Steve Cannane: Tom, as I mentioned in that interview with Richard Marles, Prime Minister Modi, Indian Prime Minister, was in Russia hugging Vladimir Putin the day that missile took out a children’s hospital in Kyiv. And Modi was not only hugging Vladimir Putin, he was doing trade deals that would see an increase of trade between the two countries at the at a time when Australia and Western allies are trying to cripple the war economy in Russia. Australia goes to great lengths to avoid criticising India. Is that position getting increasingly hard to sustain?
Tom McIlroy: I was glad you asked Richard Marles about that. Frankly, the embrace of Modi in Australia in recent months has been cringe-worthy. Obviously, the Indian diaspora is a huge and important part of Australia, the Australian community, Australia’s international links with India is important. But Modi is not a good guy. We shouldn’t pretend that he’s like other world leaders. And the criticism of people like Anthony Albanese for literally embracing Modi when he was here and sucking-up to him, it was, it was unbecoming. I think it’s appropriate that there be scrutiny of Modi’s close ties to Putin and what that means for the growing anti-Western alliance. It’s, it’s bad to watch. It’s, it will be tough for people like Anthony Albanese knowing how close they are to Modi.
What a load of absolute tosh. As the Labor MP Dr Andrew Charlton has written, India has demonstrated that it is possible for a nation to rapidly industrialise without throwing the switch to communist totalitarianism of the kind which took place in the Soviet Union and China.
Sure, India’s close relations with Russia is less than ideal for those nations that are supporting Ukraine. But then the likes of Steve Cannane and Tom McIlory seem unaware that this relationship goes back to the time of postcolonial India with respect to the former Soviet Union.
Let’s look on the bright side. India is a democracy. Moreover, it enjoys close relations with Australia. India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership is an important counterforce to the Communist Party of China which rules China. Also, India has taken a firm stance against Islamist terrorism.
In recent times, the Albanese government – with the support of the Opposition – gave Chinese premier Li Qiang a courteous and professional welcome to Australia. India is closer to Australia than China.
Comrade McIlroy’s word usage such as cringe-worthy, sucking-up and unbecoming is, well, unbecoming. As to the Australian Financial Review’s scribbler’s claim that Modi “is not a good guy … like other world leaders” – that’s just abuse. In any event, Media Watch Dog can think of many world leaders in this category. No nation is perfect. Modi’s India has good relations with western democracies – including Britain, Israel and the United States.
Unfortunately, no other view was heard on RN Breakfast. It would have been interesting to hear from Samantha Maiden – but she was not given a chance to challenge the Cannane/ McIlroy anti-Modi criticism.
[Well done. Perhaps you should have placed the Cannane/McIlroy discussion – I don’t like the word “conversation” – in your hugely popular Can You Bear It? segment. Just a thought. – MWD Editor.]
Can you bear it?
The Project team’s Sarah Harris,, Michael Hing & Rachel Corbett just love it when Malcolm Turnbull calls Peter Dutton “a thug”
It was close to midday on 5 July when former Liberal Party prime minister Malcolm Turnbull posted this message on X:
Malcolm Turnbull @TurnbullMalcolm
Join me as I ask the experts the question on everyone’s mind: can America, and the world, survive a second term of Donald Trump? Season three of Defending Democracy is available now play.listnr.com/podcast/defend … pic.twitter.com/0KhHxYEP7P
5/7/2024, 11:33 AM
So, Australia’s 29th prime minister is wondering out loud whether not only the United States but the whole wide world can survive a second term of a Donald J. Trump administration. Sounds somewhat hyperbolic, don’t you think?
In any event, the media got the message – to rephrase somewhat the words of Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980). And, lo and behold, Mr Turnbull was invited onto Network Ten’s The Project on Sunday 7 July. This is how the oh-so-soft interview commenced:
Sarah Harris: Here to answer this and a whole lot more, is former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. What do you reckon? Do you think Albo [Prime Minister Anthony Albanese] will call an early election?
Malcolm Turnbull: No, I don’t think so. It’s really, really hard to have an election between now and the end of the year with state elections like Queensland, redistributions. I think he’ll go between March and May next year.
Sarah Harris: What do you think? What do you think, what sort of prime minister will Peter Dutton make if he wins?
Malcolm Turnbull: I think that’s something we should contemplate with dread.
Sarah Harris: Really? Why’s that?
