Interest rates

All the talk of interest rates during the Australian Federal election is getting boring. Its almost irrelevant anyway (in my view). Broadly speaking, interest rates are beyond the control of Governments. Yes, the ability of a Government to manage the economy determines interest rates but macro economic factors are more significant influencers.

It will be a travesty if the Liberal Party stays in Government – they are fighting a negative campaign and seem to have very little to show for more than ten years of Government, apart from a strong economy. They can’t legitimately claim responsibility for this either.

The election should be fought over fundamentals; issues that Governments actually have a direct influence such as education, sustainability, civil rights, industry, innovation and public services.

Gordon errs

I agree with Colin Byrne that Gordon Brown’s idea of a snap election in November was a bad idea. It’s like a CEO nominating himself for employee of the month during his first week in the job! Not cool.

I am living overseas, but I like Gordon Brown. I just wished he’d recognised that he needs to prove himself before he can expect the backing of the general populace, regardless of the gap between his party and the Cons. That’s not rocket science.

See this article in The Times for more on this.

Media Depression

I wanted to write a post about an item on tonight’s edition of MediaWatch (an ABC program here in Oz), I intended to link to the MediaWatch page but the relevant content isn’t up yet. The main story on MediaWatch tonight was about the commercial stations reporting on African gangs in Melbourne. These prime time news programs claimed that gangs of Africans were roaming the streets, causing trouble, raiding bottle shops and scaring the bejesus out of everyone. The news items co-incided with a decision by the Government to prevent African refugees entering Australia until the middle of next year. The MediaWatch team found that the stories were completely fabricated, the ‘witnesses’ were misquoted and mis-represented. On closer inspection, it was easy to see that the video evidence that was used to support the story – on various channels – didn’t even feature Africans! How can this happen? Worse still, what percentage of commercial news viewers watch MediaWatch? Not many; they are still under the impression that Africans gangs are running Melbourne suburbs. As the original eye witness said ‘this is a gang issue’ not a ‘race issue’. This fair minded commentary was obviously ommitted from the news coverage because it didn’t fit with the broader political agenda. How are we supposed to have faith in global news agencies and news producers when this type of manipulation is occurring at the local level? 

I believe that the above is partly a reflection of commercial broadcast media in Australia, which is at worst racist and bigoted and at best peurile and pointless. Take Alan Jones, who fails to disclose his personal interests (which are in the millions of dollars) while positioning himself as the ‘voice of the people’. Link to this MediaWatch story for more on this. In the end, all Australians suffer…while those in power manipulate and spin to suit their own self serving agenda.