The political vultures circle as Victoria Burns

Categorized | Blog, Censorship

The political vultures circle as Victoria Burns

Posted on 10 February 2009 by admin

The fires in Victoria were still burning strong as the political vultures came out to take advantage of the situation.

The fires had barely ignited before Bob Brown was making the bushfires a political issue. I’ve been fairly supportive of the greens recently but I think it might be time for the new blood to put this guy to pasture if he’s going to pull stunts like this.

Clive Hamilton published an article on Monday’s Crikey analysing the effects of climate change as they related to the Victorian fires. I’m not sure but I thought an aftermath analysis was supposed to happen after, not in the thick of. He was well criticised for it by Crikey’s readership, but he’s far from being the only offender.

Rooted, another blog in the Crikey group, jumped the gun as well, though his readership took the opportunity to add their 2 cents.

Natalie Bennet of the Guardian has used the Victorian Bushfire crisis as an opportunity to criticise Australian environmental policy and promote her own journalistic career. The comments section on her article is equally full of insensitive ideological opportunism.

Some parts of her article ring true until you realise that a lot of it is factually wrong. It is written from the perspective of someone living in a very different environment. It is written with very little understanding of how this bushfire is unique amongst Australian bushfires. It is appallingly timed and should have been sat on until after the crisis.

TVNZ.co.nz yesterday posted a Reuters article already talking about the pressure the bushfires had put on the Government to combat climate change. Well done. The fires are still burning and the death toll is still rising yet the entire article is written in past tense. Pushing the environmentalist ideology can wait until humans have stopped dying.

David Packham at the Australian also couldn’t wait to start pointing the finger at Academics and the Greens party. Whether or not you agree with his article, it seems to be a little soon to start waving your arms and screaming ‘I told you so’.

Of course, there’s always one idiot that was taking a shit when God was handing out brains. Pastor Danny Nalliah from the fundamentalist christian sect ‘Catch the Fire Ministries‘ has gone and claimed that the fires were due to God smiting the wicked Victorians for supporting Abortion.

I had originally written about Senator Conroy issuing a PR release while fires raged. I’m swapping this out for a better comment by Michael Meloni that more accurately reflects my opinion after having read more about the situation.

I don’t think Senator Conroy used the fires as a smoke screen for his press release. Today was an important cyber-safety event across the entire country and his department was yet to issue a press release. The day before is an appropriate and common time to do so and considering its contents were in no way insensitive to bushfire victims, I don’t see a problem.

Content filtering – as well as the other initiatives – are often mentioned in all DBCDE cyber-safety PR. On this occasion it was mentioned only once and very briefly. The Government mentioning policy in a press release is not something we should throw our arms up about. Save that for when they don’t include relevant information and when they try to hide it. That’s when it’s a problem. Time can be better spent either fighting the clean feed or helping those affected by the bushfire.

No one is doing anybody a favour kicking up a storm about this non-issue. Mike

Regardless, the ‘Feral Goldfish’ got up in arms about it, and I may have been part of this at first.

The Inquisitr [sic] posted a tirade against Stephen Conroy’s office for issuing the release. The Australian Blogosphere caught hold of it and collectively spat in Conroy’s direction.

The online community’s indignation at Conroy using the fires to smoke screen his release turned to hypocrisy soon after. Dan Warne at APC Mag made calls to redirect the funds from the ISP filter to help those in need in Victoria. Great idea, still too early.

The notion was echoed by dozens on twitter and in the blogosphere as EFA board members and Anti-censorship lobbyists like Michael Meloni looked on in disgust.

You’ve got some people saying Conroy is insensitive and others using this disaster to try and axe #nocleanfeed – Bad

While the rest of the world needs to keep going and can’t grind to a hault over this. the media, the blogosphere and lobbyists need to leave the Victorian bushfires alone until we can deal with the human death toll. While the fires are still burning, using them to push a line is insensative and still (10th Feb) too early.

P.S I sat on this as long as I could out of respect for the dead.

Did I miss anyone?

What are your thoughts on the issue?

When is it appropriate to begin these kinds of discussion?

