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Byron Shire
March 27, 2024

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Hans Lovejoy, editor

Society really doesn’t do science well. Being outraged is an easier achievement.

And while it’s easy to damn Telstra for how it has treated Mullum residents concerned with 5G so far, from Telstra’s perspective, this was just a small risk management exercise. Large corporations and governments share similar values (including profit before people) and generally you can’t tell the difference between the two because their staff step through revolving doors.

Both entities will assess financial impacts against negative public sentiment, and it’s fair to say that Telstra’s decision was made some time ago in the case of 5G in Mullum.

After all, ignoring the community but claiming that feedback was considered is enshrined in legislation.

Local Labor MP Justine Elliot has presumably weighed up a similar risk assessment too. Backing loathsome corporate behaviour is a small risk here, as disenchanted and outraged hard left-leaning voters will vote Greens anyway. The Greens generally pass on their preferences to Labor. It’s a win win!

Even local councillors couldn’t get a majority vote to put the pressure on – an urgency motion by Cr Sarah Ndiaye was only supported by fellow Greens mayor Simon Richardson and Cr Michael Lyon. Cr Jeanette Martin was absent. Because it was unsuccessful, the motion does not appear in Council’s minutes, and public information of this relies entirely on those being in the chamber on the day.

Yay for this quasi-democracy!

Anyway, Dr Lindy Edwards is a senior lecturer in politics at the University of NSW. In her new book, Corporate Power in Australia: Do the 1% Rule? she undertakes case studies of how a few big companies shape laws.

It’s much the same in every so called democracy across the virus infected globe.

After taking a closer peek at Woolworths, Coles, News Corp, Telstra and the big four banks, she suggests that a few large companies exert excessive influence over parliament and increasingly scrape out the wealth from their supply chains.

She writes on www.michaelwest.com.au, ‘Economic power has become much more concentrated over the last 30 years. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) reports that the ASX top 100 companies’ share of GDP has increased from 27 per cent in 1993 to 47 per cent in 2015.’

‘At the same time, economic power has become more concentrated, it has also been mobilised politically like never before. Business lobbying was fragmented, haphazard and unprofessional in the 1980s, but now it is a recognised career with an estimated 5,000 professional lobbyists in Canberra. In each of these case studies, the corporations were battling with government over laws which shape where profits sit in the supply chain’.

So in this case, Telstra won the battle to have a law that enables appealing corporate behaviour for its benefit. It’s all part of the hollowing out of trust in democracy for selfish gains, which is underpinned by fears that if you don’t control a market, another large psychopathic entity will.


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7 COMMENTS

  1. “Ignoring the community . . . . “?
    Puhleeze!
    Any numbers to back up that statement?
    Anything at all?
    Based on the fact the majority of the elected Council are obviously not opposed to 5G, nor is the local Federal Member (in a far from safe seat for her), possibly a statement along the lines of “a vocal minority of anti-(insert cause of choice here) fail to succeed in pressuring elected majority in their latest cause du jour.

    Why does The Echo seem to be expressing an increasingly one-eyed view for a rag-tag of causes?
    By all means provide an outlet for minority opinion, but surely it is the job of any reputable media to provide balance. Failing to do so, in the long term only damages the reputation and standing of the (in this case) publication. This applies equally to major national media as to local media. Just look at the standing of the likes of News Ltd and Sky, which have fallen to be regarded as little more than the domain of right wing nut jobs.

    Balanced reporting would assist, not hinder publications such as The Echo.

  2. Unfortunately this 5G debate is polarizing the community like I have never seen in my 20 plus years in the area. Seems there is an increasingly conservative populace in our bastion of idealism. Old values are giving way to the media dominated mainstream views. Speaking of media self censorship, did anyone see Kristine Keneally blast Morrison and Dutton over the Ruby Princess debacle? Probably not because it was buried quick smart. PS. Got to be appalling. not apalling. Hard to get it 100% right.

  3. I attended this site to survey for an aerial platform, which will be used to gain access for the upgrade. I noticed after speaking with several of the ‘protestors’ that they are ill inforned regarding RF and EME emitted from these antennas, but to cap it all off, there were numerous protestors filming their protest on their smart phones and uploading it to YouTube/Facebook etc, is it just me or is that a pretty ridiculous scenario?
    Anyway, without doubt this installation will go ahead despite ‘locals’ protests, if Telstra were to bow to ‘local’ pressure, it will set a precedent for other sites.

  4. Ho & hum. If it’s ‘speed’ the world wants & more
    professional lobbyists… ah… 5,000 in Canberra
    then… goodness gracious me. The human race
    is turning itself inside-out – for what? Democracy
    has skinned its knees. We’re surrounded by all
    sorts of dullards & it’s a sick, sad ‘n sorry state
    of affairs. We are getting dumber every day. We
    do need to take a closer look at what we’ve
    become. Time to ‘grow up’ all over again.

  5. In this corrupt world, Money wields absolute power , and “absolute power corrupts absolutely”. I have noticed that all discussion on youtube, facebook, and in “mainsteam” “news”, has been seriously censored to exclude any scientific, philosophical, or in any other way logical discussion or questioning, regarding the connections between the recent “5G” rollouts and the so called “covid 19 pandemic”.
    If the power lords are so certain of their truths then why are they so afraid of independent and widespread analysis?
    What happened to democracy and freedom of speech?
    Italy’s and America’s main cities began to be choked by the 5G rollout during the second half of 2019, Chicago and Minneapolis
    in April 2019 and 5G launched in “parts of” New York City on September 26th 2019.
    In Wuhan since 2019, there are already over 10,000 installed 5G antennas .
    In these most 5G-electro-polluted cities, the “covid19” death tolls have been immense in comparison to other areas. The cruise ships too, boast high speed 5G internet.
    Much scientific evidence has been accumulated over 40 years or so, showing that various kinds of electropolution , including “5G” wavelengths, can adversely affect your biology, including your immunity, and we are taught that viruses can and do mutate for all kinds of reasons.
    And why are the telcos in such a rush to get us all 5G’d anyway, despite growing and worldwide opposition?
    My bet is that the power lords already know there is a second far fiercer and deadlier wave of the covids coming, as they continue to drown the rest of the world in their 5G filth soup.
    Thats called “killing two birds with one stone”: first they profiteer from our innocent ignorant compliance, then they inherit the earth as their genocidal depopulation agenda takes hold. And if you think a vaccine will save you, then you might want to look into what motivates little Willy Gates, and who indeed are the WHO and why are they dictating to governments and media?

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