WHO WE ARE: A weekly column about Australia, by David Dale
Published in The Sun-Herald, 2/12/2007
At my primary school, a decade or three ago, we had to do this chant, with appropriate gestures, before the headmaster addressed the weekly assembly: "I love my Queen, I honour my God, and I salute the flag". On election night, a week ago, there was a fair bit of flag saluting, in the form of assertions about the greatness of our nation. But where was God and where was the Queen? And was their absence a sign that Australia has achieved political maturity?
Lets deal with the deity first. Both leaders were photographed going to church on Sunday, but in their speeches on Saturday, they gave God no credit or blame. This would have been unthinkable in the United States. If Kevin Rudd was a US politician, he'd have thanked the Lord for his success, while John Howard would have said the result was the Lord's will and he'd seek consolation through prayer. But they didn't, because we're not that kind of country. Our politicians can get by without divine intervention.
In last year's census, 70 per cent per cent of Australians nominated a religion (64 per cent a Christian variety). But only 19 per cent of Australians attend church at least once a month. And only 40 per cent of the people who get married do it in church.
Last year a Newspoll tested the attitudes of Australians to the separation of church and state. Asked if there is a law guaranteeing the separation of religion and government, 46 per cent said (correctly) that there is not, 20 per cent said there is such a law and 34 per cent didn't know. Asked if Australia "should introduce a new law to separate religion and government", 20 per cent said "don't know", 36 per cent said No and 45 per cent said Yes. So the politicians' judgement seems to match the people's.
The other external authority missing from all the election discussion was Elizabeth Windsor. We were told that on Sunday Kevin Rudd spoke to US President George Bush, British PM Gordon Brown, and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Last time I looked, Australia's head of state was the English monarch, and the protocol after an election was for the leader of the winning party to seek the head of state's commission to form a government. Last week, the Queen seems to have been ignored.
The British press got hysterical about the possibility that Rudd might push for a republic, and last Monday the London Daily Telegraph published an editorial begging him to think again. It said that in 1999, "the monarchist Mr Howard wrong-footed his republican adversaries by calling a referendum on the constitution, and, by presenting Australians with a formula he knew they would reject, effectively buried the issue for a decade ... It is not for us to interfere; but we can hope that Mr Rudd's ear remains finely tuned, and he realises now is not the time to try to force a republic."
Rudd has reassured the Brits by declaring that another referendum is not a priority in his first term. Has he correctly judged that Australians have lost interest?
In January this year Newspoll asked "Are you in favour of or against Australia becoming a Republic?", and got 45 per cent in favour and 36 per cent against, with 19 per cent uncommitted. When the question changed to "If Prince Charles does become King, would you then be in favour or against Australia becoming a Republic?", support for a Republic rose to 51 per cent.
That must be what Kevin Rudd is waiting for. Roll on King Charles and the day when Australia can become a grownup.
Are we right to free ourselves from God and Queen?
more- Posted by David Dale in The tribal mind at 4:01 AM
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The ratings race: Heroes hardly there
To discuss the most watched programs of 2007, go to Tribal Mind special.
To consider whether Australians are losing interest in gossip and scandal, go to Who We Are.
David Dale's media report, updated 10 am Saturday
Here's what Australia watched on Friday ...
