Thursday, May 10, 2007



It is heartening to know that the media organisation Reporters Without Borders ranks Australia below Ghana, Bolivia and Bosnia in the international pecking order of media freedoms, but we still can link to budgets and parliamentary debates …Rudd fires back over schools Rudd the builder plays it safe for ALP
AS is the tradition in Australia's oldest parliament, the Speaker-elect, Richard Torbay, had to be dragged to the chair by two MPs in a theatrical display of anti-tyrannical modesty. But he made little pretence of resisting. Mr Torbay, the first independent speaker in modern parliamentary history appointed by a Government with a clear majority, proudly took his seat yesterday amid warm applause from both sides of the chamber. Dragged to the chair FROM potato peeler to political powerhouse, Richard Torbay's evolution prompts comparisons with the proverbial cream that has risen to the top


Can we change the heart of politics? Time to show abc of manners in the bearpit
He hit the ground running when he joined the national broadcaster.


Back in early 1990s Mark Scott looked around the parliamentary cafeteria in late 2000 he looked around at the former ABC site in Brisbane and was struck by the number of young women in the crowd, their faces lined with concern. It didn't take long before the question was asked. It was the question his wife, Briony, had put to him only days before. "Would you let your daughters work here?" It was more daunting than the protest of 50,000 people he had faced down as a 26-year-old political staffer for one of NSW's most controversial ministers, Terry Metherell. And it was more confronting than being the Fairfax executive at the centre of a messy union dispute, which resulted in The Age newspaper not getting out on AFL grand final day.


ON the face of it, Mark Scott could easily be seen as the ABC's worst nightmare, but then he exchanged glances with Paola Totaro and other angels who helped him to get through the landmines Divine provenance: Aunty's 'nightmare' new boss generating goodwill Story worthy of archiving for Google on Scott
• Aunty's latest boss is its most surprising one yet - an evangelical Christian who's fluent in management-speak. One year into his tenure, Mark Scott talks to Caroline Overington about his big plans for our cultural behemoth Scott of the ABC ; [Now that Ian Faulks took retrenchment from NSW Parliament expect another Sunday profile soon about chief od staff in some office other than Paul Gibson's Sunday Profile ; ABC internet advertising attacked Glenys Stradijot of The Friends of the ABC fame has condemned the prospect of advertising on the national broadcaster.Ads … ]
• · NSW Parliament network manager Neil Dammerel, whose face has been around for many years in the corridors of power, said the government department has always taken extraordinary measures to ensure the privacy and integrity of its information and this agreement "sets a new precedent" for data protection. NSW Parliament gets managed security ; SHE'S been in the "bearpit" for just one day, but the newly elected Opposition frontbencher Pru Goward reckons it's the most male-dominated and "ruthlessly sexist" place she has ever worked. Ruthlessly sexist place she has ever worked.;
• · AUSTRALIA'S biggest media companies have formed a rare coalition to fight a steadily declining level of free speech they say has seriously eroded Australia's democracy. Matthew Moore; More battles rage in the war against freedoms It is heartening to know that the media organisation Reporters Without Borders ranks Australia below Ghana, Bolivia and Bosnia in the international pecking order of media freedoms. We've slipped two spots to No. 35, equal to Bulgaria Richard Ackland