While other media outlets suck up to the rich and powerful under the guise of a “list”, this year Crikey wants to recognise a higher honour: being a shitstirrer.
We’ve assembled our inaugural 2024 Shitstirrers Index for the 10 biggest nuisances to powerful people, drawn from more than 1,000 nominations from our readers (let’s just say the term resonated).
The hallmark of a true shitstirrer is that you know one when you see one. But given we were inundated with names, the council considered a few questions to help separate the good from the truly great shitstirrers.
We thought about the biggest shitstorms this year and who was behind them. We weighed up who punched (up) above their weight, plus whose handiwork left a lasting impact. And front of mind: who had fun (and showed flair) doing it? You can read more about our rationale here.
Yesterday we revealed those ranked 10-8. Today, congratulations to those ranked 7-5.
7. Purple Pingers
The two words that strike the most fear into the hearts of stingy landlords or dodgy real estate agents — even more than “rent freeze” — are @purplepingers, the online nom de plume of renting online creator Jordan van den Lamb.
For the past few years, Pingers has relished needling the property developers, landlords and political establishment for their role in enabling the housing crisis. Beginning with videos covering “shit rentals” that owners used to get away with foisting on desperate renters, Pingers stepped it up this year by creating a vacant homes register that crowdsourced places for people facing housing insecurity to squat.
His actions drive some people — including Americans who caught wind of it — absolutely troppo. An occupation of three long-term vacant houses in Brunswick last weekend upset one neighbour and earned van den Lamb’s group a breach of peace notice.
But according to Australia’s housing Robin Hood, most people are beyond supportive. His provocative and sometimes illegal antics are so popular that it’s even forced politicians to begrudgingly acknowledge him. As he said when contacted by Crikey with news of his shitstirring credit: “They’d often do the, ‘No comment, blah, blah, blah.’ Now they’re commenting [to media] and saying, ‘He’s going about this the wrong way. He needs to be more collaborative.'”
If he’s able to snag a Victorian Senate seat at next year’s federal election, they’ll be forced to engage whether he plays nice or not. It’ll probably be the latter: “We’ve never gained any rights by asking nicely. Not only is it [provocation] necessary, but it’s essential.”
6. Vincent Namatjira
One of the powers of a shitstirrer is the ability to cast people who see themselves as big and important in a new light. What separates a true virtuoso is how they lure great figures into doing this to themselves — much like the way the reaction of Australia’s richest woman to her portrait by Vincent Namatjira turned her into a global laughing stock.
The Arrernte artist is an accomplished portraitist with a long list of prestigious exhibitions and accolades, including winning the Archibald Prize, the first Indigenous artist to do so. Namatjira’s oeuvre includes a fascination with Australian figures and figureheads, capturing everyone from Queen Elizabeth and Captain Cook to Adam Goodes and Cathy Freeman.
“I paint the world as I see it,” Namatjira said in a statement at the time. “People don’t have to like my paintings, but I hope they take the time to look and think, ‘Why has this Aboriginal bloke painted these powerful people? What is he trying to say?’”
His painting of Gina Rinehart irked the free-speech-loving mining billionaire so much that she leaned on her athletes-cum-agents of influence to lobby the National Gallery of Australia to remove the work. Not only was she unsuccessful, but her ham-fisted attempts to clobber the institution into submission clumsily revealed the ways that money and influence work (or didn’t) in Australia’s elite circles. Rinehart’s thin-skinned and reflexive bullying proved that the unflattering portrait of a fearful-looking woman was true to life.
Throughout it all, Namatjira said little. He shows that shitstirrers don’t need to be loud. They can be as quiet as a brush on canvas.
5. Antoinette Lattouf
After being unceremoniously dumped by the ABC, Antoinette Lattouf refused to go quietly. Instead, she embraced her role as a national symbol for the people calling out the influence of pro-Israel lobbies on Australian media.
After being told that “Jewish lobbyists were unhappy that she was on air” by a manager, as Lattouf claims, the presenter was dismissed from a casual radio on-air gig at ABC Radio for the crime of journalism.
The offending incident was when Lattouf shared on Instagram a report from the reputable group Human Rights Watch that alleged Israel was using starvation as a tool of war in Gaza. The irony wasn’t lost on her, or anyone else, that the ABC reported on the allegation.
What followed was a high-profile Fair Work Commission case where Lattouf stared down the ABC’s attempts to dismiss her claims and revealed how the public broadcaster appeared to fold to public pressure on one of the most divisive issues in Australian media.
Lattouf is just happy she survived the year. “If I were an Arab journalist ‘stirring the pot’ about war crimes in Gaza and reporting from the Middle East instead of Sydney, there’s a good chance I’d have been taken out by the IDF like 140 Palestinian journalists in the past 14 months,” she told Crikey.
Look out for rankings 4-2 tomorrow.
