Mood:  cheeky

Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2007 1:59 PM

Subject: Re: Independence Square in one minute.

Hi Tom,

Excellent work.

Many thanks.

Jeff

Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2007 1:53 PM

Subject: Re: Independence Square in one minute.

Thats' fine. I've linked it to the YouTube website .... It likely should also go on the News [Addison Rd web] page which I will do now too.

There may be a way to upload the movie to the ARC website but I don't know how at this time.

My other response for Jeff and ARC generally is that a better control of video creations is via video share websites like

http://engagemedia.org/ 

associated in some way with Creative Commons licensing locally out of Queensland University Law School but also based in San Fransisco international office:

Australia - Creative Commons

I met Andrew Lowenthal of the local engagemedia mob last week at the OurMedia 4 day conference. A very impressive young 25 something bloke. He points out when YouTube sold for $1billion plus, the worker bees and artists got ... bugger all.

YT apparently get to 'own it' all effectively because you give all your control for that posting. That's what I call a successful model grabbing altruism and intellectual property (IP)  for private profit. The [Addison Rd Community Centre] is not really compatible with that model.

Also CCommons is not against profit taking, only that it goes to the art workers at their level of copyright.

The creative commons licensing framework is powerful because you can choose how little or much you want to share your thing - copy okay/not, attribute/not, entire/part, and many other combo and permutations. It is strong legally apparently and has stood up in some legal cases.

Thus endeth the lesson on IP in the new net shark pool.

Regards, Tom

....................

 For Jeff Wood's impressive mini movie via YouTube see

Independence Square

00:36

Posted by editor at 10:37 AM NZT

Updated: Friday, 20 April 2007 10:49 AM NZT

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Mood:  blue

In the wake of the horrors in Iraq, and the home of aggressive gun culture there in the USA with resultant horror there, and somehow a psychic link in attitude between the two, it seems timely to recall these idealistic principles from a man with a strong message of active peace. We like the picture of Gandhi below who made his own clothes as a subversive act of independence.

Trouble sought him out: The Assassination of Gandhi, 1948 , just like John Lennon as well who sang the beautiful Imagine:

Click here for one of many web links on the life and teachings of nonviolence guru Gandhi, still with the power to profoundly change people and make life easier.

Picture: From the John Lennon tribute page link above  presumably from the end of the Vietnam War era taken in the USA somewhere.

Posted by editor at 10:42 AM NZT

Updated: Thursday, 19 April 2007 11:08 AM NZT

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Mood:  accident prone

But we almost choked to hear Jeff Angel, of the Total Environment Centre doing his best to get in front of the most recent wave of waste reduction publicity in response to these articles:

All power to the super dump's stench - Environment - smh.com.au 

Rubbish piles up as recycling falters  PLAN to tackle Sydney's rising tide of waste was bound to fail because the State Government was not doing nearly enough to reach its own targets, a critique of NSW's waste strategy says.

Our wasteful use of rubbish - Environment - smh.com.au

Rivers of gold in our recycling bins - National - smh.com.au

The message is good, and the principle is right in the Herald editorial today – we do need a change of attitude. But to get that we need a change in politics and therein is the rub.

None of this is new really. In fact you could say it’s recycled from the Waste Act 1996 targets of a 60% reduction at 1995 levels junked by a progressively browner Bob Carr, with his fat electoral margins, and from 1997 in concert apparently with his handmaidens in the NSW Green movement …. Dr Judy Messer and Jeff Angel.

Harsh but consider the flow of startling correspondence below.

The heroic aging so called "junior officer" Frank Miller, land holder, member of the Goulburn Greens local chapter of that political party, now retired and deaf as a post, had alot to say back in 2000. The measure of Miller is that he was a tank driver in the 2^nd World War … for the Germans. I asked him once why did he come to Australia? He said after the war when he heard what his country had done to the Jews he no longer felt anything for his country anymore, and he left.

Frank Miller clashed with Dr Judy Messer of the NSW Nature Conservation Council badly over the conduct of a campaign against the Goulburn land fill. And also Jeff Angel.

This didn’t surprise me. I know a bit about the politics of waste. I was ex officio a co-director of the Waterloo incinerator once in my role in local government. A role I used to close the old monster in 1997. What readers need to understand about reform of waste policies over to natural capitalism of the resource is that its all about closing off escape hatches.

Unless you do that, it’s out of mind out of sight and the pollies don’t have to do anything on their watch. So not rebuilding the waterloo incinerator was crucial to front ending redesign of products, container deposits, composting, waste plans by industry etc etc A thousand progressive policies in fact to be pioneered by the new waste boards. Otherwise it would just be burnt in a big incinerator escape hatch, or some other escape hatch like ...a big hole in the ground fed by city trainloads of waste to Goulburn. Out of sight out of mind. No reason to front end new resource focused policies as per the Herald series of articles above.

But this is where Miller, a strong ally of the Friends of the Earth group and Churchill scholarship winner John Denlay, effectively implies Messer and perhaps Angel pre emptively buckled to their mates in the ALP led by Premier Carr back in 1999/2000. And the correspondence tends to bare this out which I’ve kept 7 years. The faded faxes, the musty leaves of paper.

Not that it should surprise anyone. TEC campaigners pre the Angel exclusive directorship of TEC were champions for rebuilding the Waterloo incincerator opposed by Greenpeace, locals, Green Party, FoE etc. I was the spanner in their works and there was no $40M rebuild, it was closed. Particularly recall one time a media release I had hand delivered to EPA chief Neil Shepherd's desk by his gopher literally while meeting the Mayor of Waverley to get him onside. The old guard really hated that.

After that victory in 1997 I even persuaded Angel now ascendant at TEC to write 29/10/98 to Mayor Pearce at Waverley congratulating him on closing off another escape hatch for waste being “insinkerators”, a ban that this former Greens Councillor promoted.

But when it came to the Goulburn mega tip that Carr needed to green light to avoid delivering real policy reform just like his failures on

- water recycling with the North Shore Sewerage Tunnel,

- native forest woodchipping at same or higher levels,

- public transport decay,

- renewable energy shoved aside by coal mining,

the tenor of the letters flying thick and fast from regionally based and well respected Frank Miller living near Braidwood shows the Nature Conservation Council in thrawl to the ALP and its agents.

