Australia’s public broadcaster is under public fire. It’s about time.
The rank and file of the Liberal Party voted to sell it off which sparked off a national debate about the value of subsidizing the largest media outlet in the country in an era when the average Australian can broadcast their opinion for free from their own phone. We don’t need a government funded voice, we just need free speech.
Fighting back, the ABC head says Australians think the “ABC is priceless”, so I say: Fine — let those people pay for it.
I’m Pro-Choice on the ABC. Let the people choose which media outlets they want to contribute to. Since the ABC costs $1.1b that’s about $50 per person per annum or $200 per household of four (assuming everyone pays, which they won’t). I say, launch the IPO, sell the shares, or at least, give us the tick-a-box option on our tax return. Make it voluntary.
Stop the forced payments for Big-Government-lovin’ propaganda
We could spell out the actual cost on the tax returns, and ask who wants to pay…
In a democracy this could be done for lots of items — want to send your tax dollars to medical research instead of windmills, or welfare for art? Want to keep your tax dollars so you can employ another Australian? Why not.
Let us vote with our wallet — what could be more democratic?
ABC boss Michelle Guthrie launches counter attack against Liberal Party, critics
…Ms Guthrie launched a counter-attack saying the public and media industry was against privatisation.
“I think the public regards the ABC as a priceless asset, more valuable now than ever in its history. I can appreciate that the ABC would fetch a high price in a commercial market. But does the public want a new media organisation that compromises quality and innovation for profit? Does the commercial sector want a new advertising behemoth in its midst? I think not.
Why should a farm hand who doesn’t watch the ABC have to subsidize the Double Bay crowd that do? If the ABC is so loved and respected, why do we have to force Australians to pay for it?
Time to discuss the options
It doesn’t have to be this way. Australians paid the Television License Fee from 1956 until 1974 when Gough Whitlam made it a forced payment. (h/t Jeff) Should we consider the optional tax return “tick-a-box”, or a license fee, or sell it off outright?
I’d rather sell it, but the tax-return option may be more achievable. Though there are risks. There will be heavy social pressure, school indoctrination and advertising for people to tick “yes”, so what will the uptake be? Without any enforcement or punishment, the uptake, despite the ABC’s “pricelessness” may be very low. That would tempt pollies to adopt the British system where everyone with a TV pays regardless of whether they like or use the BBC. The cost is about £150pa and though a quarter of Brits don’t watch the BBC in any given week, as many as 200,000 people get fined each year for the criminal offence of avoiding the fee. If I understand things correctly, the “fee” has the illusion of being optional, but really isn’t. Do Brits have to give up all screens (including their PC, laptop and mobile phone) in order to not pay the BBC? Some “choice”.
The benefit of the tick-a-box tax payment is that it would reorient the ABC towards taxpayers (but only if taxpayers really can opt-out), and provide a slight dampener on their derision and scorn towards taxpaying Deplorables since they may punish the ABC come June 30th.
The ABC might even have to serve the public to keep its funding. What a change!
Let’s make the people the gatekeepers instead of the deep-state bureaucrats and the politicians.
For what it’s worth, there were 12.8million people who filed tax returns in 2013FY.
Michelle Guthrie says: ‘I think not.’
I am not sure why we should be listening to our employee making such strident declarations about what her employer should or should not want.
270
I heard Hamish on ABC Radio yesterday morning blathering to one of the Liberals who wants Aunty on a petard, “The ABC is the only independent, unbiased news in Australia, every reporter is bound by the charter to be unbiased and even in their reporting of any news”.
I was driving and I nearly chocked!! If I had crashed I would have sued Aunty as the primary cause of the accident.
Name one Aunty reporter who likes Trump?? Answer NONE, if they were following their charter we should not be able to tell!!
Name one Aunty reporter who questions climate change?? Answer NONE, if they were following their charter we should say all!!
Name one Aunty reporter who likes the UN?? Answer ALL, if they were following their charter we should not be able to tell!!
Name one Aunty reporter who likes Israel?? Answer NONE, if they were following their charter we should not be able to tell!!
Name one Aunty reporter who isn’t a LEFTARD?? Answer NONE, if they were following their charter we should not be able to tell!!
It is a sleazy cesspool of leftard, CAGWatology, bias.
Aunty on a petard?
NO, NO, just sack every second employee (starting with Guthrie) and replace them with a conservative (Peta Creddlin)!! now that really would be entertaining!! 🙂 🙂 😉
361
ABC is just like the BBC, which loudly proclaims: “The BBC is recognised by audiences in the UK and around the world as a provider of news that you can trust. Our website, like our TV and radio services, strives for journalism that is accurate, impartial, independent and fair.”
There is no media organisation more biased than the BBC. It provides a massive amount of fake news.
As the saying goes: “Is that true or did you hear it on the BBC?”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/help-41670342
160
If you can summon up the courage to go and see the latest Jurassic movie, Jurassic World, you ‘ll note Hollyweird open the movie with a woman BBC announcer prattling on about a volcano on the island where the dinosaurs lived. It’s authoritative spoof. Okay. The BBC lends itself rather well to the task and maybe even Hollyweird appreciate that the doyen of fake news, CNN, filling the spoof slot would be stretching believability on the one hand, or doing that they do best on the other, which is a meme Hollyweird wold be reluctant to reinforce.
As with many news stations these days, a scrolling script ran at the bottom of the screen theoretically alerting one other news items. Bug-gre me but there it was, essentially stating (allow minor variation due to memory), “NASA announces that global warming is unprecedented for the last thousand years” followed by at the next scrolling item, “US President states he is not even sure whether dinosaurs existed.”
Pumped propaganda in full view and what galled me, unlike statist tax funded news machines like ABC that steal money and don’t pretend, I actually chose to pay and go and see the film. I got what I deserved and it wasn’t entertainment. I was blatantly ambushed and hit. So, within the first few minutes of the film I was ready to up and leave, but my wife, and those around us who weren’t paying attention to the scrolling text, seemed as oblivious as they were relaxed. The rest of the film was hijacked by cultural Marxism and political correctness fully peddling its wares. The end was the best part, the point at which they stop drilling into your cortex from under a thumb nail.
My advice. Don’t waste your time watching a truly bad movie worth maybe one rotten tomato at a push. If you feel you must, then rip it from the net or borrow it from a friend but on no account should you consider paying to watch it.
110
Pervasive Big Brother,
you are everywhere,
in multiple guises (‘n nomenclature.)
you mappemonde the globe,
at the UN, EU and the universities,
– the ABC and its British bro’.
Tho’ north and south and
likewise laterally you spread,
your message is toujours the same:
‘My eye is upon you and thou
shalt not think or do anything
other than what I tell you to think or do.’
80
The BBC, the organisation that sacked Jeremy Clarkson for being, in the words it’s head, Too old, too male and too white. Then lost the biggest TV program in the world and it’s 300 million Pound pa revenue.
Then it set sights on its second biggest revenue raiser Doctor Who, replacing a loved young vibrant Doctor with a grumpy old man, then replacing a cute fun bubbly character Clara with an annoying, ugly, lesbian character called Bill. Finally replacing the grumpy old man with a woman when the way the Doctor thinks is obviously male and the character cant work any other way. And the outcome, ratings dropped by 50%.
Political correctness in self destruct mode.
80
And isn’t it deliriously pleasurable to watch as they tie themselves ever more tightly in paradox and hypocrisy, in spiritual, cultural and economic impoverishment.
40
I don’t care if they like Trump or not, its irrelevant. Crappy left wing reporting is only equalled by crappy right win reporting.
It is the reporting reasonable or not, do they ask probing questions?
40
True. The Canons of Journalism were long abandoned by the Left that occupy almost the entire treacherous ‘narrative’. But consider this. As the dominant narrative is extreme Left and worsening, and anything slightly Right of extreme Left is considered ‘alt-Right’ the Right reflexively try and push back. It is a matter of counter-culture.
As for critical intelligent commentary rather than ideological opinion, there is plenty available on the wider net subject to an equally critical and attentive search.
20
Totally agree there Dean.
Furthermore, it’s annoying hearing some purported ‘conservative’ dictating to ME, the topics, opinions and attitudes that I, who is an actual Conservative, should support, or generally agree with, without reservation.
Horse crap!
I’ve got my own views on the ‘issues’, thanks. I reject all left or the allegedly ‘right” sentiments or topical grandstanding talking points, and will make up my own mind.
Anything less is the anti-thesis to freedom of speach, or to being my own thinking.
Frankly, Conservativeness is as hijacked as the left. There’s no ideological monopoly on pumping up fake and misleading BS. My BS-meter is pegging-out much of the time from both purported polarised ‘sides’. I know what being Conservative is, and it’s not merely accepting what claims to also be ‘Conservative’ thoughts and ideas.
2c
30
ABC must become. Pay TV station. Let the masses subscribe. Like Foxtel. They can have as many channels as they like, provided of course the public thinks their programmes are worthwhile.
Of course they won’t go that way because they’d all be out on the street within 3 months. You’ve got to have a good product to survive, not a good subsidy which is grudgingly paid by an ever diminishing audience. The ABC won’t win any friends, they’ll make evermore enemies& when the crunch comes it’ll be all the more brutal!
41
Don’t forget the $400million, $8million a week for ‘ethnic’ television and radio with the SBS. The whole concept is obsolete. You can buy an ‘internet radio’ and listen to any radio station in the world for nothing. The same with TV now.
The ABC was also built to solve a problem at the infancy of communications. In an internet world, it is simply unnecessary.
As for its charter of strict independence, who cares? No one in the ABC believes that, especially Guthrie. It is all about their God given right to force all Australians to pay for the views of the staff of the ABC and only the views of the staff which are exclusively left and Green. They deny this but Blind Freddy knows it, as do they all. The ABC has lost its right to exist.
So sell them both. I doubt you would get anything at all for either. The SBS as it is totally obsolete. The ABC, are now Sydney outfit anyway like their boss, Malcolm. Harbour people. However their equipment, their technical staff, their expertise and their licences might be worth a great deal, but if they closed, these would be on the market anyway.
What we would save is about $1,500Million a year. What we would lose is zero. Like connies on the trams or tellers at the banks or checkout chicks at the supermarkets or people on the floor of the stock exchange or service people at the petrol pumps or sales assistants in shops. Gone.
Consider that we are better off launching satellites so people in our region of the world can all listen to what they like, over the internet. Who needs the $60Bn NBN? 5G is here. The tyranny of distance is over. The whole point of the ABC is over. The ABC/SBS is as useful as Al Grassby or the Argus newspaper or the TRUTH. Maybe the Coolgardie safe is more useful, despite being slightly older.
514
You would think Ms Guthrie on $4,000 a day including ‘well earned’ holidays might have come up with a more compelling argument for the existence of the ABC than the idea that the organization is being victimized. There is no greater rort than the ABC.
Though perhaps it is the only defence for a 6,000 person organization (ABC) which has outlived its usefulness, totally flaunted its charter and just sits in the corner pouting and demanding more money? 6,000 people in the ABC and another 1,400 in the SBS. Doing what exactly? Free television? The people who watch it wouldn’t pay for it. Why should we?
442
I agree TdeF.