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14 Comments For This Post

DrunkenMadman Says:
February 10th, 2009 at 9:00 am

That this is the reality of politics doesn't make it any easier to swallow. There's been some appalingly bad treatment out there of which I'd cite Catch A Fire Ministries as the horribly ironic pinnacle

Websinthe Says:
February 10th, 2009 at 9:08 am

You're right, there is irony there, also a completely tactless pushing of a horrible and diseased religio-political ideal.

Sam Clifford Says:
February 10th, 2009 at 9:10 am

In an age of near instant communication, when does it stop being "too soon"?

Websinthe Says:
February 10th, 2009 at 9:15 am

I'm not sure the speed of communication is an excuse, there's a point where we need to focus on what's going on and not trying to finger blame. There is, later, when the threat to life is over, a time for working out how to stop it ever happening again.

Some of these people have made comments that are never appropriate.

nomadiqueMC Says:
February 10th, 2009 at 9:19 am

"Whether or not you agree with … it seems to be a little soon to start waving your arms and screaming…" pretty much sums it up for me. political and religious ideologuing is par for the course. it's the timing that is insensitive, and just wrong.

i was having a similar conversation with another friend about the media 'coverage' of the events, and i thought that the commercial TV stations have been fairly sensitive about it, for the most part anyway. others disagree. i just think that we have to accept that with our thirst to know, and know *now*, we have to accept that a little bit of voyeurism creeps in.

but, like politicising the issue while it's still so raw, we cross the line when we *create* the spectacle to deliberately *attract* voyeurs (of the wrong kind, if there is such a thing).

Paul Says:
February 10th, 2009 at 9:23 am

Wilson Tuckey used the bushfires to argue for more logging of forests:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/tuckey-points...

Websinthe Says:
February 10th, 2009 at 9:25 am

You're right, it's the timing that's inappropriate here.

I think I read something on Cracked today about social panic stories that were, to some degree manufactured or exaggerated, and led to a media circus purely for the sake of having one.

Jason Brown Says:
February 10th, 2009 at 9:26 am

Well, at least we haven't had Naomi Robson turn up in a firefighters uniform yet.

Websinthe Says:
February 10th, 2009 at 9:27 am

I have actually read the Crikey article but it was about 4 hours after I wrote this one. I felt that I needed to sit on this until the worst of the fires had died down. It's a good article too.

Wilson Tuckey's opinion never really meant much to me, though thanks for pointing him out too.

Websinthe Says:
February 10th, 2009 at 9:30 am

Wow, the utter hatchet job she would make of the situation would make me so proud.

Plus Naomi Robson playing dress ups is that delicious kind of wrong.

George Hall Says:
February 10th, 2009 at 9:59 am

I'm not surprised some fundamentalists stuck the boots in. But I remind Catch The Fire ministries of the Golden Rule which also includes "Love your neighbor." And right now, our neighbors, friends and families need REAL expressions of that Golden Rule.

How many of that ministry were even out fighting fires or handling the aftermath? How many of them even tried helping provide updates and information via social media and other media to assist those requiring it during the four days of continued fire threat? How many actually donating either money or goods to assist the homeless and distraught in this situation?

Politics is never far behind false religion, either.

Less hypocrisy in this time, thanks, and more real help.

Websinthe Says:
February 10th, 2009 at 10:14 am

That's a good bunch of questions, a bunch that I will try to follow up after #btub tomorrow.

Jason Brown Says:
February 10th, 2009 at 10:29 am

> false religion

tautology is tautologous, redundant and says the same thing more than once.

Michael Meloni Says:
February 10th, 2009 at 10:37 am

I don't think Senator Conroy used the fires as a smoke screen for his press release. Today was an important cyber-safety event across the entire country and his department was yet to issue a press release. The day before is an appropriate and common time to do so and considering its contents were in no way insensitive to bushfire victims, I don't see a problem.

Content filtering – as well as the other initiatives – are often mentioned in all DBCDE cyber-safety PR. On this occasion it was mentioned only once and very briefly. The Government mentioning policy in a press release is not something we should throw our arms up about. Save that for when they don't include relevant information and when they try to hide it. That's when it's a problem.

Time can be better spent either fighting the clean feed or helping those affected by the bushfire. No one is doing anybody a favour kicking up a storm about this non-issue.