Wednesday 6th November 1996
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It has just been revealed that the payroll of ATSIC commissioners has more than doubled in the past year to reach and annual figure of Au$2.7 million.
The most laughable (or should it be distressing?) part of this exercise is that six of the executives now earn a higher salary than the Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Senator John Herron, with the best paid earning more than Au$180,000 per annum!
The latest ATSIC annual report reveals that pay for senior executives rose dramatically from Au$1.104 million to Au$2.7 million this year.
The top ATSIC earners are:
On the international scene further news on Rupert Murdoch's summons to face fraud and tax evasion charges in Israel seems to have "simply disappeared from the face of the earth. In the "so-called free media" here in Australia we have the perfect example of why media ownership should be fractured. This at a time when the likes of Packer make it clear that they have a Au$1 billion cash war chest to take over the Fairfax group - if the media ownership laws allow him to do so in the future.
Sick, sick, sick....
A survey of 113 Liberal and National Party election candidates found 16.8% believed the Government had gone "much too far" in providing assistance for Aborigines. A further 37.2% believed that the Government had gone "too far".
Just 12.4% of respondents in the study, conducted by academics from three universities, believed that the Government had not gone far enough to help Aborigines.
The release of another poll by AGB McNair in The Sydney Morning Herald revealed that 62% of people supported Ms Hanson's call for a short term halt to immigration.
Speaking to Coalition MP's yesterday Howard said, "In politics, inevitably there are issues that come from nowhere, a bit like a meteorite that sails through the firmament and then, after a period of time, disappears."
Now that sounds rather like Star Fleet Commander Bill Clinton speak... wonder how he's faring in the Presidential election in that land yonder? I also wonder when the Coalition will suddenly realise that the thrust of the issues that Ms Hanson has raised has real public support despite the best efforts of the media to discredit her.
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Interesting that bets of over Au$30 million were received from punters in Hong Kong!
Whether her comments are viewed as racist or not should remain the decision of each individual voter, not the story line behind every article in the mainstream media reporting on what she says. The issues that she raised have now become a side show with the media becoming the central and manipulative characters. Now that the media have our attention they will start running down Ms Hanson on a personal and professional level - casting her credibility into doubt.
In fact News Limited’s Courier Mail has already reported extensively and negatively on Ms Hanson’s private life, and have followed this up with an article in last Saturday’s paper giving a one-sided and largely negative point of view on her recent performance as a councillor in the Ipswich City Council.
Just think about it for a moment. By playing the "woman and not the ball" the mainstream media have put at risk not only her but also your democratic right to be heard in the future.
The media should be on trial here, not Ms Hanson. Whether you like it or not Ms Hanson was voted in by her electorate in the seat of Oxley. The mainstream media, run by a few mega-rich families, who have their own agendas are now determining what we think in this debate. They, are in effect, usurping your voting right and the issues raised by your federal representative.
The real issue at stake here is not that of whether Ms Hanson’s views are racist or not but whether the control of the media should be forcibly fragmented by legislation. Having said that I can make one ‘prediction’. The media barons would never allow this to happen as it would be political suicide for the politician being so brave (or is it foolish) to challenge the elite families who have secured an enviable position to run the agendas in this country through this control.
With a reported half of Australians supporting Ms Hanson’s views - is the lack of balanced debate and leadership being shown by the Labor and Liberal Parties because of their attempts to muzzle her and not to debate her stand in the public interest? If it isn't, is it because they fear the repercussions from our tightly controlled press? Somehow I think that this is the real issue here.
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