Members of Bega Valley Climate Action Mobilisation, CAM have compiled
Questions and Answers from Eden Monaro Candidates for 4th July 2020 by-election
The group then rated their answers and made these two graphics.
Answers in full are here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iZnybCefxosISQeOuSerY-jHedoc9_O6RE1_Nc9qVFg/edit?usp=sharing The candidates are being grilled on their views across the board Current research shows 87% of Eden Monaro voters want a permanent, global ban on the wildlife trade and 68% want to know the candidate’s position on this.
World Animal Protection has contacted all nominated candidates, calling for them to publicly declare their position, and their supporters in the region are also being mobilised to write to their local candidates. Also of concern are the cuts to ABC The extent of the latest ABC cuts revealed have outraged people across the country, especially those in Eden-Monaro and regional centres who depend upon the public broadcaster .
“Please don’t criticise the ABC for cutting key news bulletins. Be angry with successive
governments cutting $783 million between 2015 and 2023,” said Cathy Griff, Greens candidate for Eden-Monaro when asked her views.
“Six years of downsizing has resulted in the loss of more than 1,000 jobs. The loss of human talent leaves little choice to rely more on digital production. You cannot just glue the creation together again. Yet this is a publicly funded, publicly owned organisation relied on for emergency information, factual news, entertainment and challenging conversations.”
We need to ensure the long-term viability of the ABC, our voice for unbiased news reporting for millions of Australians. The Greens would return ABC funding by closing loopholes that allow one in three major corporations to pay scant tax and cease tax breaks to the wealthy.
Regional podcast producer Alice Ansara made Voices from the Embers as a tribute to the crucial ABC role during Black Summer. “As someone who lived through the atrocious bushfire season of last summer and for whom ABC radio meant life-saving, sanity restoring information, connection and sense - I am devastated by these further cuts to our essential broadcasting service. What this
Government is doing to the ABC is beyond the pale. We will fight for this organisation tooth and nail because the ABC was there for us when our lives depended on them - now we will be there for them!”
“When we lost ABC Local radio…it felt like being on a little boat, on a sea in the dark and you had one anchor rope and then it just disappeared and it was terrifying to lose that connection,” said Gilliane Tedders, a voice from the embers in Eurobodalla.
"Every Australian media identity you can think of has appeared at some point with the ABC. It offers a career-enhancing, training experience from which many have expanded to national and international arenas.
“The predicament of regional artists is exacerbated by the progressive de-funding of the ABC,” stressed Cathy. “The public broadcaster has been vital in distributing, promoting and giving expression to extraordinary talent. The cuts will inevitably erode the already limited local programming and content.”
Writing to Cathy Griff this week, public broadcaster advocate Quentin Dempster said “the ABC is being cruelly defunded at a time when its work during the bushfire and Covid 19 national emergencies has demonstrated its great value to lives of all Australians. Its education and children’s programs, as well as news, current affairs, drama, comedy, sports, arts, music, Back Roads and gardening programs are worth every penny in terms of our shared experience and national cohesion. The ABC is vital to our future as a functional, problem-solving democracy.”
“In my decade managing policy at Screen Australia, ABC was at the core of quality Australian content. The ABC reflects who we are as Australians; to see our story telling diminished by years of funding cuts is to chip away at our fundamental identity. It is the voice of the people; a national treasure,” Cathy told The Beagle.
