In the history of Australian politics there have been many examples of mendacity, outrageous exaggeration, outright lies and half-truths.
In Victoria, at this time of the year, one example always leaps to mind.
It occurred when the grand prix was moved from Adelaide to Melbourne 22 years ago and the Premier Jeff Kennett promised that it would only be for ‘four days a year’ and that “it wouldn’t cost taxpayers a cent”.
For decades Australians were gung ho about going to war – almost any war. Today – despite the best efforts of the Nine Media (Peter Hartcher in particular) and other media – they are now far more apprehensive.
Indeed, an analysis of community opinion from the start of the Vietnam war to the likelihood of war over Taiwan, shows apprehension translates into opposition the longer the war lasts.
A couple of decades ago our firm finally established an office in Perth. We had offices in every other State and Territory capital but not WA.
There were many reasons – couldn’t find the right partner, reluctant to work in a State notoriously suspicious of people from the ‘Eastern states’, long way away – but we finally did and celebrated with a function at the Kings Park reception centre.
One of the greatest challenges to modern democracies is the spread of misinformation. Yet conventional explanations of how it spreads and why may not be right.
In a new paper – Sharing of misinformation is habitual, not just lazy or biased – by Gizem Ceylan, Ian Anderson and Wendy Wood (PNAS 17 January 2023) argue that while misinformation is a worldwide concern carrying socioeconomic and political consequences we are not so sure about what drives its spread.
Rupert Murdoch may be running out of political clout and financial luck.
For decades Murdoch has been a pernicious influence on journalism, politics, climate policy, progressive ideas and whether nations go to war or not.
Murdoch is now 91. His father died young and his mother lived until 103 mourned by all who knew her and benefited from her generosity. So, what the genetic lottery means for his longevity is moot although when the inevitable comes he is unlikely to be mourned by all.
Who needs Chicken Little when you’ve got The Age’s Peter Hartcher.
On March 7 The Age front page (also in the SMH) was devoted to an illustration of a massive red map of China with war planes flying towards Australia and a banner – Red Alert.
The basis for the story was a series of interviews with a panel of five experts (that’s right five) “brought together by The Age for a special review of Australia’s national security, who blew away the fog of war to give Australians some critical points of insight.” You got the cliches as a bonus apparently.
Writing in John Menadue’s Pearls and Irritations newsletter (2 March 2023) Dr Helen McCue addressed the current Israeli settler violence in the context of what Israel’s media and many Israelis were saying about the violence.
Dr McCue previously worked with the United Nations with refugees and the displaced in the Middle East – many of them displaced as a result of US and Australian military interventions. She has been a strong advocate for Palestinian human rights including the rights of Palestinian refugees for more than 40 years.
A couple of decades ago the phrase international best practice seemed to be on the lips of just about every business leader, business and economics journalists and the odd politician.
In fact, much of it was a justification for various overseas study tours and traditional employer attempts to reduce wages and worsen working conditions.
If you follow the mainstream media the campaign for the Voice is being overwhelmed by controversy, lack of detail and conflict.
Even progressive parts of the media – for instance crikey – feature pieces like a recent one by Dennis Aitkin which said: “There’s no doubt most Australians want First Nations peoples to have constitutional recognition, but are the numbers there to guarantee that?
The British refrain for many, many decades was: ‘There’ll always be an England’.
For the US, from when Europeans first invaded, the refrain might as well have been ‘There’ll always be an enemy’.
Of course, the British empire always had an enemy too: the French, the Zulus, the Boers, the Germans, the Kenyans, the rebellious Indians, the Irish, the Russians and assorted tribal and national groups who needed to be civilised at the point of a gun.