It is only natural that The Australian should play its role as part of Rupert Murdoch’s global News Corporation, which controls two-thirds of Australia’s press, by intensifying its conservative bias during an election campaign. But this sharpens the irony of its mantra of left-wing ABC bias. Continue reading
There has been an early-campaign media flurry over the six teenagers who lost their two-hour after school shifts because “union rules say they have to work at least three hours”. But there is nothing to prevent these kids from working only two hours, apart from the refusal of their employers to pay them for three. Continue reading
Some are trying to paint the “stop the boats” beat-up as being about reducing unnecessary deaths at sea (e.g., ‘Putting policy first in the border protection debate’, The Australian, 5/7/10). This is disingenuous. While the three hundred or so sea deaths over the last several years are tragic, they do not explain the political heat generated by boat arrivals. Continue reading