Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

"If it is possible to induce an additional 80,000 people to enter the work-force through modifications of the personal income tax situation, then perhaps the haphazard and individually punitive approach of changing pensioners over to Newstart Allowance, while at the same time introducing all sorts of one-off exemptions, was a really silly way to go about the Prime Minister's ambitious adventure." Marie Coleman

"Two RAAF helicopters, one about 300 metres behind the other, were flying circuits around central Canberra... They each appeared to be mounted with two large lethal-looking missile launchers, slung beneath the cabin. As the helicopters flew maybe 100 metres above my head, I saw these four launchers clearly. I wondered if the loaded missiles were armed, and I wondered what would happen if one of these helicopters were accidentally to crash over populated central Canberra." Tony Kevin

"The Old Right in Australia was often seen as a single force, labeled "conservatism" but it was actually an amalgam of different political ideas and trends, some of which now oppose the current neo-liberal and neo-conservative hegemony. The great icon of Australian Right, Sir Robert Menzies, for example, supported social justice and the welfare state. The Liberal MP who now holds Menzies' old parliamentary seat, Petro Georgiou, points out that "pro-market purists" in the modern Liberal Party damn any notion of social justice as a 'Labor plot' when it was in fact a foundation stone for the Liberal Party." David McKnight

"Labor MP Julia Irwin has now earned herself the title of a serial offender, being lambasted by some of the leading lights of the Jewish community for her recent comments in the adjournment debate. True to form, her own party Leader, Kim Beazley, joined her critics. If the question is: can I find anything which is not right with her comments - then skip the next two paragraphs and read on. However that might not be the only relevant question." Sol Salbe

"The news of Murdoch's grand plans to dominate the Internet and China's cyberspace crackdown has got me thinking about the future of the Internet and e-democracy once again. I think about the millions of ordinary people using the World Wide Web to connect with each other and see this as an essential tool for power dispersal.  The age of the Internet has brought with it exciting, fresh ideas about the disintermediation of power and peer accountability. But who is responsible for the standards and functions of the network itself? I came across this recent article by Bill Thompson on openDemocracy.net in which he charts the history of Internet governance, reflects on what has been lost as accountability passes from the hands of the geeks to those of the politicians and lawyers, and offers his proposal for redressing the democratic deficit." Craig Rowley

"The community relies heavily on information that comes to it through the media. In modern times, the media has become the gateway to information. It largely determines what the public does and does not know on most important matters. Indeed, how many in the community think about a wide range of matters and many important decisions they make is determined largely on the basis of messages that come through the media." Friends of the ABC (Vic) Inc.

On Tuesday we asked if the Government is acting lawfully in advertising its IR policy with taxpayer's money or is it breaching Australia's Constitution? Today we find out.

G'Day. I interviewed Mark Latham by phone yesterday morning, when he was still working on his speech for last night's lecture. Here is the transcript.

"According to a report in The Australian newspaper on 28 September 2005, ASIO's briefing to Premiers and Chief Ministers attending the COAG meeting included claims that some 800 local Muslim "extremists" are ready to carry out a London-style attack. The report came as the President of the Police Federation of Australia issued a statement confirming that Muslims will be directly affected by enforcement of the new laws. The Federation has called upon the government to legislate so that police officers are indemnified for civil action.To describe the proposed laws as unusual would be an understatement. To claim the laws will not lead to racial profiling of persons deemed Muslim is a bald-faced lie." Irfan Yusuf

"Can I simply say that this has been a very positive meeting. I want to thank the Premiers and the two Chief Ministers for supporting the Commonwealth’s proposals. Can I say that we have agreed today on unusual laws for Australia. We’ve done that because we live in unusual circumstances. In other circumstances I would never have sought these additional powers, I would never have asked the Premiers of the Australian states to support me in enacting these laws. But we do live in very dangerous and different and threatening circumstances and a strong and comprehensive response is needed. I think all of these powers are needed; they go no further than is needed, but they go the necessary distance to do all we can to protect the Australian public." Prime Minister, John Howard

"It doesn't give me any pleasure to say this, but I need to be honest with you. The system is fundamentally sick and broken, and there are other more productive and satisfying ways in which you can contribute to society. Whatever you do, don't get involved in organised politics. Let me give you ten good reasons why you should do something else with your time." Mark Latham

Is the Government acting lawfully in advertising its IR policy with taxpayer's money or is it breaching Australia's Constitution? We'll find out on Thursday.