And we well remember Frank Miller bitterly complaining he got no help from these Sydney peak green groups while he was our green movement represenative, and official party to proceedings battling the government in the Commission of Inquiry into the Goulburn mega tip. An inquiry the government simply sidestepped with another consultant’s report.

History repeats just as the Port Botany expansion Commission of Inquiry was ignored, and numerous Environment Court decisions over ruled by the government because they didn’t like the umpire’s decision, so they find another decision maker and look for some tame green garnish to add some ethical flavour.

………………………..

6/6/00

The Manager

Investigative Unit/ICAC

191 Cleveland St.,

Redfern

Re Woodlawn Megatip Proposal

Dear Sir/Madam,

On behalf of the NCC [Nature Conservation Council of NSW] Waste Crisis Network I submit the enclosed documentation for your scrutiny …obtained while being party to the Commission of Inquiry …Sydney Catchment Authority …reversed its original rejection in its Submission-in-Reply to a reluctant acquiescence of the siting of a ‘major waste facility’ in the Sydney drinking water catchment without solid foundation or substantive reasoning. SCA’s final acceptance breaches the mandate imposed upon it by SEPP 58 as well as by the ‘Sydney Water Catchment Management Act 1998’

…Sincerely, Frank Miller [signed]

………………………………….

14/6/00

ICAC ….

I would like to inform you that the NCC wishes to disassociate itself from the intention of that attached letter

Dr Judy Messer

Chairperson [NCC]

[in handwriting presumably by Frank Miller “ATTENTION JOHN THISLETON AND LOUISE THROWER/ WE ARE BEING STABBED IN THE BACK”]

………………………………………………

Facsimile Message

TO Dr Judy Messer/ NCC Chair

FROM Frank Miller/Waste Crisis Network/FoE

DATE 15.6.2000

Subject WCN submission to ICAC

I shall not attend tomorrow’s meeting.

Your attempt to prevent an ICAC investigation into the highly suspect circumstance surrounding  the SCA’s reversal  … despicable intervention severily [sic] damages the NCC agenda.

Cc Jeff Angel ……Goulburn Post

………………………………..

MEDIA RELEASE

DEPUTY PREMIER

MINISTER FOR URBAN AFFAIRS AND PLANNING

…

6 July 2000 draft draft draft

An independent expert has been appointed to assess the need for major landfill sites for Sydney’s waste …independent consultant Mr Tony Wright ….

......................

“Nature Conservation Council of NSW Inc

Media Release

7 July 2000

[NCC] today congratulated the Deputy Premier, and Minister for Urban Affairs and Planning on his decision to further question the need for, and appropriateness of Megatip proposals for Sydney’s Waste.

….Kathy Ridge

Frank Miller

…………………………………

FACSIMILE MESSAGE

TO Waste Crisis Networker Peter Hopper

FROM Frank Miller/FoE

DATE 7.7.00

SUBJECT Response to Dr Refshauge’s Media Release

FoE can see no reason to ‘rejoice’ in Dr. Refshauge’s announcement  “to assess the need for major landfill sites for Sydney’s waste [via ‘independendent’ consultant Tony Wright]” …. The recently released report, produced by the Alternative Waste Management Inquiry’, chaired by Mr. Tony Wright, does not display any independence of thinking as it is heavily waste industry-dominated ... does not respond to its terms of reference … Ecologically Sustainable Development. …

EPA and the regional Waste Boards have accumulated over the years extensive data …. The alarming signal given by Dr Refshauge’s announcement is that even after 5 years …this gov. can think of nothing more than to continue with well and truly obsolete Mega-tips, while in other parts of the world governments are beginning to accept that that is a dead-end road

[signed] FMiller FoE Waste Campaigner

……………………………………

“FACSIMILE MESSAGE.

TO Kathy Ridge

FROM Frank Miller

DATE 10.7.2000

SUBJECT Press release

Please, do no longer put my name and number under NCC press releases. I would not like to be put into the position of having to publicly disagree with anything stated in a NCC press release. The NCC press release on the latest ‘initiative’ by Minister Refshauge was totally unacceptable as far as I am concerned.

[Signed F Miller]”

………………………..

[NSW Hansard] 52 Parliament …06/08/2000…Hon RSL Jones …

“LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

QUESTION WITHOUT NOTICE

Is it a fact that the Nature Conservation Council has asked the ICAC to investigate the extraordinary about turn by the Sydney Catchment Authority in its vigorous opposition to the Woodlawn mega-tip? …

Does the Minister realise that if this proposal goes ahead that it will lead to the dumping in Sydney’s water catchment of up to 25 million tonnes of rotting putrescible waste, which in any case should be composted?

Will the minister investigate also what pressure was put on the Sydney Water Catchment and by whom? Was it the [EPA] … Collex?”

…………………………

[NSW Hansard] 52 Parliament Woodlawn Megatip 08/29/2000

….The Minister for Environment … I am aware that a junior officer of the Nature Conservation Council’s  Waste Crisis Network wrote to the [ICAC] …Dr Judy Messer wrote to the ICAC on 14 June 2000. That letter stated ….

……………………………………..

FAX TO: FRANK MILLER

FROM JEFF ANGEL 12/10/00

RE YOUR FAX ON THE REP

Frank,

Your fax is offensive

I don’t care what you suspect, you obviously don’t know what is being said or what opportunity the interview or announcement offered. And there are a lot of other threats to drinking water quality besides Woodlawn.

Your attitude simply alienates you from the people who thought they were working with you.

Please don’t bother to contact us again.

[signature] Jeff Angel

……………………………………………

The suggestion implied from all this correspondence is that the green movement 'leadership' including Jeff Angel in the press and radio today pre emptively buckled to the Goulburn Mega Tip escape hatch way of doing things over 7 years ago under the Carr Govt. That's not very much moral credibility for grandstanding on waste reduction today, so roll on the dominance of the geniunely independent Green Party when it comes to environmental policy and campaigning. A real attitude change as per the newspaper editorial today.

