GetUp! says a subsidiary that listed Greens’ ACT Senate candidate Simon Sheikh as a director was never operational and the recently corrected listing was an oversight, with the reference to the company owning a live website also a mistake. Getup! national director Sam McLean said Mr Sheikh's name had been removed on Friday as a director and secretary of the Community Campaigning subsidiary, and the terms of service of the CommunityRun website had also been altered to reflect it has also always been owned by the parent company.  Greens candidate ... Simon Sheikh says it is an oversight there are still apparent links to GetUp! Photo: Jeffrey Chan According to the website, the campaigns that use the platform - covering issues include heritage homes, children in detention and voluntary euthanasia - are "not run nor endorsed by GetUp in any way". Coalition Senate leader Eric Abetz has stood by his call for Mr Sheikh to stand down or be sacked as a Greens' candidate in connection with the link with the lobby group and other oversights. Mr Sheikh has not disputed that he was still listed on Friday morning as a director and secretary of its subsidiary, registered in February last year, but said it was a matter for GetUp! to resolve. GetUp! national director Sam McLean told Fairfax Media the organisation had fixed the listing, and stood by his statements the subsidiary had never traded or been funded by GetUp! after being alerted to the website, which is directly accessible from the GetUp! homepage. Read more at http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/never-operational-getup-sheikhlinked-subsidiary-has-active-website-20130801-2r30g.html

" I left the party when Ms Hanson Young arrived, and joined Sustainable Australia but it did really badly in the election." Surely most Australians would want a sustainable Australia, with a sustainable population size? The big growth we are experiencing is surely a threat to our environment, our stability and our prosperity? Unfortunately, the Sustainable Australia party is too quiet about the P word- POPULATION! Surely it is the "everything" issue, so why not be up-front about Population? Why not address directly the main source of our massive population growth - IMMIGRATION? Nothing is achieved by being PC, and trying to avoid the big ticket issues like "racism" and "xenophobia"? They are just falling into the Green's agenda by their silence. The party should be called the "Reduce Immigration" Party, and the media will surely give them more attention? They will trap them with questions, aimed to expose them as "racist", but publicity is good publicity, and "sustainable" is a bland, oxymoron that's easily dismissed these days - overused and meaningless!

Thank you for this article. It is about the most important Australian issue of our time really and is at the root of all the environmental destruction going on. Australia will be a desert with buildings in our lifetime. I'm not surprised about the Greens. I left the party when Ms Hanson Young arrived, and joined Sustainable Australia but it did really badly in the election. Typical that the Greens bring up xenophobia. They are watermelons, and I've been told that by an insider years ago.

On Mon, Aug 15, 2016 at 1:14 AM, Ken Stone wrote: Hamilton Spectator August 13, 2016, page A12 Time for Canada to stop backing U.S. wars RE: Canadian foreign policy The Spec has a short memory. In 2011, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) bombed Libya mercilessly for seven months. The United Nations Security Council had authorized a no-fly zone over Libya, which NATO abused into a regime change operation. Libya, which had the highest standard of living in Africa, was utterly devastated and turned into a failed state. Hundreds of thousands were killed, maimed, and turned into refugees. Hillary Clinton gloated over the assassination of Colonel Gadaffi, quipping, "We came, we saw, he died!" Canadian planes and ships took part in this illegal military intervention, despite warnings by senior staff that overthrowing Gadaffi would open the door for terrorists into Libya. Later, some officers joked privately that Canadian jets were "al-Qaida's airforce." Now, the USA is bombing Libya again. We don't believe it's to stop ISIS. After all, the USA is responsible for creating ISIS by creating power vacuums in Iraq, Syria, and Libya. It also admitted that its weapons and fighters it has trained have ended up with ISIS. We also don't accept the legality of the militia fighting for power in Libya, from which the USA supposedly derives authorization to bomb the country: it's not up to the USA to overthrow governments it doesn't like and replace them with compliant regimes. It's time that the U.S. removed its dirty hands from the whole Middle East. And it's overtime for Canada to quit NATO so as not to be dragged into every war of the U.S. Empire. Ken Stone, Hamilton Coalition To Stop The War

Rockefeller, Ford Foundations Behind World Social Forum (WSF). The Corporate Funding of Social Activism

Wow, that's a very serious stuff and deserving much more research and investigation. http://massalijn.nl/new/the-ngo-ization-of-resistance/"....Real political resistance offers no such short cuts. The NGO-ization of politics threatens to turn resistance into a well-mannered, reasonable, salaried, 9-to-5 job. With a few perks thrown in. Real resistance has real consequences. And no salary." http://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/capitalism-a-ghost-story/280234Capitalism: A Ghost Story Rockefeller to Mandela, Vedanta to Anna Hazare.... How long can the cardinals of corporate gospel buy up our protests? http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/20/the-useful-altruists-how-ngos-serve-capitalism-and-imperialism/".....NGOs, like missionaries, are used to penetrate an area to prepare favorable conditions for agribusiness for export, sweatshops, resource mines, and tourist playgrounds. While these days military action is usually characterized (at least to the home population) as a humanitarian intervention, the ostensibly humanitarian character of NGOs seems to justify itself. But it is essential to apply the same critical eye to NGO interventions that we do to military interventions.."