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS Seven 1,362,000 458,000 365,000 234,000 126,000 180,000
2 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,211,000 359,000 322,000 208,000 140,000 182,000
3 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,199,000 350,000 276,000 234,000 131,000 207,000
4 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,131,000 321,000 268,000 204,000 134,000 203,000
5 M-THE SANTA CLAUSE Seven 1,079,000 271,000 351,000 203,000 125,000 130,000
6 THE BRIEF ABC 1,056,000 302,000 325,000 166,000 127,000 136,000
7 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 991,000 310,000 330,000 166,000 92,000 93,000
8 NINE NEWS Nine 955,000 292,000 293,000 192,000 100,000 78,000
9 TEMPTATION Nine 883,000 268,000 285,000 161,000 87,000 82,000
10 ABC NEWS ABC 863,000 253,000 256,000 152,000 86,000 117,000
11 AIRLINE Nine 846,000 265,000 267,000 139,000 88,000 86,000
12 ROSE AND MALONEY ABC 818,000 231,000 253,000 107,000 115,000 111,000
What Australia watched, Thursday
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 MISSING PERSONS UNIT Nine 1,447,000 397,000 487,000 238,000 159,000 165,000
2 SEVEN NEWS Seven 1,226,000 337,000 315,000 230,000 140,000 203,000
3 HOME AND AWAY Seven 1,224,000 332,000 334,000 229,000 132,000 197,000
4 TODAY TONIGHT Seven 1,186,000 306,000 333,000 211,000 129,000 207,000
5 ABC NEWS ABC 1,149,000 312,000 360,000 246,000 100,000 131,000
6 GHOST WHISPERER Seven 1,119,000 295,000 310,000 248,000 115,000 151,000
7 THE GIFT Nine 1,107,000 308,000 390,000 144,000 138,000 128,000
8 GETAWAY Nine 1,100,000 280,000 362,000 224,000 106,000 127,000
9 A CURRENT AFFAIR Nine 1,069,000 290,000 344,000 227,000 111,000 96,000
10 NINE NEWS Nine 1,063,000 278,000 359,000 216,000 119,000 92,000
12 BIONIC WOMAN Seven 961,000 234,000 317,000 190,000 106,000 114,000
14 RPA WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Nine 939,000 267,000 332,000 120,000 115,000 104,000
15 HEROES Seven 884,000 212,000 347,000 127,000 94,000 105,000
17 ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 5TH GRADER? THURS Ten 808,000 192,000 268,000 152,000 94,000 103,000
(OzTAM preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)
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Tribal Mind special: What Australia watched in the "official" 2007 ratings
by David Dale
The strike by America's TV scriptwriters could not have come at a better time for Australia, because this was the year we proved we didn't need them.
Every one of our ten most watched series this year was locally made -- a healthy mix of drama, comedy, documentary and talent quests. That was a turnaround on three years ago, when US drama dominated the schedule and the only successful local contributions were lifestyle and reality shows.
The "official ratings year" ends on Saturday night. As expected, Channel Seven won the year, averaging 29.0 per cent of the prime time audience (up from 27.8 per cent last year) while Nine fell from 29.1 per cent to 26.9 per cent.
Seven ate Nine in every part of the day (Sunrise remains 200,000 viewers ahead of Today, and Seven's news remains 150,000 viewers ahead of Nine's). Nine's only triumphs were with rugby league and cricket.
But the real winner of 2007 was the ABC, which used The Chaser team, Summer Heights High and Spicks and Specks to tempt viewers in the 18-49 age group away from the commercial networks. The ABC's share rose from 15.4 per cent last year to 16.6 this year.
The ABC also contributed to Seven's success by handing over a show it nurtured - Kath and Kim, which became the most watched series of the year.
Locally scripted dramas such as Curtin, Bastard Boys and Rain Shadow did only moderate business for The ABC, which got bigger audiences with the British police procedurals Midsomer Murders and New Tricks. But Seven and Nine filled the gap with City Homicide, Sea Patrol, All Saints, and Home and Away.
Australia's renewed interest in its own stories has so impressed Channel Nine's renewed boss, David Gyngell, that he is gambling on Australian dramas to refloat the network's boat next year. After putting McLeod's Daughters out of its misery, he has commissioned two crime series, Underbelly and The Strip; a medical romance, The Young Doctors; a medical-criminal mix called Canal Road; and a new season of Sea Patrol.
Channel Ten's audience share dropped to 21.9 per cent from last year's 22.3, although it remains the most watched network with the 16-39 age group. Its "tentpole" programs - Big Brother and Australian Idol - suffered serious slippage and it had disasters with Celebrity Dog School, Teen Fit Camp (cursed by its original name Teen Fat Camp) and an expensive game show called The Con Test.
Ten's best results came from the improvisational comedy Thank God You're Here, the US medical drama House and the AFL.
SBS withstood a viewer backlash against its increased use of commercials and retained its audience share of 5.5 per cent. But its most watched shows were the same as last year -- Mythbusters, Top Gear and the Austrian police series about an Alsation Inspector Rex.
SBS's local dramas RAN (Remote Area Nurse) and The Circuit could not attract more than 400,000 viewers, but earned critical acclaim and helped Australian writers survive long enough to take advantage of next year's boom.