I did not here Ms Guthrie present any arguments for the existence of the ABC. She talked about “not a punching bag” and the social worth but did not give examples in favour.
231
Sorry, I meant flouted but flaunted the flouting works too.
100
$900,000 per year is what Guthrie gets. Grosse if you ask me.
It’s no wonder she has been keeping a low profile since she got the job back in 2016.
GeoffW
110
From afar, the ABC seems to be forced Virtue Signaling … in a free society, this is nuts, but then, is there really freedom of expression in Australia? Yes, if you agree with the politically correct socialist screed.
180
TdeF #2.
Superb post. Compellingly argued and accurate. Like the dinosaurs, who never saw their own demise, they will succumb very quickly to obsolescence, a ruthless scythe. The trick is to stop them stealing the money en route.
11
Refunds?
70
Ye Gods the stupid is rank with Ms Guthrie. We have similar creatures over here in NZ. They were spat out from a factory, all cookie cutter versions of the same indoctrinated twerps to the point where both eyeballs reside in the left socket. What I have noticed lately however is a fightback of some journalists who have had enough. Sell your ABC and save it. If not just scrap it, defund it. Something worthy will take its place.
381
CT
Who would buy an enterprise that lost $1100000000 per year?
80
I heard the radio news grab last night –something about eighty-two years, and I was perplexed that she’d opted for such a vapid principal defence of her remit while surprised she’d been able to think of anything at all.
And it’s extraordinary the salaries these people are gifted with their sinecures. You’d think the status would be enough. Ah well.
200
In the Age Letters today.
Six letters published supporting the ABC as it is now and excoriating the Liberal Party for daring to express an opinion on any change to the ABC , including privatization.
Seven text messages of the same opinion.
No letter nor text in support of the proposal!
The Pinko Rag (as Sir Henry Bolte called it) Age dose not even realise where its own interests lie. Senator James Patterson (Best Liberal Ever) spelled it out for them, noting the Liberal Party Policy (ignored by Turnbull) that Government should not compete with Private Enterprise.
Thew Age has almost the same market as the ABC, yet the ABC is free for consumers.
172
The Age would not have any more readers if it was free.
172
But then the lefties would cry it was subsidizing the capitalist owners……
You cant reason with stupid….
30
I’ll have “divestment of an extreme left wing propganda dissemination organ used by govt” for 200 please….
110
The ABC is getting to be a bit like Stonehenge.
Its getting a bit old;
It is well passed its orginal purpose of being worshipped as the fount of all knowledge now fading into prophetic predictions of imminent catastrophes as it fades into a steadily decaying irrelevance.
It consists of a circle that excludes everybody who is not a member of the sisterhood or brotherhood or priest hood .
It rips vast sums out of the King/ Lords /government for which they get no return of any value except a lot of hallujahing when the biggest supporter rides up on his union owned charger.
The priests and priestess in all their lavish finery and jewelery all face inward around the circle whilst they sing Kabunya or whatever is politically correct at the moment therby excluding anybody who might ant to help with any changes.
The whole construction consists of monolithic blocks of inanimate stone and concrete split up into divisions each with its own priests and priesteses but with the odd bridging rock precariously perched over the whole show
Some digging around the foundations would likely show quite a few bodies and a lot of unpleasant reminders buried there.
The Celts had the right idea in old England.
When Stonehenge reached a point of irrelevancy, the funding stopped, the priests and priestesses left for greener pastures if they could find any and the whole monolithic thing became a tourist attraction which was rented out to the National Trust.
Hmm! That sounds like a pretty good precedent to be followed with the Monolith that is the ABC.
242
No, ah No, ah No, Jo. Make the ABC a subscription service, you know, the “user pays” principle which Australian governments and councils impose for access to utilities. If you don’t want access, you don’t connect. Simples. We’ll then see how “priceless” the ABC really is!!! The only “pricelessness” I can see with the ABC is the rank arrogance of the likes of Guthrie and coterie of overpaid “hosts” who think they’re the smartest people in the room….a bit like Turnbull thinks of himself.
F.T.ABC
301
Some years ago I wondered about a subscription service, but the mechanics of it seemed insoluble. Perhaps, with everything digital now, it might be possible. Against that, have the young Liberals considered who would buy the ABC?
And what would happen, under any circumstances of ending public broadcasting, to classical record libraries? Or to the master tapes of recordings—assuming there are any still? At least send the CDs and music files to RPH.
40
The mechanics are much more straightforward than you might imagine. The ABC is shifted to satellite and NBN access only. Much the same as all other contemporary subscription services operate.
The ABC is removed from the broadcasting spectrum which it has allocated to it for FREE by the Government. Commercial operators have to pay millions annually to the Department of Comms for a slice of bandwidth in the spectrum…serious money which the ABC GETS FOR NIX!!!
Next, ABC broadcasting towers are dismantled….and scrapped for their steel value…should bring in a few million quid.
Next, the ABC services are offered to the public and industry by the ABC spending their last budget allocations of money to entice consumers to connect to their you-beaut TV, on-line and radio services. I mean, how good is that – an exclusive service for all those who want to listen to ABC drivel.
Next, as ABC funds recede, like a tsunami tide, the ABC super-human managers(you know, the ones who have pared costs to the bone!!!) can determine which services they can afford to keep and which inflated salary packages they can no longer afford to continue operations.
Next, when the donations from the (maybe, stab-in-the-dark estimate) 1-50,000 consumers fail to come in, the ABC can call in the administrators to sell off the equipment, with the proceeds going to consolidated revenues. A commensurate number of staff are sacked…”surplus to requirements”.
Next, the Government can direct the Department of Admin Services to repurpose the real estate assets from which the ABC broadcasts – what is now – mainly socialist propaganda.
Goodbye, Googles, Tony, Theragh, Leigh, Barry, Barry, Tom, Dick and Harry.
Wonder of wonders, the Government discovers a couple of billion dollars for debt reduction.
What’s not to like….
10
Subscription service. Sounds good, but it will be too expensive for those who would want to subscribe. The problem is:
-who will pay for the transmitters, and their maintenance? Big, powerful (= expensive) plant complete with no-break emergency power supplies.
-who will pay for the maintenance and repair/replacement of the transmitting antennae?
-who will pay for all the power a single site will consume? (usually in the order of hundreds of Kilowatts)
It’s really really expensive plant and equipment, and really really expensive operation.
Your only real choice boils down to ABC and no ABC.
Think about this too: it’s there in case of real emergencies, which is why it is government owned and operated. Do you really want to be without that? Sure, Australia has not had huge earthquakes (bar Newcastle some decades ago) over the last two centuries but who is to say that was not just luck?
There have been no volcanic eruptions for some thousands of years. But there are (dormant/extinct) volcanoes out there, I’ve seen them—Mt Gambier (SA), f’rinstance. Has the lack of activity been good or bad luck?
Pre-disaster complacency and lack of adequate resources magnifies the damage of any disaster.
If one did occur and there was no ABC to keep everyone informed, who would be the first to complain about that lack? … Sure, private stations can be dragooned under emergency powers but is that adequate? Or fair?
If the ABC isn’t keeping to its charter, it’s your job as both a citizen and listener/viewer to keep it on task. In that/those case(s) it deserves to be mail-bombed every day. They might get the message. You won’t know until you try.
If you hear/see something you don’t like then write to them and say so, with reasons why. But: when you do hear/see something you do like, write to them and say so, again giving reasons. Give daily/weekly feedback and keep it thoughtful. If enough people do this and keep their email box (or snail mail bags) full with constructive criticism, you never know: you might just get the ABC you want … it will take work, but in the end it could be worth it.
Just running them down all the time is sooooo negative. And boring: it achieves nothing in the way of any improvement(s), so it is actually counter-productive.
What you do with the ABC should be considered carefully and thoughtfully rather than through any knee-jerk response to opinion. Go to it …
00
The ABC parapharses Barry Manilow … “Im pretty sure everyone,including my fans knew I was Green”
80
I support the Young Liberal motion for the “full privatisation of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, except for services into regional areas”.
131
Again you have to wonder if the regional areas would not prefer cheap ultra fast internet and all the news, entertainment, education and support that would provide. What we pay each year for the Sydney based ABC would open up Australia to high speed cheap communication which would make life easier and better for everyone.
3 Satellites launched a year for the same routine cost of the ABC/SBS and as for the NBN, that is a really bad investment in the face of wireless. Who cares if the cables are copper or glass, they are not needed.
Can we please have more geostationary satellites in the South pacific for a fraction of the money? Ask the country people. They would prefer the internet and cheap phones and live world news than have it chewed up, filtered and pushed out by Their ABC. Too much methane too.
212
Yeah okay, give us the same benefits as the city and then we can scrap the ABC, but not before they give us balance with their news and opinion.
80
There is a divide between city ABC and country ABC. It’s not just about news and entertainment in the bush. The ABC provides a vital service with local and rural news, market reports e.g. cattle sales, (but not so much Landline which seems to be heading towards a city audience with light and trendy items), and very importantly emergency and disaster information. While some of this can be provided online e.g. market and weather info, it doesn’t have the local/ regional focus. So split the ABC and sell off the city part, use the proceeds to strengthen regional services.
80
I agree with Ken re the regional ABC radio stations. They are probably worth saving.
Here in the Hunter Valley in the last few years we have had 2 major east coast lows (the Pasha Bulka storm in ’07 and the April 2015 weather bomb) which caused utter chaos, extensive damage and flooding. In both instances the 4 local commercial radio stations carried on like nothing was happening, counting down the hit parade. You had to wait for their hourly national news bulletins which sounded like they were generated in Melbourne or somewhere, with no local content at all.
The local TV station was little better. There were road closures everywhere, some lasting for weeks; there were widespread blackouts lasting days, yet incredibly during the Pasha Bulka storm which occurred over the June long weekend — when presumably all their reporters were away living it up — NBN3 TV in Newcastle couldn’t even muster a single reporter to do a piece to camera for the news, relying instead on their Sydney affiliate Channel 9 for news reports of local Hunter events.
The only useful information of current road closures, flash flooding, power lines down etc came from ABC radio, which gave a constant commentary with listeners phoning in the latest disastrous details. They kept that up for 2 or 3 days, suspending all other programming. I haven’t listened to anything on ABC radio for 50 years apart from those 2 occasions, when the ABC was invaluable. It has its limited uses.
If you don’t keep local newsrooms all you get is Sydney and Melbourne news, nothing remotely local. You hear about Selim Mehajer’s latest court exploits, but not what happened a mile down the road. Unfortunately that is the way the news is heading — all city-centric. Scrap ABC TV and its city radio stations and its multiplicity of internet sites altogether, but keep the country radio stations in modified form.
60
No, don’t make me have to listen to ‘our’ ABC out here in regional Qld! It is appalling tosh, staffed by millenials doing their time – for a year or so – telling us hicks what we should be doing. Please no, just take the whole thing away!
Even the classical channel has horrid lefty nags in between the music. Nope, just let those who like that kind of thing pay for it.
Thank you for listening.
90
The Australian Brainwashing Company won’t be going anywhere fast, they are the propaganda wing of the deep state, architects of misinformation.
I blame Aunty for losing her balance and infesting the place with Cultural Marxists. The organisation is responsible for bringing about mass delusion and I want to see them humiliated before dismantling.