On census night 1996 I spent the night in a tiny hotel in William Creek on the Oodnadatta track. A local person was given responsibility for collecting people's responses. She had been all around the local countryside making sure every lone camper had been included. This attention to detail which I saw first hand as all our responses at the hotel that night were gathered up gave me confidence that the census would be a pretty accurate "snapshot" of who was in Australia and where that night. Last night respondents were encouraged to enter data online and the site crashed. People will have to enter it later but when? Will visitors to Australia who were present last night but will be in Amsterdam next week fill it in? I don't think so. It will not be a snapshot, but rather, a blur, surely?

All these "developments" are a clear indication of a vacant abyss of what should be called "an Economy"! Resorting to housing and bulking up population is an admission that what should and used to be called our "economy" has now unwound, and the last resort is to use housing and humans as economic units. It's guaranteed, like food, that people will need places to live - roofs over their heads. It's a basic human requirement and a right. This is the lowest level of human needs being catered for, more like Third World level of what passes as an Economy! As a developed economy, we should be higher up on the scale of what constitutes income generation - things such as productivity, jobs, knowledge-investment, innovation and cutting-edge inventions. However, we are pulling the dredges by relying on stamp duties and more and more people - filling up this giant housing Ponzi scheme, destroying suburbs, amenities and living standards. Time there was a plan for our country, and a discussing of where we are heading. To recognise the homeless would mean politicians would have to acknowledge the shallowness of our "economy", but no, the growth machine continues with different Planning Schemes that all really promote the same thing- damage control and not real or profession Planning!

Hi John, Thanks for the compliment. There are plenty of hair raising stories about the dirty old, faceless, shameless shipping industry. How about the one where in 1991 a ship discharged ballast that had been taken on in Bangladesh into a bay in Peru, where a shellfish industry had thrived. Soon after 1 million people fell ill (Peru population of 20 million at the time) and 10,000 people died of cholera. The strain of cholera had never before been seen in Peru and was traced to the port in Bangladesh where the ballast had been taken on. It has caused so many incidents around the world, and yet the shipping industry just keeps on sailing past- without a care in the world, and never held properly to account. I’m adding another article soon about the cruise industry, and no I won’t be going on a cruise! Cheers Jenny W

Regarding workers' conditions, it is amazing how easily people accept changes for the worse. A friend's son has landed a job with a prestigious finance company, having recently graduated with a law / commerce degree. Apparently this is the fulfilment of a dream in this field of endeavour. He has been treated to dinners and weekends away with the company in preparation for commencement of work for real. It all sounds good except that apparently he has to work both day and night! There will be no leaving at 5.00pm. Parents are happy for him and he is excited about his future but what can be so important in an accounting company that it requires staff to work maybe 14 hours per day? What happened to the 8 hour day? Why are we not trying to regain this as an acceptable norm?

Despite the massive "cull" of kangaroos, 2008, there's new housing "developments" planned for Belconnen. Sections of the site are listed for its natural heritage as habitat for the endangered Golden Sun Moth. The site also contains the only known location of the threatened Ginninderra Peppercress, a small perennial herb.

Back in 2013, the ACT government has announced that the first release of 124 single residential blocks will take place before the end of the year and will be sold through an auction process.

The first stage of the suburb will also include the release of a further 12 multi-unit sites bringing the total to 560 dwellings. The adjoining Defence land was the site of the 2008 kangaroo culls, which gained international attention. There *could* also be more residential development on this 143-hectare site in future - prophesied back then!
The West Belconnen / Parkwood development will include three new suburbs in the north west of Canberra adjacent to Holt and Macgregor and a new settlement in the Yass Valley immediately adjacent to the border. The vision for the development is to "create a community that provides diverse, affordable and inclusive places to live, work and play". There will be a range of housing options for individuals and families at "affordable prices". Up to 11,500 new homes will accommodate about 30,000 people, the project will help meet existing and future demand for housing for the next 30-40 years.

The CSIRO are selling the land. CSIRO general manager for business and infrastructure Mark Wallis stressed the organisation was not looking to sell the site. "We are looking for a joint-venture development partner and one that's aligned with our aspirations for the site, which is to ensure we deliver the benchmark in urban sustainable design and also to tackle the problem of affordable housing," he said.

A site, known as Section 200, will have up to 745 dwellings and has been likened to Canberra’s NewActon precinct.
Back in 2008, ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope has released a report from the Environment Commissioner which recommended culling kangaroos by lethal injection. The report by Maxine Cooper recommended urgent action to ensure no further damage is done to the grassland ecosystem at the Belconnen Naval Transmission Station.

It was to protect endangered species. The threat to biodiversity in Canberra's native reserves is a key justification for the night-time exercise, with rapid deterioration blamed on extensive overgrazing by the growing kangaroo population.
Peter Dowling, National Heritage Officer with the National Trust explains they’ve lobbied the government several times, all the way up to the Prime Minister for the site of the former aerial farm to be left for grasslands ecology studies. “The BNTS site is prime residential land and some of it has been given over to future residents there,” he said.

