Call out spin
Regarding 'Trump hits capital and pledges unity’ (The Standard, January 21). Your Washington-sourced lengthy article reads like a public relations release from a Trump press secretary. We're told that Trump “pledged to unify a nation sorely divided and clamouring for change” and has not forgotten his “unwavering supporters”. Trump is quoted “it's a movement like we've never seen before anywhere in the world” and Vice President-Elect Pence is quoted “we can't wait to work for the American people to make it great again”. All this combined with references to fireworks exploding or filling the sky, Trump saluting an Air Force officer, and Trump and Pence standing to attention at Arlington cemetery with Trump's wife, children and grandchildren silently looking on. I detected not one scintilla of critical journalism in the article. Simply a rehashing of slogans from a man fact-checked by American media monitors as a grand serial-liar. A man who has roundly trashed the non-sensationalist, carefully considered opinions of responsible media outlets of America and displayed a monumentally divisive and bullying rhetoric of racism, sexism and an endless 'us and them'. I wasn't aware that America was a nation clamouring for change - Trump had an historically low election vote, lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton and in USA polls is shown to be a deeply unpopular choice as president. And is there something newsworthy about a president-elect who has mastered the skills of saluting and standing to attention? Were his family members supposed to be hooting and hollering instead of 'silently looking on'? Why publish such a totally uncritical article? The Standard is a member of the Fairfax media stable that in its other publications constantly provides a critical journalism - essential to an informed citizenry and electorate. Democracy does not thrive on public relations spin and unchallenged utterances from politicians or anyone else in the public domain. More than ever, in a world increasingly polluted with fake news - which Trump could provide a masterclass in, we need journalism that calls out spin and untruths. Otherwise demagoguery, fear and hateful opinions are unconstrained to prey upon the land and its people.
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Ben J Witham, Warrnambool
No free ride for businesses
My parents and broader family have always lived in regional Victoria and almost all of them have been in business for themselves. I grew up seeing that hard work and a little healthy competition was what made you succeed. More importantly, it also provided customers with the best possible outcome.
This is why I am concerned about the ACCC’s review into regulated mobile roaming in the Australian market.
I can understand on the surface, the idea of regulated roaming looks good. People tell me it will provide regional communities with better priced services, increased coverage and choice. However when you work through the details you can see who really wins and who loses.
On price we charge the same prices across the country, so regional customers have benefited from price reductions and data growth that is being driven by metro competition. You pay the same amount in Warrnambool and surrounding areas as others do in Toorak.
Regulated mobile roaming will not increase coverage in regional area by one square kilometre. The fact is, the costs of supplying regional coverage are not recovered from regional customers. Set up costs for a tower in a remote area could be as high as $1million, with tens of thousands each year for maintenance.
Telstra has invested billions of dollars over two decades to create a 3G network that reaches 99.3% of the population, and a 4G network that reaches 98% today (expanding to 99% by June 2017). I know that we still have much to do to provide even better mobile coverage and performance across regional Victoria and we have commitments to continue to do this.
One of the many things I am very proud of is that Investment in our mobile network is heavily skewed towards regional Australia. Over the last 10 years, 15 per cent of our investment in the mobile access network has gone to provide services to the most remote two per cent of the population. This means we can continue to see world class technology put into places where it is most needed, and helps drive innovation and connection in regional communities.
In remote and regional parts of Victoria, the message we hear loud and clear is that coverage is the most important issue.
Allowing our competitors to use the Telstra network in areas where we have invested to provide coverage (and they have not) would remove the competitive advantage that continuing high levels of investment deliver for our company.
My parents and the family worked hard to keep ahead of the rest and I would think that they would have found it extraordinary that anyone would even consider rewarding others for their lack of innovation and commitment to their customers or even investing in their own business.
There was no such thing as a free ride for them, and I know that the vast majority of hard working Victorians understand this and believe that no one should get a free ride, and if they want to compete well just have a crack and put their money where their mouth is.
Steve Tinker, Telstra Area General Manager for Western Victoria.
Wattle Day is our day
Australia Day, 26 January, is attracting the usual criticism that it is a day that divides rather than unites. It happens every year - unsurprisingly as January 26 marks both the arrival of the First Fleet and the day Aboriginal sovereignty was lost. Given these realities, it is a problematic day on which to base national unity. The Federal Government doesn’t like criticism of Australia Day. Assistant Immigration Minister, Alex Hawke, recently banned the city of Fremantle from changing the day for its citizenship ceremony to January 28, because it would give an anti-Australia Day message. But there is another Australia Day that unites us all. It is called National Wattle Day, September 1. It is already an officially gazetted national day. It has none of the baggage and insensitivity of January 26. It is a day that unites us all, under the banner of our national floral emblem, the golden wattle. Increasingly Australians are seeking a way to solve what has become the conundrum of Australia Day. If as a community we are serious about recognising Aboriginal occupation of the land prior to colonisation, it follows logically that we need to find an alternative to celebrating the day that ruptured their tenure in that land. National Wattle Day celebrates the land itself and the society and nation it sustains – all its people. The simple beauty of the golden wattle, a flower that has evolved in our land for more than 30 million years, unites us all in authentically celebrating Australia and being Australian. So let’s end the on-going angst and think of the two days as complementing each other. Let’s embark on a journey over a period of five years or so, where we celebrate each day and see how those celebrations evolve, as we look to create a nation fully reconciled with our Aboriginal peoples, the original custodians of the land. We will likely find that the wattle will lead us to a great solution, just as the wattle has been the unifying symbol of Australia to which we have so often turned in the past.
Terry Fewtrell, President of the Wattle Day Association
