The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the
Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, October 8th, 2003.
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Crunch time for Australia's arts and media
Geoff Morrell, Simon Burke, Quentin Dempster, John Howard, Margo
Kingston, Alice McConnell, Judy Horacek and key Australian orchestra
members were among Australian performers and media identities gathering
at the Sydney Opera House on October 6 to make a last ditch attempt to
ensure that Australia's cultural and media industries are not put up for
grabs in the government's free trade negotiations with the US.
"It is down to the wire", said Simon Whipp, Director Equity, for the
Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance.
"To date we have had support from the Federal Government for the
exclusion of Australian media and cultural industries from the free
trade agreement", he said.
"However, negotiations with the US are set to recommence in late October
and the US Government is pushing for a backdown, so we must ensure the
Australian Government holds firm."
The US proposal recognises trades away our cultural future by ruling
that from here on in, no new provisions or structures will be needed or
allowed to protect our culture or media.
"We live in an ever-changing world and a proposal which does not protect
the right of governments to react to these changes as and when they
happen will mean that future regimes are not able to support and promote
Australian culture as governments have to date", Whipp said.
Significant changes to technology in the future are inevitable.
Governments need the flexibility to respond to these technological
advances and other societal changes to continue the promotion of
Australian culture to Australians and to the world.
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