70
I’m hazarding a guess here that most of us discussing this are of the older generation to whom these old fashion media entities were once sacrosanct and entirely trustworthy organizations. I suspect our children couldn’t give a rats bum about them because they live in an entirely different world to us. The BBC, ABC etc are quaint artefacts of a bygone era to them, one that their crusty oldies live in. The world of information and news dissemination will increasingly move to dynamic social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter et al and obviously that has it’s problems. Journalists shouldn’t complain. They killed their own profession. They became partisan and subjective. They became ignorant bigots, shameless self promoters and most unforgivable, defenders of lies and tyranny and I am particularly referring to the greatest scientific and ethical fraud in history. Frankly, scrap your ABC. It’s more than worthless, it’s a health hazard and a job scheme for stupid people.
50
They actually thought they were too big to fail, ceetee. And too up themselves to realise they already did.
20
Ceetee its going to be difficult to sell aunty, the left wingers I have spoken to regard the ABC as a wonderful organisation and they don’t see it as the Ministry of Propaganda.
Unfortunately they get ferociously angry at the suggestion that the organisation is biased, so we are going to have to prove that CO2 doesn’t caused global warming or coral bleaching before dismantling begins.
00
ABC Regional have a strict policy:no male announcers!
10
The young hopefuls coming out of journalism school (mostly women) are brainwashed and ready to go.
00
Consider also that the ABC can and does outbid the commercial channels with your infinite and unaccountable cash.
This outrageously pushes up the price of your shows, so you have to watch too many advertisements and you pay again.
Even so, from viewing figures, most people would rather watch other channels, even for current affairs and despite a show half filled with advertising.
Too much of the ABC is whingeing, bleating and utterly predictable left wing cant. Guthrie’s response to fair criticism is to whinge.
Half of parliament is afraid to go on an ABC show for fear of disrespect and open ridicule like ‘Joker Hockey’ to his face from ABC employee Leigh Sales. Million dollar a year people like Guthrie refuse to even step out of their safe house and talk to Andrew Bolt for fear they might be treated in the same way they treat others.
The unaccountable, vastly overcharging, irresponsible ABC. You may as well rip up the Charter. They did. Years ago. With the full approval of Malcolm Turnbull, as long as they only attack Tony Abbott.
Literally in the case of the assault organized by Gillard and the ABC to harm the then leader of the opposition at an utterly fake ceremony at the old parliament house on Australia Day precisely on the 40th anniversary of the Aboriginal embassy. Remember that? Planned for months with a single purpose the organizers had to ring to ask aboriginals and supporters to riot. Gillard’s staff and others should have been charged with criminal offences not least for conspiracy and inciting a riot, including some in the ABC who organized it and asked the key question in Sydney.
If that had happened in the US or UK, people would have gone to jail. Abbott did not press charges after he was rescued by Gillard who knew all about it.
10
Consider also that the ABC can and does outbid the commercial channels with your infinite and unaccountable cash.
[snip duplicate. Please don’t make more work for us by testing the moderation trigger words. We have banned trolls for doing this. The moderation system is here to protect Joanne not your speech rights. Get it?]ED
00
Consider also that the ABC can and does outbid the commercial channels with your infinite and unaccountable cash.
[snip duplicate. Please don’t make more work for us by testing the moderation trigger words. We have banned trolls for doing this. The moderation system is here to protect Joanne not your speech rights. Get it?]ED
172
Sorry, the word which triggers the moderator software is [SNIP]. Another hobby horse of their ABC and guaranteed votes for Labor. It is interesting to note in the US that Mexicans and Black people are waking up to the fact that the Democrats are all talk. Eight years of Obama and as Kanye West says, the people of Chicago are no better off. They are waking up too. Many Mexicans do not want more villains crossing the border, which is a major reason they left in the first place!
[I’m stricken by the audacity! You think single handed you should be free to test for trigger words and then publish the results so that Jo’s blog can be abused? Rethink your position!]ED
182
Contrary to popular belief, all the evidence I’ve seen says the US Democrats are no friends of minority groups….
theconversation.com/the-democratic-party-is-facing-a-demographic-crisis-72948
50
That’s because in the minds of Democrats there is no such thing as minority groups. They want everyone to belong to the same group and dispose all individual thoughts and differences, ie, push for groupthink ideology. Their goal is much the same as Big Brother depicted in Orwell’s classic novel 1984.
30
They just want import more of (what they perceive to be) their voters.
30
Re BBC TV license, Brits are not obliged to pay if they do not wish to do so. However it is then illegal to watch live TV. It is however perfectly legal to watch a programme on iplayer after broadcast. I know of one family who could well afford to pay the licence fee but have never done so. They watch later on iplayer. Most broadcasts are now available for 30 days
70
Jo, have you even paused for a moment to think of the consequences of your proposal?
Never mind the children, think of the bananas.
The moment greedy selfish shareholders get their grubby mits on a post sell-off ABC the right-sizing will kick in. There won’t be enough room in a peeled-back ABC budget for two miming bananas. So B1 and B2 will be interviewing for the same job. Would you really throw away our civilised equality and return to a fruit-eat-fruit world? Because that’s what will happen, Jo, and you will be left with pureé on your hands.
B1 will be attacked in his very identity. Gone will be the traditional banana-binary of B1 and B2, replaced instead by bananafluidity where if he wants to keep a job at all, B1 must alternate between identifying as B1 and identifying as B2. Bz/he will have to mime both parts, and will do each half as well. That once proud Cavendish will be a mere ladyfinger of his former self.
Then will begin the backroom advertising deals selling off access to supple young minds, setting off a festering pool of crony capitalism. Brand loyalty brainwashing will be infused into every episode for the highest bidder. Today’s kids might not learn how to play tag or paint a fence, but 20 years later they will be getting their tyres changed at Beaurepaires, hardware from Bunnings, ice cream from Baskin Robbins, and groceries from Bi-Lo, and they won’t know why. A dozen competitors will be bankrupted. Paradoxically, ending government control of the ABC will lead to monopoly prices in everything!
Any semblance of a stable role model will be gone. As each new advertiser outbids the last, the whole theme and direction of Banana in Pajamas will lose any coherency and become split six ways from sundae.
You may not think you have skin in the game, but if you privatise the ABC it will mean the end of the world as we know it. The sky isn’t just falling, the sky is bending!
140
@Andrew #14
Far too much thought went into that post for this stand down time of night. Very funny thank you. BTW I have always thought of B1 and B2 as quintessentially Australian, right down to their convict outfits….
00
Mr Squiggle’s just so much Photoshop road-kill these days.
Frankly, I like banana smoothies more.
10
el gordo – comment #11 – writes:
I support the Young Liberal motion for the “full privatisation of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, except for services into regional areas”.
—
once upon a time ABC’s rural reporting was worthwhile. however, of late, ABC wants to end meat consumption, or at least end cow f***s, pushes carbon farming and wind turbines on prime agricultural land, etc., so I no longer support their services into regional areas.
GreenLeft doesn’t realise this only reinforces why ABC should be shut down:
20 Jun: GreenLeft.org: Campaign begins to keep ABC public
by Jim McIlroy
PHOTO CAPTION: GetUp! organised a protest against cuts to ABC funding in 2013. Photo GetUp!
ABC Friends National has called for nation-wide rallies in July to protest the continual funding cuts to the ABC, the ongoing conservative attacks on the independence of the ABC and the recent Liberal Party Federal Council motion supporting privatisation of the national public media organisation…
Despite denials by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and other senior federal ministers that the government has any plans to sell off the ABC, community outrage has been growing over the Liberal Party motion, which was initiated by the right-wing faction-dominated Young Liberals.
ABC Friends National called on Liberal Party voters to reject any sell-off of the ABC as being both anti-Australian and anti-democratic.
ABC Friends National president Margaret Reynolds said: “Australian public broadcasting has an 80-year history and is supported by more than 80% of the community. It is not a plaything of the extremists who have dismissed public opinion in pursuit of their preoccupation with private profits.
“ABC Friends National has for some time been warning of threats to the ABC, and now the proof is there in the resolution of the Liberal Party’s governing body this weekend.”…
On June 19, ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie strongly criticised the push to privatise the ABC…
“Inherent in the drive against the independent public broadcaster is a belief that it can be pushed and prodded into different shapes to suit the ***prevailing climate. It can’t. Nor should it be.”
[The rallies to Save the ABC will start with a Sydney protest on July 8, followed by Brisbane on July 13 and Melbourne on July 15. For more information, visit the ABC Friends Facebook page, which includes details of a crowdfunding appeal to support the campaign.]
https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/campaign-begins-keep-abc-public
***but there is no prevailing climate, Michelle, according to ABC. remember, the climate is changing.
60
One option is for the ABC to commercially fund itself.
NZTV (Television New Zealand) Although the network identifies as a national, part-public broadcaster, it is fully commercially funded.
Looking at the country list of public broadcasters.
Full government funding, like Australia, seems to be unusual.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_broadcasting#Implementation_of_public_broadcasting_around_the_world
CBC (Canada) funding is supplemented by revenue from commercial advertising.
PBS (USA) is funded by member station dues, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, corporate contributions, pledge drives, foundations and individual citizens.
Licence fees seems to be very common, which I think is more a user pays principle, and could allow opting out.
40
And America’s PBS is funded by public subscriptions, so it’s clearly possible for a country to run a public broadcast service as a subscription service.
30
Sorry, it’s getting late and obviously I’m not reading everything…
20
I remember NZ’s licencing scheme well. If you owned a functional TV set you had to pay a licence fee or the function of the TV set was disabled and it was embellished with lead seals to keep it disabled until a fee was paid.
I was/am a licenced Ham and one of my two communications receivers covered the local TV channel (somewhere about 56MHz IIRC), so I would listen to the TV news. It was actually better without the pictures. A communications receiver was not a TV set as defined in the Radio Communications Act so I didn’t need a licence.
The licencing agency (NZ Post Office) would ring people out of the blue at peak hour to ask if they had a licence. One evening I was listening to the TV news on the external speaker, when it was my turn. It was the licence hunters. I was asked if I had a TV. I was honest, and said “No.” I had the external speaker on and turned up a bit, and as I hadn’t muted it, my caller could probably hear it clearly. She then said that I was not recorded as having a TV licence. I agreed and told her I was recorded, or should be, as a Radio Amateur with a full licence, gave my call sign and told her how I was listening to the TV on my communications receiver. I wasn’t called again. It was a couple of years or so later, that the TV licence was scrapped.
It was nearly thirty years later, I bought a TV set. It was basically a waste of money, but I
can watch DVDs and listen to CDs but I can and usually do that on one of my computers. TV hasn’t changed: it’s still rubbish. I can get audio and video from around the world
The lighter side of it was that the ads back in those days were quite amusing without pictures.
70
full transcript:
19 Jun: ABC: Value, Investment and Return: Why the ABC and public broadcasting is vital to the community
ABC Managing Director Michelle Guthrie, Melbourne Press Club Tuesday, 19 June 2018.
The work of the Melbourne Press Club, the platform and support you provide for the discussion of ideas, issues and the craft of journalism are invaluable.
