Friday, 1 January 2021

Trust in Australian media is at an all time low in this house

 

On Saturday 26 December 2019 The Guardian Australia published an article by its political editor and member of the Canberra Press Gallery, Katharine Murphy, titled This was the year Australia restored trust in its politics – and that really is a miracle”.


I clicked on the article with some eagerness given Ms. Murphy’s solid reputation.


It was then I realised that I was being served opinion based on alleged facts I could not at that point in time corroborate.


The link to the initial findings of the Scanlon Foundation’s "Mapping of Social Cohesion 2020" led to another Guardian article published on 17 December whose own link purporting to go to these finding led to yet another Guardian article published in November 2019 which clearly predated the 2020 findings.


To make matters worse the link supplied in the Murphy article led to a bowdlerized comparison graph bearing little resemblance to past Scanlon Foundation social cohesion mapping graphs.


The Murphy article stated that the initial survey findings had been released on Thursday, 24 December 2020, which was a misleading statement.


On 26 December 2020 no initial finding were displayed on the Scanlon Foundation’s website, nor that of Monash University or ANU Social Research Centre.


In addition, as background Ms. Murphy cited a 2009 social cohesion survey pool of 3,000 individuals, when in fact that year the national pool stood at 2,000 individuals with another 6 local-level surveys with a combined total of 1,800 individuals.


It’s seemingly small facts relating to methodology which give clues as to how reliable are comparisons between annual surveys.


In fact in refining the national survey the number of respondents has gone both up and down over time and the number of local-surveys has varied across the years since 2007. While questions on the questionnaire form have been altered, as well the form changed in length with different interview duration.


What readers of The Guardian articles of 17 and 26 December 2020 could not know at the time of publication is what methodology changes may have occurred in the initial findings for Mapping of Social Cohesion 2020” because there was no full disclosure of these finding by the newspaper. 


This is the graph that The Guardian published on 17 December 2020:






It leaves the reader to guess what percentages should be consigned to "Only some of the time", "Almost Never" and "Refused/don't know".


This is the more informative graph supplied by the Scanlon Foundation in 2019:





The Guardian articles of 17 and 26 November 2020 appear to be telling readers that national trust in the federal government to generally do the right for the Australian people has risen by 25 per cent between 2019 and 2020.


Alas, this reader must remain unsure until such time as the Scanlon Foundation’s "Mapping of Social Cohesion 2020" is finally published. 



Then there is the case of the somewhat conflicted columnist


Meet Ms. Parnell Palme McGuiness, columnist in Fairfax-Nine publications.


Managing director of Thought Broker Pty Ltd and managing director of Agenda C Pty Ltd. Both companies being in the business of developing targeted, traditional and digital media campaigns to create maximum impact for their clients and both operating from the same business address.


And who are their clients? Well that is not disclosed on company websites.


However, Ms. McGuiness did admit to having the Liberal Party of Australia as a client at one point and Austender reveals that over the last 18 months Agenda C has been granted three limited tender federal government contracts which appear to have been aimed at facilitating the Morrison Government's social media presence.






Agenda C states of itself; "What’s even better than telling your story yourself? Having someone else tell a story about you! We understand what makes you interesting to the media and work with it to make you interesting to the world..... Agenda C assesses, plans, acts and measures to steer you through tough times. Our experienced traditional and digital media teams work together to take control of the narrative so you’re back in control."  


Thought Broker says of itself; "Thought leaders offer a distinctive point of view by linking their subject matter expertise with wider debates, and in doing so, they present a credible and authoritative voice. Over time, they come to be sought out as an expert in their field and asked to weigh in with their experience. A thought leader communicates intelligently with people who can make a difference in business and public life, setting the agenda or shifting the debate by introducing a new perspective. Each of our thought leadership campaigns is based around a bespoke strategy which answers our clients’ business problem and supports their advocacy requirements."


Ms. McGuiness obviously sees no conflict of interest in being both a columnist whose subject matter is frequently political in nature and a director of two businesses (dedicated to using mainstream and social media to manipulate public perceptions), one of which derives income from federal government contracts.


In my opinion she is deluding herself if she believes everyone else see her self-proclaimed independence in the same light.


*******************Happy New Year 2021*******************

 



Friday, 25 December 2020

*Season's Greetings From North Coast Voices, December 2020*








North Coast Voices

Wishes all its readers

A  very happy holiday season




This blog is now going into its annual break and will be back on 1 January 2021.





Thursday, 24 December 2020

How the NSW Covid-19 infection numbers stand early Christmas Eve morning 2020

 

UPDATE:


24 December 2020


18 new cases as of 8pm last night:

 

* 9 new locally acquired cases 

* 7 of which have been confirmed to belong to the Avalon cluster and 2 are under investigation as reside in the Northern Beaches

* Avalon cluster now numbers 104 cases

* 9 new overseas acquired cases.



NSW Health archives its media releases covering the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic at https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/news/Pages/2020-nsw-health.aspx.


These media releases show that in the nine days encompassed by 14 to 22 December 2020 the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in New South Wales grew by 155 people. However, there were no additional deaths.



23 December 2020



The total number of cases in NSW is now 4,616 since the beginning of the pandemic….. [with 55 deaths recorded]


Of the 16 new cases to 8pm last night:


  • Eight cases are locally acquired, and of these

  • Seven cases are linked to the Avalon cluster

  • One is a close contact of a known case whose source is under investigation

  • Eight cases were acquired overseas and are in hotel quarantine.



