STOP PRESS
• AFR MAGAZINE POWER ISSUE EXAGGERATES THE NSW PREMIER’S “POWER”
Early this morning – as usual – four daily newspapers landed heavily on Jackie’s kennel. Earlier than usual, because today’s the day that the Australian Financial Review Magazine carries its annual “Power” issue.
Jackie’s (male) co-owner picked up the papers from near Jackie’s kennel at around 5am. Opening up the AFR Magazine, there was the news that four state premiers –
Daniel Andrews (Victoria), Gladys Berejiklian (NSW), Mark McGowan (Western Australia) and Annastacia Palaszczuk (QLD) have been voted by a panel as The Most Powerful People in Australia.
That was around the time before the local cock crowed. By 1pm, Premier Berejiklian had been effectively forced to resign due to a forthcoming public inquiry into her conduct by the Independent Commission Against Corruption. This completes ICAC’s trio. ICAC’s perceptions of corruption have led to the resignation of three of the best premiers NSW has ever had – Nick Greiner, Barry O’Farrell and now Gladys Berejiklian. All were Liberal Party premiers. And all have presented as honest and not corrupt.
This shows the problem with the AFR’s Power issue. If Premier Berejiklian was really powerful, she could not have been removed by ICAC or any other organisation. Ms Berejiklian exercised legitimate authority – not untrammelled power. It’s much the same with the remaining premiers.
It would seem that the Power list was decided – and the photographs taken – some time before Prime Minister Scott Morrison was involved in the formation of the Australia-United Kingdom-United States (AUKUS) agreement. This is one of the most significant foreign policy initiatives that any Australian prime minister has been involved in. Sure some premiers delight in closing borders and locking down citizens. But Australia’s most significant political leader over the past year has been Prime Minister Morrison. Followed by (the soon to be former) Premier of NSW who sought to exercise as little power as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic and was involved in setting Australia on the road to social and economic recovery.
To use some pandemic jargon – the AFR Magazine Power Issue is in need of a re-set.
• DAVID SPEERS LETS SALLY MCMANUS GET AWAY WITH UNDOCUMENTED ASSERTION
David (“Interruptus”) Speers interrupted his Insiders guest Barnaby Joyce on 17 occasions last Sunday. But when presenting Q&A last night, Speersy went light on interruptions. Perhaps too light because he let ACTU secretary Sally McManus get away with making allegations seemingly designed to fudge the role of CFMEU trade unionists in the violent demonstrations in Melbourne last week against compulsory COVID-19 vaccinations for workers on various work sites. Let’s go to the transcript:
David Speers: So that mandate did, did fire up those protesters?
Sally McManus: Yes, absolutely, it did. But, there was a whole lead up to this. Like, for months and months and months, where on social media and elsewhere – and let’s face it, Craig Kelly, um, Clive Palmer, the Murdoch Press, um, Christiansen (George) are all saying that this [compulsory vaccinations] is, like, an impingement on your freedom. And so – and you can see it happening on social media every day, where people were being told that. So, by the time that mandate happened, people already had strong views about this. And so, I think that that was a volatile conflict-based environment that should have been avoided. Having said that, that was stoked, stoked and fed by those very people; the far right and those anti-vaxxers, so –
David Speers: What, and those union members and other members just were suckered into it, were they?
Sally McManus: Well, you think about it, like, the majority of construction workers and union members weren’t at that process, like, there’s, like – most construction workers are getting vaccinated and are pretty upset that they’re not working at the moment –
Talk about denial. Comrade Speers let Comrade McManus off the hook. There is not a skerrick of evidence that the Murdoch Press fired up anti-vaccine demonstrations in Melbourne last week. No evidence at all. Sally McManus did not provide any evidence. And the (normally) interventionist presenter David Speers did not ask for any evidence. Q+A – where leftist panellists make the accusations.
CAN YOU BEAR IT?