Last year, I attended the opening of the NSW Chapter of the Australian Media Hall of Fame, a fantastic initiative by this forum to bring to a broader stage the great traditions of journalism and the women and men who, as journalists and storytellers, have left their mark on the fabric of Australia.
I’ll demonstrate just a touch of ABC bias here. I was thrilled at the roll call of our journalists who were among those honoured that night: Mark Colvin, Ian Carroll, Caroline Jones, Alan McGilvray, Chris Masters, and Kerry O’Brien.
These are hallowed names, as recognisable as ABC brands as our famous lissajous logo. They, and others acknowledged by the Club, have made an indelible contribution to our collective understanding of Australia and the world…
We know and applaud their attributes and achievements: their deep knowledge of audiences and the issues that are relevant to the lives of the community…
Every day I’m reminded how important the ABC is to all Australians. Some commentators and politicians like to ***pigeonhole our audience as being of a particular political bent or social strata…
http://about.abc.net.au/speeches/value-investment-and-return-why-the-abc-and-public-broadcasting-is-vital-to-the-community/
Michelle, here’s a fine example of your audience and your TripleJuvenile staff:
20 Jun: AdNews: What Triple J’s first ‘commercial broadcast’ would sound like
By Josh McDonnell
Posting on its Instagram account and hosts Ben and Liam’s Facebook page, Triple J uploaded audio sent in by a listener that created a ‘new’ show on the privatised version of the station…
AUDIO
http://www.adnews.com.au/news/what-triple-j-s-first-commercial-broadcast-would-sound-like
20
Thank you TdeF for the string of very readable, entertaining and informative posts.
Although I no longer watch or listen to the ABC the description of behaviour given above, along with occasional monitoring of the Tripple JJJJ style of radio, makes me very unhappy with the moral example set by this organisation.
The situation calls for a public condemnation of the ABC in the style recently discussed and exemplified by the Magna Carta, the much later Wat Tyler and the current Brexit and Trumpit.
The arrogance of this sickening mass of overpaid politically appointed Juveniles needs to be put in it’s place.
History!
KK
132
We stopped watching SBS a while ago as it had just descended into being a who killed who in the Middle East today and Trump bashing.
The ABC news is tolerable mainly for the look on Hendesrson face reacting to some the tripe passing for stories, Alan Kohlers graphs and decent weather report.
41
We gave up watching the ABC news; tripe with bias, very abbreviated business section and the latest iteration of the weather forecast irritates me beyond description (we watched just once recently). I hate the rapid zooms before having a chance to focus properly on what’s on the screen and there is nowhere anywhere near us being shown anyway…a pointless exercise watching it. A good synoptic chart with time to absorb it would help…better to check online.
I enjoyed watching Landline many years ago but that has now changed; it’s heading towards the same triviality that Countryfile in UK has already become (except for Adam Henson’s section).
31
This is like every other political argument in liberal land.
We still have PBS in the states, and NPR too. In a world, “not only of 180 cable channels and nothing on to watch”, but of infinite internet streaming choices, we still have a taxpayer supported service to “meet unmet needs”. This means to shove more tax money to an underproductive liberal elite to try to indoctirnate the rest of us, because, well, they are them and we are us, and us ain’t for s**t in spite of the best efforts of them.
In the US, you always win by screaming “Big Bird” “for the children”, and sane heads back down.
Unbounded dishonesty and hypocrisy on the left, appeasement for the right. “Throw some money at them and they’ll go away.”
They never go away.
The dogs and firehoses and ‘white’s only” signs of the 50’s have become arguably the most egalitarian society on earth,
but racism is the scourge of modern life and all those who appose the left are racists.
Concentration camps and the border science of the National Socialists, not to mention the 50 million or so dead in Hitler’s war,
visited boundless horror on the world. It was the first full documented war, with audio visual history.
Yet every policy the left disagrees with is a Nazi policy, and every opposition leader is a Hitler; they can only describe their opposition is the most hateful terms they can imagine, not seeing, of course, that overuse makes such claims banal.
Their other intersectional claims are similarly fraught with hyperbole. CLimate was a lead, but caged children are a more powerful image for the moment. No need to list them.
And the ABC and its ilk have not only abandoned all sense of objectivity to become advocates, they have gone fact free in pursuit of their propaganda, and seek not debate, but suppression of opposing views.
We discover, however, that if challenged, they are thoughtless bullies, with jaws of glass and the morals of a cockroach.
For most of my life, if the left yells and shames, the rights get weary of the little dogs nipping at the heels, throws them a bone,and goes back to work.
The dogs have grown.
Defunding is like saying “bad dog”. Actual behaviour modification requires tough love.
Like saying “Democrats Fault” and “It’s The Law”, and then when the democrats escalate, say it again. If you are stubborn enough the left will do something truly stupid, and so at odds with reality that the ordinary folks, who normally have a life to live and can’t pay attention, look up for a moment, slap the fools down, and then, in the endless refrain of those who live productive lives, go back to work.
In the US, PBS and NPR have audiences so small they often don’t show up on surveys. They are mostly today part of the university system where they teach “broadcasters and journalists”. They don’t any more, but that’s no surprise either. The folks who need useful information looked up, found other outlets, and went back to work.
For years unions were a foregone conclusion in the US, because “they made life better for workers”. When they didn’t, eventually the folks looks up, voted them away, and went back to real work…they now exist, in the US, mostly in government.
Where do businesses and ideas that fail in the real world go? Government. What is talk about defunding? Attacking the ‘rice bowl’ of the left. Why are they so vicious? They are a wounded animal. Why are they so strong? Because the left has a desperation about it. Their policies always fail, and the adherants seldom move back into the productive economy.
They day-to-day effort of an ABC employee (or NPR or PBS) is far less than that demanded of a worker at a vibrant commercial channel;
(thewre’s more)…the VA handles case loads per capita a fraction of that of private hospitals, University employment is a high class dole for very little effort (yes I was once a professor at both a public and private institution), and the hum-drum bureaucracy is held up by many as a model of non-productivity.
Find one donor, and a few committed people. Start a counter programming channel, the web has relegated the airwaves monopoly to the dustbin of history. Counter program regularly with names, facts, specificity, and humor. Humor is very powerful and it is the missing gene that makes a person a leftist….if you know a progressive who can laugh at themselves they are a closet conservative.
For years the US leader in this effort has been conservative talk radio, which broke the monopoly while earning a good living.
The mainstream media, which once served the vast majority of households with news, entertainment, and ads are now niche players:
still big, still rich, but hollow shells with coastal echo chamber audiences.
Is there an Australian Rush Limbaugh?
130
That’s a big piece of work there Richard.
10
‘Humor is very powerful and it is the missing gene that makes a person a leftist…’
That really struck me, as it is something I have noticed. I have commented to my husband only very recently on how the leftists we know often don’t seem able to smile or have what one might term a belly laugh or the smile they produce is a sickly sort of one.
30
Say,’Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look.’
20
Annie& Beth, people should read Richard’s very comprehensive comment. Top item.
00
Sell it off? No way! Just close it down. Selling it off leaves open the possibility that China will buy it and make it even worse. The other alternative is the government set up another “ABC” that is at the other end of the political spectrum, and set in concrete legislation that if one goes so does the other. I always believed competition is good.
51
There is a sobering story in the SMH on the Chinese in Cambodia, talk about a bull in a china shop.
With the ABC its imperative that we get balance before we dismantle the city organisation, otherwise they will probably say its a Murdoch conspiracy.
Our energy system is in a mess because a lot of people believe CO2 causes global warming, this misunderstanding must be rectified in advance.
30
Of course but that requires removal of all bias for renewables and against coal in all levels of our education system and MSM. Until that happens things will not change and instead the CAGW cult will continue to flourish and in fact grow much stronger until we suffer a real form of catastrophic change – crash and burn.
Such corrective actions on the biases are essential if we are to see an increased likelihood the public will support a political party that would follow Trump’s lead and withdraw from the Paris Accord on the basis that CO2 is not the cause of any global warming or climate change, announce policies that will scrap incentives for renenwables and bolster our existing coal fired power stations to keep them running indefinitely until we either build new ones and/or start using nuclear energy. At the moment the only party that comes close to such policies is the ACP. I look forward with great anticipation for the LNP to adopt such energy policies very soon – hahaha!
21
In the run up to the next elections Cory could pretend its the Primaries and he is a charismatic individual like Donald, without his vulgarities.
Looking at Common Sense he is all over the place, so it would be beneficial to drop the minutae and concentrate on a few issues.
‘Of course but that requires removal of all bias for renewables and against coal in all levels of our education system and MSM.’
Cory could talk on that subject if he understood the flawed science behind AGW.
10
Cory is not a large party so he can do very little. At least he has the right policies. That places him light years ahead of anyone else. If we had more people like him instead of the other hopeless minor parties and independents, we would have half a chance of forcing the government, be it ALP or LNP to get rid of the renewables and anti-coal nonsense. No matter. We’ll just plod along with either major party in full control and let them keep funding the ABC who are totally committed to spreading the global warming myth at the behest of those parties. Perhaps one day after the crash and burn people might think again and give the ACP a go instead of supporting the Greens and other nuisance minor parties. Then again I know most Australians hate conservatives for a number of reasons, one of them being is they perceive them as boring and unimaginative. Too many people prefer the excitement of a roller-coaster ride to death.
10
Cory is part of a lose coalition and combined they hold the balance of power.
‘The bill passed 37 to 33 after an acrimonious debate about whether it helps bankers or battlers.
‘The two One Nation senators, the two from Centre Alliance, David Leyonhjelm, Cory Bernardi, Brian Burston, Derryn Hinch and Fraser Anning all voted for the Government’s plan.’
ABC
There has always been this tension between haves and have nots, right and left, and it should come as no surprise that the majors are evenly matched. Appealing to the ten percent of swing voters is what the game is all about.
00
PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service, is an American non-commercial TV provider. They are partly paid by taxpayers. To attest the quality of their programming, their best product is a series Antiques Roadshow.
10
You’re not confusing that with the BBC Antiques Roadshow? That is one excellent BBC production…one of the very few I can be bothered with.
31
Off Topic but students of irony cannot let pass this apotheosis of the fight against “climate change”.
Despite totally failing to reduce emissions the EU has managed to run out of CO2!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44545010
The dire consequences of this crisis could be the breakup of the EU ahead of Brexit and the final discrediting of the Global Warming Narrative.
Imagine this happing in OZ, never mind the lighs, who cares if they go off – but to run out of Beer?
70
If Heineken can’t brew and bottle a beer without its own CO2 and have to inject extra into the bottle, then it’s not worth drinking.
I’ve never liked Heineken … perhaps that’s why.
50
great “carbon capture” opportunity going begging
beer may save us from the CO2 tipping point cataclysm thing
30
Cut and paste from the Cat:
Michelle Guthrie hit back – strongly according to some media sources – against ABC critics in a speech today.
For those who prefer an abacus-type approach to this debate, I have some fresh information. How do you put a price on the value of the ABC? In pursuit of that answer, the ABC has commissioned Deloitte Access Economics to do some research. Their report is still being compiled and will be released next month. The early findings are interesting. They show that the ABC contributed more than $1 billion to the Australian economy in the last financial year – on a par with the public investment in the organisation. Far from being a drain on the public purse, the audience, community and economic value stemming from ABC activity is a real and tangible benefit.
