ISSUE 39 AUGUST 2011 ANYA POUKCHANSKI with a Gen Y look at The First Stone STEPHEN MATCHETT looks at political biography with Bush, Blair and Howard AYN RAND uncovered – again GERARD HENDERSON versus Brenda Niall – history and the case of Fr Hackett SJ JOHN MCCONNELL unveils Mark Aarons’ rethink on the Australian Communist Party Faith and politics – Enid Lyons as seen by ANNE HENDERSON SANDALISTA WATCH CONTINUES – Margaret Throsby and Haydn Keenan find ASIO under the bed MEDIA WATCH on Phillip Adams. Alan Ramsey and Robert Manne’s memories Published by The Sydney Institute 41 Phillip St. with Gerard Henderson’s Sydney 2000 Ph: (02) 9252 3366 MEDIA WATCH Fax: (02) 9252 3360 The Sydney Institute Quarterly Issue 39, August 2011 l CONTENTS MR SCOTT’S FIVE YEAR PLAN Editorial 2 In July 2006 Mark Scott commenced work as managing director of the Australian Broadcasting Sandalista Watch - Corporation. Initially appointed for a five year term, Mr Scott recently had his contract renewed for a Public Broadcasting, ASIO second term by the ABC Board. Shortly after his aand the Cold War appointment, Mark Scott’s office approached The Sydney Institute with a proposal that he deliver his - Gerard Henderson 3 first major public on the ABC to the Institute. The offer was willingly accepted and the talk took place Government and Freedom - on 16 October 2006. Who is Ayn Rand? In his address, Mark Scott correctly pointed out that i - 6 he was both managing director and editor-in-chief of Anne Henderson the public broadcaster. He acknowledged that there is “a sense that the organisation has issues with Ripples From the First Stone balance and fairness” and conceded that the ABC - Anya Poukchanski 10 had “been at times too defensive in the face of such criticism”. Mr Scott acknowledged that “there is Documentation - Brenda Niall now the expectation...that there is demonstrated r plurality of opinion and perspective” within the ABC. and Gerard Henderson on Mark Scott praised the Insiders and Lateline Fr William Hackett SJ 14 programs for “ensuring a range of political perspectives on the issue of the day” ( Insiders) and Faith and Politics - encouraging “a good range of voices to be heard on issues” (Lateline) . He indicated that a new program, Dame Enid Lyons A Difference of Opinion , would “ensure that on - Anne Henderson 18 contentious issues of the day, there is opportunity for the full range of opinions and perspectives to be Book Reviews - heard”. A Difference of Opinion first went to air in o 2007 and was replaced by Q&A . Mark Scott also told Mark Aarons’ The Family File the Institute that the Media Watch program would be - John McConnell 22 reviewed “to ensure there is more opportunity for debate and discussion around contentious and Review of the Reviewers important issues”. - Stephen Matchett 29 So, five years later, what has changed? The answer is – not a lot. Take Media Watch , for example. There tGerard Henderson’s were some changes to the format in 2007 but it has now reverted to type – with one presenter laying Media Watch 41 down the law and no opportunity for debate and discussion on air. There is more diversity of opinion on the Fox News Newswatch program than there is Cover Design by D T Graphics on Media Watch . Moreover, Mark Scott has not been i able to find one political conservative to present one The Sydney Institute Quarterly is edited by of the key news and current affairs or opinion Anne Henderson and Gerard Henderson. programs on the public broadcaster. Not one. There Editorial Office: 41 Phillip Street, Sydney 2000 are, however, numerous leftist or left-of-centre presenters – including Phillip Adams ( Late Night Tel: (02) 9252 3366 Fax: (02) 9252 3360 Live ), Fran Kelly ( Radio National Breakfast ), Email: [email protected] Jonathan Holmes ( Media Watch ), Kerry O’Brien Website: www.thesydneyinstitute.com.au (Four Corners ), Tony Jones ( Lateline ) , Tim Palmer (The Drum ) and Deborah Cameron ( Mornings on Layout and typesetting by DT Graphics Pty Ltd, 702 in Sydney). And more besides. Ms Cameron has dSuite 8/2B Edward Street Kingsgrove NSW 2208. even turned what is supposed to be a current affairs Tel: (02) 9150 9466 Fax: (02) 9150 6663 program into a platform for the advocacy of green- Website: www.dtgraphics.com.au left causes. The views expressed in The Sydney Institute Quarterly are Mark Scott has some achievements at the ABC and those of the designated authors. They do not necessarily deserved to have his term renewed. However, he reflect the views of The Sydney Institute or of its governors. has not delivered on his promise to meet the Registered Print Post No : PP255003/02934 “expectation...that there is a demonstrated plurality For a complete list of our forthcoming functions, of opinion and perspective” on the