Subject
Re: LO film & Australian politics (fwd)
Date
Body
NABOKV-L thanks Paul Tudor for this item.
---------------------------------
From: ptudor@budfin.co.nz
A kindly Librarian from the Parliamentary Library in Canberra has just sent
me the following extract from their internal database. Searching the Sydney
Morning Herald, The Age and so on online should also bring up some
references:
------------------------------
LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION
TRANSCRIPT OF DOORSTOP, PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA,
10 MARCH 1999
E&OE - PROOF ONLY
Subjects: John Elliott, Liberal Party, film censorship, leadership
JOURNALIST:
Mr Beazley, is Labor being sidetracked by absolutely unimportant issues like
the republic and Aborigines?
BEAZLEY:
Look, you have to deal with those issues as they come by, there's no two
ways about that. I saw John Elliott's comments about what he believes to be
the boring nature of the Prime Minister. And then his comments on minorities
in the Australian community and all we saw from John Elliott there was
basically the reason why he has advanced no further in politics.
JOURNALIST:
Has he got it right in his assessment of the Prime Minister as being
slightly boring?
BEAZLEY:
He's got it completely wrong in his assessment of the Prime Minister when he
alleges he's pursuing the right policies for this country he is not. He is
not pursuing the right policy as far as taxation is concerned. He is not
defending the interests of ordinary mainstream Australians.
JOURNALIST:
Are Mr Elliott's feelings so far from those of many Coalition supporters and
those within the Government itself?
BEAZLEY:
I haven't a clue whether they are representative of the Government's views.
I certainly know that the Government, from time to time, likes to give those
issues a little tweak as it gets off the concerns of mainstream Australians.
We've had a Government this year inviting the Opposition to chase it down
every conceivable rat hole as it sought distraction from issues that are now
concerning mainstream Australians, in particular in relation to their
taxation policies. We have not been deterred from going after them in the
mainstream areas. Mr Elliott seems to be pleased with what their doing in
the areas of mainstream concern to Australians - we are not.
JOURNALIST:
He says that voters are stupid. Is the Government treating Australians as
stupid?
BEAZLEY:
The Government has put a considerable amount of effort into deceiving
Australians - a considerable amount of effort. And that has finally caused
Senator Harradine to come out to say, 'this is a Government you cannot
trust'. And that's beginning to manifest itself in his vote in the Senate.
JOURNALIST:
Is the Government pandering to Senator Harradine with its opposition to the
'R' rated film, Lolita?
BEAZLEY:
That film has been through all the appropriate processes associated with the
film board, as was pointed out by the Attorney-General, obviously, to the
Liberal Party Caucus the other day. I haven't seen the film. I don't know
what its content is. But it does seem to be the case that it's been examined
up hill and down dale. It's also been pointed out that if people have an
objection to it, they have an appeal mechanism. It's been around for a very
long time. I'm just passing suspicious as to why it emerges now in the light
of doings in the Senate at this point.
-----Original Message-----
From: Donald Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@humanitas.ucsb.edu]
Sent: Thursday, 18 March 1999 13:00
To: NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.ucsb.edu
Subject: LO film & Australian politics
EDITORIAL NOTE. Brian Boyd <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz> sends in the item
below. Could any susbcriber in Australia, fill in the picture?
---------------------------------------
Lolita is causing a ruckus in Australia, where the Howard government has a
precarious majority in the Senate, the balance of power being held by one
conservative independent, whose vote the government seems to be soliciting
by attacking the Lolita movie (and perhaps asking for a restriction greater
than R18).
---------------------------------
From: ptudor@budfin.co.nz
A kindly Librarian from the Parliamentary Library in Canberra has just sent
me the following extract from their internal database. Searching the Sydney
Morning Herald, The Age and so on online should also bring up some
references:
------------------------------
LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION
TRANSCRIPT OF DOORSTOP, PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA,
10 MARCH 1999
E&OE - PROOF ONLY
Subjects: John Elliott, Liberal Party, film censorship, leadership
JOURNALIST:
Mr Beazley, is Labor being sidetracked by absolutely unimportant issues like
the republic and Aborigines?
BEAZLEY:
Look, you have to deal with those issues as they come by, there's no two
ways about that. I saw John Elliott's comments about what he believes to be
the boring nature of the Prime Minister. And then his comments on minorities
in the Australian community and all we saw from John Elliott there was
basically the reason why he has advanced no further in politics.
JOURNALIST:
Has he got it right in his assessment of the Prime Minister as being
slightly boring?
BEAZLEY:
He's got it completely wrong in his assessment of the Prime Minister when he
alleges he's pursuing the right policies for this country he is not. He is
not pursuing the right policy as far as taxation is concerned. He is not
defending the interests of ordinary mainstream Australians.
JOURNALIST:
Are Mr Elliott's feelings so far from those of many Coalition supporters and
those within the Government itself?
BEAZLEY:
I haven't a clue whether they are representative of the Government's views.
I certainly know that the Government, from time to time, likes to give those
issues a little tweak as it gets off the concerns of mainstream Australians.
We've had a Government this year inviting the Opposition to chase it down
every conceivable rat hole as it sought distraction from issues that are now
concerning mainstream Australians, in particular in relation to their
taxation policies. We have not been deterred from going after them in the
mainstream areas. Mr Elliott seems to be pleased with what their doing in
the areas of mainstream concern to Australians - we are not.
JOURNALIST:
He says that voters are stupid. Is the Government treating Australians as
stupid?
BEAZLEY:
The Government has put a considerable amount of effort into deceiving
Australians - a considerable amount of effort. And that has finally caused
Senator Harradine to come out to say, 'this is a Government you cannot
trust'. And that's beginning to manifest itself in his vote in the Senate.
JOURNALIST:
Is the Government pandering to Senator Harradine with its opposition to the
'R' rated film, Lolita?
BEAZLEY:
That film has been through all the appropriate processes associated with the
film board, as was pointed out by the Attorney-General, obviously, to the
Liberal Party Caucus the other day. I haven't seen the film. I don't know
what its content is. But it does seem to be the case that it's been examined
up hill and down dale. It's also been pointed out that if people have an
objection to it, they have an appeal mechanism. It's been around for a very
long time. I'm just passing suspicious as to why it emerges now in the light
of doings in the Senate at this point.
-----Original Message-----
From: Donald Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@humanitas.ucsb.edu]
Sent: Thursday, 18 March 1999 13:00
To: NABOKV-L@UCSBVM.ucsb.edu
Subject: LO film & Australian politics
EDITORIAL NOTE. Brian Boyd <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz> sends in the item
below. Could any susbcriber in Australia, fill in the picture?
---------------------------------------
Lolita is causing a ruckus in Australia, where the Howard government has a
precarious majority in the Senate, the balance of power being held by one
conservative independent, whose vote the government seems to be soliciting
by attacking the Lolita movie (and perhaps asking for a restriction greater
than R18).