An Australian news roundup

A Bloody triumph?



British TV is on the verge of a bloody backdown after a full-blooded campaign by Australian tourism chiefs over those ads. The backdown could see Australia's controversial $180 million "bloody" tourism ads on air in Britain by the weekend. Making waves also in London yesterday was Aussie surf chick Lara Bingle who said the use of ``bloody'' had simply been a friendly gesture. Britain's Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC) last week banned commercial TV's use of the word "bloody" from Tourism Australia's $180 million "Where the bloody hell are you?" campaign. The ban prompted an urgent flight to London by federal Tourism Minister Fran Bailey, who, amid a blaze of priceless publicity, complained the Poms had lost their sense of humour. Ms Bailey emerged from overnight talks in London with the BACC, the UK tourism minister and broadcasting standards officials to declare she had won a review of the ban. "It's a bloody good result," Ms Bailey said. "My faith in British justice and the British sense of humour has been restored." Ms Bailey said the review meant the full Tourism Australia ads could be on British TV by the weekend.



Laura Bingle shivered her way through a windy, cold London day to support Federal Tourism Minister Fran Bailey. "The ad is just a fun and friendly thing and shouldn't be a problem," she said. "It's what Australia is about." The very bronzed Aussie, who was virtually plucked from the surf last week to fly to England to smile for Australia, had no idea that the tag line "So where the bloody hell are you?" would be so controversial. Sticking closely to her official script, she said the innocent phrase uttered in the ad as she emerges dripping wet in a bikini from the surf at Fingal Beach in NSW was just a friendly greeting. The campaign has already generated 225,000 hits on the Tourism Australia website, including 42,000 from Britain.

Source




An Australian Cartoon



Yep. It's a Muslim being portrayed with a bomb. Enough to make any Muslim go crazy? One would think so. But it is from Brisbane's "Courier Mail" newspaper in my home State of Queensland. The cartoon refers to a recent story to the effect that "deprogramming" of fanatical Muslims is being considered in Australia. Apparently the cartoonist thinks that Jehovah's Witnesses could be used as deprogrammers.

No reaction to the cartoon so far. It seems to me to be pretty brave (and definitely "incorrect") of the paper to print it.





Another account of the Cronulla disturbances. A reader who knows some of the people who were there writes: "The guys who were at Cronulla on that day told me it was more about people celebrating being Australian, than anything else. There was a bit of drunken violence but considering how many people were there it could have been a lot worse. One guy also told me that a group of "Middle Eastern Appearance" young males had been driving around the area all day with loud ethnic music on, and making terse racial comments to people on the street at different stages. So in effect they were baiting the crowd and were eventually turned on. The media portrayal of the event was particularly unfair mainly showing violence. I suppose it does sell news papers, not being reflective of the truth isn't that important to them."






Good news for all -- Attempt to blame an uninvolved party fails: "A former Coca-Cola contractor, stripped of a $3 million payout awarded after he was shot five times, will be left with nothing, his father says. Craig Pareezer sued the soft drinks giant in the NSW Supreme Court for negligence after he was shot in the head, chest, stomach, leg and hand. The shots blew off half of his tongue, pierced his lung and went through his right hand. The attack happened as he restocked a vending machine at Werrington TAFE, in Sydney's west, in February 1997. He argued Coca-Cola failed to exercise reasonable care by not providing a safe system for him to carry out his duties. He said Coca-Cola should have provided non-marked vehicles for all deliveries and collections, as well as practical training for drivers in armed robbery awareness, and an extra person in each delivery vehicle. In December 2004, the Supreme Court found Coca-Cola Amatil liable for the shooting and ordered it to pay Mr Pareezer $2.9 million. His wife and son, who witnessed the attack, also were awarded almost $100,000. But in a unanimous decision today, a panel of three judges in the NSW Court of Appeal overturned the damages payouts, finding the company was not liable. Justice Peter Young said that while the evidence showed Coca-Cola had done "virtually nothing" to secure the safety of its fillers, no precautions could have prevented the attack on Mr Pareezer."





Media shake-up spurs shares: "Media stocks surged yesterday as investors bet on historic changes to Australia's media laws opening a wave of mega-mergers among the old guard and fresh competition from new technology. Under the proposals released by Communications Minister Helen Coonan, the free-to-air TV networks will face new competition from emerging digital TV players but will also be free to acquire radio and newspaper groups for the first time. Senator Coonan said the cross-media and foreign ownership restrictions should be removed by 2007 or 2012 but the Government would require at least five "commercial media groups" to remain in metropolitan markets and four in regional markets. That is expected to focus most takeover activity in the regional sector as it already has fewer media owners than the metropolitan markets."

(For more postings from me, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and DISSECTING LEFTISM. My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here.)

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