Postscript #1 Echo of the cynical situation above in NSW politics April 19th 2007 by Elizabeth Farrelly Knights of old only added fuel to the ire

Posted by editor at 2:26 PM NZT

Updated: Thursday, 19 April 2007 1:10 PM NZT

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Mood:  hug me

08:35: Citizen Journalism  Read Transcript Interviewing Stuart Allan Professor of Media Studies, University of the West of England, and Tony Walker Manager, ABC, Digital Radio www.abcdigitalfutures.net

The OurMedia gathering is described in one notice like this:

The 6th international OURMedia Conference (OM6) is to be held in Sydney in 2007. The OM6 Conference will bring together international and national experts, researchers, policy makers, activists and local community development practitioners to discuss ways to ensure a sustainable future for building …The Sydney conference is to be hosted by the School of Communication Arts, University of Western Sydney in association with the Centre for Cultural Research at UWS, and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney, with community partner Information and Cultural Exchange (ICE), an organization based in Granville, Sydney.
Past OURMedia conferences have been organized in the United States (2001), Spain (2002), Colombia (2003), Brazil (2004) and India (2005). These conferences have consisted of scholarly and academic presentations, media activism initiatives, policy workshops, community cultural development roundtable debates, new media labs, research-led forums and engagements by local media producers.
 

Concurrent with this conference there were some related stories about new media apart from the Radio National interview above: We also noticed:

 Boy dupes YouTube to delete videos, and

 http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/there-are-70-million-stories-out-there-and-this-is-just-one-of-them/2007/04/13/1175971347702.html

The main website for organising the Sydney OurMedia conference is here: http://www.ourmedia07.net/

An organisational website is here http://www.ourmedianet.org/general/about_us.html

The Sydney April 2007 conference documentation website is here:

http://om6.engagemedia.org/index.php/Main_Page

A good summary website describing the enormous social and intellectual capital of this‘network and forum’ including the recent April 07 Sydney conference (the sixth international meeting) is here (including a few pictures)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OURMedia/NEUSTROSMedios

My own humble 2 previous articles of the Sydney conference with some colourful images complementing this third report are here: at topic independent media on the right menu

- Thursday, 12 April 2007

Our Media conference #2: excellent capacity building continues

- Wednesday, 11 April 2007

When will it be Our Media?: #1 report: Conference of international practitioners kicks off

SAM reported the Australian Climbing Festival on the Easter Weekend where hundreds were greeted by two of the local traditional Aboriginal owners of the land in a 'welcome to country'. The audience were very appreciative and enjoyed the interaction. But at OM6 sadly there was no such authentic interaction the first day though a local was booked apparently. There was the UTS 3/2005 copy of the Southside News which was very strong in solidarity with local Aboriginal concerns. But I wondered about the no show.

In report #1 I noted there was a dearth of local activism in the Guthrie Theatre on opening day with some empty seats. This changed especially by the 4th day and there were always strong hints of an underbelly of activism from this writers schematic chalkings, to poster boards and Chilean posters, to Zanny Begg/Keg De Souza’s activist newspaper “If You See Something, Say Something”. There was also a Polymedia lab for unplanned activities which was at first quiet then gathered some steam.

In the end I concluded the lack of rah rah activism belied the depth of the OurMedia roots. The energy of the event was reflected more in the dull roar of the morning and afternoon tea breaks, and especially the raucous 150 dinner goers at Thai Phatong on Thursday night. This was a gathering of representative experts including CAAMA Aboriginal broadcasters from central Australia. The wikipedia article above notes too:

“Some 70 participants from overseas attended the Sydney conference. OURMedia 6 claims … 130 presentations from people in 35 countries, representing over one hundred organisations.

Currently OURMedia/NUESTROSMedios claims to … a network of over 500 persons from some 50 countries globally. It says that its "purpose" is to "connect scholars, practitionres, activists, artists, and policy-makers to provide spaces for dialogue and exchange".

Certainly the local UWS/UTS website has an impressive list of universities and countries of attendees.

The toned down nature of the event was explained as much by this comment at the end of the 3^rd day during the organisation session for next time: “funding for this conference meant deleting activist from every application and then reinserting it in the conference itself.” The horizontal and subterranean nature of OurMedia and it’s deceptively academic style is also revealed by the absence of any formal secretariat so far.

Apparently Clemencia Rodriguez distinguished with her own wikipedia entry did most of this for several years but admitted at one point she “hates writing grant applications and I avoid it as much as possible” . This rang true as she presented a paper on sophisticated culture jamming of a rampaging cattle industry in South America via the salsa song tradition. More here at www.cfsc.org and www.comminit.com  But this sparse resourcing has had other affects: Somewhat exuberant and panicky exhortations of Gabriele Hadl  for us to stay for the planning work of the next conference. Hadl of Austrian orgins and a fluent Japanese speaker at Tokyo University was a stand out dynamic figure at the conference and obviously committed to the network.

During this session, activist and increasingly media practitioner, Jethro Pettit, the descendant of a campaigning newspaper owning abolitionist against slavery, also made a plea that Our Media get some more solid resourcing of its network organisation.

Perhaps in this way the international community, alternative and Indigenous media might get more of what it deserves while Multinational corporations co opt mass populations sometimes subtely, often blatantly.

Pictures: From top left to right, all taken day 3 at UTS Harris St 1.The highly impressive Ahmed Swapan Mahmud of Bangladesh group Voice www.voicebd.org with conference organiser Dr Juan Salazar of UTS 2. Chalkings relating to Big Media abc, News Ltd, Lake Cowal issue 3.  Tom Dawkins of www.vibewire.net at youth forum 4. dull roar of out of session fug 5. cute organiser 6. heavy weight organisers from left a. Jethro Pettit b. ? c. Gabriele Hadl d. ? from Canada e. Clemencia Rodrigeuz (refer wikipedia) f.Juan Salazar g. Elli Rennie  h. Alfonso Gumucio (wikipedia) 7. at right Ilaria Vanni of UTS here  8. very sparse Liberian radio station

In Sydney for instance we have the scandal of the Ch31 TV licence failing to broadcast excellent programmes produced by the ICE resource centre at Granville. We have local academics criticising 31 for its “woeful lack of a participatory model” and Ch31 Melbourne veterans describing their comparative success based on

1. low financial gearing and high volume advertising to small business

2. only groups directly involved in production of tv programmes are stakeholders in the management and operation of the channel.

In fact we made a point of a doorstop interview of Professor Wayne McKenna, dean of Uni of Western Sydney on Tuesday 10^th of April 07 which proceeded like this:

SAM: Hi Professor, I’m with one of the programme providers for Ch31, can you answer a question on the record?

