| Thursday Ongoing Report (September 27) |
| Sunday, 07 October 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||
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Updated 3:15pm: The News Ltd tabloids are full of stories about Rudd's "secret pact" with Gillard, for her to take over as treasurer after the election. "PRIME Minister John Howard says Labor Leader Kevin Rudd has made a secret deal to make Julia Gillard treasurer if Labor wins the federal election." - leading the charge is the Daily Telegraph (as usual) and also here and here. (The articles have since been updated) Rudd has since come out and confirmed that Swan will be treasurer if Labor is elected - ""I'm confirming today that if we are elected to form the next government of Australia that the core members of my economic team will be Wayne Swan as treasurer, Lindsay Tanner as my minister for finance and Julia Gillard as deputy leader and as minister for employment and industrial relations," Mr Rudd told reporters in Sydney." Just a brief comment on this - the media certainly does have a right to ask what Rudd's frontbench will look like after the election. It was stupid of Rudd to say all positions are open. The media should not, however, have run with Howard's line that there is a secret 'pact' between Rudd and Gillard. That is an absurd notion, of which Howard could have no possible knowledge. To run with that as a headline is irresponsible and, in my view, demonstrates clear bias. Edit: To clarify the previous statement - I mean that we see time and time again that the media is too compliant in giving negative stories from government figures top-billing, without them having provided any proof. I would not have a problem with a headline that read "Howard accuses Rudd of having secret pact", however the headline was "Rudd has 'secret pact' with Gillard - Howard". It might appear pedantic, but I believe there is an important difference between the two. ON the economy, it looks increasingly likely that there will be another interest rate rise either this year or early next. I wonder what that will do to the election timing. If Howard calls it for after November 3, as he is likely to do, that puts him at risk of a rise (RBA board meets Nov 7). "Core inflation is expected to touch the top of the central bank's 2 to 3 per cent target range in the final quarter of 2007." - if it touches 3, it would almost certainly necessitate the RBA lifting rates once more. That couldn't be good news for the Coalition. We mustn't also forget the likelihood that the inflation figures will be boosted by increasing irrigation costs and food shortages along the Murray-Darling - "No more water in 6 weeks! (referring to NSW irrigators)" . Not to mention possibly military intervention in Iran which could boost oil prices further - " French Prime Minister François Fillon has said tensions with Iran are now “extreme”, heightening a diplomatic storm caused by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner’s warning on September 16 that the world should prepare for a possible conflict over Iran’s alleged work on a nuclear weapon."
Initial post (5:00am): Fred over at the Ozelection2007 forums has drawn my attention to a piece in Salon on Rupert Murdoch's change of heart on climate change. I had heard a long while ago that he had become a believer, but now he's saying that he will be "subtly introducing [the climate issue] into our content." Now who says Murdoch doesn't have an agenda in his news reporting? The article gives us a very interesting insight into how Murdoch thinks about his power over public opinion. If he's publicly stating that he can mould his target audience's views over climate change, I wonder what other agendas he has in place that he doesn't talk about publicly... All those denials about editorial influence from the King himself? Is this not proof positive of Murdoch's unbridled power over public opinon and willingness to use it? On another note, it seems that the Libs are picking up from Piers Ackerman's lead in the Tele and starting to stir the dirt over the Heiner affair This despite the fact that the alleged abuse occurred under the previous Nationals-led government under Sir Joh. More later... Views: 795
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