The takeaway message?
… the ABC contributed more than $1 billion to the Australian economy in the last financial year …
Sounds good, except … as Michelle Guthrie acknowledges that’s just about how much the ABC receives from taxpayers.
Then there are deadweight losses of taxation – if the ABC gets $1 billion to spend and generates $1 billion of economic activity then the ABC is losing the value of the deadweight losses.
Ouch.
50
Of course Ms Guthrie will hit back … she’ll hit back at anything which threatens her pay.
50
“the ABC contributed more than $1 billion to the Australian economy in the last financial year “. Of course they did!
They spent every cent of the >$1 Billion we gave them. On themseles. Now they want more. We are supposed to be grateful?
Every employee contributes what they get paid to the Australia economy, except for savings and the ABC have none. What a silly defence.
A bit like the ABC’s Emma Alberici’s appalling understanding of how taxation works. The ABC is closer to a sheltered workshop, like most of our universities. How much did the ABC export overseas? What earnings did they have? How did they enhance the Australian economy? What essential public service did they provide? We pay for independent timely utterly unbiased reporting, their entire function. They have no intention of providing it.
121
Why don’t the broadcaster domination rules apply to the ABC? Why are only commercial media subject to controls?
Our Federal parliament decided on many occasions that no organization should so dominate the media that they could mislead the public and intimidate parliaments. So why is the massive growth of the ABC unfettered? Why are they exempt?
Oh, they are objective, unbiased and fair. Utter rubbish. At the very least, apply the same media rules to the behemoth which is the out of control ABC. How many TV stations is it now? Radio? Internet? Who said they could expand their reach endlessly and demand the funding to do it?
The ABC would be illegal if it was privately owned. Perhaps Emma Alberici could explain the difference?
120
In essence Alberici believed and still does, that companies should pay tax on their turnover, not their profit. You could only presume that is because it is what she does personally, so it is all she understands.
Clearly the ABC are so sheltered from the real world that this seems reasonable. However it is more serious. You see Emma is Chief Economics Correspondent for the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Emma has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and economics from Deakin University. Six months as a suburban accountant might have helped before being appointed. You have to wonder how you can do a degree in Economics and have no idea about taxation, the cornerstone of all governments and the source of the money for their ABC. Now Guthrie believes the ABC costs nothing as they contribute the cash to the Australian economy? God save us.
121
From the Justin Trudeau School of Economics
“The budget will balance itself”
60
What a bum.
10
50% of the ABC is probably fine, supporting Australian arts, music etc. What I object to is the leftist dominated opinions that have
infiltratedbecome endemic in news reporting and current affairs, and all the leftist opinion shows including foul-mouthed “comedy”.71
All true, what we demand is balance in comedy, news and opinion. How hard could it be?
By comparison the Oz is fair and balanced.
‘Almost two-thirds of university-educated Millennials are in favour of socialism. Just don’t ask them who Mao, Lenin or Stalin are.’
61
They don’t care who Mao, Lenin or Stalin are. All they care about is Trump and exhibiting their Trump derangement syndrome. Look at the bright side. The more they and the MSM, FBI, actors, etc. do it the more stupid they look. It could make Trump the most popular President of all time.
60
Too use the normal millenial quiz show response to anything to do with history “that was before my time”. Makes you wonder why the go on them.
I guess you could cite Maduro and Venezuela. However that would require an interest in current affairs and actually finding the news as the left wing MSM keeps a cone of silence around the rolling tragedy going on there.
30
100% would be fine and fair if they balanced the existing 50% that is left wing bias with a mixture of conservative and right wing bias, and let the viewer make their own decisions. Of course the charter already mandates that it provide a balanced view but there is no enforcement. So perhaps the solution is to add enforcement clauses. If they fail to provide a balance their funding is cut 50% per year until they comply (ie, if they fail to comply 2 years in a row their funding is cut 50% per year for each of the 2 years). That ought to make them comply. If not then goodbye ABC after about the 3rd year. Of course the LNP doesn’t have the guts to do something like that as they are clueless, cowards and gutless.
31
I wouldn’t recommend a return to licence fees; in the bad old days little men in shabby overcoats would lurk Gestapo-style around Melbourne neighbourhoods sniffing out licence evaders, just like the UK nowadays.
The IPA proposal to give the joint away to staff looks a good solution to me.
40
The ABC online content could easily be subscription only.
20
Not a bad idea considering the Labor Party has always espoused the principle that user pays.
10
I want to keep the ABC, but I want our lily-livered politicians to sort it out – force the Board to observe the ABC’s charter and maintain a non-political stance. The failure to do so says more about our politicians than the ABC’s staff. If ANY organisation has an unhealthy staff culture or poor performance, we always lay blame at the feet of those at the top. In this case, that’s the Government.
Personally, I think there is more need than ever for a broadcaster that focuses on unfulfilled needs in the TV marketplace, providing content that commercial TV does not, and an alternative to FTA’s wall-to-wall reality TV trash. For me, this would include authentic drama with high production standards, high quality documentaries and various other genres that the commercial channels provide, but without the sex, embedded advertising, inappropriate use of foul language, ‘dumbed down’ plots/scripts and progressive messages. Comedy that didn’t rely entirely on abusing conservatives, swearing or ‘jokes’ about genitalia would be nice, too.
It would be nice if they could continue providing news and current affairs, but only if it was apolitical. In Australia at least, EVERY free-to-air channel leans left in its news and current affairs, so it would be nice if we had just one that wasn’t, or at least presented balanced coverage.
If our pollies can’t do this, and it seems they cannot/will not, then shut it down or privatise it.
50
Why not pare back broadcasting to rural areas only and make the ABC available in urban areas exclusively via Internet subscription — preferably on a program by progam basis. I’d happily pay $50pa just for ABC’s Health Report (best science podcast on the web IMO) but wouldn’t want a red cent going to what they pass off as comedy, news or investigative journalism/activist propaganda.
30
ABC, in a sheltered world of their making.
The Empire Strikes back when criticised.
20
Time for these leftist treasonous scumbags to put their money where their mouths are and pay for their own propaganda!!
41
You are joking of course. The left never have a need to use their own money to do anything. They always get it from others, mostly from suckers who are only too willing to donate to them.
20
ABC………….
Aljazeera Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Bullshit Commission
Australian Brainwashing Commission
Allah Before Christians
Always Broadcasting Crap
Australian Brainwashing Collective
51
angry but confused
30
Funny. Acronyms. So much to give.
30
Anarchy Before Creativity
10
another BC!
20 Jun: NBC: Global warming, now brought to you by your local TV weathercaster
Local weathercasters have become one of the primary conduits for news on global warming. One nonprofit helped push the change.
by James Rainey
(James Rainey, formerly with LA Times, Variety; education: UCLA – LinkedIn)
PHOTO CAPTION: A powerful winter storm moves toward New England on Jan. 4, 2018.NOAA
Steve LaPointe has been a television weatherman for nearly three decades, and for most of his career, he didn’t focus much on global warming. He was skeptical about the science behind it, particularly the notion that human behavior was heating the planet.
But the issue wouldn’t go away. So LaPointe began to do “a lot of homework,” he said, reading research papers and consulting fellow meteorologists, who connected him with a nonprofit, Climate Central, that spreads information on climate change.
LaPointe increasingly came to realize he was wrong — that the evidence that greenhouse gases are warming the Earth is “irrefutable.”…
Key to the shift has been Climate Central, the nonprofit that helped school LaPointe. The Princeton, New Jersey-based organization sponsors classes and webinars for meteorologists and also shares real-time data and graphics with TV stations. The group has reached more than 500 local TV weathercasters — about a quarter of those working in the U.S. — since it started its “Climate Matters” education program in 2012, and it is expanding this week to a wider group of journalists…
The number of stories on global warming by television weather people has increased 15-fold over five years, according to data from the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University. If the trend continues this year, there will be more than a thousand stories that touch on climate delivered during local TV weathercasts, up from just 55 such climate stories in 2012.
The inroads with meteorologists are particularly significant because local TV news remains the top source of news for most Americans. And George Mason surveys have shown that when it comes to climate issues, the public trusts their familiar local TV personalities more than anyone, other than scientists and family members…
Climate Central now routinely provides local climate information for 244 cities in the U.S., said (Climate Central’s Bernadette Woods) Placky, the group’s director. Meteorologists can plug their city into a Climate Matters search page and find analysis of local climate impacts — often backed by NOAA and NASA experts, along with ready-for-air charts and graphics…READ ALL
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/global-warming-now-brought-you-your-local-tv-weathercaster-n884831
read all:
20 Jun: ClimateDepot: Marc Morano: Effort to turn weathermen into climate activists fraught with bad science & backed by RICO supporting professor & funded by taxpayers
http://www.climatedepot.com/2018/06/20/effort-to-turn-weathermen-into-climate-activists-backed-by-rico-supporting-professor-funded-by-taxpayers/
30
‘the evidence that greenhouse gases are warming the Earth is “irrefutable.”’
Now that’s very interesting. It’s quite a different statement to “the evidence that the Earth is warming”. All I have read about this is conjecture, not definitive irrefutable proof. Perhaps LaPointe could share with others the clear and irrefutable evidence that the warming is caused by ‘Greenhouse gases’. Which gases, for example?
This is doubly interesting considering that any significant year to year increase in temperature stopped 20 years ago while CO2 has gone up steadily, unaffected by anything anyone has done, even at a cost of $1,500Billion a year. Then La Pointe might share with us how we are going to bring the CO2 levels down? Or is it cow farts? Plus elephants, camels, kangaroos, sheep, buffalo, wilderbeest, bison, giraffes, hippos, termites and 7 billion humans. They are the problem.
20
***the MSM swamp runs deep.
Wikipedia: Climate Central
Climate Central is a nonprofit news organization that analyzes and reports on climate science. Composed of scientists and science journalists, the organization conducts scientific research on climate change and energy issues, and produces multimedia content that is distributed via their website and media partners.
***Climate Central has been featured in many prominent U.S. news sources, including the New York Times, the Associated Press, Reuters, NBC Nightly News, CBS News, CNN, ABC News, Nightline, Time, National Public Radio, PBS, Scientific American, National Geographic, Science, and The Washington Post.
Climate Central’s President, CEO and Chief Scientist is Benjamin Strauss (elected April 2018 to replace Paul Hanle)…
History
At an October 2005 conference sponsored by the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and held in Aspen, Colorado, more than a hundred scientists, policymakers, journalists, and leaders from business, religion and civil society identified the critical need for a central authoritative source for climate change information. A broad group of climate experts later confirmed this need during a November 2006 New York meeting convened by James Gustave Speth, Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
At roughly the same time, in Palo Alto, California, The 11th Hour Project began organizing with the mission to popularize reliable information about global warming solutions, using the power of Silicon Valley scientists, entrepreneurs, and inventors.
