More favours for the Packers and Murdochs The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, April 19th, 2000. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. Email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au Subscription rates on request. ****************************** When the Howard Government wants backup for policies it has already decided to implement it sets up a Commission of Inquiry staffed by people it knows will come up with the desired answers. It then uses those answers to justify implementing the policies it had intended anyway. It is doing this with Telstra privatisation -- setting up an obviously prejudiced committee of three, all of whom have indicated in one way or another their support for privatisation. The Government has done the same with a Productivity Commission Inquiry into broadcasting. The Government wants to abolish the present cross-media ownership regulations and the limits on foreign ownership and these are among the most important recommendations of the recently tabled Productivity Commission report on Broadcasting. Professor Richard Snape and Stuart Simson as the Associate Commissioner, signed the Inquiry report. Mr Simson has a wide range of interests in the media -- John Fairfax Holdings, Cable and Wireless Optus, News Corporation, Telstra, the Macquarie Bank, Simson Media Pty Ltd and other commercial interests. He is obviously well placed to come up with recommendations fully reflecting the demands of the Murdochs and Packers. There have been rapid technological changes and this is leading to new forms of media transmission -- the Internet, datacasting, digital transmission using fibre optics, coaxial cables, narrowcasting, etc. That's the technical side. On the financial side, the extremely complex inter-meshing of company connections is making a mockery of the weak laws that exist to prevent take-overs by foreign capital. Not only are the existing laws pathetically weak, neither Labor nor Liberal Governments have done a great deal to enforce them. Nothing has been done to limit Murdoch holdings in Australia even though he must be regarded as foreign capital. Instead of looking for ways of seriously protecting Australia's national interests, the Productivity Commission's answer is to sweep away even the existing regulations and simply hand everything over to the "market". This, the Commission claims will open up competition. The reality is, and recent experience proves it for everyone to see, that so-called competition leads to mergers, take-overs and new levels of monopoly. It is a fact that the transnational corporations are getting bigger and fatter with every passing day. The Commission recommends that "All restrictions on foreign investment, ownership and control should be repealed", that "The Australian content quota of 80 per cent for advertisements on all commercial TV stations should be removed immediately", that "All unreserved broadcasting spectrum should be made available for commercial broadcasting." "If (note the "if") a government wishes to ensure community access to commercial digital broadcasting services in areas where they are not commercially viable ... this should be achieved through explicit subsidy arrangements ...'' In other words unless the taxpayers are prepared to hand out subsidies to the private commercial providers, the country areas can go hang. The media should be taken out of private commercial hands entirely and made available to progressive community organisations, cultural groups, migrant communities, trade unions and similar organisations while maintaining and substantially strengthening the national broadcasting service using all the technological means that are now available. This is not going to happen until such time as an entirely different kind of government is established -- one which gives first priority to the needs and interests of the Australian people. In the meantime, the many organisations that already publish magazines and newspapers with relatively limited circulation need to substantially improve their content and coverage. There is a fairly widespread use of the Internet these days by a multitude of organisations and individuals. This needs to be maintained and improved as one of the widely used sources of information. If the commercial magnates are to be put out of business, progressive publications have to win widespread community readership and support. That means better quality content and presentation and a much wider coverage to service the various interest groups at present catered for by the capitalist media. This is where real competition is necessary -- between progressive Australia and the conservative dinosaurs who at present dominate. It is to be hoped that the Commission's recommendations will not get past the ALP, Democrat and Greens Senate majority. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: MORE FAVOURS FOR THE PACKERS AND MURDOCHS
Communist Party of Australia Wed, 19 Apr 2000 03:50:45 -0700
