Right on, ABC
Poor record
STANDING on their record? After four years of under-resourcing the Parks Service, the Liberals now promise more money for bushwalks and a study into a new multi-day adventure. Four years ago, a feasibility study was completed by a local East Coast community for a four-day walk that linked up Bicheno with St Marys. In the past four years there has not been a word from the Liberals on this proposal.
We are told education will be taken to the next level. One of the first acts by Minister Rockliff was to abolish the Tasmanian Qualifications Authority so exam standards for years 11 and 12 are set internally by the Education Department. This lack of independent oversight has not been followed by other states because it reduces school education standards.
In the past four years, the largest reform by the Government has been the Statewide Planning Scheme. If the Government is standing on its record, why is this not mentioned in their ads or website? er, who funded it. Not long ago Federal tried to blackmail the state by saying if poker machines were taken from pubs and clubs, then millions of infrastructure development would not proceed. READER Glen Pears (Letters, February 22) suggests the ABC has a Left-leaning bias. Coalition governments have cut ABC funding and established dedicated Rightwing advocates on the ABC board. If the ABC has a centre-Left bias, it simply counters the obsessive commercial market ideology of most other media. Lose the ABC and you lose the only market independent media source in Australia. If the ABC lacks quality and has lost some of its quality zest, blame it on the Right-wing! oil merchants who flood society with ideas ranging from brilliant to bonkers. The consequence is that people with the power of persuasive speech present bonkers ideas persuasively, while people who know what they are talking about present brilliant ideas unconvincingly.
What we need is more elementary STEM for everyone, so everyone can recognise snake oil even when presented persuasively, combined with better education in the humanities for STEM graduates so they can present ideas persuasively.