Political Correspondence

1. What are your thoughts on the Scott Morrison text message saga? 2. It’s Queen Elizabeth’s 70th year on the throne, should Australia become a republic? 3. What are your thoughts on the current ABC funding model whereby funding is renewed in three-year blocks?

LEFT SOCIALIST ALTERNATIVE

1. Who doesn’t hate the Liberal party? They even hate each other! Of course, those of us on the left hate them for being neoliberal bigots who nakedly uphold the wants and needs of the Australian capitalist class. Under the big tent of the Liberal-National coalition they all agree that the profits of businesses must always overrule human lives, regardless of whatever personal power jockeying or assholishness goes on in private. If they lose the election it will be good to see them go.

2. The queen is an archaic and absurd relic from a feudal era where even the limited democracy we have today was unimaginable. Like all class societies, the ruling class of royals exploited the laboring class, the peasants. Just like capitalism today, inequality subjected the majority of human beings to the minority of the wealthy. It is not enough to be rid of some remnant of an old, exploitative ruling class if what remains is a ruling class as ruthless and exploitative as what came before. It’s easy to imagine being rid of the Queen, but far harder to imagine being rid of our bosses. Regardless, this is what socialists strive for. 3. The ABC can do some good journalistic work, such as bringing to light Australian war crimes in Afghanistan. But they are not card-carrying communists as the right and the Murdoch press accuse them of being, unless sometimes publishing mild criticism of the Coalition and not repeating Murdoch’s headlines counts as a far-left agenda. On the contrary, their defense of the status quo can be just as reactionary and right wing as the for-profit private media like Murdoch. But no matter how right wing they are, they will be under constant threat of funding cuts from the Coalition: the moral panic ridden Murdoch media that acts as a mouthpiece for the most foul ideas of the Australian capitalist class is the gold standard and anything less is socialist propaganda. We defend the ABC from these attacks, and demand greater funding for it to be able to deliver public journalism.This new funding agreement doesn’t change the fact that the Liberals and their mate Murdoch want to privatize and defund the ABC as much as possible, just that it’s not going to be a major issue going into this election.

CENTER LABOR UNITY

1. All these text messages show a government in chaos; one that is unable to contain their own members’ distrust of Scott Morriso - A leader we have grown to know as a man who doesn’t understand the problems facing Australians, let alone the price of milk and bread. He is untrustworthy and can’t lead in a time of crisis - with the new Optus board member and former, allegedly corrupt, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian stating in one of those texts “[Morrison is] More concerned by politics than people”. He is a man who’s more concerned about his image and himself than good policy for the Australian Public.]

2. Yes, we support an Australian Head of State representing Australia; not an unelected one sitting on a throne on the other side of the globe. Yet, we have many more dire matters, such as an absence of indigenous recognition in the constitution and an authentic Federal National Integrity Commission, which will do a better job at restoring faith in our institutions than Australia becoming a republic. 3. With the three-year funding model, the ABC is at the whims of whichever party is in government at the time. The benefit of this model is that it allows the ABC to plan ahead and sign longer-term contracts with its employees. The issue arises at the end of those three years, when funding is renewed. The Liberal-National Coalition has not adjusted the ABC budget for inflation which has effectively resulted in budget cuts. This in turn has effects of ABC editorial integrity and independence. This places one of our greatest democratic institutions at risk. In short, the three year funding model is better than year-to-year funding. However, it is undermined by funding freezes. Instead, we support the five-year funding model.

RIGHT FLINDER’S LIBERAL CLUB

1. This was a media circus and a flavour of the week. It largely blew over and was more humiliating for those who had sent the texts than the PM himself. However, it is unfortunate that private messages we used as a political weapon and to turn people within our party against each other. 2. No. The monarchy itself serves very little functional purpose or wields much power at the moment, however what the Crown does do is hold the copyright to the Constitution. If this connection is severed then that copyright will fall to the two major parties, which is for obvious reasons more questionable that an abstract figure in the Crown maintaining it. We gain nothing by becoming a republic as the royals are largely irrelevant to Australia anyway (and lets be honest, they learnt their lesson after the publicity nightmare that was the dismissal).

3. The ABC’s finances are currently directed under a triennial funding model. As a consequence of this and governmental endorsement, each three-year period sees a marked increase in total funding. This may lead to a saturation in the Australian media industry, which would unfortunately reduce the ability for smaller, private journalism to deliver a wider range of ideas to the people. In conclusion, there should be a firm limit on the level of funding that ABC should receive on a regular basis.