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Is our government working for us or working for "them"?
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Our system of government is based on the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act and the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942 that define the roles and functions of the executive (the "Government"), the legislature (the Parliament) and the judicature (the law courts). These three branches of government - the executive, legislature and judicature - maintain a balance to protect us, the people, from an excessive abuse of power by any one branch. This is known as the separation of powers - the cornerstone of our democracy.
This article raises questions about the success of the current Australian system of democracy given the gradual erosion of Government openness and accountability, the abuse of the Parliament's power over the courts so as to interfere with State and Territory legislation, the reduction of our civil rights and the powerlessness of the courts to intervene meaningfully. I am not suggesting that our system of government is broken but I am deeply concerned that things are not working the way that they should. It seems to me that our politicians have been acting more in their own self-interest as opposed to acting in a way that it truly in the national interest.
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The Quoroom reloaded
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This website was originally created in 2008—it was one of the first websites I built using Joomla CMS— in part to provide a home for an online community that I had been involved with since the late 1990s but, more importantly, to realise a personal ambition of a place on the internet where I could discuss serious issues with others who were concerned as I am about Australian current affairs. In the time since this site came into being there have been many changes, not only in our lives but in terms of what purposes, objectives and outcomes I sought to achieve.
Everything old is new againPeter Allen
The last time I made-over this site was two years ago and I used this opportunity to reduce some of the clutter—material that was irrelevant or "unhelpful" in achieving my goals—but I did not diligently persevere with the activity owing to time I was spending on my other projects. The time has come for a major overhaul, a complete re-think and to implement a new strategy; that's what I'm writing about today.
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Is the Australian community served well by its media?
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The independent inquiry into the Australian media is looking at a range of issues affecting how the media operates in this country. Australian Labor politicians' complaints about the Murdoch-owned media are, of course, a constant source of news. They are, perhaps too, an expression of fears regarding the disproportionate influence of News Limited (owned by Rupert Murdoch) in how news and information are presented to the Australian public via its newspapers and other media holdings.
Whatever your view, we should question the sincerity of the media in presenting information to the public and whether opinions expressed by journalists are an abuse of the power of the press and actually constitute an attack on Australian democracy.
This is a huge subject, and I will only touch on a few aspects of it, but I hope to show that there are clear indications of undue influence by the Australian media on the way we think and how we exercise our democratic rights. I've addressed this topic in the outline below:
- A comparison between the media in Australia and overseas
- Is Australia truly a democracy? What are the threats to Australia remaining a free, enlightened democracy?
- The War on Democracy
- Freedom of the press vs "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"
- Is socialism bad? Is conservatism good? What's all the kerfuffle about anyway?
On the whole I think Australia's media is of a better quality than what we've seen first-hand elsewhere but I'm concerned that, unless we keep an eye on our media, Australia could find itself in as bad a situation as what we're seeing elsewhere around the world.
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Sozz asks whether the Australian community is served well by its media. An excellent topic for discussion.
My response, in a word, is NO.
More from me on this later.
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The Quoroom reborn/relaunched
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It has been nearly three years since this site was created and a lot has happened in that time. It was always my original intention to get the site up-and-running quickly and, sometime later, concentrate on what worked and to eliminate things that got in the way. The one constant in life is that everything changes; priorities change and people's needs also change. The intention, however, is the same: the site should exist where like-minded people could meet, with the idea of cultivating a multinational mix of thinkers and "'bloggers"; a bit of something for everyone with uncluttered, searchable and easy-to-navigate message boards, help for first-timers to old-timers, and where opinions could be shared and and real discussions would take place.
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Blogs seem to be all the rage, but I don`t do them either, not sure the old chatters in any place would be interested in my life. Dull. But I did help make another website get moving PerthPoms, for immigrants wanting information on everything. When I joined that about 12 mths ago, there were too many pages with unanswered questions, so cutting and pasting comes in handy.
I still advise women on what dating sites not to join, (with all the old faces on that will never give up) one wonders what their wives think of it all.
Anyway I will mention this room when I see Annicapes next. hope it all works out for you..... kind regards. MIP
I'm doing just fine up here on the coast. Not too busy with sports these days (although today's gonna be a biggy with the rugby league from England, followed the final round of the President's Cup golf - looks like an all-dayer for me).
Been travelling overseas these past few years(Ireland, Isle of Man, Liverpool, Scotland, London). Have really caught the travel bug, and am off to Adelaide and Kangaroo Island at Christmas, followed by California, Nevada, Arizona in June 2012, then New York City in Xmas/New Year 2012-13.
How's things in your life ?
I'm really pleased to see the Quoroom up and running again. This was my favourite place on the internet to drop into daily. I hope we can get the discussions fired up again.
Another old timer, checking back in. Hope to see lots of activity in here again.
George.
