning in their bathtub than accidentally from guns.</p>
<p>Whether he actually believed any of those falsehoods remains unknown. </p>
<p>What is known is that Carlson did not personally believe Donald Trump’s claims that he won the 2020 presidential election – and yet he publicly echoed rather than challenged Trump’s baseless assertions. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A billboard shows an image of a white man wearing a necktie next to his words that read I hate Trump passionately." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523855/original/file-20230502-1802-jpfgdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523855/original/file-20230502-1802-jpfgdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523855/original/file-20230502-1802-jpfgdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523855/original/file-20230502-1802-jpfgdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523855/original/file-20230502-1802-jpfgdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523855/original/file-20230502-1802-jpfgdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523855/original/file-20230502-1802-jpfgdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An image of former Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson and his view of Donald Trump are displayed on a billboard in West Palm Beach, Fla.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/billboard-put-up-by-progressive-activist-group-moveon-that-news-photo/1479574560?adppopup=true">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://apnews.com/article/tucker-carlson-fox-news-dominion-lawsuit-trump-5d6aed4bc7eb1f7a01702ebea86f37a1">In a text message</a> to Sidney Powell, one of Trump’s most ardent lawyers, Carlson wrote:</p>
<p>“You keep telling our viewers that millions of votes were changed by the software. I hope you will prove that very soon. You’ve convinced them that Trump will win. If you don’t have conclusive evidence of fraud at that scale, it’s a cruel and reckless thing to keep saying.” </p>
<p>But in a text message to his Fox News colleagues, Carlson was less hopeful:</p>
<p>“<a href="https://apnews.com/article/tucker-carlson-fox-news-dominion-lawsuit-trump-5d6aed4bc7eb1f7a01702ebea86f37a1">Sidney Powell is lying</a>,” he wrote. </p>
<p>At the time, nearly 70% of <a href="https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2022/70-percent-republicans-falsely-believe-stolen-election-trump/">Tucker’s target audience</a> believed that the election was stolen. </p>
<p>As a result, despite knowing the 2020 election was not stolen, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2023/03/07/tucker-carlson-doubles-down-on-2020-election-fraud-claims-with-jan-6-footage-despite-fox-defamation-lawsuit/?sh=8679b345e75e">Carlson continued to report</a> the exact opposite of what he knew to be false.</p>
<h2>A boorish Lemon</h2>
<p>In stark contrast to Carlson, Lemon positioned himself as CNN’s chief <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzZGuFJTs1I">liberal scolder</a> of the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLctkkxEDTs">Trump era</a>. </p>
<p>Much like Carlson, Lemon manipulated evidence to create stories that confirmed liberal biases against conservative media personalities, such as falsely reporting that <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/media/3664744-hurricane-expert-brushes-off-don-lemon-climate-change-question-i-want-to-talk-about-the-here-and-now/">Hurricane Ian</a>’s size was a result of climate change; that President Joe Biden “<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/cnn-don-lemon-partisan-biden-false-comments">misspoke</a>” rather than lied (which other <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/30/biden-falsely-claims-new-georgia-law-ends-voting-hours-early/">news outlets</a> claimed was the case) about Georgia’s voting procedures; that it is plausible that Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 disappeared into <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpVd7k1Uw6A">black hole</a>; and that <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/joe-rogan-don-lemon-cnn-ivermectin-sanjay-gupta-lying-1639240">CNN</a>’s <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/now/joe-rogan-considers-suing-cnn-190606533.html">reporting</a> on <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3043740/#:%7E:text=Discovered%2520in%2520the%2520late%252D1970s,of%2520billions%2520of%2520people%2520throughout">ivermectin</a> and popular podcaster Joe Rogan was <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/joe-rogan-don-lemon-cnn-ivermectin-sanjay-gupta-lying-1639240">accurate</a>.</p>
<p>CNN’s support for Lemon began to wane after a CNN broadcast on Feb. 16, 2023, when he declared that Haley was “past her prime.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman stands on a stage holding a microphone surrounded by people sitting on chairs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523859/original/file-20230502-16-k2bgvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523859/original/file-20230502-16-k2bgvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523859/original/file-20230502-16-k2bgvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523859/original/file-20230502-16-k2bgvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523859/original/file-20230502-16-k2bgvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523859/original/file-20230502-16-k2bgvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523859/original/file-20230502-16-k2bgvw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley speaks at a town hall event in New Hampshire on April 26, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/republican-presidential-candidate-and-former-u-n-ambassador-news-photo/1485559320?adppopup=true">Spencer Platt/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Feeling the disdain from his two female co-hosts, whom he had a long history of <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11716895/CNNs-Don-Lemon-seen-talking-host-ignoring-air-tension-builds-show.html">berating on and off camera</a>, <a href="https://msmagazine.com/2023/02/17/don-lemon-sexist-cnn/">Lemon clarified</a>: “That’s not according to me. … If you Google ‘when is a woman in her prime,’ it’ll say ‘20s, 30s and 40s.’” </p>
<p>Lemon was removed from the air so he could attend <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABG4fZSfIQQ">sensitivity trainings</a> to address his sexist attitudes. </p>
<p>An April 2023 <a href="https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/cnn-don-lemon-misogyny-history-nikki-haley-1235574286/">report from Variety</a> appeared to spell the end for Lemon on CNN. The report detailed other incidents of Lemon’s misogyny that included malicious texts, sexist mocking and vicious tirades aimed at <a href="https://tvline.com/2023/04/05/don-lemon-soledad-obrien-feud-cnn-controversy/">female co-workers</a>. </p>
<p>According to the report, <a href="https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/cnn-don-lemon-misogyny-history-nikki-haley-1235574286/">Lemon was accused</a> of threatening several female co-workers because they were hired for positions he felt he deserved. </p>
<p>In another incident, Lemon claimed during a 2008 editorial call with roughly 30 staffers that <a href="https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/cnn-don-lemon-misogyny-history-nikki-haley-1235574286/">Soledad O'Brien</a> should not host “Black in America” because she is not Black. O'Brien identifies as Afro-Cuban.</p>
<h2>Credibility gap</h2>
<p>In this age of hyperpartisanship, the revelations about Carlson and Lemon made it difficult for their networks to sell them as authentic ideological voices.</p>
<p>Furthermore, both of these individuals were a hassle for management. </p>
<p>At CNN, audience size for the show on which Lemon was co-host was shrinking for quite some time -– much like that for <a href="https://theconversation.com/cnn-was-just-the-latest-failed-attempt-of-the-cable-news-trailblazer-to-remain-relevant-182195">the network</a> in general. </p>
<p>At Fox News, Carlson’s texts revealed his disdain for the network’s <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/04/tucker-carlson-fired-after-calling-fox-news-exec-the-c-word.html">leadership</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/may/01/tucker-carlson-fox-nation-streaming-service">streaming platform</a>. Furthermore, since 2021, major companies such as Disney, Papa John’s, Poshmark and T-Mobile had refused to advertise on Carlson’s program.</p>
<p>Although a <a href="https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/articles-reports/2023/04/28/american-approval-tucker-carlson-fired-fox-news">YouGov poll</a> found that viewers who cite Fox News as the cable news network they watch most often are more likely to disapprove – 50% – than approve – 29% – of Carlson being fired, Fox News Channel had good reason to believe it could replace Tucker and still find success with conservative audiences. </p>
<p>For one, an <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/most-arent-familiar-tucker-carlson-don-lemon-exits">Ipsos poll</a> found that non-Fox News Channel viewers are more likely to consider the channel as a news source now that Carlson has been fired. This means that the absence of Carlson may attract more audiences. </p>
<p>Furthermore, Fox News Channel has developed a formula for creating and replacing conservative personalities for decades, such as <a href="https://www.npr.org/2011/04/06/135181398/glenn-beck-to-leave-daily-fox-news-show">Glenn Beck</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/19/business/media/bill-oreilly-fox-news-allegations.html">Bill O'Reilly</a> and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/north-america-ap-top-news-entertainment-megyn-kelly-business-a84a7250b109411591ed6b976be800a0">Megyn Kelly</a>.</p>
<p>Rather than celebrate the removal of Lemon and Carlson, audiences should be questioning what truths have some of the current on-air personalities had to sacrifice in order to stay employed. </p>
<p>For cable news personalities, partisanship – not journalism – can be a job requirement.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204492/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nolan Higdon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Since the 1980s, cable news networks have focused on hyperpartisan news coverage to attract core audiences in an increasingly fragmented media market.
Nolan Higdon, Lecturer of History and Media Studies, California State University, East Bay
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/193006
2022-10-27T12:27:53Z
2022-10-27T12:27:53Z
The first televised World Series spurred America’s television boom, 75 years ago
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491965/original/file-20221026-21-k03uax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C59%2C3898%2C2780&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An estimated 3.5 million Americans viewed the first televised World Series at bars, restaurants and storefronts.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/crowd-watching-world-series-game-on-tv-set-in-window-of-news-photo/515248870?phrase=crowd gazing in window at television new york&adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Boston Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WRi6iZAl-I">desperately waving at his home run to stay in play</a>. Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Kirk Gibson <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZzGkoXlaTM">pumping his arms</a> as he hobbles around second base after muscling a home run off Dennis Eckersley, the Oakland A’s dominant closer. The ground ball hit by New York Mets outfielder Mookie Wilson <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpyJjecJnuI">skipping through the legs</a> of Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner. </p>
<p>Some of the most dramatic images in World Series history are ingrained in the minds of baseball fans thanks to television coverage. This year’s World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros will surely bring another timeless highlight to the <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/03/2021-world-series-ratings-braves-astros-game-6-draws-14point3-million.html">12 million or so viewers</a> expected to watch. </p>
<p>Yet the first 43 World Series weren’t televised at all. It wasn’t until the 1947 series between the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers – 75 years ago – that fans could watch their favorite players duke it out on screen. </p>
<p>As I detail in my book “<a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/bison-original/9780803248250/">Center Field Shot: A History of Baseball on Television</a>,” which I co-authored with Robert Bellamy, the telecasts became a sensation. They drew millions of Americans to a new medium at a time when there were no national networks, only a handful of stations and somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 TVs in the entire country.</p>
<h2>Negotiations go down to the wire</h2>
<p>In August 1947, the television industry anticipated a possible all-New York World Series: The Yankees had a huge lead in the American League, while the Dodgers also held a substantial one in the National League. </p>
<p>If the two teams met in October, New York’s three television stations – run by NBC ABC, and the now-extinct <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/DuMont-Television-Network">DuMont</a> – decided they wanted to cover the games.</p>
<p>But the rights to televise the games were held by the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Mutual-Broadcasting-System">Mutual Broadcasting System</a>, a radio network that had no television division. Thus, Mutual would need to farm out the coverage to one or more New York stations. </p>
<p>Although no national television network existed at the time, NBC, DuMont and CBS did have the means to link stations on the Eastern Seaboard through a combination of coaxial cable, microwave and over-the-air broadcast transmissions, expanding the potential audience for the World Series. The Series would air on eight stations in four markets: New York City, Philadelphia, Washington and Schenectady, New York.</p>
<p>While the Yankees-Dodgers series materialized, the televising of the Series almost didn’t. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Boy hawking souvenir programs." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491966/original/file-20221026-21-dnupqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Broadcasters got their wish when the New York Yankees faced the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1947 World Series.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/new-york-ny-yankee-and-dodger-fans-are-jamming-the-yankee-news-photo/515585048?phrase=boy%20selling%20souvenir%20programs&adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The predictable stumbling block was money. Baseball commissioner <a href="https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/chandler-happy">Albert B. “Happy” Chandler</a> wanted $100,000 for the television rights to the Series. Gillette, the sponsor of the radio coverage on the Mutual Broadcasting System, balked at the steep price given television’s limited penetration – only 50,000 to 60,000 U.S. households owned TVs at the time. The radio rights to reach the nation’s 29 million homes with radios had cost Mutual only $175,000. </p>
<p>Initial negotiations produced an offer of $60,000 from two sponsors: Gillette and the Ford Motor Company. New York’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Liebmann">Liebmann Breweries</a> offered to meet Chandler’s $100,000 demand, but the commissioner refused because he did not want beer ads when youngsters would be prominent members of the audience.</p>
<p>Even before a coverage deal had been finalized, bars, restaurants, television dealers, department stores, automobile dealerships and movie theaters started advertising the event, urging customers to come by to watch the World Series on television. And in the days and weeks leading up to the Fall Classic, the demand for television sets spiked. </p>
<p>The excitement pressured Chandler and the sponsors to reach a compromise. </p>
<p>Finally, on Sept. 26, just four days before Game 1 at Yankee Stadium, Chandler, Gillette and Ford <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1947/1947-10-06-BC.pdf">agreed to $65,000 for the rights to televise the World Series</a>. Production costs added another $35,000 to the sponsors’ bill. Mutual, Gillette and Ford also agreed to allow all three New York TV stations and those connected to them to broadcast the game, providing the widest possible exposure.</p>
<h2>An unexpectedly strong response</h2>
<p>Initial industry estimates had the Series reaching between 600,000 and 700,000 viewers, many of them located in the bars and restaurants where a substantial number of the nation’s first television receivers were located. </p>
<p>But that forecast ended up being conservative. Although home viewing for the seven games was substantial – 450,000 in a <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/40s/1947/BB-1947-10-18.pdf">Hooper rating survey commissioned by Billboard</a> – the out-of-home viewing numbers were extraordinary: Another 3.5 million were estimated to have viewed the World Series in public locales. </p>
<p>Hooper’s survey found that an average of 82 customers showed up at each of these public locations to watch at least some of the World Series. Variety reported that bar owners saw a 500% increase in patrons during the Series, with some offering reservations to their regulars for a choice location near the TV set.</p>
<p>What viewers from those choice seats saw was primitive by today’s standards. The screen was usually small – 12 diagonal inches or less. The low-definition images were black and white and came from just a few cameras. No extreme close-ups were possible. There was no instant replay, so fans had to pay attention or the moment was lost. </p>
<p>But for the first time, they were seeing the World Series live, and for free.</p>
<h2>The TV industry’s World Series bump</h2>
<p>The audience liked what they saw. <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Billboard/40s/1947/BB-1947-10-11.pdf">Billboard</a>, quoting The Newark Evening News, reported that TV “audiences hung on every turn of the video cameras and the ‘oohs and aahs’ at a slide or strikeout were something radio broadcasters would give their eye teeth to hear.” </p>
<p>It didn’t hurt that <a href="https://www.baseball-reference.com/postseason/1947_WS.shtml">the 1947 World Series</a> ended up being so dramatic. The Yankees prevailed in seven games, but Brooklyn owned the two greatest moments.</p>
<p>In the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 4, Dodgers pitch hitter <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWjpOAy5zCM">Cookie Lavagetto ended Yankee starter Bill Biven’s no-hit bid</a> with a two-out hit, driving in two runs and sending the Dodgers to a 3-2 win. Then, in Game 6, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SrtxVs8uMI">Al Gionfriddo’s stunning catch of Joe DiMaggio’s deep drive to left field</a> helped preserve an 8-6 Dodgers victory, leading legendary Dodgers broadcaster <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Red_Barber.html?id=lWhgEAAAQBAJ">Red Barber</a> to exclaim, “Oh, Doctor!”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oWjpOAy5zCM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Cookie Lavagetto’s double won the game for the Brooklyn Dodgers in Game 4.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Washington broadcasts even reached the White House, where President Harry S. Truman, his staff and the D.C. press corps watched some of the contests. The <a href="https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Televiser/Televiser-1947-09-10.pdf">industry magazine Televiser</a> reported an enthusiastic response from the White House viewers: “If TV can do as good a job as that on perhaps the most difficult of all subjects to televise, then it really has arrived.” </p>
<p>The public’s embrace of the World Series on television, along with the generous coverage of the telecasts by the press, provided an important boost to the nascent television industry. The Sporting News reported that the first televised World Series increased sales for new receivers in New York to levels not seen since the early days of radio. Similar reports came from dealers in Washington and Philadelphia.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Sarnoff">David Sarnoff</a>, chairman of RCA – which owed NBC and was a leading manufacturer of receivers – regarded television’s coverage of baseball and its crowning event, the World Series, as one of the most important factors in triggering the growth of the new medium. </p>
<p>Television makers, <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Center_Field_Shot.html?id=6kPQhpS-X8YC">he concluded</a>, “had to have baseball games and if [baseball owners] had demanded millions for the rights, we would have had to give it to them.” </p>
<p>The television industry eventually did pay millions and then billions for those rights. <a href="https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Daily/Issues/2018/11/15/Media/MLB-Fox.aspx">Fox’s latest seven-year contract</a>, including rights to the World Series, pays Major League Baseball $5.1 billion. </p>
<p>Happy Chandler’s 1947 demand for a $100,000 seems like quite a bargain today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193006/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Walker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Just five days before the first pitch of the 1947 World Series, a deal was struck to air the Series on television.
