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OPINION
Artistic Licence
Vincent O'Donnell
Vincent O'Donnell
Photo: Nastya Dulhiier
VALUES shape our lives in many ways. Values shape institution, see how Rio Tinto is being tested, at present, over the Juukan Gorge blasts. But values can also be fluid. As Groucho Marx said: ‘Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them ... well, I have others’. He should have gone into politics.
The Commonwealth Government brought down its virus-delayed budget on Tuesday October 6. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said that this year’s economic plan was ‘guided by our values. Our circumstances may have changed, but our values endure.’ Reassuring words but exactly (or even approximately) what are those values?
On Sunday, October 11, the University of Sydney passed a milestone. It was 168 years since its foundation. The University of Melbourne was founded in the following year. Their mandate, given by the political and social establishment, the forerunners of the Liberal Party, was education in the Arts, Humanities and Languages ...
Medicine, the first of the professions, would soon join the curriculum, indeed women were allowed to study Medicine, and Engineering and the Sciences came with the turn of the 20th century.
The Commonwealth Government brought down its virus-delayed budget on Tuesday October 6. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said that this year’s economic plan was ‘guided by our values. Our circumstances may have changed, but our values endure.’ Reassuring words but exactly (or even approximately) what are those values?
On Sunday, October 11, the University of Sydney passed a milestone. It was 168 years since its foundation. The University of Melbourne was founded in the following year. Their mandate, given by the political and social establishment, the forerunners of the Liberal Party, was education in the Arts, Humanities and Languages ...
Medicine, the first of the professions, would soon join the curriculum, indeed women were allowed to study Medicine, and Engineering and the Sciences came with the turn of the 20th century.
Photo: Lysander Yuen
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In the same week as the budget, the government gained the support of Senate cross-benchers, to pass a bill that would more than double the cost of degrees in the Arts, Humanities and Languages, while cutting the tuition fees for courses in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths, the so-called STEM subject.
In almost 45 minutes of the Treasurer’s speech, the word ARTS never made an appearance. CULTURE scraped in twice, but only because it is part of the word, agriculture. That seems to throw a frame around the values of the government, the values that endure. It also signals those qualities that the government does not value: creativity, openness of mind and spirit, free speech, critical thinking, and an appreciation of the diversity of human culture as expressed in languages, art, literature, music and dance. Nor the opportunity to learn the lessons of history; would the government condemn us forever to repeat the mistakes of the past. Instead, are we to be obedient widget makers, knowing our place, not dreaming of better ways to do things, not seeing beauty and light, addressing life with optimism rather than fatalism. And if further evidence is needed of the values of this government, check how the pillar institutions of our culture have fared. The public service broadcasters, the ABC and SBS, were both cut, the ABC for the 6th year. This is the legacy of the then leader of the Liberal Party, Tony Abbott’s pledge in 2013. Remember: no cuts to the ABC under a Liberal Government. We took him at his word. |
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Australia Council received half a per cent more at $215,633,000; the Australian Film, Television and Radio School received a 13 % increase to $34,278,000; the National Film and Sound Archive $29,188,000, up from $28,936,000 but nowhere near enough to digitise the decaying magnetic tape archives, though a separate boost in funds earlier in the year will help. The National Portrait Gallery of Australia and Screen Australia got more but the increases were less than inflation. Finally the National Library of Australia: $78,662,000, up from $77,633,000, a 1.3% increase ... but at least Trove, the Library’s searchable digital archive seems safe. The Bundanoon Trust, however, was the big winner at $18,578,000, up from $10,150,000 last year.
The other pillars of our cultural architecture cut were: Australian Business Arts Foundation Ltd: $8,736,000 (down from $9,390,000) Australian National Maritime Museum: $36,253,000 (down from $40,834,000) National Gallery of Australia: $83,173,000 (down from $108,258,000) a whopping 23% cut: staff, services, acquisitions and public access are likely to go. National Museum of Australia: $47,860,000 (down from $57,377,000) down 17% Special Broadcasting Service Corporation: $406,036,000 (down from $415,524,000). To be fair, many of these organisations have also received funding in this financial year as a result of COVID impacts. Screen Australia got a one-off $30 million. But cuts to core budgets means the reduction of services to the public and crimping on the preservation of the cultural heritage in their care. |
Photo: Rovelyn Camato
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What are the enduring values of the government?
