Passionate about free speech, human rights, democracy and the politics of change. Commentator and author, occasional poet, sometime translator, creator of The Why Series – changing our world one book at the time.
Media Failures and Politics – Part One
Media power has been around “forever”, and Chomsky’s seminal work on manufacturing consent is as relevant as ever – media is failing its intended role of keeping the powers that be to account.
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Independent media growth gathers pace!
Independent media growth in Australia is accelerating. As print media continues to decline, the mainstream media operators lose ground even faster in the online space. Independent media grew by 21.7% from February to May 2019.
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Shadows of Uniformity
The new Shadow Cabinet mirrors the Government in more ways than intended, uninspiring in its uniformity, offering limited hope for new beginnings or imagination.
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A Ministry of Mediocrity
In the (in)famous words of Donald Horne: “Australia is a lucky country run by mainly second-rate people who share its luck.” The new Morrison Government is a mostly uninspiring group lacking in diversity and bereft of vision.
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The climate election that wasn’t
Climate inaction continues to be official government policy in Australia – it is a travesty and the blame is on everyone – including Labor and The Greens who had the opportunity to seize the day, but didn’t. Yet again.
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The Battle of the One Percent won – for now.
This election proved to be no exception after all – politics is a battle over small margins, apathy reigns supreme among voters, the particracy rules and democracy is the loser every time.
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Game of Votes
Just as Game of Thrones seems likely to end with a whimper, leaving someone in charge as corrupted by the process of getting there as the psychopath who crumbled under the weight of the rubble that killed the incumbent – Cersei Lannister – the Game of Votes may well end up proving that the more things change, the more they stay the same…
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Yet Another Slapdown for TPG
This post first appeared on the 13th May 2019 in the Australian telco newsletter CommsDay under the heading “TPG continues to be the whipping boy of policy inconsistency”. TPG became a successful operator through keeping to itself while building its...
read more Protected: Turnbull’s 5G Sputnik moment
This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below: Password: The post Protected: Turnbull’s 5G Sputnik moment appeared first on Gary McLaren.
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No Person is Above the Law
As the title of this post makes clear what follows is not about the Network Economy and especially not about the need for Deep Fibre Broadband. Readers who aren’t interested in my opinion on mainstream political matters may want to skip this read. The release of...
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