James Walker, Emeritus Professor of Communication, Saint Xavier University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/193310
2022-10-27T02:04:13Z
2022-10-27T02:04:13Z
Without free-to-air, we wouldn’t have Doctor Who in the archives. What will we lose when it moves to Disney?
<p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/oct/26/doctor-who-bbc-deal-disney-plus-outside-uk-ireland-abc-australia-loses-rights">announcement</a> the BBC will move the global streaming of Doctor Who from free to air channels to Disney+ will change the viewing habits for millions of people internationally. </p>
<p>In Australia, Doctor Who will be removed from the ABC, in New Zealand from TVNZ, and in America from BBC America. </p>
<p>According to reports, the BBC and Disney+ are thrilled with the deal. The show’s chief writer Russell T. Davies <a href="https://www.pedestrian.tv/entertainment/doctor-who-disneyplus/">has said</a> this new relationship will allow the show to “launch the TARDIS all around the planet, reaching a new generation of fans while keeping our traditional home firmly on the BBC in the UK.”</p>
<p>But what about the traditional homes Doctor Who has in other countries, which often kept rare Doctor Who episodes safe which the BBC discarded in the 1970s, before the BBC began archiving the videotapes of their old black and white programs. Now the BBC keeps everything, but once wiped or threw out tapes when they thought the programs had no further value.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/60-years-and-14-doctors-how-doctor-who-has-changed-with-the-times-and-ncuti-gatwas-casting-is-the-natural-next-step-182677">60 years and 14 Doctors: how Doctor Who has changed with the times – and Ncuti Gatwa's casting is the natural next step</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Black and white broadcasting for the world</h2>
<p>The first people anywhere in the world to see Doctor Who were British viewers of the BBC’s television service on <a href="https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/8f81c193ba224e84981f353cae480d49">November 23 1963</a>. Any one with a television licence could have watched and several million people did, having just learned of President John F Kennedy’s assassination. </p>
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<p>The rest of the world did not have to wait long. In the mid-1960s television was mostly black and white and the BBC’s 405 line productions could be broadcast by technicians in television stations around the world. </p>
<p>West Australians first saw Doctor Who in January 1965. Shortly after, the ABC in other capitals began to broadcast the series. </p>
<p>The global broadcasting of Doctor Who has created different viewing patterns for diverse audiences. </p>
<p>Famously in Britain, Doctor Who was part of a Saturday evening “tea time” experience for school children: a line-up of football, light entertainment and drama from early afternoon to late night. Doctor Who kept its place as the mainstay of the BBC’s Saturday line-up almost without interruption from 1963 to 1989. </p>
<p>But for Australians like me, Doctor Who was viewed in a different way. As a child of the 1980s, Doctor Who was in an unmissable weekday afternoon line-up on the ABC. </p>
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<p>Australians weren’t watching exactly the same episodes as their counterparts watching the BBC. Early Doctor Who is startlingly violent, and early on the show gained its enduring reputation as so scary kids watched from <a href="https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/doctor-whos-scariest-episodes/">behind the sofa</a>. These black and white episodes feature mass killings, hangings, shootings, attempted and actual rape, psychotic attacks by a scissor wielding woman, and more.</p>
<p>Doctor Who episodes broadcast in Australia in the 1960s and 1970s had many of these juicy moments were edited out by the <a href="https://doctorwhomindrobber.com/tag/australian-film-censorship-board/">Commonwealth Film Censorship Board</a>.</p>
<p>Oddly, this means Australian television archives contain snippets of 1960s episodes still missing from the BBC archives, among them the existentially dreadful attack from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXt4AEMzYgY">Mr Oak and Mr Quill</a>, humanoids made of gas who advance on a helpless woman breathing poison gas out of gaping black holes in their faces. These small moments of violence are all that’s left of some classics stories.</p>
<h2>Global audiences from the 1960s to present</h2>
<p>These snippets of missing episodes exist because, prior to the late 1970s, the BBC did not routinely archive its shows – including Doctor Who. Indeed, a global network of television archives has been crucial in maintaining the nearly 50 year history of the show.</p>
<p>Doctor Who episodes missing from the BBC archives have been recovered from <a href="https://www.whattowatch.com/features/doctor-who-missing-episodes-why-are-there-so-many">Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Africa</a>. They were found there because the BBC sent them there, as exports for showing on local free to air channels. </p>
<p>As recently as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TinWhmgU9p0">2013</a>, a large number of missing episodes were found in a remote television relay station in west Africa. </p>
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</figure>
<p>Much academic research into the viewing and reception of Doctor Who is about British audiences. How fascinating it would be to know more about the first global audiences and the viewing reactions and audiences from Hong Kong to Nigeria. </p>
<p>Modern Doctor Who’s global audience is no less diverse. <a href="https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/cult/a589559/doctor-who-peter-capaldi-greets-fans-in-korea-as-world-tour-continues/">In 2013</a> the incumbent Doctor, Peter Capaldi, embarked on a world tour and fans in Seoul, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, New York and Sydney clamoured to meet him. </p>
<p>But these fans, like others elsewhere in the world, watched their favourite show free to air. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/my-time-as-a-scary-girl-on-doctor-who-81175">My time as a 'scary girl' on Doctor Who</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Streaming the 60th anniversary and beyond</h2>
<p>The BBC’s announcement changes everything for fans around the world. </p>
<p>It puts Doctor Who on par with programs from the streaming giants which are the most talked about in popular culture, like House of the Dragon or The Crown.</p>
<p>But Doctor Who has always been an accessible commodity on the ABC, TVNZ and their like. </p>
<p>In Australia, Doctor Who on the ABC was simply a fact of life. This announcement will not only be a disappointment but a concern about access. </p>
<p>It also means Doctor Who will be judged against lavish programs with immensely larger budgets, different storytelling approaches and multinational casts. </p>
<p>In 2021, the Guardian writer <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/jul/20/exterminate-exterminate-why-its-time-for-doctor-who-to-die">Martin Belam</a> suggested the time had come to exterminate Doctor Who for precisely these reasons, but back then the show was still safe on global free to air. </p>
<p>This change means Doctor Who will enter its 60th year with its global broadcasting changed beyond recognition and judged against the giants of streamed television. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-fragmented-streaming-video-market-is-good-for-everyone-but-the-consumer-82367">A fragmented streaming video market is good for everyone but the consumer</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Correction: An earlier version of this story misnamed the New Zealand broadcaster. It is TVNZ.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193310/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcus Harmes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Doctor Who episodes missing from the BBC archives have been recovered from Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Africa.
Marcus Harmes, Professor in Pathways Education, University of Southern Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/184637
2022-06-14T20:00:18Z
2022-06-14T20:00:18Z
Battered by 9 years of Coalition government, the ABC now has a hard road of repair ahead
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468606/original/file-20220613-14-7uiw35.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Joel Carrett/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Liberal-National Coalition government has been defeated, but the legacy of its nine-year onslaught on the ABC remains.</p>
<p>That onslaught consisted of relentless accusations of left-wing bias, a succession of pointless and enervating inquiries, punitive funding cuts, and the use of the ABC for target practice in the Coalition’s interminable climate and culture wars.</p>
<p>The government also joined with News Corporation in a pincer attack on the ABC. But worst of all, it stacked the board.</p>
<p>The Turnbull and Morrison governments routinely appointed to the board people not recommended by the independent merit-based selection process introduced by the Abbott government in 2013, in what turned out to be a piece of rank window-dressing.</p>
<p>Even so, when Scott Morrison took over from Turnbull as prime minister, he wasted no time in using an appearance on ABC television <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/sep/30/abc-board-must-get-back-to-work-and-do-better-scott-morrison-says">to warn</a> the ABC board to “expect a bit more attention from me” if it didn’t “do better”.</p>
<p>In fact, the board was already stacked with people appointed by Turnbull’s communications minister, Mitch Fifield, outside the independent merit-based system.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/sep/27/abc-board-members-appointed-by-fifield-despite-being-rejected-by-merit-based-panel">Documents obtained</a> at the time by The Guardian Australia showed Fifield had directly appointed five of the eight members then on the board, some of them having been rejected by the nominations panel. Fifield’s appointments included Vanessa Guthrie, chair of the Minerals Council of Australia, a fossil fuel lobby group. </p>
<p>On top of this, to replace chair Justin Milne, Morrison parachuted in his own <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jan/09/two-media-executives-and-lawyer-passed-over-for-ita-buttrose-as-abc-chair-foi-confirms">captain’s pick</a> for chair, Ita Buttrose, disregarding three recommendations from the merit panel.</p>
<p>In May last year, Morrison’s communications minister, Paul Fletcher, appointed three further members to fill <a href="https://www.afr.com/companies/media-and-marketing/former-news-corp-executive-joins-abc-board-20210516-p57se0">vacancies on the board</a>. Two of those – Peter Tonagh and Mario D’Orazio – were recommended by the independent nominations panel and one – Fiona Balfour – was not. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468637/original/file-20220614-23-jdqh0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468637/original/file-20220614-23-jdqh0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468637/original/file-20220614-23-jdqh0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468637/original/file-20220614-23-jdqh0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468637/original/file-20220614-23-jdqh0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468637/original/file-20220614-23-jdqh0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468637/original/file-20220614-23-jdqh0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">ABC chair Ita Buttrose was one of those appointed outside the usual merit process.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dan Himbrechts/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The net effect of these comings and goings is that the minister directly appointed three of the seven current non-executive directors – Buttrose, Balfour and Joseph Gersh – outside the nominations process.</p>
<p>A fourth, Peter Lewis, was recommended by a politically loaded panel, including News Corp columnist and former board member Janet Albrechtsen and former Liberal minister Neil Brown, after Lewis had <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/oct/02/abc-efficiency-reviewer-peter-lewis-installed-board">produced a report</a> showing how the Abbott government could cut the ABC’s funding.</p>
<p>None of this is to question the integrity of the individuals appointed – in fact, Buttrose has been a robust defender of the ABC. But it raises legitimate questions about how well equipped they are for the job.</p>
<p>For example, does the board as a whole have the guts to stand up for the ABC’s editorial independence, or even a decent understanding of what the term means? The backgrounds of its members, aside from staff member Jane Connors, do not suggest they have any experience of what it is like to do the heavy lifting in journalism, where editorial independence really counts.</p>
<p>Buttrose, Tonagh and Lewis have a ton of experience in corporate media management, and Buttrose of course was a journalist, but not of the kind that makes programs for 4 Corners.</p>
<p>Investigative journalism exposes the journalists doing it to a degree of sometimes personal risk and often severe political and legal pressure. It is essential they have a rock-solid belief that the organisation they work for has their backs. As the founding editor of The Sydney Morning Herald’s investigative unit in 1984, I can personally attest to this.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-news-corp-goes-rogue-on-election-coverage-what-price-will-australian-democracy-pay-181599">As News Corp goes 'rogue' on election coverage, what price will Australian democracy pay?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The ABC’s journalists would be entitled to harbour doubts about this after the board announced in May it was <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-17/independent-review-into-abc-complaints-and-handling-procedures/101072292">appointing an ombudsman</a> to oversee the complaints system.</p>
<p>Not only is this yet another layer of bureaucracy on top of an onerous complaints system already in place, but worse by far is that the ombudsman will report directly to a board that has been politically stacked.</p>
<p>Given most of the complaints that cause trouble for the ABC come from politicians or well-connected people with partisan political interests, that amounts to an outright betrayal of editorial independence.</p>
<p>The decision to appoint an ombudsman was based on a recommendation by a former Commonwealth ombudsman, John McMillan, and Jim Carroll, an experienced commercial television executive, who carried out <a href="https://about.abc.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/ABC-COMPLAINT-HANDLING-%E2%80%93-REPORT-OF-THE-INDEPENDENT-REVIEW.pdf">a review</a> of the complaints process. However, they did not recommend the direct reporting line to the board. </p>
<p>This board decision had all the hallmarks of a pre-emptive buckle, the cutting witticism coined long ago by a radio producer to describe the way ABC management reacts to threats and pressure, real or anticipated.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468649/original/file-20220614-17-x3kfuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468649/original/file-20220614-17-x3kfuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468649/original/file-20220614-17-x3kfuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468649/original/file-20220614-17-x3kfuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468649/original/file-20220614-17-x3kfuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468649/original/file-20220614-17-x3kfuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468649/original/file-20220614-17-x3kfuv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Former NSW ombudsman John McMillan, along with TV executive Jim Carroll, carried out a review of the ABC’s complaints handling process.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David Moir/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In this case it had the desired effect. A month after the ombudsman proposal had been announced, an attempt by Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg to set up a Senate inquiry into the ABC’s complaints system was abandoned.</p>
<p>The decision to review the complaints system was taken in the aftermath of an earlier external review into a complaint about a three-part television series called Exposed: The Ghost Train Fire. The ABC’s complaints unit rejected the complaint, but this decision was vociferously challenged by a group of people anxious to protect the legacy and reputation of the deceased former premier of New South Wales, Neville Wran. One segment in part three of this series contained an unjustifiable implication that Wran was an associate of an organised crime figure, Abe Saffron, who the program alleged was connected with the fire.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-ghost-train-fire-exposed-remarkable-police-corruption-yet-also-failed-abcs-high-journalistic-standards-167042">How Ghost Train Fire exposed remarkable police corruption, yet also failed ABC's high journalistic standards</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The review was conducted by distinguished political scientist Rodney Tiffen of the University of Sydney and the celebrated investigative journalist Chris Masters.</p>
<p>They found against that one segment but were <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/cm/lb/13520202/data/review-data.pdf">otherwise generous</a> in their praise of the series. </p>
<p>The ABC accepted the praise but rejected the negative finding.</p>
<p>Shortly afterwards, in October 2021, the board established the complaints system review by McMillan and Carroll.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468651/original/file-20220614-2622-78wxsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468651/original/file-20220614-2622-78wxsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468651/original/file-20220614-2622-78wxsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468651/original/file-20220614-2622-78wxsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468651/original/file-20220614-2622-78wxsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468651/original/file-20220614-2622-78wxsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/468651/original/file-20220614-2622-78wxsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It is important that ABC journalists feel the broadcaster’s management has their backs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The upshot is that ABC journalists are now working in an environment where, if their story generates a complaint, it can end up in the hands of an ombudsman appointed by, and answerable to, a board, four of whose members have been either appointed by ministerial fiat outside the independent merit-based system or by a politically loaded panel.</p>
<p>Former ABC Melbourne broadcaster Jon Faine <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/politicians-should-stay-out-of-abc-complaint-system-overhaul-20211126-p59ch2.html">has described</a> the existing complaints process as: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>a burdensome sledgehammer that chews up work time on sometimes vexatious and often trivial […] things. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The process is also prone to being bypassed by powerful people who get in the ear of senior managers, leading to investigations outside the system.</p>
<p>McMillan and Carroll say their anecdotal impression is the ABC often resists criticism, particularly of high-profile programs. Doubtless there is truth in this. The self-serving reaction to the Ghost Train Fire report is an example. </p>
<p>However, a simple solution would be to have someone with substantial expertise in investigative journalism seconded to the complaints unit to deal with complex cases like that.</p>
<p>There are many ways to destroy a media institution, but weak boards and uncertain editorial direction are two of the most effective. Look at the Fairfax newspaper company. For more than 150 years it seemed impregnable. Then in 1987, a Fairfax scion, “young” Warwick, privatised the company. It could not sustain the ensuing $1.6 billion debt and its bankers had it auctioned off.</p>
<p>Then a succession of purblind boards and senior management left it mortally exposed to the digital revolution that gutted its classified advertising revenue. Journalistically it struggled to harmonise its print and online content, staff were laid off in droves, and the shrunken remains were absorbed into the Nine Entertainment organisation.</p>
<p>At the ABC a reset is necessary but will take time. The recent appointment as news director of Justin Stevens, a journalist with real runs on the board, encourages the belief that at least the journalists in his division will be given a safe place in which to do good journalism.</p>
<p>However, the big test for the ABC is whether the board as a whole can engender confidence in its willingness to defend the ABC’s editorial independence and send the message to senior management and all ABC journalists that this a place where journalists can do good work without having to look over their shoulder to see if the corporation has their back.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184637/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>In 2021 I unsuccessfully applied for a position on the ABC board.</span></em></p>
One of the national broadcaster’s most urgent challenges will be ensuing its journalists feel management has their backs.