Prof: No, You’re with a programme provider?’

 SAM: Yes,

Prof: Off the record [......some things said, nothing too surprising].‘

Prof: On the record, we never intended to operate community tv. Our interest is educational opportunities.

SAM : So you need a partner to satisfy the investment by UWS so far [at least a $million]

Prof: Our aim is to consolidate the future of Ch31.

SAM: I suppose theres is a great need in that part of the city out at UWS?

Prof: Yes. When I pushed for it to be in Penrith it wasn’t very popular.

SAM: Do you think it’s possible to synthesize the education/training agenda with the community sector practitioners participation?

Prof: Yes, let me choose my words carefully. Yes I do think its possible and we would like to strengthen links there.

SAM: OK on that positive note thanks for your time .

But the hopeful words are not the actual experience of the community sector that had a functioning, viable and accessible Ch31 for a good 10 years admittedly of patchy quality, until it was put out to tender and allocated to a UWS back consortium that prompty took it off air for 18 months. Now limping along it is rumoured to be falling over with UWS a beggar in the marketplace to save its educational asset that really belongs to civil society not university beancounters as such.

It was civil society we inspected on the 4^th day of the conference (as pictured at top), who were the losers in this betrayal of participatory tv broadcasting ideals in favour of thinly disguised training subsidy to Big Media TV sector: In particular the community around such as the Information & Cultural Exchange resource centre on Parramatta Rd in Granville http://www.ice.org.au/

On the ground floor of the AMWU building we got a stirring speech on fair trade and innovation from Senate candidate Doug Cameron, whose union sponsers the centre:

We had a brief chance to ask him: "Do you think you will get a ministry if and when the ALP win the federal election? "

Doug Cameron amused: “Oh I don’t think so, there are a lot of voices against that happening. Anyway that’s not why I am doing it. It’s to get a voice for these issues.”

[from his speech such as oppressive globalisation, centralisation of media, excessive corporate bonuses, extreme industrial relations, denial of the real global warming threat, poor innovation here in Australia, quarry farm and tourist destination]

The more I thought about the last 4 days of meeting and learning the more I concluded that for this world to avoid a brutal endgame from global warming, or terrifying nuclear proliferation as per this story from the AFP on April 12^th

Russians warn against US missile defence project | The World | The Australian

we at SAM think one of the few ways to save this world would be if the media sector reformed itself to actually serve the People rather than their own excessive privilege and finances and access to Big Politics and Big Business. And that is a very big if. In fact anthropologists tell us that every civilisation has crashed and burned for exceeding their limits. But you won’t hear that in the mainstream media. No one wants to buy depressing reality like that. 

Postscript #1 19th April 2007, notes this unsatisfactory foray to the UN Security Council by Britian on global warming here, including reference to Bangladesh and Maldives at major risk:

UN rebuff for Britain on global warming

Posted by editor at 12:03 AM NZT

Updated: Friday, 20 April 2007 11:35 AM NZT

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Mood:  incredulous

Picture: Right wing Gerard Henderson as per his profile on the govt broadcaster website here is guilty of self censoring over hate speech of fellow traveller Alan Jones (pictured below).

There he is again, the old slogger in the Fairfax Sydney Morning Herald today. It was John Howard's office in the old days, and before that slumming at meetings of the ultra right The H.R. Nicholls Society in the early 1990's in Melbourne along with union buster Peter Costello.

Yep it's Gerard Henderson with his usual impressive house of cards which reads all fine until you notice the grotesque self censorship.

What is it today? What glaring omission? What hopeless moral blindspot leveraging his Big Media and Big Politics access to literally mind fuck the population?

Well the clue is in the headline Hate in the name of free speech because, as Mark Day in the Media section of The Australian last Thursday April 12th notes (below) and the whole media sector except Henderson will say, conservative broadcaster Alan Jones is guilty as sin, as found by the national regulator, of promoting gang related racist violence:

ACMA links Alan Jones to Cronulla violence. 10/04/2007. ABC News ...

Jones broadcast incited violence: ACMA - Breaking News - National ...

Picture: Alan Jones, radio broadcaster for 2GB, image lifted from The Australian, famous for the white supremacist notion "Australians are one culture many races" which is convenient because it implicitly promotes the anglo English culture as "the one" given the traditional colonial domination of the place, not least the Aboriginal indigenous.

And here is Mark Day laying it out in The Media section of The Australian

There must be a reckoning for Jones's vitriol | Mark Day | The Media, in The Australian April 12th 2007 ...

"Jones faced eight allegations of inciting violence or vilification. He got off five and went down on three. He described Australians of Middle Eastern origin as "grubs" and laughed heartily at the suggestion that "if you shoot one, the rest will run", and got away with it.

ACMA decided it could not be said that "an ordinary reasonable listener would have regarded the program as likely to urge, prompt or stimulate a person to violent action, inspire or encourage violence by way of assistance or approval." But when Jones read an email from a listener, he ran into trouble.

"J has a good answer," Jones said. "He says police and the council are impotent here, all rhetoric and no action.

"My suggestion is to invite the biker gangs to be present at Cronulla railway station when these Lebanese thugs arrive - the biker gangs have been much maligned, but they do a lot of good things - it would be worth the price of admission to watch these cowards scurry back on to the train for the return trip to their lairs.

"Australians old and new should not have to put up with this scum."

ACMA found the suggestion to invite bikie gangs to intimidate Lebanese rail passengers gave the impression that people of Lebanese or Middle Eastern background were forming gangs intent on causing harm to "Australians". ACMA said it was "of the view that an ordinary reasonable listener would regard the endorsement of the biker gang invitation as likely to encourage violence".

The findings against Jones contribute to a litany of findings against 2GB by ACMA. "

[bold added]

.............. 

But this 'hate in the name of free speech' by a Howard Govt ally Alan Jones is not mentioned once in today's column by Gerard Henderson in a one sided Muslim and Left baiting exercise. The Green Left Weekly gets parodied in the last column but not Alan Jones on his own side of politics. That's willful blindness or willful propagandising to omit Jones role in hate speech.

