Normally when the Federal Budget comes out we punters get rather amused at the excitement we see in the media. We giggle at seeing Kochie from Sunrise get his jollies about being in lock up, but unless there is some blatantly nasty stuff in the budget that will hit our hip pockets, we really don’t […]
Seeking a Fair Go in a ‘World of Pain’ by @sarah_capper
It’s hard to fully comprehend, but just eight months after being elected, the Coalition-friendly News Limited broadsheet ‘The Australian’ ran with the headline, ‘Coalition in World of Pain’ emblazoned across its front page early this week. Sure, it was selectively quoting Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who had used the expression in justifying why the Government […]
Will Libs bite bullet, withdraw Howard’s over-the-top entitlements to self-funded retirees?
By Margo Kingston @margokingston1 9th March, 2014 When Samantha Maiden reported today that the Audit Commission wanted super-generous seniors health card benefits to self-funded retirees reversed, I dug up my 2002 SMH budget comment on the matter. The Libs are to blame for this totally unsustainable entitlement culture they knew would help cripple the budget […]
Let’s deepen MSM-citizen collaboration to ask government for data we can mine, by @Info_Aus
By Rosie Williams, 10 January, 2014 Source: infoaus.net In this report called Life in the Clickstream: The Future of Journalism, Australia’s Media Alliance discusses the ways in which new technologies and economic events in recent years have put the future of an entire industry under threat. The internet brought with it a cultural expectation that content be […]
Time for citizen action on MP travel scams: @budget_aus has a go
[clear] By Rosie Williams 20 October 2013 I have been working to improve Australia’s budget transparency for a year now. I built the first ever implementation of the entire federal budget as an online searchable database at BudgetAus. The database allows you to search across every agency and portfolio, providing a total of spending (with all forward years […]
The Greens candidate in Forde, Sally Spain: @stephaniedale22 reports
By Stephanie Dale 30 August 2013 Saturday September 7 is World Endangered Species Day – beautifully timed for an election in which ‘the environment’ (euphemism for the world that is our home) has barely rated a mention. “Where,” I ask Greens candidate for the seat of Forde, Sally Spain, “is the environment in the 2013 election?” […]
How the media stuffed up twice on $10 billion black hole yarn
Supreme confusion reigns among our esteemed media on the story, the players, their roles and the status of information released by the Government today. The Government claims that earlier performed departmental costings and modelling of the Coalition’s policies showed that they are likely to produce a $10 Billion black hole. Below is a quick summary […]