@ABCNews, @BBCWorld & @FinancialReview all issued corrections. But today, Murdoch tried to assert a monopoly on truth. After they were caught in a great big falsehood, that my govt "unilaterally killed the Quad", they're now attacking people for pointing out their mistakes.
When did Australia actually withdraw from the Quad? Murdoch claims it was Feb 2008. We know from Wikileaks that Howard’s Govt notified the US & Japan in early July 2007. Surprise, surprise, Murdoch doesn’t want to talk about that.
Of course, Murdoch didn’t need Wikileaks to know what the Howard Govt was up to. In July 2007, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson toured China and India repeatedly announcing it. Here he is in Beijing on 9 July 2007.
Why did the Bush Govt also turn against the Quad? According to top Indian diplomat Shyam Saran, Bush wanted Chinese support to confront Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs. No mention of this by Murdoch today. lowyinstitute.org/the-interprete…
Something else Murdoch ignores was the change of govt in Japan. Shinzo Abe stepped down in Sept 2007, & his successor Yasuo Fukuda was dead against the idea. According to Murdoch, my govt supposedly “unilaterally killed” the Quad five months later.
Indian PM Manmohan Singh was among the most wary, and was being pressured directly by the Chinese president over it. So in Jan 2008—a month before Murdoch says my Govt “unilaterally killed” the Quad—he pronounced it dead. outlookindia.com/newswire/story…
So was Australia’s drift from the Quad unilateral, as Murdoch says? Of course not. Here’s some of what I actually said at the time:
No foreign billionaire should have a monopoly on truth.
Can you believe Murdoch's #CourierFail? They commissioned polling to confirm their campaign targeting Premier @AnnastaciaMP was working. And when the data did NOT show what they wanted, they went overboard to misrepresent it.
Here’s some analysis. 1/9
Let's start with their front page "SHOCK POLL: PALASZCZUK TRAILS NEWMAN"
It's based on the Queensland Premier's satisfaction rating of 40% compared with Newman's (supposed) rating of 41% when he was defeated in 2015.
But there are THREE big problems with this claim. 2/9
1) Cherry-picking data
When choosing a poll for Newman, the #CourierFail picked a Galaxy poll from 7-8 Jan 2015 and claimed it was "the eve" of his defeat on Jan 31. That's a lie.
Murdoch's actual election-eve poll showed Newman's popularity had crashed from 41 to 35. 3/9
November marks the 15th anniversary of the 2007 election. I'm constantly asked where to find an authentic #KEVIN07 t-shirt. So we're marking the occasion by firing up the printers! All profits to @Murdoch_RC's campaign for a #MurdochRoyalCommission. kevinrudd.com/shirts
If you’re in Queensland, I’ll be getting together with the @QLDLabor family for dinner at the Gabba on Sunday 20 November. I’m looking forward to it. Tickets here: form.123formbuilder.com/6275077/form
If you can’t make it in Brisbane, I’ll be visiting Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Newcastle later this month. Come say hello. avoidablewar.com/events
Here's a great example of Murdoch and Morrison working hand-in-hand to sow false and misleading information into our national debate… This article is packed full of Liberal lies, none of which were fact-checked prior to publication, and no real opportunity to comment. Thread
The Australian sought comment from my office at 6.55pm last night (almost eight hours after the speech) on a one-hour deadline. My staff offered to help them check the LNP's facts in the morning, but they refused. They were running these lies immediately, no matter what.
Since I don't spend my Sunday nights sitting by the phone waiting for it to ring, none of this reached me before their one-hour deadline passed. When the story was published today, it was packed with desperate falsehoods and misrepresentations. Let's take it one element at a time
Morrison has been talking about "Rudd economics". What does he actually mean? Morrison would be lucky to have an economic record anything like my govt. We consistently delivered lower taxes, lower spending, lower debt, lower waste and higher wage growth than under Morrison.
Taxes under my govt averaged 21.8% of GDP and as low as 19.9% during the Global Financial Crisis.
Morrison was collecting 23.1% in taxes before the pandemic and is predicting taxes will be even higher, reaching 23.9% in 10 years' time.
The record on taxes is crystal clear.
Spending under my govt was 24.7% of GDP on average, peaking at 25.9% during the Global Financial Crisis during our stimulus, and dropping back to 23.9% before we left office.
Morrison is still spending 27.8% and forecasts 26.5% (i.e. higher than the GFC) in 10 yrs' time.
There is nobody in the parliament who knows more about Australian science, research, industry and higher education than Kim Carr. His retirement will be a loss to the Senate.
During much of Kim's career, it was fashionable to talk down the manufacturing industry as merely the inefficient and embarrassing remnants of a bygone era - something we no longer needed in a globalised economy based around financial and professional services.
But Kim has never subscribed to that doctrine. As a student of the German post-war manufacturing model, he rightly rejected this notion as a neoliberal fantasy. Like me, Kim knew the most successful countries on earth were countries that actually made things.
This bloke Forrest’s claim that my government “avoided doing or saying anything” to upset China is complete and utter nonsense. Anyone serious at @ASPI_org would have told him as much. Here are eight examples... THREAD
1. We massively increased defence spending, linking it explicitly to China's arms build-up and the need to prepare for the worst in our region. Biggest naval expansion since WW2. Defence budget was boosted by one-third to 1.96% of GDP in 2009-10. smh.com.au/national/defen…
2. We issued visas to Xinjiang activist Rebiya Kadeer to tell Australians about her homeland. The Liberals sided with Beijing against free speech, accusing us of having “failed to work constructively with China”. abc.net.au/news/2009-08-2…