ABC MUST BE PROTECTED AT ALL COSTS

The constant threats to shut up our National Broadcaster on political grounds by cutting funding has to stop. The visual downgrade of a wonderful organisation under successive Liberal governments does them no service. Littke wonder you imagine left-wing bias in the ABC when governments try to manipulate opinions.

No matter what your politics or your opinion of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, its cost, its inefficiencies and its perceived left-wing bias, it is a bastion of balance in the Australian media scene.
Without the ABC we would be opinion the the whine, whinge and scream of the like of Alan Jones or Sam Zamanic or any of those other radical bigots who, despite their supposed popularity have less of the audience share than SBS. Yet, like a minority of villagers in Linton, they have a voice much bigger than their balls.

Without the ABC we would be inundated with nothing but Foxtel sensationalism and the perverted logic of Rupert Murdock which has me quivering in my rolls of fat. The Young Liberals who are pushing for the ABC to be privatised, led by Cory Bernardi (No longer a member of the Liberals) wanst to kill off diversity and encourage our penchant for hate.

A privatised ABC would be captive to the needs and prioritise of advertisers and open to payment for comment which would totally skew news and information to avoid upsetting their source of revenue. If the government threatens the ABC with financial sanctions imagine what Coles and Woolworths could do to it.

What chance for both sides of the story being told. Even though it may have what people believe to be a left wing bias it is the only national broadcaster to give both sides of every story whether you fucking like it or not.

Sometimes it is good not to like something you hear, that's what it means by hearing different arguments, and it is hearing both sides that gives us the choice to divide for ourselves and not be dictated to by one side or the other.
Should we not be free to make our own decisions?
With a privatised ABC we may never get to hear the other side because it may not be a pleasing sound to the ears of the advertiser.

A commercially driven ABC would be at the mercy of 'corporate imperatives' and 'shareholder greed'. A commercial ABC with such a huge broadcasting range both in Australia and Overseas would see an exodus away from local and state-wide radio services to the national network. We might see a more efficient ABC but we would also see a centralising of opinion at a national level at the expense of local and community broadcasters.
The slow dissolution of the newspaper empires is a prime example. News Limited and Gina Reinhart would have the ability to massively sway general opinion and that is something very few of us would want.

When I was involved in establishing Community Radio back in the mid-70's one of the prime directions we were to go was away from traditional radio and toward the promotion of local community services and local news to which small communities like Linton could tune for information directly relative to them.

Diversity in radio and television whether it be vision like Channel 31 or the sound of Voice FM is a priority for any democracy..

A CHEAP HUMPY IS OUR COUNTRIES FUTURE

Everyone knows that the more money being thrown around the more expensive things become. It’s called the law of supply and demand.

Houses built by the government are always at least 50% dearer than those build for the private sector. The moment a contractor realises it’s a government tender he adds on at leat 25% and in some cases is then told he’s come in too low. Try that in the private sector.

Lets say a house and land package in Melbourne is around $750,000 and out our way, with land cheaper we might get away with house and land packages half that. These prices are not going to stay at that, they’ll go up around 10% a year, far higher thasn the C.P.I or the rate of inflation caused by overseas buyers wanting to park there cash in a safe haven, where money is portable and taxes are rortable. In around eight years my land has increased in value by nearly 400%, that’s bloody 25% a year in rough arithmatic, my grass is turning to gold why mine for it.

In the failing War On Terror, mainly because what we are doing to fight it is actually making it worse, like pouring battery acid on your cut finger, and turning back refugees from safety creates even more conflict when we are the ones that made them refugees in the first place.

All that aside we may have spent in and out of country 50 Billion Dollars that we need not have spent if George Junior and Halliburton Industries had not designed and planned the regime change of Saddam Hussein.

What would that money have bought us back home?

200,000 houses complete with essential services?

500 medium sized hospitals or the treatment of maybe 5 million patients?

1000 really pretty Schools?

There may have been no deficit, despite the fact we might not have sold as much steel to make tanks, bullets and bombs but then that would have all gone into high-rise apartment blocks.

With the average wage now nearing $1000 a week it means that an average family living off one income and paying off the house with the other would still have to suck up 30 years of pain and poverty and just have the house paid off in time to move yourself into a retirement village.

But like a bad gambler we have lost the lot - transferred it all into the pockets of overseas arms manufacturers and the makers of tents for at least 30 million displaced families. We have lost out too in employment and the flow-on benefits from the fact we no longer even make bullets or uniforms in Australia. This government was forced into even building our submarines. Now we don’t make cars, we won’t even refine our own petrol, we’ve sold off our gas and want to sell off even more at the expense of our environment. I’m sorry but I don’t believe our countries security should all be down to market forces.

There might be no real war at least into the foreseable future but that does not mean that we should sell our countries security to the stock exchange.