Denis Muller, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of Melbourne
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/184239
2022-06-10T06:43:12Z
2022-06-10T06:43:12Z
Everyone loves Bandit from Bluey – but is he a lovable larrikin, or just a bad dad?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467676/original/file-20220608-22-o10wd4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C11%2C7964%2C4479&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC Kids</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Bandit Heeler is a hero. </p>
<p>The cartoon father of Bluey and her younger sister Bingo, Bandit is the much-loved dad dog at the heart of Australia’s favourite four-legged family. He balances the drudgery of housework with the creative escapades of his daughters, repurposing everyday objects and actions for imaginative play and engagement. </p>
<p>Awarded a <a href="https://mouthsofmums.com.au/tv-character-favourite-from-bluey-has-been-awarded-dad-of-the-year/">Father of the Year award</a> in 2019 and widely cited as <a href="https://www.the-father-hood.com/article/bluey-how-a-cartoon-dog-became-your-ultimate-guide-to-fatherhood/">the model of modern fatherhood</a>, Bandit’s engaged presence in his daughters’ lives has been hailed as a watershed moment in children’s television.</p>
<p>In a break from TV’s <a href="https://www.killyourdarlings.com.au/article/wheres-your-daddy-the-rise-and-fall-of-mediocre-on-screen-fathers/">“bad dad” trope</a>, Bandit has been worshipped as a “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/dec/28/old-dads-learn-new-tricks-from-australian-childrens-cartoon-bluey?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other">dad-idol</a>”, even inspiring a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/1603325766532604">Facebook group</a> of 14,000 dedicated dads who identify as Bluey superfans.</p>
<p>Child psychologists <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-17/bluey-day-bandit-parenting/100512968">have explained</a> how Bandit inspired their approach to pretend play and improvisation. A new article published in The Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jpc.15620">lays out</a> “what Bluey can teach us about parenting and grandparenting”.</p>
<p>But there is a darker side to this lovable character.</p>
<p>Bandit never strays far from the reductive stereotype of the Australian larrikin: the likeable roguish male stuck between childhood and adulthood whose disrespect of authority and rough-and-ready masculinity reflects Australia’s emotional attachment to the working-class underdog.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/making-up-games-is-more-important-than-you-think-why-bluey-is-a-font-of-parenting-wisdom-118583">'Making up games is more important than you think': why Bluey is a font of parenting wisdom</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A familiar breed of larrikin</h2>
<p>It is difficult to overstate the cultural power of larrikin ideology in Australia. </p>
<p>Generally regarded as a sign of authentic, rugged masculinity and anti-authoritarianism, the figure of the larrikin has been co-opted for car and beer adverts, international tourism, and even <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-larrikin-lives-on-as-a-conservative-politician-168464">conservative politics</a>.</p>
<p>Today, the image of the larrikin has been sanitised for public consumption; however, the history of larrikinism is firmly rooted in Australia’s colonial literature. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.writerscentre.com.au/blog/qa-the-origin-of-larrikin/">original larrikins</a> of the late 19th century were young urban mischief-makers who sometimes ventured into serious violence and crime.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-larrikin-lives-on-as-a-conservative-politician-168464">The larrikin lives on — as a conservative politician</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>At the turn of the century, these transgressive characters were endowed with hearts of gold in outback drama and literature. In some cases, they were domesticated, as was the case for Dad and Dave from Steele Rudd’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Our_Selection">On Our Selection</a> (1899).</p>
<p>Rudd established the family dynamic that would be replicated in a multitude of Australian dramas, from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingswood_Country">Kingswood Country</a> (1980–84) to <a href="https://theconversation.com/straight-to-the-pool-room-a-love-letter-to-the-castle-on-its-25th-anniversary-176361">The Castle</a> (1997) to Bluey: energetic and inexhaustible children, a long-suffering sensible wife and a larrikin father who knows how to play to an audience.</p>
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<p>From this mythos, we see the birth of Bandit: the underdog who knocks authority, mocks pomposity, and regularly breaks the rules to get what he wants – even resorting to cheating when he can’t outsmart or outpace his children.</p>
<p>In one episode, Bandit holds Bluey back from the finish line so he can win an obstacle course. In another, he lauds victory over his younger brother, Stripe, taunting that “big brothers always beat little brothers” – a jibe Bluey imitates when she teases Bingo: “Big sisters always beat little sisters. That’s just the way it goes.”</p>
<p>Even Bandit’s name conjures up the small-time crimes of bushrangers, Australia’s revered outlaws who also achieved a type of perverse folk hero status.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/straight-to-the-pool-room-a-love-letter-to-the-castle-on-its-25th-anniversary-176361">Straight to the pool room: a love letter to The Castle on its 25th anniversary</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Bandit the bully</h2>
<p>Undoubtedly, Bandit’s larrikinism contributes to his likeability: he is an entertaining and engaged father who is heavily involved in his childrens’ lives.</p>
<p>Occasionally, however, we catch a glimpse of Bandit’s darker side, with his playful teasing of his young daughters sometimes devolving into bullying.</p>
<p>In one episode, Bandit agrees to open Bingo’s ice block before repeatedly licking her frozen sweet in front of her. Afterwards, Bandit apologises to his daughter for being “a bit mean”.</p>
<p>While the show itself restrains judgement, often it is Bandit’s wife Chilli who pulls him into line. When Bandit forgets to pack sunscreen and snacks for a swim at the pool, it is Chilli (the “boring” parent, in Bandit’s words) who saves the day. </p>
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<p>Yet it is Bandit who is praised for his parenting prowess, while Chilli is figuratively and literally in the background. In fact, the creators of Bluey were recently accused of <a href="https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/a-rare-bluey-blunder-chilli-isnt-falling-short-because-she-returned-to-work/">mother-shaming</a> when they described Chilli as “falling a bit short” due to her status as a working mum.</p>
<p>The universal veneration of Bandit is perplexing since, in situations like at the pool, he comes across as a mildly incompetent caricature, lampooned as an overgrown child in need of regular supervision and training.</p>
<p>Bandit is also surprisingly conservative when it comes to gender values. </p>
<p>Bandit is a “traditional” man who wishes to be viewed as the head of the Heeler household. When he reluctantly submits to wearing make-up, he is subsequently mocked by his mates for doing so. He censors himself from engaging in full imaginative play when under the gaze of other men. He teases his wife on the pains of pregnancy and labour.</p>
<p>Taken individually, most of these moments are punchlines. But over the course of three series, Bluey creates a complex portrait of Australia’s favourite dad. Bandit is present and playful, but he is still a larrikin at heart. His continued popularity, despite his personal shortcomings, only speaks to the stereotype’s strength in contemporary Australian life. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-subtle-sophistication-of-blueys-soundtrack-helped-propel-it-to-stardom-153102">The subtle sophistication of Bluey's soundtrack helped propel it to stardom</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184239/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
He’s been awarded Father of the Year – but there is a darker side to this character we need to talk about.
