Meet the real hacks behind media probe

IF Julia Gillard and Bob Brown want to waste more taxpayers' money on an inquiry into the media, bring it on. It's a political stunt, of course. Unfortunately for the unpopular pair, should they launch a probe that begins looking into perceived bias, it may just make the reasons why they are so disliked across the nation front-page news. There is no evidence of which I am aware that any Australian news organisation have been engaged in Fleet Street-style phone hacking, though the Fairfax press has admitted to using private detectives and both the ABC and Fairfax paid to access the secrets in the hacked files amassed by the international cyber-spy Julian Assange. There is a lot of heat and light around at the moment, but it is, as Phil Coorey of The Sydney Morning Herald correctly told Adelaide ABC radio last week, about Gillard and Brown's carbon tax. The rest of Coorey's theorising was laughable, however. Only hard-core ABC listeners could possibly accept his premise that there was a new "level of complete and utter disrespect" because "there's a large element of misogyny behind all this because the prime minister is a woman, people feel they can go at her harder than if she was a bloke and treat her with less respect". Putting aside his weird belief that misogyny is to blame for the contempt felt for Gillard by an increasingly large percentage of the electorate, the empirical evidence is that the most outspoken individuals in recent days have been women. Adding to the incongruity of Coorey's observation is that the only support he appears to have for his bizarre view has come from Rob Oakeshott, who stands to be road kill when the next election rolls around. In an interview with The Age's Tony Wright last week, Oakeshott said he recognised there was still an "unease" about his decision to support the Gillard government, but he attempted to put this in terms of what he though was a broader problem: "Australians are still struggling to come to terms with the fact they have a female leader. That's something we all have to reflect on." No, we don't. There is no evidence to suggest anyone is struggling with the prime minister's sex, except feminists who feel it necessary to mention it at every opportunity. Everyone else seems more interested in policy, or failed policy. If the feministas were smart they would stop drawing attention to the fact that a woman has been responsible for the first political assassination of a first-term prime minister, that a woman has lied to the Australian public, and that a woman has been responsible for more political backflips than the entire clan of Flying Wallendas. If Coorey and Oakeshott wish to ponder abuse, they should look at the contumely poured upon the members of the former Howard administration and John Howard and his wife, Janette, in particular, and contemplate the lack of comment by either Fairfax or the ABC at the time. Indeed, many of the appalling personal attacks and slurs appeared in the Fairfax press and on the ABC's airwaves, as ad hominem insults and derision have been stock in trade at both organisations for decades. No, the apparent disrespect Coorey and Oakeshot have now discovered is not caused by any sex issue, but simply to disgraceful public policy. That's a tough one for this pair to accept as they have both been cheer-leaders for the worst government in the history of the federation. Gillard's problem is she handed her government over to the Greens and now has little control over its direction whether it's on coal or cattle.The evidence is compelling. Over a year ago, Brown outlined his cult's goals as bringing in a carbon tax that would deliver some $10 billion a year from the nation's 1000 biggest polluters. This would become Labor's goal, too, until Gillard blinked at the last moment and characteristically irrationally halved the number of big polluters she sought to punish. According to the Hansard of May 13, 2010, Brown even nominated the carbon-tax price of $23 a tonne. Talk about Gillard the Green glove puppet. Gillard's penchant for mouthing Green words and claiming to be a conviction politician has cost her credibility. Given the action of some of the dark Green Left, her association with the Greens could drag her down. Consider the Greenpeace attack on the CSIRO's experimental Canberra farm last week in which Greenpeace protesters illegally broke into a facility and destroyed a half hectare of genetically modified wheat. Such wheat has the potential to feed the starving millions denied food by the Greens, who have been more interested in diverting grains from the food chain into the ethanol market. This particular crop had been modified to lower the glycemic index and increase fibre to create a product that would improve bowel health and increase nutritional value. But just like the Greenpeace protesters who disrupted the production at Lucas Heights of medical isotopes needed by cancer sufferers, the CSIRO protesters seemed to care more about the environment than those who would benefit from these essential medicines or health products. Further, and execrably, a Green MP, ACT MLA Shane Rattenbury, who used to work for Greenpeace, endorsed the criminal action for Green causes, even admitting that he had participated in illegal activities himself. Greenpeace, he said, had a track record of breaking the law. That is so. If Gillard wants to win back some public respect she has to stop playing to a captive Canberra press gallery and start listening to Australians who live outside the Canberra enclave who are crying out to be heard. A person's sex doesn't count for much, but a person's character does. Brown and his cultists represent a fraction of the population. The association with Brown and his Greens is a slap in the face to traditional Labor voters, particularly when Greens like Rattenbury boast of breaking the law.