27 February 2004 - Media Release

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 will place considerable stress and uncertainty to both staff and clients who rely on the important services provided by the CSA.

Penrith will also lose its Child Support Agency, with staff asked to relocate to Parramatta by June 2005.  It is understood that they will not be offered employment should they refuse to relocate.

In the case of both Canberra and Penrith these dramatic cuts will result in reduced face to face access for parents to child support services at an extremely emotional time in their lives.   The loss of staff equates to a loss of expertise and a reduction in the overall level of service to clients.

Clearly John Howard does not believe that these parents deserve a face to face service.  Cutting access to the Child Support Agency is further evidence of the Howard Government’s contempt for Canberra, not only as the national capital but as an important regional centre.

Media contact: Adina Cirson ‑ (02) 6277 3334 or 0418 488 295

27 February 2004 - Media Release

Telstra's Big Pond a Big Con for Competition

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 for its 256k end-user access charge so it is available to wholesale customers at a rate lower than the post-GST $29.95 price that applies for retail customers."

The ACCC response to this statement should be fast and succinct: this is proof that Telstra wholesale have been for years, and continue to charge Telstra retail (Big Pond) less than they are charging wholesale customers (ISPs) for access to their network.

Why? Because it is clear that when GST is added (as it must be) to the wholesale price Telstra is touting, it will be higher that the Telstra retail price.

Simplified, it looks like this:

The wholesale rate (no GST) would need to be say 27.20 to allow ISPs to add their mandatory 10% GST (eg: 27.20+2.72 = 29.92) and match Telstra,  However even this wholesale rate does not allow for any margin for ISPs and ignores additional costs to aggregate and deliver the individual services that Telstra make wholesalers pay.

The con is that Telstra are touting a pre-GST wholesale price only marginally below (rumoured to be 29.75 - 20 cents less) their retail rate of 29.95.

How stupid does Telstra think those who report on these matters are?  I bet Telstra is working really hard with the minister's office at spinning their big con into a "happy-broadband-on-the-rise" story. 

All this announcement proves is that Telstra have deliberately suppressed broadband by over-pricing for years and the Howard Government has been complicit in their con-job by allowing these games to be played, and this damage to be inflicted.

Media contact: Adina Cirson ‑ (02) 6277 3334 or 0418 488 295

26 February 2004 - Joint Media Release

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.

The report found the number one barrier to broadband take-up amongst non-metropolitan small businesses is availability. Many regional small businesses are clearly not happy with only having access to prohibitively expensive satellite broadband or non-broadband services like ISDN. Many country towns have no Telstra ADSL access.

Today’s survey provides further evidence that regional telecommunications services are no way near up-to-scratch, despite Telstra and the Howard Government’s claims otherwise. Worse still if the Howard Government gets its way and Telstra is privatised it will leave town faster than the banks.

Australians want Telstra focusing on providing all Australians with decent and affordable telecommunications services like broadband. Under John Howard Telstra is more interested in buying media companies then getting affordable broadband technology into our regional communities.

For further information contact Lindsay Tanner or Peter van Vliet on  (03) 9347 5000 or 0408 188 055 or Kate Lundy on 02 6277 3334.

17 February 2004 - Joint Media Release

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), Australian Film Commission, and the Australia Council for the Arts - are unable to provide any detailed information about what the AUSFTA means for their respective organisations.

The Howard Government has stitched up a deal without providing government agencies the information they require to determine the impact the AUSFTA will have on their ability to deliver Australian stories through local content on Pay TV, multichannelling or new media.

The Australian Government claims that the 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 U.S films and television”. Someone clearly isn’t telling the truth.

We know that the Howard Government has not delivered an 'exclusion' clause for the cultural sector and that the possibility of winding back the existing Australian content caps in the audiovisual sector is frighteningly real.

The Australian Government must come clean now on the exact details of the FTA in regards to film and broadcasting services.

Any deal must ensure that Australians can continue to hear our voices and our stories in our media.

