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The Public First Program

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Language: English
Category: Society and Culture / Blogs and Commentary
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Editorials from the Public First Program aired on Gippsland FM 104.7, Thursdays at 11:00am (AEST). An alternative viewpoint on local, national and international events. Often polemic, always controversial. Highly researched and presented by Shane Elson an award winning radio commentator and producer. Available free of charge. Only ask is that, if used, quoted or otherwise referred to, that proper acknowledgement be given.

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August 2008 #2 - Georgia On My Mind

You may have heard about the little stoush being fought out in the Republic of Georgia at present. Georgia is a little country that grew out of the former Soviet Union. Bordered by the Black Sea to the west, Turkey and Armenia to the South, Azerbaijan to the east and Russia to the north, this little country could well be the flash point for a new cold war. The bloody rule of the communist leaders of the former Soviet Union, during most of last century, saw thousands killed and many more displa...

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[ 15 Aug 2008 13:30:00 +1000 ]

August 2008 #1 - The Royal Gosper

Everyone loves freebies. You know, a free hat or t-shirt to remember an event by. Even Royalty like to be in on them. The Olympic Family are royalty. Well at least that’s what they like to think of themselves as, not mere mortals who must adhere to the strictures of even mundane things like “the truth” or “moral obligation”. No, this group, who control the multibillion-dollar circus we lovingly call “The Olympics”, are not like us. They inhabit a universe to which many aspire but ...

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[ 06 Aug 2008 19:40:00 +1000 ]

July 2008 #3 - Obama-Danger to the Middle East

Any of us who have attempted to speak ‘off the cuff’ in a public setting know just how dangerous it can be. We can muddle our words, prattle on incoherently and ‘mis-speak’ important facts. So when it comes to politicians delivering speeches we can rest assured that the words we hear were carefully planned and scripted. Not only do the words have to make some kind of sense, they have to fit the established narrative they are creating based on the historic record that precedes them. Of c...

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[ Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:00:00 EST ]

July 2008 #2 - The Real Danger Within

We live in troubled times. Perhaps the words of George Orwell in 1984 were prophetic in some small way. Who knows, maybe he did have an alien implant that gave him foresight? But perhaps that is my paranoia speaking. Whatever the situation, it seems that as time passes I can’t help but think that things just keep getting curiouser and curiouser. Before I go on, I think its important to acknowledge that for many communities within our society life is rough, tough and often brutal. There are m...

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[ Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:20:00 EST ]

July 2008 #2 - Seven Deadly Annoyances

Here are seven things I think should be included in the New South Wales ‘Pope’ laws. Just in case you haven’t heard, the NSW government passed a number of laws that give not only police but also “emergency services personnel” special powers to impose fines of up to $5,300 for behaviour the person doing the booking thinks “causes annoyance or inconvenience” to people attending the Catholic Youth Day events. The laws are just one of the concessions the state is making to ensure t...

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[ Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:00:00 EST ]

July 2008 # 1 - East Timor, Oil and the Euro

Times are tough for “dictators”, “rogue states” and “failing nations”. It seems like it is not a good thing to be the head of a country that happens to sit on top of huge oil or gas reserves. Saddam was just the first to go. We find, if we believe the mainstream media, that Iran is threatening everyone with “nuclear” weapons, that Venezuela is being led by “communists” and that Bolivia is being ruled by “Soviet sympathisers” while little East Timor is about due for a “...

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[ Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:00:00 EST ]

June 2008 #4 - Its a Strange World

It’s a strange world out there. I’ve been watching the current political debate and the comings and goings in the ‘big house’ with interest. While the demise of the Democrats is now complete, what does lie in store for us? Perhaps the next bunch of “fairies at the bottom of the garden” will do much better “keeping the bastards honest” than being part of them. But that is not what interests me. The rise in utilitarian, populist politics is much more interesting. Over the weekend...