The conservation extremist are deafening in their silence when housing growth threatens native grasslands and native species.

http://www.nowuc.com.au/2012/05/from-protecting-australia-to-protecting-a-moth/

Filtering out potential migrants for those who would be best for keeping our communities safe is not "discrimination"! It's common sense, and part of national security. We know the Islamic terror being raged in Europe, and we know that those who adhere strongly to the Theocracy of Islam find it hard to accept democracy, and liberal Western values. Islam is not just a religion, and if it were merely about worship, it wouldn't be a problem. The religion is a front for the social, legal, political, and military agendas of Islam. Of course, not all Muslims are a threat, and many are only nominal. But, there are dangerous elements that would be foolish to ignore- at our peril! It's easy to dismiss Hanson as ignorant, and "racist", but she has the support of many voters! She's touched a nerve of what many people feel, and how long can police keep terror threats in Australia at bay? There's a place for tolerance, but tolerance must be met with tolerance, not hardline fanatics who will use our humanitarian and political-correctness to pry open our borders for their own ends! As for "racism" (Islam is not a race), healthy levels are part of patriotism and bring cohesion to our nation! We should endorse positive racism as part of our solidarity as a nation.

Originally posted on July 10, 2016 by Sean Adl-Tabatabai in News, World George Soros funded and orchestrated the refugee crisis in Europe, opening the gates to allow refugees and terrorists into the continent. Soros’s agenda has always been about destroying national sovereignty and national borders. Zerohedge.com reports: The refugee crisis is not a naturally occurring phenomenon. It coincided with OSF donating money to the US-based Migration Policy Institute and the Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants, both Soros-sponsored organizations. Both groups advocate the resettlement of third-world Muslims into Europe. In 2015, a Sky News reporter found “Migrant Handbooks” on the Greek island of Lesbos. It was later revealed that the handbooks, which are written in Arabic, had been given to refugees before crossing the Mediterranean by a group called “Welcome to the EU.” Welcome to the EU is funded by—you guessed it—the Open Society Foundations. Soros has not only backed groups that advocate the resettlement of third-world migrants into Europe, he in fact is the architect of the “Merkel Plan.” The Merkel Plan was created by the European Stability Initiative whose chairman Gerald Knaus is a senior fellow at none other than the Open Society Foundations. The plan proposes that Germany should grant asylum to 500,000 Syrian refugees. It also states that Germany, along with other European nations, should agree to help Turkey, a country that’s 98% Muslim, gain visa-free travel within the EU starting in 2016. Political Discourse The refugee crisis has raised huge concern in European countries like Hungary. In response to 7,000 migrants entering Hungarian territory per day in 2015, the Hungarian government reestablished border control in order to keep the hordes of refugees from entering the country. Of course this did not go down well with Soros and his close allies, the Clintons. Bill Clinton has since come out and accused both Poland and Hungary of thinking “democracy is too much trouble” and wanting to have a “Putin-like authoritarian dictatorship.” Read more here.

The most important point that is coming through is that society has been rendered inarticulate through the prevailing discourse which is so practiced and appraised but the " intelligentsia”. No wonder many of us feel we are eternally at the Mad Hatters tea party. I thought the panel was very condescending to PH on Q & A especially when she expressed surprise that the Iranian guy was a Muslim- I think someone even said something like "and he doesn’t have 2 heads” .

On conduct guidelines: I was brought up not to highlight someone’s religion or to make bigoted remarks about any religious group and to avoid generalisations about any group. I must admit though that my father was a bit of a snob about European peasants but did not labour the point . (My mother would never have used such an expression.) (My father would’ve experienced discrimination as a Catholic- they were rather excluded from the business world and the Masonic Lodges - this made him dislike institutions like the Masons - so he became unaffiliated, except for his involvement in conservation.) I do think that some on the panel (or was it the audience? ) made a valid point that Ms Hanson used to home in on Asians, then it was some other group and now it is the Muslims - I think you interpret her very well - and that is a brilliant point that she represents the masses who are ALSO inarticulate in the face of what is being done to us. Extending it over my breakfast cereal- it is a bit like when you are a child and certain rules or condition might be placed on you which you do not understand and you just cry and put on a tantrum.

[Editor: Apologies for not having published this earlier, but our site has had problems.] I see that this site has some sympathy for Pauline Hanson, so I would like to discuss her performance. She made me feel very uncomfortable on Q & A yesterday [July 18]. Larissa Waters looked as though she was going to burst with embarrassment. I don’t think PH gets across her concerns very articulately and she sounds ignorant. I though Nick Xenaphon came across in a mature way when he talked of how he would work with 1 nation in the senate. I’m afraid ph goes against the conduct guidelines i was brought up with- and the other members of the panel were obviously brought up as i was. Things have changed but I don’t see that she is helpful and she is incoherent to me.