Pay TV boosted its audience by 15 per cent on last year (and by 98 per cent on 2001). But its subscribers make limited use of it: 48 of Pay's 50 most watched programs were sporting events (mostly rugby league matches) while the remaining two were Michael Parkinson's interview with Shane Warne and the Disney movie High School Musical 2.
More than five million people have access to Pay channels but the most successful series, Australia's Next Top Model, averaged only 250,000 viewers - a figure that would be embarrassing even for SBS.
What from this years television deserves to survive till next year?
more- Posted by David Dale in The tribal mind at 12:08 AM
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WHO WE ARE: Arrivederci paparazzi
A weekly column about Australia, by David Dale, published in The Sun-Herald, 25/11/2007
Does it sound snobbish to say I'm cheered by the revelation that Australians are losing interest in their weekly gossip magazines? Would it be fair to conclude that this indicates an improvement in national taste?
The downward sales trend, shown in figures released last week by the Audit Bureau of Circulations, is startling. Overall, the five mags that specialise in paparazzi pics and celebrity speculations seem to have lost 141,000 regular buyers between September 2006 and September 2007. Woman's Day dropped 10 per cent (to 470,000 copies a week), New Idea dropped 10 per cent (to 388,500), Who Weekly dropped 6 per cent (to 144,000), NW dropped 12 per cent (to 177,000) and Famous dropped 16 per cent (to 76,000).
How far we've fallen from gossip's golden age (1992), when an issue of Woman's Day featuring photos of Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, having her toes sucked by her balding lover sold 1.4 million copies in one week. There was a dramatic sales slump towards the end of the 90s, when some readers apparently felt the gossip weeklies had played a role in the death of Diana Spencer, and avoided them. But by the middle of the Noughties the weeklies were doing healthy business again - until now.
This year's slump is tightly focussed on five magazines. It is not part of a general decline in reading of mass market publications. Over the same period, sales of newspapers have been steady, which means that the biggest selling regular publications in the land are still The Sunday Telegraph (668, 500), The Sunday Herald-Sun, Melbourne (622,500), The Sunday Mail, Brisbane (595,000), The Herald-Sun, Melbourne (530,000), and The Sun-Herald (500,000).
What are Australians reading at the moment instead of tales about stars who are splitting up, having babies, having affairs, gaining weight, losing weight, and doing drugs? Literature, it seems, thought not of the Jane Austen and Charles Dickens variety.
Here's a sampling of Australia's best selling books so far this year, according to ACNielsen's BookScan: 1 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J. K. Rowling; 2 The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne; 3 Guinness World Records 2008; 4 Double Cross, by James Patterson; 5 The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards; 6 The Dangerous Book For Boys, by Con and Hal Iggulden; 7 Bones to Ashes, by Kathy Reichs; 8 Exit Music, by Ian Rankin; 9 The Six Sacred Stones, Matthew Reilly; 10 CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet Book 2, by Dr Manny Noakes & Peter Clifton; 11 High School Musical 2: Book of the Film; 12 4 Ingredients, by Kim McCosker & Rachael Bermingham; 13 A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini; 14 Those Faraday Girls, by Monica McInerney; 15 Jamie at Home, by Jamie Oliver.
So around the 10th anniversary of Diana Spencer's death, the readers of Australia may be in the process of swapping their decades-old passion for scandal and rumour with a fascination for magic, self-development, mighty achievements, suspense, adventure, dancing, comedy and healthy eating.
Or maybe the celebrity gossip just hasn't been that hot lately.
What's your theory on the scandal sales slump?
more- Posted by David Dale in The tribal mind at 12:20 AM
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The Tribal Mind: A year of neophilia
by David Dale
The silly season is only a week away, so we'd better get cracking on the task of identifying the trends in television this year. They are ...
1. The shortening of the national attention span Australians got into the habit of leaping upon new shows, trying them for a couple of weeks, then zipping off in search of fresh thrills. Ugly Betty opened with two million viewers and ended her season with 1.2 million. Heroes fell from 2 million to 900,000; Bionic Woman from 1.5 million to 900,000; Californication from 1 million to 700,000.
The attitude Australia has developed -- "We want it all and we want it now and something different tomorrow'' -- will be a nightmare for the networks next year, and for all politicians in future elections.