• SARAH FERGUSON TALKS ABOUT A “TONY” ON RADIO NATIONAL BREAKFAST ASSUMING THAT LISTENERS KNOW WHO “TONY” IS
As avid readers are only too well aware, Media Watch Dog just loves it when journalists interview journalists about journalism. And so it came to pass yesterday when ABC Radio National Breakfast presenter Hamish Macdonald interviewed ABC star Sarah Ferguson about her Foreign Correspondent story which aired last night concerning space travel. It was titled “Elon Musk and his mission to Mars”.
Your man Macdonald commenced the discussion by suggesting that “this looks like quite a jaunt you’ve been on”. Wherever could he have got the idea from? An ABC journo on a jaunt – who would have imagined it? To which Comrade Ferguson responded: “It is a jaunt” and commenced talking about the subject she knows best. Namely – herself. And yes, space which “blows” Comrade Ferguson’s mind. But “not quite literally, sadly”. Let’s go to the transcript:
Hamish Macdonald: Do you really want to go to space? Is that the final frontier for this intrepid reporter?
Sarah Ferguson: There’s no question. In fact, I’ll just mention Tony – which I don’t do very often. But someone asked me a question when I was filming about going to Mars. He asked me: “Would you go to Mars”. And I said, “Yes, of course”. We didn’t put it in the episode and Tony said: “You really want to go to Mars”? You realise it’s, you know, two years. If you go to Mars it’s at least two years – get there and by the time you get to do something and get back again.” So it didn’t end up in the episode because it seemed like I was being a little selfish, perhaps. But the answer is still yes.
Hamish Macdonald: Somewhere there’s an ABC News executive assigning you to Mars in a few years’ time.
Sarah Ferguson: If only, if only.
Now if someone had arrived in Australia from a trip to, say, Mars or even London – he or she would have no idea what Ms Ferguson was talking about. Who is this “Tony” who is so well known that he doesn’t require a surname? Tony Blair perhaps? Or Tony Abbott? Or maybe such one-time NASA astronaut Tony Antonelli?
It turns out it is none of the above. Sarah Ferguson was talking about her husband – former ABC TV Q&A presenter and current ABC reporter – Tony Jones. Life at the ABC is so incestuous that Comrade Ferguson simply assumed that listeners would know that the Tony who advises Ms Ferguson about the timing of space travel times to and from Mars is none other than her husband Tony Jones. Who happens to have joined Mrs Jones on their current taxpayer-funded jaunt to Washington DC. This follows Comrade Ferguson’s recent travels to Washington DC and Moscow and then New York and Dublin for stories – which revealed nothing of any significance.
For the record, MWD reckons that it would be a you-beaut idea if Comrade Ferguson went to Mars and took Comrade Jones with her. Provided no live TV crosses to Earth are possible. And provided the couple did not get overtime for spending their weekends in space. At least such travel would stop Ms Ferguson talking on the taxpayer funded broadcaster about herself and all her jaunts. Otherwise there will be more of the same. Can You Bear It?
• FRAN KELLY TALKS TO THE UK’s WOMAN IN CANBERRA
Could it be an example of the ABC – as in Australian Broadcaster Colonised? How else to explain the latest case of Victoria Treadell, British High Commissioner in Australia going on the ABC and lecturing Australians about climate change, global emissions and all that.
It’s impossible to imagine the BBC in London inviting George Brandis, Australia’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, on to a breakfast program to lecture Boris Johnson’s Conservative government about something or other. However, due to a throwback to colonial times, Fran Kelly appears only too keen to provide airtime for High Commissioner Treadell to give us Aussie mere mortals a lecture or two about something or other.
In an interview which went on for an excruciating 13 minutes and 20 seconds on Wednesday, HC Treadell initially (i) declared that Britain would “be disappointed” if Scott Morrison did not attend the forthcoming COP26 meeting in Glasgow, (ii) said that the Johnson government would like Australia to commit to net zero emissions by 2050, (iii) supported the views on emissions of NSW minister for energy Matt Kean and (iv) said that Australia should reset its current target of reducing emissions by between 26 to 28 per cent as of 2035.
Just after saying that she “didn’t want to get into domestic politics”, the UK High Commissioner did precisely this by drawing attention to what the British government wants the Australian government to do. Then discussion turned to the AUKUS arrangement and so on.
