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About Shane

 

Shane Picture By way of background, I was born in Tasmania in 1959 (you do the maths) and grew up in the northwest coastal town of Ulverstone. After completing high school I did an apprenticeship in Fitting and Machining at the now demolished Tioxide Australia.
In 1980 I married my sweetheart, the child bride, and we embarked on an entertainment industry odyssey that took us up and down the east coast of Australia.
Our three sons were born in Sydney and I swapped from being a drummer in a band (quick aside – How does the band tell when the stage is level? The drummer is drooling out of both sides of his mouth!) to become more involved in the production of concerts and shows.
In 1982 I moved from the stage into the production arena where I spent the next 20 years working and touring all over Australia and internationally. I was fortunate to work with some of the best technical producers in the world on events that filled stadiums and concert halls to small back street pubs and clubs.
I learnt my chops doing concert tours, corporate, sports and community events across the Asia Pacific region and have worked in all aspects of live production from system designer, system rigging, FOH and monitor engineer, production and tour managing and everything in between.
In the 1990’s our family moved to Morwell in the Victorian region of Gippsland where I had a change of direction for a while and became involved in community development.
I kept my involvement in live production and audio engineering through involvement in the management of community events. I also managed to fit in some domestic production touring as well.
Another life change saw me embark on university study. I studied Sociology, Mass Communications and Psychology, graduating from Monash University in 2002 with first class honours.
During this time I took up the offer to become the Australian Producer of Alternative Radio, the award winning, unembedded independent radio program heard throughout the US, Europe, Canada, South America and in over 100 countries on Radio for Peace International and for 20 years produced and distributed the program domestically as well as producing many episodes for international distribution.
For 15 years I also produced community radio programs in Gippsland (including the award winning "Public First Program").
Outside of audio and radio production I am a former chairperson of the Latrobe Valley, Uniting Care Foodbank, have been a past Chairperson of Gippsland Community Radio.
I was a director of the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA), serving as the chair of the Satellite Advisory Committee (overseeing our Community Radio Network). I also held the positions of Vice President, Radio and Acting Chairperson.
My passion for community radio led me to become involved in the international community radio movement and in 2005 I became a foundation director of AMARC-Asia Pacific, the only international organisation dedicated to developing, sustaining and resourcing community radio groups around the world.
I have served on numerous boards and have had extensive experience at the local, state, national and international levels in all types of director's roles.
For 20 years I have taught sociology, mass communications theory, journalism studies and multimedia practice and theory at the teriary (under and post-graduate levels) at leading Australian Universities. I have been teaching radio and multimedia production at Swinburne University for 15 years.
For over 40 years I have been involved in all areas of the technical management of live and studio audio production and over 20 years in radio broadcasts for local, national and international events.
Now that you have some idea of who I am, I hope you will proceed to the Public First Program editorial page to access the ongoing editorials and podcasts.

Contact Shane

email Shane

+61-4-1359 7828

The

Public First Program

 

Go to the Public First Program Editorial Home page to access text, audio and Podcast links for recent editorials.

 

The Public First Program was an award winning current affairs program broadcast on Gippsland FM in the Victorian region of Gippsland and the Latrobe Valley.

The program ended in December 2008.

In June 1995 the Public First Program was born. It grew out of the desire by the local Public First Campaign to fight for the right of public ownership of essential services.

The program spent the first two years of its life fighting for the right of the public to retain ownership of the assets they had paid for. However, in realising the power of radio and the fact that public support had swung behind the Kennett plan a new strategy for the Public First Program was developed.

This strategy was to begin a process of public education by taking a dissenting and critical view of the local situation as part of the wider process commonly, but erroneously known as "globalisation". The program broadened out its coverage of events and commentary to include a vast array of topics.

The events leading up to this began in late 1992 when the Liberal and National party coalition won government in Victoria. In the lead up to that election the then opposition leader, Jeff Kennett, declared that there was a fiscal crisis in Victoria. He promised to repay the 'debts' of the state by introducing a raft of policies designed to reshape the state's economy and therefore social structure.

This policy agenda led to the largest privatisations of public owned property in Australia. The State Electricity Commission (SEC), was sold off. Prior to Kennett's ascension to power, the then ruling Labor party had laid the ground work for these privatisations by 'restructuring' the SEC and beginning the process of 'downsizing' the workforce. This involved carving up the once single entity and creating 'business enterprises' that were to manage distinct areas such as generation, distribution and retailing.

Each of these 'enterprises' was to become 'competitive' and 'customer focused'. The absurdity of these proposals were, obviously, lost on the proponents of the sell offs. Nonetheless, the carve up and sale of the SEC proceeded almost unhindered, despite massive public opposition.

The Latrobe Valley in Gippsland was to bear the brunt of this 'restructuring' as it was home to the four major generating plants, three of which were up for sale. The fourth was already privately controlled with contracts to protect that company's profits for the next 30 years. Not only were the generators sold off, so to were the poles and wires that feed electricity to homes and businesses.

The upshot of the government program was that the Latrobe Valley workforce was 'downsized' from about 12,000 workers in the early 1990's to about 5,000 by the middle of the decade. Union estimates (which were much later on adopted by government and academic researchers) of the flow on effect were that up to three times that many workers were indirectly impacted as their jobs were lost due to the privatisation process and the winding back of support businesses. 

The public response to the privatisation was overwhelming. Even before the 1992 election there were demonstrations against the Kennett plan. The largest of these saw over 100,000 people take over the streets of Melbourne. The public did not acquiesce easily but, as is the case where power, money and influence are concerned, the battle was lost by 1996 and the SEC was no more.

The lawyers, 'consultants' and privateers were the only true winners gathering up millions in fees for their 'advice' and 'expertise'. The price of electricity was, Kennett told us, going to fall. It hasn't. Businesses would come flooding into the state to take advantage of the cheap electricity, we were told. They haven't. What did occur is that in less than ten years most of the original owners of the assets have had to sell out as they cant turn the huge debts incurred in buying the businesses into the substantial profits they were promised.

The privatisation battle in Victoria might be lost, but there are many other battles still being fought. In it's quests to support the public in their battles the Public First Program has been privileged to win numerous awards including two national community radio awards for Excellence in Spoken Word and Radio Documentary.

only Shane's Site

Quick links to recent editorials

Foot Spas R US (MP3)

TV or Bust (MP3)

Gaza, Gas and War (MP3)

Gaza Again (MP3)

Gouge Your Eyes Out (MP3)

Human Rights or Our Shame (MP3)

Dentists, Dole and Private Schools (MP3)

Not Winning. Losing (MP3)

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Police Arrest Lawyers in Kuala Lumpur.

Human Rights Day Rally, 9th Dec. 2007

Pictures and Story

 

Israeli Troops Storm Bethlehem. 

20th Nov. 2006

Pictures and Story

 

World Press Freedom Day, 2006.

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Pictures and Story

                                                                   

Links to external sites and friends of Shane and the Public First Program.

Alternative Radio - Australia

Alternative Radio - America

Radio New Internationalist - From the producers of New Internationalist magazine

AMARC - International Public and Community Radio Association

Community Broadcasting Association of Australia

Gippsland FM

 

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