The budget may rebuild the post-Covid-19 Australian economy but, it seems to me, Australian culture, the glue that holds the society together through good times and bad, the shared experience, beliefs, hopes and aspirations, is not considered of much importance to the recovery of society.
That’s what the budget’s bottom line says. So you be the judge.
The budget may rebuild the post-Covid-19 Australian economy but, it seems to me, Australian culture, the glue that holds the society together through good times and bad, the shared experience, beliefs, hopes and aspirations, is not considered of much importance to the recovery of society.
That’s what the budget’s bottom line says. So you be the judge.
DR VINCENT O'DONNELL has worked in the media since the renaissance of the Australian film industry in the 1970s, as a cinematographer, director and producer in film and television and, more recently, as producer and presenter of the weekly radio program, Arts Alive, for the national Community Radio Network. His academic studies centre on the history, economics and politics of the Australian screen industry. He is also a regular guest on three ABC regional radio networks reporting and commenting on events in the media.
Fathering your children
Photo: Elly Fairytale
A recent review of evidence around the impact of fathers in a child’s life by The Fathering Project has highlighted the vast importance of fathers in children’s lives from toddler to teenager and beyond. Not only because children ‘need and love their dads’, but also because of the significant impact that fathers have on the social, cognitive, emotional and physical well-being of children from infancy to adolescence and with lasting influences into their adult life.
A summary of evidence published recently by The Fathering Project, is based on a review of literature and research primarily covering the last 10 years. As there is a vast volume of research relating to parenting and children more generally, the review focused on evidence relating specifically to the influence of fathers and father figures.
A summary of evidence published recently by The Fathering Project, is based on a review of literature and research primarily covering the last 10 years. As there is a vast volume of research relating to parenting and children more generally, the review focused on evidence relating specifically to the influence of fathers and father figures.
Photo: Tatiana Syrikova
Commenting on this review, Kati Gapaillard CEO of The Fathering Project says, “Research has shown unequivocally that fathers have a profound impact on their children’s lives, and in our programs for Fathers across the country, we work with dads to help them understand and achieve their critical role.’’
Commenting on this summary of evidence, Senior Researcher Erin Erceg expands on two key areas of the report around ‘education and ‘mental health’, which are fundamentals in early childhood development and looks at the impacts engaged fathers have on their child’s development in these areas.
‘When we examine the evidence from this summary of reports, we find that a child with an engaged father during primary school had: fewer school adjustment problems , better academic progress and enhanced occupational achievements in adulthood. Children’s positive and negative school outcomes have been linked to father beliefs (e.g. about teachers), perceptions, school involvement (e.g. motivation for involvement, father-teacher relationship quality), efficacy and child attachment.
Additionally, fathers who are absent during this period have children linked to higher incidence of negative outcomes such as school suspension and expulsion. Children do better in school when their fathers are involved in their school, regardless of whether their fathers live with them or live apart’.
Commenting on this summary of evidence, Senior Researcher Erin Erceg expands on two key areas of the report around ‘education and ‘mental health’, which are fundamentals in early childhood development and looks at the impacts engaged fathers have on their child’s development in these areas.
‘When we examine the evidence from this summary of reports, we find that a child with an engaged father during primary school had: fewer school adjustment problems , better academic progress and enhanced occupational achievements in adulthood. Children’s positive and negative school outcomes have been linked to father beliefs (e.g. about teachers), perceptions, school involvement (e.g. motivation for involvement, father-teacher relationship quality), efficacy and child attachment.
Additionally, fathers who are absent during this period have children linked to higher incidence of negative outcomes such as school suspension and expulsion. Children do better in school when their fathers are involved in their school, regardless of whether their fathers live with them or live apart’.
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Around Mental Health, much of the research on fathering has focused on its implications for child and adolescent mental health, with compelling evidence that fathering has significant protective and positive effects on the mental health of children across various ages and stages of development. Being warm and supportive, involved, and engaged with their child are among fathering traits that have been shown to positively impact a child’s mental health. Conversely, the summary of evidence shows that ‘poor father-child relationships can negatively impact on a child’s mental health, both in childhood and later during adolescence and in adulthood’.