2. The boom in local drama and comedy. The triumphs were Kath and Kim, Thank God You're Here, Summer Heights High, Sea Patrol and City Homicide -- all better than most US imports. And let's not forget the solid work of All Saints, which held 1.3 million viewers even when it didn't have Dancing With The Stars as lead in, and Home and Away, which averaged half a million more viewers than its rival Neighbours without needing a makeover.
The networks will use this renaissance to argue that there's no need for regulations enforcing minimum local content, because "we'd be making Australian drama anyway''. But have they given us any reason to trust them in the past?
3. The collapse of Nine. We knew it would be bad, but not how bad -- prime time audience down 18 per cent on 2003. The viewers got their revenge for years of arrogant and unreliable scheduling. The network bosses joined the Rolling Stones in singing "When nothing I do don't seem to work, it only seems to make matters worse''.
At breakfast, Lisa Wilkinson's fixed smile didn't help Today catch Sunrise. At lunchtime, The Catchup started with 240,000 viewers and ended with 120,000. Late night, Mick Molloy's The Nation started with 700,000 and ended with 400,000. And please don't mention Viva Laughlin, the first misstep of High Jackman. At the end of the worst year in its history, Nine is left with a rump of geriatric viewers and disappointed advertisers.
4. The trends that weren't. The year began with three lavish new game shows -- 1 vs 100, The Rich List, and The Con Test -- and ended with poor old Eddie back doing Millionaire to half its original audience, and National Bingo Night on its last legs eleven.
And there was no place for nostalgia -- What A Year lasted just two episodes. Australians only wanted to look to the future.
Man of the year: Shane Bourne, reliable bass player for two roaring successes.
Woman of the year: Prize shared between Patti Newton and Julia Zemiro, who both proved they didn't need Bert.
Tell us the trends you spotted this year ...
- Posted by David Dale in The tribal mind at 9:33 AM
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The TV shows Australia loved
This contains charts of the most watched programs of the 20th and 21st centuries, prepared by David Dale and based on data from OzTAM and ACNielsen. Last updated November 26, 2007. For the latest media trends, go to www.smh.com.au/tribalmind.
To discuss why TV is a dying medium, click here
Chart 1. The top shows since 2001
Based on OzTAM's audience estimates for the mainland capitals. Series figures are for the most watched episode of the year.
1 Tennis: Aus Open final - Hewitt v Safin 2005 (7) 4.04 million
2 Rugby World Cup final 2003 (7) 4.01 million
3 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony 2006 (9) 3.56m
4 AFL Grand Final 2005 (10) 3.39m
5 Australian Idol Final Verdict 2004 (10) 3.35m
6 Australian Idol final 2003 (10) 3.30 m
7 AFL Grand Final 2006 (10) 3.15m
8 The Block auction 2003 (9) 3.11 m
9 September 11 reportage, September 12, 2001 (9, 7, ABC) 3.10 m
10 Tennis: Wimbledon day 14 2001 (9) 3.04 m
11 AFL grand final 2003 (10) 2.96 m
12 Big Brother winner announced 2004 (10) 2.86m
13 Australian Idol Live from Opera House 2004 (10) 2.86 m
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The films Australia loved
List of the 125 highest-grossing movies of all time, and list of the 65 movies seen by the greatest number of Australians, prepared by David Dale from data provided by the Motion Picture Distributors Association of Australia. Last updated November 18, 2007.
To discuss what else Australians do when they go out, go to WHO WE ARE. For the latest media trends, go to www.smh.com.au/tribalmind.
The Australian box office
1. Titanic (1997) $58 million
2. Shrek 2 (2004) $50m
3. The Return of the King (2003) $49m
4. Crocodile Dundee (1986) $48m
5. Fellowship of the Ring (2001) $47m
6. The Two Towers (2002) $46m
7. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) $42m
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The music Australia loved
Lists of top selling albums and most successful performers, prepared by David Dale. Last updated November 21, 2007. To discuss what Australians do when they go out, go to WHO WE ARE. To discuss what should be our national song, go to Head full of zombie.
