Telstra’s ADSL long-overdue price cuts mask their predatory pricing that will force ISPs competing against Telstra Big Pond to go broke. In an extraordinary statement yesterday, (New prices stimulate broadband boom 26 Feb 2004), Telstra laid out their outrageous predatory pricing strategy. The Telstra statement said, in part: “Telstra will adjust the pre-GST wholesale price [...]
Monthly Archives: February 2004
Howard Government cuts Child Support Agency Services
The Howard Government has announced that it will shut down the Canberra Child Support Agency (CSA). Instead of a dedicated agency, Canberra will be serviced only by a ‘regional service centre’ with a vastly reduced staff of 20 which is to be achieved by 2006, supposedly through attrition. Given current staffing is around 80 this [...]
Broadband Country-City Divide Widens
A survey released today shows that the country-city broadband divide is widening under the Howard Government. The Pacific Internet AC Neilson Broadband Barometer found that 55% of metropolitan small businesses had broadband compared to only 20% of non-metropolitan small businesses. The report also found that the city-country small business broadband gap is widening. [...]
Department wastes $3M administering a $3M fund
The Department of Communications IT and the Arts has done it again. Less than a year after it was discovered that it wasted $4 million on its Departmental web site, it has been revealed that DCITA spent $3 million administering a $3 million rural and regional internet access program. In an example of unprecedented waste, [...]
Cultural sector left in dark on FTA detail
Cultural Agencies have been left in the dark by the Howard Government and are unable to assess what impact Australia -United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) is likely to have on the audiovisual sector. Clearly the devil is in the detail, with estimates questioning revealing that three separate agencies - the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), [...]
ABC Must Keep Regional Sports Reports
The ABC must reconsider their plan to replace local sports reports with a recorded national segment. Already smaller local, regional, and in particular women’s sports, struggle for coverage against the more prominent national and international sports. The ABC’s plans for a national report will virtually squeeze out any chance these sports have of gaining air [...]
Federal Labor’s Plan to establish ScreenSound Australia as a Statutory Authority
A Latham Labor Government will establish the National Film and Sound Archive (ScreenSound Australia) as a Statutory Authority to ensure that it remains a vital and independent part of Australia’s cultural heritage. The Howard Government effected the merger between the Australian Film Commission and ScreenSound Australia on 1 July 2003, with the support of the [...]
Government Must Come Clean on FTA Media Deal
The Howard Government must come clean on the full details of its free trade agreement with the United State in regards to media. The Australian Government claims that its right to regulate Australian media into the future is protected, but the U.S. Government states the deal contains “unprecedented provisions to improve market access for [...]
ScreenSound Forum today: Minister Kemp must honour commitments
Despite initially being ‘initiation only,’ the Australian Film Commission (AFC) will today hold two stakeholder forums at ScreenSound Australia and provide one of the only opportunities for stakeholders to convey concerns about the merger of ScreenSound Australia with the AFC in person. Members of the Archive Forum will be in attendance, and I congratulate them [...]
Medical Support for Sports Teams is Essential
To have Australian sports teams travelling overseas to compete without appropriate medical support is unacceptable. Our sportspeople are being placed at risk because a bureaucratic oversight has failed to include appropriate medical indemnity cover for doctors travelling to other countries with Australian contingents. While an on-shore game of finger-pointing goes on within Australia, tomorrow the [...]