Fran (“I’m an activist”) Kelly said nothing as the High Commissioner lectured Australians about climate change. Comrade Kelly did not demur when Ms Treadell said that Britain will reduce its own emissions by 69 per cent by 2030 and 78 per cent by 2035. As if saying so is doing.
What’s more, Comrade Kelly did not ask the High Commissioner even one question about the fact that Britain is currently facing an energy crisis – since a cold winter led to lower than usual gas supplies, and a summer in which the wind did not blow has led to a lowering of energy supply from renewables. In short, Britain currently has a power shortage along with rising energy prices.
It was just like the colonial days of old. The Brits giving Australians a lecture – and Comrade Kelly was doffing her cap. What’s more Comrade Kelly did not interrupt her British overlord – which is not how she treats Coalition ministers in Australia. Can You Bear it?
• DAN ILIC LAUGHS AT HIS OWN JOKES – WHO ELSE WOULD?
Did anyone catch Dan Ilic on The World Today this week? – in the story reported by Katherine Gregory? For those not familiar, Dan Ilic is a self-described “investigative humourist”. If you ever tune in to ABC Comedy you will be familiar with this brand of comedy. Self-identifying as an “investigative humourist” means you can excuse both being not particularly funny or reaching the standard of a traditional investigative journalist. A win-win situation, to be sure – for an investigative humourist like Comrade Ilic.
Your man Ilic is currently running a crowd-funding campaign to pay for billboards critical of the Morrison government to be displayed in Glasgow at the time of the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference. His campaign is going well so far, and he has now expanded the scope of the project to include other methods of attacking the Morrison government.
Dan Ilic was extremely amused by his own campaign when he spoke about it on The World Today – cackling at his own jokes throughout the interview. Let’s go to the transcript:
Dan Ilic: We started off with a classic idea of trying to promote Australia. So subverting that – what would Scomo do if he was in our position? Well, he’d advertise Australia. So we thought, why not do ads for Australia? So we’ve got one that says: “Cuddle a koala, before we make them extinct”. (Giggling) Then the next billboard says: “Australia, net zero emissions by 2300”.
Katherine Gregory: So why do it this way? Well, firstly, he says it’s to make the people who always attend these conferences laugh. Within two hours of posting the call-out on Monday, Dan Ilic got the $12,000 he needed. It’s now up to $60,000.
Dan Ilic: These people are tired (Giggling). They are upset about Australia. In this climate conference, you will talk to people from all over the world about how annoyed they are with Australia’s lack of action on climate (Giggling). Secondarily, to have someone take a photo of it and to embarrass Scott Morrison….So I’ve kind of had to change the scope of this campaign. It looks like we could be close to projecting that billboard on to the SEC Armadillo, which is the conference centre where COP is being held (Giggling).
Dan Ilic certainly finds himself very funny – so at least someone does. MWD can’t see these mocking billboards having much impact on the COP conference, Australia’s policies on climate action or the climate in general. So far, all Dan Ilic’s crowd-funding campaign is doing is promoting Dan Ilic – it seems this is a cause some climate-concerned citizens are happy to hand over their cash to.
After raising enough for the billboards, Ilic has announced on IndieGogo (a crowd funding website) the “next phase” of the campaign – titled JokeKeeper. Get it? According to the website, this is a “A $1,000,000 fund to pay comedians, satirists, filmmakers, producers and data scientists to create a season of digital sh**stirring from November up until the election.” We can hardly wait. In the meantime, Can You Bear It?
• FOX SPORTS’ GERARD WHATELEY’S BIBLICAL EXPERIENCE AS MELBOURNE DEFEATED THE WESTERN BULLDOGS
Jackie’s (male) co-owner Hendo attended the 1964 Victorian Football League Grand-Final when Melbourne defeated Collingwood – and can remember the occasion well. It was a fine Melbourne spring day, of the secular genre – Melbourne won narrowly when its back-pocket Neil Crompton kicked a goal towards the end of the fourth quarter – and the crowd accepted the results. Sure it was the Jewish Sabbath with the Christian Sabbath soon to follow. But that was about it. God was not evident within the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Not so last Saturday when the Melbourne Demons (also called Dees) defeated the Western Bulldogs (nee Footscray) in Perth in the Australian Football League Grand Final. It seems that this was a Divine occasion with a capital “D”. According to Melbourne-based sports journalist Gerard Whateley, that is.