Indeed in a curious echo of this magical ability of the ultra Right to airbrush their own noxious speech when brought finally to account we notice top W Bush adviser Karl Rove has managed to lose 4 years of emails that would reveal his cynical tricks to a US Senate judiciary committee: White House embarrassed by missing Rove emails

Here is Mark Day again at his blog of April 12th re pressure on the national media regulator here to actually do something about race provocateurs like Jones:

"After the cash for comment inquiry found against him, Jones launched a ferocious counterattack, declaring he was right and the ABA was wrong. As a tactic, it worked, because there was no mass audience defection. There is therefore no surprise that Jones has tried the same trick in the wake of the vilification finding against him.

But ACMA under chairman Chris Chapman is a different kettle of fish. Chapman, a little more than a year into his job, has been hit with a heavy workload as a result of media reform legislation passed last yea, and has struggled to sort out some of the loose ends of the legislation. But he has shown a steely resolve to stick to the letter of the law, which now gives him wider options to deal with Jones or any other transgressor.

Jones and Singleton say they will refuse to accept negotiated enforceable undertakings to ensure there are no repeats of the station’s three judgments of vilification in the past four months. That may be a show of bravado, but it is also stupid because Chapman can simply impose licence conditions, a higher level of penalty. " The Australian Mark Day Blog

Indeed the omission by Henderson of this powerful tension and reality involving Jones is so grotesque given Henderson's own choice of topic about "hate" and "free speech" we feel there is adequate evidence to label him a public intellectual fraud and moral lightweight/spinnner. An industrious propagandist. 

There does seem to be alot of double talk going on at the moment about ethical behaviour in the Big and little Media. Take this hilarious cartoon (which is so true) again in The Australian over the Network 7 Sunrise alleged "fake dawn" which frankly looks like a political and industry beat up of a high rating rival, their enemies leveraging the show's name over a 4 am early tribute to meet their schedules on ANZAC day.

Aren't people allowed to do anything before the ANZAC dawn service in Howard's Australia? Is it some kind of Lenten abstinence thing? A Ramadan like fast? Are you allowed to brush your teeth before the Dawn Service? It's a pathetic beat up really:

Posted by editor at 12:00 PM NZT

Updated: Thursday, 19 April 2007 4:47 PM NZT

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Mood:  mischievious

What's the validity of Marrickville Council putting a ban on any local tenderer dealing with Myanmar aka Burma? Curious. Veteran journo Alex Mitchell calls it "barmy". But Big Alex is wrong on this one.

As said on 702 public radio the audience probably don't realise the large number of Vietnamese-Australian business people in this writer's home suburb of Marrickville who no doubt have financial dealings with South East Asia, not least their old homeland of Vietnam not that far from Burma.

Do you think these locals are concerned about human rights in Vietnam and Burma and all of South East Asia? You can bet your bottom dollar they are so its pretty smart local politics to put a symbolic ban on the shockingly cruel Burma. We well remember an excellent report by Ginni Stien on SBS Dateline about that country's weirdness. But is it just symbolic?

Could some local Vietnamese Australian businesses tender for almost anything (including the proverbial local council toilet block) and also have financially dealings with Burma?

It's not that far fetched. In fact it's a very real possibility unless you live in an anglo tinted society that just airbrushed all the local immigrants in this part of Sydney.

Alex Mitchell you goose. Your gratuitous sledge in the SunHerald yesterday 14th April 2007 (Fairfax) in your Naked Eye column is hopelessly misdirected. 

If you feel the same let this veteran journo know at his published email address at armitchell@sunherald.com.au

Posted by editor at 10:51 AM NZT

Updated: Monday, 16 April 2007 12:50 PM NZT

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Mood:  bright

You are a real champion! Tom!
Thank you!
I just found out that the NRA (the Irish National Road Authority) has been planning IN SECRET to do the same thing in my county - Cork - a freeway through the lovely river Lee valley!! It is not a sacred site, like the Hill of Tara, but my perspective is that the challenge to Tara is the big wake-op call for the Irish.
The Irish Greens plan to re-think the whole transport strategy if they get in this time, which means putting a stop to the developers, and, I am hoping, a serious revamp of the NRA.
Since I've started working on a a new documentary about Geonomics (henry George, et al) I understand what is going on. I was puzzled at the makeup of NRA, until NOW! Today, when I got the news about the 'leak' from Cork, I remembered reading about the people who make up the NRA. they are all developers and business people of one kind or another. And, "naturally" the idea is to build highways and then land prices go up!

Thanks for doing this! Awakening to what is happening in Ireland is the same as "awakening" to what is happening everywhere, I think.
I'm pushing everyone I know to download our info. handbill, and photocopy a batch to hand out at gigs and parties! - if not putting on gigs expressly for the cause.
Onward!
Maireid


ecology action australia wrote:

Know any Irish visitors/residents here (who just happen to be Irish uni graduates) who might need to read this before 22nd April to vote in their national Irish senate election?

How's that - a system that gives 6 senate seats to graduates of Irish universities. Now that's what I call respect for education.

Only 8 days away to register their change of address to keep their franchise alive in May or June election 2007.

It will affect their environment over there as described below. This is part of a global alert email project by Irish related networks

Yours truly, Tom McLoughlin ecology action sydney, www.sydneyalternativemedia.com/blog

PS - feel free to pass on to your Irish contacts here in Oz.

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2007 6:07 PM

Subject: Hi Tom

Dear Tom,

How are you?

Did I send you the below post?

I need to get this out very quickly - deadline coming soon. 

Could you help out by sending it to your circle?

Hope you are well!

Maireid

Anam Cara for TARA arts action Alert!

Action Deadline: 22 April, 2007

This "Art Action ALERT!" is reaching out to every citizen of Ireland, no matter where you may be in the world at the moment. 

I am sure among your friends and contacts you know quite a few graduates of the National University of Ireland (UCD, UCC, UCG, Maynooth, NCAD, the teacher and nursing training colleges, and a few others). As this is a postal ballot, graduates can vote no matter where in the world they live as long as they are registered. Many registered initially at their parents' address after they graduated, but have long since moved.

If any of these people changed their addresses on the electoral role their votes would be very helpful in the upcoming Irish Senate elections.  To do so, all they need to do is to send an email to records@nui.ie by the 22nd of April: with their name, year of graduation, degree, previous address of registration and current address, and their details will be changed in time to receive a ballot paper before the next election, which is expected in May or June, 2007.