For further information contact Lindsay Tanner or Peter van Vliet on  (03) 9347 5000 or 0408 188 055.
Media contact: Adina Cirson ‑ (02) 6277 3334 or 0418 488 295

17 February 2004 - Media Release

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, for every dollar spent on rural and regional Australia, another dollar was spent on administration costs.

The Internet Access Fund was originally allocated $36 million to “stimulate Internet service delivery in regional and rural Australia”.

However, when the Howard Government wound the fund up in June last year, only $2,906,844 had been spent – so much for a commitment to regional and rural access!

Around $30 million was stripped from the fund in the following ways:

This leaves around $3 million, which the Department admitted was spent on “running costs” of the program.

This is another example of the Howard Government’s fiscal profligacy.

Media contact: Adina Cirson ‑ (02) 6277 3334 or 0418 488 295

12 February 2004 - Media Release

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 Parliament conditional upon promises to preserve the independence, integrity and identity of the Archive.

However since then the Howard Government has broken these promises, evidenced by the Australian Film Commission’s aim to break up the institution.  Specifically the controversial ‘Directions Paper’ recommended that several key functions and public programs should be abolished or relocated to Sydney and Melbourne.

Generally the ‘Directions Paper’ has been interpreted as a hostile takeover of the Archive by the Australian Film Commission. 

Labor now believes that the merger which is proposed by the Howard Government threatens the integrity and identity of the film and sound archive.  It is time to ensure that Australia’s national collection of Australia’ s film and sound heritage be protected and so the Howard Government’s illogical marriage of convenience must be undone.

Labor believes that the only lasting and reliable solution, a solution for which there are public demands, is legislative change to establish the Archive on the same independent statutory basis as the National Library, National Museum and other heritage institutions.

A Latham Labor Government will establish the National Film and Sound Archive (ScreenSound Australia) as a Commonwealth Authority under the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies (CAC) Act 1997 with consequent transfer of resources and functions from the Australian Film Commission.

Labor calls on the Howard Government to implement caretaker arrangements immediately and to quarantine the archive from further change resulting from the current merger with the Australian Film Commission in order to maintain the Archive’s integrity in all areas.

Media contact: Adina Cirson ‑ (02) 6277 3334 or 0418 488 295

12 February 2004 – Media Release

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 time in a more restricted nation wide segment.

Further cuts to coverage opportunities for ‘minor’ sports will have significant impacts on their ability to raise their profile in the community, and in turn to attract elusive sponsorship support.

The ABC has for a long time been regarded as the television station that provides screening opportunities for those sports that struggle to attract commercial television air time, such as netball, women’s basketball and lawn bowls.

To see the ABC heading down the path of aggregation and desegregation, which is usually a reserve of the commercial networks, is disappointing.

I will be pursuing this issue with ABC management in Senate Estimates next week.

Media Contact Kate Roffey – 02 62773334 or 0411969364

9 February 2004 - Joint Media Release

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 U.S films and television”. Someone clearly isn’t telling the truth.

The Howard Government appears to be deliberately withholding the detail of significant concessions to US media groups under the deal. Australians have the right to know whether or not existing local content quotas and subsidies can be maintained into the future. From the brief statement the U.S Trade Representative has made on this area it appears these rights may have been traded away.

The Howard government has not delivered exclusion for the cultural sector and the agreement will cap existing local content provisions - effecting a ‘standstill’ arrangement.

It is clear that the Government has sold out the Australian cultural sector. Government sources say that the agreement negotiated with the United States has the following provisions:

Government sources also state that any existing media such as cinema which do not carry local content regulations will be prevented from having any future local content regulations should the need arise.

There is great uncertainty about the ability of Australia to conduct future negotiations with the Unites States about regulation for new media. This could potentially deny Australia the ability to develop policy and regulate in the future.

The Australian Government must come clean now on the exact details of the FTA in regards to film and broadcasting services. Any deal must ensure that Australians can continue to hear our voices and our stories in our media.

For further information contact Lindsay Tanner or Peter van Vliet on  (03) 9347 5000 or 0408 188 055.

5 February 2004 - Media Release

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 for taking on the fight to protect the integrity of this national institution - a world class facility which is charged with the responsibility of collecting, preserving, restoring and exhibiting our nation’s history in film and sound.