Some of us thought that Melbourne won because it scored 16 out of the last 17 goals. But to your man Whateley, there was a spiritual edge to this victory. Here’s what he told viewers of 360 on Foxtel’s Fox Sports channel on Monday night about how it came about that Melbourne won its first premiership in 57 years:
Gerard Whateley: There was something spiritual about it. So the footy scientists will delve deep and you’ll see a lot of that over the summer. There was a spiritual aspect to it. To break a curse like that, there’s something Biblical….
At this stage, the Reverend Whateley was rescued by Jason Dunstall, he of the extremely non-spiritual Bounce program. Just as well. To your man Whateley, the Melbourne Demons v Western Bulldogs result was a bit like Moses coming down from the Mountain with tablets on which was written Melbourne’s game-plan which happened to have been devised by a Divine force.
Turn it up. It was just a football game. To old timers (like Hendo), it seems that the Reverend Whateley was somewhat dazed and needed access to Smelling Salts treatment circa 1950 to get a grip. Whateley banging on about spiritual matters and The Bible is enough to drive the believers out of churches, synagogues and mosques – or to turn off 350. Can You Bear It?
• NINE COLUMNIST JANE CARO SNEERS AT THE HOI POLLOI (AGAIN)
While on the topic of last Saturday’s Grand Final when the Dees (the Melbourne Demons) defeated the Bulldogs (i.e. the Western Bulldogs or Footscray), how about MWD fave Jane Caro’s Epistle to the hoi polloi tweeted on Saturday 25 September at – wait for it – 8.11pm? Here’s what Nine’s Sunday Life columnist had to say
Dear most Aussies, who are the Dees? What is the thing you all care so much about? Actually, no, please (PLEASE) don’t explain. This tweet is just for all those kids like I once was who could not give a toss & felt weird & had to pretend. It’s ok. One day you can just ignore it.
— Jane Caro (@JaneCaro) September 25, 2021
That’s pretty clear, then. The leftist luvvie Caro, who had a gas-guzzling four-wheel drive to move from her home in Sydney to her farm somewhere else, doesn’t think much of mere mortals who follow Australian Rules Football – or, presumably, any other sport. Hence her tweet to “Dear most Aussies”. It would seem that the leftist comrade believes that “most Australians” are ready to read her tweets after 8pm on a Saturday night – including the inebriated and the stoned. Turn it up. There followed the following exchange:
You do not know what you’re missing.
— James Kalaf (@Bluesgoose) September 25, 2021
No. Lovely way to live, frankly. Have you read all of Dickens and Austen and Gaskell? If not, you don’t either. Such is life.
— Jane Caro (@JaneCaro) September 25, 2021
Go on. Here Jane Caro – whose excuse for telling NSW voters that they were hopeless “truculent turds” when the Coalition defeated Labor in the March 2019 NSW State election was that she was pissed – is now boasting of having read all of Charles Dickens plus all of Jane Austen plus all of Elizabeth Gaskell. As if anyone gives a toss.
Now Jackie’s (male) co-owner has not read all the works of this trio – and, consequently does not know what he is missing. Such is life. But at least Hendo does not tweet on a Saturday night – it takes up too much drinking time. As to Comrade Caro’s intellectual snobbery – it raises this question: Can You Bear It?
MEDIA FOOL OF THE WEEK
GEORGE MEGALOGENIS’ CLAIM THAT THERE IS AN ANTI-SCOTT MORRISON “CONSENSUS” ON AUKUS FALLS OVER AT THE FIRST PAGE-TURN OF THE SMH
Media Watch Dog’s continuing advice to members of the Fourth Estate is to avoid Prophecy and Hyperbole. Alas, Nine columnist and author George Megalogenis failed on the latter front in his column in the Sydney Morning Herald last Saturday. Here’s how it commenced – under the heading “His sights on domestic politics, PM’s all at sea”.