David Burton, Lecturer, Theatre, University of Southern Queensland
Kate Cantrell, Lecturer in Writing, Editing, and Publishing, University of Southern Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/184733
2022-06-09T06:17:01Z
2022-06-09T06:17:01Z
The ABC’s plan to axe its librarians will damage its journalism. Here’s why
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467941/original/file-20220609-15-3b1r0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the war broke out in the Ukraine early this year, journalists scrambled to gather stories and images from the archives to supplement information and images gathered on the ground. A similar scramble occurred when floods struck Queensland, as it often does when big stories break. </p>
<p>We saw the results on our screens, but what we didn’t see was the invisible yet critical work of librarians and archivists – the people who design, manage and facilitate access to the archival systems that house vital news resources. </p>
<p>This makes all the more surprising the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/jun/08/abc-to-abolish-58-librarian-and-archivist-jobs-with-journalists-to-do-archival-work">news</a> that the ABC plans to eliminate librarian and archivist positions and require its journalists to fill the gap. Journalists are expert investigators and storytellers, but their success in reporting stories rests on their ability to find source material quickly and effortlessly – a process in which librarians and archivists play a key role. </p>
<p>Timely access to source material is critical. Extra time spent looking for resources – not to mention uploading and describing new material – is time taken away from journalists’ other work. </p>
<p>The ABC’s information professionals are trained according to the requirements of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). They are experienced in helping journalists access resources easily and quickly. They digitise and store resources methodically and apply the “metadata” – the detailed descriptive tags – necessary for efficient retrieval. This archival work is especially important at the ABC, a vital repository of Australian history and culture.</p>
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<p>When information professionals do their jobs well, journalists and other researchers can readily find what they need and download material seamlessly.</p>
<h2>Why does this matter?</h2>
<p>Relying on untrained journalists to do the work of qualified information professionals – asking them to archive their own materials and apply metadata – means valuable material will be mislabelled, or not labelled at all. As ALIA and the Australian Society of Archivists put it in their <a href="https://www.alia.org.au/Web/News/Articles/2022/June-2022/ASA_ALIA_Joint_Statement.aspx">joint response</a> to the planned staff cuts: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The ability to find archival footage and reports which underpin everything from TV drama to news radio is deeply valued by other ABC professional staff, who do not have the professional skills to undertake this work themselves.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Without the librarians’ and archivists’ expertise to draw on, journalists will be hampered by less reliable and efficient metadata, wasting critical time for those working to deadline. Key resources needed to verify facts will be overlooked, undermining the trustworthiness of reporting. </p>
<p>Metadata are critical for finding materials in an ever-growing sea of new information. Although some metadata tags (the name of the creator of a work, for example, or the date the work was created) may be easy to assign, other tags require expert, trained judgement. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-abcs-budget-hasnt-been-restored-its-still-facing-1-2-billion-in-accumulated-losses-over-a-decade-176532">The ABC's budget hasn't been restored – it's still facing $1.2 billion in accumulated losses over a decade</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Consider a journalist who takes a photo of a building. When she archives this resource she must take care to note date, location and specifications. She will need to decide, for example, whether the location tag should be Australia, Victoria, Melbourne or Collingwood – or some combination of these terms. Librarians and archivists make these decisions to suit the needs of journalists and editors who might search for that image months, years or decades later. </p>
<p>More importantly, though, archivists and librarians need to assign these terms consistently. If all buildings are assigned generic city locations (such as “Melbourne”), future journalists will find it hard to locate images for stories about specific suburbs. Worse still, if journalists make different choices about how specific to be – with some assigning “Collingwood” while others assign “Australia” – future users of the system won’t easily be able to retrieve all images of buildings in the same location. If a busy journalist chooses not to identify the location at all – understandable in the midst of a busy newsroom – the image becomes lost in the system.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467945/original/file-20220609-12-7pmyhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Photos from ABC archive" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467945/original/file-20220609-12-7pmyhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467945/original/file-20220609-12-7pmyhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467945/original/file-20220609-12-7pmyhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467945/original/file-20220609-12-7pmyhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467945/original/file-20220609-12-7pmyhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467945/original/file-20220609-12-7pmyhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467945/original/file-20220609-12-7pmyhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">You must remember this: part of a Powerhouse Museum display of photos from the ABC archive to mark the broadcaster’s 75th anniversary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/exhibitions/broadcasting-sydney-images-abc-archives">Jenni Carter for Sydney Living Museums</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Over time, the problem compounds. As thousands of images, articles, recordings and other materials are added, people searching for material will be forced to search using multiple keywords, eating into their time for other journalistic work.</p>
<p>Research in information science demonstrates that people often take the simplest route, particularly when facing deadlines. So they may search for “Collingwood buildings” and – finding nothing – presume that no relevant images exist, without realising that only a “Melbourne” tag was assigned.</p>
<h2>A vital part of our history</h2>
<p>Journalists will also lose access to specialist advice to help them find the information they need for credible, reliable reporting. Although some journalists may turn elsewhere for this advice – staff in public or government libraries, for instance – <a href="https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/looking-for-information/?k=9781785609688">research</a> demonstrates that reporters and editors trained in digital searching practices are less likely to seek the advice of librarians and colleagues overall. </p>
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<p>Information science researchers and practitioners across the GLAM sector – galleries, libraries, archives and museums – developed this expertise over many centuries. </p>
<p>Following the second world war, they spearheaded the development of complex automated systems designed to gather, catalogue, index, and present information to the public. This work underpins everyday practices, from searching Google to finding movies on Netflix. </p>
<p>Although the stereotypes of librarians and archivists remain (inappropriately) grounded in a presumption of work happening in dusty bookshelves and basement collections, these professionals are taking the lead in ensuring digital materials are accessible. As ALIA and ASA note, the ABC’s collections are “of national significance,” the value of which goes well beyond the work of just one news organisation.</p>
<p>Without complete, easily findable records, journalists can’t tell the whole story; their ability to quickly retrieve historic source material, to complete background work and conduct fact-checking, will be eroded, as will their ability to tell Australia’s stories with integrity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184733/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa M. Given receives funding from the Australian Research Council, including projects in partnership with the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and the National State Libraries Association. She is a former President of the Association for Information Science and Technology.</span></em></p>
The national broadcaster has a special role in preserving audio and visual materials, not least to underpin its own reportuing
Lisa M. Given, Director, Social Change Enabling Capability Platform & Professor of Information Sciences, RMIT University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/181948
2022-04-28T01:40:25Z
2022-04-28T01:40:25Z
No-one is talking about ABC funding in this election campaign. Here’s why they should be
<p>The election campaign is well underway and the ABC is barely registering as an issue. Why is that, when according to the Morrison government’s own figures, the ABC’s real funding will continue to decline over the next three years?</p>
<p>Not that the government acknowledges this. </p>
<p>“The evidence is clear,” communications minister Paul Fletcher <a href="https://www.paulfletcher.com.au/print/funding-boost-will-allow-the-abc-to-be-its-best-self">declared</a> in February. “The Morrison government has provided strong and consistent support to the ABC.”</p>
<p>This is a breathtakingly misleading statement. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-abcs-budget-hasnt-been-restored-its-still-facing-1-2-billion-in-accumulated-losses-over-a-decade-176532">The ABC's budget hasn't been restored – it's still facing $1.2 billion in accumulated losses over a decade</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Accumulated losses</h2>
<p>Two of us, Michael Ward and Alex Wake, have tracked the Coalition government’s support several times on this site, most recently in February, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-abcs-budget-hasnt-been-restored-its-still-facing-1-2-billion-in-accumulated-losses-over-a-decade-176532">writing</a> that the ABC’s budget hasn’t been restored – it’s still facing A$1.2 billion in accumulated losses over a decade.</p>
<p>Ward has also conducted research on how much the ABC has lost and will continue to lose in aggregate over the course of a 12-year period. Ward used a number of public financial sources to build the data sets behind the tables and figures in this article, including <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/department/media/publications/budgets">ABC portfolio budget statements</a>, a 2014 <a href="https://archive.budget.gov.au/index.htm">Budget paper</a>, and a 2022 <a href="https://budget.gov.au/2022-23/content/bp1/download/bp1_2022-23.pdf">Budget Strategy Paper</a>. He also used <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1415/ABCoverview">Australian Parliamentary Library reports</a> and ABC answers to Senate Questions on Notice in <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Senate_Estimates/ec/2018-19_Supplementary_Budget_estimates">2018</a> and <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Senate_estimates/ec/2021-22_Supplementary_budget_estimates">2021</a>.</p>
<p>The evidence is clear: but for a series of decisions made over the nine years of the Coalition government, the ABC would have far more funding at its disposal.</p>
<p>The Morrison government has been neither a strong nor consistent supporter of the ABC. Yes, the ABC benefits from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/may/26/abc-does-deals-with-google-and-facebook-that-could-see-millions-spent-on-regional-news">deals</a> with Google and Facebook under the government’s <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/news-media-bargaining-code">news media bargaining code</a>, but the government initially <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/abc-sbs-exclusion-from-tech-giants-payments-a-government-decision-20200731-p55hfh.html">excluded</a> the ABC from the code and the deals are for a limited period.</p>
<p>As the below table shows, decisions by the Coalition government since 2013 have left the ABC far worse off financially.</p>
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<p>There was the <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/library/budget/2014_17/upload_binary/bp2_expense.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf#search=%22library/budget/2014_17%22">axing of the Australia Network</a>, (a service providing soft power diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific region) announced in May 2014, at a cost of $186 million. </p>
<p>There was the simultaneous <a href="https://archive.budget.gov.au/2014-15/bp2/BP2_consolidated.pdf">1% reduction of ABC funding</a>, which has since cost the ABC $72 million.</p>
<p>There have been <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/about-us/corporate-reporting/budgets">“efficiency” savings of $353 million</a>, beginning in November 2014.</p>
<p>There have been <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Senate_estimates/ec/2018-19_Supplementary_Budget_estimates">cuts to tied funding initiatives</a> totalling $122 million, announced in May 2017. (“Tied funding” means grants tied to a specific purpose or project.)</p>
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<p>And, since 2019, there has been <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/about-us/corporate-reporting/budgets">a freeze on indexation</a> for ABC funding that has cost the broadcaster $84 million.</p>
<p>By 2025–26, we project these all decisions will leave the ABC <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Senate_Estimates/ec/2018-19_Supplementary_Budget_estimates">$1.3 billion worse off</a>.</p>
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<iframe title=" Cumulative ABC funding reduction 2014-25 " aria-label="Bar Chart" id="datawrapper-chart-K4PGh" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/K4PGh/2/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="498"></iframe>
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<p>Meanwhile, the government has sought to trumpet the slightest reprieves and slenderest funding increases as evidence of its commitment to the public broadcaster.</p>
<p>Fletcher’s <a href="https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/fletcher/media-release/committed-and-growing-funding-locked-abc-and-sbs-next-three-year-funding-period">declaration in February</a>, alongside his announcement of the government’s plans for the ABC’s next triennial funding period, was entirely in this vein.</p>
<p>The government <a href="https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/fletcher/media-release/committed-and-growing-funding-locked-abc-and-sbs-next-three-year-funding-period">reversed its freeze</a> on indexation for ABC funding and increased the ABC’s operational funding by a total of $38.3 million between 2022-23 and 2025-26.</p>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2022-23_infra_pbs_04_abc.pdf">budget papers </a>, released on March 29, stagger the funding increases by 0.7% in 2022–23, 2.0% in 2023–24, and 1.6% in 2024–25. This is an average 1.5% annual increase over the next three years.</p>
<p>But those same <a href="https://budget.gov.au/2022-23/content/bp1/download/bp1_2022-23.pdf">budget papers</a> predict inflation to be 3%, 2.75% and 2.75% over the same period. And already the first prediction has needed to be increased to <a href="https://www.afr.com/policy/economy/headline-inflation-surges-to-5-1pc-20220427-p5agdm">5.1%</a> after the Australian Bureau of Statistics released the latest Consumer Price Index figures on Wednesday.</p>
<p>What this means is that the modest increases in nominal funding will be outpaced by inflation, leaving the ABC worse off in real terms.</p>
<p>The government’s strategy of anaesthetising the ABC’s funding as an election issue appears to be working because few in the media are talking about it. But they should be.</p>
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<p>Reductions over the past nine years have already led the ABC to significant job losses and programming changes. Remember when each state and territory had its own edition of 7.30 on television on Fridays? That level of scrutiny has been sorely missed during the global pandemic when we have all been reminded how important state and territory government services are.</p>
<p>In real terms, analysis of <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/about-us/corporate-reporting/budgets">Budget papers</a> and a <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1415/ABCoverview">Parliamentary Library report</a> show ABC operational funding has declined by 12% since the Hawke Labor government. The table below compares average annual funding for each government since 1971.</p>
<hr>
<iframe title="Average ABC funding (real) by Labor and Coalition Governments 1971-2025" aria-label="Table" id="datawrapper-chart-OsxAn" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/OsxAn/5/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="518"></iframe>
<hr>
<p>This historical comparison shows that, barring changes to the plans of whoever is in government, ABC funding in 2025–26 will be at its lowest level in real terms in 45 years.</p>
<p>As we (Matthew Ricketson and Patrick Mullins) show in our book, <a href="https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/who-needs-the-abc-9781922310927">Who needs the ABC?</a>, the environment in which the ABC operates is profoundly different to that of two decades ago. Apart from <a href="https://theconversation.com/constant-attacks-on-the-abc-will-come-back-to-haunt-the-coalition-government-98456">sustained Coalition government</a> hostility, the ABC is under almost continuous attack from sections of the commercial news media.</p>
<p>Yet the ABC does more now than it ever has, running six television channels, more than 60 capital city, local, and digital radio stations, four national radio services, a vast array of online resources, and live music.</p>
<p>On funding, one side, the Coalition, is clearly associated with an overall reduction in ABC funding.</p>
<hr>
<iframe title="Average ABC funding (real) by Labor and Coalition Governments 1971-2025" aria-label="Bar Chart" id="datawrapper-chart-9EtmJ" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/9EtmJ/3/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="399"></iframe>
<hr>
<p>The ABC is too important a national cultural institution for voters to be denied a clear picture of how it is being treated by the government, and by the Labor opposition. For its part, the opposition has promised to move funding agreements beyond the electoral cycle, to five years, and to reverse the indexation decisions of 2019. </p>
<p>As we have noted, though, this will not restore the funding lost over the past nine years. Both major parties should commit to restoring ABC funding.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-the-latest-abc-inquiry-really-just-business-as-usual-171824">Is the latest ABC inquiry really just 'business as usual'?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181948/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Ward is a Ph.D. candidate in media and communications at the University of Sydney. From 1999 to 2017 he worked for the ABC, including as a senior executive contributing to funding submissions.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandra Wake was a senior journalist with the ABC, and did her last shift with ABC Radio Australia in 2015.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Ricketson last year conducted paid in-house feature writing training sessions for journalists in the ABC's Asia Pacific Newsroom. He is the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance's representative on the Australian Press Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Mullins has received funding from ArtsACT and the Museum of Australian Democracy.</span></em></p>
ABC funding is not registering as an election issue even though it will drop in real terms over the next three years.
Michael Ward, PhD candidate, University of Sydney
Alexandra Wake, Program Manager, Journalism, RMIT University
Matthew Ricketson, Professor of Communication, Deakin University
Patrick Mullins, Adjunct assistant professor, Centre for Creative and Cultural Research, University of Canberra
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/176032
2022-03-03T19:10:56Z
2022-03-03T19:10:56Z
Fact-checking can actually harm trust in media: new research
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445327/original/file-20220209-47970-1trdj95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>With a federal election expected in May, at a time of great upheaval at home and around the world, the need for trusted media to accurately inform voters’ choices and debunk myths will be critical.</p>
<p>Yet <a href="https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2021-06/apo-nid312650_0.pdf">studies</a> show about two-thirds of Australians are worried about misinformation, especially about COVID-19, and do not know who or what to trust.</p>
<p>This is further complicated when politicians are the culprits, making <a href="https://www.news.com.au/technology/united-australia-party-mp-craig-kelly-sends-out-unsolicited-texts-about-covid19-vaccine-reactions/news-story/a15bc05f818a150d33105d7ad2166590">false claims</a> in the news media and online. </p>
<p>So what role should journalists play in calling out these falsehoods? Or should this role be left to third parties, such as independent fact-checkers, to test verifiable claims? </p>
<h2>The fight against ‘fake news’</h2>
<p>Fact-checking is one global response to countering fake news, which has become a multi-billion-dollar industry. More than 340 fact-checking outlets now operate <a href="https://reporterslab.org/fact-checking-census-shows-slower-growth/">worldwide</a>. </p>
<p>In Australia, independent fact-checkers include newswires AAP and AFP, and RMIT ABC Fact Check (a collaboration between RMIT University and the public broadcaster). Yet little is known about what effect independent fact-checking has on public trust in news where false claims can be found.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21670811.2022.2031240">a new study</a> published in a major international journal, we investigate if third-party fact-checking affects public trust in news. To do this we used the case study of the “<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-sports-rorts-affair-shows-the-government-misunderstands-the-role-of-the-public-service-130796">sports rorts</a>” scandal. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-sports-rorts-affair-shows-the-need-for-a-proper-federal-icac-with-teeth-122800">The 'sports rorts' affair shows the need for a proper federal ICAC – with teeth</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As a quick refresher, the sports rorts scandal unfolded just before the 2019 federal election. Sporting clubs in Coalition and marginal seats disproportionately benefited from a taxpayer-funded community sports grants program. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/award-funding-under-the-community-sport-infrastructure-program">Australian National Audit Office</a> later investigated the funding process. It found the then sports minister and National Party deputy, Bridget McKenzie, had not allocated funds based on independent advice given to her. Several senior ministers, including Peter Dutton, defended McKenzie’s actions before she was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/feb/02/bridget-mckenzie-resigns-following-sports-rort-affair">forced to resign</a> from that role because of the alleged pork-barrelling.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445307/original/file-20220209-16-1kjpidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/445307/original/file-20220209-16-1kjpidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445307/original/file-20220209-16-1kjpidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445307/original/file-20220209-16-1kjpidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445307/original/file-20220209-16-1kjpidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445307/original/file-20220209-16-1kjpidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/445307/original/file-20220209-16-1kjpidi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The research focused on fact-checking around the ‘sport rorts’ affair, which ultimately led to the resignation of Senator Bridget McKenzie.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marc Tewksbury/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We use this real-life example in an experimental design to see what impact a real <a href="https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/duttons-mckenzie-defence-fails-audit-test/">AAP fact-check</a> about the scandal had on Australians’ trust in news. We mocked up two news stories – one presented as being from ABC online and another from Newscorp’s news.com.au. The stories contained identical wording and headlines, but used different fonts and banners. </p>
<p>Both stories contained a real quote from the then home affairs minister, Peter Dutton, about McKenzie’s decision-making process. On January 23 2020, Dutton stated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Bridget McKenzie made recommendations, as I understand it, on advice from the sporting body that these programs that have been funded were recommended.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Dutton restated this position in <a href="https://twitter.com/TheTodayShow/status/1220453323087798300">other media</a> that week, including on Nine’s Today program, suggesting his words were not a slip of the tongue.
