The Sydney Institute Quarterly Issue 29, August, 2006 THE SYDNEY INSTITUTE ANNUAL DINNER LECTURE PLEASE NOTE IT IS ESSENTIAL TO RSVP FOR FUNCTIONS and that BOOKINGS SHOULD BE MADE 2 WEEKS IN ADVANCE, NO EARLIER. Thank you for your cooperation! SPEAKER:: GREG SHERIDAN (Author, The Partnership [New South Books, 2006]; Foreign Editor, The Australian) TOPIC: Inside the Australian-US Alliance DATE: Tuesday 12 September 2006 **Bookings from 29 August only** TIME: 5.30 for 6 pm VENUE: Museum of Sydney Theatrette, Corner of Bridge & Phillip Streets, Sydney SPEAKER:: KEVIN RUDD MP (Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trade and International Security) DATE: Tuesday 19 September 2006 **Bookings from 5 September only** TIME: 5.30 for 6 pm VENUE: Mallesons Conference Room, Level 60, Governor Phillip Tower, 1 Farrer Place, Sydney SPEAKER: ROSS McMULLIN (Historian & Writer; Author, Will Dyson: Australia’s Radical Genius [Scribe Publications, 2006]) TOPIC: Will Dyson: Australia’s Forgotten Genius DATE: Thursday 21 September **Bookings from 7 September only** TIME: 5.30 for 6 pm VENUE: 41 Phillip Street, Sydney LIGHT REFRESHMENTS SPEAKER:: DR ERNEST DRUCKER (Director, Division of Community Health, Montefiore Medical Center, New York) TOPIC: The US Prison System: Mass Incarceration DATE: Wednesday 27 September 2006 **Bookings from 13 September only** TIME: VENUE: 41 Phillip Street, Sydney LIGHT REFRESHMENTS SPEAKER: KATE LEGGE (Journalist & author, The Unexpected Elements of Love [Penguin]) TOPIC: From Journalism to Fiction – How different is it? DATE: Tuesday 3 October 2006 **Bookings from 19 September only** TIME: 5.30 for 6 pm VENUE: 41 Phillip Street, Sydney LIGHT REFRESHMENTS SPEAKER:: PETER DEBNAM MP (NSW Liberal Leader) DATE: Wednesday 11 October 2006 **Bookings from 27 Sept only** TIME: 5.30 for 6 pm VENUE: Clayton Utz Conference Room (Level 30), 1 O’Connell Street, Sydney SPEAKER:: MARY CROCK (Associate Professor, Sydney Law School & author Seeking Asylum Alone [Federation Press]) TOPIC: Travelling Solo - Australia, the Law and Unaccompanied Refugee Children DATE: Tuesday 31 October 2006 **Bookings from 17 October only** TIME: 5.30 for 6 pm VENUE:: 41 Phillip Street, Sydney LIGHT REFRESHMENTS SPEAKER: THE HON. ALEXANDER DOWNER MP (Minister for Foreign Affairs) DATE: Wednesday 1 November 2006 **Bookings from 18 October only** TIME: 5.30 for 6 pm VENUE: Mallesons Conference Room, Level 60, Governor Phillip Tower, 1 Farrer Place, Sydney SPEAKER: DAVID DODGE (Governor, Bank of Canada; Former Minister in the Chretien Government) DATE: Monday 6 November 2006 **Bookings from 23 October only** TIME: 5.30 for 6 pm [In association with the Canada/Australian Chamber of Commerce] VENUE: Clayton Utz Conference Room (Level 30), 1 O’Connell Street, Sydney SPEAKER: PROF. VIRGINIA HOOKER (Co-editor of Voices of Islam in Southeast Asia: A Contemporary Source Book) TOPIC: Islam and South East Asia DATE: Tuesday 14 November 2006 **Bookings from 31 October only** TIME: VENUE: Museum of Sydney Theatrette, Corner of Bridge & Phillip Street, Sydney SPEAKER:: LINDSAY TANNER MP (Shadow Minister for Finance) DATE: Tuesday 21 November 2006 **Bookings from 7 November only** TIME: 5.30 for 6 pm VENUE: tba FREE TO ASSOCIATES & ASSOCIATES’ PARTNERS / $5 STUDENTS / $10 OTHERS RSVP - PH: (02) 9252 3366 OR FAX: (02) 9252 3360 OR EMAIL: [email protected] WEBSITE: www.thesydneyinstitute.com.au <http://www.thesydneyinstitute.com.au/> ISSUE 29, AUGUST 2006 STEPHEN MATCHETT and Gen Y – challenge of the ages ANNE HENDERSON reviews left liberal hypocrisy Losing the Culture Wars – scoring the Howard Government RORY ROBERTSON on monetary policy myths JOHN MCCONNELL on John Hirst’s History VALE Robert Strauss, Margaret Jones and Norman White MEDIA WATCH tackles Alex Mitchell, Kerry- Anne Walsh, John Stone, Michael Leunig (again) and Tracee Hutchinson 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 29, August, 2006 CONTENTS JONESTOWN Has “the reputation” of the ABC been damaged in recent times? Well, according to the (collective) view of over fifty Editorial 2 ABC staff, the answer lies in the affirmative. On 30 June 2006 numerous ABC staff put their name to a letter from Scaling the Heights of Four Corners executive producer Bruce Belsham to Murray Green – then the ABC’s acting managing director Moral Humbug – condemning the decision taken by the ABC “to withdraw - Anne Henderson 3 from publication of the Chris Masters’ book Jonestown”. The letter was soon leaked to the media. It took Mr Green Debunking Three Major a full five days to reply. This was the first statement made by the public broadcaster on this issue – despite the fact Monetary-Policy Myths that the Jonestown matter had become an issue of public - Rory Robertson 7 controversy. On 4 July 2006 Murray Green wrote to Bruce Belsham advising that the decision had been taken on The Howard Government and the legal grounds since