Here is how the Irish Senate system works:

A General Election to Seanad Éireann (Irish Senate) must be held within 90 days of the dissolution of Dáil Éireann (the Irish government). Seanad Éireann is composed of 60 Members as follows:

11 nominated by the Taoiseach (Prime Minister)

43 elected by five panels representing vocational interests namely, Culture and Education, Agriculture, Labour, Industry and Commerce and Public Administration.

SIX (6) elected by the graduates of two universities: - three each by the National University of Ireland and the University of Dublin (Trinity College).

In theory, Seanad Éireann does not recognise party affiliations. However, as the electorate for the panels is made up of the Members of the incoming Dáil, the outgoing Seanad, county councils and county borough councils, the composition of Seanad Éireann, including the Taoiseach's nominees, will tend to reflect party strengths in Dáil Éireann.

The Constitution provides that not more than two Senators may be members of the Government and this provision has been exercised twice in the last 60 years.

Martin Hogan deserves the No. 1 vote.

Take a look for yourself. Read what Martin Hogan has to say on his website:

 http://www.martinhogan.ie/agenda_environmental_campaign.php

And, if you have a website, please link to his website too.

The more links to his site the more visibility he and the issues he is trying to highlight will have.

The following notes are taken from Martin Hogan's website:

...............

Martin Hogan

Environmental Campaigns

A healthy environment is good for our community, business, and future generations. We have a duty of care to leave a world to our children and grandchildren that they can enjoy as we have enjoyed it.

There are many committed groups and individuals in Ireland and beyond dedicated to ensuring that at least some of the beauty of the world is preserved for our children.

On a national basis there are two issues which will have far reaching implications on Irish society depending on how the Government handles them. The first of these has focussed on the community of Rossport and the second is the Tara valley issue.

Ireland's Offshore Oil & Gas

The campaign of the Rossport community of West Mayo opposing the laying of a pipeline against their wishes and their desire to have the gas from the Corrib basin processed safely offshore has received much attention over the last two years.

This campaign captured the minds of the public when five local men served over 3 months in prison by refusing to commit to the court that they would stand idly by while an unsafe pipeline was laid near their homes and community. The handling of this campaign by the State highlights a number of disturbing issues. Primarily, that the concerns of the citizens of a village of this nation were completely ignored in an attempt by Shell and Statoil, backed by the Government, to bully a small community into submission.

The attitude seems to prevail on the part of many in the Government that Ireland is still some form of banana republic who should go cap in hand to any big company who wants to locate here and that any community or group who stands in the way of this must be dealt with harshly and quickly.

In many ways, Shell and Statoil (as the two largest shareholders in the Corrib basin consortium) have borne the brunt of a national campaign that has developed in support of the Rossport community. Although unquestionably heavy handed, Shell and Statoil acted in many ways as any oil companies would have done acting on the deal they were given.

The real blame for this mess lies with the Irish government. Between 1988 and 1992, Fianna Fáil ministers drew up a so called "deal" that gave oil companies the right to extract oil and gas from Irish territory without paying a single cent in royalties and, under a taxation incentive, that allows the companies to write off their entire production bill against tax liability. It is the most favourable deal ever negotiated for the oil and gas industry anywhere in the developed or developing world.

The Government has argued that this was done to ensure jobs and safeguard supplies, but there are only a handful of Irish jobs being created and the Government does not even have first option to buy our own gas, given away for free, at market value.

It was the resistance of the Rossport community that helped heighten awareness of this unbelievable give away that sees billions of Euro of gas (at a time of spiralling gas prices) go to foreign companies without any benefit to Ireland. It is particularly bitter as Statoil, which is 75% owned by the Norwegian people, contributed so much to the provision of the social and transport infrastructure of that country.

It is hard to believe that the terms of this "arrangement" are still in place, and the minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources gave away another massive gas field off the coast of Donegal as recently as last summer. This field holds billions of Euro worth of gas.

This situation has to be addressed, the concerns of the people of Rossport fully heard and the terms by which hydrocarbons are extracted from Irish territory renegotiated to give some revenue to the Irish state.

Hill of Tara

The Tara campaign is another example of incompetent government handling of an issue that simply would not have arisen in any of our western EU neighbours.

The Irish people are faced with the double frustration of having our most famous and significant historical site threatened while having the construction of a useful motorway further delayed.

Why was this situation allowed to occur in the first place? Despite the long delays and expense incurred as a result of challenges in the construction of motorways at Carrickmines and the Glen of the Downs, the government decided to route the M3 next to Tara knowing that the result would be a long and destructive legal battle for all concerned.

If the government adopted normal road building methodology first widely employed by the Roman Empire over 2,000 years ago in realising that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line I might understand their position. However, the proposed route for the M3 goes on a semicircular route from Dunshaughlin around the hill of Tara and back to follow a reasonably straight path again.

The question must be asked why is this? There are no large mountain ranges or Amazon type rivers in the Meath area that I am familiar with. Why when the M3 could be built 5 kms away form Tara, 3.5km shorter, over €50 million cheaper and with the possibility of linking Trim to the new road was this not done?

I wonder whose land the M3 passes through near Tara and who would receive large payments from the us taxpayers for purchasing this land?

Environmental campaigns such as these highlight the need to involve people in decisions that affect their lives and the need to move away from the government's bad planning in Ireland once and for all.

...................

The issues facing both the Tara and Rossport campaigns are broadly similar in that they have to be expanded so that the public see them as directly affecting their lives and the lives of future generations rather than believing the spin and falsehoods that the Irish government constantly trot out about them.

We have until 22 April to contact all Irish graduates living abroad.

Please forward this "Art Action ALERT!" to all of your Irish networks.

Join the the Anam Cara for Tara "Arts Action" campaign!

Sigh the Petition! Write a Letter! Send an Email!

Make a donation! Plan an awareness or fund raising event and inform your networks!

All contact information is online here: 

http://www.anamcarafestival.org/

You'll find the petition link, Irish government and media addresses, a sample letter, plus templates for a downloadable poster, flyer, and an information handbill - and we will customize posters for anyone who wants to use them - without charge.

In good faith!

Maireid Sullivan

Anam Cara for Tara is an initiative of the Global Arts Collective:

http://www.GlobalArtsCollective.org

Posted by editor at 5:55 PM NZT

Updated: Monday, 16 April 2007 7:30 AM NZT

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Mood:  down

Tim Blair aka the human rottweiler and his 30 non sequiturs in the press yesterday still deserves a response as tedious as he is.

