Sheila ‘Big Story’ underlines battle for Kim Williams
A silly interview with a sculpture poses as news on ABC TV News Breakfast program. Is anyone listening to the new ABC chair?
STOP PRESS
ABC NEWS BREAKFAST’S BIG STORY OF A (REAL) ABC BLOKE AND A FAKE SHEILA IN BRISBANE DEMONSTRATES THAT ABC CHAIR KIM WILLIAMS HAS A JOB AHEAD OF HIM IN ELIMINATING FRIVOLITY POSING AS NEWS
Media Watch Dog has been broadly supportive of the approach taken by the recently appointed ABC chair Kim Williams. Especially with his view that if a journalist cannot be impartial – then they should not work at the ABC. This is fine in so far as it goes – but it doesn’t go far enough. So far Mr Williams has failed to address the lack of viewpoint diversity at the conservative-free zone that is the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster. This applies to ABC staff as well as to the talent who appear on the ABC.
Since taking up the ABC chair position, Kim Williams has done many interviews mainly with employees of the ABC or individuals known to be friends with the public broadcaster. The most recent in this regard is that with Martin McKenzie-Murray in the left-wing The Saturday Paper, dated 31 August-6 September 2024.
It’s a familiar style interview. Kim Williams is quoted as making comments about the ABC. The two anonymous ABC employees are then given a right of reply. In this instance, they are identified as “one” and “another staff member”.
McKenzie-Murray reports, among other things, that “Williams is adamant that editorial decisions have too often favoured frivolity”. Quite so. But is anyone taking any notice of The Thought of Williams? Not if a story on the ABC TV News Breakfast program is any guide.
Take this Big Story for example. Let’s go to the transcript:
Bridget Brennan: To Brisbane now, and there’s a new Sheila in town. If you head to the newly opened multibillion-dollar Queen’s Wharf precinct, you’ll more than likely meet the city’s new larger-than-life resident. Our reporter, Alex Brewster joins us now. Alex, who have you got there with you?
Alex Brewster: Well, good morning, Bridget, I’m here with Sheila, a 5m-tall and $500,000 sculpture. Now we’re lucky enough to actually be able to speak to Sheila this morning. Sheila, can you tell us why you’re so excited to be in Brisbane? [Silence] Well, that’s a little bit embarrassing. I’m not entirely sure what happened there. We all get camera shy. We know that happens, but I can give you some details on Sheila’s behalf. Now, Sheila was created by a Brisbane artist called Justine Williams, and she’s modelled on figurines from the Middle Ages called Sheila na gig. Now she has four distinctive features, four breasts, in fact, and that’s because she represents themes of femininity, of a matriarch and of maternal instincts …
Bridget Brennan: I love Sheila, I think she’s going to be a fixture, and I think she’s going to bring people to Brisbane for many years to come. Alex, thank you.
Michael Rowland: She needs to work with media schools.
Bridget Brennan: Yeah, she wasn’t mic’d up yet.
Michael Rowland: We’ll sort that out. So that will certainly be an attraction in Brisbane.
This is what still passes for news on ABC TV’s News Breakfast. Clearly, Mr Williams has the job ahead of him.
ALL (RELATIVELY) QUIET ON THE VICTORIAN CHIEF JUSTICE’S RETIREMENT ANNOUNCEMENT
News Corp’s Herald-Sun in Melbourne and The Canberra Times have reported that Justice Anne Ferguson, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria, will retire in early February. The Herald-Sun report by Ashley Argoon contains this segment:
At the Court of Appeal in 2019, Chief Justice Ferguson was among a full bench that heard the late Cardinal George Pell’s appeal against his conviction for child sexual offences. Her Honour rejected Pell’s appeal with a 2-1 majority. He was later acquitted in the High Court.
The AAP report in The Canberra Times refers to Chief Justice Ferguson being involved in George Pell’s appeal. But does not mention that the majority judgment of Chief Justice Ferguson and the President of the Court of Appeal Chris Maxwell was overturned by a 7 to zip Judgement in the High Court of Australia. All seven judges agreed with Mark Weinberg’s dissent in the Victorian Court of Appeal. The intellectual strength of Justice Weinberg’s dissent, along with the High Court decision, was not the finest moment in the history of the Victorian legal system.
At the time this blog went out, neither The Age nor the ABC – which led the media pile-on against Cardinal Pell – had reported Chief Justice Ferguson’s retirement.
CAN YOU BEAR IT?
● THE GUARDIAN ‘WAGE SLAVE’ AMY REMEIKIS BLAMES THE WORLD’S FAULTS ON CAPITALISM
The comrades at Nine Newspapers reported on 4 September that their comrades at The Guardian Australia – editor Lenore Taylor – have applied for a protected industrial action ballot after negotiations with management over a pay deal resulted in an impasse.
As avid Media Watch Dog readers are well aware, this blog has been campaigning for eons to obtain salary justice for the wage slaves (to use Marxist terminology) at The Guardian.
Look at it this way. The Guardian was founded in Manchester in 1821 and is well-known as a voice of left-wing opinion – so much so that the term “a Guardian reader” is used in Britain to refer to a person with strong and fashionable left-wing views.
Also, the modern Guardian feels a sense of shame that it was founded on the back of money made from the slave trade.
The word around journalistic circles is that, despite its socialist origin and heart-on-your-sleeve domestic leftism, The Guardian Australia pays the bulk of its journalists and freelancers poorly. Indeed, Ellie’s (male) co-owner felt sorry when MWD fave Amy Remeikis told ABC TV Insiders on 16 June 2022 that she could not ask her boss – Comrade Lenore Taylor – for a pay rise since this would be impossible. Not long after, The Guardian’s political reporter expressed concern that her rent had been increased. MWD interpreted this as a plea for a wage increase to help pay the rent.
Ever since, MWD has campaigned for wage justice for wage slave Remeikis and her fellow comrades – but, alas without apparent success. This has been supported, in private of course, by a couple of members of the Canberra Press Gallery who have also phoned Hendo urging him to keep up the campaign for the working poor at The Guardian Australia.
Hendo was reminded of this when Comrade Remeikis appeared on Network 10’s The Project on 1 September. No surprise that she maintained that the current problems for renters in Australia have resulted from a change in the “political consensus”. Let’s go to the transcript:
Amy Remeikis: … it’s a change in political consensus. We haven’t actually had to think about renters in this country before. Because usually, it’s like – you grow up, you rent for a little bit, you get sick of shared housing, you couple up, save for a house –
Hamish Macdonald: Amy come on, is that a bit of a free pass for the government? I mean, this is a government that says it speaks for the kinds of voters you’re talking about [i.e. renters]. They’ve had a few years to actually show they can take it seriously.
Amy Remeikis: Look, I’m definitely not going to give the government a free pass on this. But I think that it is a massive shift for our political arena. The Greens, a lot of them are renters, they’re across this. The government, the Opposition, a lot of them have multiple properties. They’re less across it, and it hasn’t really been something that’s been top of mind for politicians before. They’ve been so focused on housing ownership ….
Hamish Macdonald: Just out of interest. I mean, I know you said renters like you are angry – at who?
Amy Remeikis: Uh, capitalism, mostly, and those who uphold capitalism ….
Spoken like a true Guardian reader/journalist/comrade/Marxist. It’s all capitalism’s fault. But is it?
Take The Greens’ deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi for example – who surely reads The Guardian. Senator Faruqi arrived in Australia from Pakistan in 1992. According to reports, she owns/co-owns around half a dozen properties – some of which she presumably rents out. This would suggest that Guardian reader Faruqi has done okay out of capitalism, don’t you think?
In her anti-capitalist rant, The Guardian’s political reporter overlooked the fact that the principal driver of high rents is a shortage of supply of houses/apartments/units. Some of this has been driven by inner-city Guardian readers who are into not-in-my-backyardism, along with some of their conservative inner-city neighbours.
If, however, Comrade Remeikis is correct, then perhaps she might pack her hammer-and-sickle and set up, say, “The Guardian Venezuela” as a gesture of protest against rent increases under capitalism. She could keep in contact with Australia by continuing to appear – via Zoom – on the ABC TV Insiders program. Otherwise, the program would lose one of its half a dozen or so Peter Dutton-antagonists who are Insiders panellists – and who happen to provide great copy for Hendo at Hangover Time on a Sunday morning.
By the way, here’s how the Remeikis’ interview on The Project ended. First up, Comrade Remeikis called for “long-term security for all people … no matter whether they’re an owner occupier or whether they’re a renter”. In other words – everyone gets a home for life. And then there was this:
Sarah Harris: Okay Amy, thank you.
Amy Remeikis: Thank you. And happy Dad’s day to all the non-crap dads and for all the mums and everyone else who had to stood up [sic] for the crap dads.
Hamish Macdonald: Okay. [Laughter].
Which raises the question: How many crap dads watch The Project? And here’s another: Can You Bear It?
● MARK (‘THE PROFESSOR’) KENNY MISUNDERSTANDS THE PACIFIC POLICING INITIATIVE
While on the topic of Peter Dutton antagonists who are panellists on ABC TV’s Insiders program (executive producer Samuel Clark) consider the case of Mark (“Please call me Professor”) Kenny. As Media Watch Dog readers have heard, Professor Kenny left the University of Adelaide sans degree to work for a South Australian Labor MP of the socialist left faction. Then he got a job at the ABC in Canberra after which he ended up at the progressive (read leftist) Sydney Morning Herald and The Age before being appointed a professor at the Australian Studies Institute at the left-of-centre Australian National University. All without writing anything much other than reports in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. A brilliant career, to be sure. Oh yes, and the learned professor is a regular panellist on the ABC TV Insiders program.
It so happened that there were two Peter Dutton antagonists on the Insiders panel on 2 September. Namely, ABC 7.30 chief political correspondent and Australian Financial Review columnist Laura Tingle – along with Professor Kenny.
Towards the end of the program, discussion turned on the hot mic discussion between Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell at the Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting in Tonga. This happened to be filmed by Radio New Zealand. The transcript below was put together by SBS:
Kurt Campbell: We’re making our way through the Pacific, you know.
Anthony Albanese: Well, we had a cracker today, getting the Pacific Policing Initiative … [i.e. the establishment of a Pacific Police Support Group to be based in Brisbane.]
Kurt Campell: That’s fantastic that you’re doing this.
Anthony Albanese: It is so important, and it’ll make such a difference.
Kurt Campbell: It’s a great thing. And I talked with Kevin [Rudd] about it. And so, you know, we were going to do something – and he asked us not to. So, we did not. We’ve given you the lane. Take the lane.
Anthony Albanese: You can go us halvies on the cost if you like. It’ll cost you a bit.
At this stage Pat Conroy, the Minister for Defence Industry, intervened and the hot mic conversation ceased. But it’s pretty clear what was discussed. Namely that Kurt Campbell told Anthony Albanese that the United States was going to do something about policing in the Pacific. However Kevin Rudd, Australia’s ambassador to the United States, asked the US not to do so and the Biden administration agreed to giving Australia “the lane”.
Fair enough. Except this is not how Comrade Kenny interpreted the situation. Initially, Laura Tingle conceded that the decision on policing could be seen as Australia trying to get a bigger footprint in the Pacific and added that it might be a better look for the Pacific nations if the Americans were not visible. The discussion continued:
David Speers: There are sensitivities.
Laura Tingle: There are sensitivities about all of this. But the question is, does it leave Australia looking like we’re just doing this at the whim of the Americans?
David Speers: Because we’re trying to tell the Pacific that this is a Pacific-led initiative, not something cooked up in Washington.
Mark Kenny: And we’re a sovereign country, and we don’t take our cues from Washington. It turns out a whole lot of stuff’s been cooked up in Washington, and it’s just been said out loud. And –
David Speers: Maybe they didn’t think it was being said out loud.
Mark Kenny: Well, I mean, he said, “Kevin asked us not to do this”, and we, you know, we’ve, we take the lane. I mean, you know, I think it exposed the whole process. We’ve just had a little window into AUKUS.
David Speers: That’s exactly right ….
What a load of absolute tosh. Comrade Kenny misinterpreted the position. It was Australia that asked the United States to leave this initiative to Australia. And the US stepped aside – making it possible for Australia to “take the lane” and fund the Pacific Policing Initiative.
Contrary to Kenny’s assertion, the policing initiative in the South Pacific has nothing to do with AUKUS. In any event, it demonstrates that Australia put pressure on the US – not the other way around. But, alas, this is something the learned ANU professor could not understand. Can You Bear It?
● QUELLE SURPRISE! NINE’S NIKI SAVVA FANGS PETER DUTTON AGAIN
Wasn’t it great to see Niki Savva back on the Opinion Pages of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald on 5 September? These days, Comrade Savva has essentially only one topic. To wit, Liberal Party leader Peter Dutton and how bad he is. In short, the Nine columnist is a Dutton-antagonist. One of about half a dozen or so who are regular panellists on the ABC TV Insiders program. Along with the likes of Laura Tingle, Mark Kenny, Amy Remeikis, Sean Kelly and Fran Kelly. Has Media Watch Dog left anyone out?
This time Savva managed to link the failure of the Liberal Party’s NSW division to lodge the names of some 140 candidates in the forthcoming NSW local government elections with the NSW Electoral Commission on time – with the Israel-Hamas war. Here’s how the column titled “Dutton dodges the NSW fiasco” commenced:
How lucky was Peter Dutton that only a few hours before the NSW Liberal Party publicly imploded, he had reignited debate on immigration and refugees by proposing a ban on all Palestinians desperate to escape the hellhole of Gaza.
While Liberals worked frantically – and unsuccessfully – behind the scenes to lodge nominations for council elections, Dutton was in an aircraft hangar, welcoming home Olympians who had covered themselves in glory. From there, he did an interview on Sky which finished on visas for Palestinians. Talk about perfect timing. For weeks after, Dutton did what he does best. He kept the focus on the government’s competence – or lack of it ….
It turned out to be a boring piece. Savva sided with the NSW Liberal “moderate” faction (meaning left-of-centre) – against the political conservatives. Quelle Surprise! In between, she ran the line that Dutton was using the debate over whether – and, if so, how – Australia should accept refugees/tourists from Hamas-controlled Gaza.
To MWD’s delight, the Nine scribbler engaged in a bit of crystal-ball gazing. She quoted (unnamed) NSW Liberal “moderates” as predicting that Tony Abbott “will run for the presidency [of the NSW Liberal Party] and most likely win”. And she declared that there is now “no chance of [the Liberal Party] reclaiming any of the teal seats, and a greater likelihood that Bradfield [held by Paul Fletcher] will be lost”.
We shall see. As avid readers will be aware, MWD works on the principle that it is unwise to make political predictions, especially about the future.
So what was the Savva column all about then? Especially since it’s most unlikely that the good people of NSW give a toss about the internal machinations of the NSW Liberal Party. In MWD’s view, the answer is this. In her seventh paragraph, Comrade Savva told readers that on Monday 9 September she “will deliver” the “Speaker’s Lecture” at Parliament House in Canberra.
Really. Ellie’s (male) co-owner can barely wait. Can You Bear It?
● PHILLIP ADAMS ON HOW KERRY PACKER & ROBYN WILLIAMS ROSE FROM THE DEAD AT LEAST ONCE
Media Watch Dog always enjoys the reflections of Phillip Adams AO, AM, Hon DUniv (Griffith), Hon DLitt (ECU), Hon DUniv (SA), DLitt [sic] (Syd), Hon. DUniv (Macquarie), FRSA, Hon FAHA in his column in The Weekend Australian Magazine – and misses his role as presenter of ABC Radio National Late Night Live (aka Late Night Left).
On 31 August, Phillip (“Have I ever told you that I was a teenage commo?”) Adams reflected on a favourite topic. Namely death. And the afterlife – as if such an entity exists. Here’s how the column commenced:
Near-death experiences, or NDEs, come in many forms according to those who’ve technically expired and returned to tell the tale. Some “died” on the operating table and recall an OBE. No, not some posthumous award of the Order of the British Empire but an “out-of-body experience” where they floated above and looked down on their corpse. Many recall a luminous, perhaps angelic figure beckoning them towards a shining light. And then there was Kerry Packer, who famously carked it briefly while playing polo. Upon his return to this mortal coil, Kerry told me: “There’s nothing on the other side. No one’s waiting to judge us.”… Another friend who returned from a brief encounter with the grave was ABC veteran Robyn Williams, restored to life by the urgent intervention of our colleague Dr Norman Swan. Robyn’s response? No report of spiritual ecstasy.
Turn it up. In Ellie’s (male) co-owner’s view, you’re either dead or alive. The reason why Kerry Packer came back from “the dead” (but only once) turned on the fact that he hadn’t carked it in the first place. And what about Robyn Williams who reported the absence of “spiritual ecstasy” on the other side? Well, he did not have “a brief encounter with the grave” because he has always been above ground. At any rate, who needs spiritual ecstasy if your life is being saved by Dr Norman Swan – who identifies as Australia’s most trusted doctor?
Comrade Adams concluded his piece with a modern version of “the end of the world is nigh” mantra. He reckons we are all experiencing a Near Death Experience since the world is “skating on thin ice” and “as with the poles and the glaciers, the ice is melting”.
Comrade Adams believes that “humanity could get clobbered into extinction at any time”. In MWD’s view, there is good reason for bringing Gin & Tonic (with loads of ice) Time forward by a few hours each day before the (really important) polar ice melts. Can You Bear It?
A JON FAINE MOMENT
JON FAINE ON Q+A – CONDESCENDING TO A WOMAN WORRIED ABOUT VIOLENCE AND IGNORANT ABOUT ENERGY PRODUCTION ON THE MORNINGTON PENINSULA
The Melbourne-based Jon Faine provides yet another example of ABC types resembling the lyrics of the Eagles song, Hotel California. In that, you can check out of the hotel (read ABC) anytime you like – but you can never leave.
And so it came to pass that the Melbourne leftist-luvvie Jon Faine, the one-time presenter of the “Mornings” program on ABC Radio 774 Melbourne who is now a vice-chancellor’s fellow at the University of Melbourne, got a gig on ABC TV’s Q+A program on 2 September. The program was described as “Q+A in Dandenong: Crime and the War on Woke”.
It was the familiar Q+A stack – with the four left-of-centre panellists and one Liberal Party MP – Zoe McKenzie, the member for Flinders, which is quite some way from Dandenong. Labor MP Julian Hill provided the party political balance. Fair enough – especially since he is the member for Bruce which covers Dandenong. The remaining panellists were on the left – namely lawyer Nyadol Nyuon and Maria Thattil who was described as “a refugee woman” and “writer” along with Comrade Faine. By the way, the visiting ex-ABC celebrity declared on camera that he is Woke (in certain circumstances). Fancy that.
It’s not clear what makes Comrade Faine an expert on crime anywhere – especially with respect to Dandenong in southeast Melbourne. But he got the call from Q+A’s executive producer.
These days Q+A seems to invite the few conservatives in the audience to ask questions. And then they tend to get bagged by most panellists – albeit in a condescending way.
The first question came from a woman who spoke about the increase in youth crime in the Dandenong area “which includes house break-ins, car theft, knife attacks and general unacceptable behaviour”.
Presenter Patricia (“Please call me PK”) Karvelas threw the question to Comrade Faine who essentially told the questioner that she did not know what she was talking about. Faine later lectured her by declaring “You just can’t right it [i.e. crime] by trying to arrest everyone and locking them up”.
Forget for the moment that Faine was talking down to a middle-aged woman who lives in the Dandenong area about the local crime scene. Moreover, the questioner never claimed that you can lock everyone up. Comrade Faine just made this up, apparently. There was more of the same when a local woman of colour spoke about her family experiencing a home invasion – indeed her final comment was totally ignored.
Later on, Comrade Faine, who does not live in the Flinders electorate, attempted to tell Zoe McKenzie, the Member for Flinders, about her electorate. Comrade Faine ran the old line favoured by opponents of nuclear energy in Australia. Namely, “Do you want a nuclear reactor in your electorate?” Groan. This occurred after Ms McKenzie spoke positively about nuclear power. Let’s go to the transcript where the exchange took place about the power situation in the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria over the Summer period:
Zoe McKenzie: But let me tell you how the [Mornington] Peninsula is powered over Summer – eight diesel generators. Dirty diesel generators sitting on the side of the road. That’s how everyone gets their aircon on the Mornington Peninsula over Summer.
Jon Faine: In the event of an emergency, Zoe – not all day, every day.
Zoe McKenzie: It’s not. They run the power in Summer. They come in just before Summer time, November, December, and they stay there until March or April.
Jon Faine: As a backup. As a backup.
Zoe McKenzie: No, no, no – to run the Peninsula. Eight of them. That’s how we run the demand when we have two million people who come down over Summer. That’s how we do it, Jon. And every time I talk to United [Energy] about a better backbone, a better structure – no conversation.
So, there you have it. It would seem that Comrade Faine does not know what he does not know. A serious condition, to be sure. On Q+A he presented as an expert on how the Mornington Peninsula is powered over Summer – and was corrected by the Member for Flinders who knows something about the issue.
Verily – A Jon Faine Moment.
[Interesting. But perhaps you could have awarded the city slicker Faine with your (prestigious) Media Fool of the Week gong. Just a thought. – MWD editor.]
[Insert pic of Faine on Q&A]
AN ABC UPDATE
THE MOOCH APPEARS ON THE ABC, YET AGAIN
On Wednesday 4 September, ABC TV’s 7.30 carried an interview with former Donald Trump White House Director of Communications – Anthony (“Please call me The Mooch”) Scaramucci. For those who have forgotten the events of Mr Scaramucci’s trip to Washington, here is a brief summary.
After a career as an investment banker, The Mooch was initially picked by the incoming Trump administration to be the director of the White House Office of Public Liaison and Intergovernmental Affairs. However, his confirmation was delayed both by conflict-of-interest concerns related to his business interests and opposition from then White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.
On 21 July 2017, your man Scaramucci was instead appointed as White House communications director. Five days later he called The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza and, without taking the conversation off-the-record, unloaded his scathing opinions on Priebus and Trump adviser Steve Bannon. The next day, Lizza published an account of the conversation and Priebus resigned. John Kelly was appointed as the new chief of staff and, on 31 July, he persuaded Trump to fire Scaramucci – only 11 days into his tenure as Communications Director.
In short, even amid the widely reported dysfunction and infighting of the Trump White House, Scaramucci stands out as a particularly short-lived and incompetent appointment. So why is this man so interesting to the ABC? Well, in recent years he has turned against his former boss and so can be relied upon to provide a Trump-bashing quote on demand.
Indeed, his interview with 7.30’s Sarah Ferguson is not his first appearance on the public broadcaster this year. In April Hamish Macdonald and Geraldine Doogue seemed quite excited while interviewing him on Radio National’s Global Roaming. And then in July he was one of many Trump antagonists interviewed for Four Corners two-part series Retribution.
So, what new insights about Trump did Scaramucci have to add during his latest appearance?
Early on, The Mooch had this to say:
Anthony Scaramucci: I’m a lifelong Republican so I attempted to stay loyal to him [Trump], but this is not your dad or your grandfather’s Republican Party. This is a Trumpist party. This has elements of fascism in it, this has elements of liquidating the other two branches of the government and he has a group of acolytes now with him that are hard right.
Comrade Ferguson, herself a Trump-antagonist of long standing, let this go. She did not ask what the “elements of fascism” in the contemporary Republican Party are. Nor did the 7.30 presenter ask how, as president, Trump could liquidate the United States legislature and judiciary. Instead, Ferguson changed the topic to Vice-President Kamala Harris.
Now let’s go to the transcript for this exchange:
Sarah Ferguson: Does Trump really wear a girdle?
Anthony Scaramucci: On certain days, yes.
Sarah Ferguson: What is that about?
Anthony Scaramucci: He’s an image orientated guy. He is a television entertainer. He hates taking pictures of him from the side. He looks too fat from the side. He likes to take pictures head on. He spends a lot of time on his hair. It’s sort of a weave thing he does up there. He’s got a certain orange war paint that he wears. He’s got two-inch heels, lifts and shoes, even though he’s a reasonably tall person. There’s insecurity there. The hypermasculinity is a tell for how insecure the guy actually is.
The Mooch’s rant continued, and he stated that, if Trump wins in November, he “may have to come to live in your basement Sarah”. Whereupon Comrade Ferguson responded, “there’s room for you in Australia, Anthony Scaramucci”. Enough Said.
Thrilling stuff. Thanks to his ability to deliver Trump-gossip, Scaramucci will no doubt be back on the ABC in the lead-up to the US election.
HISTORY CORNER
AFR’S LETTERS TO THE EDITOR CORRESPONDENT MISREADS THE HISTORY ON GOVERNMENT AID TO NON-GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS
Thanks to the avid Wodonga reader who drew Media Watch Dog’s attention to this brief epistle which appeared in The Australian Financial Review’s Letters to the Editor page on 3 September 2024. It was headed “Private Hospitals at risk of replicating schools” and written by a bloke with the great name of Gerard O’Reilly. Your man O’Reilly had this to say:
In 1962, the Catholic diocese of Goulburn, in a dispute over the adequacy of a school toilet block, closed seven schools and created a crisis that led to federal funding of private schools. The private health system seems to be preparing for a similar event (“Cost alert: hospitals uninvestable”, September 2). We have Labor MPs stating “a flood of patients that are using the private hospitals would stretch the public system, in particular in regional areas”. It is reminiscent of the nuns leading a parade of pupils to the local state schools in Goulburn. MP Michelle Ananda-Rajah is correct “that the government should not bail out unprofitable private hospitals”. The government must avoid creating in health another fiasco like the school funding system.
Gerard O’Reilly, Camberwell, Vic
Ellie’s (male) co-owner is no expert on the apparent current dispute between the private health system and the government – or is it the private health system insurance industry? But he does know a bit about what is frequently called the Goulburn School Strike.
It’s mythology to state that there is a causal connection between the dispute over a toilet block at a Catholic school in Goulburn in July 1962 and the decision of the Menzies Coalition government to provide Commonwealth Government assistance to all schools in late 1963 – including non-government schools, which were primarily Catholic schools.
In the late 19th century, the Catholic Church in the various Australian colonies set up its own education system. This was motivated by a concern that Catholic children would not receive appropriate religious instruction in the government system. And so began what was called the campaign for state aid for non-government schools. The Catholic community, around 20 per cent of Australians as a whole, believed that an injustice was involved. Catholics paid taxes that supported all government schools.
And they then paid for the education of their children in Catholic schools.
At the time, many Catholics were of Irish background and at the lower end of the socio-economic pile. But they built schools and churches – many of which remain in situ today. The Catholic Church faced particular difficulties in supporting its own education system after World War II because of the baby boom and the arrival of immigrants, including those from non-Anglo-Saxon nations. This put special pressure on school resources.
Throughout all of the 19th and most of the 20th century, Australia was afflicted with anti-Catholic sectarianism. It was not as nasty as the anti-Semitism that is rife in contemporary Australia in recent years. But it was unpleasant enough. This meant that there was sufficient hostility in both the Labor Party and the Liberal Party (in its various manifestations) to Catholic schools to make it virtually impossible for their leaders to introduce state aid for non-government schools.
Labor was opposed to state aid, despite the fact there were many Catholic Labor MPs and most Catholics voted for the ALP. Opposition came primarily from sectarian Protestants, many of whom were members of the Masonic Lodge, along with the pro-communist left within the party.
The Catholic community in Goulburn became angry that it was required by a directive of the NSW Health Department to repair the toilets in one of its schools – without government assistance. It was decided by the Catholic Bishop of Goulburn to close all the Catholic schools in the town, not just one, as a protest about the lack of state aid. Around 2000 students were to present themselves at the local government schools.
The strike ran from Monday 16 July until only Friday 22 July, when it was called off. During this time, some 640 students presented at government schools – which could not cope with the overflow. The point was made, and footage was shown by the mainstream media of the broken lavatories.
The Goulburn School Strike was a symbolic success but a political failure. The NSW Labor government did not change its policy opposing state aid for non-government schools – and the toilets at Our Lady of Mercy Preparatory School in Goulburn had to be repaired by the Catholic Church. Yet, despite the failure of the Goulburn School Strike, the denial of state aid to non-government schools was overcome by the end of 1963. Here’s how.
The Coalition, led by Robert Menzies, had won a narrow victory over Labor, led by the Catholic Arthur Calwell, at the December 1961 election. Menzies called an early election for late November 1963 but there was concern about the outcome. The Menzies government was approached by anti-communist activist B.A. Santamaria, who suggested that if the Coalition promised state aid at the 1963 election, it would help shore up preferences from the Democratic Labor Party – which had emerged from the ALP during the Labor Split of the mid-1950s and whose how-to-vote card preferenced the Coalition over Labor. The DLP was a strong supporter of state aid and had been since its formation.
In the 1963 election, the Coalition promised to fund science blocks at all schools, government and non-government alike. This was the first occasion in which Catholic schools were promised any form of state aid from any Commonwealth or State government. As Michael Hogan wrote in the Catholic Campaign for State Aid, “symbolically and politically” the Coalition’s decision to provide direct aid for science education was “the crucial breakthrough” in the battle for state aid.
The tactic worked in 1963 – the Coalition was returned with an increased majority. So much so that it was tried again four years later. In 1967, the Victorian Liberal Party premier Henry Bolte was worried that the Liberal Party might lose seats outside of Melbourne to the Country Party. This time Santamaria, working with the DLP, sent a message to Bolte that the DLP could preference the Country Party ahead of the Liberals in some non-metropolitan seats if the Liberals did not make a gesture to DLP supporters. Bolte got the message. In early 1967 the Liberal Party announced that, if re-elected at the April 1967 election, it would provide a form of per-capita payments to children attending non-government primary schools. The Bolte government was returned – with the help of DLP preferences.
By the end of the 1960s, the principle of government assistance to non-government schools and students had been firmly established. Soon after, Labor, which had long opposed government assistance for non-government schools, came on board – including in NSW – and supported state aid for non-government schools.
Gerard O’Reilly’s view that a dispute in Goulburn over the adequacy of a school toilet block in NSW (which did not resolve the inadequacy of the said toilets) led to Commonwealth funding of science blocks for non-government schools is just another historical myth. Fake (historical) news – in fact.
MWD believes that avid readers would like to know this – if they do not already know.
More Coverage
Western media shuns the truth tellers on Gaza
Why the lack of interest shown by Western media in the work of Palestinian and Arab reporters and academics who criticise Hamas?
Skydance deal may seal 10’s future
The parent company of Australia’s Network 10, Paramount Global, is hoping to close a deal in which US studio Skydance Media will take control of the troubled media giant.