Fwd: A future for community radio
[I guess this interests some here] Hi there, Our community radio stations are at serious risk of being forced off air. Will you help protect them? Go to http://committocommunityradio.org.au/hockey today to help. The Commission of Audit has recommended that funding to our community radio stations be cut. If the Federal Government adopts that recommendation in the upcoming budget, it would mean stations right across the country could be forced off air. I don't think we can afford to let that happen, which is why I’ve just emailed the Treasurer, Joe Hockey, and called on him to protect our community radio stations. It was really easy to do - all the words and information are there, you just need to add your details and hit send. Will you join me by sending an email too? Go to http://committocommunityradio.org.au/hockey to send your message We can't afford to lose any of the stations who provide the local content that public and commercial stations can't or won't cater for. Thanks for joining me. http://committocommunityradio.org.au/hockey Thanks, Peter Ross
Peter Ross <Petros.Listig@fdrive.com.au> wrote:
The Commission of Audit has recommended that funding to our community radio stations be cut. If the Federal Government adopts that recommendation in the upcoming budget, it would mean stations right across the country could be forced off air.
When the voters, by a majority, elect to government parties that campaigned on a "balanced budget" and "no tax increases" agenda, large reductions in federal spending are inevitable. This leads to a decline in government-funded services. I don't expect community campaigns to have much impact, unfortunately. As I recall, they didn't after the 1996 election either. I fully support community radio, but it's probably a little late to influence the upcoming budget at this point.
On Tue, 6 May 2014 17:00:48 Jason White wrote:
When the voters, by a majority, elect to government parties that campaigned on a "balanced budget" and "no tax increases" agenda, large reductions in federal spending are inevitable. This leads to a decline in government-funded services.
Firstly Tony Abbott IS increasing taxes. The Liberal party has historically never been a low tax party, they are however a party that sometimes campaigns on the false claim of being low tax. Recall that John Howard introduced the GST which is probably the most significant new tax in the last 30+ years, I think that the GST was a good thing at the time and I'm not criticising the Howard government for implementing it - I'm just noting that they weren't low- tax. Balancing the budget while not increasing taxes for regular people wouldn't be so difficult. Balancing the budget while giving significant tax breaks to the rich is difficult however. If Tony Abbott kept all the taxes that were in place when he became PM and didn't give any tax breaks for mining magnates, if he didn't buy buggy and expensive jet fighters, and if he didn't waste such a huge amount of money illegally detaining refugees then the financial situation would be a lot different. A large part of the problem is lumpen-conservatives who vote for a government that wastes money on racist policies, gives money to the rich, and then creates new taxes that hurt the vast majority of the population. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/
participants (3)
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Jason White -
Peter Ross -
Russell Coker