It is hard to find anyone in Australia’s political and foreign policy establishments with a kind word to say about Scott Morrison’s handling of the French submarine fiasco. The consensus from both those who wish him well and his long-term critics is that the Prime Minister picked a needless fight with Paris, annoyed Jakarta, our most important neighbour, and even undermined Washington’s strategic interests in the region.
The reference was to the Morrison government’s decision to ditch the idea that Australia purchase conventional powered submarines from France and enter into an arrangement to obtain nuclear powered submarines from the United States or the United Kingdom. Hence the brand new AUKUS (Australia, United Kingdom, United States) agreement.
According to Comrade Megalogenis, it’s “hard to find anyone in Australia’s political and foreign establishment” who agrees with the decision. Moreover there is a “consensus” on this issue – from the Prime Minister’s supporters and opponents alike. This appeared on Page 30 of the SMH on 25 September 2021.
Yet turn to Page 32 and the SMH’s political editor Peter Hartcher had this to say – after commencing his column with lotsa sludge about an unnamed Chinese writer who once said that Australia was like a bat in an Aesop fable (yawn):
As a founding member of both AUKUS and the Quad, Australia is discrediting the prophets of permanent identity crisis and existential anguish. It turns out that Australia is not a lonely misfit. It is not eternally torn. It is forming new and stronger relationships with nations of the East and West, the Orient and the Occident. Neither confused nor embarrassed, Australia is finding its place…. Scott Morrison is the Prime Minister making these decisions and he gets full credit. Crucially, Labor has supported all the major decisions, making them national choices, not partisan posings.
How’s that for an alleged anti-Morrison “consensus”? Peter Hartcher had “a kind word to say about Scott Morrison”. And, according to an avid reader, so have the good people at the Lowy Institute and even at the United States Studies Centre – aka the US(eless) Studies Centre. By the way, the only sources quoted in your man Megalogenis’ critique of Prime Minister Morrison’s foreign policy and all that were “one senior Liberal” and “another source”. How authoritative can a Nine columnist get?
George Megalogenis: Media Fool of the Week.
ABC’S PAUL KENNEDY AGREES THAT HIS NEW BOOK IS “GREAT” ON ABC TV
As avid readers will recall, it is only a few weeks ago that ABC TV News Breakfast co-host Lisa Millar was flogging her book Daring to Fly on, yes, ABC TV News Breakfast. But that was then. This week, on Wednesday as Media Watch Dog recalls, it was Paul Kennedy’s turn to flog his latest book on the News Breakfast couch. Paul Kennedy used to present the sports segment until he was replaced by Tony (“Tax the rich”) Armstrong. Your man Kennedy now reports on sport for various ABC outlets.
Needless to say, PK was warmly welcomed back on the News Breakfast couch by presenters Michael Rowland and Lisa Millar. The former described Comrade Kennedy as “much loved” – he didn’t say by whom. Lisa Millar did likewise. Whereupon PK said: “I thought you got rid of me”. But, after that, it was plain sailing – especially when Comrade Millar described PK’s New Book Funkytown as “fantastic”.
So what’s it all about? MWD has not been able to obtain a copy of Funkytown – the reference is to the Melbourne south-east suburb of Frankston where the book is set. So MWD has to go on what Comrade Kennedy told viewers about his story. It goes something like this.
It’s 1993. PK is doing Year 12 at a local government school in or near outer suburban Frankston. He comes from what might be called a good home. But PK gets on the turps. He describes his (1993) self as “a jock”. You see, Young Kennedy “wanted to play AFL football” at the top level – but didn’t quite make it. So what happened to PK in Funkytown in 1993 as told in Funkytown? Well, not much, it seems.
PK had a mate called Adam. PK felt insecure and engaged in “a lot of bad choices including binge drinking”. His parents gave PK good advice – as in “don’t get too drunk”. But he did. PK apparently “almost got expelled from school”. But he didn’t, apparently. And – well let’s hear from the learned author’s mouth:
Lisa Millar: Close encounters with the police on a few occasions?