Malcolm Turnbull: Well, he’s a thug. [sustained laughter]
The leftist panellists on the leftish The Project just laughed and laughed at the former Liberal Party leader’s put-down of the current Liberal Party leader. To Rachel Corbett, Sarah Harris, and Michael Hing it was a lot of fun. What could be better for The Project comrades than having a Liberal attacking another Liberal on national television? Especially since this exchange followed soon after:
Michael Hing: Is there a chance then that in the next election you would vote Labor?
Malcolm Turnbull: Well, it’s always a chance. I haven’t done so. But, you know, I’ve got all sorts of options – and it is a secret ballot.
So, there you have it – with Mr Turnbull declaring that he might very well vote for Labor at the next Federal election. At the end of the interview, Comrade Helliar commented: “I admire your efforts to get the podcast plug in twice now.” Yep – it was quite an achievement but also an important warning since on The Project not many guests know that The End of The World Is (Possibly) Nigh.
No doubt, Media Watch Dog readers are primarily interested in Malcolm Turnbull’s reference to Peter Dutton as “a thug”. No doubt, also, they will remember this exchange when your man Turnbull was interviewed for the ABC TV Nemesis program which aired in February 2024:
Mark Willacy: If I say the word Peter Dutton, what one word springs to mind?
Malcolm Turnbull: [After a long thoughtful pause] Thug.
Question: What do Malcolm Turnbull’s repeated references to Peter Dutton as a “thug” indicate? Answer: That your man Turnbull has a very limited vocabulary. Which raises the question: Can You Bear It?
[No, not really, now that you ask. By the way, I wonder if Malcolm Turnbull has voted Liberal since he lost the support of a majority of his colleagues in the Liberal Party room in Canberra in August 2018 and, with it, the prime ministership. I suspect that Mr Turnbull voted for Independents/Teals since then. But, due to The Fall and all that, I may be wrong. – MWD Editor.]
ABC titular head Kim Williams in need of ABC News fact-check after his claims that oppositions produce both green and white papers
There was enormous interest in Media Watch Dog’s “History Corner” in the previous issue. As avid readers will recall, Ellie’s (male) co-owner suggested that ABC chair Kim Williams’ 2024 Sir Redmond Barry Lecture should be fact-checked by the newly-formed ABC News Verify outlet at the taxpayer funded public broadcaster. This in view of the fact that your man Williams got into error when discussing the outcome of the 1854 Eureka Stockade Uprising in general and the life and times of Sir Redmond in particular. Oh yes, Ned Kelly also got a mention.
Lotsa thanks to the avid reader who suggested that it might be worthwhile to encourage ABC News Verify to have a look at Mr Williams’ comments on 11 June at the leftist stack that was the Sydney’s Vivid Festival. This was reported in the Crikey newsletter the following day.
Kim Williams spoke at a panel titled “After the Fact” at Barangaroo House. In response to a question about the Coalition’s policy to establish nuclear reactors in several places close to extant or about-to-be-closed coal mines, the ABC chair was reported to have said:
Look, that’s an interesting point … except that it’s [the Coalition’s nuclear energy announcement] absent any of the normal fabric of policy formulation. I grew up at a time when governments published green papers, which were deliberate discussion papers, and then they published subsequent to a green paper and people responding and all the interested parties … and then they published a white paper, which is an announcement of intended government direction from which debate would follow in the parliament, and then legislation would appear.
That was the traditional process for public policy formulation, particularly on critical matters such as energy policy, I think it’s a pretty good system. To announce something as a sound bite, with no detail, no detail as to emissions targets …[it is not] good public policy in our nation. And [the Coalition’s nuclear plan] would seem to be absent many of the constituent elements that are absolutely core to the announcement of and execution of important policy initiatives.
The Coalition is in opposition, the Labor Party is in government. It is true that, with respect to important policy decisions, governments sometimes release what is termed a Green Paper following which there is a White Paper. But oppositions do not do this – primarily because they do not have the required resources.
If Mr Williams had worked in government (as a politician or staffer) or in the public service (at a senior level) he would know that oppositions do not produce Green or White papers. He hasn’t. Consequently, the titular head of ABC News Verify is talking absolute tosh. Can You Bear It?
[Interesting re Vivid – Sydney’s mid-year festival of lotsa lights where the lights go on and stay on. As I recall, it occurs not long after what is celebrated as Earth Day when the Sydney CBD is expected to turn its lights off. Strange when you think about it, or even if you don’t. – MWD Editor.]