taxpayer funded visit our Website: www.thesydneyinstitute.com.au public broadcaster. E 2 The Sydney Institute Quarterly Issue 39, August 2011 And so it came to pass that Holly’s mother became the presenter on Mornings with Margaret Throsby on SANDALISTA ABC Classic FM where, each day, she conducts “The Morning Interview”. Invited guests talk about WATCH – PUBLIC themselves and nominate a selection of music to be played in between the conversation. BROADCASTING, On Monday 27 June 2011 Margaret Throsby’s guest was Haydn Keenan, a documentary maker with Smart ASIO AND THE Street Films in Sydney. Mr Keenan is also a leftie. Haydn Keenan has written and directed a four-part documentary titled Persons of Interest on the COLD WAR Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation n his 1937 book The Road to Wigan Pier, George which will air on SBS TV later this year. An I Orwell defended “the ordinary decent person” exhibition based on the documentary and curated by against “the intellectual, book-trained socialist”. He Haydn Keenan, titled “Persons of Interest: The ASIO wrote that the: Files”, is currently showing at the Justice & Police Museum in Sydney. It was the occasion of a report by ...[latter] type is drawn, to begin with, Greg Miskelly on the New South Wales edition of the entirely from the middle class, and from a ABC 7.30 NSW program on Friday 17 June 2011. rootless town-bred section of that middle class at that. ...It includes...the foaming As would be expected, when the leftist sandal-wearer denouncers of the bourgeoisie, and the Margaret Throsby sat down in the ABC studios in more-water-in-your-beer reformers of whom inner-city Ultimo with the leftist sandal-wearer Haydn [George Bernard] Shaw is the prototype, Keenan a wonderful left-wing time was had by all. In and the astute young social-literary a Sandalista kind of way. climbers...and all that dreary tribe of high- minded women and sandal-wearers and THROSBY’S ERRORS ABOUT MR AND bearded fruit-juice drinkers who come flocking towards the smell of “progress” MRS PETROV like bluebottles to a dead cat. Margaret Throsby introduced the program by referring to the defection of Vladimir Petrov (the HAYDN KEENAN AND MARGARET third secretary of the Soviet Union’s embassy in THROSBY ON ASIO AS A JOKE (OR Canberra) and his wife Evdokia (an employee of the WORSE) Soviet Embassy who was a code breaker). The time The musician Holly Throsby was interviewed by Paul was April 1954. Let’s go to the transcript. Connolly for the Sunday Life magazine (20 February Margaret Throsby : Margaret Throsby with 2011). Early in the interview, Holly Throsby – who was you on ABC Classic FM. If you’re old born in 1978 – reflected on growing up in Sydney: enough to remember the expression “reds I grew up in Balmain and it was great. under the beds”, you’ll certainly remember These days Balmain is gentrified, but then the Petrov affair. 1950s Australia was a it still had a bohemian hangover. Mum suspicious place. Robert Menzies was the was a real hippie when she was younger – prime minister and anti-communist she can remember every lyric to every ‘60s feelings were running high. The Third song – and a lot of the families around Secretary of the Soviet Embassy in were very left-wing, interesting people. Us Canberra, Vladimir Petrov’s defection in kids were always barefoot, making mud 1954 caused headlines around the world. pies, selling paintings on the street. We Even more dramatic were pictures of his had a lot of freedom. wife being hustled off a plane in Darwin by Holly’s left-wing, hippy mother was none other than ASIO agents. ASIO – the Australian Margaret Throsby. No surprise, then, that Holly’s Security Intelligence Organisation – was at mum became an ABC presenter. She commenced that time about five years old. at the public broadcaster in 1967. What better qualifications are there for a taxpayer funded job at Vladimir Petrov defected in Sydney on 3 April 1954. the public broadcaster? Inner-city Balmain. Hippie. Evdokia Petrov defected at Darwin Airport on 19 Left-wing. Sandal-wearer. April 1954. Mrs Petrov was photographed being 3 The Sydney Institute Quarterly Issue 39, August 2011 This News Limited photo shows Evdokia Petrov being forced on This Australian Consolidated Press photo shows a Soviet “courier” to a plane at Kingsford Smith Airport (Sydney) by two Soviet being disarmed by Northern Territory police at Darwin “couriers”. Airport. Both photographs are re-produced from Robert Manne The Petrov Affair: Politics and Espionage (Pergamon, 1987). hustled on to a plane by KGB agents who had come Mornings with Margaret Throsby . Take, for example, to Australia from the Soviet Union – they were intent the discussion on the impact of Vladimir Petrov on on forcing her to return to the USSR.