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Media Circus: News Hidden Under the Wrapping Paper Edition

By on • ( 5 )

It’s a bit early for a new media circus thread, but it’s also the time of year for the release of unpleasant news that the newsmakers hope will be buried by the holidays.

Here’s an example:

Brutal funding cuts no Christmas cheer for social services bodies

Rick Morton, The Australian
December 22, 2014

THE peak bodies for the disability, homelessness and community sectors were told which ones would lose funding just days before Christmas in an announcement from the Department of Social Services late this afternoon.

The budget-saving measure aims to haul back tens of millions of dollars by streamlining the number of representative bodies in the two sectors.

In the disability arena most condition-specific bodies like Blind Citizens Australia — which lost $190,000 — and two deaf groups, the Disability Advocacy Network Australia and Brain Injury Australia all had their funding revoked.

Full article

Do you spy anything else crawling out from the hidden corners of this week’s news coverage?

As usual for media circus threads, please share your bouquets and brickbats for particular items in the mass media, or highlight cogent analysis or pointed twitterstorms etc in new media. Discuss any current sociopolitical issue (the theme of each edition is merely for discussion-starter purposes – all current news items are on topic!).

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Categories: disability, media

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5 replies

  1. tigtog
    2014-12-23 • 3:12 PM

    Scott Morrison has already started slashing the community sector:

    Two days before Christmas we are supporting ASU members who have just been told they have lost their jobs.
    Two days ago Abbott said his new cabinet was about “families and jobs”.
    But the first act of Minister Scott Morrison in his new role is to destroy 2500 community sector jobs and cruelly target vulnerable families. Community workers across the country are finding out TODAY that they have lost their jobs as individual employers receive letters informing them they have had their funding slashed.
    The jobs that will be wiped out support tens of thousands of families who:
    – have a family member with a mental illness
    – have a child with a disability
    – are struggling to cope with a baby
    – are in financial crisis or extreme pressure
    – are homeless
    The soulless and heartless Scott Morrison has moved on from his extreme cruelty to refugee families to Australian families, both those who will lose their jobs 2 days before Christmas and those families who depended on these workers.

    (from a status update on Facebook)
    [ETA: press release from the Australian Services Union]

  2. Jo Tamar
    2014-12-25 • 3:29 PM

    NSW Labor seems to have hidden their leadership battle pretty effectively. On one view, they didn’t have a great deal of control over the timing but on another, if you’re going to do it, this is no bad time at all.

  3. eilish
    2014-12-26 • 11:22 AM

    Abbott and Co have moved early childhood education and childcare from the Education Dept back to Social Services.
    This is not good news.
    They’ve also released their report on funding 15 hours of kinder: it says they haven’t decided what to do beyond 2015.
    I’m hearing ominous booming sounds.

  4. Tamala
    2014-12-26 • 7:12 PM

    So it turns out that scrapping the carbon tax was a stupid idea. The liberals decided to release the info Christmastime for good reason:
    http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/new-data-shows-record-fall-in-carbon-emissions-20141223-12d1z3.html
    Looks bad if people start hearing “I told you so.” on the matter.

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