it was believed that Alan Jones, the subject of Chris Masters’ unauthorised biography, might Culture Wars take legal action and that this could lead to the ABC incurring a “significant loss” due to “unrecoverable post- - Gerard Henderson 11 publication legal expenses”. The ABC Board was involved Book Reviews in this decision. The ABC’s decision led to a predictable outrage. Chris - John McConnell 23 Masters initially said he was “shocked and upset” and later claimed that he had been betrayed by the ABC. The Bruce Review of the Reviewers Belsham letter (which was also signed by the likes of Ian - Stephen Matchett 25 Carroll, Mark Colvin, Quentin Dempster, Geraldine Doogue, Richard Glover, Liz Jackson, Tony Jones, Anna Maria Nicholson and Morag Ramsay) went so far as to No Leads on Middle claim that “the sight of the ABC caving in under political East Crisis or commercial pressure invites the powerful and wealthy to believe that threats can deter the ABC from producing - Stephen Matchett 32 controversial material through any of its outlets”. Then Phillip Adams spoke. And then the ABC’s (unofficial) Correspondence & Correction 34 historian Ken Inglis. And then the ABC TV Media Watch program. And so on. What the collectively outraged had in Obituaries 35 common was an unwillingness to tackle the cental issues. Originally ABC Enterprises commissioned ABC staffer Gerard Henderson’s Chris Masters to write an unauthorised biography of one of the ABC’s commercial rivals – Alan Jones, who Media Watch 37 broadcasts on 2GB in Sydney and on Channel 9 Today program. As an ABC Enterprises production, the book would have been advertised on the ABC – despite its alleged objection to advertising, the public broadcaster flogs its own products at will. When the ABC advertises its own products, the impression is given that they have been Cover Design by D T Graphics sanctioned by the ABC itself. Critics of the ABC’s eventual The Sydney Institute Quarterly is edited by decision to junk the book have alleged that this was a Anne Henderson and Gerard Henderson. decision imposed on ABC management by the ABC Board. Not so. It is understood that the ABC’s general Editorial Office: 41 Phillip Street, Sydney 2000 counsel Stephen Collins and its chief operating officer Tel: (02) 9252 3366 Fax: (02) 9252 3360 David Pendleton opposed the decision to publish Jonestown – as did ABC chairman Donald McDonald. This Email: [email protected] is not a matter of censorship because it was known that Website: www.thesydneyinstitute.com.au Chris Masters would find another publisher and, indeed, he has signed up with Allen & Unwin. Layout and typesetting by DT Graphics Pty Ltd, 202A Lyons Road, Drummoyne 2047. There is one final matter. It is understood that a cental Tel: (02) 9719 1424 Fax: (02) 9719 1415 thesis of Jonestown turns on the allegation that Alan Jones Website: www.dtgraphics.com.au cannot be fully understood without analysis of his The views expressed in The Sydney Institute Quarterly are (alleged) sexuality. Chris Masters is a considered and those of the designated authors. They do not necessarily able author. Even so, this is a controversial claim. You reflect the views of The Sydney Institute or of its governors. wonder whether the Friends of the ABC set would have got so uptight if ABC had junked a biography, by an ABC Registered Print Post No : PP255003/02934 staffer, which sought to examine the sexual history of For a complete list of our forthcoming functions, Phillip Adams or Michael Kirby or Kerry O’Brien. The visit our Website: www.thesydneyinstitute.com.au answer is obvious. Editorial 2 The Sydney Institute Quarterly Issue 29, August, 2006 The hypocrisy industry is alive and well in secular democracies. Not least of all in the USA. Here, SCALING THE decades of campaigns from animal rights protests to anti war marches have offered some notable HEIGHTS OF Americans not only celebrity status but even comfortable incomes. In Do As I Say (Not As I Do) - Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy, Peter Schweizer has MORAL exposed the lifetime lies of eleven of the best. For Schweizer, left liberal (social democrat) HUMBUG hypocrisy is a stage on from conservative hypocrisy. “Conservatives often,” he writes, “(but certainly not always) confine their moral beliefs to the realm of Anne Henderson personal conduct. Liberals on the other hand seek to legislate their beliefs and impose them on others. To n these secular times, celebrity styled and self correct what they see as economic and social I appointed moral guardians have long replaced injustice they support a whole litany of policies and church leaders as the average person’s guide to the principles.” He points out that the hypocrisy of higher moral ground. Noam Chomsky on capitalism conservatives is easily tested in personal behaviour and the military industrial complex, Michael Moore and when caught they fall.