I'm going to make two political comments about retro last night:


Mediahub sucks **** and goes to prove that ideologies that promote centralism in systems and privatising (ie. contracting out services to be more precise) in this case don't ******* make things better but worse.

Secondly I was choking on the irony of 'Priority One'. Those of us of a certain age will remember how much of a priority our generation were. We were such a priority that they slammed HECS on us and made us pay for higher education had been free since Whitlam was in power, making mayof our lives a perpetual misery for decades.

Sorry just needed to get that off my chest. The music was good though wasn't it!

In regard to the Priority One piece, I'm interested to know what happened - if anything.

As I said earlier, I doubt anything did really - today's generation of teens still face the same problems as those in 1985 - however I found it very interesting seeing that segment in any case from a historical social perspective.

I must admit I haven't encountered too many technical hitches this year - the Adelaide Summer has been fairly mild so no blackouts and the only annoying thing about Retro from a technical side has been the watermark - although once I've found myself getting into an episode it soon vanishes from my thoughts, so no big issues there either - although I'd rather see it gone of course, but what can one do except complain for the umpteenth time about it?

I agree totally with the first comment that Younger Gen Ys and Gen I's have many of the same problems as the Gen X's and older Gen Y's. Australia has become a very stratified and polarised country.

Media Watch almost had 30% of their weekly program devoted to media hub stuff ups. The problem is people being sucked in to the idea that centralised systems are more efficient... they aren't. However in this case the decision was just made and the public were just informed about it when it was done. The real problem is the apathy amongst the general public that allows conservative governments to stack important boards such as the ABC and the PBS. People only start to complain when its too late.

The sorts of problems evident at the start of retro last night and the ongoing aspect conversion issues evident in previous weeks are going to be a staple of all ABC programming as long as mediahub remains the filter for their broadcasting.

As I've said before, I'm sure we have the watermark on Rage now because it's too difficult for the monkey/machine at MediaHub to switch the on/off button at the right time.

Ha!

Closer to the truth than you might think. From what Media Watch were saying there's noone at local stations in a position to actually do anything about issues when they occur as its a centralised system.

Funny how efficiency drives always seem to involve laying people off/replacing them with machines... and then it has the oppostie effect creating inefficiency.

In the words of Leslie Nielson: 'I guess irony can be pretty ironic sometimes!'

Priority One was a political stunt instituted by the Hawke government in response to a newspaper article in the old Sydney Sun which stated that Hawke was extremely unpopular among young people (who had previously strongly supported him). The opinion polls in general had turned savagely against Hawke and Labor following the disastrous Dec 1984 early election which Labor almost lost. It was felt that something like Priority One would spearhead a revival which would put Hawke back into a winning position prior to the next election. As it turned out, the Libs and Nats self destructed in early to mid 1987 when the ridiculous Joh For PM campaign started. Priority One was ditched in late 1986 when a heavily promoted national phone-in aimed at young people ("Talk to Hawke") resulted in an overwhelming number of calls urging the government to stop Asian immigration. One legacy of Priority One was the introduction of the Youth Homeless Allowance, a new welfare payment I managed to block when I was at the Department of Finance in Canberra, but was brought in after I left the department the following year.

I enjoyed seeing my girl, Katie Ceberano on it!

Very interesting background info there John. I think that's why watching that 85 Countdown ep was so good -it showed a little of the social issues back then that I was hardly aware of at the time (I was an innocent 12 year old in those days)!

Overall it's interesting to note how from about late 1984 onwards, Molly tried to highlight some issues close to his thoughts. There was the Fasion special in Nov 84 highlighting youth fashion, and there was a 1986 ep allowing young creative types to story-board video clips.

1985 saw him in his element in this regard with Live Aid - many eps I've seen from this year mention it and sees him fully supporting this often.

He didn't do this all the time and I know there are examples from earlier years of this show with this, but it's just interesting seeing how Molly tried to make the show more 'socially aware' with youth issues in the latter period - while still making the show as entertaining as it always was - which wasn't a bad thing at all.

JOhn,

That's interesting information John. The Liberals as always were their own worst enemies in the late 80's (with the PEacock and Howard rivarlry etc). I can remember Hawke in his glee making fun of HOward's campaign title. I think it was 'revitification'! Hawke in his glee commented at the time that it sounded like something had done to your dog!

HECS IMO opinoin was a very unfair, regressive reform. Hawke later defended it arguing that heis government couldn't be held responsible for later changes but it set a precedent. This isn't the US and there aren't the same number of scholarships available and working class parents can't and often won't pay for a tertiary education and so, basically from about 1990, many start out life 40,000 to 100, 000 in debt which has all kinds of ong-term reprucussions. No one expects to have their postgraduate careers funded (I competed and won a scholarship) but in a country like ours, surely access to the opportunity to earn a basic undergraduate degree should be a right, particularly if you want a well trained/employable population?

Whether you agree or not, the implementation of HECS juxtaposed with the obvious mock concerns of 'priority one' claims of the ALP really disgusted me. It would be interesting to know when HECS was first being considered by the ALP?

Unfortunately, I started uni in the year that differential rates for HECS were implemented ('97). It meant that my degree cost me almost double what it would have if I'd enrolled a year earlier . Things would be even worse now, with deregulation of fees. Stupid, stupid and short-sighted policies of both Labor and Liberal

That must be hard - I haven't accumlated a HECS debt since the mid-90s. Ironically I don't have to pay for teh PhD I just completed at all! Gets worse and worse for our generation.

I was in Senior Secondary College when I particpated at a march against the implentation of HECS. Some of us seniors were invited because we were going the next year and it affected us. Of course it was so small, polite and peacful that I don't think it even made the local news - apathy once again!

It just seemed like a cynical way to try and use Countdown for political gain. Molly always seemed VERY genuine about youth issues, particularly drugs and unemployment. I don't doubt the pureness of his motives for a millisecond (or should that be a mollysecond!)