Thursday 19th December 1996
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He commented that Australia risked "becoming a backwater" and that the Coalition Government had done "nothing major" since being elected by the Australian population in March this year. Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fisher's comments that Murdoch's attacks were a "bit rich" summed up my views entirely.
Murdoch said in his interview, "The average young New Zealander today is a lot better off than the average Australian.
"I think we're (sic) at real risk of becoming a backwater unless we hurry up and get some energy into the country much the way New Zealand did."
Now let's remember that although Murdoch was born in Australia he is now an American citizen by choice and rarely spends more than a week in Australia.
"There's a much bigger problem about Australia than just the media," Mr Murdoch said.
"I would like to see an overhaul of our taxation system, of all our labor legislation. I'd like to see the whole freeing up of Australia. I'd like to see us model ourselves on a lot of what New Zealand has done over the last ten years."
Mr Murdoch also hinted the Government could face a shake-up saying, "I think you're going to find other influences in the Government that are going to ginger it up."
Murdoch showed how totally out of touch he was with Australia by belittling the major gun law changes as "irrelevant". These changes have brought greater social peace of mind to the majority of the Australian population and broken the back of the powerful gun lobby. I cannot see how that can be seen as anything but a major social development in this country.
We now have to tackle the problem of the concentration of media ownership in this country - as the media proprietors are guilty, at best, of trying to lobby for favours from the elected members of Federal Parliament... when the lobbying stems from the whim of a foreigner (Murdoch) this is a crime against the democracy of this country.
Herron said, "You will have to reconsider your priorities. I am of the view that your greatest priority should be to tackle black deaths in custody by working to keep people out of jails.
"I would urge you to reconsider where running civil cases, fighting the decisions of elected governments and participating in international forums belong in this question of priorities."
Herron singled out the New South Wales legal service, which had its funding cut by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) last month, as being "correlated" to high death rates amongst Aborigines in New South Wales.
"Considering the ongoing allegations about the performance of the now defunded New South Wales Aboriginal Legal Service, you have to wonder whether or not that poor performance contributed to the incarceration rate."
: Indeed it is a joke John, and a increasingly boring one at that. Just
: the babblings of a person or persons with a lot of free time, and
: obviously nothing better to do. Sad, isn't it.
I'm not convinced it's a joke. People can really go off the deep end, sometimes.
-- Jason Stokes: j.stokes@student.anu.edu.au
The investigator was appointed by State Police and Corrective Services Minister Russell Cooper to look into the problems of drugs in jails.
Mr Mengler found that drugs were being smuggled into jails during visits, by some staff members and by inmates working on jail perimeters.
The report reveals that inmates are often pressured to courier drugs into jails - mostly cannabis but also large amounts of amphetamines and heroin.
Drug abuse was found to be most rampant at Brisbane Women's and Wacol Prisons.
Later today I will be meeting with my Webster partner, Barry Corrick, to discuss the 1997 season.
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