"At the end of August 2005, Communications Minister Helen Coonan used an address to the National Press Club in Canberra to float her ideas about changing media law in Australia. They were conveyed to the people by the press and the broadcast media. Whether these ideas amount to a media policy, whether they are truly democratic and whether she was launching a fully-blown balloon or just flying kites, remain to be seen. As does the public's response." Frank Morgan

"I have voted Liberal since 1996. I voted for the ALP before that but the Keating “true believer” election was the one that did it for me. Following that election, all that it seemed the ALP was concerned with was how to win the next election. They had simply run out of steam and ideas.  Sadly for us they have not got it back yet." Craig Warton

"So when the mainstream media are failing to such an extend that they are no longer reporting the thinking and truths behind the facts behind the events, and when they on many occasions choose to completely ignore the reporting of even the events themselves, the landscape of reporting changes and the nature of journalism shifts as dramatically as it shifted when newspapers first came into circulation. ... Margo's move to Webdiary was in itself already something to take note of, and her separation and independence of Fairfax is something which I imagine will still be discussed in journalism courses in 50 years time, if we still run them in Australia." Jack H Smit

"The Human Rights Council of Australia acknowledges that the research that went in to the report was paid for out of the pockets of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU). This is the same AMWU whose leader has recently branded the Australian government authoritarian. This is the same AMWU who would seem to be unhappy with any government in recent history if their claim that contemporary capitalism restricts democratic rights is to be believed." Dylan Kissane

The problem as I see it is that Fairfax had given over editorial control of a space it had believed was marginal, but then realised was at the forefront of a trend that would revolutionise the paper itself. Issues of 'control', paramount in big media, are knotty to negotiate in this new era, and Fairfax distanced itself from Webdiary as part of my change of status from employee to contractor, and by inserting on my home page: 'The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of the Sydney Morning Herald or John Fairfax'. Yet eight months later in April 2005, global media baron Rupert Murdoch proclaimed himself dead wrong about Internet media and pledged to embrace it, and blogging, in an effort to maintain his dominance in the industry.

"Commentators at the positive end had already started writing their "why the world economy survived Katrina" pieces within a week or so of the disaster. The (economic) question is - will US consumer confidence (and market confidence generally) survive Rita? I leave for others the shorter term questions around whether the US authorities learned enough from the Katrina debacle to ensure that far more Americans personally survive Rita. As I write, Texans are evacuating. A second Cat. 4/5 storm in the Gulf within a few days is a very different thing for public sentiment to cope with than a single, not unprecedented event - two Cat 4 storms in a year last happened in 1915, when 275 died in Louisiana when Lake Pontchartrain broke its banks and 275 in Galveston, Texas a little later ... Even if, as we all hope, Rita passes or fades without the dramas and human suffering of Katrina, the fact that it existed at all is going to change how people feel, and potentially push them toward saving for a rainy day rather than spending. If so, the world economy may be in for a storm of its own." David Roffey

"While entranced viewers, readers and bloggers have bandied about explanations like narcissistic personality disorder, depression, chronic anger and bipolar disorder, (this last since apologised for by Jeff Kennett), Latham assured Andrew Denton that: 'No. No, not for a day in my life have I ever suffered from depression.' A pain specialist might have a few questions about that. It's unlikely Mark Latham's seen one, despite the excruciating pain that accompanies pancreatitis. Pain is poorly understood and poorly treated in Australia's general medical community." Catherine Job

"The Government may well decide that if there are no local jobs (which can mean under Newstart Allowance up to a ninety minute journey away) then individuals and families ought to be forced to move to a district with more jobs available. That means social dislocation for the family, loss of the social supports which make living feasible, and much higher housing costs, while for the community they leave, it means a drop in the incomes of local businesses, and maybe the loss of a teacher from the school." Marie Coleman