PM's open-border policy Changes quietly made to student visa arrangements will allow almost unfettered access to primary schools and established houses by all overseas applicants and their families. This will place even more pressure on social infrastructure, which is already bursting at the seams. As of this month, foreign students aged as young as six are now able to apply for student visas. Previously, students from China and some other countries had to be much older to apply. Mr Turnbull announced the changes while in China in April. Cash-strapped schools will be tempted to promote themselves to overseas full-fee paying students, which could displace local families who have already contributed through their taxes to state education. Chinese nationals are already the largest recipients of student visas, accounting for 24 per cent of the 143,886 granted in the six months to December. Holders of student visas and their guardians are temporary residents, meaning they can purchase new and established homes. These changes are not in the national interest as they will almost certainly see local families locked out of education and housing. This issue has not been publicised, so most people remain oblivious to this irresponsible policy change. I, and I'm sure many others, want answers from our politicians. Specifically, "what was the motivation for the change?"; "which electorates asked for it?" and "Given that resources are already at breaking point without this open border policy, how do you plan to resolve these issues?". David Bone, Glen Iris

I have noticed with some people that they perceive Hanson as guilty because she actually went to gaol. The fact that she was exonerated seems secondary to them. A parallel here is the case of Lindy Chamberlain. People I have spoken to seem to have hardly registered that she was also exonerated after spending a few years in gaol. They are surprised when I tell them she was innocent and wrongly convicted.

There's no voices about actually addressing the causes of the high numbers of refugees, and displaced people. There are now over 60 million people who are classed as refugees, on a planet facing massive over-population and conflicts. There's no world war, and numbers have exceeded those after WW2. Illegal wars must end, and over-population will cause more conflicts over limited resources and declining living standards. The UN should be addressing civil wars, and doing more to address the causes of displacement - not just spread the flow into Europe and the West! The UN and world leaders should be cooperating with President Assad and actually supporting the people to stay in their own homes, in their own cultures and nation, instead of spreading terror, conflict, crime of the overflow to Europe.

In a shallow article by Angela Meade, entitled, " Journalism or propaganda? SBS under scrutiny over its waltz with Bashar" the touted independent Guardian tries to put down SBS's recent foray into checking the facts with the designated 'enemy'. One guesses the author was only trawling for reactions and she got them. I don't think that letters to the ed are copyright since they are unpaid, so, please enjoy as copied and pasted below from teh article at https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jul/07/journalism-or-propaganda-sbs-under-scrutiny-over-its-waltz-with-bashar-weekly-beast?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other#comments:

blarneybanana
4h ago
0 1

The west needs to make up its mind. After five years of openly supporting various oppositions, he still heads a coherent government and military.

As galling as it is, we must negotiate with him, and be realistic.

Even israel is sitting on the fence with this one (even occasionally helping him out by eliminating various threats)
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ligaff
6h ago
0 1

I'm sorry.

SBS played an interview with the leader of another sovereign country, involved in a proxy war with Saudi Arabian Wahabbi jihadist, these terrorists being aided, supplied and facilitated also by Bahrain, Qatar, the US and Turkey, who himself has a fair slice of popular support within his country, as exemplified by the majority non-Alawite Muslims who make up the Syrian governments armed forces, and SBS are in trouble for this piece of actual journalism and for not supporting and proliferating the propaganda paradigm of those countries set on regime change and the privatization of state resources in Syria.

Do we have to wait another fifteen years for a Chilcott Report on the Syrian War?
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bonniejoan
13h ago
0 1

We know the media is biased and our recent vote choices have reflected that. One in four opted to vote against the big two. Yes, we know the minority parties are whackos. But, so are the big two - lies, misinformation, deliberate psychobabble nonsense. Please, Lord, give me a statesman to vote for. Please! Someone with a decades' long vision for my country. Someone who will tell me that the welfare burden is unsustainable. Someone to tell me that my kids will get a job, a mortgage, a family. Lord, then give me grandchildren! As for Assad, just another strongman - supported by the tribal intricacies of his culture, alien to mine. And, Lord, give me an unbiased ABC where once one channel gave us much more than it does nowadays. I used to tell my students, "Watch, and listen to, the ABC. You will get an education". To all those students - mia culpa!
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blarneybanana bonniejoan
4h ago

0 1

The last statesman we had was Malcolm Fraser. he ignored the pollsters and shock jocks and simply got on with the job of Whitlam's reforms, and never bothered to claim any of it.
He also managed to keep a lid on the lying rodent, or to quote the wonderful John CLarke (as Fred Dagg), speaking of LR's definition of an honest man: 'a man who is dishonest, but is quite open about it.'
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artfuldodger84
13h ago
0 1

Waltz with Bashar. Well played
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ChristinemSmith
13h ago
3 4

I was really impressed with the interview with Assad. Never heard/seen him interviewed before, and given the unwaveringly negative portrayal of him, I have wondered if government/media representation is another hatchet job like the reporting and 'information' prior the Iraq war. The journalist asked some tough questions, watching at home we commented he was pretty brave! Overall, it was good to have an interview with someone we hear and see a lot ABOUT, but rarely FROM the horse's mouth. To me, this was actually news, and proper journalism, not just reading a press release or chatting about - oh sorry 'analysing' - poll numbers! Good on SBS.
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John Dow
14h ago
5 6

It seems that more and more we are a becoming a country where it is seen as OK to shut down or dismiss viewpoints that don't fit the mould. In the vein of disparaging completely that luckless Muslim fellow on the populist ABC panel show Q and Approved answers.

I watched the Assad interview and I saw a man who believed what he said and had reasons for saying what he said. I keep an open mind about the truth of his statements but I don't believe that the western media and politicians are any more honest than he is, they just believe different sides of the story.

