Gong for Howard?
February 28, 2008, 9:40pm, 190 views, Leave a Comment
There is increasing speculation the Queen will appoint former Prime Minister John Howard a Knight Companion of The Most Noble Order of the Garter.
The Order of the Garter is the most senior and oldest British Order of Chivalry and the oldest continuing order of chivalry in the world. Knight and Lady Companions may come from countries of which the Queen is Sovereign.
Its creation is said to have followed an incident at a royal ball, where Joan, Countess of Salisbury, lost one of her garters. Seeing her embarrassment, King Edward III is said to have retrieved it, bound it to his own leg.
A vacancy arose with the death of New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary of Everest fame. If Mr Howard is knighted he will be installed at a ceremony at Windsor Castle in June.
SBS shows porn
February 26, 2008, 7:07pm, 876 views, Leave a Comment
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has found that the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) breached its codes of practice by broadcasting a documentary dealing with the use of mechanical devices for sexual gratification, that exceeded the MA15+ classification.
The MA15+ category comprises the strongest material that is permitted for broadcast on SBS Television (apart from that with violent content).
The finding is in response to a complaint that the program contained sexual material that exceeded the level permitted in the MA15+ classification category. ACMA found that SBS breached Code 4 (Television Classification Code) of the SBS Codes of Practice 2006 by incorrectly classifying the program MA15+.
The National Classification Scheme, on which the SBS system of program classification is based, requires that material classified MA15+ is suitable for viewers 15 years or older.
In ACMA’s view the nature and frequency of nudity and sexual references in Obscene Machines had a cumulative intensity greater than strong. ACMA considered that one segment in particular contained depictions of sexual activity with a level of detail and degree of explicitness that exceeded the MA15+ requirement that sexual activity be implied.
The treatment of the subject matter in Obscene Machines is adult in nature. While the National Classification Scheme includes provisions for adult material in the R18+ classification category, the codes of practice for national and commercial television do not permit the broadcast of R18+ material on these services.
ACMA has written to SBS, drawing its attention to the seriousness of broadcasting material that exceeds the MA15+ level. SBS has advised that it would remove the documentary from its schedule and inform its classification department of the ACMA finding.
All of the above is from the ACMA web site.
The only thing I can add is why does the taxpayer subsidise this nonsense? I thought SBS was for foreign language programs?
Gorgeous Gillard
February 23, 2008, 9:56pm, 4,540 views, Leave a Comment
A bewildered and amused Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard says a poll naming her as Australia’s second most sexiest woman is “very unusual”. Read more
Something in the water
February 22, 2008, 6:22pm, 265 views, 1 Comment
Sacked Western Force player Matt Henjak is likely to play in Europe after the Australian Rugby Union rubber stamped the Perth club’s decision to sack their star halfback. Read more
Parliamentary farce
February 22, 2008, 6:15pm, 210 views, Leave a Comment
Federal Parliament today was farcical, with Opposition members ejected for disrupting proceedings. They were protesting the extra sitting day.
Parliament traditionally closed on Thursday evening, but the new Labor Government has added low-key Friday sessions without question time to work through legislation.
For MPs from Western Australia and country regions this has made it virtually impossible for them to return to their electorates between sitting weeks.
They rightly argue that if Friday sittings are so important there should be question time and the Prime Minister should attend.
Kevin Rudd visited an outback indigenous community today, but a life-size cardboard cutout version graced the House of Representatives.
This prompted the Speaker, Labor’s Harry Jenkins, to throw out four Opposition members.
Media war in the west
February 22, 2008, 6:01pm, 226 views, Leave a Comment
The escalating battle between the West Australian Government and Perth’s only daily newspaper has reached a sorry new level.
According to The Australian, a dirt file on the editor of The West Australian, Paul Armstrong, was leaked to a journalist.
The document is a damning critique of Armstrong’s editorship and gives the mobile phone number of a former reporter it says will claim that Armstrong rewrote a story to make it anti-government. Read more
A slap in the face
February 13, 2008, 9:31pm, 234 views, Leave a Comment
The Australian Rugby Union is furious over the Western Force’s decision to allow Matt Henjak to tour South Africa despite being under investigation over an altercation which left teammate Haig Sare with a broken jaw, AAP reports.