Quelle surprise! As it dawns on Lisa Millar & Bridget Brennan (per courtesy OF George Clooney) that President Biden has problems
It was Friday 5 July when ABC TV’s News Breakfast reported that co-presenter Lisa Millar was going to the dogs. So to speak. She has given up her gig on ABC TV News to work in the ABC’s Content division. This will include yet more programs in her Muster Dogs series and more besides. It’s entertaining television – but no more than that – and is of special appeal to Ellie, Australia’s best-known real blue-heeler. The other high profile Queensland cattle dog – Bluey, who appears on ABC TV – is a fake heeler.
The ABC invariably has many going-away celebrations – until the said personality invariably returns. As Ellie’s (male) co-owner maintains, the ABC is a bit like Hotel California – you can check out, but you can never leave. So don’t be surprised if Ms Millar returns to News Breakfast. In any event, she is hanging around on the program for a month or so. Therefore, look out for another emotional on-air farewell in the genre popularised by the late Dame Nellie Melba.
But MWD digresses. On 11 July Lisa Millar and her co-presenter Bridget Brennan reported on an article by actor George Clooney which was published in The New York Times on 10 July. It was titled “I Love Joe Biden. But We Need a New Nominee”. Let’s go to the transcript to note how the News Breakfast presenters responded to The Thought of George Clooney:
Lisa Millar: I can’t stress enough, this George Clooney column has been so thoughtfully put together by him. The words are pretty powerful, and you think about the importance that Hollywood has had in fundraisers for the Democrats. And, as George Clooney himself said, that he held the biggest one for any Democratic candidate ever, just a matter of weeks ago. And that’s when the realisation sunk in for him. That this was not the Joe Biden –
Bridget Brennan: [interrupting] Very much saying that the Joe Biden of 2024 is not the Joe Biden of 2020, and that the Joe Biden he saw in the, in the interactions he had with them at that fundraiser, were very similar to the Joe Biden we saw during the debate [with Donald Trump on CNN], which was not the best foot forward for Joe Biden. Worth reading.
Lisa Millar: What a line where he says we [the Democratic Party] are not going to win in November with this president. He calls him a friend, he calls himself a supporter, but it’s not – wow. It is going to have huge ramifications, I can tell you that.
Bridget Brennan: Yeah, yep. If you’re a politics nerd, it’s well worth reading the whole piece ….
Yes. Both “Wow” and “Yep”. It would seem that the ABC presenters were unaware of President Biden’s cognitive decline until they heard from the actor, director and film producer Clooney. In fact, Clooney revealed nothing that was not already known to those who follow United States politics. He even commented in his New York Times column: “We’re all so terrified by the prospect of a second Trump term that we’ve opted to ignore every warning sign [about President Biden].”
It would seem that the likes of Ms Millar and Ms Brennan do not watch Fox News in the US (which is available on Foxtel in Australia) or Sky News Australia. If they did, they would be aware that as early as 2019 Joe Biden was showing signs of mental decline. This footage was widely available. But the opponents of Donald Trump believed what they wanted to believe about President Biden. Until now when Biden’s evident decline could favour Trump in the November 2024 election.
It is reasonable to believe that George Clooney, who is close to Joe Biden and declares his “love” for the President, knew about his condition and hid it. Whereas Lisa Millar and Bridget Brennan present themselves as, well, naive. And they present ABC TV’s leading daytime news program. Can You Bear It?
Catherine Murphy’s (unfortunate) attempt at humour on ABC TV’s Monday’s Experts
In this issue’s Editorial, reference is made to ABC TV’s Monday’s Experts that is currently relieving Q+A which appears to be in extremis.
Here’s what passes for humour on Monday’s Experts – which is co-presented by Tony Armstrong and Catherine Murphy. On 8 July, the program guest was the Collingwood AFL star Darcy Moore. It turned out that the Collingwood footballer had collided with his rival, but personal friend, Christian Petracca who plays for Melbourne. Let’s go to the transcript:
Tony Armstrong: At the King’s Birthday clash against the D’s [the Melbourne football team], it was your knee that made contact with Petracca and that led to him breaking some ribs, damaging his spleen. I mean, this is a mate, you know. But when you’re out there, that’s not how it is. What was going through your mind? Because that must have been really hard to navigate.
