Don’t read
Hustler. Read The Picture Premium. Support good Australian smut. That appears
to be Peter Beattie’s message this morning.

The Queensland
Premier has come under pressure in the wake of the “alleged s-xual incident” in the Big Brother house over the funding
the Queensland Government’s film and television arm, the Pacific Film and
Television Commission,
provides to the program.

Opposition leader Lawrence Springborg
claims: “There are a lot of good things out there which this Government is not
prepared to fund, where a little bit of money would really make a big
difference for the community”. Like a health service that doesn’t kill people.

“To put tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars
into a highly profitable, questionable television program that in many ways
probably brings out the worst in people, I think is a real waste of taxpayers’
money,” Springborg says.

It’s not just Big Brother. Beattie’s big on
questionable investments of public monies. As part of his government’s “Smart State”
strategy he’s sinking squillions into high risk biotechnology ventures – a high
tech picking winners.

Yet Beattie has an answer. The media tart
is happy to prostitute his state and its people. “We have so much American crap
on our television I think a bit of Australian nonsense doesn’t do any harm,
frankly,” the Premier has told Channel Nine.

I support the Australian television
industry, the Australian movie industry. I want to see Australian cameramen and
women, lighting – makeup, all the services that go to television and movies …
I want to see jobs for Australians in that area, so let’s not get too carried
away and throw the baby out with the bathwater.

I think they should clean up their act and
sort out these sorts of issues, but frankly no I don’t [want it banned] because
I want to see Australians employed in the film and television industry and us
having a role.

In other words, don’t read Hustler. Read
The Picture Premium.

Yobbish, moronic, voyeuristic smut is fine for
Premier Pete – as long as it’s good old Australian yobbish, moronic,
voyeuristic smut.