The Down Under Lounge

[Marc]

That's because they don't have to pay for it. And both sides of Govt have complained about bias at different times, I remember Hawke being particularly incensed at one time.

That's an incovenient fact that the conservatives love to ignore. The ABC is only ever biased against them despite various independent reports showing otherwise.

A while conservatives will tell you they don't have to pay for the commercial media it's because they delue themselves about.

The commerical media is supported by advertising and a shitload of it (Nine Entertainment co which is owns the Nine Networl and a few other digital channels has revenues of $1.3 and a profit of $57mil so companies have spent $100s of millions advertising).

The companies doing the advertising have to cover those costs so they factor in into the pricing of the goods people buy.

The conservative morons will simply they can choose to buy products that aren'te advertise (and I've seen the argument made on another forum) but the reality pretty much everything they buy is advertised as some point (well except cigarretes and prescription medications),

Another broken promise btw.

Not suprising nor it suprising that they are trying to deny it's a broken promise/lie. We're talking about a government who's members will deny having said something when there's video of a live interview where they said it.

Marc, I'd happily pay for a license if the ABC brought back in-house production, we got some of our best dramas from those days. The BBC is a powerhpuse not just because of the money it generates but because of the license fee. 90% of the population could wear a $25/houseold/year license, I think. It wouldnn't generate a huge sum, but it would bolster it a lot.

Productions costs are getting so large these days that even with extra money a licence fee they couldn't bring it back in house. Even the commerical stations are loathe to spend money for inhouse production on drama. The ABC in co-production still gives them enough say to ensure the quaulity.

And gotta say I'm with teacake it shouldn't be mandatory.

 

[Australis]

Hmm, I think it should be mandatory, but I see where you're coming from (because it does get peoples' backs up, "I don't watch rh ABC!" etc), in which case there would need to be incentive for Joe Average to think, "Yeah, I can afford that".

 

[jaz'a]

Productions costs are getting so large these days that even with extra money a licence fee they couldn't bring it back in house. Even the commerical stations are loathe to spend money for inhouse production on drama. The ABC in co-production still gives them enough say to ensure the quaulity.

I don't think that is just the cost of production.

It's the fact that the average Joe has shown he'd rather watch "reality" TV. The production costs could have, and they'd still make reality.

 

[Australis]

Yet a lot of people say they are sick of reality shows, and some, like that Channel Seven one, are bombing badly.

 

[Australis]

Stupidest comparison in today's Austrlaian. What the ABC spends of wages as a % of budget compared to commercial stations. Deplorable and duplicitous in the extreme. I thought better of the Australian than that, despite it being a Murdoch publication.

Back in the 90s, I believe, the ABC had a slogan "eight cents a day". Working off the idea that the population was 25m then, my rough calculations make that about $730m. Even if we assume the budget doubled in the last 10-15 years, and I doubt it, to lose $500m is a huge hit. Thoughts? (and more reliable figures?)

 

[Jono]

I think I remember hearing the ABC budget was $1.2 billion/year, so that would be around 14-15c per person.

Terrible what happened to Phillip Hughes. The only good thing that seems to have come out of this is that it might lead to improvements in the helmet to further protect the players. Pity it took something this serious to get that to happen.

 

[Marc]

Stupidest comparison in today's Austrlaian. What the ABC spends of wages as a % of budget compared to commercial stations. Deplorable and duplicitous in the extreme. I thought better of the Australian than that, despite it being a Murdoch publication.

Back in the 90s, I believe, the ABC had a slogan "eight cents a day". Working off the idea that the population was 25m then, my rough calculations make that about $730m. Even if we assume the budget doubled in the last 10-15 years, and I doubt it, to lose $500m is a huge hit. Thoughts? (and more reliable figures?)

The $220 odd million that's being cut over 5 years pretty much matches the cost for their arsey school chaplains program and 1/2 the cost for Australia's latest mis-adventure in the Middle East

The oz used to be a good if conservative paper but in recent years has gone feral albeit not to the level of the daily Torygraph in Sydney.

The only reason the oz is floating is that miurdoch won't let it die despite losing millions.

 

[Australis]

Medical co-payment dropped. odearhowsadnevermind.

Apparently it's all Labor's fault. Not the fault of the millions of people who didn't want it. Nope, not them. And all that guff about it being used for medical research? I believe that as much as the story up here in Newcastle that when a heavy rail corridor is closed, it will be kept as green space and not siezed by developers at the first opportunity. It's a huge story in itself, involving ICAC, local and state politics, the new University campus, and a few other things, but it's very local, so you in other parts may not have heard much. Interesting reading though. Made me very annoyed with both sides of politics.

And my, hasn't Joe Hockey been low profile lately? Last I saw him was on 'Insiders' (if you can see the interview, do it, I laughed all the way through it, he so hated being there!). Aside from that, nothing.

 

[Marc]

Medical co-payment dropped. odearhowsadnevermind.

It's only been shelved temporarily. Probably until they can either bribe some-one for the vote they need in the senate or find away to by-pass the senate and implement it.

Saw a news report yesterday that they were given legal advice they couldn't by pass the senate on it which suggests to me they had wanted to do. However given it seems to count as a taxation measure it must be legislated through the Parliament.

