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Saturday 27th September 1997
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International:

We reported on how a racist poster in Goodna, Ipswich received headline news in the Queensland Times on Monday and wide coverage on the following days with Pauline Hanson's One Nation being blamed by everybody from Cr Paul Tully to the man in the moon for promoting racism in Australia.

The poster on the right has been plastered over walls and structures all over Brisbane and yet has received no coverage... guess it has something to do with the message.

Puts the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Jim Soorley, in a spot because he, as one of One Nation's most vocal opponents should be acting on the sudden outbreak but won't.... doesn't matter if the location they are posted breaks all the rules.

In the last week we have seen the rules of the power game change at the top. This follows the decision by the Howard Government to shelve the media ownership changes in Australia which would have given Kerry Packer the Fairfax group goldmine.

Of course, like Murdoch, when Packer gets angry he gets even. His explosive bad temper is well known to those who know the man. Yesterday I had a first hand report of Packer, several years ago, physically throwing a security guard out of his golf buggy because he took too long to make way for one of Packer's acquaintances.

This time Packer didn't have to get physical he simply opened up his dirt file and, using Channel 9 and the television station's political reporter Laurie Oates as his vehicle, spilt the beans on information that had been circulating in sheltered quarters since May this year.

This was an obvious pay-back, a shot across the boughs of the Howard Government that Packer was not happy. Now you like I might be wondering where the hell we fit in all this well the answer is we don't. The elite system of government in Australia has nothing to do with democracy but everything to do with money and power. When you link the two you get the situation that now resides with us in Australia... a dangerous dictatorship where the media interests of Murdoch and Packer dictate what we think, say and do... because they control what we hear...

No further evidence has to be demonstrated than the twist in the tail with respect to the up and down week of one Jeff Kennett whose influence on the media is well documented. Several journalists who have reported negatively on Kennett have either been forced to resign or have been fired in the state of Victoria once their exposés revealed that he was far from the squeaky clean image that he would have you believe.

The ABC 4 Corners report on Monday delved into Kennet's use of his position to acquire shares before they were listed... shares that were highly sought.... shares that in one case rose by 50% on their first day of trading. Yet this story was totally overlooked by Kerry Packer's Channel 9 station on the day that it launched its attack on the Coalition front bench. Now both Kennett and Howard are members of the Liberal Party so the disparity in reporting can clearly be seen to be based on one important issue that transcends party politics.... the issue is "how are we pandering to our media masters".

Kennett is obviously doing a very good job - he is known to be a close friend of Kerry Packer's and went into bat for him on the Fairfax issue - and he must be doing something right for Murdoch as well as no sooner had the ABC report appeared and disappeared through lack of follow-up by the media, than The Australian Magazine (in the weekend Australian) carries a long and sickly sweet article about the statesman of Victoria - one Jeff Kennett...

So who are the losers as the media barons start throwing their weight around? Well obviously the Australian voter. The results of the move on the Coalition front bench is the resignation of three ministers (Science Minister Peter McGauran resigned yesterday) and two senior members of Prime Minister's John Howard's office - including Grahame Morris who has been a close friend of the Prime Minister's for some 20 years.

Is it any wonder that Fairfax journalist Margo Kingston said that Howard, Alston and Costello jump to Packer's every command.... look what happens when they don't!

Obviously Murdoch is not too happy with Howard either as he wanted a bigger slice of Channel 7 - something which Howard refused to look at... in today's Australian the theme starts to come out... He (the Prime Minister) leads a Government staggering under its own incompetence.....

Now personally I have little time for the Liberal Party as they make up one of the four corners of Australia's Trojan Horse but having said that it is quite remarkable that the ethics in media reporting could have sunk so low. Just a few weeks ago I personally took the SOCOG research lady in Sydney, using the phone, through the link between the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and the promotion of Lorenzo Ervin's call for a boycott to the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

This after taking both News Limited's Courier Mail and The Sunday Mail as well as the Queensland Times through the same process. Every journalist I spoke to agreed that the ALP were behind the promotion but no story naming the ALP was ever run although the Courier Mail ran the story about the boycott while excluding the most important piece of information about the ALP's involvement.

