Integrity in government and a robust Federal Integrity Commission is supported by a clear majority of Australian citizens including in those Liberal-held seats where centre-right independent candidates are targeting the incumbents across Australia. However, the Morrison Government is deeply reluctant to legislate for such an independent, robust federal body. Independent Member for Indi in regional […]
The Man Who Walked into Parliament with a Lump of Coal: Zali Steggall in conversation with #transitzone
September 6, 2021
Another podcast in the continuing #transitzone side-bar series on grassroots democracy in Australia and the emerging and evolving “Voices for” independents movements gearing up for the looming federal election. Margo Kingston and Peter Clarke in conversation with Zali Steggall, the federal independent member for Warringah in Sydney, a “safe” Liberal seat until Steggall ousted the […]
Turnbull reads Scotty’s COVID report card: Peter Clarke’s view from ‘the bunker’
August 19, 2021
WHEN we first locked down in Melbourne in mid-March, 2020, I had just finished building a small, state-of-the-art, sound-recording studio in a bungalow in our backyard. The final foam squares and carpet were put in place just before we hunkered down. The project started between the 2019-20 bushfires and the rapid arrival in our lives […]
Stop and consider the slogans: @MediaActive #AusVotes #PropagandaWatch
April 19, 2019
The Australian Electoral Commission (@AEC) is one of our most trusted national institutions (albeit with a couple of blots on its copy-book, including a re-run of a senate election for Western Australia). Watching the electoral shenanigans in the United States with its state-based, highly partisan voting systems for national elections, we can only give thanks […]
Get off the bus and do some journalism: @MediaActive comments on #AusVotes19 #PropagandaWatch
April 16, 2019
We frail humans, no matter how savvy we think we are, are all prey to the partisan predations of crafted propaganda. We spend our daily lives immersed in advertising logos, slogans, celebrity, branding, seductive visuals and audio lures. We have psychological scar tissue we hardly recognise. This is despite our supposedly increased awareness of and […]
As a fact-checker, the facts are the story: @MediaActive reports
August 19, 2013
Half-way through the second week of the 2013 federal election campaign, the ABC’s vaunted fact-checking unit finally went live – on-air and online. You would be forgiven for asking ‘why not earlier?’ It’s a fair question. The other two principal Australian based fact-checking outfits, Politifact Australia and the election fact check unit at The Conversation have been […]
@MediaActive interviews ABC news director @katetorney
July 5, 2013
Kate Torney, director of news at the ABC, says she welcomes new news media players into the local scene, celebrates constant change in the news industry and affirms the bedrock principles of a publicly funded news organisation as the digital revolution gathers pace Torney has been director of news at the ABC since 2009. She […]
Brandis free speech fudge: @MediaActive reviews the @albericie interview
May 11, 2013
ABC Lateline Interview May 7, 2013 Media regulation reform was never going to be easy in Australia. As it turned out, the legislation proposed by the Labor government foundered midst roiling misinformation and hyperbolic claims of draconian state intrusion into media freedoms. It was also not helped by the ham-fisted presentation, timing and advocacy by […]
@MediaActive interviews @JonaHolmesMW on #Faine
March 6, 2013
If you have been following the Jon Faine ‘bias’ affair you will know that ABC Television’s Media Watch covered the Faine controversy on 4 February – almost the only ABC coverage of the finding and resultant strong dissent by Faine and several leading ABC current affairs journalists. (Faine archive) In that edition, the presenter, Jonathan […]