Key findings of this report point to the critical role fathers play in a child’s life. Fathers who display engagement and warmth in parenting are the most powerful predictors of children’s improved health, academic, social and emotional outcomes. Children who have a father or father figure who live with them throughout their life, have better learning outcomes, general health, emotional wellbeing, and fewer problem behaviours. A father’s influence on the child’s outcomes is most obvious when the child reaches school age. The child performs better academically, socially, emotionally and enjoys better health and development with an engaged father, or father figure. |
Photo: Gantas Vaikciulenas
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Ancient giants reduced to Chinese paper
This is Victoria. Sadly it’s happening everywhere.
WHEN more than 90% of wood logged out of Victoria’s Critically Endangered Mountain Ash forests is pulped for paper and cardboard, there’s something wrong.
State logging agency VicForests is forced to deliver at least 300,000 cubic metres of native forest logs to paper and cardboard producers Opal Australian Paper (owned by Nippon Paper Group) every year.
Victoria’s forests cannot support this level of destruction. Incredibly, these volumes have not been reduced even after 1.2 million hectares of Victorian forests burned in last spring and summer’s catastrophic bushfires — which changed lives and landscapes forever.
As a result, VicForests runs afoul of the law as it meets Opal Australian Paper’s insatiable demand for native forest fibre to manufacture cardboard boxes, office products and playing cards.
This logging is driving forest-dependent species, such as the Leadbeater’s Possum and Greater Glider, towards extinction. Yet, despite widespread evidence of illegal logging in these animals’ forest habitat, the State and Federal governments are missing in action.
The Wilderness Society’s investigations have uncovered that shipments of paper and timber products — manufactured from VicForests harvested logs — to the USA and the EU have breached overseas illegal logging laws. As a result, we submitted formal complaints to enforcement agencies in the USA, Germany and Denmark.
This isn’t the first time Australian conservationists have had to call for international help. Almost one hundred years ago, another Australian conservation group, the Wildlife Preservation Society, appealed to then United States President, Herbert Hoover, to help prevent the imminent extinction of the koala, which was hunted for its fur. As a result, the trade in koala fur to the US was brought to an end.
If Australia’s environmental regulators were effective today, we wouldn’t need to call for international help.
A truly sustainable and supportable timber and paper industry in Victoria and other states, is possible — one that doesn’t cause species extinction, and is legal. As we deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s critical that workers in regional areas are supported through inevitable change. That’s why the Victorian State government must bring forward the industry’s transition to plantations, and fast-track support packages.
Together, we must stand up for Australia’s forests and keep building pressure on businesses and government regulators to protect the places we love so they aren’t being destroyed by illegal logging.
The Wilderness Society
info@wilderness.org.au
State logging agency VicForests is forced to deliver at least 300,000 cubic metres of native forest logs to paper and cardboard producers Opal Australian Paper (owned by Nippon Paper Group) every year.
Victoria’s forests cannot support this level of destruction. Incredibly, these volumes have not been reduced even after 1.2 million hectares of Victorian forests burned in last spring and summer’s catastrophic bushfires — which changed lives and landscapes forever.
As a result, VicForests runs afoul of the law as it meets Opal Australian Paper’s insatiable demand for native forest fibre to manufacture cardboard boxes, office products and playing cards.
This logging is driving forest-dependent species, such as the Leadbeater’s Possum and Greater Glider, towards extinction. Yet, despite widespread evidence of illegal logging in these animals’ forest habitat, the State and Federal governments are missing in action.
The Wilderness Society’s investigations have uncovered that shipments of paper and timber products — manufactured from VicForests harvested logs — to the USA and the EU have breached overseas illegal logging laws. As a result, we submitted formal complaints to enforcement agencies in the USA, Germany and Denmark.
This isn’t the first time Australian conservationists have had to call for international help. Almost one hundred years ago, another Australian conservation group, the Wildlife Preservation Society, appealed to then United States President, Herbert Hoover, to help prevent the imminent extinction of the koala, which was hunted for its fur. As a result, the trade in koala fur to the US was brought to an end.