22 December 2020



Of the 18 new cases to 8pm last night:


  • Eight cases are locally acquired, and of these

  • Seven cases are linked to the Avalon cluster

  • One case remains under investigation

  • Ten cases were acquired overseas and are in hotel quarantine.



21 December 2029



Of the 23 new cases to 8pm last night:


  • 15 cases are locally acquired and linked to the Avalon cluster

  • Eight were acquired overseas and are in hotel quarantine.



20 December 2020



Of the [36] new cases to 8pm last night:


  • 28 cases are locally acquired and linked to the Avalon cluster

  • Investigations are ongoing into the source of the remaining two cases, both of whom live on the Northern Beaches

  • Six were acquired overseas and are in hotel quarantine.



19 December 2020



Of the [30] new cases to 8pm last night:


  • 21 cases are locally acquired and linked to a known case or cluster (Avalon)

  • Two cases are local acquired with their source under investigation

  • Seven were acquired overseas and are in hotel quarantine.



18 December 2020



Of the [16] new cases to 8pm last night:


  • 15 were locally acquired, and the source of their infections are under investigation.

  • One was acquired overseas and is in hotel quarantine



All 15 of the local cases to 8pm last night are Northern Beaches residents announced yesterday, and NSW Health is undertaking urgent investigation and contact tracing to identify potential links and the sources of the infections.



17 December 2020



[9 news cases to 8 pm last night]

NSW recorded three locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.


Two additional new locally acquired cases were notified this morning in the Northern Beaches area in a man in his 60s and a woman in her 50s.


The source of these two new infections, which will be included in tomorrow’s case numbers, is under investigation and further updates will be provided throughout the day as information becomes available.


NSW Health is now investigating five locally acquired cases. Four are in the Northern Beaches, and one case is a resident of south Sydney.


Six cases were also reported in returned travellers in hotel quarantine in the 24 hours to 8pm last night….



16 December 2020



[7 news cases to 8pm last night]


NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night…..


Seven cases were reported in overseas travellers. NSW Health has been notified this afternoon of two new cases of COVID-19 in people who live in the Northern Beaches area.


The source of these new infections is under investigation. At this stage, no links have been identified to other known cases.



15 December 2020



[5 new cases up to 8pm last night]



NSW recorded no new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.


Five cases were reported in overseas travellers. This brings the total number of cases in NSW since the start of the pandemic to 4,461 [with 55 deaths recorded].



And as annus horribilis 2020 nears its end.......

 

 

And on that note, battered by the political, economic, social and public health winds of 2020, I have no more f*cks to give.


Australia ends 2020 as it began - with Scott Morrison refusing to act on mental health policy and program reform


The Sydney Morning Herald, 16 December 2020:


At the end of one of the most challenging years we have ever faced in Australia in terms of our collective mental health, and following Prime Minister Morrison’s impassioned release of the long-awaited Productivity Commission report, many have asked what’s the government’s plan of actions for 2021?


Well, it turns out that the answer is yet another inquiry! The terms of reference for this new “Select Committee on Mental Health and Suicide Prevention” were tabled quietly in the Federal Parliament last Thursday, just before it closed. They state that an interim report is required by April 15, and a final report by November 1, 2021. The Labor spokesperson, Chris Bowen, made it clear the Opposition was not consulted.


No, this is not a repeat episode of Yes, Minister or its sequel Yes, Prime Minister. This committee’s deliberations will sit alongside a range of other reports still being prepared by the National Mental Health Commission (Vision 2030) and the Prime Minister’s special advisor on suicide prevention, Christine Morgan.


At this point, I’d suggest that Samuel Beckett’s masterpiece Waiting for Godot may now be essential Christmas reading for those who as a consequence of where they live, their family income or the severity of their illness are locked out of essential mental health services. For many others, only limited primary care responses were available pre-COVID-19. 

 

The mental health sector is often criticised by political leaders, and other social commentators, for not being more united in its advocacy or focused in its key "asks" of government. Consequently, it is easy for governments to argue that it is still necessary to hold more stakeholder consultations, parliamentary enquiries, inter-governmental meetings, royal commissions or human rights investigations. 


Frankly, in 2020, these delaying tactics are no longer acceptable. In late October, the Australian Bureau of Statistics released its annual cause of death data for 2019 . In terms of productive years of life lost, suicide dwarfed all other causes. It accounted for 115,000 years lost annually, with heart disease a distant second (78,000 years lost prematurely). In the COVID-19 era, many expect a worsening mental health toll, particularly among younger people. 


Prior to the October 2020 budget, a broad cross section of the mental health sector presented the Morrison government with a four-year $3.7 billion proposal to implement immediately a range of widely agreed priorities. The sector assumes that the states and territories will also commit funds, workforces and infrastructure to deliver a regionally focused program of work..... [my yellow highlighting]


Wednesday, 23 December 2020

Australian Society 2020: and the annual female death by violence count grows

 

Destroy The Joint

 
There are 52 weeks in every year. As of 22 December 2020 the Counting Dead Women project has recorded a a total of 54 women who have died violent deaths in Australia, predominately at the hands of their partners, family members or people they knew socially.