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an Aussie's viewpoint

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Wednesday 10th July 1996

International:

The new V chip (or "violence" chip) will be a feature of all new Australian television sets. This chip will allow parents to monitor the type of film that their children see by setting up the "V" chip at a certain level. This level will automatically blank out shows deemed by the television stations and a monitoring body to be above that level.

Parents will be offered membership of censorship boards to give them a greater say in classifying films and videos in moves associated with the drive to reduce violence on television.

Films graded as MA will only be shown after 9.30pm and it will be an offence to own non-classified violent films, videos and computer games.

What a farce!

When discussing computer games in Federal Parliament they used three computer games as examples of why they should be banned if not suitable for people under 18 years of age.

The accompanying documentation set out in graphic detail the interactive path of death, sexual abuse and torture that the player would see on the screen. What no-one told the pollies was that two out of the three computer games never existed - being the figment of some bureaucrat's imagination - one to do with Nazi concentration camps and the other to do with prostitutes.

Political:

Federal Government legislation supporting the Century Zinc mine would not be racially discriminatory because it would merely limit a legal right enjoyed only by Aborigines a senior government Member of Parliament said yesterday.

Senator Nick Minchin, who is steering the government's proposed changes to the Native Title Act, said any move to restrict the right to negotiate on native title claims would not breach the racial discrimination act.

He confirmed that the Attorney General's Office had legal advice to that effect.

The Government is preparing to introduce legislation "truncating" the right to negotiate on native title claims to the mine site until after the economic life of the mine.

Business:

Institutional investors have rushed the Au$4 billion sale of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia on the first day of bidding for the shares. In a statement issued late last night, organisers said that 800 bids had been received totalling in excess of the shares available.

Of the 399 million shares available 140 million were set aside for institutions with the balance being made available to Mums and Dads.

Sport:

In an obvious move to upset, Olympic 400 metre track favourite, French track star Marie-Jose Perec, has claimed that her chief rival, Cathy Freeman, the brilliant Aboriginal short distance runner, freezes when she competes against her.

The French World and Olympic champion will be in for a big shock I reckon because young Cathy is going to eclipse her when the moment of truth comes...

You just watch and see!

Social:

Farmers get stressed regardless of their financial position or prospects, a three state study has found. The study, reported in this week's Australian Journal of Sociual Issues, said young farmers were particularly affected by anxiety.

It said that the farming community in general believed that its personal and material hopes were ruined.

The report, by Dr Ian Gray of Charles Sturt University, studied the lives of 245 farmers on 106 farms in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria and found that general frustration was by far the greatest source of stress..

Global Gripe of the day:

News papers are not impartial
 I had noted with interest, following the launch of the News Classifieds on the Internet by News Limited, how the stories about web building companies in Australia just stopped dead in their tracks in papers assocaited with them. Previously, for example, the Tuesday Australian had been full of stories about web sites and local web building companies. All of a sudden these stories were replaced with fanciful stories and self righteous quotes from the likes of Lauchlin Murdoch saying how wonderful their classified web site was.

Then in March this year I was approached by a journalist who freelances to one of the local News Limited papers. He wanted to do a profile on my company on the Internet. The photographer came out and took pics following a two hour interview with the journalist. The story never ran.

About a month later I happened to run into the journalist who told me that the story had not been run because the Editor had had instructions not to run stories on businesses dealing with the Internet as they were "seen to compete with News Limited". I started to get the picture - the big boys are not into sharing their market - which I can understand, but hey, if they play that game on our level - what games do they get up to with the politicians?

Then just yesterday, following the launch of Ads On-Line a few weeks ago another article appeared demeaning "other competitors to News Classifieds on the Internet" and again killing the whole idea of editorial independence with comments from Lauchlin saying how superior News's product was.

Young Lauchlin Murdoch heir apparent to News Limited is driving the paper on the Internet, trust that he will do a better job than he did with the Super League!

Rhubbarb, rhubbarb, rhubbarb....

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Yet another peaceful day in the global office. It was cold last night with temperatures around 3 or 4 degrees celcius. Outside it is beautiful and sunny with the birds singing in the background while the crystal clear Brisbane river below exudes the lifeblood of the valley.

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