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[ Thu, 28 Jun 2008 14:00:00 EST ]

June 2008 #3 - Terrigals Eat Them Alive

Time travel is something that has, at some time, attracted the imagination of us all. Wouldn’t it be good to be able to travel back in time and pick the winning lotto numbers after seeing this weeks draw? Wouldn’t it be good to go back and make up with that lover you really wish you had married? Wouldn’t it be good to go back and find out why the current state of affairs is the current state of affairs? The ‘revelations’ that Federal Labor MP, Belinda Neal and her husband, NSW Labor ...

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[ Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:25:00 EST ]

June 2008 #2 - Lurking Lippy Danger - Reprise

As we read, hear and see more about how the Imperial adventure in the Middle East is going bottom up, a little known terrorist threat is looming on our back door. A bioterrorist threat more dangerous, destructive and devastating than anything seen before. This little discussed threat is, I’m sure, being monitored at the highest levels of our intelligence community and is receiving the just attention it deserves. It was only by luck (good or bad is yet to be determined) that I stumbled across ...

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[ Wed, 12 Jun 2008 14:00:00 EST ]

June 2008 #1 - Left Right or Wrong

“All hail, the Left is dead!” Well at least according to the reality in which Ken Phillips of the Institute of Public Affairs exists. Ken is one of the Directors of this organisation and I guess he is far more qualified than me to make such a bold claim. In an article in the Business section of The Age a week or so ago, Ken wrote that, “About six years ago some left thinkers in Labor made the shift to acceptance of market capitalism”. I won’t argue against the words he writes but I w...

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[ Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:30:00 EST ]

May 2008 #4 - Art, Power and Parenting

Most parents begin exercising power over their children by using the ‘fear factor’. “Don’t touch. You’ll get burnt” or “Don’t play with that. It / you will break”. While these types of directives often have very practical and necessary applications, they do remain a fairly central theme as we try and guide our children / teenagers / young adults through the complex maze we call life. However, for many parents there comes a time when all we can do is hope that we’ve given th...

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[ Wed, 28 May 2008 17:20:00 EST ]

March 2008 #2 - Carers, Get a Life

Did you see 4 Corners on the ABC last Monday night? It was about the plight of the grief stricken carers and the burden they carry looking after their disabled loved ones. What a bunch of whingers? I mean, lets do a reality check here. But first some facts, drawn from the most recent federal budget. According the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, there are 483,550 people in Australia who are cared for by someone in their immediate family or who qualifi...

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[ Thu, 15 May 2008 12:20:00 EST ]

May 2008 # 1 - Bare Chested and Beautiful: Cabbies and Viral Unionism

Blokes with bare chests beat the big end of town! Perhaps that should have been the headline that celebrated the cabbies victory last week. It seems that not only are Melbourne’s cabbies the proudest and loudest in the country, they are also on the road to becoming the BLF of the 21st century. But it seems that for some of the nice, quiet people, fighting for your rights as a worker is still something akin to terrorism. This is what is implied by Melissa Fyfe in her article in last Sunday’...

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[ Wed, 07 May 2008 11:00:00 EST ]

April 2008 #4 - Tom, GE and Bush

About this time five years ago NBC current affairs anchor, Tom Brokaw, always one to ask the "tough" questions, got an exclusive - one on one - interview with George Bush. It was revealing in a number of ways. Firstly, NBC is owned by General Electric. Of course, GE not only try and ensure that you can make your cuppa in the morning or cook the toast just right, they also try and ensure that your multimillion dollar armaments are delivered to their targets. To warm them up a bit I suppose. GE ...

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[ Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:00:00 EST ]

April 2008 #3 - William Robert and the ANZAC Legacy

William Robert Elson, Serial Number 6733, natural born British Subject, was 21 years and eight months old when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on the 4th August 1916. He was sent off to the other side of the world as a private in the 22nd Regiment, 12th Battalion. He was my grandfather. I grew up in a small town on the northwest coast of Tasmania, not far from where my grandad was born. He noted on his enlistment form that he next of kin was his father, William Elson of Sprent. He...

