[EMAIL PROTECTED] Senator Alston can be reached at the email address above. Trudy ========================================== ABC Newslink Smith condemns Alston ABC privatisation plan Sunday 14 March, 1999 (2:58pm AEDT) Federal shadow Minister for Communications Stephen Smith says privatising parts of the ABC will privatise the future of the organisation. Federal Communications Minister Richard Alston has given his support to a proposal to sell off up to 49 per cent of the ABC's Internet services. Senator Alston says the national broadcaster can not turn away from commercial activities. However, Mr Smith says privatising the ABC would be a mistake. "If you privatise ABC Online, you effectively privatise the future of the ABC, because this is where very much of the technology of the future will lead communications and broadcasting," he said. Mr Smith says the ABC is looking to the future, but privatising services will send the organisation backwards. "The ABC has invested in ABC Online and now runs a very good online service, and at precisely this point in the cycle we see private commercial, national and international companies investing heavily in Internet and online services because they see the way in which communications is going," he said. ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use."