The top selling albums of the past ten years
1 Come On Over (Shania Twain)
2 Jagged Little Pill (Alanis Morissette)
3 Innocent Eyes (Delta Goodrem)
4 Savage Garden (Savage Garden)
5 Falling Into You (Celine Dion)
6 Abba Gold (Abba)
7 Immaculate Collection (Madonna)
8 Recurring Dream (Crowded House)
9 Come Away With Me (Norah Jones)
10 Forgiven Not Forgotten (The Corrs)
11 Yourself or Someone Like You (Matchbox 20)
12 Forrest Gump (Soundtrack)
13 The Very Best of (The Eagles)
14 1 (The Beatles)
15 Affirmation (Savage Garden)
16 The Eminem Show (Eminem)
- Posted by David Dale in The tribal mind at 1:10 AM
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THE BOX OFFICE: Armada here
To see a new short episode of Doctor Who, go to A time paradox the size of Belgium.
Updated 6pm Thursday November 22
We love our Cate and our Geoffrey and our Abbbie -- but only up to a point. The spectacular but tedious Elizabeth: The Golden Age was Australia's most popular movie last week, selling $1.9 million worth of tickets. That's hardly in the blockbuster class, but wondrous if you consider it an art movie.
It certainly beat the somewhat less Oscar-likely Fred Claus, which made $1.2 million. But it's unlikely to top the ultimate total earned by Death At A Funeral, which remains at number three after six weeks, with $9.7m.
The great Australian horror flick, Rogue (pictured), dropped 40 per cent in takings in its second week, and currently totals a mere $1.4 million. Who knew we hated crocs so much? Mind you, we're equally dubious about angels -- the Aussie fantasy Gabriel made just $656,000 in its first week.
We don't seem to be so down on vampires -- the Melissa George bloodfest, 30 Days of Night has made $1.7 million over its two weeks.
more- Posted by SMH Online in The tribal mind at 6:38 PM
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The Tribal Mind: Nine is the loneliest number
To discuss the death of The Tall Poppy Syndrome, go to Who We Are
by David Dale
Let us examine two high achievers. Leader A is perceived by the audience as old, tired, backward-looking, arrogant, lurching from one embarrassment to another -- once unstoppable but now unsaveable. Leader B is perceived by the audience as fresh, energetic, inventive, and ready for the future.
Leader A may still be capable of great things, and Leader B may be more style than substance, coasting on good luck and good spin. But that doesn't matter. Perception is everything. The images are carved in stone. Leader A can do no right. Leader B can do no wrong.
I'm talking, of course, about Channel Nine and Channel Seven. Did you think I meant something else?
Well, the parallels are uncanny. Back in May, this column suggested that the relative positions of Nine and Seven in the prime time ratings would be a better way to predict the election result than any opinion poll. Australia's edgy taste in entertainment this year is evidence of a change in public mood since the early Noughties, when viewers preferred shows about cooking, gardening and home renovating.
This column wrote: "Australia's current preference for Channel Seven, which offers novelty, over Channel Nine, which offers 'we know what's best for you', suggests that the nation is in 'sit-forward' mode. If an election were held now, we'd vote for surprise and risk rather than predictability and comfort.
"You can expect the prime minister to hold off the election date till as late as possible this year. He'll be watching the ratings, tracking the rise of Nine and the decline of Seven, waiting for clear evidence that we have settled back onto the sofa of life. Then he'll pounce."
So where do the stations stand now? Nine did try to pull a few rabbits out of its hat as the year proceeded, but its bunnies died within weeks. Seven is currently averaging 37 per cent of the prime time commercial audience, Nine is averaging 34 per cent and Ten has 29 per cent. Translated into "two party preferred" terms, as the opinion pollsters like to do, that would put Rudd just over 52 per cent and Howard just below 48 per cent. The result will be close.
Next week you'll be able to compare that prediction with the reality. You may glean a further sense of the national mood from these details ...
Peak non-sporting moments on free to air TV this year: 1 Kath and Kim (7) 2.5 million; 2 Election debate (9, ABC) 2.3m; 3 The Chaser's War on Everything (ABC) 2.2m; 4 Dancing With The Stars (7) 2.2m; 5 Heroes (7) 2.1m; 6 Ugly Betty (7) 2.0 m; 7 Today Tonight Mercedes Corby allegations (7) 2.0m; 8 The Biggest Loser final (10) 2.0m.