These meetings inspired the idea for Climate Central, which took shape early in 2008 with seed money from The Flora Family Foundation and development funds from 11th Hour Project. The founding board included Jane Lubchenco, Steven Pacala and Wendy Schmidt (wife of Google’s Eric Schmidt)…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_Central
30
Indeed the swamp is gathering its forces and getting bigger not smaller despite Trump’s efforts. The reason is simple. It wants to bring down Trump o matter what it takes for him winning the election and his rejection of many things things going against the good of mankind. Trump will ultimately fail because the swamp is too big and powerful, and he has only a very limited time to carry out the huge number of tasks required to destroy the massive swamp. Meanwhile enjoy the roller-coaster ride, except the bit at the end where the track leads straight over the cliff.
00
Peter
Maybe it only looks bigger because more is being exposed?
“CHARLESTON, http://W.Va . — United States Attorney Mike Stuart announced today that West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Justice Allen H. Loughry II, 47,of Charleston, West Virginia, was charged by a federal grand jury in a 22-count Indictment that was unsealed today. Loughry is a Justice on the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, who was elected in November 2012 and sworn in on January 1, 2013.
The 22-count Indictment charges Loughrywith numerous fraud, false statements, and witness tampering offenses.”
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2018/06/14/dueling-foundations-lawfare-happy-birthday-mr-president-ig-report/#comment-96651
10
And
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2018/06/14/dueling-foundations-lawfare-happy-birthday-mr-president-ig-report/#comment-96675
Probably the suprise here is that something looks like happening
10
Yes that is the case in part the there can be no doubt the swamp is getting more active and vocal from all sorts of people because it’s hurting for a change, which means it will step up it’s war against people like Trump with even more eagerness. The swamp will fight with greater and greater energy until it either wins or loses. At the moment it’s losing a little but it is adjusting since it unfortunately has at it’s disposable far more resources than what Trump has. One way to wound the dangerous swamp even more is for Trump somehow to expose the well know people who are leading the charge against him and put them behind bars. It’s easier said than done. The next few years will be very interesting indeed.
10
OMG….!!!! Just noticed tomorrow is June 22…!!!! this will be catastrophic for solar panelists…!!!
30
Perhaps Malcolm and his Green friends can look at running a submarine cable to China where it is mid summer?
Consider that we can use their coal power for our grid.
In 2014 China “had the largest installed electricity generation capacity in the world with 1505 GW and generated 5583 TWh
Australia has 51GW and 258Twhr. So China generates 22-30x as much electricity. We can trade for coal.
At least that way all the CO2 stays in China. We would be saved. We could buy their aluminium, but we don’t make anything.
40
1 billion plus annually for this!
12 Oct 2017: ABC: Base load power: The dinosaur in the energy debate
ABC Science By environment reporter Nick Kilvert – Analysis
But today, as more and more renewables such as wind are feeding the grid, coal-fired power stations are often forced to pay to keep their turbines running when demand drops.
“At night when wind in some areas is generating a lot [of power], it’s the coal-fired stations that don’t get dispatched and the price can drop negative — below zero dollars — and so the big [coal] generators end up having to pay for people to take their electricity,” Professor Vassallo says…
“Technology has moved on from base load, and now you want flexible power. And that’s what demand management, batteries and pumped hydro is,” says Professor Andrew Blakers, director of the ANU Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems…
What about when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow?
“All this talk about ‘you’ve got to have baseload power stations’ is complete nonsense,” says Dr Mark Diesendorf.
“It’s a dinosaur.”…
Professor Blakers agrees. He says that Australia’s energy future lies in solar and wind, with pumped hydro as a balancing source…
None of these researchers are under any illusions that a transition to a dynamic energy system will be cheap…
And leaving base load power in the past, they all agree, would be a good place to start.
Editor’s note (20/11/17): This story was changed to reflect that times like Christmas can cause power demand to dip even lower than seasonal fluctuations.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2017-10-12/renewable-energy-baseload-power/9033336
my fave comment:
Miles Craven: Had you read the article, you would now know that there is no “24/7 need for baseload power” unless you are using steam power (gas, coal, oil or nuclear). One of the great advantages of renewable technologies, especially wind and solar, is that they are “scalable”. Another advantage is that they can be switched on and off at will. It doesn’t take a couple of days for them to cool down and another couple to rev them up.
Nuclear is not an option. After seventy years of trying, we still haven’t been able to build one single, economically viable nuclear power station anywhere in the world. True enough, we have only really tried fission so far, but we know now that it is not a viable way of producing electricity. Fusion is still some way off and, with the advances we have made with renewables and storage, we probably won’t need it anyway
20 Jun: AmericanThinker: Magical Wind Power: Illusions versus Reality
By John Droz, Jr.
The primary reason why wind energy has been a success has nothing to do with wind energy! Instead, its success is 100% due to the fact that wind energy proponents are masterful lobbyists. If one reads The Business of America Is Lobbying, it’s apparent that the wind industry has used every trick in the book, and then written some of its own.
For example: Wind lobbyists have successfully infiltrated our language with totally inaccurate and misleading terminology, such as “wind farms” and “clean energy.” Neither exists…
For example: Wind marketers have successfully portrayed their product as “Free, Clean, and Green” – despite it being none of those. The reason they have coined these malapropisms is simple: those who control the words control the narrative…READ ALL
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/06/magical_wind_power_illusions_versus_reality.html
30
For the life of me, there’s something I just don’t get when I see articles like this one.
Surely these people would go and actually check (or have gofers do it for them) to see what the lowest power consumption is, and realise just where that power comes from, and how if that’s the lowest it ever gets, then that is what they mean when they say ….. BASE LOAD. It’s not difficult, just a matter of adding up five numbers, the total power consumption for each State at 4AM.
Incidentally, the last three cold working week mornings, it’s been 19790MW, 19360MW, and this morning 19950MW, and the biggest supplier of that power, coal fired power at 83%, 83% and 84.5%.
Tony.
130
“One of the great advantages of renewable technologies, especially wind and solar, is that they are ‘scalable’. Another advantage is that they can be switched on and off at will.”
Not only that, they “scale” themselves and turn themselves on and off. This flexible, sophisticated energy model is called Lucky Dip.
“After seventy years of trying, we still haven’t been able to build one single, economically viable nuclear power station anywhere in the world.”
I was in France before Messmer’s fast-tracking of nuclear power. The country had a few lumps of coal left and a dribble of gas. It ended up running on imported oil at the time of the oil shocks. You hesitated before turning on that hot water tap in case the hotel had to charge more for a shower than for the room.
I came back many years later. France was the biggest exporter of electricity and had one of the cheaper domestic supplies in Europe.
I never know what the Left mean by “economically viable”. Having discovered “all power to the market” as a replacement for “all power to the Soviets” they now relate everything to money and cannot see value. Value is when you can count on your power supply and thus do not need to buy a diesel generator (imported) and several jerry-cans (imported) of oil (imported). Someone please take away their copies of Adam Smith and give them back their old commo literature.
50
mosomoso,
funny thing about what you mentioned about nuclear electrical power generation.
Ten years ago, when I started doing all this, I would visit pages and pages and pages of information, mostly using google, (virtually one of the only search engines they had then) sometimes going to page 10,15,20 etc.
I saw some information about nuclear electrical power generation, dating from when they first started installing those big Nukes in the U.S. (and this was not from an opinion article, but from an informational site) and I’m even certain I saw it on a Wikipedia reference as well, that nuclear power was considered to be so cheap to generate that they wouldn’t need to charge for electricity pretty soon.
You can bet that electrical power retailers had a say in that not happening.
You can also bet that information has disappeared, because over the last few years, every so often I go looking for it again, even in the Wiki archive, and it’s nowhere to be found.
Tony.
20
Tony, if you’re talking about vineyards, art galleries or tours to the lavender country, there is a place called France.
If you’re talking about electrical power generation, there is no such place as France. (It was wiped out in Oceania’s war with Eastasia. Or was it the war with Eurasia?)
And we all know that it would take forever to build nuclear power plants and they would cost far too much. France tried to go nuclear for electricity back in the 1960s…but we all know it never happened because of the disastrous war with Eastasia. Or Eurasia. Or whatever.
I took this photo of what some claimed were the Golfech nuclear reactors at the confluence of the Tarn and Garonne Rivers. French people actually think that up to 75% of their power comes from objects like these and that they can then sell off 3 billion euros of spare generation annually to other countries. Yet anyone can see they’re just large and unusually shaped lithium batteries (with steam coming from a cafeteria).
https://slowcamino.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/mira_001.jpg
Mind you, there are people who visit PA Pundits who really believe that Australia draws most of its power from coal and will continue to do so indefinitely.
https://papundits.wordpress.com/2017/07/15/base-load-electrical-power-introduction-and-the-permanent-link-to-the-data-for-australia/
10
I love this – how flimsy are the “savings” from going solar…. “science” or rank silliness?
You cant negotiate with stupid….
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-21/gorgon-gas-plant-wiping-out-a-year-of-solar-emission-savings/9890386
“The combined greenhouse gas emissions saved by all of Australia’s solar panels in a year could be wiped out because of technical problems at a single oil and gas project in Western Australia.
It is just one example of a broader problem facing the nation as it tackles the massive challenge of meeting its Paris Agreement commitment to reduce 2005 emissions by 26-28 per cent by 2030.
Chevron began operating its $US54 billion ($73 billion) Gorgon gas plant in the state’s north-west in 2016.
Part of its environmental agreement was to capture and store underground 40 per cent of the plant’s emissions through a sophisticated process known as geosequestration or carbon capture and storage.
This involves capturing carbon dioxide (CO2), typically produced by large industrial plants, before it enters the atmosphere.
It is then compressed and injected deep into rock formations for permanent storage.”
20
I would be willing to bet that ABC employees are blissfully unaware that they are paid from real tax revenue provided by private sector employees and employers.
No doubt ABC staffers would argue that they are taxpayers too, in complete ignorance of the fact that the “tax” they pay is not new revenue for governments, they are returning some of the money they are paid from private sector taxes.
Of course the nation needs a certain number of public sector employees but the cost to budgets must be noted and considered.
40
Somewhat O/T
For the next time the ABC is talking up the glowing prospects for electric vehicles
“What Happens When Sparky Car Sits In A Puddle?”
https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2018/06/21/what-happens-when-sparky-car-sits-in-a-puddle/
20
Flooding rains, muddy plains, farm road under water.
Stick to the Land Cruiser.
50
Like this one dennis?
https://www.voltra.net.au/
00
Looks nice but ‘zero emissions’? None of course in the manufacture of the vehicle or the production of the electricity to charge it. Sarc/.
32
A converted Toyota Land Cruiser single cab utility truck, from diesel to electric drive.
So how far can one travel on a single battery pack charge?
What is the reduction in payload and towing capacity from the conversion mechanicals and electricals?
How is it practical for normal commercial/farming applications even if one hour recharging is available, noting that the average electricity requirement to charge an average Tesla EV with a so called super charger is equivalent to three households daily usage.
When will there be the equivalent number of recharger stations around Australia to math fossil fuel outlets?
Can the vehicle travel in excess of 300 kilometres to reach the next Roadhouse and recharge station?
I have never opposed the EV technology as such but there are too many unanswered important practical questions to answer satisfactorily before EV could become mainstream for transportation purposes.
And electricity supply reliability is just one of the questions.
31
I am completing an eight week road trip covering 12,000 kilometres mainly in The Outback and spanning NSW, VIC, SA, NT, WA and QLD.
