By Kishor Napier-Raman and Tom Cowie
After Donald Trump coasted back to the White House with a bit of help from the likes of Joe Rogan and Theo Von, Australia’s wholly unoriginal political class cooked up a wholly unoriginal plan to make our leaders appear authentic: go on podcasts.
As CBD noted last week, both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton have been hitting the airwaves with the bro-coded Olympic divers and former test cricketers. The bro vote won’t win itself!
Legalise Cannabis MLC Jeremy Buckingham has been looking around for bookings for his new YouTube venture.Credit: Brook Mitchell
Meanwhile, a few pollies are getting on the other side of the mic. Liberal senator Andrew Bragg has The Yarn, where he talks about cool stuff like superannuation and the blockchain.
And over on Macquarie Street, an upper house MP has earned the nickname “Joe Bogan” among his colleagues after recently launching his own wide-ranging YouTube series, interviewing colourful identities from across the political aisle in episodes that often run well over two hours.
Jeremy Buckingham of the Legalise Cannabis Party kicked off Into the Weeds, filmed on a set that includes a weed leaf and an alien-head bong (which at least one state MP has had a rip on before filming – no, we won’t say who).
So far, starters have included state Environment Minister Penny Sharpe, professional irritant Jordan Shanks (aka FriendlyJordies), “preference whisperer” Glenn Druery and “political consultant” John Macgowan, a former dirt uniteer and one-time media minder for Bruce Lehrmann.
Macgowan’s chat with Buckingham, a former Greens member, contained a few delightful nuggets, including the MP referring to Barnaby Joyce as “a public intellectual” and his guest declaring himself “an equal opportunity racist”. It’s all pretty loose.
And there’s plenty more looseness to come. Housing Minister Rose Jackson is up next, and if anyone is going to get the inside tea on that infamous Australia Day long lunch, it’s Buckingham. Also Herald columnist and author Peter FitzSimons. An interview with Buckingham’s upper house adversary Mark Latham has been filmed, but is waiting on the lawyers to make a few cuts. Some things are simply too loose for the world.
Teals political party
After bankrolling the teal wave that swept the Liberal Party away in 2022, Climate 200, the fundraising behemoth founded by multimillionaire Simon Holmes à Court, is back for much, much more.
The teal backers are now funding candidates in 35 seats around the country, including in four held by the ALP. That includes Kate Dezarnaulds, the independent running in ultra-marginal Gilmore on the NSW South Coast, which former NSW transport minister Andrew Constance is once again trying to win back for the Liberals.
But teal donor money does not live out in the regions. It lives in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, where Dezarnaulds and fellow country teal Caz Heise, who gave the Nationals an almighty scare in the Mid North Coast seat of Cowper three years ago, are headed next week.
The pair will be rattling the can at a lunchtime fundraiser in Paddington next week, where teal godfather Holmes à Court will be giving a speech. It’s a long drive from Batemans Bay or Port Macquarie.
Perhaps the eastern suburbs donor class pitching in for some out-of-towners is a sign that the local teal Allegra Spender has Wentworth locked down. Regardless of whether that’s the case, both campaigns are putting in the yards, with both Spender and Liberal rival Ro Knox spotted pounding the pavement at Edgecliff station on Tuesday morning. Who said the campaign hadn’t started yet?
It couldn’t happen here
The Donald loves to call Canada the 51st state, but maybe he should consider annexing a couple of council areas down south.
Antics at Kingston and Casey councils in Melbourne’s south-east have raised eyebrows in recent weeks, with members of the public at meetings veering away from the topics of roads, rates and rubbish to grind culture war axes on DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), wokeness and vaccines.
At Kingston, a council meeting in early February featured such questions to council officers as “why is Kingston flying LGBTQ flags yet again?” and “now that President Donald Trump has been elected in the United States, will Kingston take a leaf out of his anti-woke administration?”
It can’t be long before someone suggests bringing in Elon Musk’s DOGE toe cutters to slash the council’s workforce.
It couldn’t happen here. Could it?
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