NEWS AND VIEWS
Australia

Other Countries

Wednesday, 16 April 2008

GO TO OTHER DAILY EMAILS - indexed by date

The power of Sky

There's no doubt that Australians will learn more from watching and listening to Government Ministers answer questions at a community Cabinet meeting than they ever will from a telecast of question time in the House of Representatives. Last night Sky News showed again that it is on the way to becoming a competent and serious provider of news when it showed in full the meeting at Jamison High School in Penrith where there were serious attempts to answer questions from some in the audience of 500. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd actually seemed to enjoy the whole event. The only pity is that the television audience was probably miniscule but the day is approaching when Sky will be as influential on Australian politics as Fox and CNN are in the United States .

Tabcorp the bookmaker

Having lost one government licence which guaranteed it a cosy profit for doing very little the talk around the racing industry is that Tabcorp is preparing to take out some more insurance about losing another by further building up the bookmaking side of its business. The company currently has a monopoly on totalisator operations in Victoria and NSW but will have to go through a similar process eventually as with its poker machine management business in Victoria . The talk is that the Victorian racing industry in particular is keen to get the TAB licence for itself which explains why Tabcorp is said to be in the process of securing bookmaking licences in other states.

Busy week for the GG's secretary

The appointment of the new Governor General has not only been an occasion for journalists generally to praise the appointment of Quentin Bryce but also for some of them to take a cheap snipe or two at the way the incumbent Major General Michael Jeffery has performed the role and His Excellency is clearly not too happy about the criticism. His official secretary, Malcolm Hazell, has been active at the word processor sending letters to the editor defending the General's record as the Australian head of state and whether that is a wise thing to do or not it t least raises the question of what the role of a GG actually should be.

General Jeffery was savaged by Steve Lewis writing in the Murdoch tabloids as “a disappointment, serving for almost five years without distinction”. According to Lewis he seemed stuck in the past and appeared mute during much of his term in office. “He will not be remembered for one piercing insight or for one great contribution to the national debate,” the article said before going on to predict a far more activist role for the Queensland Governor Quentin Bryce when she moves in at Yarraloumla.

Mr Hazell as the vice regal defender wrote to the editor of the Melbourne Herald Sun and accused Lewis of relying “on Press Gallery scuttlebutt and half-baked surveys to inform his portrait of a man who has served his country for over 50 years as a decorated soldier, Governor and Governor-General, and who with his wife Marlena, are known for their charm, compassion and dedication. “ In a letter to the editor of the Sunday Mail responding to an article by Christopher Bantick he suggested the author would have benefited from some basic research. “He quotes surveys,” Mr Hazell wrote. “In a survey published by your own newspaper group, 96.1% of online voters agreed with the Governor-General's comments about youth. So much for being out of touch.”

For my part I find it difficult to understand the criticism of General Jeffery. To me he seems to have had an understanding that his role should most of the time be a ceremonial and symbolic one. But whereas the British do not want the Queen to be acting and talking as if she actually runs their country, many Australian journalists seem to prefer the activism of a Sir William Deane who often seemed to be doing just that when Governor General. Sir William, to my mind, crossed the line by injecting himself into political debate and I would far prefer the next GG to follow the Jeffery model than the Deane.

The Daily Reality Check

As the variety of news and opinion on the internet keeps growing it is probably inevitable that the early starters begin to lose ground to the newcomers but some of the major Australian media sites appear to be doing much worse than others.

That graph, taken from the site of the web information company Alexa , is not a precise measure of how many pages are viewed on sites because it only registers those browsers who participate in its surveys but the comparisons over time give us a guide to how sites are performing. Clearly Ninemsn is in a long term decline while the smh and news are both well down on their peak. The news figures, incidentally, combine all the individual sites of News Ltd newspapers and its omnibus news.com.au .

The dumbing down of the Fairfax sites, more pronounced in the smh version than in theage, does not appear to be helping restore the fortunes.

The Pick of this Morning's Political Coverage

When politics meet sport in the southernmost state the combination is irresistible. The plucky Tasmanian Premier Paul Lennon, who looks very much like a Barry Hall sort of player when dealing with anti pulp mill demonstrators, is off to see Andrew Demetriou, the nation's real power broker, at AFL headquarters to try and get a team for Tasmania financed with the money of taxpayers.

The Premier probably expects to find a better prepared opponent than Brent Staker but when your local newspaper runs a campaign like that of the Hobart Mercury a Premier has got to do what a Premier has got to do.

'Sour grapes' accusation on clean coal technology – Chris Hammer, Melbourne Age

Watchdog to cut prices at the bowser – Phillip Coorey, Sydney Morning Herald

Rate rises working, says Reserve Bank – David Uren, The Australian

Housing prices are likely to fall – Don Stammer, The Australian

Scare tactics: Greedy landlords rorting rents – Clare Masters, Sydney Daily Telegraph

Pressing our soft buttons – Andrew Bolt, Melbourne Sun Herald

Banned drinkers swamp opal town – Joanna Vaughan, Adelaide Advertiser

Paul Lennon vs Demetriou – Brett Stubbs, Hobart Mercury

National student ranking plan – Emma Macdonald, Canberra Times