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[ Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:00:00 EST ]

April 2008 #2 - Porn, Footy and 9-11

What do pornography, 9-11 and Sydney Swans footballer, Barry Hall, have in common? On the surface not much but I reckon it’s worth a look. Last weekend Barry Hall punched and concussed an opposition player in an off ball “incident” that was, fortunately for the TV networks, captured on film. The “incident” was repeatedly played on news broadcasts over the next few nights. After I’d seen it a few times I started to notice the reactions of the crowd who witnessed the punch that “wo...

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[ Wed, 16 Apr 2008 13:05:00 EST ]

April 2008 #1 - The Family

Ain’t the Olympics great? All the glitz! All the glamour! The prestige and the glory! Wow! I’m over the moon about the Olympics and really, really wish I could be part of the family. Don’t you? Then again the mafia is often referred to as “The Family”. These two multinational organisations have many similarities. Lots of hopefuls are groomed for their future places. The never-could-bes are forgotten or rubbed out of the corporate memory. Lots of men in suits have incomes from indeter...

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[ Wed, 09 Apr 2008 09:00:00 EST ]

March 2008 #4 - Human Rights Day 2007. Dateline Kuala Lumpur

It seems to me that wherever you go there are forces at work that seek to prevent the expression of basic human rights. On December 10th, 1948, the United Nations adopted the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights". The member states, then and now, were expected to accept the basic tenets of the document that was supposed to enshrine, in so called 'democracies', some basic criteria against which they could be measured in their legal frameworks to protect and advance basic human rights. One pa...

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[ Thu, 27 Mar 2008 09:00:00 EST ]

March 2008 #3 - Chris Berg - On yer Bike

I reckon that it must be pretty easy to get a job at the Institute for Public Affairs. But first, the grandiose title of the organisation needs some clarification. Firstly, the so-called “Institute” is not at all concerned with affairs of the public. In fact, and secondly, it has no real interest in the public, affairs or not! What leads me to sledge the IPA again, is that each time I read their little diatribes in The Age, I am, once more, appalled that the claims the writers make are giv...

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[ Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:00:00 EST ]

March 2008 #2 - Political Animals

“Animals”. “Inhuman”. “Terrorists”. “Unmerciful killers of innocent men, women and children”. These are just of few of the epithets that are used to describe Palestinians. Not some Palestinians but all of them. The people who use these words are not using them randomly or as mere rhetorical turns of phrase. These words and many others like them, are deeply ingrained into certain classes of the Jewish ruling class and their supporters. The events of the last few weeks show that ...

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[ Thur, 13 Mar 2008 08:30:00 EST ]

March 2008 #1 - Kids Business

As Edmond Groves swans around the US trying to flog off bits of his failing empire, mums and dads are getting worried. Now, as it happens, these mums and dads are also tax payers and, so it transpires, they have contributed mightily to the fortunes of Edmond, his missus and a few others in the inner ABC circle. I found it rather interesting that in the huff and puff of last week’s media’s examination of the fall and fall of ABC little attention was paid to the real issue. That of the priva...

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[ Wed, 04 Mar 2008 08:30:00 EST ]

February 2008 # 4 - The Great Council of the 1000

The Third World is alive and well in Australia and a gathering of the great council of 1000 of the chattering, ‘polite’ classes, gathered in the big house over a weekend, will not change a thing. Almost unimaginable amounts of money are spent each year in trying to hide this Third World from the ‘polite’ classes or in attempts to distance the reality of this fact from those of us who choose to live here. One of the most visible attempts to create a sense of distance between the polite...

