Media Release – Estimates: Conroy Happy to call Australians pigs

CONROY HAPPY TO CALL AUSTRALIANS PIGS

In Senate Estimates today, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy refused to condemn the inappropriate, inaccurate and unfair depiction of everyday Australians and key industries on an ABC website.

“PlanetSlayer” is an ABC Science website aimed at school students. It purports to be an educational resource based on fact. However “PlanetSlayer” contains a number of concerning features including:

Professor Schpinkee’s Greenhouse Calculator – Website users are invited to answer questions on their greenhouse usage and are depicted as overweight “climate pigs.” At the click of a button, the pig then blows up in a cloud of blood and guts and the calculator tells the user at what age “you should die” before you consume “more than your fair share of Earth’s resources.”

The Adventures of Greena – A 12 part cartoon series which very unfavourably, inaccurately and unfairly portrays forestry workers as vandals, consumers of meat as heartless and greedy carnivores and GM crops as Frankenstein-esque. The cartoon also glorifies chaining oneself to a tree and throwing projectiles at people you don’t agree with.

Frequently Asked Questions – One FAQ is “What are the five most important things we can all do to reduce our greenhouse impact?” After listing five suggestions, the website goes on to say “There’ll be heaps of people out there who’ll disagree with this list, but they’d be wrong.”

This Is Your Lifestyle – An interactive quiz that promises to tell you “how much you suck.”

In Senate Estimates today under questioning from Senator Mitch Fifield, Senator Conroy repeatedly refused to say whether he thought this unfair and inaccurate portrayal of hard-working Australians and important industries was appropriate.

“Presumably by his refusal today to condemn the inappropriate content on this taxpayer-funded website, we can take that Senator Conroy thinks that it is OK for the ABC to be demonising loggers, meat-eaters, the nuclear industry and even struggling farmers in severe drought who are looking to GM crops to improve their yields,” Senator Fifield said.

“Senator Conroy also apparently thinks it is fine to portray average Australians as fat, slimy climate pigs.

“Worse still, this website is squarely aimed at kids and smacks of indoctrination not education.

“I also wonder about the accuracy of the facts on this website. For example, on the figures provided by the website, an individual can only spend approximately $1,800 per year before they cause more carbon emissions than would be ‘ecologically sustainable.’ Based on the figures provided, this would require every Australian to reduce their annual spending by just under 88%.

“I welcome ABC Managing Director Mark Scott’s undertaking today to take a closer look at this site. I will also be interested in his findings as to where the ABC has presented balanced portrayals of the industries that this website demonises.

“Unfortunately Senator Conroy is quite happy for the ABC to belittle everyday Australians and key industries, who are not only being unfairly demonised but are paying for the privilege.”