AFN vol 44 No 4 Oct-Dec04 - Australian Fabian Society

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PAGE 4 Continued from page 1 Tanner rightly believes communications ministers should not direct an independent ABC in its programming, but the policy strongly suggests the properly funded digital channel be “dedicated to children and youth programming and suggests preschool programming in the morning, educational programming during the day, tweenies programming in the afternoon and youth programming at night”. Labor wants the ABC to use the additional funding to produce more Australian content in preference to the over-reliance on British imports. After the main ABC-TV network goes digital, Labor envisages it specialising in adult programming alongside the youth/ children channel. Having a youth network enables the ABC to appeal to this demographic without necessarily alienating older viewers who have different tastes. Many Australians – especially those with kids or the young at heart – will enjoy having the choice of flicking between the two ABC channels. Should Labor be elected, the funding boost might also be used to explore new ways of involving audiences in programming attuned to the interactive qualities of digital technology. ALP Arts spokeswoman Kate Lundy has announced a $10 million grant to the Australian Film Commission for an “interactive digital content strategy”. Surely ABC New Media would be well placed to participate in this strategy with its new channel? Rather than the old ‘industrial silo’ mentality of Australian TV, the new digital channel FREE THINKERS could be the medium by which the diverse creative energy in the community, from suburban garages to inner city garrets, can be siphoned into the mainstream public conversation. I don’t mean a Wayne’s World of amateurism, but genuine democratic talent-scouting, a 21st century version of the approach of F.J. Archibald’s Bulletin of the 1890s, that scoured the bush and the back lanes looking for poets and artists and discovered the likes of Henry Lawson, Banjo Patterson and Norman Lindsay. The best Australian culture erupts when media enfranchise a passionate community and become clearing houses for new ideas and styles, as happened with the early Bulletin, ’70s new wave theatre and cinema, Nation Review, Double J and even Countdown. The signs for audience participation in the new digital channel are hopeful given that it will be run by New Media & Digital Services, the experimental mob who pioneered ABC Online, one of the nation’s best web sites in the second half of the ‘90s. Exploiting interactivity may liberate the new channel from the tyranny of commercial ratings, providing a new way of measuring audience appreciation sensitive to deep niches rather than lowest common denominator massed ‘bums on seats’ of 20th century broadcasting. On this type of scale, a cult show like Double the Fist, that scores a huge number of site hits from fans offering program ideas, is a winner. The new channel could start its audience participation project with a serious drive in schools, to consult children about what they would like to see, and invite classes to use the new Humanist Society The Humanist Society of Victoria is actively concerned with contemporary questions of ethics and values of modern society. We organise public lectures and social activities, prepare submissions, and offer counselling and support to our members. We publish a monthly newsletter and a quarterly national magazine. Enquiries welcome. Tel 03 9857 9717 HSV GPO Box 1555, Melbourne VIC 3001 Australian Fabian News October–December 2004 channel as a teaching aid – just as they did with Behind the News and the old school radio beloved by older generations. The Argonaughts could sail again, only this time by fibre optics and a set-top box. The ABC’s failed budget bid to the Howard Government estimated it would take $35 million to run two quality digital channels. A Latham Government funding boost will enable robust production of Australian content for the new channel. Let’s hope the online team break rules and take creative risks, as happened with The Jays in radio back in the ‘70s. But iconoclasm should be tempered by genuine consultation and cooperation with TV program makers both within and outside the ABC (including the Fly pioneers), and with storytellers from beyond the industry working in cinema, theatre, fine art, literature, music and even computer games. In time, I see the ABC’s new digital stations as hubs through which a diversity of creative communities impact on Australia’s mainstream culture. The digital station also enables the ABC to reinvigorate valuable traditions beloved by older Australians that deserve new audiences. Rather than just repeating recent popular shows from free-to-air, the ABC should think of the opportunities for encore screenings of its Australian classics like vintage programs that young people would enjoy, for example, comedies such as The D Generation, Norman Gunston and Das Kapital and classic but rarely seen Australian films from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s like The Man from Hong Kong, The Last Wave, Summer City or Goin’ Down. Packaged and presented with the panache of ABC Kids and Fly, the new channel could give the tired American repeats of Foxtel real competition from some Australian retro. That’s the way for ABC management to move forward into the digital possibilities being offered by Labor – as a hothouse and clearinghouse for new Australian talent, while keeping alive our finest traditions. Tony Moore is commissioning editor of Pluto Press. He was a program maker at ABC-TV from 1988 to 1997 and a member of the ABC National Advisory Council in the mid 1980s. www.fabian.org.au
Australian Fabian News October–December 2004 What to do about casual work – an alternative approach by Richard Curtain FREE THINKERS PAGE 5 The casual work debate has heated up. Do the claims made for the precarious position of casual employees stand up? Are there alternatives to the awardbased changes proposed by the Australian Labor Party? The debate about casual work has witnessed some grand overstatements about the nature and extent of temporary work. The trouble is that the industrial relations definition of ‘casual work’ includes a wide spectrum of different types of work arrangements. These vary from the short term and precarious working arrangements for some to long term, ongoing work for others. Little or no information is provided by the critics of casualisation about the extent of the numbers in precarious work. One measure of perceived job insecurity suggests that it is much lower than widely claimed. The Australian Bureau of Statistics asks people what they expect in 12 months’ time in relation to their job or business. Only 10 per cent of all employed people in November 2003 did not expect to be with the same employer or in the same business in 12 months. However, when asked the reason, only less than 2 per cent of all employed people said this was likely to be due to factors beyond their control. Barbara Pocock, in a recent piece for On Line Opinion, ‘Only a casual? But isn’t casual work highly desirable?’ exemplifies this misuse of statistics. Barbara reports on her qualitative study of 55 people. These people are said to be employed as casuals but there is no indication of how this employment status was defined other than subjectively. The sample was not a representative one, indeed most in the sample self-selected to participate in the study. Nevertheless, generalisations are made from the study about the extent of negativity that casual workers have towards their work. A qualitative study may be valuable for exploratory purposes but it cannot be used to generalise to the population as a whole. An alternative approach What are the alternatives to the ALP’s policy to permit those employed as casuals to ask their employer to move to ‘permanent’ status? The starting point for good policy is first to identify the principles to underpin a proposed policy option. Underlying principles to consider In seeking to re-regulate casual work, three sets of stakeholders’ needs require consideration. The intervention proposed needs to encompass as much as possible the needs of these three main groups of stakeholders. The first refers to the needs of individuals in terms of access to work, their choice about whether to accept a particular job or not and working conditions they are prepared to accept. The second set of needs refer to the employers offering the jobs. These refer to their requirements for flexible deployment to enable the business to remain competitive. The third set of needs refer to those of particular groups such as young people and married women who have suffered past discrimination in the labour market. A more nuanced policy approach offers forms of social protection to individuals that do not rely on particular employers. This approach involves first identifying those who are the most vulnerable in the labour market. It then involves working out different ways that government can assist individuals to manage risk based on a good understanding of their vulnerabilities. Regulation may be part of this policy solution but it needs to be highly specific to the situation it is addressing. Broad-brush award changes are not likely to do this. Social protection for individuals in the labour market The Netherlands offers one approach to labour market regulation based on the twin principles of flexibility and security. The policy has been dubbed www.fabian.org.au ‘flexicurity’ and is suggested as a new approach to labour market reform. The ‘flexicurity’ policy is a product of strong state intervention to promote job growth, undertake welfare reform, while retaining industry and company level collective bargaining. The Dutch model of ‘flexicurity’ regulation The Netherlands has the largest percentage of agency workers in the labour force in the European Union. Temporary work agency collective agreements have been widespread since 1999. The so called ‘flexicurity’ legislation, through collectively bargained agreements, guarantees temporary agency workers more secure employment, better pay and social security entitlements as their duration of employment in this type of work increases. Continued overleaf
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AFN vol 44 No 4 Oct-Dec04 - Australian Fabian Society

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