SBS was right to broadcast this interview and those who seek to have such alternative views aired need to take a good long hard look at the current state of our own 'news' that is fed to us. Classic example is happening today. The Aussie media is spending hours and hours on the deaths of a total of 7 unfortunate motorists and policemen in America after devoting all of two minutes each to the hundreds killed in sectarian violence in Bangladesh and Iraq. I rest my case.
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Darook523
17h ago
4 5

Interesting how mainstream media interviews that are edited, sometimes actually changing the thrust of what was actually said, is professional journalism, and yet an unedited interview is propaganda? And therein lies the problem with our mainstream media.

As to Assad, Syria is none of our business, and by all accounts life there for the average person is now dramatically worse since the US undertook their usual regime change war. And yet lapdog Australia, as usual, supports them all the way despite the horrendous death toll, widespread rapes and taking of sex slaves. Another win for regime change.
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Audrie Scott
17h ago
3 4

This was an excellent interview and I highly applaud SBS for screening it. Both sides of every story should be told, and usually we just get our middle eastern news filtered through "President Obama has said".

That's where the propaganda is.
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sorrentina
20h ago
5 6

I watched the entire Assad interview and it was not propaganda- it was good journalism. Assad was asked hard questions- how he answered them is up for the viewer to judge. Obviously he tried to use the interview for his own propaganda purposes- but you have to remove the subjects desires from the journalists role. Otherwise any interview with a politician could be deemed 'propaganda'.

It is important that a person like Assad have an opportunity to engage in dialogue- regardless of what you think of him. Failing this- all we would get would be largely Western viewpoints (arguably much of which is propaganda) on the Syrian crisis.

Perhaps people should have listened to Gadaffi when he warned that he was fighting against Al Qaeda? Sure he was an awful murdering dictator: bit look at Libya today... Perhaps we should have listened to the Saddam when he said their was no current WMD programs in Iraq? Now Assad is telling us that the Syrian army is fighting against fundamentalist wahabi Jihadists: ISIS, Al Qaida, Al Nusra, et al- are we to assume that because Assad is a very bad man- and despite much clear evidence that supports his claim- that there is no truth in what he says?

Shall we, eyes wide shut- continue to support the arming of the Anti-Assad opposition groups? Shall we ignore the documented role of Turkey, several Gulf States, and leading Western nations in fermenting the God-Awful Syrian war by deliberately arming and enabling fundamentalist terrorists? Journalism means airing the views of all parties to a given issue: regardless of peoples opinions about particular individuals.
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gondwanaboy sorrentina
16h ago

3 4

Shall we, eyes wide shut- continue to support the arming of the Anti-Assad opposition groups? Shall we ignore the documented role of Turkey, several Gulf States, and leading Western nations in fermenting the God-Awful Syrian war by deliberately arming and enabling fundamentalist terrorists? Journalism means airing the views of all parties to a given issue: regardless of peoples opinions about particular individuals.

That's been the problem with the msm for quite some time. It's totally biased and unbalanced in its presentation of events. It's turned into the spokesperson for the government or 'propaganda machine' for vested interests and their agendas.
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ChristinemSmith sorrentina
13h ago

1 2

A very thoughtful and intelligent comment, thank you. It was good to have the chance to see Assad speak in person - wish there was more of this type of journalism. I think you are right that Assad is a bad man, but does that make his claims untrue? We don't know nearly enough and the people who are supposed to be telling us are quarreling because someone did their 'duty' to the public instead of following the 'approved narrative' line!
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Fairgoforall
22h ago
8 9

Why should SBS be under scrutiny for propaganda when we have just seen 9 weeks of ultra-propaganda thrown at us by the media - across the board - in favor of the LNP.
As far as hypocrites go, the media takes the cake!
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ekkaman Fairgoforall
19h ago

2 3

It Is the old look over that way shit.
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DaptoDog
1d ago
10 11

So the SBS Newsroom have a problem with letting the audience make up their own minds about the Bashar interview? Why? It's the right of every interviewee to place conditions on their interview. If SBS felt that the conditions on the Bashar interview were unacceptable, they shouldn't have let it go to air at all.

Were they concerned that reporting on Syria wasn't being filtered through their favoured analysts and 'spokespeople', ie it wasn't echoing the predominant line taken by western governments and media. Or was it because he came across as more factual and coherent than these same spokespeople (especially the idiots from the US Department of State who would rather suffocate themselves than agree that the Assad regime is preferable to ISIS).

SBS did the right thing in running the interview as they did.
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glengyle DaptoDog
1d ago

6 7

Totally agree.
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sorrentina DaptoDog
20h ago

5 6

furthermore the condition that an entire interview be aired- with no editing- is actually a very reasonable and fair condition. Assad didn't require a veto over parts of the interview- or a right to demand parts be left out (as the US military routinely does with 'embedded' 'journalists'). I would like to see more of such interviews- the fact that any interview can be selectively edited before broadcast is a real problem and many people have been burned badly.

Bring on the Kim Jong-un interview SBS I look forward to seeing how that deranged evil little dictator thinks. Doesn't mean I endorse him.
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Doors2distant
1d ago
11 12

If only the Murdoch Media was as balanced and varied.
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Mygasheater Doors2distant
23h ago

7 8

The Murdoch Media is balanced. It has a chip on each shoulder.
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mharrop
1d ago
4 5

"Hanson’s spokesman, James Ashby,"

Is that the Ashby of "Ashbygate"???
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TonyDun mharrop
1d ago

3 4

yep
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EvilCommieDictator mharrop
24h ago

4 5

Yup, and as always, the media somehow have nothing to say on that matter.