If Australia’s environmental regulators were effective today, we wouldn’t need to call for international help.
A truly sustainable and supportable timber and paper industry in Victoria and other states, is possible — one that doesn’t cause species extinction, and is legal. As we deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s critical that workers in regional areas are supported through inevitable change. That’s why the Victorian State government must bring forward the industry’s transition to plantations, and fast-track support packages.
Together, we must stand up for Australia’s forests and keep building pressure on businesses and government regulators to protect the places we love so they aren’t being destroyed by illegal logging.
The Wilderness Society
info@wilderness.org.au
Bad News is No News
Phil Kafcaloudes
LOCKDOWN has placed mental pressures on Melburnians like no event since WWII. Media outlets are constantly telling us daily about the doom and gloom: fines; cheats; deaths; the failures of policy; the loneliness; the blame. Journalism academic Phil Kafcaloudes looks at whether it might be better if we just turn off the information barrage.
The federal and State governments are clearly worried about the mental toll caused by the strong COVID suppression measures. In Victoria, the COVID measures have led to the closure or pausing of many businesses and subsequently financial uncertainty for both business owners and employees. In Victoria the mental pressures are exacerbated by the enforced isolation measures and curfews. Because of this, people are not allowed to engage in many of the stress-reducing activities that they may have come to rely on. No parties, no bars, no hugs with friends. No golf.
In the main, the coverage of the story hasn’t helped. Journalists know that there are many levels of reportage on a major event, and COVID has more than most. On the surface level there are the who, what, when and where. This level equates to the facts and figures: what is coronavirus; where are the hotspots; how many are infected; how quickly is it spreading; how can we keep safe; what are we allowed to do. This is the most straightforward and basic of journalism. The sources are universal: the Chief Medical Officers, the government websites, the daily state-by-state media conferences, the Premiers, health ministers.
The federal and State governments are clearly worried about the mental toll caused by the strong COVID suppression measures. In Victoria, the COVID measures have led to the closure or pausing of many businesses and subsequently financial uncertainty for both business owners and employees. In Victoria the mental pressures are exacerbated by the enforced isolation measures and curfews. Because of this, people are not allowed to engage in many of the stress-reducing activities that they may have come to rely on. No parties, no bars, no hugs with friends. No golf.
In the main, the coverage of the story hasn’t helped. Journalists know that there are many levels of reportage on a major event, and COVID has more than most. On the surface level there are the who, what, when and where. This level equates to the facts and figures: what is coronavirus; where are the hotspots; how many are infected; how quickly is it spreading; how can we keep safe; what are we allowed to do. This is the most straightforward and basic of journalism. The sources are universal: the Chief Medical Officers, the government websites, the daily state-by-state media conferences, the Premiers, health ministers.
Digging to the next level, we have the political stories: Daniel Andrews and the rising second wave; the royal commission into the hotel quarantine scheme; how Donald Trump’s Doorstopgate will affect his re-election chances in November.
After these mainstay levels of reportage we come to the interesting third level: how COVID and the strategies to contain it are affecting people. As a journalism lecturer I teach that statistics are only numbers, and people dying in nursing homes are not numbers. They all have their stories and histories. I have always told my students we need to drill down and find and bring these stories to the community. Like in any time of war, there are the stories that will hearten and there are stories of extraordinary hardship. The good ones might give succour. The tough ones may, at the least, let those others locked in their homes know that they are not alone. Personal stories are the things of empathy and understanding.
In 2017 I carried out a consultancy with the ABC at the time that the corporation was starting to devolve its story-gathering away from the capital cities into the regional centres. Reporters in Karratha, Bendigo and Wollongong were being encouraged to take their mobile or small cameras and seek out people stories. For the first time, promises were made to regional staff that these stories would get national coverage. They would be put on the ABC news site and on ABC NewsRadio and News24. Of course these kinds of stories had made it nationally before, but this was a big push, and reporters from all over the country (and their stories) were encouraged as never before.