Paul Kennedy: Yes, yes and wound up in jail there, at the end, for a brief, um, time as well. Why, why did that – why did I make those choices? Because, um, there were no excuses for me. I came from a very peaceful, uh, virtually nondrinking household, my mum and dad gave us everything we could ever want, um,….
It’s not quite clear whether Comrade Kennedy was a guest of Elizabeth II in the clink – or just visiting a wayward friend in jail. In time, the teacher Mrs Mac gave the teenager a copy of Margaret Craven’s I Heard the Owl Call My Name. And, lo and behold, some years later PK got a gig at the taxpayer funded public broadcaster and he has lived happily ever after.
Michael Rowland then described Funkytown as “a great book”. [Is it as good as War and Peace? – MWD Editor.] Comrade Kennedy agreed – suggesting his very own tome is a must read for parents “particularly, um, women” bringing up male teenagers in Frankston circa 1993. Or something like that. Then PK congratulated Lisa on her book Daring to Fly. Which left viewers wondering – when’s Comrade Rowland’s book coming out?
By the way, News Breakfast devoted considerable time to Paul Kennedy’s Funkytown (Affirm Press) – which was described variously as “Fantastic” and “Great”. However, the program has shown no interest in Sharri Markson’s recently released What Really Happened in Wuhan (HarperCollins) which has attracted international attention.
Contrary to what Paul Barry declared on ABC TV’s Media Watch last year, Markson’s work is not part of a “conspiracy theory”. She merely raises the possibility that COVID-19 escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. A subject which is being taken seriously by the intelligence agencies in President Biden’s administration. But to the powers that be at News Breakfast what Paul Kennedy got up to in Frankston some three decades ago is more interesting than what took place in Wuhan two years ago.
A NORMAN SWAN MOMENT
•ANOTHER FAILED (MAYBE) DR SWAN PREDICTION
On Monday 30 August 2021 the ABC’s resident COVID-19 expert Dr Norman Swan stopped by ABC TV’s News Breakfast to discuss the COVID situation in New South Wales. Here is how the segment began:
Michael Rowland: What’s your take on this situation? The Premier [Gladys Berejiklian], is being at least very upfront about what lies ahead for the state’s [NSW] health system.
Norman Swan: Yeah, cause unless the curve bends you could see 4,000 cases a day by the end of September, maybe sooner then that. Hopefully I’m wrong – the, the predictions are wrong about that. It’s hard to know, as vaccination rates go up, the hospitalisation rate will go down because you get a higher proportion of the population vaccinated. But it’s possibly between, around about 5 per cent of whatever number that is on a daily basis. With a delay of maybe 10, 12 days. Will end in hospital so if it’s 4,000 a day, it’s 400. And 1 in 50 of cases, not of those in hospital, but 1 in 50 could end up in ICU. So that ends up being a lot of people.
Norman (“Trust me, I’m Australia’s most trusted doctor”) Swan seems to have learnt some lessons from his previous failures in COVID prediction. He made sure to include the caveat “unless the curve bends” before claiming NSW COVID cases could reach 4,000 per day. He also corrected himself after accidentally saying “Hopefully I’m wrong”, making sure to let us know that it would be the predictions, not Dr Swan, which could be wrong.
Swan appears to have gotten the 4,000 number from modelling done by the Burnet Institute, but he chose to pass it on the News Breakfast audience as a likely outcome. As for his “unless the curve bends” hedge, that’s a little like a weatherman letting you know it will be a nice day “unless it rains”.
The good doctor also manages to once again flub primary school maths on hospitalisations. 5 per cent of 4,000 cases would be 200 hospitalisation, not 400.
For more on COVID-19 and the media’s “I stand with Dan club” see the hugely popular Documentation segment.
NO TAKERS SO FAR ON SHANE WRIGHT’S CANDLE-STICKS SOLUTIONS TO THE ENERGY CRISIS
It is not so long ago since Shane Wright, senior economics correspondent for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald, confidently declared on the Insiders program that “coal is like candlesticks”. Meaning that coal is as relevant today for producing energy as were candlesticks in the early 20th Century following the invention of electricity. Or something like that. He waxed lyrical about how the Candle Makers Union of old was wont to say 150 years ago: “These light bulbs, they’ll never catch on.”
