Fantastic. Great move. Well done, Angus. Minister for Industry, Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor’s distaste for scrutiny was well established from pretty much the moment he barricaded himself from questions after completing his first speech. This week, we found out just how much — he submitted a statement to Senate President (and man with a name cooler than any politician ought to) Slade Brockman to note that he had taken 79 questions on notice as part of the estimates process and had answered *checks notes* none of them:
Holy War watch In Crikey‘s series on The Australian‘s “Holy Wars” — covering the ways in which the national broadsheet targets and attacks its enemies — the chief tactic we identified was “constant bombardment”:
The first, and most important rule of a Holy War is quantity. It doesn’t matter how small the original transgression, nor does it matter if there’s no update to report: the story must be kept alive.
We’re fairly sure we can detect a bit of that in the coverage of the “voices of” independents coincidentally largely targeting the more progressive end of the Liberal Party vote. Dutifully, a series of stories has been churned out this week drawing some pretty long bows. Firstly, several pieces attempting to paint Wentworth candidate Allegra Spender as implacably anti-Israel on account of the views of one of Spender’s supporters, whom Spender has actively distanced herself from.
Then Goldstein candidate and former ABC journalist Zoe Daniel (also subject to coverage on her views on Israel) got a classic story about nothing except keeping the story going. The article was headed “ABC distances itself from former star ex reporter star and independent candidate Zoe Daniel”, and we honestly can’t work out who it’s supposed to be at the expense of — the ABC, who quite reasonably point out that Daniel hasn’t worked for it in years and thus it has no call to form any opinion on her current job, or Daniel, whose website features pictures of her doing the job she is most famous for doing? The piece put us in mind of the time the Oz put two reporters on the “mystery” and “cover up” over whether or not high-profile reporter Andrew Probyn had appeared in a reenactment or not.
Le Pen is (not quite) mightier As Australians wait for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to announce the bloody election, French nationals are readying to cast their vote. Just days out from the first presidential election on Sunday, French right-wing nationalist Marine Le Pen is closing in on President Emmanuel Macron in the polls. Naturally, we wanted to find out what French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo had to say about that. And I think you’ll agree its latest cover — which depicts a cartoon drone in the shape of Le Pen’s head, being controlled by Russian President Vladimir Putin — says it all. “Can Putin’s Drone Win?” asks the headline. A scary thought indeed.
What the heckler? Confrontations with angry pensioners are a perennial risk to politicians — Bob Hawke famously told one he was a “silly old bugger” after a shopping centre remonstration. And to be fair to Morrison, at least he was out talking to real people — something he has been avoiding recently. But how did some in the media cover the clash between Morrison and a disgruntled pension recipient in a Newcastle pub? Why, it was a triumph of hands-on politicking, according to the Daily Telegraph’s Clare Armstrong.
In a report accompanied by a picture of Morrison grabbing a beer, Armstrong relates that “locals queued to take selfies and shake hands with the PM”. Morrison “listened patiently to one angry punter … but was overwhelmingly welcomed by pub patrons”. We assume News Corp will be declaring this as an in-kind political donation later this year when the deadline for donations disclosure arrives in October.
