As the US and European economies slowly sink into a quicksand of indebtedness, the world is watching with increasing incredulity the doom-laden discourse of lucky Australia . Here is an economy enjoying fundamentals that other developed nations would donate their first born for, yet our parochial media has decided to slavishly sing along with Tony Abbott’s one-note death march of the saints.

How has it come to this? Our unemployment rate is half that of the US and much of Western Europe, our public debt is among the lowest in the world, our terms of trade are delivering a boost to national incomes unseen in at least 50 years, our banks are among the highest rated financial institutions anywhere and we were the only major developed economy to avoid recession during the global financial crisis.

Yet the witches chorus of Murdoch hacks, talkback quacks and business lobby flaks has convinced a blissfully ignorant and disengaged Australian population that the economy is descending into a fiery hell of the Gillard government’s own making. Every initiative is quickly woven into a bogus, manufactured and hysterical narrative about policy incompetence that virtually everyone in the MSM (and the government itself much of the time) tacitly accepts as the truth.

For those who pay more than a modicum of attention to what is going on outside the echo chamber that constitutes the Murdoch press, commercial television and radio and parts of the ABC – and all you need to do that are Google alerts and a couple of RSS feeds – much of the developed world economy is in the crapper. Washington has run out of IOUs and the political experiment that was the single European currency is coming apart under the pressure of economic reality. Yet Australia is thriving. Insofar has we have problems – a suddenly savings conscious consumer and an overly strong currency – these are only so in comparison with the extraordinary period of leverage-driven consumption that went before.

So amid this endlessly echoing cacophony, hearing voices of reason from outside our own self-generated din provides refreshing reassurance that one is not insane.  Among them in recent weeks was a bewildered sounding editorial in that pillar of the globalist neo-liberal establishment The Economist which asked how a country so magnificently endowed could conceivably blow it by descending into the sort of partisan-for-the-sake-of-it carping and negativity that has brought Washington to a standstill . This noise is amplified by a cynical media whose he-said-she said parroting of deceitful scaremongering – usually for the sake of ratings points and ad dollars –  just reinforces the ignorance of their readership.

“Many Australians do not seem to appreciate that they live in an unusually successful country,” The Economist said. “Accustomed to unbroken economic expansion—many are too young to remember recession—they are inclined to complain about house prices, 5% unemployment or the problems that a high exchange rate causes manufacturing and several other industries. Some Australians talk big but actually think small, and politicians may be the worst offenders. They are often reluctant to get out in front in policymaking—on climate change, for instance—preferring to follow what bigger countries do.”

The Economist reserved special condemnation for Tony Abbott’s importation of the Tea Party’s tactics of wilful obstructionism and contrarianism. While Abbott’s media cheerleaders say this has always been the role of the Opposition, his tactics aren’t about providing an alternative viewpoint but mindless wrecking for the sake of making government impossible. And his results are impressive, with a public debate now at the point where detestable shockjocks ritually urge violence against our elected representatives. And no-one bats an eyelid. No-one, of course, apart from people watching from overseas and wondering how a country with such good fortune and so much potential could sink into such a stinking morass of its own making; people such as the influential Bloomberg business news columnist William Pesek:

“The politics of pessimism is a tried-and-true formula,” Pesek writes. “Blame those in power for every conceivable ill, employing plenty of hyperbole and lots of volume. It’s a sure way to dominate the news cycle. As 2011 unfolds, though, something feels different, more apocalyptic. Politicians, radio shock jocks, TV pundits and editorialists are tripping over themselves to call Julia Gillard the worst prime minister Australia has ever seen, today’s economic climate the most dismal and tomorrow’s outlook the most disheartening in history.”

Pesek notes that Australia does have some challenges – like needing to invest more in infrastructure and education and working out what to do with the squillions from the mining boom. But, as he says, these are good problems to have at a time when much of Europe is heading for default and political paralysis in Washington is threatening a total shutdown of the government. While Australia has a rolled gold opportunity to use its prosperity to build a sustainable future, the country’s politicians – living in fear of a media that does not look beyond the next deadline – are prisoners of a negative news cycle.

 “Australia’s obstacles are far less dire, though you wouldn’t know it,” Pesek writes. “The country needs an honest and transparent debate about harnessing the mining boom, but it’s getting a petty brawl between Gillard and Abbott. Anything Gillard proposes, Abbott derides as economic suicide. (Meanwhile, having successfully killed the resource super profits tax), Australia’s business community figures it can dump Gillard. Her sin is making an effort to lead. She is pushing something that’s inevitable globally as temperatures and sea levels rise: a tax on carbon emissions. The knives are out and the punditocracy is telling Australians they will be homeless if Gillard gets her way. It would be silly if it weren’t so pernicious.”

Pesek has it right. The media and public discourse in this country has reached a point where people are not being trusted with the truth. Indeed, the media for the most part is not interested in pursuing the truth because manufactured conflict is proving a good business model.

