This is a dead-set lie by Murdoch’s CEO, Michael Miller, telling senators that I “proactively approached” them to write an article on China last Saturday. Nothing in that statement is true.
Here are the facts... THREAD /1
On February 5, the US magazine @ForeignAffairs published a lengthy essay I had written entitled “Short of War: How to Keep US-Chinese Confrontation from Ending in Calamity”. You can read it here: foreignaffairs.com/articles/unite… /2
On February 9, I sent the essay to literally hundreds of folks in the global policy community for their thoughts & feedback. One of them was Alan Howe, a journalist I’ve known for many years, who’s now at The Australian. We don’t agree on everything but I do value his opinion. /3
Alan responded to my email saying The Australian wanted to publish an extract. I hadn’t read his email yet, so he sent me a follow-up text message on 11 Feb. We spoke on the phone and I told him that, as the essay was now in the public domain, there was nothing stopping them. /4
At no stage did I “proactively approach” their newspaper to publish anything, nor did I write a single original word for them. Every bit of the extract had appeared already in @ForeignAffairs. Miller would have known that — it was printed at the bottom of their article. /5
Murdoch’s CEO Michael Miller has misled the Senate. He must now retract his false statement and apologise to senators for misleading them. #MurdochRoyalCommission
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The Morrison Government pretends that it cares about the mismanagement of public money, but everywhere you turn you see them splurging on waste and pet projects while cutting services for those in need. Let me share one recent personal experience.
15 months ago, in Sept 2019, I wrote to the Morrison Govt to ask about the new Foreign Influence Transparency Register, which is designed to catch foreign agents trying to influence our politics. It affects everyone, but the rules are tighter for former ministers, as they should.
I have been a supporter of this Foreign Influence Transparency Scheme (FITS) legislation from the beginning, because it's important to keep tabs on actual agents of foreign government influence who are trying to affect Australian politics. It's a good and worthy objective.
We see #MurdochsPetitionPanic becoming even more frantic. They appear to be settling on a strategy — personally smear anyone who supports a Royal Commission, rather than face reality of Murdoch’s toxic brand after a decade of abusing monopoly power. Anything to avoid scrutiny.
Something new to #MurdochsPetitionPanic is the broadening of the campaign by co-opting other media. Audio from Thursday’s festival of whinging Murdoch editors was leaked to Fairfax as a warning to others they too will be smeared for publicly backing a #MurdochRoyalCommission.
These kinds of character assassinations are a huge part of Murdoch’s strategy for seeing off threats to his business interests. How many people have been smeared on the front pages for daring to question the validity of Murdoch’s monopoly? Murdoch rules by a climate of fear.
Is anybody else getting a whiff of #MurdochsPetitionPanic? A special meeting of Murdoch editors to spell out their strategy to avoid answering for their conduct before a Royal Commission. smh.com.au/business/compa…
Straight from the Murdoch playbook: they know they can’t win the argument, so they frame it around a couple of individuals and try to demolish them personally. But this isn’t about me or Turnbull — it’s about Australians demanding fairness, accuracy and diversity in their news.
If Murdoch’s editors have nothing to be ashamed of, why are they so afraid of a Royal Commission? Honestly, you’d think we were asking for their firstborn children the way they are so frantically overreacting. #MurdochsPetitionPanic#MurdochRoyalCommission
Morrison's Govt awash in corruption, but what does Murdoch put on page 1? Surprise, surprise. Another character assassination attempt based on selective, twisted accounts of me seeking fairer coverage for Labor 15yrs ago. Anything to avoid the substance of #MurdochRoyalCommission
The Murdoch media were bad in 2007, but after 2010 they became an extreme far-right operation. Ask the many professional journos who’ve since quit News Corp. Ask Rupert's son, James, who spectacularly resigned over the "hidden agendas", "disinformation" and climate change denial.
As I've already stated publicly, I make no apology for seeing Murdoch and his editors to lessen their anti-Labor bias in 2007. I can only assume we'll get his other editors to do their own "tell all" stories of meetings with me. Do your worst, Rupert.
As Chair of the IPI Board for the last two years, the Board is unanimous that all questions about the IPI's integrity should be asked and thoroughly answered. These matters are serious and they deserve scrutiny. My full statement to the media is here: kevinrudd.com/wp-content/upl…
I've now done six broadcast interviews today about events at IPI and the recommendations I'm taking to the Board to obtain answers to the remaining questions about the institution’s fundraising. These build on the steps the Board has taken over the last year.
As for Murdoch's page-one "exclusive", it wasn't exclusive at all. The donations in question were reported last year. IPI also posted to its official website making public the Board's commitment to donate an equal sum to support victims of sexual violence: ipinst.org/wp-content/upl…
So I see we’re having a debate about future economic directions… Here are a few points for #ScottyFromMarketing to reflect on… Thread
Early this year Cormann, Morrison’s Finance Minister, attacked our govt's stimulus package in the GFC, stating "We will not be pursuing a cash splash in the reckless Rudd-Gillard fashion, no,". Now they’ve adopted this same "reckless" strategy.
Remember our govt’s debt during the GFC was supposed to be "unsustainable", but under Morrison, it's five times the size of ours. #MorrisonsGiantDebtCon