The AAP fact-checked the statement and labelled it “false”.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1220453323087798300"}"></div></p>
<p>Months after the scandal subsided, public recall of specific details was likely overtaken by pandemic news stories. So, we invited 1,600 adult Australians to do an online survey and randomly assigned them to read either our constructed ABC or News Corp story, and then answer questions about the trustworthiness of that story (and the media outlet more generally). We randomly assigned half the respondents to also read the <a href="https://www.aap.com.au/factcheck/duttons-mckenzie-defence-fails-audit-test/">AAP fact-check</a>. </p>
<p>The findings tell both a positive and negative story about how Australians view political news. On the up side, trust in the news story (without seeing the fact check) was high for both our ABC (86%) and news.com.au stories (79%). Political partisanship has some impact, with Labor supporters the most trusting of the news story overall (87%). </p>
<p>Consistent with other <a href="https://www.ipsos.com/en-au/australians-trust-media-less-ipsos-trust-media-study">Australian surveys</a>, we found the ABC had higher levels of public trust overall than News Corp. However, some strong Coalition and right-wing supporters had greater trust in the news.com.au story, as other research has also <a href="https://www.ussc.edu.au/analysis/americas-trust-deficit">found</a>.</p>
<p>Concerningly, we found that when participants read the AAP fact check after reading the news story, trust in the original story fell sharply (by 13% overall), even after respondents’ political or news source preferences were taken into account. Counter-intuitively, the act of fact-checking had a clear negative influence on readers’ trust in the original news story for both the abc.com.au and new.com.au stories as the chart below shows. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444945/original/file-20220208-13-vlqbpl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444945/original/file-20220208-13-vlqbpl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444945/original/file-20220208-13-vlqbpl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444945/original/file-20220208-13-vlqbpl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444945/original/file-20220208-13-vlqbpl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444945/original/file-20220208-13-vlqbpl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444945/original/file-20220208-13-vlqbpl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444945/original/file-20220208-13-vlqbpl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Measurements of trust in the news story when fact checked and not fact checked, the news source and political party.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Authors</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This suggests news audiences may not separate a politician’s false claims within a news story from the news reporting itself. Think about that for a second: </p>
<ul>
<li>the politician told a falsehood</li>
<li>a fact-checker corrects it</li>
<li>but, as a consequence, the news story itself suffers the loss of public trust.<br></li>
</ul>
<p>This finding is particularly important given Australian journalists’ reliance on a “he said/she said” news reporting style (this excludes opinion pieces), in which readers are presented with competing statements, one or both of which may be false, rather than the reporter actively adjudicating the false claim. </p>
<p>In this case, letting fact-checkers determine the truth may be a deeply unwise strategy for journalism. While fact-checkers unquestionably do many positive things such as identify misinformation, in this instance it lowered trust in political journalism.</p>
<p>With the public demanding the truth, it seems journalists have a very important role to play by critiquing politicians’ false claims in news stories at the time of reporting. </p>
<p>While some outlets like Crikey already practise active adjudication in political stories, we acknowledge it might be problematic for an organisation like the ABC, which has impartiality as a duty in the ABC Act 1983. </p>
<p>However, the ABC’s 2019 revised code of practice specifies that “impartiality” does not mean every perspective receives equal attention. Other media have the same policy. For example, The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-change-deniers-are-dangerous-they-dont-deserve-a-place-on-our-site-123164">approach to reporting climate change</a> has decided in favour of the scientific evidence and does not give air time to climate denialism. </p>
<p>We see lessons in our findings for independent fact-checkers as well. Fact-checkers might help increase trust in news by more clearly stating they are fact-checking a politician’s specific claim, rather than the media coverage that contains it. Some fact-checkers make this distinction already on their websites, but rarely on every fact-check explanation. </p>
<p>Spelling this out may help audiences avoid conflating a fact-check of a specific political falsehood with the trustworthiness of the news story and media outlet. </p>
<p>With a federal election just months away, this study is a timely reminder of the important role that political journalists can play as sense-makers rather than just conveyers of political information.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176032/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Carson receives funding from the Australian Research Council and Facebook. This project was funded with research grants from La Trobe University (academic start-up award).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aaron Martin receives funding from the Australian Research Council and this project was funded by University of Melbourne Policy Lab. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Justin Phillips' individual and collaborative research receives funding from the Facebook, the Royal Society Te Apārangi, and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Gibbons does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Our study found high levels of trust in media reports – but that trust can be eroded by fact-checking. Journalists need to rethink the way they report political stories.
Andrea Carson, Professor of Political Communication, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University
Aaron Martin, Associate Professor, School of Social and Political Sciences, The University of Melbourne
Andrew Gibbons, Postdoctoral Fellow, Edward A. Clark Center for Australian and New Zealand Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
Justin Phillips, Senior lecturer, University of Waikato
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/176256
2022-03-03T19:10:40Z
2022-03-03T19:10:40Z
Friday essay: ‘fair game’, racial shame and the women who demanded more
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449681/original/file-20220303-19-34usfs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame at the National Press Club last month.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mick Tsikas/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Sexual politics is difficult terrain for young people to navigate. Desire, threat and insecurity are a powerful combination in the most benign circumstances, even before teenagers were drenched in social media harassment and ubiquitous porn. </p>
<p>Outside the privileged cloister where we tested the limits, my generation of assertive young women were surprised to realise we represented a visceral threat to
those men who chose to remain unmoved by the new politics that took the personal seriously.</p>
<p>The chilling reality of this confronted me not long after I arrived in Cairns in 1975, on the first leg of my journey to interview the bush poets scribbling away in Far North Queensland. </p>
<p>As I stood waiting for my brand new suitcase to appear on the baggage trolley towed from the plane, I fell into easy banter with a cowboy from central casting. He didn’t offer to carry my luggage but followed me to the hire car desk. His insistent attention put me on alert. I brushed him off, then made my way to the car park and onto the highway to town. Phew.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=305&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449094/original/file-20220301-23-4yfwz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There were six unsolved murders on the Bruce Highway ‘horror stretch’ in six years. Image: Bruce Highway, Brisbane – Gympie, Queensland State Archives.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The threat had felt real. I had absorbed the reports of the Bruce Highway horror stretch a little further south. Six unsolved murders in six years, and another two just months earlier. I locked all the doors of the little Mazda, wound the windows up tight, and kept an eye on the rear-vision mirror until I pulled into the motel, checked into my room and drew the curtains. </p>
<p>Then the cowboy’s harassment really started. First a phone call, then a knock on the door, angry pacing outside the room, another call and banging on the window. I rang reception to complain and was told to get over it. No one was sent up the stairs to tell him to get lost or that they would call the police.</p>
<p>The message was clear: women were fair game. It seemed like hours before he gave up. I was exhausted. In the morning, I gobbled the cardboard cereal and white toast pushed through the breakfast hatch, drank the pot of Robur tea, paid the bill and dashed to the car park. Then I locked myself in the car. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=916&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449123/original/file-20220301-3997-jgal2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I was a bundle of nervous energy. It scarcely dissipated on the hour-long journey through the stifling heat of the pre–wet season, down the palm-fringed tropical coast to Innisfail. I was too afraid to stop, though I desperately wanted to have a swim, even in crocodile- and stinger-infested waters. I worried that if I did, the angry cowboy – or some of his mates – might reappear. I had read enough newspaper reports to know that young women disappeared on remote country roads.</p>
<p>There was nothing exceptional about my experience. Everyone I knew had a similar story, or worse. The legacy of <a href="https://theconversation.com/of-course-australia-was-invaded-massacres-happened-here-less-than-90-years-ago-55377">a violent frontier</a> could not be wished away and did not just evaporate. It echoed through the generations, finding new targets. Modern Queensland was still pumped up with the testosterone-fuelled aggression that had marked its founding.</p>
<p>After I returned from my road trip, a friend told me she had seen brutal violence against women in some towns in Far North Queensland – assaults that were organised and condoned, the perpetrators beyond the reach of the law. </p>
<p>It was, we would now say, structural. Not just a few bad eggs, but a system that treated young women as chattels. In her town, not far from my uncomfortable experience, gangs of men and boys routinely identified a female target at a public event and enticed her outside. They called the gang rape a “train” and convinced themselves, and the police, that the woman was “asking for it”. The traumatised victims were <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1259316">rarely believed</a>, the legal system seemingly designed to humiliate, shame and silence them.</p>
<p>When we helped journalists from the National Times with the research they needed to travel to the town and report what was going on, an ancient mechanism of control in new garb was fully revealed. </p>
<p>Within no time at all, similar stories bubbled up out of other country towns. After the horror of these organised attacks was reported, the campaign to ensure that the victims of <a href="https://theconversation.com/rape-sexual-assault-and-sexual-harassment-whats-the-difference-93411">sexual assault</a> were treated with respect in Queensland gained new momentum. One of the only two women in the state parliament made it an issue.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449450/original/file-20220302-23-1oebjnt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Julianne Schultz in the 1970s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rosemary Kyburz was a Liberal MP who would do all she could to ensure these assaults did not go unpunished. Within a couple of years, the law changed a little. </p>
<p>Inquiries, reports, submissions and debates followed, and changes continued to be made for decades as the legacy of <a href="https://theconversation.com/cultural-misogyny-and-why-mens-aggression-to-women-is-so-often-expressed-through-sex-157680">embedded misogyny</a> revealed itself over and over. Sexual abuse could no longer be dismissed with the mocking laugh that had once accompanied it. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, nearly 50 years on, the law still works against female victims. The suppressed anger that many women carry burst to the surface of public life when another generation of young women, led by Grace Tame, Brittany Higgins and <a href="https://theconversation.com/shes-a-slut-sexual-bullying-among-girls-contributes-to-cultural-misogyny-we-need-to-take-it-seriously-157421">Chanel Contos</a>, declared Enough is enough. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/making-change-making-history-making-noise-brittany-higgins-and-grace-tame-at-the-national-press-club-176252">Making change, making history, making noise: Brittany Higgins and Grace Tame at the National Press Club</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A few weeks after International Women’s Day 2021, in cities and towns around Australia, women and men, many who hadn’t marched for decades, <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-sex-power-and-anger-a-history-of-feminist-protests-in-australia-157402">took to the streets</a> in response to the revelations of sexual abuse in Parliament House. The echo of past protests reverberated around the nation. It had not taken long for the 800,000 women who had been added to the electoral roll in 1903 to become a wellspring of conservative votes for decades, but the polls suggested they would be no longer. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449102/original/file-20220301-15-1sr1eax.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">International Women’s Day protests 2021, Melbourne.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/matthrkac/">Matthrkac/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A right, not a gift</h2>
<p>The animating idea of the women’s movement – that equality was a right, not a gift or a political deal – transformed interpersonal relations, and crept into workplaces and schools. Language changed, expectations were recalibrated, and before long, behaviour followed. But it did not happen overnight and did not happen without a struggle. The ban on married women working in the public service <a href="https://insidestory.org.au/the-long-slow-demise-of-the-marriage-bar/">had been lifted</a>
only two years before I started high school.</p>
<p>At that time, women were still the exception in the professions, paid one-third less than men and denied access to superannuation. In 1973, a few million dollars was made available by the federal government for the first time to support childcare and some support for women’s refuges followed. It was tiny by today’s standards but it transformed lives.</p>
<p>Four years later, the editor of the Courier-Mail drew my first serious job interview to a halt: “What it is with you girls, why do you all want to be journalists, what’s wrong with teaching and nursing?” I didn’t bother to turn up for the second interview after the editor of the Gold Coast Bulletin, which still featured women in bikinis on the front page, said, “If you’re a pretty girl, come on down; if not, don’t bother.” </p>
<p>Soon the patter became more sophisticated. As Max Walsh, the editor at the Australian Financial Review, had told me at my job interview – in a pub – women would work twice as hard for half the money as men, and he thought they’d be more able to extract secrets from businessmen than male journalists. </p>
<p>A few years later, in the early 1980s, when I was armed with a clipping-book full of front-page stories and some experience in television, the head of current affairs at ABC TV baited me for an hour before dismissing me, asking, “What makes you think you are pretty enough to be on television?” Belittling and shaming were
still ready tools of choice to put women in their place.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C18%2C4188%2C2802&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="woman sits on bench, wrapped in coat and scarf, and stares at statue" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C18%2C4188%2C2802&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449134/original/file-20220301-25-1fjq1su.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The author in Geneva, 1980.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The year before my experience at the ABC’s Gore Hill headquarters, the High Court had ruled that Ansett Airlines could not discriminate against a woman who was otherwise qualified to be a pilot. I had reported on <a href="https://timeline.awava.org.au/archives/397">Deborah Wardley’s case</a> for years as her prospective employer invented one excuse after another to block her – women weren’t strong enough; unions would object; menstrual cycles, pregnancy and childbirth would jeopardise safety and increase costs. The court ruled on technicalities, not on principle. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449105/original/file-20220301-15-11exowt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=713&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1980 advertisement for Ansett airlines. In March 1980, Reginald Ansett lost his High Court appeal against pilot Deborah Wardley’s discrimination case, using the then-new Victorian Equal Opportunity Act 1977.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When a group of older mentors urged me to make a complaint about my treatment at the ABC, the cost seemed higher than any possible reward. I kept my notes and moved on; revenge, as they say, is a dish best served cold.</p>
<p>It took until 1983 for Australia to sign <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/cedaw.aspx">the 1979 United Nations convention</a> designed to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women. Legislation followed in 1984, but its principal proponent, the Labor senator Susan Ryan, was subjected to bitter personal and public attacks. </p>
<p>At the big rallies in Canberra, anxious and angry Women Who Want to be Women pushed to the front to protest the changes. Some 80,000 people signed petitions opposing the relatively modest sex discrimination bill. Although key Liberal leaders supported it, the right wing of the party was bitterly opposed. It <a href="https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/sex-discrimination-uncertain-times">marked the beginning of a split</a> that would dog the party for decades.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449138/original/file-20220301-25-3pas2i.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=530&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Senator Susan Ryan, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Christine Fernon/National Museum of Australia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-sex-power-and-anger-a-history-of-feminist-protests-in-australia-157402">Friday essay: Sex, power and anger — a history of feminist protests in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Susan Ryan was a feisty campaigner, so the vicious onslaughts only increased her resolve. Women’s rights were on the way to becoming human rights, talent was no longer sifted by sex, but the extent of the opposition stunned her. </p>
