Why don't we hear anything about Australia in the news?

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silent.fire

i think kiezk is right to a degree.
I'm australian.
and yeh we do have lots of news.
and its important to us.
but it's probably not important to you.

Our government has an absolute majority and they can do whatever they want. even tho the majority of people voted for the other side. So theres not alot anyone can do about the law.
it's not like theres ever many fights in parliment, because the right wing own it. the left wing could (and do) stand and shout about how injust everything is and how stupid the right wing is (wich they are). but it doesn't make any difference because the right wing just pass it anyway.

So we have had many many many new laws passed recently without much fuss in parliment.

but there is fuss around the water cooler.

If you want news from australia i'll give you a little wrap up.

No one wants to be in the war. but everyones behind the troops.

A new law was just passed meaning anyone can be sacked without reason. Lots of people are being sacked.
the same law has essentially abolished the minimum wage.
So alot of people are getting paid less.

We have accepted some refugees from west papua. Indonesia got annoyed. So howard, allthough not publicly apologising, is stepping back.

We have lots of refugees in mandatory detention, some of wich have been there for up to 7 years. latest figures show 95% end up being innocent, but they still spend a year on average in a prison in the desert. even women and children.
They sew their lips together, strike and riot frequently. complaining of abuse and poor living conditions.
but the majority of australians are apparently very racist. so no one seems to care.

Everything is being privatised.
the prisons, the hospitals, the roads, the schools. the public transport system. the telecommunications system.

doesn't seem unusual to americans i'm sure
but It all used to be state run here.

and the quality of all of these things is slipping.

we have had a few semi major disaters recently. floods and storms. theres another one about to hit far north queensland.
most people seem to blame global warming.

we have a big hole in the ozone layer (especially above canberra) here. so everyone is getting sunburnt quicker.
apparently the winds are blowing the pollution fro mthe northern hemisphere down here and to antarctica.

The race riots were bad. lots of people got very hurt. but no one died. TV polls show most people supported the riots. (thats our racist streak showing)

petrol prices keep going up, just like in america. its at about $1.35AU($2.70) for a litre. wich is pretty bad. everyone knows its going to get worse tho.

our immigration laws keep getting tougher. but everyone seems to support it. cept me.

we are still chopping down our rain forrests even tho 95% are gone allready.

scientists are a bit worried about the great barrier reef.
apparently its not looking so healthy at the moment.

The cops are "getting tough on crime" new york city style.
allthough where i am (in canberra) marijuana is semi legal and porn and prostitution are legal.

There is a general consensus that we are slowly turning into america.
and as we privitise everything and crack down on anti social behaviour and put cameras up everywhere, crime is getting worse.

Stabbings and shootings on the tele every night. gang warfare. racial warfare. gang rapes and ram raids. minority communities with guns and fast cars.

If your only here briefly it all looks pretty good.
but its getting worse very quickly.

the race riots were just the begining. there have been many predictions of worse to come.

We also have ALOT of sport news.
if the tele is to be believed, Australia is good at just about every sport we put our mind to. Sports news seems to be fully half of any news broadcast.

and of course we have the stories about dogs stuck in drains and a little girl with two hearts fighting for her life.

It seems to be very similar to americas news.
Given that fox is owned by an australian guy. its not very surprising.

kiezkahse

First of all, and simply put, it's because Australia has only 1/15th of the population of the USA. All things being equal, this makes for 1/15th of the quantity of journalists. So that, flat out, is part of it.

Secondly, they are a friendly, peaceable, stable government with no major nuclear program. And their PM has been described as duller than the most devoted funeral home director. Really, we don't get news out of Switzerland or Poland, so it should be no surprise that there's nothing particularly globe-shattering going on in Australia. They're not bickering about borders with Pakistan or pursuing their own (noticibly communist or quasi-facist) goals with Iran and they're certainly not about to bomb the snot out of anybody in particular. They're kind of like Canada or Costa Rica, just ~5-16 time zones away (depending on which way you go).

Third, they've learned to look at other folks and laugh. I went on a journalism tour in 1999 (January) and the front page of The Age was all about President Clinton and his intern. When we got to JJJ (government-sponsored radio), we asked them about how government funding was working out and how they reported on their government, to which they replied (roughly) "Well, we don't actually do that much. Most people figure that they're all corrupt and nasty, but so long as they're doing a good job of governing it's not worth fussing over." So they report on the USA's public foolishiness instead of digging up some of their own. (Note that this seems to work. On a flight over in 2004, one of the headlines was that a politician -- Howard, I think -- was already cheating on one of his campaign promises regarding logging in Tasmania which had been, and the article said this, clearly made as a bid to secure votes from environmentalists and the like, such that it was coming as merely a disappointment and not actually a shocking relevation that he was going back on his campaign promises; the only surprising thing was how quickly he was doing it.)

Fourth and finally, people aren't used to news from Australia so they don't look for it, much less pursue the flukey anomalies when they do turn up. Really, they kept a running tally of holiday traffic fatalities as a news item -- more people died in Iraq today than over their continent-wide traffic check. They talked about how great it was that everybody was so well behaved and the police were so on-deck for New Year's in Sydney. They talked about campaign promises being broken and a guy who died at a swimming hole after drinking a few beers. Oh, and they were finally getting around to deporting somebody. Other than that, their news was saturated with Tsunami coverage and their national response to it (which was rather more expediant and appropriate than our own).

mx3baby

That's just to show how we're so disconnected from them...

bukroot

coz we r so perfect, we never do anything stupid to attract attantion.
lol

Gold_Nugget

Guess you are American then?

Its 'cos the US news centres around US events... and Iraq.

The coverage of Australian and other International News, is much higher in Europe than the US.

tommywho1

we like to keep it a secret.

Chook

There are a few reasons for this.

1. You are probably watching news like CNN, BBC, FOX etc who concentrate on their own countries and overseas stories such as war or events that have a large and direct impact on their own countries, or simply something that is sensational.

2. Australia is not in the middle of a civil war, government overthrow, too much corruption and we don't have bird flu. What else is there to show on the news?

There are some great websites for you to have a look at what is happening in Australia on the news. You might surprise yourself how refreshing it is to read about other things!

bmwdriver11

I guess you dont watch much news with very worldwide coverage. I love Australia and New Zealand, so I always pay particular attention when I see them on the news. There were the couple of hurricanes that hit northern Australia recently. And some your riots in Sydney against Muslums a few months back. Those are the biggest things Ive seen as of late.

Xenagurl

That really depends on where you're from and which news channels you watch. If you're really interested use the International Version on CNN and instead of logging into U.S. Yahoo, go to Yahoo Australia/New Zealand.

girlygirl

Presume you are from the USA - but as an Australian I can tell you that we don't usually have any ground-shaking events going on that need reporting around the world. We don't share a border with anyone and so there are no border disputes - no country could ever launch a successful invasion/occupation so we feel safe. We are a rich, multicultural democracy with peaceful elections and only occasional natural disasters to spoil the serenity.
Ahh, the serenity...

pieisgoodilikeit

I think we don't because we aren't fighting in a war with them. It seems like the only other country featured in the news besides the U.S. is Iraq

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