Gift horses feet in mouths I guess
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Truthsandlies
1d ago
9 10

Quote by Naom Chomsky, Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.
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randomguydeaustralie
1d ago
11 12

I scoured this poorly written piece in a vain attempt to discover who has has placed SBS under scrutiny. All I could glean was that some unspecified SBS staff were of the opinion that too many restrictions were placed on the interview. That just sounds like tea room gossip to me. On further reading it emerged that the entire interview is to be broadcast in full. I would suggest that many public officials, and indeed members of the Royal family, place restrictions on interviewers. Either you agree to them or you don't get the interview. Tough questions were permitted, but not rudeness or interruption, which seems entirely reasonable to me. This is a non story
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Graeme Taylor randomguydeaustralie
1d ago

7 8

what it does show however, is the total bias in reporting regarding this latest attempt at regime change. Overthrowing popular leaders, and using Wahhabi fundamentalists to do so, worked a treat in Libya, continues to destroy Iraq, and this latest attempt in Syria has gone on largely with a one sided coverage of the baddie baddie leaders that have to go.
It was all made public in 2002, when Iraq, Libya, Syria, Iran, North Korea and Cuba were targeted under the moniker of "axis of evil".
Naughty SBS for not sticking to the script.
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randomguydeaustralie Graeme Taylor
24h ago

7 8

All excellent points. I saw footage the other night of an English guy whose son died in the 'war on terror' being interviewed in the aftermath of the Chilcott report. He said that he has reluctantly come around to the point of view that his son died for nothing. How heartbreaking
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CaptainHaymaker
1d ago
1 2

Pauline Hanson's facebook page is entitled "Please explain"? At least she appears to have some sense of humour.
(please tell me that she is being self-referential, and not just angry, in using the reference)
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AndyAjna
1d ago
This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn't abide by our community standards. Replies may also be deleted. For more detail see our FAQs.
paulwalter
1d ago
2 3

Gee, I wish could comment on reading it, but not now or I'd say some thing I'd regret later.
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Ertimus
1d ago
21 22

ABC Lateline had a war criminal on their show last night , are they under scrutiny too???
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neillwa
1d ago
4 5

Its journalism when you speak to both sides of the conflict.
Propaganda when you just take one side. Ask the Guardian about this and their one sided reporting of their "moderate" Islamist friends.
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Petunia Winegum neillwa
23h ago

6 7

"Ask the Guardian about this and their one sided reporting of their "moderate" Islamist friends."

What is wrong with their reporting, not enough blind hatred and small-minded bigotry for your liking?
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neillwa Petunia Winegum
15h ago

2 3

What is wrong with their reporting? I guess you don't follow the news. When has the guardian interviewed people fighting for the Syrian government? None at All. And how many articles from 'moderate' rebels? Dozens.
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Jeff1000
2d ago
10 11

Um...surely agreeing to air the entire interview, without editing any questions or answers or splicing in pauses or anything, is the best way to PREVENT propaganda?
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Fairgoforall Jeff1000
22h ago

2 3

opposed to say ...... Turnbull!
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yoghurt2
2d ago
10 11

Journalism or propaganda? SBS under scrutiny over its waltz with Bashar

Well, I'd say that second sentence is positively crawling with propaganda. Here's how:

"under scrutiny" = implies SBS is at fault
"waltz with Bashar" = implies supping with the Devil

Then again, the US have already notched up hits on Mubarak, Saddam Hussein and Gadhafi, and the trifecta is never as good as the quadrafecta which they would have got with their "surgical strike" on Damascus that the Pentagon was panting for, had it not emerged that the US was planning to substitute Assad with Islamic State.
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yoghurt2
2d ago
4 5

Still doubling down the chips on the 'Free Syrian Army' huh, Guardian?
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slorter
2d ago
16 17

Mainstream media peddle a great deal of propaganda on Syria when it suits them! The US has undermined and overthrown democratic governments in Iran (1953), Guatemala (1954), Brazil (1964), Congo (1965), Chile (1973), Turkey (1980), Nicaragua (1981-90), Haiti (2004), and the occupied Palestinian territories (2007), and it is trying to do the same in Venezuela. Why? Because the democratic choice of the people did not result in a compliant government, subservient to the West and multinational corporations. It’s also hard to imagine that Saudi Arabia, the Gulf monarchies, Israel and Turkey care about democracy and human rights.
If we add in the US interventions in Iraq, Libya, Yemen and Syria the costs mount to more trillions of dollars and more thousands of American lives, to say nothing of the more than one million deaths among the local populations. In all these cases, we left behind crippled and failed states, with al-Qaeda and its successors (Daesh, AKA ISIS, AKA the takfiri movement) filling the vacuum. It's a pity the mainstream don't investigate considerably more!
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JamesRHarding slorter
1d ago

17 18

You left out Australia in 1975.
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LaundriNProphets
2d ago
11 12

When does journalism become propaganda?

oh Guardian Australia, biting my tongue so hard right now
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Carstendog LaundriNProphets
2d ago

1 2

You are right, the Guardian so reflects the ALP/greens agenda, it is not funny
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pDcult Carstendog
2d ago
10 11

Thank you guardian for keeping us infirmed.
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LaundriNProphets Carstendog
2d ago
3 4

haha Carsten.