Peak non-sporting moments on Pay TV: 1 High School Musical 2 (Disney) 314,000; 2 Australia's Next Top Model, the winner (Fox8) 283,000; 3 Inside The Actors Studio The Simpsons Fox 8 274,000; 4 Movie: The King (TV1) 251,000; 4 Law and Order SVU (TV1) 225,000; 5 Crime Investigation Australia -- Wanda Beach murders and Beaumont Children (Crime) 200,000; 6 Movie: Failure to Launch (Showtime) 156,000; 7 Movie: Ice Age 2 (Showtime) 155,000; 8 Movie: The Da Vinci Code (151,000).
Feel free to discuss, below, what all this implies about the nation's decision on Saturday,
- Posted by David Dale in The tribal mind at 10:36 AM
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WHO WE ARE: A national of idealists after all
A weekly column about Australia, by David Dale, published in The Sun-Herald, 18/11/2007
Another of the foundations of our national self-image is crumbling: the tall poppy syndrome. Australians like to think of themselves as a cynical bunch, viewing politicians and authority figures as crooks, liars, hypocrites or lazy bastards. The attitude is a remnant of the convict days, we say proudly, when we knew the people pushing us around were no better than we were, so we'd take any opportunity to cut them down to size.
But a survey of 3902 adults just published by the Centre for Social Research at the Australian National University suggests we may not be not so tough-minded after all. Compared with other western nations, we're actually rather idealistic, even enthusiastic about the people who organise our lives.
Last week we reported that the survey, published in a book called Australian Social Attitudes 2: Citizenship, Work and Aspirations (UNSW Press) showed surprising support for trade unions and for taxation (click here to read that), while 61 per cent agreed with the statement "The government doesn't care what people like me think" and 62 per cent said "Political parties do not give voters real policy choices".
But this doesn't mean we are more cynical about political institutions than other countries. An even higher percentage of the population think the government doesn't care in Poland, Japan, Germany, Belgium, the Czech Republic, and Hungary.
Shown the statement "Most of the time we can trust people in government to do what is right", only 40 per cent of Australians agree. But in Japan, only 9 per cent agree. In Germany, it's 10 per cent, in France 22 per cent, in Britain 29 per cent and in the United States 31 percent. The only nations that trust their governments more than we do are Denmark, Finland and Switzerland.
Asked how widespread is corruption in the public service, 80 per cent of Poles, 63 per cent of Israelis, 42 per cent of Japanese, 30 per cent of Americans, and 16 per cent of Australians answered "A lot of people" or "Almost everyone".
Asked about their fellow citizens, 58 per cent of Australians say other people can "almost always" or "usually" be trusted, while that is said by only 15 per cent of Chileans, 26 per cent of Japanese, and 46 per cent of Britons and Americans.
The researchers conclude that when our attitudes are "examined in a cross-national perspective, Australians' assessments of democracy appear rather optimistic. Compared to other rich democracies, Australia experiences high levels of trust in government, a public very approving of how well democracy is working, high levels of personal (internal) efficiency, and very low levels of perceived political corruption. Australians also place more value on obeying laws, honesty in tax payments, and voting than citizens of most other nations examined here ... while Australians can be negative about politics, they remain among the most trusting citizens, both interpersonally and politically, of the world's democracies."
Hardly the land of the tall poppy syndrome. Better save the title for Japan, Germany or France. The convicts are optimists after all.
more- Posted by David Dale in The tribal mind at 4:37 PM
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The DVDs Australia loved
List of most most purchased DVDs prepared by David Dale, using data from GFK Marketing, last updated October 11, 2007. To discuss what Australians do when they go out, go to wankers, geeks and dust-sniffers.
Top selling DVDs of all time
1. Finding Nemo (2004)
2 The Two Towers (2003)
3 Shrek 2 (2004)
4 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2003)
5 Monsters Inc (2002)
6 Fellowship of the Ring (2002)
7 Return of the King (2004)
8 Pirates of the Caribbean (2004)
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The ratings race: Week 46
To discuss whether beetroot is essential in Australian hamburgers, go to Retreats
The daily media report by David Dale, updated 10am Sunday
Channel Seven won the week, averaging 28.8 per cent of the prime time audience, with Nine on 26.7, Ten on 22.1, ABC on 17.2 and SBS on 5.1.
What Australia watched on Saturday ...