The former Wallaby scrumhalf was on the flight to South Africa on Tuesday, while his teammate Sare was leaving hospital, having had a plate inserted in his jaw following the fracas on Sunday.
It’s a curious decision by the Western Force and coach John Mitchell given the signal it sends. After the furore in Perth over special treatment for Ben Cousins by the West Coast Eagles, a hard line would have been expected.
Mitchell has said Henjak will play the Super 14 opening round match against the Sharks in Durban on Friday.
I think it will take all three games in South Africa to assess the merit of this decision. If the Force don’t win at least two of those games, and show discipline on and off the field, it will be judged a failure.
Until recently it has been part of Australian sporting culture that the team is bigger than the individual.
Alternative view on “sorry”
February 13, 2008, 5:42pm, 320 views, 2 Comments
This email has been doing the rounds. What do readers think?
AUSTRALIAN APOLOGY TO THE ABORIGINAL POPULATION
We apologise for giving you doctors and free medical care, which allows you to survive and multiply so that you can demand apologies.
We apologise for helping you to read and teaching you the English language and thus we opened up to you the entire European civilisation, thought and enterprise.
We feel that we must apologise for building hundreds of homes for you, which you have vandalised and destroyed.
We apologise for giving you law and order which has helped prevent you from slaughtering one another and using the unfortunate for food purposes.
We apologise for developing large farms and properties, which today feed your people, where before, you had the benefits of living off the land and starving during droughts.
We apologise for providing you with warm clothing made of fabric to replace the animal skins you used before.
We apologise for building roads and railway tracks between cities and for making cars so that you no longer have to walk over harsh terrain.
We apologise for paying off your vehicle when you fail to pay the installments.
We apologise for giving you free travel anywhere, whenever.
We apologise for giving each and every member of your family $100 and free travel to attend an Aboriginal funeral.
We apologise for not charging you rent on any lands when white people have to pay.
We apologise for giving you interest free loans.
We apologise for developing oil wells and minerals, including gold and diamonds which you never used and had no idea of their value.
We apologise for developing Ayers Rock and Kakadu, and handing them over to you so that you get all the money.
We apologise for allowing taxpayers’ money paid towards your daughters’ weddings ($8000 each daughter).
We apologise for giving you $1.7 billion per year for your 250,000 people, which is $48,000 per Aboriginal man, woman and child.
We apologise for working hard to pay taxes that finance your welfare, medical care, education, etc to the tune of $1.2 billion each year.
We apologise for you having to approach the Aboriginal Affairs Department to verify the above figures. For the trouble you will have identifying the “Uncle Toms” in your own community who are getting richer and leaving some of you living in squalor and poverty.
We do apologise. We really do. We humbly beg your forgiveness for all the above sins. We are only too happy to take back all the above and return you to the paradise of the “outback”, whenever you are.
Australian rugby woes
February 9, 2008, 7:50pm, 265 views, Leave a Comment
Australian rugby is on the edge of an abyss. The code is losing money, spectators, television viewers and players.
The cancellation of the national club championship has nearly killed the sport in Victoria and hasn’t done it any favors elsewhere.
Poor Super 14 performances have translated to the international stage and there is no end in sight. So what’s the solution?
Money would help. It’s traditionally been rugby’s strength and when rugby league was weak the code flourished. League’s revival and the growth of soccer has created pressure on multiple fronts.
Rugby needs to recapture the public imagination. A new John Eales or Mark Ella needs to be found. Big names need to be recruited from league. An Australian Super 14 team needs to fire.
And the national club championship has to be restored.
Web landscape uncertain
February 9, 2008, 7:43pm, 229 views, Leave a Comment
Microsoft’s proposed takeover of Yahoo has ramifications for the Australian web media environment. Microsoft is affiliated here with Channel Nine and Yahoo with Seven.
It’s anyone’s guess what will happen if the merger goes ahead. Both already lag behind Google in Australia, which doesn’t have a local affiliate.
It would not surprise if one TV network sold its internet stake to the other. The possibility of them working together would be more surprising and possibly anti-competitive.
Seven also has a significant stake in West Australian Newspapers, which some believe was procured for online strategic reasons.
The only certainty at the moment is uncertainty.
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