After these mainstay levels of reportage we come to the interesting third level: how COVID and the strategies to contain it are affecting people. As a journalism lecturer I teach that statistics are only numbers, and people dying in nursing homes are not numbers. They all have their stories and histories. I have always told my students we need to drill down and find and bring these stories to the community. Like in any time of war, there are the stories that will hearten and there are stories of extraordinary hardship. The good ones might give succour. The tough ones may, at the least, let those others locked in their homes know that they are not alone. Personal stories are the things of empathy and understanding.
In 2017 I carried out a consultancy with the ABC at the time that the corporation was starting to devolve its story-gathering away from the capital cities into the regional centres. Reporters in Karratha, Bendigo and Wollongong were being encouraged to take their mobile or small cameras and seek out people stories. For the first time, promises were made to regional staff that these stories would get national coverage. They would be put on the ABC news site and on ABC NewsRadio and News24. Of course these kinds of stories had made it nationally before, but this was a big push, and reporters from all over the country (and their stories) were encouraged as never before.
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Some editors appear to equate this digging deeper with seeking out the negatives. If a train line was being rebuilt, reporters sought out the people who were going to be affected by late night rail works. If the government announced a tax concession, these reporters would bring us stories from people who were not going to get the new benefit. Stories were starting to have a new face: the grimace. The grimace of people unhappy about whatever the issue was. It became a cliché to show concerned residents staring grim-faced at the camera, arms crossed, unhappy baby perched on one arm.
This is of course perfectly valid. People have a right to complain, and reporters have an obligation to make the story as broad as possible, but I question whether the story gatekeepers envisage the whole picture. The COVID coverage, both in the ABC and in the commercial sphere, is increasingly dark. We see plenty about people who are doing it tough. One commercial TV station, covering the start of the isolation in nursing homes, finished his story with a line about how one resident was not able to go to his beloved granddaughter’s birthday party. I’m sure the reporter was trying for the personal, but it came across to me as trivial in light of nursing home deaths that were happening. The unbalance towards doom and gloom could give the impression that everything’s gone wrong. Scanning the ABC news page on Saturday 15 August, 2020, there were eight COVID stories on the left hand scroll:
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Of all of the stories listed here, only two were in any way positive, and one of them had its positive message offset by fines for bad behaviour. Doom and gloom.
No wonder mental health groups are worried about how people are coping under the hybrid of isolation and a curfew. It even got to the point where recently the ABC news site did an explainer story on coping with the mental stresses of COVID isolation. One of its health suggestions was that people should not read the news. Indeed an ironic suggestion for a news site, and one that suggests that maybe we journalists are not doing our job in the way we should. Yes, we are all grown-ups and we should have an ability to discern stories, but negativism breeds negavitism.
As Dan Andrews says, recoveries are outstripping infections. People are getting better. But these stories don’t get the prominence. And this is the time when people need any kind of bone.
Some parts of the media seem to be aware of the issue. On August 16, The Age sent its subscribers a newsletter asking for positive and hopeful stories. They are yet to show up in the paper’s online site. I hope they will soon, because as the British royal family found during the blitz, people need things to cheer about. It can’t just be left to the AFL.
No wonder mental health groups are worried about how people are coping under the hybrid of isolation and a curfew. It even got to the point where recently the ABC news site did an explainer story on coping with the mental stresses of COVID isolation. One of its health suggestions was that people should not read the news. Indeed an ironic suggestion for a news site, and one that suggests that maybe we journalists are not doing our job in the way we should. Yes, we are all grown-ups and we should have an ability to discern stories, but negativism breeds negavitism.
As Dan Andrews says, recoveries are outstripping infections. People are getting better. But these stories don’t get the prominence. And this is the time when people need any kind of bone.
Some parts of the media seem to be aware of the issue. On August 16, The Age sent its subscribers a newsletter asking for positive and hopeful stories. They are yet to show up in the paper’s online site. I hope they will soon, because as the British royal family found during the blitz, people need things to cheer about. It can’t just be left to the AFL.
Phil Kafcaloudes was the ABC’s national journalism trainer from 1998-2000 and was recently broadcast journalism teacher at La Trobe and RMIT universities in Melbourne. In 2019 he won the inaugural Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia teaching award for producing the live university student federal election night broadcast. He is currently a graduate researcher with La Trobe University.