"This year will be the 150th anniversary of the Eureka Stockade. It helped secure the diggers' suffrage, which led seamlessly to manhood suffrage and more flexibility in qualifications for members of parliament. Manhood suffrage in turn was the template for later grants of suffrage to women and indigenous people. It was this substantial, although still incomplete, democratising of parliament, which spread throughout Australia, which gave egalitarian theory political expression. It also formed the bedrock upon which our founding fathers instituted our federal system, marked by the division of power exemplified in section 5 of the Constitution." Susan Crennan, Australia's new High Court Justice, last year

"We note with concern that your organisation proposes to confer its World Statesman Award on Mr John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia. The Appeal of Conscience Foundation has not, to our knowledge, consulted any civil liberties or human rights organisations in Australia before determining to grant this award.  In order to overcome this omission, we wish to advise you of the following matters, arranged by reference to the citation to the award." Brian Walters SC, Liberty Victoria

"It doesn't happen every day that a journo phones me to let off steam, but yesterday, following a press conference by Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone on the Baxter Detention Centre, it did. The journo just needed to let off the frustration of being subjected to an inordinate amount of government spin emanating from the mouth of the Immigration Minister... So I went hunting for a transcript, and that quest shows that Webdiarists would do well keeping and building a database of reporters and journalists. It took about five phone calls before another good reporter with one of Australia's better dailies sent the transcript." Jack H Smit

"In legislation about to be introduced, the Government will cut the rate of income support for parents with children aged six and over and for people with disabilities who are assessed as being able to work at least 15 hours a week. From July 2006, Parenting Payment (for sole parents and one parent in a very low income couple) will be abolished for families with children aged six or over. Disability Support Pension will be restricted to those who cannot work 15 hours a week or more. Those who are no longer able to claim these payments will have to apply for Newstart (unemployment benefit) and be required to look for jobs of at least 15 hours a week." Julia Perry

"The Office for Women advised the women's organisations secretariats that they were not permitted to use their grants for such a purpose, and demanded that the pledges not be honoured, on pain of deductions from their 2005-6 funding. The women's secretariats, faced with this opposition from the Government to their attempt to gauge the effects of policy on Australian women, guaranteed NFAW (the National Foundation for Australian Women) that they would honour their pledges through contributions from affiliated organisations. Given the urgency and the importance of the matter, NFAW took the risk, and went ahead with the contract." Marie Coleman

"A Labor MP has launched a blistering attack on Melbourne University Press. No, the book concerned is not the Latham Diaries which have at least been published. Michael Danby MP is aiming at something higher: denouncing a book which at the time was not even written. The book concerned is provisionally titled Voices of Reason by former Webdiarist Antony Loewenstein and its subject matter is the Middle East conflict and the Australian Jewish community." Sol Salbe

"Australia claims to be a free society with freedom of speech. In a free society, in a democratic society they should be able to basically take on that criticism or that message that I'm putting out and be able to deal with it in a civil discourse, not in basically, you know gagging and arresting and removing people who disagree with them." Scott Parkin speaking to AM's Karen Percy

"A group of conveniently accommodating imaginary 'experts' are invoked by Duffy, who claim that we are fighting a war against terrorism - a spurious claim in itself - largely for the sake of 'evolutionary theory'. Having mentioned the war for dramatic effect it is immediately discarded, to be replaced by a quote from a noted historian who supposedly legitimises the imaginary experts by claiming that Darwin's theory of evolution is the 'most important idea of all time'. Apparently it is more important, to Duffy at least, than the idea of brotherly love and tolerance." Phil Uebergang

"I do not believe that Mark Latham should have published these diaries in this form. I suspect when we see the full book that it will describe some major issues that need to be addressed, about Labor's policies, about its culture, about Australia's political culture generally and the way the media works. I suspect the truths in the book will be ignored because the focus will be on the spleen, not the substance. I think that is a great pity." Julia Gillard

"Author Robert Pape, associate professor of political science at the University of Chicago, has studied every suicide attack from 1980 to 2003 - a total of 315 attacks. His findings on the motivations of suicide terrorists fly in the face of the war-on-terror rhetoric that our leaders and media lackey’s serve up daily." Chris Saliba reviews Robert Pape's book: Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism.