Dear Mediawatch, I sent my formal complaint to you about bias in the ABC Vote Compass on 1 October 2013. I also explained that this appears to be part of an ABC pro-growth propaganda campaign that breaches the ABC Code of Practice. I am now following up with you to request your response.
ANU polling in 2008 and 2010 consistently concluded that 50+% of people surveyed were concerned about population growth. Other polling has recorded similar results.
The Essential Report, 23 July 2013 selected Population Growth Management as a Top 15 Federal Election issue.
The above polls were all statistically accurate to within (roughly) +/-3%.
The ABC Vote Compass contained 30 so-called Federal Election Issues, but excluded the Population Growth Management issue despite the large team of (so-called) experts involved in preparing the Vote Compass. Their work omitted the issue (How could this happen?) and didn't take the advice of documented complaints about omission of population growth made by the public when they were consulted on the issues selection process for the Vote Compass (Why?).
I have provided factual and documentary evidence to support my claims.
The essence of the complaint was that the ABC omits population growth from virtually all political interviews and public policy debate in a manner so comprehensive and pervasive that it does not comply with the ABC Code of Practice requirements for "impartiality and diversity of perspectives". You, like the ACMA, have so far supported the ABC in this approach to extreme growth. The term "extreme" means roughly 4 times the respective 2012 OECD country averages for population growth and GDP growth; and growth in a category occupied by the most underdeveloped, environmentally degraded dictatorships on earth - where the order of the day is near total lack of social welfare and human rights.
There is a growing global movement championing the cause of moderating growth. The ABC talks about these issues in a politically "offline" context but seems unable to engage politicians on the issue. The Greens also have an official policy of extreme population and GDP growth rates as confirmed by the ABC Vote Compass.
The ABC appears sympathetic to pro-Carbon Tax "Green Evangelists" that appear to have hijacked the "Green Flag" for their own version of a rapid-growth agenda cloaked in environmental love. [See attachment criticising Australian Greens] The combination of extreme growth and "Greenism" seems fatally flawed, environmentally destructive and unhumanitarian as explained in my Petition (see below).
Please sign my petition
sign my petition [...] ; or do you prefer to let the growth machine roll quietly on; unchallenged in any way?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8x98KFcMJeo (David Suzuki 3 minute video on growth)
Comments
Margit Alm (not verified)
Wed, 2014-01-01 17:13
Permalink
Fairfax obstructs discussion on population growth.
Below is my unpublished letter to The Age, 29th December, in response to a letter published by Victorian Premier Napthine. It's in reference to the East West Link.
The cost and the great demands of population growth are skirted around by The Age. It's the elephant in the room of our need for more roads, despite upgraded public transport. Anything with the dreaded "p" word is censored.
Melbourne's circulatory system is under pressure from more and more cars, and the massively invasive and expensive by-pass "surgery" of the East West Link is to relieve the traffic pressure building up on our roads, due to population growth. The gridlock is causing our arteries to be seriously clogged.
However, my letter was unpublished! (not only this time, but repeatedly). They continue to skirt around the massive boulders of logic, the impediments to smooth traffic flows, and the reason for Melbourne's serious short-fall in infrastructure - and productivity. The dreaded "p" word is avoided, like a plague!
My unpublished letter:
Premier Napthine (letters 29/12, What about the wins) claims that the government has increased the number of weekly metro rail services by 1078, and weekly bus services by 3400. The government has also purchased 15 new Metro trains, 50 new trams and 40 new V-Line carriages.
So, despite the increase in rail and bus services, our roads are still congested and productivity is being impeded by traffic growth. Access to the western suburbs is already available via the West Gate Bridge and the Western Ring road, but they are clogged up.
Hon Terry Mulder, Minister for Roads, justifies the massive expense and disturbance of the East West Link by the fact that Melbourne is currently growing faster than almost any time in its history, and demand for mobility is also growing, meaning they need to invest in both public transport and roads.
Any planning or professional design that must incorporate perpetual growth will find the constraints prohibitive, and limit best practices and outcomes.
Melbourne's population, at current rates of projected growth, will swell to 8 million by 2050. Any solution to traffic gridlocks will become outdated with time until the parameters of Melbourne's needs are known - and stable.
Margit Alm
Eltham
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Premier Napthine's Letter published by The Age:
What about the wins?
It is disappointing that The Sunday Age continues to fail to fairly and fully inform its readers with respect to the commitment to, and significant achievements in, improving public transport across Melbourne and Victoria by the state government.
Nowhere in the article by Farrah Tomazin (Opinion, 22/12) did she mention that we are currently undertaking the largest public transport infrastructure project in our state's history - the $4.8 billion Regional Rail Project.
Tomazin also failed to mention that since coming to office, the government has increased the number of weekly metro rail services by 1078 and weekly bus services by 3400. The government has also purchased 15 new Metro trains, 50 new trams and 40 new V-Line carriages.
In addition, the Coalition is currently spending more than $400 million removing dangerous level crossings at Springvale Road, Springvale; Rooks Road and Mitcham Road, Mitcham; and two on Anderson Road, Sunshine. The government has also outlined and funded plans to remove a further seven dangerous and congestion-causing level crossings. This real action to actually remove these crossings stands in stark contrast to 11 years of inaction under the previous Labor government.
The Coalition also provided $125 million in recent budgets to upgrade the Dandenong and Bayside-Frankston railway lines to improve punctuality and reliability of services as well as passenger comfort.
However, the clearest demonstration of the effectiveness of the Coalition government's efforts to improve public transport is the fact that both punctuality and reliability of our metro train services have improved significantly.
For example, on the Frankston line, which was a disaster under Labor, punctuality has improved from 65.6 per cent in June 2010 to 90.8 per cent in November 2013.
DENIS NAPTHINE, Victorian Premier
Letters to The Age: Premier Napthine's letter
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