People like shrieker Blair might realise a right wing blog, only on newsprint (go figure, refer page 23 Sydney Daily Telegraph 14^th April 2007 “30 deeply unfair generalisations”) is not actually cleverer, sharper or funnier than say the highly successful Al Gore or Michael Moore. In fact to quote THE CASTLE  he is “dreamin”:

Here's another 30 curiousities of modern life (plus one axiom no.31 at the end) likely of far more sense than the intellectual vomit from mad dog Blair:

1. Funny how the same people based here and the USA who most support the Iraq war have never seen active service and wouldn’t step out of the Green Zone in Baghdad in a pink fit. First and best chicken hawk example is golf loving George Bush who never served in the Vietnam War. Second is John Howard ditto.

2. Funny how the same chicken hawk supporters of the Iraq war would never send their own adult children, as per the famous Michael Moore footage of the hawks of US Congress running from his camera. Example: John Howard’s sons. George Bush’s daughters.

3. Notice how the deniers of global warming like Alan Jones are busy buying houses in the Southern Highlands at 500 m elevation.

4. Notice how people stuck living amongst concrete in dense inner city suburbs (because services are so bad in the bush), do compost, and do have lower average energy and water use because economy of scale means they have much smaller ecological footprint per head than others, but still get baited as 'concrete lovers'.

5. Notice how the “original conservationists” to quote Liberal ex leader Debnam are also the grain grower, Saddam bribe merchants, who are also the biggest land clearers.

6. Funny how the best haters of the ABC (for daring to have standards) think 37 Minutes (plus 23 minutes of adverts), and ACA are documentaries.

7. The same people who think the ABC is the “only … pay tv” in Australia we are forced to fund (according to Blair at least) have never heard of Foxtel part owned by Telstra subsidised by govt monopoly for a 100 years.

8. The same people who admire George Pell’s bigotry against gay lifestyle also support the Church’s traditional ban on married priests making the Churches a hotbed of gay sexual frustration.

9. The same people who admire the free market also support the 'nanny state' banning of consenting adults doing things to eachother on film sold in Fyshwick ACT.

10.  The same people who reject Prof Flannery speaking out on global warming in good faith demand to be taken seriously on the topic in their newspaper (The Australian) while publishing reams of ‘special advertising reports’ for the fossil fool industry

11. The people who think the Simpsons mainstreaming of goofy 'yet harmless' nuke plants in hoky Springfield is innocent fun are the same ones most alarmed at Iran getting nuclear energy capacity because it will proliferate nuke weapon's risk.

12. The same people at Davos World Economic Forum happy to leave global warming 'to the free market to solve', if it exists at all, meet in the Swiss Alps high above the ocean, set to rise if the polar caps melt, and support a seeds repository 130 m above sea level in Norway. Rumour has it they also buy up in the Blue Mountains and sell in Double Bay.

13. The same people who freak most at Iran’s nuke programme praise George Bush’s first strike missile ‘defence shield’ scheme, sending Russia and China into paroxysms of diplomatic protest and undoing the nuclear balance since the 1950’s and trashing the global disarmament agenda etc, because its okay to proliferate if it’s one of ours.

14. The same people who are most religious, indeed Rapturous, think it's okay for W Bush to cause the end of the world with 6 billion deaths ... because he is one of ours.

15. The same people who call the Left anti US also think Noam Chomsky, Pete Seeger, Dixie Chicks, Michael Frente, John Lennon (!), Rage Against the Machine and Muhammed Ali are all Shining Path communists from Peru.

16. The same people who think George Clooney, Tim Robbins, Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman (!?) “are surrender monkeys” would never let their kids serve in Iraq let alone Afghanistan and think the movie Syrianna is a documentary about the Stasi in East Germany (actually it is a doco drama, but it’s about the CIA).

17. The people who think blogging for Big Media is smart and witty have never seen The Chaser War on Everything in case it was funnier than them.

18. The same people who support privatisation of all public assets built up over generations of taxpayers, scream blue murder over death taxes on private assets embedded with generations of public subsidy around a civil society, health services, public education, traffic lights.

19.  The same people who think Islamofascists are around every corner still love Leb flat bread wraps from Subway, and various exotic dishes at their bbq like hummus, and Hazzem El Masri (aka Magic) when he scores a try for their rugby team. They're okay because that’s different.

20. The same people who think free speech demands the right to disrespect a religious Prophet for the Muslims don't mind Mr Peek after 30 years at Tristar getting sacked with no long service payment simply for talking to the media. Free speech anyone?

21. The same people who think the Meeja regulator is wrong to attack Alan Jones for promoting racist street gang fights because he is just the messenger,  think it's fine to strangle the ABC funding so environment shows like EarthBeat on the real science of forest destruction and global warming can be axed.

22. The same people who think that the globalisation of capital and free trade should be unfettered, and executive bonuses unlimited, are desperate to lock up refugees in Villawood desperately seeking freedom from tyranny.

23. Some people think the Devil simply got a bad rap because he never got a chance to put his side of the story, unlike say Tim Blair.

24. The same people who want strict controls on harmful drugs and movement of terrorists across borders for the general public welfare also reject international action on greenhouse emission targets as unrealistic.

25. The same people who applaud John Howard saving forests in Indonesia with $200M in our taxpayer funds want to destroy the same natural carbon storage warehouse in Tasmania for a pulp mill of a big political donor Gunns Ltd.

26. The same people who argue that Tasmania already has 45% of locked up forest (even button grass and rocky peaks), also praise those horny handed sons of the soil affected by drought in this “wide treeless brown land”.

27. The same people who say only a few people died after Chernobyl and 3 Mile Island nuke disasters also think its cute that we can read radioactive traces of atmospheric tests of the 1950’s in every glowing silt layer on the globe from Antarctica to the Sahara to the NSW South Coast.

28. The same people attacking Kevin Rudd for being on Sunrise show on ch7 as too exclusive and low brow, have nothing to say about the Big media companies ganging up and attacking Kerry Stokes C7 pay tv start up resulting in the biggest Meeja litigation contest in living memory.

