The government bill watering down cross-media ownership restrictions is closer to passing, with One Nation announcing its in-principle support in return for greater restrictions on ABC finances and neutrality.

One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, announced on Tuesday it had done a deal with the government in return for concessions, including an inquiry into whether the ABC competes unfairly with commercial competitors and measures to ensure its impartiality.

The government is still negotiating with the crossbench and will need one of the Greens or the Nick Xenophon Team to sign on, both of which have submitted demands to the communications minister, Mitch Fifield.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/aug/15/one-nation-backs-media-cha...

The ABC isn't perfect but this new development is sure going to be a step in the destruction of the place... The Turdshit/Fifield sneaky proposals have to be rejected holus bolus... 

Senator Nick Xenophon has rejected the deal that One Nation has secured with the Turnbull government on media reform that would have seen tough new restrictions imposed on the ABC.

He says the government’s proposed media reforms are not about “the ABC or SBS”, and he can’t see the need to force the national broadcaster to be “fair and balanced” when its charter says it must be accurate and impartial already.

Xenophon is working behind the scenes with the Greens on an alternative deal which, if accepted by the government, would have the numbers to pass parliament.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/aug/16/nick-xenophon-rejects-one-...

Don't contemplate making a deal with the COALition... They will take you to the cleaners and make you look silly, especially when Lord Morloch is pulling the strings of government...

RANALD MACDONALD. ABC deal comes back to haunt Government.

Make a deal for political expediency and then unforseen consequences usually follow.

The ABC and its future is not a ‘bargaining chip’ for the Government to use to pass legislation in the Senate.

Yet a deal brokered by Communications Minister Fifield to gain Liberal Democratic Senator David Leyonhjelm’s vote some months back has already come back to haunt it.

It related to the estimable push for more openness by SBS and ABC board meetings. With the PM and Fifield successfully pressuring the respective Boards to agree.

But, how does that square with political independence for our public broadcasters?

Now Senator Pauline Hanson and her One Nation (has there ever been a more ironic choice of nomenclature?) using her dislike/hatred of the ABC, which has given journalistic space to claims about impropriety and disruption within her party ranks, has chosen to play the ABC card.

“Our vote on media changes is dependent on the ABC’s budget being cut”, she says – “decimated” would be another description.

The commercial media’s reporting on this attempt at improper (and probably unconstitutional) blackmail is largely conflicted, as the major media groupings are supportive of media “reform” proposals being proposed by the Turnbull Government. (By the way, ‘reform’ by definition means change to improve?)

It is an unholy mess with Senator Fifield trumpeting that all media groupings support his ‘reforms’ without publicly recognizing that the major media would all benefit by getting more dominant, Murdoch gaining even greater ascendency with the removal of ownership restrictions and ant-syphoning commitments and Fairfax becoming a more valuable takeover target.

That is quite apart from the lessening rural and regional commercial coverage Australians will have, which will inevitable follow, and current moves to take away the commercial requirements to provide childrens television programs.

All of the above places a greater reliance on the embattled ABC to cover the Nation’s needs and to be a strong and independent source of news and information – with already increasing budgetary pressures.

read more:

http://johnmenadue.com/ranald-macdonald-abc-deal-comes-back-to-haunt-gov...

An emotional Attorney-General George Brandis has been given a standing ovation in Parliament for slamming One Nation leader Pauline Hanson's decision to wear a burka into the Senate.

• Pauline Hanson said she wore burka in attempt to highlight security risks
• George Brandis criticises Senator Hanson for attacking the Islamic faith
• Labor and Greens senators gave Senator Brandis a standing ovation for his response

Senator Hanson caused audible gasps of shock when she wore the full Islamic dress into Question Time, calling for the dress to be banned in Australia.

Liberal senator from Tasmania Jonathon Duniam was heard saying, "oh, what on earth", before Senate president Stephen Parry said Senator Hanson had been identified before entering the chamber.

Senator Brandis was close to tears while criticising Senator Hanson for attacking the Islamic faith and undermining relations with the Muslim community.

"To ridicule that community, to drive it into a corner, to mock its religious garments is an appalling thing to do," he said.

"I would ask you to reflect on that."

Senator Brandis ruled out banning the burka.

Labor and Greens senators stood and applauded Senator Brandis after his answer to Senator Hanson.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-17/pauline-hanson-wears-burka-to-ques...

As well as insisting that Muslim Australians should not suffer the gross indignity of being mocked in their own parliament, Brandis also stood up for practicality and good sense, given terrorism is a real and present threat, and agencies require cooperation from the Islamic community in order to combat it.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

But despite the correct thing being done, Hanson’s delight at her success brimmed like a fountain.

A perfect bit of mischief, managed.

Depressing doesn’t even begin to describe it.

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/aug/17/george-brandis-de...

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As the parliament of this fair Aussieland becomes more and more like a show-and-tell circus, following Scott Morrison barging into the parliament chamber to wave a lump of coal at the Labor and Green opposition benches, taunting them that global warming is a hoax or such, as this parliament is being run by Nazis — of which La Woman Hanson is one though not ruling the roost — Nazis who keep refugees in prison camps, we have to admire the talent for hypocrisy from our representatives who will speak of "inclusion" and "tolerance" while doing the opposite with decrees. Where are the canaries in the coal mine of democracy?

Fox News never announced that it was dropping its famous slogan “Fair and Balanced”. A reporter for Vanity Fair broke the story on June 14 this year.

These days Rupert Murdoch’s American cable network tags itself “Most watched, Most trusted.” That is also untrue: MSNBC now regularly outrates it, and Fox is the most negatively fact-checked news network in the United States.

Since no explanation has been given, we can only guess why the old tag was dumped. It seems improbable that Fox management decided they could no longer maintain the pretence. More likely, they realised their slogan had become a punchline.

In newsrooms everywhere, on evening comedy and satire shows, among reasonable and well-informed people in the US and around the world, to say something is “fair and balanced” now is to imply quite the opposite.

Yet despite this context, the Turnbull government introduced legislation into federal parliament this week to inflict the old Fox slogan on Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC. Indeed, the title of the bill brought into the house on Wednesday by Communications Minister Mitch Fifield was the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Amendment (Fair and Balanced) Bill 2017.

“MY ADVICE TO THEM, IS THAT ATTACKING THE NATIONAL BROADCASTER DOES NOT – AND WILL NEVER – CONSTITUTE A VIABLE BUSINESS MODEL.”

Around the corridors, though, people are apt to refer to it by a shorter title, “the One Nation Bill”. That’s who originally came up with the idea.

One Nation loathes the ABC. Loathes it for the Four Corners exposé that was done on the party’s dodgy governance, loathes it for its reality-based reportage on issues ranging from climate change to immunisation, for its championing of cultural diversity and for its general intelligence. As one critic summarised One Nation’s demands: “They want equal time for ignorance.”

Earlier, the party threatened it would not agree to support any government legislation unless the ABC budget was slashed by another $600 million over four years. There was no appetite for this, so Hanson has changed tack.

The “One Nation Bill” is one very small part of a bigger picture. But the fact that Fifield obligingly introduced what ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie calls “legislation designed to further a political vendetta” is seen as indicative of the government’s general lack of regard for the importance of public broadcasting and its willingness to sacrifice the ABC’s integrity at the behest of an array of vested interests.

read more:

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/media/2017/10/21/the-hanson-plo...

See also:

http://yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/33613

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