The heavy concentration of media ownership in Australia corrodes democracy. The antidote is a thriving public broadcaster, but by 2023, Coalition cuts to the ABC will add up to $1 billion. Elizabeth Minter reports.
most recent search Elizabeth Minter
Pressure builds on Woodside to shed its climate stance; expect AGM fireworks
Climate groups have repeatedly criticised Woodside over its climate denial over many years. Under heavy pressure from shareholders, will the company finally shed its laggard ways at its AGM on Thursday, asks Elizabeth Minter.
Explosion in $79k contracts that don’t need to go out to tender
2017 ongoingIn the past four years three times as many contracts worth between $78,000 and $80,000 — the threshold for a tender process — have been doled out than there were between $80,000 and $82,000. As Senator Jacquie Lambie wrote in Crikey, $1.5...
Public Jabs: multiple doses of lies, spin and obfuscation in Covid vaccine roll-out
Scott Morrison and the Coalition keep changing their story on why the Covid vaccine rollout is a debacle. Are they betting the public will be unable to keep up with the rewriting of history? Elizabeth Minter reports on the Government’s world-leading program of false premises.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison: a “tin ear” or a contempt for women?
In his inability to listen to women, Prime Minister Scott Morrison keeps digging a bigger hole for himself, as evinced by his popularity slide in Newspoll and his latest failure to take a stand against the trolling of women by Coalition MP Andrew Laming. Yet the repeated failures indicate this is not just a matter of a “tin ear” but rather a contempt for women, reports Elizabeth Minter.
Great Barrier Reef Foundation, Donor Republic’s copycat plastics campaign quietly cancelled
Just days after its launch, I Refuse to Single Use, which mimicked Plastic Free July, has been cancelled. How much will the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, granted $444 million of taxpayers’ money, now be up for in penalties for breaking its contract with Donor Republic, the agency that devised the initiative that effectively swiped the intellectual property? Elizabeth Minter reports.
Fossil fuel-backed Great Barrier Reef Foundation mimics plastics campaign, sidesteps climate change
Why is the Great Barrier Reef Foundation throwing its weight behind a campaign that copies the successful grassroots initiative Plastics Free July? Climate change and its dramatic effect on the Reef remains the elephant in the room but the fossil-fuels backed GBRF continues to ignore it. Elizabeth Minter reports.
Local arts and film jilted in favour of foreign streaming majors Foxtel, Netflix, and Nine’s Stan
Another kick in the guts for the local screen industry as Stan, owned by Nine Entertainment, chaired by Liberal Party stalwart Peter Costello, is exempted from local content rules and foreign streaming giants such as Netflix are structured to skirt them too. As for the Coalition’s supposed rescue package for small players it is simply Kafkaesque and designed to fail. Elizabeth Minter reports.
Aged care giants extort government for funding hike, threaten campaign in marginal seats
Australia’s biggest private and corporatised charities in aged care are threatening the government with a political campaign if they don’t get more money, on top of the $21 billion in government funding they get already. Throwing money at large providers has not worked, write Elizabeth Minter and Dr Sarah Russell, in a call for greater transparency and significant reform for the sector.
Christian Porter responsible for serial breaches of the law, now cries “rule of law”
Christian Porter is responsible for serial breaches of the law, as documented here last year. These revelations alone should be enough to see Porter removed from official duties but his relentless persecution of Witness K and Bernard Collaery – both denied natural justice and prosecuted in secret – are hardly the stuff of a model litigant. Yet now the besieged Attorney-General calls for rule of law to apply in respect of the rape allegations against him. Elizabeth Minter reports.
Latest stories
The Anzac myth and the Frontier Wars we wilfully ignore.
Conservatives and militarists want us to cling to a disastrous imperial war. They encourage us to focus on how our soldiers fought in order to avoid the central issue of why we fought. We fought in WW1 for Britain’s imperial interests not our own.The AIF was...
China’s geopolitical reach extends to Iran
After an attack on its main nuclear facility in Natanz on 11 April, quite likely by Israel, President Hasan Rouhani said that Iran will begin enriching uranium to 60 per cent. From a technical point of view, that would put Iran within a short sprint to full-fledged...
Rio Tinto needs more than Gorilla glue to repair its reputation
One of the challenges of issue management is the perception by some critics that it might be more about looking good rather than doing good. That’s certainly the test facing Rio Tinto attempting to piece together its reputation, shattered by the high-explosive...
Chinese propaganda has come to Indonesia, big time.
Before you book a flight to Aotearoa in the travel bubble, think again. There are other places with knockout scenery, higher mountains, clear lakes and splendid grasslands. The roads are straight and free of cluttering campervans. Better still, the sunny locals are...
I’ve got the Anzac Day Blues
Australia has never been the maker of its own history. So said the legendry Manning Clark, who spent a life mapping the heart of our nation. From the utterly worthless Sudan campaign of 1885 to the atrocity-ridden Afghanistan War of 2001-2013, our people have been...