29. The same people who loved Princess Di paid for the photos of the paparazzi who killed her, and seemingly want to kill her sons/girlfriends now with the same treatment.

30. The same people who are ultra nationalists waving ‘our’ flag on Australia day also think we are still a white supremacist colony of the UK given the union jack in the top left corner. Independent country anyone? 

31. There is a columnist in Sydney who thinks our moniker for him as the human rottweiler is a compliment.

Postscript #1 Monday 16th April 07

Postscript #2: Tuesday 17th April 07, I'm all for 'across the aisle' bipartisanship including talkies with ill mannered, vicious or evil Right wingers as per the panoply of lightweights in the comments section below. If time permits. As for the insults like the proverbial flogging with a wet lettuce, consider this:

- I wrote that in 10 minutes while Blair probably took 10 days to figure his out. He gets marks for the first draft but not any moral cred.

- Even if we dropped 30 IQ points (not that we follow that bogus western metric here) I would still be above W Bush at 120 - a full 40 points behind his ideological enemies Clinton 159, and JF Kennedy on 160. That metric bespeaks a global tragedy for all of us right now, and volumes for the power of rat cunning.

- In W Bush's case an old Thai saying seems to fit: Anyone can be rich if they are willing to pick the coin out of the poo with their teeth.

Whether real or not in their case, I can now catalogue these very real, nasty insults from carnivorous Righties below as a handy resource of quotable quotes to use against the Right in future for my own sympathy trawling (in my case justified of course) from their traditional centre right supporters. Keep it comning boys!

Posted by editor at 2:19 PM NZT

Updated: Thursday, 19 April 2007 10:12 AM NZT

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Mood:  caffeinated

Author’s general introductory note (skip this if you know this regular weekly column):

This is not a well packaged story. It’s a contemporaneous traverse of the Sunday television free to air political talkies indicating the agenda of Establishment interests: Better to know ones rivals and allies  in Big Politics and Big Media.

Indeed it’s the tv version monitoring task similar to what Nelson Mandela refers to here in his book Long Walk to Freedom (1994, Abacus) written in Robben Island prison (where he was meant to die like other African resister chiefs of history in the 19C), at page 208

“..newspapers are only a shadow of reality; their information is important to a freedom fighter not because it reveals the truth, but because it discloses the biases and perceptions of both those who produce the paper and those who read it.”

Just substitute ‘Sunday tv political talkie shows’ for "newspapers" in the quote above

For actual transcripts go to web sites quoted below except with Riley Diary on 7. And note transcripts don’t really give you the image content value.

10 Meet the Press 8-8.30 am

Paul Bongiorno. Bob McMullan sounding persuasive and firm, Jennifer Hewitt and Glenn Milne, all veterans show. Sounding pretty relaxed.

PM Howard running his election ammo early, maybe too early, eg wall to wall ALP govt’s, Kevin Rudd’s cred on his family story baiting by major press, Sunrise Anzac day broadcast baiting.

[Sunday Sunrise itself looks as bright and happy as usual, no mention so far as best I can tell flicking from 10 to 7.]

Nicholson Rubbery figures very amusing re Peter Garrett’s principles burning with the ALP, and nuke blast from Rudd as the band drummer metaphor of upcoming ALP conference.

Prof Amin Sykle (spelling?) of ANU re Afghanistan mission for Australian troops. Will be casualties? Agrees much more dangerous, hopes not.

Transcript in due course www.ten.com.au/meetthepress

7 Weekend Sunrise, 8.35-40 am Riley Diary

Riley Diary – edgy and amusing as usual. Fearful and friendly focus FM interview, Rudd doing okay actually showing sense of humour, talent but also under some pressure. A bit of semi serious criticism of habitual pollywaffle.

Still no mention of Sunrise show in the news today in the Howard Coalition blowtorch:

Stokes grills Sunrise over Rudd

SEVEN Network chairman Kerry Stokes raised serious doubts about Kevin Rudd's now controversial involvement with the Sunrise program shortly after he became federal Opposition leader last year.

• Email trail: The evidence that undid Sunrise
• Top columnists: Akerman, Milne, Lee

Which all suggests Kerry Stokes as owner of 7 has put the ruler over Sunrise and endorsed their approach and is playing tough like he has done all the way over C7 pay tv litigation against the Howard business mates/bully boys in the other big media. Which is a good outcome for democracy actually.

[I wonder if Rudd should go to Vietnam and do the dawn service, no tricks, just support the survivers of that awful war. It would be a PR coup and the right thing to do for the right reasons.]

Very amusing Red Symons YouTube of Paul Keating doing the dessicated coconut here:

keating
01:35

all tip and no iceberg

Tags:

red   symons   paul   keating   australia   politicians

Added: 5 days ago in Category: Music
From: rocsims
Views: 8,733

38 ratings

Web page here but no transcript usually: http://www.seven.com.au/sunrise/weekend

Postscript #1: Glen Milne writes an hysterical, ironic line today from the rabid News Ltd traditionally tragic Sunday press. On the front page is a prince under headline "Royal Split" about some ditsy girlfriend and William in a breakup in their respective media fishbowl.

But what is hilariously incredulous is Milne writing in his political feature "How it finally dawned on Sunrise and Rudd" referring to Ch7 he says

"The show is about entertainment, not information."

Oh and the Sunday Telegraph is about what exactly .....?

Postscript #2 Sunday night 14th April 2007

Notice this report on Ch9 60 Minutes last night, a high ratings show that trumps 7 Sunrise, appeases the rival network, is done quite sympathetically by reporter Liz Hayes, and is credible given it was a based on a week of insider following of his daily routine:

"Team Rudd Right now, he's the hot favourite. After five months, the infatuation with Kevin Rudd is still going strong. According to the polls, if they had an election tomorrow he'd be our new PM. A dream run and all the more amazing when you consider how little we actually know about this man."

That's a signficant political response to the attack re Sunrise fracas. Fran Kelly on radio national similarly notes the 60 Minutes story on her radio national slot this morning confirming its a serious influence and now Sunrise has lost its talent after the political space provided by 60 Minutes:

Sun sets on Rudd's Sunrise slot

10:58am | Kevin Rudd and Joe Hockey end their weekly spot on Seven's Sunrise morning program.

Posted by editor at 10:44 AM NZT

Updated: Monday, 16 April 2007 1:34 PM NZT

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