<p>The Australian legislation passed with the support of some Liberal members of parliament who defied their party and crossed the floor to vote with the government. </p>
<p>Women did not have a secure footing in the dominant political party, as deputy Liberal leader and foreign minister Julie Bishop and Liberal MP Julia Banks found in the internal party confrontation that ousted Malcolm Turnbull and replaced him with Scott Morrison. As <a href="https://www.hardiegrant.com/au/publishing/bookfinder/book/power-play-by-julia-banks/9781743797204">Julia Banks declared</a> in the House of Representatives, as she prepared to leave in 2018, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Often when good women call out or are subjected to bad behaviours, the reprisals, backlash and commentary portrays them as the bad ones: the liar, the troublemaker, the emotionally unstable or weak, or someone who should be silenced.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>“Tell us the story again about the newspaper job interview in the pub,” my teenaged daughter and her friends would say, at the turn of the century, each time we drove down Broadway past the old Fairfax building towards Sydney University. “Can you believe it?” the girls would chuckle. </p>
<p>Then they too entered the workforce and realised that the more subtle but deadening hand of sexual discrimination was still doing its evil work, now hidden behind laws and lofty rhetoric. Change rarely proceeds in a linear manner, but the trend was clear.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-madness-of-julia-banks-why-narratives-about-hysterical-women-are-so-toxic-163963">The 'madness' of Julia Banks — why narratives about 'hysterical' women are so toxic</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Assertive women, brutal political attacks</h2>
<p>When Wayne Goss appointed Canadian-born Leneen Forde as Queensland’s governor in 1992, she was only the second woman governor in Australian history. She had fallen in love with the son of former Australian prime minister Frank Forde and, like countless young brides, moved to Australia full of hope and expectation. She was shocked by what she discovered. Brisbane in the mid-1950s was a poor country town. The appliances she had taken for granted were considered luxury mod cons. A woman’s place was in the home. But when her husband died 11 years later, this was no longer an option for her. </p>
<p>With five young children to support, she began studying law and five years after her husband’s death started work as a solicitor, eventually becoming the queen’s representative in a state named for another. </p>
<p>Queensland, despite the gender of its name, was a place where men prevailed and women were meant to know their place. Matt Foley challenged this when, as the state’s attorney-general, he decided that merit, not gender, would determine judicial appointments. </p>
<p>My former English teacher, Roslyn Atkinson, by then a distinguished barrister who had been the inaugural president of the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Tribunal and deputy chair of the state’s Law Reform Commission, despite outraged protests from the old guard, became one of Foley’s first Supreme Court appointments in 1998.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449155/original/file-20220301-15-1dtrnys.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Roslyn Atkinson, inaugural president of the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Tribunal and deputy chair of the state’s Law Reform Commission.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Within a few years, despite bitter heckling from those who were still convinced that “merit” meant “men”, seven of the state’s 24 Supreme Court judges were women, and a woman was president of the Queensland Court of Appeal. Years later it was still driving the press mad. The Courier-Mail would roll out articles anonymously reporting lawyers who knew women were just not up to it. These eminently well-qualified women were derided as “Matt’s Girls”.</p>
<p>In September 2015, Justice Catherine Holmes became the state’s first female chief justice. This was a change that would not easily slide back. The reaction to these newly assertive women was no less brutal in politics. </p>
<p>When Labor’s Anna Bligh became the first popularly elected female premier in Australia in 2009, the misogyny that later blighted Julia Gillard’s prime ministership had an off-Broadway tryout in Brisbane. Bligh’s resolute leadership during the 2011 floods, like Gillard’s ability to navigate a hung parliament, counted for little. Her determination to privatise ports, roads, trains and coal terminals was not welcomed by traditional Labor voters. Union-sponsored billboards on major thoroughfares mocked her, the press despised her, and a vicious whispering campaign prevailed. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449118/original/file-20220301-19-13tktsc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=748&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anna Bligh became the first popularly elected female premier in Australia in 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/djackmanson/">David Jackmanson/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The 2012 election was a disaster for Labor: the party went from holding 51 seats to seven. Electoral tides in Queensland are often more dramatic than normal swings on the carefully calibrated Australian electoral pendulum. It was a relatively short-lived win for the blokes who had felt they were born to run the state. It lasted just one term. </p>
<h2>A female perspective</h2>
<p>In 2020, the victorious Annastacia Palaszczuk became the first woman to be <a href="https://theconversation.com/labor-wins-queensland-election-as-greens-could-win-up-to-four-seats-148715">re-elected premier for a third time</a>. Under her administration, women occupied an unprecedented number of positions of power in what was once the most macho state. It was a long way from the 1970s. </p>
<p>In 2021, most of the ministers in her cabinet were women, as were the governor, chief justice, police commissioner, chief medical officer, head of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, and six of the state’s seven university vice-chancellors.</p>
<p>Second-wave feminists had sometimes wondered, in the abstract, what would happen as occupations were dominated by women. Would that mean the profession had lost status? Was equality realised when mediocre women exercised as much achieved power as mediocre men had always done? </p>
<p>But as Palaszczuk’s legislation to introduce a Queensland bill of rights, legalise abortion, outlaw coercive control, enable voluntary euthanasia and better define consent laws showed in a few short years, a female perspective could change the agenda. </p>
<p>And it could drive some men mad. This was a profound cultural and political change that had nothing to do with detachment from the “mother country”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-our-utopia-careful-what-you-wish-for-165314">Friday essay: Our utopia ... careful what you wish for</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Fault lines</h2>
<p>Race and gender discrimination are inextricably linked and have long been defining Australian fault lines. Female convicts – “whores”, in the view of some commanders and male prisoners – were outnumbered at least three to one and were shared among the men in what <a href="http://juliemccrossin.com/afr1.pdf">Anne Summers has described</a> as “imposed sexual slavery”. But <a href="https://bookshop.nla.gov.au/book/defiant-voices-how-australias-female-convicts-challenged-authority-1788-1853.do">many were</a> fiercely independent battlers who wanted a better life for themselves and their children and were prepared to challenge authority.</p>
<p>Similarly, the Cammeraygal woman <a href="https://www.barangaroo.com/about/the-place/history/barangaroo-the-woman">Barangaroo</a>, who became Bennelong’s wife after her first husband died from smallpox, set the bar high. She was an independent woman, a fierce hunter and provider who saw little reason to compromise with the new arrivals. She once famously attended an official dinner at Government House in traditional garb, her naked body painted in white clay, a bone through her nose. </p>
<p>She died in 1790, so was spared the distress of witnessing the brutal and demeaning treatment of her sisters and generations of others as the fight over the bodies of Aboriginal women became a recurring metaphor of settlement. Some formed loving relationships with settlers, others became leaders, but many were treated as chattels, emotionally destroyed as their children were taken away, their men emasculated.</p>
<p>Australia was and is a deeply male society. For those with enough determination and a strong sense of self-worth, frontier life encouraged a certain female fearlessness that is still evident. </p>
<p>It is clear in the stars that shine abroad: writers and thinkers like Germaine Greer, Geraldine Brooks, Anne Summers and Kate Manne; scientists like the Nobel-winning Elizabeth Blackburn; actors like Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman, Rachel Griffiths and Margot Robbie, who luminously fill the world’s screens; educators including Jill Ker Conway and Patricia Davidson; and anthropologists Genevieve Bell and Marcia Langton.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="woman smiling, holding newspapers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449147/original/file-20220301-23-103l367.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Germaine Greer holding newspapers, 1988.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Brendan Hennessy/NLA nla.gov.au/nla.obj-149859225</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ever since pastoralists recruited single men, not wanting to be encumbered by the additional expense of providing for families, the political economy of Australia has been built on the primacy of male labour, male power and male control. The native-born and immigrant populations grew in the 19th century, but it took the
deaths of more than 60,000 men in the first world war for women to become the majority, although the generational loss reverberated for decades. </p>
<p>Women remained, in Anne Summers’ famous phrase, either “damned whores or God’s police”. Sexualised taunting was and still is the bedrock of abuse likely to rain down on Australian women who speak their mind, provide professional advice, demand more and expect R.E.S.P.E.C.T., as Aretha Franklin sang. Still, nothing fires up the angry Twitterati quite like women making otherwise unremarkable comments about their rights and expectations.</p>
<h2>‘One of the most racist towns in the country’</h2>
<p>The intersection of these discriminations was on proud, unapologetic display when, in 1977, I flew three hours west of Brisbane to Cunnamulla. </p>
<p>Peter Manning, then the editor of Nation Review, had commissioned me to report on a community that had been characterised as one of the most racist towns in the country for the independent newspaper. As I had learned from my weeks on the road talking to bush poets, travelling alone on this assignment would have been foolhardy, so I accompanied two of my friends. Wayne Goss and Matt Foley were working for the Aboriginal Legal Service at the time, and they had a slate full of meetings and court hearings.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Shops on a street, in a isolated town" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449150/original/file-20220301-4438-1k4idnm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jane Street, Cunnamulla.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Queensland State Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the time, Cunnamulla was home to 1500 people (about, according to the signpost), seven pubs and seven draperies, and unemployment was officially running at 25%. Eight of every ten Aboriginal people were without work. It was a town where grog ruled, dozens of children were malnourished, and the grief from scores of infant deaths each year was overwhelming. </p>
<p>As the plane touched down, the local man sitting next to me asked where I was staying. The Club, I said. He spoke in the leering, patronising way I had come to expect in my travels through the state, setting the tone for the following week. As we left the plane he reassured me that I would be safe: “They don’t let the darkies into the Club Hotel.”</p>
<p>Cunnamulla is one of a handful of outback Australian towns that has a grim, larger-than-life reputation. Wilcannia, in the far west of New South Wales, which <a href="https://theconversation.com/covid-in-wilcannia-a-national-disgrace-we-all-saw-coming-167348">briefly won national attention during the pandemic</a>, is another. Both towns had had their reputations unfairly tarnished, as the requests of their leaders were persistently ignored and dismissed. It has long been easy to ignore those who live beyond the Great Dividing Range.</p>
<p>Not long after William Landsborough described the potential of the land he observed around what became Cunnamulla – as he crossed the continent from north to south in search of the ill-fated explorers Burke and Wills – the south-west of Queensland was rapidly divided into vast stations. </p>
<p>Squatters soon claimed the mulga-clad countryside and murderous incursions became the norm. <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-unearthing-queenslands-native-police-camps-gives-us-a-window-onto-colonial-violence-100814">Native Police</a> were stationed in the Cunnamulla township. Reports of the killings in the 1860s were so shocking that they provoked the Anglican bishop of Sydney to establish a mission. He had been outraged by a squatter’s jape that if he had “known how useful they might be he wouldn’t have killed so many blackfellows”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-unearthing-queenslands-native-police-camps-gives-us-a-window-onto-colonial-violence-100814">How unearthing Queensland's 'native police' camps gives us a window onto colonial violence</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="row of uniformed men in horses" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=209&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=209&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=209&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449151/original/file-20220301-23-14kra2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=263&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police riot squad and mounted Native Police, circa 1890s, Queensland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Queensland State Archives</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The unprepossessing settlement on the banks of the Warrego River about 800 kilometres due west of Brisbane is an unlikely entry in the compendium of noteworthy places. Its murderous history was conveniently forgotten and replaced with a pastoral fantasy. Maybe the mouth-pleasing ring of the name helped. Henry Lawson thought it suggested pumpkin pies. He immortalised the Cobb & Co. coach
stop in his story <a href="https://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C239056">The Hypnotised Township</a>, but described the town as a place of “troubled slumbers”. </p>
<p>Years later the Aboriginal poet <a href="https://www.uqp.com.au/authors/herb-wharton">Herb Wharton</a>, who was born near Cunnamulla, won international acclaim when he broke the hypnotic silence. He turned the settler stories on their heads and told the droving tales of Murri stockmen and women. He and his sister Hazel McKellar then recorded the tales of massacres, including the one their grandmother had survived. </p>
<p>Still, the “Cunnamulla Fella”, who lived on damper and wallaby stew and was conjured by country singer Slim Dusty, is the figure who endures as a statue in the town. A selfie with the “Fella” is a tick on the roaming grey-nomad bucket list.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=664&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=664&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449103/original/file-20220301-23-r6dz3u.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=664&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Poster created by the supporters of Aboriginal human rights justice during the period prior to the parliamentary reform of the Australian Constitution in 1967.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Felix Farley</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An ugly reality</h2>
<p>Dark histories haunt places and often recur in other uncanny manifestations. Some may consider the Cunnamulla Fella a charming artefact of a bygone age, but there was nothing charming about <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/out-of-sight-out-of-mind---1969/2833724">Out of Sight, Out of Mind</a>, the depiction of the town by ABC’s Four Corners program in 1969. </p>
<p>This film, broadcast just two years after the referendum that brought First Nations people into the mainstream, was one of those moments when current affairs television excelled. It brought the shameful reality of life in fringe camps into middle-class loungerooms. </p>
<p>The pale, well-spoken journalist was doing a good job, but looked like a creature from another planet, dropped in to share his outrage. It was an excoriating portrayal of the wrongful conviction of an Aboriginal woman, and of the shocking conditions in the two town camps that were home to descendants of the Kunja people who had once been shot and poisoned by graziers.</p>
<p>Audiences around the country reacted with fury. “I’m praying for [mayor] Jack Tonkin’s soul in purgatory,” one wrote, “but I don’t like my chances.” ABC management prohibited the sale of the program to the BBC; the picture it painted was too ugly for international consumption.</p>
<p>The broadcast prompted an immediate political response: money suddenly became available to build 26 fibro houses scattered through the town. When I visited eight years later, the houses were built and only the remnants of the camps remained. The community links that had given life in the settlement its own coherence had dissipated; drunkenness had become the destructive norm. </p>
<p>The angry racism that once fuelled the frontier wars still had full-throated voice. Like so many outback towns, Cunnamulla seemed to be dying. “You have to blame it on something, what better than the boongs,” one angry newcomer told me.</p>
<p>Those I met on that short trip felt no need to hide their fury. The media had destroyed their town. “We were doing the right thing by the blacks until Four Corners came along,” one self-appointed spokesman berated me when I attended a dinner organised by the Rotary Club. </p>
<h2>‘I just want a fair go for the white fella’</h2>
<p>The anger in the room bubbled up as they listened to social worker Matt Foley’s talk. When it came time for questions, the local solicitor chairing the meeting passed around handwritten notes: “tone it down”, “no aggressive questions”, “calm down”. The back and forth continued until well after midnight. Then, like a storm that had passed, the tone changed. “We’re still friends, aren’t we?” the man who had most aggressively blamed the media at the start of the evening asked as he wandered off to his car. He should not have been driving.</p>