The reason is quite simple. This information will be added to the dirt file that the media have on the political parties and be shelved as ammunition for release when they want to take the gloves off. We are not talking about news we are talking about a blatant abuse by Messrs Packer and Murdoch of their privileged position largely handed to them by the Australian Labor Party.

Another interesting issue was the role of shadow industry spokesman Simon Crean who spilt the blood on the floor of Parliament. The leader of the opposition Kim Beazley should have resigned back in the 1980s for doing exactly what David Jull did - resulting in his resignation, yet as the leader he had to take a back seat in case the Coalition pointed the finger back at him in Parliament. He did however take the opportunity to have the last word yesterday when he said, "It is not sufficient any longer to simply rely on the Prime Minister's word in this regard, a judicial inquiry is necessary. When it comes to the standards of government, the Prime Minister is deeply enmeshed in this, no matter how much he might like to try and separate himself from it."

In fact the Prime Minister did that just yesterday in a media conference at which he said,

"Firstly I announce that Peter MacGauran this morning tendered his resignation as a member of the ministry to me. He indicated in the letter of resignation that after reflecting on the matter overnight he felt his continued presence in the ministry would be damaging to the Government and after consultation with the leader of the National Party and Deputy Prime Minister (Tim Fischer) I have accepted his resignation.

"I should also inform you that a short while ago I have with immense regret terminated the services on my staff of both Mr Grahame Morris and Miss Fiona McKenna.

"You will be aware yesterday I went into the Parliament and informed the Parliament that I had received a document signed by Mr John Sutherland (from Administration Services Minister David Jull's office) claiming that he had had certain discussions with both Miss McKenna and Mr Morris.

"It remains the case, insofar as Mr Morris is concerned, he has absolutely no recollection of anything remotely resembling the discussions alleged by Mr Sutherland. In Miss McKenna's case she indicated to me that she had a very general discussion with Mr Sutherland about repayment of certain travel allowance amounts without their being any reference to the magnitude of the problem... although regrettable, her failure to mention that to either Mr Morris or myself was understandable.

"Can I say again that Mr Morris emphatically denies having had any discussion as alleged with Mr Sutherland, but I am afraid there is now sufficient doubt now raised in my own mind that despite the long association between us that I may have not been as well-served as I should have been and it is therefore with very immense regret that I have terminated the services of both.

"I want to repeat that I knew absolutely nothing of these matters until a few days ago. Both Miss McKenna and Mr Morris have affirmed to me and I guess to others, but that is a matter for them that neither of them had any discussions with me about these matters until the past few days.

"I regard it as quite astonishing that neither Mr Jull nor Mr Sutherland mentioned the claims of Mr Sutherland in the several discussions I had with them before Mr Jull's resignation. But having said all of that it cannot obliterate the fact that the claim has been made."

Political:

It has been claimed that almost 25% of current Native Title claims in Queensland will be extinguished if Howard's ten point plan goes though Parliament. The legislation is being tabled in Parliament on Tuesday and will free up nearly 50 million hectares of land as it will extinguish Native Title on 57 categories of land holdings which represent 27,168 leases making up 72% which fall under leasehold. Under existing Native Title provisions 83% (143 million hectares) is potentially claimable - with only freehold land being exempt from claims.

Nearly 58% of Queensland will still be claimable under the amended Native Title legislation. Farmers are not happy about the amendments saying that they do not go far enough. United Graziers Association of Queensland president Larry Acton said, "Native Title should be extinguished on all, pastoral leases as was agreed in 1993 during the development of the original Native Title Act."

The deputy chairman of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), "Sugar" Ray Robinson said in response, "The whole issue of Howard's ten point plan is to divert the Australian public away from how bad his government is going." He also said that the changes opened up avenues for the indigenous population to lodge massive claims for financial compensation. 

Personal trivia, from the global office:

Soft rain fell yesterday... and again today.

But beautiful and warm nevertheless.

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