Which electorate are you posting from this day?
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Carstendog pDcult
24h ago
0 1

You should stop reading the Guardian if it is keeping you infirmed
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Petunia Winegum Carstendog
23h ago
2 3

"the Guardian so reflects the ALP/greens agenda, it is not funny"

Yeah, why can't they be more objective and impartial like Limited News are?

Great post here! Editor: We have just had three posts similar to this from similar emails. They do not appear to be pushing a website or selling something, so we are going to publish one of the - this one. However, we generally expect more constructive input.

The policy of the so-called "Science Party' is: Migration to enrich the Australian community, economy and the lives of migrants. Surely a party devoted to rational thinking and science would consider evidence, the environment, and sustainability. We've been 'enriched' enough by massive immigration! This anthropocentric policy is not based on science or evidence.

It makes you wonder what theory he espouses as a basis for publication outside the sandbox. How does he make his decisions as to what is worthy of questioning and what is paranoid? My impression is that he really won't go beyond the mainstream media paradigm - so his contributors must accept our support of intervention in the Middle East and the US Government's explanation for all recent and current events - even though you have multiple countries fighting these US doctrines politically or militarily. I mean, does Quiggin even accept the well established history of CIA intervention in South America? Or does he suppose that South Americans and Middle Easterners are intrinsically incompetent? I don't often go to his blog these days, but does he question anything more than is cursorily questioned by the mainstream media? And, if he did, would he keep his university position?

We cannot go on with a public broadcaster who fails to inform the public that our populations numbers are out of control in Australia BECAUSE OF PLANNED INVITED ECONOMIC IMMIGRATION AND THE ABILITY TO SWAP OVER FROM TEMPORARY VISAS TO PERMANENT ONSHORE! At http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2016/s4490283.htm a vivid picture is painted of the absolute dystopia that high immigration is creating in Australia especially along the eastern seaboard. 1. Housing UNaffordability 2. traffic , infrastructure deficit , increasingly overcrowded public transport and never ending peak hour traffic, the trillions of $$$ that go into infrastructure for (BUT not mentioned) ever increasing demand.) Immigration was not mentioned but it was a very vivid worrying picture with no relief in sight. It was shocking to wake up to. Then, to cap it all of there was a terrible segment on the audiological industry, the fact that anyone can sell heralding aids. Illustrating the problems of this unregulated industry was a personal story of a proudly congenitally hearing-impaired 40 year old hairdresser with her oww business who had to let her only staff member go because of the debts she was incurring for hearing aid purchases. They should be government supplied for someone like this!!!!!!

The Kremlin has spent years trying to create fissures within the NATO alliance and the European Union, but with little success. Now Britain’s vote to leave the EU fulfills Putin’s wish for a more divided Europe. “Without Britain, there won’t be anybody in the EU to defend sanctions against us so zealously,” Sergey Sobyanin, wrote the mayor of Moscow. London pulled its combat troops out of Afghanistan in 2014, and the British Parliament rejected possible U.S.-led military strikes against the Syrian regime in August 2013. European Union members account for about 27% of NATO military spending. After the U.K. leaves, that will drop to 20%, NATO Secretary-General Mr. Stoltenberg said. Britain, nuclear armed and wielding veto powers in the UN Security Council, has a major say in EU foreign and defence policy. The European Union, of course, is the target of legitimate criticism for its callous disregard for refugees displaced by NATO's wars, as well as the EU's brutal austerity policies.

From July 1, students aged six and above would be able to apply for student visas regardless of their country of citizenship – and their guardians can also apply for Guardian visas (subclass 580)… With our economy under pressure, and the loss of the mining boom, government are under massive pressure to keep up our GDP ratings and demand for housing. This latest visa scheme is much like using "anchor babies" to gain residency into a country - just drop a baby and the baby is a "citizen". Not only are universities starved of funding, and thus rely on international students, now primary schools are to become visa factories. “The price of properties in good school zones will continue to accelerate,” the report says. “We could also see prime inner city properties start to become acquisition targets. Many of these period homes have been ‘off limits’ to the foreign purchaser. This may no longer be the case”… “It opens up everything, not just to brand new or off-the-plan properties,” said Secret Agent founder Paul Osborne. “It’s going to change the composition a little bit of the types of properties that are required.” The housing growth Ponzi scheme will be boosted more, and inflate housing prices more if they are near "good" schools. Already our schools are overloaded.

Thanks again for this article. More fluoride! How could anyone make that a big policy. They want dental care to be part of public health, which isn't bad, but they are into infrastructure and pushing fluoride like mad. Water fluoridation to be rolled out to remaining water supplies: Subsidised fluoride tablets/treatment for remote areas (including education materials).