<p>In the morning a taxi driver who had been part of the angry group the night before nearly ran me over and then demanded I get into his car for a tour of the camps and the new houses. He knew who to blame. As we drove along the uncurbed streets he pointed to one rundown house after another:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Black house, white house, black house … I hope you are going to give those bastards heaps … I just want a fair go
for the white fella. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the previous six months there had been nearly 300 convictions for drunkenness: 163 Aboriginal men and 58 women; 55 white men and two women. “You can’t live here without drinking,” my not-so-friendly taxi driver declared.</p>
<p>Four of the women I met stood out and have remained with me ever since. One was the doctor’s elderly receptionist. When I knocked, she answered the door to the surgery armed with a paper knife. “You learn to expect anything, and prepare yourself,” she said as she put the blade in a drawer. </p>
<p>Another was a tough, damaged woman who owned one of the three pubs that served Aboriginal people. She had installed a metal cage along the bar. “I don’t know why the blacks drink here. I like them, but I’ve lost control. I don’t care how much I lose, I’m selling this place,” she told me. </p>
<p>Outside her pub a young woman, who looked at least 20 years older than she was, grabbed my arm and repeated, over and over,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m just a black mongrel bastard. I got no one, I got nowhere to go, I’m just a black mongrel bastard.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/non-indigenous-australians-shouldnt-fear-a-first-nations-voice-to-parliament-176675">Non-Indigenous Australians shouldn't fear a First Nations Voice to Parliament</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Hazel McKellar’s reforming energy</h2>
<p>The most outstanding person in the town was <a href="https://www.magabala.com/collections/hazel-mckellar">Hazel McKellar</a>. She was the antithesis of what <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4305785-the-spectre-of-truganini-1980-boyer-lectures">Bernard Smith would later describe</a> as the “tragic muse” of Australian arts, the “old Aboriginal woman surviving precariously as a fringe dweller in some unknown country town”. She was a handsome, intelligent woman who, since returning to Cunnamulla after working as a housemaid on stations, had devoted herself to holding her community together as external and internal forces conspired to pull it apart.</p>
<p>Even in progressive circles, the prevailing image of Aboriginal people in the late 1970s was as victims – people with little agency or authority, people who had been damaged or destroyed. </p>
<p>Hazel McKellar did not fit this stereotype. She had big ideas and was prepared to pull whatever levers she could to realise them. She wanted a different school curriculum so children could learn about their culture, something the local school’s principal thought “might be helpful for slow learners”. </p>
<p>Two-thirds of the 440 students at the primary school were Aboriginal, but the experience of their forebears was not evident in the curriculum. In Year 5 social studies, as the principal helpfully explained, “We teach the kiddies about explorers and the opening up of Australia.”</p>
<p>Hazel McKellar’s advocacy for including cultural knowledge was ahead of the zeitgeist. Within a few years she was writing books that captured this knowledge. Her brother Herb Wharton had put the old brigade on notice through his poetry, which they celebrated; they may not have liked what he said, but they understood his language. </p>
<p>During those intense few days in 1977, Hazel and I talked about the immediate past, but not the longer past that had shaped it. Her focus was on the future. She campaigned relentlessly for improvements to health, housing and education, and for a cultural and community centre. </p>
<p>“It’s the little things that niggle, like knowing there is only one white family in town whose kids will come to an Aboriginal kid’s party,” she told me. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’ve just learnt to not go where I am not wanted. It used to make me angry, and I still resent it at times, but you have to accept it, I guess. But it’s only us who are keeping this place going.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>‘Settled in the Dreamtime’</h2>
<p>By 2019, the map of south-west Queensland was closer to what it would have looked like about 170 years earlier, when Thomas Mitchell had swept through the region identifying land suitable for cattle. The aerial view of the region from the National Native Title Tribunal’s map now shows a vast patchwork of native title lands, and many places of significant cultural heritage. To the west and south of Cunnamulla, 200,000 square kilometres of land has been returned to traditional
owners.</p>
<p>When Hazel McKellar told me in 1977 that it was only her people who would keep the area going, neither of us could have anticipated this transformation. By 2021, the sign at the entrance declared Cunnamulla a “Heritage Town”, “Settled in the Dreamtime”. </p>
<p>The ancient stories of the land and its people, once a cause of such embarrassment and shame, had become a source of pride and inspiration. Anonymous trolls may rage on Twitter, but no one would say out loud the things that they had once said to me, notebook in hand, spellchecking names as I jotted down their comments.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/read-listen-understand-why-non-indigenous-australians-should-read-first-nations-writing-78925">Alexis Wright</a> is a Waanyi woman who grew up in Cloncurry, more than 1000 kilometres north-west of Cunnamulla, at the other end of the Channel Country that regulates the cycles of life in the vast inland. It is the town where Scott Morrison tramped through the cemetery looking for his great-great-aunt Dame Mary Gilmore’s graveyard. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449077/original/file-20220301-21-1hi15g4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alexis Wright.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Victor Long</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 2007, Wright became the second First Nations writer to win the Miles Franklin Literary Award for her magisterial novel <a href="https://giramondopublishing.com/books/carpentaria/">Carpentaria</a>, then won the Queensland Premier’s Literary Award for fiction – the first Aboriginal author to do so. It was recognition that would have been inconceivable 30 years earlier. </p>
<p>The celebration of her remarkable book was, inevitably, tinged by politics. On the eve of her win in June 2007, the Howard government launched its Northern Territory
Intervention, when troops and public servants were sent into remote First Nations communities. The softly spoken author was asked about the intervention and replied with passionate denunciation: there were real problems of abuse in some communities, but a unilateral intervention without consultation could not be the solution. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ten-years-on-its-time-we-learned-the-lessons-from-the-failed-northern-territory-intervention-79198">Ten years on, it's time we learned the lessons from the failed Northern Territory Intervention</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The gestation of Carpentaria had taken many years, as Wright had tried to bring to the page the stories and ways of being she had heard from the old people. Every major publisher rejected the opus before Ivor Indyk at Giramondo Press recognised the novel’s unique brilliance. </p>
<p>In an astonishingly original way, Wright tells hitherto invisible stories and captures the spirit of a different way of storytelling. Her stories wove back on themselves, rich with magic, symbolism, grit and determination; they turned time and place and the conventions of English literature inside out and made her a contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature. </p>
<p>The profound change embodied in the accolades she continues to receive, and the insights she shares about the idea of Australia, have very little to do with anxiety about detachment from Britain. Her novels, like many others, better answer the question Who are we? than any politician has for decades. As has happened before and will happen again, by making the political personal and turning it into culture, Wright encourages a new, fit-for-purpose understanding to emerge.</p>
<h2>Culture changes</h2>
<p>In 1890, another Queensland novelist, Arthur Vogan, wrote <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/59771/59771-h/59771-h.htm">The Black Police</a> about the massacres in the state’s Channel Country and his shocked reactions to the way they were applauded by settlers. </p>
<p>It was a surprising popular success. Although local newspapers bristled with reports of deaths from incursions, it was a contentious subject, and one that made for a challenging novel. The critics were scathing, but it struck a nerve and was reprinted several times. </p>
<p>Arthur Vogan lost his job as a journalist, just as Carl Feilberg had done a decade before following his campaign against the Native Police in The Queenslander. Like Feilberg, Vogan also realised he was on a blacklist and had to leave. He moved as far away as he could—to Perth—and gave up writing for some time.</p>
<p>He was one of many authors punished for writing an “anti-Australian” novel. This was a smear that would be spread thickly for decades. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=785&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449091/original/file-20220301-23-9pq0ws.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=986&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ruth Park.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1947, Ruth Park was subjected to an organised campaign of threats and vilification for the life she portrayed in Surry Hills in <a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/harp-south-ruth-park/">The Harp in the South</a>, which had won a competition run by the Sydney Morning Herald. Subscription cancellations and letters <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460713501/books-that-made-us/">poured in to the editor</a>, all asking different versions of the same question: “Why should Australia, with all her beauty to choose from, have to go to the sewer for her literature?”</p>
<p>Ruth Park also retreated. She left the country amid a chorus of criticism and only returned years later. Now her novels are on school reading lists, Wikipedia lists the dozens of prizes she won, and in 2006 she was recognised in The Bulletin’s list
of the hundred most influential Australians. Culture changes, and as it does, once unpalatable truths can be said out loud and challenge and correct ill-informed angry outbursts.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an edited extract from <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/academic-professional/politics-government/The-Idea-of-Australia-Julianne-Schultz-9781760879303">The Idea of Australia</a> by Julianne Schultz (Allen & Unwin)</em></p>
<hr>
<p><em>Julianne Schultz will talk about The Idea of Australia, in conversation with Peter Mares, <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/the-idea-of-australia-julianne-schultz-peter-mares-in-conversation/">at ACMI on Friday 11 March</a> at 6pm. Free, bookings required. The event will be <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm8C4iP3fuQ">livestreamed online</a> via ACMI’s YouTube channel. She will also be <a href="https://linktr.ee/julianneschultz">speaking at various events</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176256/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julianne Schultz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Australia’s political economy was built on the primacy of (white) male labor, male power and male control, writes Julianne Schultz. Women have changed this culture - but still risk abuse when speaking out.
Julianne Schultz, Professor of Media and Culture, Griffith University, Griffith University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/177540
2022-02-21T19:07:44Z
2022-02-21T19:07:44Z
Mandatory logins for ABC iview could open an intimate window onto your life
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447462/original/file-20220221-17-1nx6zk7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C1272%2C640&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last week, the ABC <a href="https://about.abc.net.au/press-releases/%E2%80%AFabc%E2%80%AFiview%E2%80%AFlogin-to-watch/">announced</a> it will begin to track the viewing habits of all users of its <a href="https://iview.abc.net.au">iview streaming platform</a> from March 15. This will be done by making users create an account and log in to watch shows and “benefit from the next stage of personalised services” such as “program recommendations [and] watchlists”.</p>
<p>The change was initially planned for the middle of last year, but was <a href="https://www.innovationaus.com/abc-quietly-delays-iview-login-plans-data-sharing/">delayed after heavy criticism</a> from privacy experts and others over the proposed arrangements for sharing and recording data. One point of contention was the ABC’s plans to share viewer data with Facebook and Google.</p>
<p>The ABC <a href="https://about.abc.net.au/statements/abc%E2%80%AFiview%E2%80%AFlogin-to-watch-faqs/">says</a> “significant work has been undertaken in providing effective privacy controls” during this delay. But nevertheless, <a href="https://www.salingerprivacy.com.au/2022/01/06/the-abcs-of-privacy/">critics maintain</a> the new provisions still involve sharing using data without full consent. </p>
<p>So how concerned should we be about our privacy here?</p>
<h2>All your data are belong to us</h2>
<p>For years we’ve known organisations such as Google and Facebook are collecting data on every search and social media post we make, and every website we visit. </p>
<p>Often the argument for collecting these data is similar to that used by the ABC: that collecting it provides for more personalised recommendations and a better user experience. However, tech companies also make billions using these data to sell personalised ads (and sometimes by selling the actual data).</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-ugly-truth-tech-companies-are-tracking-and-misusing-our-data-and-theres-little-we-can-do-127444">The ugly truth: tech companies are tracking and misusing our data, and there's little we can do</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>They’re not the only ones keeping tabs on us. Loyalty cards such as Woolworths Everyday Rewards or Coles Flybuys do the same thing: tracking your purchases, adding them to a database, and mining them for information about your life. </p>
<p>If you buy 10 cans of cat food a fortnight, you probably have two cats. If you suddenly start buying 15, you’ve probably acquired a third. </p>
<p>Nappies, baby formula and baby food reveal how many kids you have, how old they are, and how they’re growing up. The ratio of Tim Tams to bread and milk can give clues as to your level of disposable income. </p>
<p>Despite this, millions of Australians scan these cards every day. It’s hard to know if they’ve fully weighed the pros and cons, or just never really thought about them.</p>
<h2>A healthy fear of your shadow (profile)</h2>
<p>So how much should we care about this? And how much do we? </p>
<p>When I put these questions to my students in an undergraduate class on Information Technology & Society, they mostly respond that if they’re doing nothing wrong then they have no reason to care if major corporations know what they eat for breakfast.</p>
<p>Older “mature age” students tend to feel differently, often raising concerns about what the data are used for, both now and potentially in the future. Older students may have had negative experiences with data, such as having a home loan disallowed over a credit report, while younger people may not look so far ahead.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447473/original/file-20220221-14-8dly68.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/447473/original/file-20220221-14-8dly68.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447473/original/file-20220221-14-8dly68.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447473/original/file-20220221-14-8dly68.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447473/original/file-20220221-14-8dly68.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=640&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447473/original/file-20220221-14-8dly68.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=640&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/447473/original/file-20220221-14-8dly68.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=640&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Data recorded today may be used for other purposes in the future.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, organisations like Electronic Frontiers Australia have argued this type of data collection can be <a href="https://www.efa.org.au/2014/11/06/ethics-big-data/">a slippery slope to profiling and bias</a>, with organisations using this to choose who should receive particular services or assistance. </p>
<p>The ever-growing collection of data comes at the same time as government moves to centralise their databases under the banner of <a href="https://my.gov.au">myGov</a>, tying all government services to Medicare or tax file numbers. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-chinas-social-credit-system-coming-to-australia-117095">Is China's social credit system coming to Australia?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>We are still a long way from a dystopian situation like China’s social credit system, where all our behaviour feeds into a rating system that determines our access to services and housing, but these moves could make one easier to implement in future. </p>
<h2>How enjoying Q+A might raise tricky questions</h2>
<p>Which brings us back to the ABC and its plan to require every user to create a profile and log into its service. The main question here is the same one to ask when using a Flybuys card or creating a new social media account. </p>
<p>Does the convenience of sharing these data (with the ABC in this case), in terms of personal recommendations and watch lists, and indeed, the ability to access the service at all, balance what we think our data will ultimately be used for?</p>
<p>And when we ask this question, it helps to think in very broad terms. While in this case we’re just talking about viewing history and watch time, it’s not too dissimilar to cat food and nappies when you think about it. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-privacy-paradox-we-claim-we-care-about-our-data-so-why-dont-our-actions-match-143354">The privacy paradox: we claim we care about our data, so why don't our actions match?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Significant amounts of information could be inferred from our viewing habits: everything from our political leanings to our attention span. What that can then be used for is anyone’s guess.</p>
<p>That’s not to say you shouldn’t create an account, but rather that you need to go in with your eyes wide open. Think about what iview means to you, what data might be shared, and how it might be used. And then decide if you really love Bluey all that much after all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177540/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Cowling does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The ABC’s decision to force viewers to create accounts to watch shows online raises concerns over privacy.
