I've been watching the ABC's href="Dirt Game---a six-part, locally produced, drama series-- to see if free-to-air television is beginning to arrest its downward slide. It is seen as Australian drama with sophistication and depth. It is on the ABC"s prime 8:30pm Sunday night spot for quality drama.

It does make a welcome break from the BBC costume drama and the pacing, photography and writing are a definite cut above the standard local productions that are kitsch, and it holds its own with overseas productions from the BBC. It also affirms that television is about photography as much as it is about writing and acting.

Several episodes in and I'm more critical.This is a very progressive mining company on issues such as the environment, worker safety, and negotiating with aboriginal people. It is always on the brink of collapse and its mining operations are old, run down, economically marginal, and always in danger of not being able to deliver its orders. We go from crisis to crisis with the world of commerce divorced from politics.

The economic reality is that mining companies constitute Quarry Australia, are the most powerful companies in Australia, have some of the biggest mines in the world, fueled the decade long boom, and oppose the changes needed to deal with climate change and truck with junk science.