Description Total Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Adelaide Perth
1 NEW TRICKS ABC 1,291,000 335,000 396,000 230,000 160,000 170,000
2 ABC NEWS-SAT ABC 1,136,000 324,000 333,000 197,000 146,000 135,000
3 SEVEN NEWS - SAT Seven 1,100,000 275,000 305,000 226,000 97,000 196,000
4 NINE NEWS SATURDAY Nine 1,077,000 299,000 366,000 204,000 130,000 78,000
5 JUDGE JOHN DEED Seven 896,000 247,000 250,000 190,000 112,000 98,000
6 M-HERBIE: FULLY LOADED Seven 857,000 248,000 235,000 199,000 73,000 102,000
7 AUSTRALIA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEO SHOW Nine 831,000 251,000 254,000 153,000 73,000 100,000
8 THE BILL ABC 790,000 213,000 260,000 143,000 70,000 104,000
9 STAR WARS: EPISODE IV - A NEW HOPE RPT Ten 774,000 233,000 195,000 138,000 83,000 125,000
10 SECOND TEST - AUSTRALIA V SRI LANKA Nine 759,000 215,000 258,000 116,000 89,000 81,000
11 2007 FEDERAL ELECTION ANNOUNCEMENT: ALP ABC 751,000 185,000 256,000 124,000 83,000 102,000
12 TEN NEWS AT FIVE SAT Ten 646,000 135,000 166,000 128,000 96,000 121,000
13 THE WIZARD OF OZ -RPT Nine 636,000 217,000 221,000 88,000 53,000 57,000
(OzTAm preliminary estimates, mainland capitals)
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Ten Years On: Constitutional crisis looms
November 16, 2017: The President, John Howard, said yesterday he would not hesitate to use his powers of dismissal if the Prime Minister could not resolve the dispute that caused the Opposition to block key bills in the Senate.
The Opposition Leader, Malcolm Turnbull, has told Liberal senators to follow a policy of "total obstruction'' until the Prime Minister, Peter Garrett, abandons his plan to build a nuclear reactor in every state capital. Mr Turnbull is supported by four of the eight Greens senators, three of the six Holy Family senators, and the Democrat Senator Natasha Stott-Despoja.
Mr Howard delivered his threat during a ceremony in Canberra to mark Australia's return to 20 million people under the "depopulate or perish'' program. Mr Howard congratulated the Government on its anti-immigration and anti-fertility measures, which put Australia on track to reach the so-called "Flannery line" of 18 million by 2026.
Then Mr Howard departed from his prepared speech to add: "When Peter Garrett reached across the party divide to nominate me as the first president of the republic, he called it an act of national reconciliation. I told him at the time that this would not prevent me from doing my duty to the nation, and that includes ensuring the Parliament can function.''
Mr Howard's remarks were immediately condemned by the Victorian Premier, Peter Costello, and the NSW Premier, Pru Goward. Both are supporters of Mr Garrett's program to cut Australia's dependence on coal-fired power stations. "That little toad kept me waiting so long I had to move back to Melbourne and join the Labor Party to get career advancement,'' Mr Costello said. "Now he's threatening the first green Labor government in this country's history. He should respect the Garrett mandate."
Mr Garrett accused Mr Turnbull of wanting to continue Australia's greenhouse emissions so global warming would give his Woollahra home a water frontage.
STOP PRESS: the College of Cardinals in Rome has elected an Australian as the new Pope. He is the former politician Tony Abbott, who returned to the priesthood in 2008 after the Liberal Party failed to choose him as leader.
He will take the name Pope Abbott I, "in recognition of the way a humble Abbott can rise, through hard work and determination, to the top job in the world's most powerful religious corporation.''
Pope Abbott said his first priority was to "ramp up'' what he called "the war of ideas with Islam''. "Christianity needs to be packaged more dynamically, and I believe I have the diplomatic skills to do that," he said.
Footnote: Just like Doctor Who, Stay in Touch likes to change itself every so often. Next Monday you can look forward to an exciting new column, with a new editor, Emily Dunn.
To mark the transition, we've reprinted, above, a prophecy made by the column on the first day of its current incarnation (when David Dale became editor). Its portrait of Australia's political system in the next decade is, of course, totally absurd.
more- Posted by David Dale in The tribal mind at 7:28 AM
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