Darcy Moore: Yeah, for sure … It’s pretty unusual that someone you’ve known and played with and been friends with since you were 11, and you accidentally, inadvertently you know, ruptured their spleen and broke their ribs, and I think he hurt his lung as well. So, it was really nasty –
Tony Armstrong: You didn’t have to go through it all.
Catherine Murphy: Was there any organ you missed? [Laughter] Sorry, we love Christian, we love Christian.
How funny was this in view of Christian Petracca’s serious injuries? And here’s another question – Can You Bear It?
Editorial
ABC management in denial about the lack of viewpoint diversity in its news and current affairs programs
There was a time, not so long ago, when ABC TV was required viewing for those who wanted a serious analysis of news, current affairs and business later in the evening. For example, John Howard has said that, when he was prime minister, he would watch the ABC TV Lateline program before retiring for the night.
Mr Howard knew that the taxpayer funded public broadcaster lacked political balance. He once, unwisely perhaps, asked where was the ABC’s “right-wing Phillip Adams”. No one appeared. But Mr Howard understood that to do his job properly he had to cover ABC news and current affairs – including the then 7.30 Report (which was retitled 7.30 in 2011) along with the AM and PM radio programs and Lateline (which went to air in 1990).
Not anymore. Lateline was junked in 2017. The current affairs program The Drum (which ran from 6pm to 7pm) was abandoned in 2023. ABC TV’s Q+A is on death row with its programs slashed this year and currently on what journalists like to call a Well-Earned-Break – or WEB. Except, in this instance, the break is not well-earned.
Q+A has been off-air since 8 July; it will not return until 12 August. Between 27 November 2023 and 12 August 2024, Q+A will have had 12 weeks on and 24 weeks off. This despite the fact that this period has experienced much news with respect to the Middle East, Russia/Ukraine, the British general election, the French election and the forthcoming US presidential election – along with a lively period in Australian politics.
Part of the ABC’s problem turns on the fact that it remains a conservative free zone without one conservative presenter, producer or editor for any of its news and current affairs programs. This despite the politically conservative Coalition being in office more often than not since the end of the Second World War. Sure, the Labor Party is sometimes criticised on the ABC – but invariably from a left-wing perspective. Not surprisingly, the Greens are the party most supportive of the taxpayer funded public broadcaster.
In recent years, the ABC has lost many of its one-time politically conservative viewers/listeners without replacing them with the sought-after younger audience. Many of its one-time TV audience went over to Sky News or other sources of information. The fate of some ABC programs illustrates the problem.
There was a time when Q+A had some degree of political balance among its panellists – which are primarily chosen by its executive producer. Not anymore. Virtually all of its panels lack a diversity of viewpoints and are frequently a left-wing stack. Also, the audiences are overwhelmingly hostile to conservative viewpoints. Which is why many female conservative politicians refuse to go on the program.
Take for example, the program titled “Gaza, Ukraine and the Public Space” which aired on 27 May. Its panel consisted of Julian Borger (The Guardian), Maher Mughrabi (The Age), Deborah Cheetham Fraillon, Abdulrazak Gurnah and Alisa Sopova. All were highly critical of Israel – particularly Mughrabi who went so far as to claim that “one community here enjoys more political power than the Arab community does at the moment”. This comment received overwhelming support from the audience. The reference was to Jewish Australians. No other view was heard – and there were no Jewish Australians on the program. There was a sense of anti-semitism in the Q+A air.
It is unlikely that Q+A will survive into 2025. In its current break, Q+A has been replaced by a down-market, lightweight program titled Monday’s Experts presented by Tony Armstrong and Catherine Murphy. It looks back at the previous week’s sport.
Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald’s “The Guide” on 1 July, Debi Enker had this to say in her “Hindsight” column.
It’s early days for Monday’s Experts and it can take time for a panel show to find its rhythm and create the desirable balance of content and tone …. The early signs here are that the new production is leaning too heavily towards the pursuit of laughs and not allowing enough time for discussion and analysis, a tendency that infects many of the ABC’s light-entertainment programs.
This is how the presenter Tony Armstrong spoke about the Wimbledon tennis championship on 8 July:
Tony Armstrong: Wimbledon fans interrupted the match between Novak Djokovic and Alexei Popyrin. And a historic moment for Novak Djokovic. That is the first joke he’s ever made caught on camera. [prolonged laughter]
In fact, Djokovic’s behaviour at Wimbledon was more amusing than Armstrong’s “joke”. There followed the presenters and two panellists attempting to be funny and laughing at each other’s jokes. Along the lines that Debi Enker described concerning the inaugural Monday’s Experts.
