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It's some sort of special year and SBS paid a lot of money for Guy Sebastion to go straight in to the finals (as did England, Switzerland Spain and many other countries, it is allowable) so he didn't have to compete in all the heats. SBS was also trying to get special Legislative dispensation to increase the allowable advertising time from 8 to 10 minutes to cash in.
Peter.
SBS has been an associate member of the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) pretty much since they started airing Eurovision. Australia does and in fact has always had as much right to enter Eurovision as, say Israel or Azerbaijan (both technically Asian countries).
Also Australia has a bigger viewing audience than most European participant countries. When you consider the size of our local music industry we are arguably one of the "big five" (now six) who should be automatically put through to the final.
Got to say the second semi final was better than the first.
The final will be good.