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[ Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:30:00 EST ]

Februrary 2008 #3 - Dud Laugh

You could say I’m a little obsessed by the goings on in the Big House in Canberra over the last week or so. It’s been so much fun and the irony, belly laughs and general sense of humour coming out of the place seems to indicate that we did, indeed, get dudded. The great cultural warriors who championed the demise of political correctness and the rise of Hansonism; those who threw truth overboard as they pursued their ‘purification’ of the Australian ‘way of life’; those who believe...

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[ Wed, 20 Feb 2008 12:00:00 EST ]

February 2008 #2 - Saying Sorry is Hard to Do

They say saying sorry is the hardest thing to do. So, are you sorry? Really, truly sorry? That seems to be a key question in the big house in Canberra this week. The other key question seems to be, why should I feel sorry? Perhaps I’ll start with the latter first. Being born in the late 50s meant that by the time I grew into some form of understanding my community was still firmly of the view that the First Australians were inferior in many ways. I can’t recall anyone actually coming out a...

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[ Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:00:00 EST ]

December 2007 #2 - The End of the Line

This will be my last podcast for the time being. I’m going away on vacation during January and wont be back until sometime after that. So, I guess its appropriate to have a bit of a reflection on the year that was. In some ways things have certainly moved on and in many other ways, they have not moved at all. Politically, one might say that we are now in a new era as the Rudd government flies out of the blocks, all guns blazing with the spin doctors working overtime. The policies are flying ...

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[ Thu, 20 Dec 2007 14:30:00 EST ]

February 2008 #1 - Anything is Possible

Here we are, the new year and all is well. Well, well for some and not so well for others. 2008 has got off to a flying start. I certainly can’t complain. I guess I can but my woes pale into insignificance when compared to others. Nonetheless, I can’t help feeling that this year will offer little change for those, who like me, attempt to eek out an income to support a lifestyle to which we would like to become accustomed. Politically it would seem nothing has changed. Sure we have a new cr...

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[ Wed, 06 Feb 2008 10:45:00 EST ]

December 2007 #1 - A Return to Day Zero

One wonders what will become of those who come after us. After so much hullabaloo, cheering, flag waving and chest beating, will we become a more just and equitable society? Will we be able to turn around the prevailing orthodoxies and reclaim the ‘fair go’ as our own? Will we, in the face of adversity and hardship, be able take back our futures and be able to leave a grand legacy for those that come after us? I was reminded recently of the way our former Prime Minister, John Howard, disgr...

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[ Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:00:00 EST ]

November 2007 #2 - K07-The Aftermath

Here we are at the other side of the federal election. No doubt many supporters from both sides woke up on Sunday morning with hangovers and emotions they were not accustomed to. The man of steel did his usual early morning walk but was shown up to be only chrome plated and the ‘greatest treasurer’ we have supposedly known, eventually walked (and I don’t blame him actually). “Me Too” K07 got up as did a swathe of other Labor party hacks. The Democrats finally got what they deserve, ...

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[ Wed, 28 Nov 2007 17:45:00 EST ]

November 2007 #1 - Cup Day and Dictators

The news has been telling me that a horse won the Melbourne Cup this week. I guess that as sure a horse will win that race a politician or two will win the Big Race to the House on the Hill later this month. The major difference is, that we only have to waste a few days on the Cup and the horse will eventually be put out to pasture. Thinking about horse racing and politics has led me to the following conclusions. The first is that both cost millions to get up and running. The second is that wh...

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[ Wed, 07 Nov 2007 08:30:00 EST ]

October 2007 #3 - A Day at the Races

Glad you could join me from Randwick for today’s Election Guineas. It’s a strong field and all bets are now in. The gates are closed and they settle. And they’re off and racing in the 2007 Election Guineas. And what a strong field it is. Howard’s Luck got away quickly and Rudd’s Hope was caught on the hop. Turnbull’s Quagmire looks like it got away from the jockey a little while Gillard’s Dream is a strong starter. Business Council is looking good and Church Lobby is keeping up. ...

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[ Wed, 17 Oct 2007 23:00:00 EST ]

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