The demise of The Drum was analysed by Gerard Henderson in his Weekend Australian column on 16 December 2023. In the end, the program lacked viewpoint diversity to the extent it became increasingly boring. Currently The Drum has been replaced by repeats of Hard Quiz presented by Tom Gleeson. The compere is a rarity at the ABC – being a funny comedian. Reports are rating Hard Quiz higher than The Drum – despite the fact that the former is a repeat.
So far, ABC management has yet to decide what will replace The Drum and Q+A – despite the fact that the former has been absent for six months and the latter is in the condition known as “in extremis”.
All this speaks volumes for the fact that, when it comes to serious political debate and discussion, the ABC is out of its depth and, as such, not fulfilling its duty to provide serious programs on Australia for its (diminishing) audiences. A good start would be for ABC executives to cease being in denial and accept that successful news and current affairs requires viewpoint diversity.
You must remember this?
“You Must Remember This” is based on the chorus line in the song As Time Goes
By which was popularised by the film Casablanca. It is devoted to reminding the
usual suspects of what they and/or those they supported once wrote or said or did –
and have (sometimes conveniently) forgotten.
The epistle according to Nine’s Peter Hartcher – Donald Trump once a tin pot dictator now an excellent executive
Did anyone read the column by Peter Hartcher Nine newspapers’ international editor in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald on 9 July? It was headed: “Couldn’t ask for a better boss. A former White House insider explains why Trump was a first-rate commander.”
Your man Hartcher wrote about a discussion he had recently with Christopher C. Miller who was briefly Acting Secretary of Defense in the final days of President Donald J. Trump’s administration.
Hartcher reported that Mr Miller, a retired US Army officer, regards Trump as an excellent executive and quoted him as saying: “You couldn’t ask for a better boss”. The message was that if you stood up to Trump and argued your case strongly, the former president would listen and often act on your advice. This runs contrary to the way Trump is frequently presented in the media as ignorant and arrogant.
It was refreshing to find a balanced view on Trump in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. Especially since, as Media Watch Dog recalls, Peter Hartcher had this to say of Donald J. Trump in his column of 4 November 2020 with respect to Trump’s decision to contest the likely result of the 2020 presidential election before the count was completed: “This is the behaviour of a tin pot Third World dictator in a first-world country.” Somewhat hyperbolic don’t you think?
So, in July 2024 your man Hartcher is reporting the view that Trump is an excellent executive. But in November 2020 the very same Peter Hartcher maintained that Trump was a tin pot dictator.
You Must Remember This.
Five Paws Award
Media Watch Dog’s Five Paws Award was inaugurated in Issue Number 26 (4 September 2009) during the time of Nancy (2004-2017). The first winner was then ABC TV presenter Emma Alberici. Ms Alberici scored for remembering the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 23 August 1939 whereby Hitler and Stalin divided Eastern Europe between Germany and the Soviet Union. And for stating that the Nazi-Soviet Pact had effectively started the Second World War, since it was immediately followed by Germany’s invasion of western Poland (at a time when the Soviet Union had become an ally of Germany). Soon after, the USSR invaded eastern Poland in accordance with the protocols of the Nazi-Soviet Pact.
Over the years, the late Nancy’s Five Paws Award has become one of the world’s most prestigious gongs – rating just below the Nobel prize and Academy Awards.
Nine’s Stephen Brook describes The Australian as the paper that everybody talks about
Media Watch Dog fave Stephen Brook is currently a “CBD” columnist in Nine Newspapers and a special correspondent with The Age. On 11 July he did the “Newspapers” segment on ABC TV News Breakfast. Discussion commenced with a medical story in that morning’s The Australian. Soon after, the following exchange took place between Stephen Brook and presenter Lisa Millar:
Stephen Brook: The Australian newspaper’s got a special series because it is turning 60 years old.
Lisa Millar: Yes, so they’ve been pulling up some old stories and columns —
Stephen Brook: Fascinating stories from their history. And there’s a big [Australian] Weekend Magazine celebrating some of their journalism. So, 60 years later, it’s still the paper that everybody talks about. Often. So that’s good.
Lisa Millar: For various reasons.
Stephen Brook: Yes.