Below are a couple of suggestions for consideration as 2016 Election Policies including water, agriculture, renewable energy and health for your perusal. They my opinions and my opinions alone and others wish to demur that is understandable. (We) can do better 2016 federal Election Policies: Water: Water is Australia’s most precious resource. Current temporary water policy dictates that water is owned by the highest bidder, thus water is owned by metropolitan and regional water authorities, market speculators including banks, superannuation companies, foreign investors with farmers at the end of the chain. Water has been commodified over the years by Federal and State Governments under their neoliberal policies. Water needs to be decommodified with the only people to be entitled to own water to be Federal and State Governments and primary producers. Further to this the disastrous Murray Darling Basin Plan needs to be ripped up and renegotiated with input only from those who are entitled to own water and environmentalists who understand the geohydrology of Australia. The current plan is not conducive to either farmers or the environment (* - See Below) in fact has been an abysmal failure. Moreover, rural and regional water authorities are struggling under their current regimes with gross inefficiencies dominated by failed neoliberal policies. In particular Goulburn Murray Water with its (Dis)Connections scheme has evolved via fraud and deceit and after and judicial inquiry, the board should be sacked. Water authorities like all utilities should come under government control for the sake of providing equitable, cheap and reliable supply and function. Agriculture: Agriculture has been in decline in Australia for many years thanks to poor Federal and State Government policies including the above water policy. Money for Research and Development for agriculture has been declining for some 20 years and none of the major parties look likely to restore spending in this area any time soon. The neoliberal policies of Federal and State Governments and big business aren’t conducive to farmers or farming causing the cost of farming inputs to be far more expensive than they need be. Australia’s obsession with mining has been detrimental to the farming sector destroying both much arable land and polluting and destroying aquifers and watertables. Federal Government legislation is required and quickly to ensure that miners cannot just walk onto a farm and dig it up. I believe that miners should have to pay both farmers and governments royalties to access their land if consent is forthcoming from both in conjunction with a favourable independent environmental impact study. Cockies don’t want hand outs, they just want a level playing field and at present that is what they don’t have. Renewable Energy: Current renewable energy policy in Australia is a disgrace. Governments of all persuasions at all levels are presently beholden to fossil fuel companies. Australia has unlimited amounts of renewable energy whether it be solar, wind, wave, hotrocks or whatever. The platinum plating of the power and gas industries under neoliberal policies is unbelievable. Consumers are overcharged by some 20-30% or maybe more depending on the State, with the profits going offshore. I repeat my earlier suggestion that all utilities be purchased by State Governments so as the cost of these resources can be reduced and any profits put back into improving the service. Health: Healthcare in Australia is another area that has suffered greatly at the hands of the neoliberals as Federal and State Governments continually pare back the health budget. Whether it’s bulk billing for GPs, upgrading or constructing new hospitals, mental health, &c, governments of all persuasions work on the theory that if you get crook it’s your problem. This is the American model of healthcare that has failed and failed miserably. Furthermore, the problems are magnified in rural and regional Australia where there’s a continual shortage of medical practitioners and services of all descriptions. Australia has got a good track record in the field of modern medicine, but we need further money for R&D to maintain and improve healthcare in Australia. Another area that badly needs a total overhaul is private health insurance which requires decommodification. The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme has a fantastic track record, but it needs protection from the neoliberals before they wreck it. We need to have an informed discussion regarding Dying with Dignity before implementing legislation in this area. The above is just a superficial glance at a couple of topics not included in your manifesto. These are my points of view only and you may wish to revise, add or subtract from them as you see fit, but I believe they are relevant to this year’s election. * - The Basin Plan implemented in 2012 was a neoliberal market based solution to a physical problem. It bought back water from farmers, removed water entitlements from the land, made water available for the environment and extended water trading across the Basin. This action was taken “in the national interest, to reduce the risks to the environment, having a sustainable cap also enables markets to operate to maximise their productive potential, to increase efficiency of water use and improve productivity, to give farmers greater flexibility and to improve innovation, to drive infrastructure efficiencies and allowing many enterprises to restructure the businesses” among others. The fact was that this all took place during the Big Dry, 13 years of drought (1997-2009) when most farmers in the Basin were up to their ears in debt, were encouraged to sell their water and/or their farms to pay the bills. While much of the water from the buy backs went into a pool for environmental water or to be sold to fund the upgrading of infrastructure, some of the water was sold to speculators on the temporary water market including private and/or foreign investors, banks, superannuation companies, &c. According to the ABS temporary water cost $8 per megalitre in 2004, the cost of the same amount of water for the 2015/16 season started at $180, as it is currently, and with water scarcity a very real problem, at one point during the season temporary water exceeded $300! The break-even point for most irrigated culture is around $100-$120. While many farmers took the money and ran, others continue to battle against the odds buying water when they can afford it with no certainty in their livelihoods combined with declining commodity prices, farms have been abandoned, others bought by their neighbours, some by foreign investment and super firms or turned into mega-industrial farms by speculators ie the globalisation of the agriculture! And we all know what happened to the managed investment schemes in the Big Dry!! The much hyped environmental flows are exactly that: hype! The management of these flows has left a lot to be desired with several blackwater events, bank erosion and the worst cyanobacteria (blue green algae) event ever recorded in the mighty Murray. All of these problems are manmade, they have not occurred naturally as much as the authorities would have you believe. This is to the detriment of the environment, agriculture and tourism costing millions of dollars and deadly to native fauna!!