Right-Wing-Media Watch

Media Watch is a joke and should be re-named Right Wing Media Watch.
Have you any instances ever of David Marr ever investigating seriously
anyone from his own side of politics. I don’t think so. Perhaps in the
interest of balance you might get say Andrew Bolt, Piers Akerman or
Miranda Devine their own version of the show just to balance things up.
Sounds outrageous doesn’t it well that’s how bad it is now. So get off
the right wing bias News Corp crap and focus on what this egregious
titled piece of muck of a show real is.

David Stanford


Rehame, Newspoll and Alston’s vendetta

Crikey! You shouldn’t be too surprised by the nonsensical and
expensive hiring of Rehame and Newspoll to “validate” ex-Minister
Alston’s attempt to nobble the ABC. It is no more than a continuation
of a deliberate strategy to run down the ABC’s funding so as to keep
its pesky nose out of politically embarrassing places.

The great irony is that in doing so, Alston and co are using the
“Lefty” ABC’s budget for their own party political ends and without so
much as a peep from the rest of the Fourth Estate! Why wouldn’t they
(the competition) help kick Aunty when she’s down (at heel)? This is
the most cynical exercise ever perpetrated on our most important media
outlets.

Love her or hate her, we are all better off with a well funded and
editorially independent national broadcaster with the balls and
wherewithal to run down the tricky bastards that run this country (both
sides). They are bleeding us of our own money and then giving it
back in the form of gratuitous and inappropriate “tax-cuts”,
whilst destroying our hard-won rights and valuable institutions.

You know it makes sense!

Your Friend in the Money Business,
Philip Carman, Perth WA

John Shovelan cyclin’ an’ writin’

Just a thought as to why John Shovelan would file reports from the USA
when he’s on holiday from the ABC: would it allow him to claim holiday
expenses as tax exemptions, since they look like work-related expenses?
Are the taxpayers losing out again?

Central Coaster

The ABC have let down Shovelan

The ABC’s web site for John Shovelan’s cross-America cycling trip is
let down by broken links (eg. archive days 6 and 7 – notified but not
fixed) and poor navigation, such as the absence of ‘next page’ and
‘previous page’ links in the archive. This stuff is standard practice
these days and as much as I’ve enjoyed reading John’s dispatches, I
can’t help felling sorry for the guy for putting in so much effort and
having so little reciprocation back home at Aunty.

Shane

The Indian election result

In this new century, where fanatical intolerance of the religious kind
seems to be replacing ideological repression, the election success of
the Congress Party in India stands out as a shining beacon of hope.

The world’s largest genuine democracy ejected a government that
appeared dangerously close to being a Hindu version of a standard
Middle Eastern-derived fundamentalism, whether of the Spanish
Inquisition type or the current Islamist version.

Instead, Indian voters in their hundreds of millions have decisively
chosen a modern, pluralist, secular, democratic future with all the
opportunities and uncertainties which that choice involves. Other
nations and peoples at similar stages of development could do
themselves a good turn by following suit.

Leonard Colquhoun
Tasmania

Investing while overseas

Some background from an expat Australian living in Hong Kong. My
husband and I came here two years ago with the dual purposes of:

a) financial gain
b) living in Asia and seeing a whole lot more of it

Both of these aims are working out nicely for us, the former due to
Hong Kong’s advantageous taxation system. We do not really earn that
much more than we did in Sydney – when you take into account the cost
of living – but we get so much more of what we earn.

However, the spectre of the ATO looms – even when you live and earn
elsewhere. There is no issue if you do not intend to return to
Australia at some point. But if you do, any investment made
outside of Australia attracts scrutiny upon your return. I have
been rejected by two financial advisers once they heard I was
Australian and would return one day (several years in the
future). Their advice? Put your money in the bank so it’s
easier to hand it to the ATO when you arrive…

It’s possible we’ve had bad or unimaginative advice, but it seems the
only investments we can make while we live overseas, are those that are
managed and taxed in Australia.

All the best,

HK

Patrick Fitzgerald and AFL record crowds

Your sports editor, Mr Fitzgerald, spruiks about AFL record crowds this
year. Oddly, they are not record crowds yet; average game attendances
of 33 900 remain below the 1998 average of 34 772, but I guess near
enough is good enough when hyperbole is in play.

Of course, in the interest of fairness, I am sure Mr Fitzgerald will
soon enough point out that average NRL crowds to date this year of 15
894 exceed last year’s (record season) average of 14 632 by 8%.

Interestingly, in 1981, the year before both comps left their single
city confines, the average VFL crowd was 25 412 per game, rugby
league’s was a paltry 8647 per game or 34% of VFL crowds while in 2004
NRL crowds are averaging 47% of AFL crowds.

Of course the difference is huge but sometimes the use of statistics by
besotted AFL folk reminds of old Soviet five-year planners, or, in
their overwhelmingly arrogant belief in the game’s ‘innate’
superiority, of some imam from deepest Arabia – AFL: the Islam of
Australian sport?

Chris Gow

Woolworths vs. the Community

Clearly Pam Palmer (Woolworths vs The Community)
is sour because her independent conservative green (what the?) mates
lost out to closet Labor and closet Libs at the recent Lane Cove
Council elections.

There’s a good reason why this round of voting was called ‘The
Woolworths Elections’. Every candidate had a stance on the issue and
made this stance clear to voters during their campaigns and abundantly
so on polling day. As we know, most voters don’t know or care about
local politics, making Woolworths this election’s swingers ‘issue’,
with clear for or against policies deciding many votes.

If as Pam claims, a ‘pro lobby’ has taken over Council, it is with the
best wishes of residents who voted in each and every Councillor with
full knowledge of their stance on the Woolworths project.

To me it seems that Pam has a gripe not with Woolworths, but with a democratic vote that didn’t go her way.

Warmly,
Mich Zelas
(Longueville, couple of Ks down the road from Lane Cove shops)

Woolworths vs. the Community… Oh please, give me strength!

Pam Palmer’s submission to your trusty chronicle is typical of the type
of baseless rhetoric that we have had to put up with in the Lane Cove
local publications for the last 12 months…

It is a little sad when an extreme minority can’t accept the fact that
they are, just that, a minority – but in this case they are becoming an
increasingly despised minority…

Their ranting and raving has gone on long enough and the vast majority
of Lane Cove residents are thoroughly bored of their antics…

Now it is time for Lane Cove (and probably other communities) to
experience some progress to bring it (almost) into the 21st century…

Hey Crikey… Please select your whistleblower articles more carefully in future…

John

Murdering marvellous Melbourne

Crikey gee, here I was thinking it was starting to be safe enough to
have a holiday in Melbourne when another two underworld related figures
meet their maker.

How many underworld figures/drug dealers are there still to go.
Surely there can’t be that many. Do you think there will be
any left by the end of September at this rate? I am
hoping to holiday in October.

On the other hand, does anyone know of an organised (pun intended) tour
so that we can take in the sights? It could include the
hangouts of the Mokbel and Williams group, the only ones who seem to be
alive at this time, and it would be good to see the possible scenes of
future shootouts. At least I would know the areas of
Melbourne to keep out of.

I am sure the Kooka Brothers would make good tour guides.

Prospective Tourist
(AKA Warren Dinte, Gladstone.)

Living Standards

Every day it is getting more difficult to ignore the various indexes
ruling the cost of our daily lives, including the global stock market,
the price of gold and that of West Texas Crude Oil.

The latter obviously and automatically determines the figures posted at
the local servo. Was that really the reason for the Iraq debacle
and the forward selling of our own, abundant energy resources?