About

Glen - Breakfast Presenter:

Memories of the week:

The images of pedigree dogs in pain from the documentary on ABC1 - we spoke to the director/ producer who at least pointed out that some of the breeding practices for beauty rather than pet health were now being reconsidered.

The rare spectacle of a US President being heckled and called a liar while addressing a joint sitting of congress - hard to fathom the white hot rage and fear of a plan promising universal healthcare for all Americans. Could the fight be really about something more - a refusal to let a new President achieve a victory - especially one that involves an acceptance of a larger government role in people’s lives?

Groundhog Day, as local politics seems consumed with the same debate about whether to wind back stimulus spending - over and over again.

The unexpected storming of a Mexican airliner captured live on television and the subsequent explanation by the hijacker that he was on a mission from God - or so he thought. So rare to see something like that resolved so fast and so successfully.

The attempt at an around the world solo yacht voyage that went no further than a couple of hundred kilometres and saw the 16 year old sailor call her parents when she got into trouble. Phone home, indeed.

And the question: ‘why it is okay to whip a racehorse three times in the last 100 metres but not any more that” ? Jockeys take strike action, literally !

Just another week at the office where the news never stops.

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Marius - Politics:

The week ending Friday Sept 11 will go down as one of the less eventful for the political devotee.

A week of Parliament produced nothing more than directionless to-ing and fro-ing on economic management and a middle-range setback for the government on health insurance legislation.

And the week politically was all the more interesting for the lack of events. Instead of devoting attention to the daily ping pong of parliamentary exchange the week saw some longer range thinking about our public life.

That was initiated by the launch by the Prime Minister on Monday of Paul Kelly’s latest book, The March of Patriots. The PM put his view that Australian politics since the election of Bob Hawke in 1983 was basically an account of Labor driving reform and the Liberals trying to pour sugar into the fuel tank of progress.

Paul Kelly rejected the Rudd view of a sharp divide between the progressive reforms of Labor interrupted by the neo-Liberal brutalism of Howard. More continuity and shared territory in the Kelly view - and in fact in the view of any reasonably disinterested observer.

Labor and Liberal publicly, and particularly at election time - which is all the time these days - devote great energy to brand differentiation. And in giving their partisan views of history they engage in mythic self-enhancement.

A central Labor myth is that it leads Australia on the path of equity and egalitarianism. The reality is that the gap between rich and poor in the Hawke-Keating years widened.

A central myth for the Coalition is that they stand for small government and low taxes. The reality is that taxes as a share of GDP and the size of government did not decline in the Howard years.

These wider truths are worth bearing in mind, as we follow the flurry of blows our politicians try to land on each other each day.

And this week has been a good one for exploring wider truths.

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Mark - Breakfast EP:

The advent of digital radio has been an exciting time here at ABC Newsradio. It enables us to continue broadcasting our 24-hour rolling news format over the airwaves when Federal parliament is sitting.

You can find out all about the benefits of this new technology here: http://www.abc.net.au/radio/digital/

The Breakfast program got a terrific response a couple of weeks ago when we gave away 5 digital radios. We got more than 9000 entries.

If you missed out on winning one, check out the range of digital radios offered by the ABC Shop here: http://shop.abc.net.au/browse/promotion.asp?promoid=577

Speaking of digital radio, if you are listening to us on digital, drop us a line to let us know at: newsradio.audience@your.abc.net.au

We’re interested to see how many listeners have taken up this new technology, but also to find out if you’re having any problems with reception or audio quality.

This is important information to pass on to our technical boffins so they can tweak the signal in your area.

By the way we get plenty of comments, plaudits and brickbats every week via email and the feedback-form on our website: http://www.abc.net.au/newsradio/about/contact.htm

There’s also the mainstream media as well…..

Conservative commentator and prospective Liberal candidate (for Brendan Nelson’s seat of Bradfield) Tom Switzer recently described ABC Newsradio as a “national treasure” in The Spectator.

Independent Senator and media junkie Nick Xenophon told a recent profile in The Australian Magazine that he gets panicky if he’s in an area where he can’t pick up ABC Newsradio.

However, the reasons our listeners tell us they like Newsradio can be more….errrr… unusual.

Here are two recent emails we received:

Stephen:
My cats like to listen to Newsradio Breakfast. I try to give them some relevant content. For instance today, the Australian Dollar is buying 1.05 tins of ‘Fancy Feast’ and 220g of Roo meat. If you have any other feline relevant business news, Mr. Pink and Antoinette would love to hear from you.

Ash:
Just had to mention I’ve had a ridiculous $20, 7 month, 10 leg Multi Bet culminating in Andy Murray NOT to win the US Open (including Essendon to make the 8 and England to win the Ashes). The way Debbie delivered this morning’s result (30 seconds after my alarm went off) was magic…. Andy Murray is….. OUT of the US open (insert my leap out of bed and jumping for joy). It’s all in the delivery Debbie, gold.

Debbie Spillane will be back with Scott Wales to dissect all the weekend sport on Weekend Half Time on Sunday at 10am AEST.

And Fi Ellis-Jones wraps up events from Sudan to South Africa in “Out of Africa” at midday AEST on Sunday, after our radio rebroadcast of “Insiders”.

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Fiona Ellis Jones - “Out of Africa”:

This week we speak to Natalie Collin from Stepping Stones Nigeria, a non-profit group working to protect children who have been stigmatised as witches or wizards.

Her story might be familiar to many listeners.

In June, the ABC’s Four Corners program aired a Channel 4 Discovery documentary called ‘Saving Africa’s Witch Children’. The program caused quite a stir when it was shown in the UK and took out a BAFTA award for ‘Best Current Affairs’ documentary.

Natalie Collin tells how thousands of small children in Nigeria are starved, beaten and tortured, after being branded witches by so-called ‘pastors’. Many of these children are then taken into the Niger Delta’s deep forests and slaughtered. Some are just babies.

All too often in Africa, these cults take on revolutionary overtones. Take Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda. This elusive guerilla group is one of the most notorious and feared of all African cults. The self-proclaimed prophet is accused of ordering countless murders, mutilations and mass-rapes, in his bid to replace the Ugandan Constitution with the Ten Commandments. It’s believed tens of thousands of children have been abducted to become child soldiers or sex slaves over the past two decades.

And all this in the name of God.