The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, October 8th, 2003. 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.
****************************** 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. **************************************************************************** -- -- 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 Sub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsub: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]