These meetings come after the release of the Review of Programs – ‘Directions Paper’- in December last year, which caused outrage in the community, as its recommendations advocated the dismantlement of ScreenSound Australia and abolishment and relocation of several key functions.

After a week long community campaign, the Howard Government and the AFC did a back flip and vowed to ensure that no jobs would be lost, and no existing functions would be abolished or relocated to Sydney and Melbourne. However these recommendations have not been removed from the Directions Paper, and now contradict the commitments given by the Howard Government.

Despite my formal requests to the Minister for the Arts, to have these recommendations removed; this paper has still not been altered to reflect the Howard Government’s commitment to protect ScreenSound Australia.

Removal of these ‘proposals’ from the Directions Paper is the only way in which genuine consultation in good faith with ScreenSound staff and community stakeholders can occur.

I attach a letter which was sent to the Minister for the Arts, which specifically outline those references in the Directions paper which must be removed to reflect the Howard Government’s previously stated commitments.

Contact: Adina Cirson - (02) 6277 3334 or 0418 488 295

Senator Kate Lundy

Shadow Minister for Sport and Recreation,
the Arts and Information Technology

Senator for the Australian Capital Territory

Senator Rod Kemp

Minister for the Arts

27 January 2004

Dear Senator Kemp

During a meeting held last week with Kim Dalton, CEO of the Australian Film Commission, I indicated that I would write to you to formally request that you remove the clauses of the Review of Programs Stage Two Directions Paper which appear to be in conflict with assurances given by the Howard Government and the AFC on 17 December 2003.

It is my belief that genuine consultation in good faith with ScreenSound staff and community stakeholders can only occur if these changes are made.

The assurances are presented in bold type below.

No jobs will be lost (inc senior management)

2.3 (ii) – Deputy Director Collection and Technical Services and Deputy Director Corporate Services and Public Programs, both positions be abolished.

2.5 (i) Sydney and Melbourne Office Managers (EL1) be abolished.

2.17 (i) Product Development and Merchandising section to be abolished.

2.18 (ii) Shop to be abolished within 6 months.

2.20 (i) Public Affairs and Marketing section to be abolished.

No existing functions to be moved from Canberra

2.4 (i) Functions currently undertaken by Collections Branch Senior Manager (EL2) and Collection Development Manager (EL1) in Canberra to be undertaken by Senior Collection Development Manager (Sound) based in Melbourne and Senior Collection Development Manager (Film, Television and Interactive Media) based in Sydney (both EL2).

2.4 (ii) The Collection Development project which currently brings in digital material and websites into the Collection will be moved from Canberra to either Sydney or Melbourne.

2.13 Transfer of current APS4 position (Collection Development Oral History Officer) in Canberra to a position in both Sydney and Melbourne.

2.15 (i) Current allocation of 2 Screenings Officers (APS 4) will be moved to either Sydney or Melbourne – no Canberra based screenings staff indicated on attached org chart.

2.15 (i) Screenings and Exhibitions Management functions to move from Canberra to ICD Branch in Sydney and/or Melbourne.

2.18 (i) Visitor Programs and Services Section Management function for Schools Programs moves to ICD Branch in Sydney.

2.19 (i) Management of ScreenSound’s involvement in Big Screen project moves to ICD Branch in Sydney or Melbourne.

2.22 Archive’s website (currently 1 x APS6, 70% of 1 x APS4) to be developed and managed by AFC Publishing Unit.

2.22 Transfer of responsibility for School Bookings moves from Reception in Canberra to Website function of the AFC Publishing Unit.

No senior management positions moved out of Canberra

See 2.4 (i) above

See 2.15 (i) above

I look forward to your response to this request.
Yours sincerely

Senator Kate Lundy
Shadow Minister for the Arts

4 February 2004 - Media Release

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 ACT Brumbies will leave for trial matches in New Zealand without the support of their team doctor.

This is an unacceptable and unnecessary situation. The federal government and the AMA must work together to bring about an immediate resolution of this problem.

Media Contact Kate Roffey – 02 62773334 or 0411969364