The Sydney Morning Herald

2024 Australian IT Journalism Awards Winners Announced

Retrieved on: 
Monday, March 25, 2024
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Produced by media intelligence platform Influencing, the Awards recognise the most outstanding journalists and outlets covering technology in Australia each year.

Key Points: 
  • Produced by media intelligence platform Influencing, the Awards recognise the most outstanding journalists and outlets covering technology in Australia each year.
  • With 23 categories contested by 140 entrants, the awards were as closely fought as they have ever been.
  • "Our 2024 awards once again served their mission.
  • We would like to once again thank all our sponsors for their support; the community of media communications professionals who choose to join in support of the event each year, and of course all our entrants, finalists and winners at this year's Samsung Australian IT Journalism Awards.

Politics with Michelle Grattan: Liberal MP Bridget Archer urges other moderates to speak up as she presses for party change

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, June 1, 2023
Coalition, Human voice, Parliament, Heart, The Sydney Morning Herald, Liberal, Nationals, Bass, Liberal Party, Indigenous Voice to Parliament, Archery

Bridget Archer, the outspoken Liberal MP for Bass, is a vocal yes campaigner.

Key Points: 
  • Bridget Archer, the outspoken Liberal MP for Bass, is a vocal yes campaigner.
  • More generally, she is also taking a lead in urging the Liberal party to undertake root-and-branch reform.
  • Archer is pushing for extensive change in a party that is electorally on the ropes, out of office everywhere except her home state of Tasmania.
  • Since entering parliament in 2019, Archer has crossed the floor on 27 occasion to vote against her party.

While the Voice has a large poll lead now, history of past referendums indicates it may struggle

Retrieved on: 
Monday, May 1, 2023
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Analyst Kevin Bonham has plotted all the poll results, and the average Voice support is down from 65% in August 2022 to 57% now.

Key Points: 
  • Analyst Kevin Bonham has plotted all the poll results, and the average Voice support is down from 65% in August 2022 to 57% now.
  • Last week’s Morgan (a “yes” lead of just 54-46) was particularly concerning for Voice supporters, given the history of support for referendum proposals collapsing as the referendum draws near.

History of past referendums

    • Since then, only one of 25 referendums proposed by Labor governments have succeeded.
    • Conservative governments have had more success with six of 18 referendums proposed by non-Labor governments succeeding.
    • But midterm referendums are the focus, and can become like a byelection, at which governments usually do badly.
    • If the Voice is to defy the history of Labor-initiated referendums that were opposed by the Coalition, particularly at midterm referendums, the Albanese government will need to continue to poll at honeymoon levels until the referendum date.
    • Labor’s history-making win at the federal Aston byelection gives the Voice some chance of passing, but history suggests it will be a struggle.

UK local elections and the US debt limit

    • I wrote for The Poll Bludger last Thursday that UK local elections will be held this Thursday.
    • The US is headed for a crisis over the debt limit later this year.

Victorian Resolve poll: Labor still way ahead

    • A Victorian state Resolve poll for The Age, conducted with the federal March and April Resolve polls from a sample of 1,600, gave Labor 42% of the primary vote (up one since February), the Coalition 30% (steady), the Greens 10% (down three), independents 12% (down one) and others 5% (up one).
    • Resolve does not provide two party estimates until close to elections, but Labor is clearly still far ahead.
    • This poll was taken before the corruption watchdog’s report that criticised the Labor government.

Unpapering the cracks: sugar, slavery and the Sydney Morning Herald

Retrieved on: 
Monday, April 17, 2023
Colonial Sugar Refining Company, The Sydney Morning Herald, BHP, University of New South Wales Press, Man, Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, Industry, Comment, White Australia policy, Crook, UNSW, Friends, Racism, Politics, Policy, Ted Baillieu, Australian Financial Review, Woman, Tropical climate, Age, Jenna Price, Scott Trust Limited, CSR, Government, Ship, Australian Human Rights Commission, The, Fairfax Media, Thug, The Guardian, Island, Mining, Asbestos, Mortality, Federation, Growth, Symes, Family, Sea Islands, Television, Textile, Department store, Shipbuilding, Whaling, Airline, Guardian, List of islands in the Pacific Ocean, New South

In 1841, John Fairfax (1804-1877) became the first of five generations of Fairfax family owners of the Sydney Morning Herald, which had been founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald.

Key Points: 
  • In 1841, John Fairfax (1804-1877) became the first of five generations of Fairfax family owners of the Sydney Morning Herald, which had been founded in 1831 as the Sydney Herald.
  • CSR was founded in Sydney in 1855 by Edward Knox, but it descended from the Australasian Sugar Company, established in 1842.
  • Although the Sydney Morning Herald was normally a strong supporter of the White Australia Policy, the paper wanted it suspended in the case of the cane fields.
  • The Fairfaxes controlled the Sydney Morning Herald for 149 years, until 1990 when a misguided takeover action mounted by young Warwick Fairfax ended in financial disaster.
  • In 1935, the Sydney Morning Herald conceded that “blackbirding” – a practice it had implicitly supported in the 1890s and early 1900s – was actually a “type of slavery”.
  • Comment was sought from the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald for this article but no reply was provided at the time of writing.