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Category Archives: media

Putting the safety of children first

September 25, 2009 – 10:12 am

There is no surer way to get an argument than to start a debate about Dennis Ferguson and people who sexually abuse children.  The two recent items that Crikey has published on the topic quickly moved to the top of the most discussed list.
Before I mention a bit more about that, I wanted to draw [...]

By Andrew Bartlett | Also posted in child safety, human rights | Tagged , | Comments (2)

What matters about utegate

June 24, 2009 – 11:04 pm

I don’t dispute that there are some interesting twists and turns in the utegate/fake email saga.  But it always infuriates me that politicians and political commentators will devote endless hours to such things, thus excluding any real examination being given to issues, policies and legislation that directly effect peoples’ lives.
There has been some small attention [...]

By Andrew Bartlett | Also posted in Australian politics, climate change | Tagged , | Comments (7)

Blogging resistance to Fiji's military dictatorship

April 13, 2009 – 1:36 am

Kevin Rudd has said that Fiji is now “virtually a military dictatorship”.  I’m not sure what else needs to happen before the word “virtually” gets dropped, but whatever term you want to use, it sure isn’t democracy – especially with the latest censorship crackdown. The dictatorship’s Secretary for Information, Major Neumi Leweni, is kindly providing ‘information officers’ [...]

By Andrew Bartlett | Also posted in blogging, international issues | Tagged , , | Comments (6)

National Broadband Network

April 8, 2009 – 12:52 am

The federal government’s announcement that they will fund the building a National Broadband Network at an estimated cost of $43 billion is the sort of story guaranteed to get internet sites and net nerds buzzing with comment.
A lot of the comments from bloggers and twitterers that I have seen thus far seem to be quite [...]

By Andrew Bartlett | Also posted in Internet, economic issues | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Effective alternatives to mandatory Internet filtering

March 25, 2009 – 6:27 am

Last night I attended a forum organised by New Matilda on the federal government’s plan to introduce a mandatory filter for Internet Service Providers.  I usually don’t find forums where all the speakers hold roughly the same view particularly enlightening, but the speeches were all to the point and not too long, which allowed a [...]

By Andrew Bartlett | Also posted in Internet | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

Queensland – retirements and web launches one day, election the next?

February 18, 2009 – 1:21 am

Media speculation that an early state election will be called in Queensland has been going since before Christmas.  I guess if people keep predicting an election is about to be called, they’ll be right eventually. 
Certainly the fact that there has been a steady stream of state Labor MPs announcing they will retire at the election [...]

By Andrew Bartlett | Also posted in Queensland politics, blogging | Tagged | Comments (2)

Windschuttle and hoaxes

January 12, 2009 – 3:00 pm

Last week’s furore over the Keith Windschuttle/Quadrant hoax seems to have died down – you can read a summary of some of the reaction here.  While Crikey and one my fellow bloggers at this site put quite a lot of focus on it, I must say I found it hard to get very worked up [...]

By Andrew Bartlett | Also posted in Indigenous issues | Tagged , | Comments (1)