Your man Wright was very confident about this gospel which he preached – apparently ignorant of the fact that such nations as China, India and Indonesia do not look like junking coal as an energy supplier anytime soon.
So far Shane (“Candlesticks”) Wright has yet to advise readers of the SMH and The Age of the increased demand for coal. As the Australian Financial Review Page One headline put it yesterday “Coal, gas exports boom”.
Strange, isn’t it, that nations in East Asia and Western Europe are seeking to overcome their immediate energy shortages by purchasing gas and, yes, coal. So far, no world leader has asked Nine’s comrade Wright for advice as to how to solve their energy problems by the use of candlesticks.
DOCUMENTATION
•RED FACES ALL ROUND IN THE “I STAND WITH DAN AND AGAINST GLADYS” MEDIA CLUB
Since the beginning of the Delta variant outbreak in Sydney in June, there has been no shortage of media figures seeking to portray the response by the New South Wales government as hopeless. By astonishing coincidence, these were often the same media figures who spent much of 2020 defending the Victorian government’s handling of COVID. In the last week, daily case numbers in Victoria have once against passed those in New South Wales. In the interest of posterity, some of the most embarrassing sprays from the “Dan’s our man” club are collected below:
Peter FitzSimons on the Victorian playbook
There are so many things I feel we could have learnt from you Victorians, but didn't.
— 💉 Peter FitzSimons💉 (@Peter_Fitz) July 29, 2021
The smorning, Deputy Premier Barilaro, said defensively on why the thing is getting out of control here: "There is no playbook."
But there is.
The Victorian one.
It works.#NSWpol#VICpolhttps://t.co/0RWGR4nmDs
MWD is not aware of any update from The Ex-Bandannaed one on whether the Victorian playbook still works.
Julia Zemiro on replacing Gladys and Brad
390 cases.
— Julia Zemiro (@julia_zemiro) August 13, 2021
Someone anyone needs
to step in and replace @GladysB and @BradHazzard .
Stop normalising and toning down an increasing EMERGENCY. #auspol
When Victoria recorded 1438 cases on Thursday, Julia Zemiro did not call for Dan Andrews and Martin Foley to be “replaced”.
Lisa Wilkinson’s apology to Victoria on behalf of New South Wales
On 6 August 2021, at the beginning of the sixth Melbourne lockdown, Lisa Wilkinson appeared on The Project to grovel on behalf of NSW:
Lisa Wilkinson: I must say this afternoon when the news broke that you guys [Victorians] were going into lockdown from 8 O’clock, you there are a lot of us in Sydney who feel like we need to apologise to you guys. Because all of this comes from what happened six weeks or so ago with that Bondi cluster that happened. And the problem was the messaging from the very beginning - and look I don’t know, we’ve all become experts. But just watching this unfold, it really does feel like problem dates back to the original mixed messaging where the lockdown [in NSW] wasn’t hard enough. And people wanted a hard lockdown, we wanted to know what the rules were so we could follow them and get out of it quickly. But Victoria keeps proving every time that the minute you get an outbreak there, you stamp on it and you get back to normal again. It’s just a pity it’s happening to you guys for the sixth time now.
Perhaps another apology will be forthcoming from Mrs Bandanna soon – along with Mr Bandanna.
Lisa Wilkinson in a huff because Gladys dared mention an end to lockdown
681 new COVID cases, the highest NSW number of the pandemic, one new death, a soft “lockdown†that’s not working…and no new restrictions proposed to STOP the spread.
— Lisa Wilkinson (@Lisa_Wilkinson) August 19, 2021
And @GladysB chooses this moment to say she can see a light at the end of the tunnel.
Lisa Wilkinson was very upset that Gladys Berejiklian was mentioning light at the end of the tunnel with 681 cases. Now Dan Andrews is announcing a pathway out of lockdown with over 1,000 cases per day and still rising. Lisa Wilkinson does not seem nearly as bothered by this.
MWD thanks avid readers will value this documentation now – and into the future.
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Until next time.
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