Political censorship?
Richard Neville, the Australian-born political satirist jailed in England after the Oz magazine censorship trial in 1971, created a website — johnhowardpm.org — modelled on PM Joihn Howard's official pm.gov.au, and put on it a "speech" by Howard, entitled " Reflections on the Situation in Iraq" and allegedly given to the Mebourne-based "Deaken Society", which many readers apparently thought was genuine.
In the speech, "Howard" said that despite his earlier claims in 2004 that "electricity, water, telephone and sanitation were gradually being restored to pre-war levels or above", he had now to admit this wasn't true. "As of February this year, 125 projects to provide electricity have been cancelled. Of the 136 projects that were originally pledged to improve Iraqi water and sanitation, only 49 will be ever finished."
"Howard's speech" (also available at <http://www.richardneville.com>) continues in this vain — citing the actual facts of the situation in Iraq, rather than the real John Howard's Pollyannaish lies.
The March 17 Sydney Morning Herald reported that the spoof Howard website had "been shut down under orders from the Australian government". The SMH reported that Bruce Tonkin, the chief technology officer at Melbourne IT, said the site had been shut down in response to a request from the PM's office on basis that it looked too similar to its own site.
"If we receive a complaint from an intellectual property basis claiming that a website directly infringes the rights of another site we would check it, and if is a direct copy we would suspend the site", he told the SMH.
A case of political censorship carried out under the cover of defence of "intellectual property" rights — or an illustration of how "intellectual property" rights restrict freedom of political expression?
Doug Lorimer
Sydney
Advertising
The federal Coalition government won't rule out advertising on ABC TV. Instead, it should increase government funding.
Public broadcasting is exceptionally good value. Millions can be informed and entertained for under a dollar a week per Australian.
ABC TV costs far less than each major Australian commercial TV network, and the ABC has a small budget relative to prominent overseas public broadcasters like the BBC. The ABC's output could be improved with greater public funding.
Any advertising revenue might be partially offset by a reduced government contribution. Advertising would leave less air-time for programs and might undesirably influence program content. Ad breaks would certainly diminish the listening and viewing pleasure of most ABC users.
Government funding is cheaper than advertising for lower-income people because progressive taxation disproportionately comes from higher-income citizens while advertising costs are generally recovered by flat price increases on consumer goods.
Brent Howard
Rydalmere, NSW
Argentina
Argentina has recently experienced a severe economic crisis that led to over half the population living below the poverty line. A country that produces enough food to sustain itself, and to export, had people going hungry. The official unemployment figure was at over 20% at one point.
In the midst of this crisis out of simple necessity, the workers of many factories and businesses acted to take control of their workplaces. When their boss closed, abandoned or sent the place bankrupt. They workers took over and each in their own way began a struggle to recommence production or businesses. With a determination to work, with the support and solidarity from the social movements and other reoccupied factory and businesses, over 200 are now up and running. They range from factories to health centres to education institutions to hotels and many more areas of the economy.
This demonstrates that in all these areas working people are more than capable of taking these industries forward without their bosses. In some of my visits to factory workers tell me how when they had a boss, they just did their part of the production. Now they are running the place!
Organised as a cooperative, all the workers now have a say as to how their workplace runs, and they all have to be concerned that it runs well. They democratically make decisions by holding assemblies, elect a group to oversee the day to day running and train one other. While not ignoring that there have been, and will continue to be many problems, such worker controlled workplaces demonstrates that ordinary people can produce and provide services, and do so for the benefit of other workers and society. One example is a auto parts factory which helps out their retired workers out of the factory's profit (which in essence would be the workers salary). The pension in Argentina is a disgrace and simply not enough to live on. The workers at this particular factory decided to make up the difference so that their former workers can continue to live with dignity.
The reality is that the economic system that we currently live under is one that dehumanises people, puts private property before human needs and of the environment and has no future. We need to see the example of reoccupied factories and businesses in Argentina, and indeed the rest of Latin America, as what is possible and necessary.
Walter Yoia
Buenos Aires
Tax
Will the rich stoop at nothing to continue to feather their own nests. We now are told that Australia's top tax rate is one of the highest in the Western world as justification for lowering tax to the rich. Yet what of the other side of the equation? Do these other countries have a free universal health care system, Medicare and free nursing home care? Are they rapidly growing countries which demand increasing infrastructure over great distances, new hospitals and schools? Do they offer tax concessions to the rich which allow Australia's richest to pay less than 30% tax? Let us have some honesty not lies, lies and statistics.
Colin Hughes
Glen Forrest, WA
From Green Left Weekly, March 22, 2006.
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