Don Aitkin,

Do you think the ABC has lost it's once esteemed integrity?

You would know the ABC can cry out loudly and lead the way toward honesty and national prosperity. But none of that is happening, is it?

I am aware there are good people at the ABC but they seem gagged by a regime.

Why is the ABC not leading the way with debate about newly productive development likely to stimulate business and employment and exports?

Why is it that prior to every election the rhetoric begins again about more money for schools, roads and hospitals - that should all have adequate money from all previous budgets.

Why is there no national debate about new productivity to offset employment and revenue lost, for example lost due to synthetic fibre causing collapse of the wool industry and living off the sheep's back?

I for one in a government Green Paper have touted a northern wet season water harvesting and aqueduct system to bring water into the Murray Darling catchment inland from Fraser Island, but the ABC is ignoring or gagging questions of feasibility and potential.
Why is that so?

Do you think the ABC is doing what it is supposed to be doing for Australia?

I knew Bob Raymond Snr who started Four Corners. Integrity at the ABC has certainly changed.

Surely at least one ABC news reporter would read OLO threads, including posts I have written, about AGW, IPCC and Kyoto associated science not measuring and assessing warmth properties of ocean algae plant matter.

Nobody on OLO has said algae is not killing coral and/or is not linked to change in climate, have they?
Yet dipping into Treasury for emissions research is continuing, while devastation by algae is ignored by the ABC.

New field research they say:
http://blogs.nasa.gov/earthexpeditions/2016/05/10/setting-a-course-for-the-worlds-largest-plankton-bloom/?linkId=24343979

Isn’t there need to reveal new information about opportunities to solve problems, such as nutrient overload pollution feeding algae that is devastating Great Barrier Reef coral and associated local and international tourism?

Is anybody saying there is no sewage nutrient-fed algae killing GBR coral and coastal seagrass nurseries?

I thank all commenters here, without feeling that I have anything more useful to say about the subject. So far at least, it is the most disappointing election contest that I can remember.

Don,
Your thanks are appreciated at least by me.

Perhaps with the lengthy run time, their campaigns could be livened up.
Major media and especially the ABC should be able to ask challenging questions and get answers.
How could any candidate publicly refuse to answer?

I for one would like to hear of a party prepared to look into development of newly productive projects capable of generating wealth from exports, such as from export of much more food from this food producing nation.

Media has the power to lead the way just by asking questions.

"it is the most disappointing election contest that I can remember."

I agree. I am extremely dissappointed. Liberals made a major mistake changing from Abbott to Turnbull.

Abbott's achievements (in just 2 years):

When Malcolm Turnbull goes to the polls this year he will campaign largely on the Abbott government’s achievements. There will be little else.
• Stopping the boats,

• scrapping the carbon and mining taxes, ¬

• accelerating budget repair,

• the signing of trade agreements with Japan, South Korea and China,

• removing support for the ailing car industry,

• refusing ¬financial support for (now profitable) Qantas,

• repealing red and green tape,

• the creation of innovation growth centres, and

• the commissioning of papers on

o tax reform,
o northern Australia and
o the federation

• The Royal Commission into Union (i.e. ALP) Corruption

are but some of the Abbott government’s successes.

The record is impressive and will surprise many voters.

Well a politician finally said it.

I've been saying for ages that if politicians make the rules for us then we should make the rules for them, and there is no such thing as democracy while they make their own rules.
I just read the following article.

'Politicians are the last people who should be determining what the rules for politicians are,' Mr Burke told the Nine Network.

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/politics/federal/2016/05/22/taxpayers-wear-costs-of-mps--canberra-digs.html

Did I just wake up in some weird alternate reality?
Did we just have a politician tell the truth?
What does it all mean? I'm confused.