Michael Cowling, Associate Professor – Information & Communication Technology (ICT), CQUniversity Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/176532
2022-02-08T02:55:36Z
2022-02-08T02:55:36Z
The ABC’s budget hasn’t been restored – it’s still facing $1.2 billion in accumulated losses over a decade
<p>ABC Chair Ita Buttrose is “delighted” and Managing Director David Anderson says he now has “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/feb/07/abc-welcomes-funding-certainty-as-morrison-government-responds-to-media-reform-paper">certainty</a>” for planning. However, the Morrison government’s pre-election announcement it would restore the ABC’s budget to 2018 levels doesn’t come close to making up for what has been lost in cuts to funding and staff.</p>
<p>Seven weeks ahead of the budget, Communications Minister Paul Fletcher has <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/funding-boost-will-allow-the-abc-to-be-its-best-self/news-story/e5352fbb9a18a7124cfe4467e18d885a">announced</a> the ABC will receive $3.284 billion over three years from July 2022, while SBS will receive $953.7 million over the same period. </p>
<p>Significantly, the government says it is scrapping its controversial indexation freeze on the ABC’s budget. This was imposed by then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in 2018 and meant the broadcaster’s funding did not keep pace with inflation. It led to <a href="https://about.abc.net.au/press-releases/abc-five-year-plan-2020-2025/">drastic cuts</a> in programming and staffing in June 2020.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/latest-84-million-cuts-rip-the-heart-out-of-the-abc-and-our-democracy-141355">Latest $84 million cuts rip the heart out of the ABC, and our democracy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Fletcher also announced the ABC funding would include $45.8 million for another three years for the broadcaster’s “enhanced news gathering” program, which is earmarked for local public interest journalism in regional communities.</p>
<p>However, the funding comes with strings attached. </p>
<p>The Morrison government has published what it calls a <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/department/media/publications/statements-expectations-national-broadcasters">statement of expectations</a>, a requirement for the ABC and SBS to provide a report each year detailing staff numbers in regional and remote Australia, as well as hours of programming tailored to those audiences. </p>
<p>Fletcher also said the ABC and SBS weren’t currently required to report on the number of hours of Australian drama and documentaries they show each year. Although these hours are published in the <a href="https://about.abc.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/ABC10150_00_v14_FILM_WEB-a11y_FINAL2-1.pdf">ABC annual report</a>, the government will now require the ABC and SBS to provide further reporting on this through a national framework. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1490420250541629440"}"></div></p>
<h2>Impressive figures but it’s doesn’t undo the damage</h2>
<p>To those who haven’t been following the ABC’s funding situation closely, the announcement may seem like impressive numbers. Certainly, the government’s line is the ABC will be “boosted” by scrapping the indexation freeze. </p>
<p>However, the end of the index freeze and the retention of the news gathering program still do not make up for the massive cuts already inflicted on the ABC. </p>
<p>As we noted in our research in <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-abc-didnt-receive-a-reprieve-in-the-budget-its-still-facing-staggering-cuts-114922">2019</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/latest-84-million-cuts-rip-the-heart-out-of-the-abc-and-our-democracy-141355">2020</a>, a total of $783 million was removed from ABC funding between 2014 and 2022. As the table below shows, these accumulated funding losses include a series of budget announcements, cancelled funding contracts, reduced or ended specific programs and implemented major cuts. </p>
<p>In fact, taking into account the government’s latest announcement, we now calculate the ABC’s accumulated lost funding from fiscal years 2014-15 to 2024-25 will reach a staggering $1.201 billion. </p>
<p><strong>Tallying the ABC’s accumulated losses over a decade</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444910/original/file-20220207-25-1r27rqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/444910/original/file-20220207-25-1r27rqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444910/original/file-20220207-25-1r27rqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444910/original/file-20220207-25-1r27rqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=536&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444910/original/file-20220207-25-1r27rqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444910/original/file-20220207-25-1r27rqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/444910/original/file-20220207-25-1r27rqn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=673&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To get to this figure, we used our previous research as a baseline and factored in this week’s funding announcements. This takes account of no additional plans by the government to restore any of the earlier ABC funding cuts, and the ongoing impact of the three-year indexation pause. </p>
<p>While ending the freeze means future ABC funding will take some account of inflation, it does not address the impact of the freeze itself from 2019. </p>
<p>The ABC has said this is a problem. In answer to a <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Senate_estimates/ec/2021-22_Supplementary_budget_estimates">Senate Estimates question</a> in October 2021, the broadcaster said this would result in a funding shortfall of just over $40 million annually, which would continue to be felt in future years.</p>
<p>Our research also factors in the ABC’s <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-14/80-jobs-to-go-at-abc/5595674">loss of the ten-year Australia Network contract</a> in 2014. This resulted in a reduction in funding of $186 million, which is represented across the balance of the contract term in the table above.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"488564931646603264"}"></div></p>
<p>Certainly, the ABC does continue to do some international broadcasting, particularly in the Pacific, but it is <a href="https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/demise-australia-network">no longer the dominant broadcaster</a> in the region it once was. Restoring and even boosting the funding that was given to the Australia Network would go some way to improving Australia’s standing in the Indo-Pacific region.</p>
<p>We found the total lost funding continues to accumulate at well over <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Senate_estimates/ec/2021-22_Supplementary_budget_estimates">$100 million annually</a> through 2024-25. In other words, if the government truly wanted to restore the ABC’s funding, it would need to <em>increase</em> its budget by at least 10% annually.</p>
<p>It is difficult to be definite with the numbers because the triennial funding total announced by Fletcher lacks detail. </p>
<p>It is not clear, for instance, how much will be available for the broadcasters’ operations after funds are allocated for broadcast distribution and transmission contracts that go to third-party suppliers. In the ABC’s case, these contracts are worth almost $600 million over the next three-year budget cycle. </p>
<p>It must also be noted Fletcher <a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/funding-boost-will-allow-the-abc-to-be-its-best-self/news-story/e5352fbb9a18a7124cfe4467e18d885a">rejects the assertion</a> the ABC’s funding has been cut at all in the current three-year funding period from 2019–22. </p>
<p>In fairness to the minister, while the indexation freeze and other funding reductions continue to reduce the available funds to the ABC, they were not announced during the current three-year period.</p>
<h2>The ABC lacks funds for future-proofing</h2>
<p>This week’s announcement was warmly greeted as a significant change in the government’s position towards the public broadcasters. It is also certainly a positive response to the dire state of journalism in some areas, particularly in the suburbs and regional and remote communities, where the <a href="https://theconversation.com/local-news-sources-are-closing-across-australia-we-are-tracking-the-devastation-and-some-reasons-for-hope-139756">closure of commercial newsrooms</a> has left many without a local journalist or any local news service. </p>
<p>But we’d argue more needs to be done. The ABC still gets only about half the per capita government funding other <a href="https://site-cbc.radio-canada.ca/documents/vision/strategy/latest-studies/Nordicity-analysis-of-government-support-for-public-service-broadcasting-april-2020.pdf">democratic countries</a> provide to their national broadcasters. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/local-news-sources-are-closing-across-australia-we-are-tracking-the-devastation-and-some-reasons-for-hope-139756">Local news sources are closing across Australia. We are tracking the devastation (and some reasons for hope)</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This funding will also not future-proof the ABC or SBS with the extra resources needed to remain at the forefront of delivering digital content to Australians as they continue to change the way they access quality and trusted news and information.</p>
<p>The announcement may at least prevent the ABC from becoming an election issue.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.abcfriends.net.au/donate">Friends of the ABC</a> had been gearing up its campaigning across the nation, fundraising to target key marginal seats. And last week, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/feb/07/abc-welcomes-funding-certainty-as-morrison-government-responds-to-media-reform-paper">Guardian Australia</a> reported the majority of Australians would support restoring funding to the ABC. </p>
<p>It remains to be seen if the announcement is sufficient to convince Australians who love and trust the national broadcasters that the Coalition has actually has done enough to support them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176532/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alexandra Wake was a senior journalist with the ABC, and did her last shift with ABC Radio Australia in 2015. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Ward is a Ph.D. candidate in media and communications at the University of Sydney. From 1999 to 2017 he worked for the ABC, including as a senior executive.</span></em></p>
The end of the controversial indexation freeze and retention of the news gathering program do not make up for the massive cuts already inflicted on the national broadcasters.
Alexandra Wake, Program Manager, Journalism, RMIT University
Michael Ward, PhD candidate, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/172423
2021-11-23T12:10:53Z
2021-11-23T12:10:53Z
View from The Hill: Scott Morrison warns disorderly troops against putting ‘a smile on Labor’s face’
<p>For a leader with something of a fetish about having things under control, Scott Morrison is in a painful place. Just now, it seems, very little is controllable.</p>
<p>He’s beset from the right and the left of his party, which was quiescent for so long. The Senate is in gridlock, as far as contested government legislation is concerned.</p>
<p>And all that is apart from the assault on his own character and credibility, which Labor prosecutes daily.</p>
<p>Used to getting his own way, and wanting to clear the decks ahead of election year, Morrison this week has been up against a couple of virtually unknown Liberal senators, Gerard Rennick, from Queensland, and Alex Antic, from South Australia, who have proved hard to move.</p>
<p>They have been withholding their vote on government legislation in a quest to extract action from Morrison to override state vaccine mandates, something he doesn’t want to do, and probably couldn’t anyway.</p>
<p>Pauline Hanson and her One Nation colleague Malcolm Roberts, more often than not the government’s allies in Senate votes, are also kicking up over this issue, using their votes as weapons.</p>
<p>Morrison had a session with Rennick and Antic on Monday night, and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has been heavily involved. </p>
<p>Rennick indicates he will go back into the fold on procedural votes in return for concessions, particularly in relation to the threshold for compensation after adverse vaccination events. But so far he isn’t shifting on his refusal to vote on legislation.</p>
<p>Nationals MP George Christensen added his two bobs’ worth late Monday with a statement declaring, “Until federal action is taken against vaccine discrimination, I will be voting according to my conscience (or abstaining from votes) on bills and substantive motions rather than just voting with the government as MPs usually do”.</p>
<p>That could be anything or nothing. Christensen doesn’t necessarily follow through on threats. But it’s unsettling for a government on a knife edge in the lower house. Furthermore, the government now has a new and inexperienced speaker, Andrew Wallace, who, while more pliable than the formidable Tony Smith, would be tested if the opposition managed to engineer some chaos there.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/andrew-wallace-becomes-the-new-speaker-a-role-thats-never-been-more-important-in-australian-politics-171388">Andrew Wallace becomes the new speaker – a role that's never been more important in Australian politics</a>
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<p>In the Senate, it is perpetual chaos. Apart from Antic and Rennick, other rebel Coalition senators flexed their muscle on Monday, crossing the floor over Hanson’s (unsuccessful) bill aimed at quashing vaccine mandates.</p>
<p>Coming from a different direction, the opposition and crossbenchers had the numbers on Tuesday for the senate to suspend the plan by Liberal senator Andrew Bragg to run a committee inquiry into the ABC’s complaints procedure.</p>
<p>Bragg was deeply frustrated at the stymying of his move, which had angered ABC chair Ita Buttrose. “Motions considered by the Senate to silence Australians are very troubling,” he grumbled in a statement after the vote. The government is now set to try to recommit this for another vote on Wednesday. </p>
<p>Amid the government’s troubles, although separate from them, there has been fury within the crossbench between Jacqui Lambie and One Nation over vaccine mandates, and especially the release of Lambie’s mobile phone number. The latter is an extremely touchy issue given parliamentarians are increasingly worried about threats they are receiving and their safety.</p>
<p>On Tuesday the government’s legislation on religious discrimination finally reached the Coalition party room. A number of the Liberal moderates, including Trent Zimmerman, Warren Entsch, Andrew Bragg, Dave Sharma and Bridget Archer, expressed various concerns.</p>
<p>As the election approaches, the moderates have been willing to be more assertive. They exerted some pressure on climate change before the Glasgow conference. With high profile independent candidates emerging, there is an extra incentive for them to speak up.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/third-time-lucky-what-has-changed-in-the-latest-draft-of-the-religious-discrimination-bill-172386">Third time lucky? What has changed in the latest draft of the religious discrimination bill?</a>
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<p>Morrison will introduce the religious discrimination legislation this week; it will go off to a senate inquiry, where the contentious issues will get another airing. Its fate next year is uncertain, partly dependent on the election’s timing. So much for education minister Alan Tudge saying recently the aim was to get the bill through this year.</p>
<p>There is no sign of the integrity commission legislation, and backbenchers don’t expect it before parliament adjourns next week for the year. The bill for voter ID, still in the lower house, is likely to go to an inquiry even though the government wanted it through by Christmas.</p>
<p>At the regular Coalition parties meeting, Morrison often emphasises the need for unity. On Tuesday he had an especially pointed message about the current fortnight.</p>
<p>“How are you going to leave the scene over the next two weeks?” he asked his troops. “That’s up to you and the choices you make over the next two weeks.</p>
<p>"Look at each other – are we going to leave here at the end of these two weeks stronger and in a stronger position? Supporting those who put us here to ensure that we can stay here and be doing what we pledged for them to do. </p>
<p>"Or we going to leave here having given our political opponents in the Labor Party great courage? Will you put a smile on Labor’s face or a smile on those who want to see us reelected?”</p>
<p>It was the appeal of a leader under pressure, deeply anxious to get back a sense of control.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/172423/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
For a leader with something of a fetish about having things under control, Scott Morrison is in a painful place. Just now, it seems, very little is controllable.
Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.