The following Editorial was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, October 25th, 2000. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. CPA Central Committee: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "The Guardian": <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au> Subscription rates on request. ****************************** Editorial: A question of ideology A number of daily newspaper headlines last week show to what extent the fabric of various government institutions is being torn to pieces by the Howard Government. "Weather Bureau staff fear for public safety if outsourcing proceeds"; "Lone parents forced to share in funds squeeze"; "37,000 to choose private schools"; "Politics played down as ABC's radio programs hunt listeners". In each case the story behind these headlines is of privatisation and cutbacks, even the destruction of existing community organisations. In the case of the Weather Bureau the Federal Government intends to "outsource" the computer systems used by the Bureau to receive and coordinate incoming weather information and distribute its weather forecasts. Thirty-one of the Bureau's information technology staff have written to the Minister of Finance (Fahey) warning of the dangers outsourcing pose to Australia's air services, emergency services, the Defence Department, the maintenance of climate records, in forecasting bushfires, etc. Their letter says that the Bureau has more than 900 points of connection between the network and the various types of instruments, radars and automatic weather stations. The computer facilities are an integral part of the whole operation of the Bureau and to tear out a part is like tearing out the heart of a human being and expecting it to live. It is hard to imagine such stupidity coming from any government but the Howard Government is driven by the intention to privatise everything, irrespective of the consequences. It is the same stupidity as shown by the Victoria's Kennett Government when it outsourced the communications system and the prioritising of emergency calls for Melbourne's ambulance service. There is no better way of choking those community organisations that do not toe the government's line than by cutting financial support. Around 15 such groups including ACOSS, Relationships Australia, Blind Citizens of Australia, Centacare, Australian Early Childhood Association, National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care, and the Barry William's Lone Fathers' Association, face cuts or complete loss of government funding. Each of these community organisations has come into existence to cater for specific needs -- those who are blind, single parents, parents who need morning and afternoon child care, etc. They provide assistance and lobby governments on behalf of the community they represent. The Federal Government has helped finance them in the past but is now proposing that some of them should be rolled together or completely lose their funding. It is all about cutting costs and eliminating those which "irritate" the Government. Minister for Family and Community Services, Senator Newman, claimed that the reorganisation would ensure that "peak bodies truly represent the views and interests of their constituents". What the Minister really means is that these community organisations must fall in line with the government's views or have their funding cut. When it comes to the ABC the Howard Government appointed ABC General Manager Jonathon Shier, is already on the path of emasculating the high quality ABC entertainment, cultural and news services. The two top Executives in charge of radio and television have already been sacked. Shier's target is to chop the ABC new services in favour of more business news. According to one "Sydney Morning Herald" ("SMH") news item, under Shier's proposal the "PM" program will be cut to a mere 20 minutes followed by a half hour devoted to a specialist business show. It is not really about "hunting listeners" as the "SMH" headline suggests but about filling the heads of listeners with dreary and soul-destroying information about stocks and shares, the prices of metal around the world, currency exchange rates and, we presume, the stories of "successful" businessmen -- Packer, Murdoch, Rivkin, Gates and their ilk -- and the latest fortunes of the "new" economy. It's an ideological question. The Prime Minister has said that his ambition is to turn Australia into a nation of shareholders. It's all about ramming capitalism down the throats of listeners and propagating corporate culture. But it's the culture of greed, immorality, individualism, selfishness, rapacity, blood-sucking, extortion, blackmail, corruption and many other aspects of the capitalist system. It will make ABC listeners sick. ****************************************************************** -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archived at http://www.cat.org.au/lists/leftlink/ Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
LL:ART: Editorial: A question of ideology
Communist Party of Australia Thu, 26 Oct 2000 03:17:18 -0700
