The Howard Government will abolish several sections and jobs at ScreenSound Australia with as many as 15 positions and major functions relocated to Sydney or Melbourne. This is after Minster for the Arts Senator Kemp stated unequivocally, during a debate in the Senate on the merger, that; “…staff will not be disadvantaged.” Senator Kemp also [...]
Yearly Archives: 2003
Howard Government Asserts Control over National Museum of Australia
The Howard Government today announced the appointment of Mr Craddock Morton as the Acting Director of the National Museum of Australia (NMA) throwing any doubts about the extent of political control of the Museum out the window. Mr Morton is currently the Chief General Manger of Corporate and Business Division within the Department of Communications, [...]
Labor Puts Recreation back on the sports agenda
The incorporation of recreation into the Sport and Recreation shadow portfolio reaffirms Labor’s commitment to providing participation opportunities for all Australians where the Howard Government has failed to deliver. Since the Howard Government came to power it has dropped recreation from the sport and recreation portfolio, ditched the Active Australia program and cut funding [...]
DCITA’s $4 million web site down for 24 hours: still waiting… waiting… waiting
The saga of the hugely expensive web site of the Department of Communications IT and the Arts (DCITA) (www.dcita.gov.au) continues, with the news that even the expenditure of $4 million of taxpayers’ money wasn’t enough to keep the site online for the last 24 hours. As at 1 30 pm today, the costly site was [...]
Labor Supports Passage of Spam Legislation
After over a year and a half of dithering by the Howard Government, Australians now enjoy the protection of anti-Spam legislation, passed with Labor support. Labor is disappointed that the Government chose to reject our amendments, and therefore the concerns which they addressed. The amendments proposed by Labor would have improved and refined the Bills [...]
BITS Incubators start to fall – but where is the new Minister?
Today’s closure of the Item3, a Sydney-based BITS incubator demonstrates the Howard Government’s lack of interest in Australia’s information and communications technology (ICT) industry under the new minister, Daryl Williams. This closure is a direct result of the Howard Government’s failure to guarantee funding the Building on IT Strengths (BITS) program beyond June 2004. The [...]
Minister must fix regional performing arts mess
Arts Minister, Senator Rod Kemp today refused to explain why hundreds of thousands of regional people have had their access to the arts unjustifiably cut under the latest round of Playing Australia grants. The Howard Government is blatantly discriminating against regional centres, with funded productions reduced from 26 down to 13, with nearly 50 regional [...]
Labor seeks to improve spam legislation
Australians have had to wait over eighteen months for the Government to develop a legislative response to spam. Now that this has happened – after a great deal of pressure from Labor – it has been left to Labor to go through the legislation and iron out all the wrinkles. Labor was the first political [...]
Senate supports Labor’s spam improvements
The Senate has recognised the value of Labor’s constructive improvements to the Government’s anti-spam legislation and supported the majority of our amendments the Spam Bill 2003 and the Spam (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2003. Labor’s amendments improve the anti-spam Bills by: Improving provisions which allowed the Australian Communications Authority to unreasonably search and seize an individual’s [...]
Howard Government plays politics with spam
The Howard Government has shown that it would rather play politics with the issue of spam, than take constructive measures to combat spam. By refusing to accept the amendments moved by Labor and supported by a majority of the Senate, the Government is churlishly turning its back on good legislation. Labor’s amendments have been developed [...]