Ultimately, journalism at its best is built on three pillars – trust, truth and objectivity. The latter attribute is the one that is least understood.  It doesn’t mean employing fake equivalence or ‘balance’ – as in ensuring every argument from every vested interest is given equal weight. It does mean providing context for readers, testing the veracity of politicians’ claims  (what are the chances of the coal industry shutting down overnight?) and providing points of comparison and contrast with what is happening elsewhere. It means supplying perspective.

And couldn’t we do with some of that right now?


17 Comments

Snowy · July 31, 2011 at 8:52 AM

Well said,Mr Denmore. Thank you for showing that I am not battling alone. Keep it up.

Preston Towers · July 31, 2011 at 8:58 AM

I place the blame solely at the feet of our poorly trained and fairly gossip-minded Canberra Press Gallery. The News Limited ones seem to rule the roost there and many of the others idolise them – hence the admiration for Abbott's anti-intellectual thuggish destruction of meaningful political debate. The brisk defending of News Limited against Bob Brown's comments by Chris Uhlmann summed up for me just what is wrong with the Canberra pack and just how out of step they are with what is relevant in news reporting.

Margaret · July 31, 2011 at 9:47 AM

Thank you so much for spelling out what I've been quietly musing upon for some time. I wish every Australia would read this piece.

Quipper · July 31, 2011 at 10:42 AM

Spot on, Mr D

Rhiannon · July 31, 2011 at 11:29 AM

Thanks for such a good albeit depressing article. I am passing it around!

D Mick Weir · July 31, 2011 at 11:32 AM

As the old saw goes …
“If you are not part of the solution you must be part of the problem.”

For the life of me I can't see any solution …

damnation I must be part of the problem

cecily · July 31, 2011 at 12:16 PM

Thanks Mr Denmore! Appreciated this one and shall circulate it in my small circle. 🙂

Anonymous · July 31, 2011 at 11:27 PM

Should be compulsory reading for all Australians. I doubt the truth will ever make it to the frontpages of the nations outhouse papers.

Bliss Windlow · July 31, 2011 at 11:31 PM

Well said, well put, agree agree … I will also be sharing

calyptorhynchus · August 1, 2011 at 12:09 AM

I was in my local cafe waiting for my take-away and I looked through the dead-tree version of the Australian for the first time in about a decade.
What an unpleasant rag, every headline and every story was slanted in some way to denigrate the government and instill fear and loathing in its readers.
It reminded me of listening a relative of mine who suffers from paranoid depression. She will talk all day about how everyone is out to get her, everyone is plotting against her secretly, how she is penniless and powerless because of other people's machinations &c &c

Mona · August 1, 2011 at 12:17 AM

Great Article with a voice of reason.

infoaddict · August 1, 2011 at 4:10 AM

“It reminded me of listening a relative of mine who suffers from paranoid depression. She will talk all day about how everyone is out to get her, everyone is plotting against her secretly, how she is penniless and powerless because of other people's machinations &c &c “

THAT'S what the Trash Media reminds me of. Manic depressives (bi-polar it's called these days, I think). There's a difference, however; bi-polar people have a chemical imbalance in their brain which they attempt to rectify with suitable medications in order to bring balance back into their lives.

What drug would work on Trash Media???

Feminist Culture Muncher · August 2, 2011 at 3:39 AM

This is a great article, and echoes the frustration I feel at what Australia is squandering. Given our resources, we could do so much better in terms of services and education to harvest the potential of the whole population instead of a select few.

One genuine problem for many Australians, though, is the cost of housing in proportion to wages. This has increased markedly to the extent that many households, whether renting or buying, suffer 'housing stress'. High housing prices also concentrate money in one sector of the economy at the expense of others.

However, this problem is self-inflicted anyway. Governments of the major parties have been too scared to ditch regressive tax breaks, including negative gearing, that push up house prices. Of course they fear an electoral backlash, but I think it suits them to have a compliant electorate who are terrified of being turfed out of their homes and will ask only 'What's in it for me?' at every budget rather than 'How is this going to benefit the country as a whole?'

Anonymous · August 3, 2011 at 7:59 AM

“What drug would work on Trash Media???”

Hemlock?

Anonymous · August 5, 2011 at 1:52 AM

The things posted on the Liberal Party's website. And what do we hear from the mainstream media about this? Eerie silence. It's as though it never happened.

http://blogs.crikey.com.au/purepoison/2011/08/01/liberal-org-au-publishes-calls-to-violence/

Anonymous · July 22, 2012 at 3:58 AM

Abbott has managed to goad Gillard into a race to the bottom… and the rest of are dragged kicking and screaming to that same intellectual hell from whence there is no coming back .Witness the right wing of the NSW Labor parties denigration of the Greens….the party that give them the oxygen they desperately need at a Federal level.Anonymous suggests that hemlock might work on the trash media.What works tor the trash media is money for comment pure and simple .Abbott and his corporate cronies have brought Australian democracy to a sorry state…each time he opens his ugly mouth he says the same thing again….down…down….down

Anonymous · November 5, 2012 at 10:39 PM

Has every got some form of depression?

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