How about that? The ABC’s Lisa Millar wanted to dilute Stephen Brook’s statement that The Australian is the paper that everybody talks about. But what your man Brook said is true. The Australian (1964-) is the most talked about newspaper in Australia – for whatever reason. In other words, it is a newspaper which makes news. What’s wrong with that?
Stephen Brook: Five Paws.
A Mark Kenny moment
Podcast professor Mark Kenny offers up a guest lecture by Nick Bryant on American politics
Last week MWD teased a look at Mark (“Please call me Professor”) Kenny’s podcast Democracy Sausage. Here is an analysis of a typical episode.
The 19 June episode of Democracy Sausage featured an interview with former BBC correspondent Nick Bryant. The ever-alienated Bryant was on to promote his latest book The Forever War: America’s Unending Conflict with Itself.
While introducing Bryant, Comrade Kenny made sure to tell listeners that “democracy is on the ballot”. That is to say, if American voters don’t vote the way the learned Professor Kenny wants them to, that will be the end of democracy in the United States. Clearly voters cannot be trusted with the responsibility of protecting democracy. Perhaps some sort of benevolent dictatorship by ANU professors would work better.
The discussion began with Kenny heaping praise upon Nick Bryant for the success of his previous book, 2021’s When America Stopped Being Great (not to be confused with 2014’s similarly titled The Rise and Fall of Australia: How a Great Nation Lost Its Way). Perhaps Bryant’s next work will be titled “When Britain Became a Failed State”, or something like that.
A copy of When America Stopped Being Great has apparently turned up in the Oval Office under President Biden. Here is what Bryant said about his tome:
Nick Bryant: And that’s essentially the argument of the book that Donald Trump is as much a product of American history as Abraham Lincoln or FDR or John F Kennedy or Barack Obama or Joe Biden.
It seems Bryant believed that readers of his previous book needed to be informed that American history does not entirely consist of Lincoln followed by a series of Democrats. And it’s not clear how exactly any president could not be a “product of American history”.
Much of the interview consists of Nick Bryant offering up obvious and well-known facts and observations about the United States, in response to which the podcast professor acts as if he has just heard a profound truth spoken for the very first time. Here is Bryant offering up what he apparently believes are unknown facts about African-American history:
Nick Bryant: And African-Americans back then weren’t even regarded as people, they were regarded as property. And yeah, I mean, one of the shocking things for Americans is that they don’t know a lot of this history. They don’t know, for instance, many Americans, that the country didn’t really achieve universal suffrage in a practical sense until 1965 with the passage of this landmark Voting Rights Act.
Needless to say, there are very few Americans who would be shocked to learn about slavery or the civil rights movement. Later in the podcast, President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address is mentioned and here Bryant offers up some more shocking revelations:
Nick Bryant: This extraordinary speech that Lincoln gave, 273 words long. Took him just two minutes to deliver. People often forget that.
The brevity of the Gettysburg Address is perhaps the best-known fact about the speech, other than that it was delivered at a place called Gettysburg.
Throughout the interview Kenny and Bryant waffle on at great length about all the usual lefty grievances with American politics: Trump as a “racist misogynist”, the January 6th “insurrection”, Hillary Clinton winning the popular vote, the 2nd amendment of the Constitution, Al Gore losing in Florida because of hanging chads, QAnon, zzzzzzzzz. Near the end of the episode the comradely duo even manage to take a brief break from American lefty griping to whine about Brexit.
It is unclear who, aside from perhaps President Biden, needs Mark Kenny and Nick Bryant to rehash for them well-worn left-wing arguments about American politics and history. Nor is it clear that such verbal sludge warrants a professorial role for Mark Kenny at the ANU, or a podcast produced by the ANU and partly funded by the taxpayer.
Verily, A Mark Kenny Moment.
More Coverage
This is Libs’ chance to expose Labor on super tax
Offering to improve a bad tax policy and simultaneously behaving like the political grown-up in the room is a start. Over to you, Sussan Ley.
Why can’t our leaders drop the ‘Gallipoli syndrome’
Anthony Albanese suffers from ‘Gallipoli syndrome’, a form of the cultural cringe that pervades Australian life but most seriously afflicts those on the left.
On Radio National Breakfast’s weekly “Politics” segment on 12 July, Steve Cannane was in the presenter’s chair and the commentators were Samantha Maiden (news.com.au) and Tom McIlroy (Australian Financial Review). Comrade Cannane fired the first volley at India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi – and Comrade McIlroy fired in the second round. No other view was heard. Let’s go to the transcript: