Media Diversity, Broken Promises and the Return of the Ruby Princess

There have been calls for a parliamentary inquiry into media diversity in Australia, and generally, the behaviour of the mainstream media – and these calls have been made for about 20 years or so. The independent member for Goldstein, Zoe Daniel – and she used to work as a journalist before entering parliament – she currently has a motion in parliament, and that was introduced in early September, with secondary debates in the final week of the last parliamentary session about whether an inquiry should be held.<br /><br />Australia does have one of the most concentrated media landscapes in the world, dominated by two companies – News Limited and Nine Media – there’s also issues with the Australian Press Council, and that’s funded by the mainstream media, and that’s the place where you can lodge a complaint about the media, and it’s pretty much close to useless, – and generally, the mainstream media in Australia tends to be supportive of conservative political interests. And if you’re not of a conservative persuasion, that’s not good news.<br /><br />We’d highly recommend an inquiry into the media in Australia, and you’d expect that this is something that a Labor government would be supportive of, considering they’re usually on the end of most of the attacks from the media, whether they’re in government or Opposition – so what are they waiting for?<br /><br />21 min 36 ¬– The Art of the Broken Promise<br /><br />Politicians make a lot of promises, but it’s the broken promises that everyone tends to remember. Back in 1996, the former Prime Minister John Howard introduced the idea of core and non-core promises into the political vernacular, and that was after he broke some key election promises after finding out that he couldn’t keep them, and the media at that time seemed to accept this idea.<br /><br />There’s been a lot of focus of Stage 3 tax cuts and broken promises – and the media has made it very clear to the public that this will be a big breach of public trust if Labor does repeal the tax cuts, while at the