Australia ~ Photographers Self-Censor

"Stop Or I Won't Shoot!"
Photograph © Linsey Gosper

Australia is a long way off. But here at the other side of the earth we can learn lessons from the Australians. A couple of years back I posted a number of times about the effort there to censor an exhibition by Bill Henson. The fruits of that effort now seem to have ripened. Here are remarks from this essay photographer Linsey Gosper published in The Sydney Morning Herald:

"Censorship prevails, not only through policy, the media and institutions, but more significantly from artists themselves.

From my personal experience as a photographic artist, and from conversing with many diverse Australian photographers, the most common change in the creation of art now is self-censorship."

This is a forthright statement. It will no doubt displease not only the censors but the photographers who are assiduously avoiding them. And the latter will surely condemn Gosper.

I must say I am unsurprised by this analysis. We have seen self-censorship and much less forthright discussions of it elsewhere and for the same reason. So, my question for Ms. Gosper is "what is to be done?" Having written the essay, is there a venue for challenging the oppressive atmosphere in practice?

Gillard stays on

After a tightly fought election which led to a stalemate, and long drawn out negotiations, Julia Gillard from the Australian Labor Party formed a minority government today, retaining her post as Prime Minister. She has won the backing of 2 independent MPs, but her position will clearly remain precarious throughout the 3 year term, particularly as she only became PM after ousting her predecessor Kevin Rudd in a party coup. Here is more coverage from the Sydney Morning Herald, here is information about how the electoral system works, and here is an excellent blog from Nick Bryant's, the BBC's Sydney correspondent.

Ferocious Aussies

Nick Bryant, the BBC's Australia correspondent, has written an excellent piece summing up the political events of the last few months which led to the resignation of Prime Minster Kevin Rudd and his replacement by Julia Gillard. Australian politics is unlikely to be on the A-Level syllabus anytime soon, but he makes an interesting comparison between the ferocious behaviour of Australian politicians and events in the UK and the US. "By design and through necessity," he writes, " Barack Obama, David Cameron and Nick Clegg are fashioning a new politics that is more ecumenical, less clannish and genuinely bipartisan. Australian politics is in danger of looking like a throwback."

PS: The brief appearance of this sign by a Tea Party group, comparing President Obama to Lenin and Hitler suggests not everyone has yet signed up to these ideas of "new politics"...

Australia's New PM

In a rapid turn of events, Kevin Rudd, Labor Prime Minister of Australia since 2007, resigned last night when it became clear that he would not win a leadership ballot. He has been replaced by Julia Gillard, Australia's first ever female Prime Minister. She had previously been the Deputy Prime Minister and was unopposed when the ballot went ahead. Until recently Rudd had been very popular but ran into trouble over a planned super tax on mining and his decision to drop an emissions trading scheme, which led to him being branded as "gutless" by rival politicians. Here is the Sydney Morning Herald's perspective, including the judgement that Australia has "wasted a perfectly good PM".

Australian History

Regular readers of the blog may have noticed the world map at the bottom of the page. We have had visitors from across Europe, Asia and America but so far none from Australia. If you have friends or relatives from Australia please encourage them to take a look! As an incentive, here is an interesting site that takes a comprehensive look at Australian history, from the arrival of the first aborigines through to the election of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister. Australia and the UK share many common values as a legacy of an imperial past, but Australia's landscape, climate, immigration and location have contributed to its unique cultural identity. Important references within its heritage would include of course the arrival of Captain Cook and the first fleet (and its subsequent impact on the native Australian population), the settlement and federation of the country, the impact of war (particularly the involvement of the ANZACs in Gallipoli in World War 1, but also Ausralia's involvement in the Korean and Vietnam Wars) and perhaps more recently the success of the Sydney Olympics.

If you think there are other important moments in Australian history or politics that should be noted, please let us know.

PS: TheNational Library of Australia has a useful set of links here to other interesting websistes.