On one stretch between Roadhouse refuelling facilities I had to refuel at the roadside because the vehicle diesel tank was on reserve. I am towing a reasonably heavy trailer.
I doubt that I will be able to repeat this journey in an EV any time soon.
50
Mate, it’s for using in places where you don’t want fumes. Like in mines.
00
According to my early cartoon education it’s instant afro innit.
00
…when an electric car is caught in a flood. My post sort of found itself orphaned in new territory.
00
quite funny:
20 Jun: ABC: BOM declares a 50 per cent chance of El Nino this spring, possible dry and warm conditions ahead
ABC Weather By Kate Doyle
The Bureau of Meteorology has just declared an El Nino ‘watch’, which means that while we are still in the neutral phase of the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) there is an increased chance of El Nino in the months ahead.
El Nino is typically associated with lower than usual rainfall for large parts of eastern Australia in spring, according to senior climatologist at the Bureau, Robyn Duell.
“We can also see warmer days in the southern part of the country during spring in El Nino,” she said…
Autumn was warm and dry, winter is shaping up much the same, and now there is twice the normal likelihood we’ll get a spring El Nino…
How do they know so far in advance? …ETC
But to tell what is likely to happen beyond the immediate future they use computer models.
“The bureau runs a model on a super computer and there are many other countries which also run these complex computer models and we look at what they are predicting,” Ms Duell said.
“So at the moment we survey eight different models, including the bureau’s model, and five of eight of those models are indicating that El Nino is possible in spring.”
But, a little ironically, it is the Bureau’s model that is the outlier for the future ENSO outlook.
The following diagram shows that the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s model has the lowest likelihood of reaching El Nino sea surface temperatures in November, dragging down the mean…
***Duell: “When you’re forecasting a long way ahead, up to months and seasons, the difficulty is there’s a lot of chaos in the environment…
“Because it’s so difficult to forecast that far in advance we also like to see some early signs in the observations as well.
“So even though the models are quite gung-ho for El Nino at the moment, we’re not seeing as many indicators in the actual observations to elevate the risk above a 50 per cent chance at the moment.”…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-06-20/bom-declares-a-50-per-cent-chance-of-el-nino-this-spring/9887644
10
20 Jun: ClimateChangeNews: UK government refuses to commit to EU clean energy targets after Brexit
By Megan Darby
Barry Gardiner, shadow minister for international climate change, said the UK government “should at a minimum agree to uphold these targets after Brexit”.
If elected, the Labour Party would go further, Gardiner added. Its manifesto includes a push for 60% renewable energy target by 2030 and upgrading 4 million homes to a C energy rating…
In EU negotiations, the UK has consistently opposed setting renewable and energy efficiency targets, arguing for a “technology neutral” climate policy. Proponents of sector-specific targets, who won that battle in Brussels, say they give more confidence to green investors and businesses…
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/06/20/uk-government-refuses-commit-eu-clean-energy-targets-brexit/
21 Jun: ClimateChangeNews: World’s newest development bank invests in coal despite green promise
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is backing a coal-fired cement works in Myanmar through an intermediary, in a worrying sign for its climate credentials
By Petra Kjell
(Petra Kjell is campaigns manager at Bank Information Center Europe)
In September 2017, AIIB backed the IFC Emerging Asia Fund (EAF), which subsequently bought equity in Shwe Taung Cement for expansion of a cement plant in Myanmar. The investment will fund a new kiln to increase production significantly, as well as more than double the output from a coal mine that supplies the plant exclusively.
The EAF also invests in Singapore’s Summit Power International, which operates 13 power plants in Bangladesh, all of them run on fossil fuels, with no renewable energy visible in the pipeline…
This back-door investment is a worrying sign that the AIIB may not stick to its green commitments as it prepares to invest $100 billion in new infrastructure projects in Asia and beyond. Asia is on the front line of the fight against climate change…
Asia has increased its greenhouse gas emissions by 3.6% per year between 2006 and 2014 – 3% more than the global average…
To date, the AIIB has disbursed US$4.59 billion, of which US$990 million has been invested in five fossil fuel projects. Many of its renewable energy investments are also questionable, focusing on large scale potentially damaging projects, rather than funding for off-grid renewable energy projects, that are better at providing energy access for those most in need…
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/06/21/worlds-newest-development-bank-invests-coal-despite-green-promise/
00
more of the kinds of stories u don’t hear on theirABC:
19 Jun: Guardian: UK solar power growth halves for second year running
Labour says figures show government’s commitment to green energy is ‘nothing but an empty PR move’
by Adam Vaughan
New solar power installations halved in the UK last year for the second year in a row, as the fallout of government subsidy cuts continued to shake the sector…
The UK numbers were so poor that they caused overall EU solar growth to flatline at a time when record amounts of new solar were added globally.
Europe’s solar trade body said the UK had the slowest growth of the world’s top 20 solar markets, the lowest prospect for growth among its European peers in coming years and the worst political outlook.
New solar capacity in the UK declined to 0.95GW last year, down from 1.97GW in 2016 and 4.1GW in 2015.
The fall was so steep that the UK acted as a drag on the EU as a whole. “Even though 21 of the 28 EU markets showed growth, this wasn’t enough to compensate for the British losses,” the trade body said in a new report (LINK).
British solar firms have been hit by a round of subsidy cuts in 2015 and 2016, as well as changes to business rates for buildings with rooftop solar…
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/19/uk-solar-power-growth-halves-for-second-year-running
20 Jun: ClimateChangeNews: EU decides on non-binding 2030 energy efficiency target
Deal between lawmakers and ministers will cut energy waste 32.5% and reduce reliance on fossil fuel imports, but didn’t go far enough for green groups.
By Sam Morgan for Euractiv
It took six rounds of talks, the resignation of an MEP and a heavy dose of compromise but new laws on energy efficiency for the next decade were finalised on Tuesday, with national representatives and EU lawmakers agreeing on an overall EU-wide target of 32.5% by 2030…
But negotiators could only agree on a non-binding indicative goal, which in EU-speak is now being touted as a “headline” target. When inter-institutional talks began, MEPs had insisted that a binding target was their main red line…
Environmental groups were quick to give the agreement short shrift…
…counterpart at Friends of the Earth Europe, Clémence Hutin, added that the new pact is “a let down for the climate and Europe’s energy poor”, denouncing the agreement as a “missed opportunity for emissions cuts, decent homes, cheaper energy bills and local green jobs”.
Leftist MEP Xabier Benito Ziluaga (GUE/NGL) also called it “inefficient” and also cast doubt on Europe’s ability to deliver on the Paris accord…
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/06/20/eu-decides-non-binding-2030-energy-efficiency-target/
00
21 Jun: Reuters: Conflict, climate change choke efforts to cure poverty, inequality: U.N.
by Ellen Wulfhorst
Climate change and conflict are forcing growing numbers of people to go hungry, flee their homes and lose critical access to water, the United Nations said on Wednesday in a look at progress in its global development goals.
The number of hungry people has risen for the first time in a decade, and violence and conflict are causing food problems in 18 nations, the U.N. said in its assessment…
Progress has been hampered by climate change-related extreme weather and by violence and war, said Francesca Perucci, assistant director of the Statistics Division at the U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)…
“With climate change … we notice there’s a lot of significant economic losses and (that) probably will increase in coming years,” said Yongyi Min, chief of the SDG monitoring section at UN DESA, at the news conference…
“With just 12 years left to the 2030 deadline, we must inject a sense of urgency,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a foreword to the assessment report…
***The cost of implementing the SDGs has been estimated at $3 trillion a year.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-un-goals-progress/conflict-climate-change-choke-efforts-to-cure-poverty-inequality-u-n-idUSKBN1JG32C
00
20 Jun: Bloomberg: Exelon, First Solar Bankroll Campaign to Push for a U.S. Carbon Tax
By Jennifer A Dlouhy
Major energy companies, including the largest U.S. nuclear power generator, are putting millions of dollars into a new political campaign to push for a tax on carbon dioxide emissions — a measure President Donald Trump has said he opposes.
Exelon Corp., is giving $1 million toward the cause, joining renewable power manufacturer First Solar Inc. and the American Wind Energy Association in helping underwrite the nonprofit organization…
The campaign, dubbed Americans for Carbon Dividends, aims to bolster a carbon tax-and-dividend plan advanced by prominent Republicans a year ago, using more aggressive lobbying and advertising to line up support with hopes of winning congressional passage after the 2020 elections.
The initiative will be run by two former senators: Democrat John Breaux and Republican Trent Lott. Top political consultants and strategists, including White House veterans Mark McKinnon, Karen Hughes and Joe Lockhart, are advising the campaign.
Two former Federal Reserve chairmen, Janet Yellen and Ben Bernanke, also are signing on as members of the Climate Leadership Council, the not-for-profit advocacy group that developed the underlying carbon tax-and-dividend plan…
The new group represents the most serious effort in years to influence the U.S. debate over climate policy and appeal to Republicans who have opposed putting a price on the carbon dioxide emissions that drive global warming…
And there are signs that Republican sentiment is changing, with younger party members clamoring for action, said Ted Halstead, chief executive of the Climate Leadership Council. He cited a recent poll conducted for the group of 2,000 likely voters that showed 71 percent of moderate Republicans agree that the government should take action to limit carbon-dioxide emissions. And in Congress, more than three dozen Republicans have signed on to the Climate Solutions Caucus.
“There are all kinds of indications that the tide is turning,” Halstead said. “Sooner or later, I think everybody realizes that the Republican Party needs to lead on this issue. So we’re teeing this up for when that tidal change comes.”…
Exelon, the nation’s largest generator of carbon-free nuclear power, stands to benefit from policies encouraging low- and no-emission energy. Exelon was one of the members of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, the last big broad corporate push for legislation addressing carbon dioxide emissions. Related congressional efforts faltered in 2010…
The new political group is organized under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code, freeing it to run paid advertising, lobby policy makers and conduct aggressive social and digital campaigns with the aim of building support for the carbon tax plan. The group does not plan to be active in this November’s elections but organizers envision doing so in 2020.
The proposed carbon tax aims to increase the cost of energy derived from oil, natural gas and coal, thereby discouraging the use of those fossil fuels and encouraging the free market to develop low-carbon power alternatives.
Under the Climate Leadership Council’s blueprint, every ton of carbon dioxide would be hit with a $40 tax, with the price rising over time and revenue redistributed to households in the form of quarterly dividend checks…
Bush Connections
The campaign has enlisted former aides to President George W. Bush, including political strategist McKinnon and the former president’s onetime counselor, Hughes, now a worldwide vice chair at Burson-Marsteller LLC. Lockhart, a White House press secretary under President Bill Clinton, also has joined as a senior adviser. Veteran Republican fundraiser Margaret Lauderback will seek more underwriters…
Exxon Mobil, BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA publicly backed the plan last June, joining consumer products companies and General Motors Co.
Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP, which operates Bloomberg News, is an individual founding member of the Climate Leadership Council, but neither he nor Bloomberg Philanthropies has provided any funding to the organization…
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-19/exelon-first-solar-bankroll-campaign-to-push-a-u-s-carbon-tax
20 Jun: NYT: Opinion: Here’s How to Break the Impasse on Climate
By Trent Lott (Republican) and John Breaux (Democrat)
As former leaders of our parties in the United States Senate, we know what it takes to achieve a bipartisan breakthrough in Congress…
The plan is simple and elegant. It calls for an initial fee of $40 on every ton of carbon-dioxide emissions at the source, and raising it each year until we reach the necessary emissions reductions as businesses and consumers move to cleaner sources of energy…
To do so, we must set our politics aside for the greater good…
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/opinion/climate-change-fee-carbon-dioxide.html
uhoh…Trent Lott? John Breaux? Russian collusion!
15 May 2015: Bloomberg: Trent Lott’s Firm Made a Fortune Lobbying for the Kremlin
by Matthew Campbell and Dawn Kopecki
The Kremlin and Big Oil are stuffing more money into Washington’s influence machine as Europe and the U.S. renew their commitment to Russian sanctions…
Consider that last year, the Washington, D.C., lobbying firm of former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott raked in $300,000 from Kremlin-controlled OAO Gazprombank, which was a target of sanctions. The Gazprombank billings for Lott’s firm are about double what Lott made in annual salary during any of his 18 years in the Senate.
Other high-profile ex-senators like John Breaux of Louisiana and Don Nickles of Oklahoma are also getting in on the Russian action, as is Haley Barbour, the former governor of Mississippi…
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-15/washington-insiders-reap-windfall-peddling-influence-for-kremlin
what a laugh.
20
as for Bloomberg not providing funding for the Orwellian-styled “Americans for Carbon Dividends”, we do know:
20 Jun: WashingtonFreeBeacon: Bloomberg to Spend $80 Million Boosting Democrats in Midterms
by David Rutz
Bloomberg is a political independent but holds liberal stances on issues like climate change, gun control and immigration, and he spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention…
Bloomberg told the New York Times Republicans had “failed” in their opportunity to show they could “govern responsibly.”…
Former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee executive director Howard Wolfson will oversee Bloomberg’s spending efforts.
He hasn’t ruled out a possible White House run in 2020, telling CBS in April the odds of him mounting a candidacy were “not very high.”
http://freebeacon.com/politics/bloomberg-spend-80-million-boosting-democrats-midterms/
00
a Michael Bloomberg’s C40 Cities study!
20 Jun: UK Times: Rising sea levels will hit power stations in next 30 years
by Aaron Rogan, Senior Ireland Reporter
Dublin and Cork will face energy blackouts by 2050 as power plants are flooded by rising sea levels, a study has warned.
Belfast would also face a direct threat of flooding caused by climate change if radical changes are not made worldwide to tackle rising temperatures.
Irish people will be among billions of city dwellers likely to be threatened just 30 years from now, say researchers. Coastal cities will be hit by heatwaves, flooding, food and water shortages.
The study was carried out by environmental lobby groups and C40 Cities, a group of cities taking action on climate change…
More than 800 million people in urban areas are forecast to be vulnerable to sea level rises and coastal flooding, including 30 million in European cities…
A further 470 million will see their power supplies threatened. The report by C40 cities and environmental lobby groups used data from NASA to assess which areas could be vulnerable to rising sea levels and flooding by 2050. Mark Watts, the executive director of C40 Cities, commented: “Now we have the clearest possible evidence of just what these impacts [of climate change] will mean for the citizens of the world’s cities. This is the future that nobody wants. Our research should serve as a wake-up call on just how urgently we need to be delivering bold climate action.”…
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rising-sea-levels-will-hit-power-stations-in-next-30-years-865lvz7lc
20 Jun: Cities face dramatic rise in heat, flood risks by 2050, researchers say
by Laurie Goering
CAPE TOWN (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – In just 30 years, cities around the world will face dramatically higher risks from extreme heat, coastal flooding, power blackouts and food and water shortages unless climate-changing emissions are curbed, urban researchers warned Tuesday.
Today, for instance, over 200 million people in 350 cities face stifling heat where average daily peak temperatures hit 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) for three months of the year, according to a study released by C40 Cities, a network of major world cities pushing climate action.
But by 2050, more than 1.6 billion people in 970 cities will face those conditions, researchers predicted.
The number of people who are both in poverty and battling brutal heat – usually without air conditioning – will rise tenfold, they said.
“This is a wake-up call,” said Kevin Austin, deputy executive director of C40 Cities, at an international meeting in the South African city of Cape Town on adapting to climate change…
The research, carried out by the New York-based Urban Climate Change Research Network, looked at data from more than 2,500 cities and predicted likely conditions if emissions continue to rise at their current rate…
The C40 Cities study also found that by mid-century over 800 million people will live in 570 coastal cities at risk of flooding from weather extremes and sea level rise…
***Decentralizing power systems – including by getting clean energy from a larger number of smaller power plants – could help cut the risks, researchers said…
Looking at just one type of problem – such as a health threats from extreme heat, or sea level rise – isn’t enough to capture the risks, said Cynthia Rosenzweig, a climatologist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies and one of the authors of the report…
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-cities-risks/cities-face-dramatic-rise-in-heat-flood-risks-by-2050-researchers-say-idUSKBN1JF2V8
00
and another…which is all over US MSM:
19 Jun: ABC America: Almost $118 billion worth of US homes threatened by rising sea levels: Report
By Karolina Rivas
A report (LINK) published by the Union of Concerned Scientists has found that nearly 311,000 coastal homes, worth $117.5 billion, are at risk of chronic flooding due to sea-level rise over the next 30 years.
UCS determined these numbers by using government data and data and from the online real estate company Zillow. Three sea-level rise scenarios were devised by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. After analysis, the group is able to predict that the states with the most homes at high-risk for flooding include Florida, with nearly 1 million homes, New Jersey, with 250,000 homes, and New York with 143,000 homes.
UCS reports damage from rising sea levels could have “staggering economic impacts.” Homeowners may see property values decline, physical damage to property structures or have to pay more for insurance…
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/118-billion-worth-us-homes-threatened-rising-sea/story?id=56013052&cid=clicksource_4380645_1_hero_headlines_headlines_hed
18 Jun: Scientific American: Sea Level Rise Will Threaten Thousands of California Homes
Chronic flooding will impact areas around San Francisco and Los Angeles by 2035
By Anne C. Mulkern, E&E News
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sea-level-rise-will-threaten-thousands-of-california-homes/
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A better idea might be to stop the universities’ scandalous waste of taxpayers’ money funding the left-wing echo chamber, ‘The Conversation’. This would also have the immediate effect of removing about half of the ‘opinion’ pieces published online by the ABC, and reveal the pathetic weakness of its journalism.
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The Conversation is tragic stuff. Just a lot of teenie-bopper blather decorated with academic crests and corporate logos. “Speaking power to truth” would be a fine motto for this taxation super-sopper driven by whiny authoritarians.
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Ever get the feeling no matter what happens, the same agenda keeps moving forward because the goal posts keep being moved to assure the green agenda is pushed?
The NEG is an engineered response to a manufactured crisis.
Clever, but it is what it is….but it will all end in tears.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/coalition-mps-reject-tony-abbott-warning-on-energy-and-climate-change-20180621-p4zmy5.html
“Coalition backbenchers are speaking up for the Turnbull government’s energy plan in the face of growing complaints from former prime minister Tony Abbott, insisting the policy has the “overwhelming” party room support.
The Liberal and Nationals MPs are warning against moves to stymie the National Energy Guarantee, with six backbenchers warning that its failure would only make it easier to impose Labor policy “fantasies” instead.
The moves come one day after Mr Abbott rebuked Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull for “taking the backbench for granted” in the energy debate and signalled he might be willing to cross the floor on energy policy in Parliament.”
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O/T but Jo gets an honourable mention here
“The Thirty Year War”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/06/20/the-thirty-year-war/
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‘It is the willingness of the skeptics to be wrong that will sustain people’s faith in the scientific process.’
Beautiful words.
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As Phillip says on:#1.1.1
“Is that true or did you hear it on the BBC?”
A classic putdown that could be made more “inclusive” by including their ABC as a co equal target with the sad old “beeb”.
KK
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Sorry if this has already been mentioned (I did try searching some terms), but one NSW resident thinks the ABC is wonderful:
“Do not privatise the Australian Broadcasting Commission”
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Michelle Guthrie says it doesn’t matter what the ratings are as long as every Australian has one ABC program that they have to watch every week.
I don’t, so obviously you have failed Missus Farr.
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Neither do I Neil. See new thread for why!
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There is another option. Let ABC live on advertizer dollars, money spent based on audience share, the more people reached with that advertising the more the advertizer is wiling to spend to advertise on ABC. Of course this only works if there’s competition so you need to open up broadcasting to all comers. Show us that you have a viable broadcasting operation and financing and we’ll give you a license to broadcast.
This doesn’t work all that well either but it works better than any other system that doesn’t work well. It’s kinda like self government. It’s a bad system with all sorts of flaws, except that it’s less flawed than anything else anyone has ever tried.
I don’t trust our National Public Radio (NPR, government funded radio) any farther than I could throw them. They are nothing but a front for the left. Our Public Broadcasting System (PBS TV) is a little better because they have to exist in large part on the donations of viewers. But even there, they run some of the worst stuff available, they don’t do news worth a phtt and they are a bore to watch. The commercial stations run the gamut from MSNBC with horrible ratings and horrible content (I would swear someone is supporting them behind the scenes or they would go under) to Fox News that has regained it’s position of king of prime time after the bad actors there were out of the way.
I tell you, it works. It’s simple. The people themselves quickly choose the winners and the losers. Someone will always watch MSNBC. But many more will watch Fox News Channel or the newcomer in town, One America News Network (OANN.com), unashamedly American and proud of it.
You in Oz need your own version of what I just described, not dependent on government funding.
And yes, I guess I’me telling you what I think you need. So forgive me. But you get to make the decision. I can only say it doesn’t work well but it doesn’t work well a whole lot better than anything else that doesn’t work well.
Somehow human affairs are always a mess. But I’ll take the most useful and beneficial mess over the others every time.
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I’m sure I’ll see disagreements. I really don’t mind so take whatever shot you think is due. 🙂
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Jo,
I had exactly the same thought although my preferred model is subscription based.
Even tick a box on a tax return might inflate the figures. Actually parting with the money makes a decision more real.
That said the number of consumers that tick the box to fly carbon neutral for a couple of dollars is pathetically low. Even that is inflated by business flights where company policy dictates they go green rather than individuals.
My thinking is that if Guthrie thinks the ABC is a “priceless asset” loved by 70-80% of the population then she would surely not want to forgo the chance to get extra funding by charging voluntary consumers rather than being capped by involuntary tax payers. At $200 per household (using ABS number of 8.2m approx) this would be half the price of a typical Foxtel subscription and reap an extra $500m in revenues per annum. Win-win.
Let Guthrie put OUR money where HER mouth is so to speak.
You should start a petition at Change.org for such an approach!!
Go for it!!
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” … Fighting back, the ABC head says Australians think the “ABC is priceless”, so I say: Fine — let those people pay for it. … ”
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So they’ll be absolutely thrilled to be able to finally invest and buy shares in the ABC then. A once in a life time opportunity.
Win-Win.
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Now that is novel, don’t dismantle, privatise and put it up on the ASX.
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