Apparently it's all Labor's fault. Not the fault of the millions of people who didn't want it. Nope, not them. And all that guff about it being used for medical research? I believe that as much as the story up here in Newcastle that when a heavy rail corridor is closed, it will be kept as green space and not siezed by developers at the first opportunity. It's a huge story in itself, involving ICAC, local and state politics, the new University campus, and a few other things, but it's very local, so you in other parts may not have heard much. Interesting reading though. Made me very annoyed with both sides of politics.

And my, hasn't Joe Hockey been low profile lately? Last I saw him was on 'Insiders' (if you can see the interview, do it, I laughed all the way through it, he so hated being there!). Aside from that, nothing.

Shorten go up in question time asked what the government was doing given the mixed messages about the GP fee.

Abbott response was about how shorten knifed two leaders and completely dodged the question.

Of course with the nasty creature sitting in the speakers chair (give her a kerosene bath) he gets away with it.

Can't wait for the spin is the coalition dumps abbott it should be good for a laugh. It's been a nearly year since the abbott government had a clear lead in an opinion poll (December last year). After the Christmas break and the first poll of the year in January they were on the slide and have pretty much trailed since.

Shorten gets shit for not doing anything but when he leads Abbott as preferred P.M it's very telling (and probably a good thing for Abbott that Shorten is opposition leader, with some-one else he could beat Keating for the most unpopular P.M).

 

[Miss Chicken]

Breaking news - Phillip Hughes has died.

Very tragic news.

Has been reported on by the ABC and the BBC.

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

^ I was just about to post something about that. Very sad news.

I wonder how this will change the game that many of us love. Will the first test happen? I hope so - but played in a different style.

 

[Australis]

Terrible news. I don't follow cricket, but it's just sad, that this should happen.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I feel strong sympathy for Hughes's family, team members and friends to lose him at such a young age but also very sorry for Sean Abbbott who bowled the ball.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

So young, in a great phase of his life. Very sad and tragic.

 

[Miss Chicken]

It seems that the condition that killed Hughes was extremely rare

Doctors who treated Australian batsman Phillip Hughes say the injury which led to his death was "incredibly rare".

Hughes died in Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital today, just days short of his 26th birthday. He had been in an induced coma since a bouncer caused a brain haemorrhage at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Tuesday.

Australian team doctor Peter Brukner said there were only 100 cases of his condition ever reported.

"I think in this instance, this was a freakish accident because it was an injury to the neck that caused haemorrhage in the brain," Dr Brukner said.

"The condition is incredibly rare. It's called vertebral artery dissection leading to subarachnoid haemorrhage, only 100 cases ever reported.

"[There has been] only one case reported as a result of a cricket ball.

Rest of story below

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-27/phillip-hughes-doctors-say-injury-extremely-rare/5923282?WT.mc_id=Corp_News-Nov2014%7CNews-Nov2014_FBP%7Cabcnews

 

[Botany Bay]

Good grief. There are just no words to express how I feel about this. To come home from a Christmas celebration and read this is just the most awful feeling. The grapevine had us almost expecting the worst, but the confirmation is still a kick in the guts.

Frankly, I've found the characters at the elite end of Australian cricket in the past several seasons difficult to embrace. But that never applied to Phil Hughes. I could never figure out whether Hughes was the most freakishly talented or freakishly lucky batsman I'd ever seen. And I'm not sure the selectors didn't feel the same way - he was dropped, what, three times? But every time he just took it in his stride, and went out and continue to slay bowling attacks year in, year out. Never a complaint.

How he was able to score so heavily the way he batted was extraordinary. He was gifted with probably one of the best natural eyes in the history of the game. You always just felt that if he could just iron out a couple of things, he'd be back in that test side and end up scoring 10, 000 runs. But sadly it can now never be.

My highlights : those series winning hundreds against RSA in his first series and that incredible innings he played alongside Agar almost getting us over the line in England last year.

It would be appropriate to cancel the first test next week. The game must go on, but not just yet. It's too soon.

Best wishes to the Hughes family, and to the bowler, Sean Abbott, who would be in a world of hurt at the moment.

I can't bear to watch the TV coverage on this, it's just too raw. I never met Phil Hughes, but this is just awful.

 

[Australis]

Libs not doing well in Victoria. A sign of future things?

 

[Miss Chicken]

Libs not doing well in Victoria. A sign of future things?

I hope so.

 

[Mary Ann]

Thought some of you might get a chuckle out of this. Apparently it's happened several times that people wishing to travel to Sydney, Australia end up in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada. It's understandable, though still facepalmable, if someone booking the trip themselves makes this error but in the case of the Italian couple it was the travel agent who fouled up. Someone needs some retraining, methinks.

 

[Miss Chicken]

We have a town called Perth in Tasmania. Nowadays if a Tasmanian was 'going to Perth' you would be asked which place you mean (Perth, Western Australia or Perth, Tasmania).

However when I was a child a friend of mine had grandparents at Perth. When talking about it her family used to say that the grandparents 'lived on Perth' (and it seems this was a common term) and if they were going to visit they would be "going onto Perth'. This is the only town that I know that 'on' was used instead of 'at' or 'in'. Whether it was to distinguish the town from Perth, WA or For some other reason I Fo not know.

We have a Bagdad in Tasmania (as opposed to Baghdad, Iraq) and when the first Gulf War broke out the Bagdad Council was contacted many times by people concerned about people in Baghdad.