Thread by @iMusing

good morning☀️happy new year! This week on #Insiders are Guardian Politics editor Katharine Murphy, 9fax (AFR) correspondent Phil Coorey and Perth radio host and columnist Gareth Parker.
The interview is with Labor leader Anthony Albanese.

opening spiel: speculative claim about omicron wave, statement that “political bruises remain”.
What’s the Morrison government perspective, skip?
Well, it “wasn’t the summer we hoped for, especially for the government”. #Insiders

montage is politicians and journalists on omicron. The Albanese line about being easier to get covid that rapid antigen tests gets a run. So does Chalmers locating responsibility where it belongs. #Insiders

clip of Albanese #NPC speech, with partisan framing. He doesn’t hold a hose and he doesn’t give a RATs also gets a run. Perrottet lying. Dutton lying #Insiders

#MakingNews describes appalling conditions in aged “care” homes, which sound as bad as ever. #Insiders Also the absence of an “investigation” report into allegations that Morrison government Minister Alan Tudge is abusive and violent.

#TheCurve “hot vax summer” has seen cases surge from <250K throughout the pandemic to well over a million (1.8 million did he say?) today. Most deaths among older Australians, says Briggs. #Insiders

more deaths of old people in the aged facilities than elsewhere. Significant numbers of people in aged “care” also not boosted. Global death comparison. #TheCurve #Insiders

panel. How this election year begins, states Speers. He repeats the “nobody predicted” lie about omicron. Murphy says we had hoped for a “summer of freedom” and Morrison had hoped for a fillip in the polls. He has “lost a lot of paint”, she says. #Insiders

there is not an election today, says Murphy. It is possible people have had enough of the Morrison government, she says. It was “a spectacularly bad year” and “Labor is in it”. Also mentions the structural advantage of incumbency [paraphrased]. #Insiders

what struck Coorey was how people blamed Morrison (no mention of the fact that Morrison always blames someone else and the press gallery always report his defkecting). People blame incumbents now, says Coorey. It is not homogenous across the country! #Insiders

clip of Morrison from last August talking about how RATs “will be very important”. Parker restates the omicron omg narrative. Says governments were too late to order the tests. #Insiders

but who is really to blame, says Speers. Murphy says a bit of everyone. The “prime minister obviously has the lions share of responsibility” says Murphy, as he “led the national response”. She runs the “baffling” failure narrative. #Insiders

Coorey reframes Murphy’s “massive fail” and Morrison government responsibility with “another failure of federation” which he blames on “this virus”. Opening borders unleashed the huge wave, according to Phil, but if he said which borders (presumably state?) I missed it. #Insiders

clip of Albanese at #NPC on free distribution of RATs to segue to interview. Albanese says everywhere he has visited has major issues with RAT supply. Aged care facilities are not getting them. Speers says the government says they have provided RATs to aged care. #Insiders

the interim royal commission report on aged care was titled neglect, says Albanese. He describes the horrific conditions.
That’s a bigger problem than RATs says Speers. Just sticking with RATs, he says. Would people visiting grandparents get free RATs? #Insiders

bit of back and forth on RAT distribution. If you do not get good health incomes, you get worse economic outcomes, says Albanese. Every time this government fails to act it has worse economic outcomes.
Have you costed your policies? says Speers. #Insiders

well Labor will go to the election with fully costed policies, David, says Anthony Albanese. But back to the RATs says Speers. How would you overcome TGA approval? Some companies make false claims about what their product does says Speers, citing the TGA. #Insiders

we need to manufacture RATs here, says Albanese. The government has failed on every level. He runs through vaccine and RAT failures again. What would you actually do to improve the situation? asks Speers. #Insiders

Albanese runs thru GP point of care arrangements. Pay GPS more? says Speers. What about hospitals? Why can’t Labor commit to increasing hospital funding? Aged care funding?

Labor can commit to funding many things David, just not all on #Insiders this morning, says Albanese.

what about schools? You can’t offer anything to voters before the election? asks Speers.
Albanese lists Labor policies on capital funding for schools, welfare for students, increases in TAFE and uni places. What about Jobseeker? asks Speers. Will you #RaiseTheRate? #Insiders

on #RaiseTheRate Albanese says Labor will look at the rate as every government should in every budget. “So you won’t go to the election promising to raise the rate? …When does budget repair start? You’re talking about spending more on aged care, schools…” #Insiders

it was entirely appropriate to spend in response to the pandemic, says Albanese. What is not okay is corrupted spending, budget line items of $16 billion in projects not announced, the waste of public money [paraphrased] #Insiders

you praised [WA Premier] for closed borders, says Speers. Shouldn’t the alternative prime minister support federation? Albanese notes that the Morrison government joined with Palmer in the constitutional challenge to try and force WA to open until it didn’t. #Insiders

Q: will you keep national cabinet?
A: I want to run a Hawke-style cabinet government, microeconomic reform, ministerial COAG meetings (eg all the AGs meet to not #RaiseTheAge). The Morrison government is very centralised, everything goes through the PMO.
#Insiders

it has been more traumatic, more frustrating, more expensive than it needed to be, says Coorey, of “the way federation has functioned during this pandemic”. He says this should drive reform. #Insiders

Coorey says Abbott ran a strong cabinet government and that changed with Turnbull. No word on cabinet under the messiah complex misogynist. Also claims the Coalition has attempted PC-recommended microeconomic reform? Like what? Porters “round tables”? #Insiders

we get an extended anecdote from Parker about his personal travel arrangements. He says “the miners are split on this” re WA borders, meaning mining corporation executives, not “miners”. #Insiders

everyone would be feeling anxious about kids returning to school, says Murphy, of kids catching the virus and giving it to their parents. The booster program is running well below it should be, says Murphy. #Insiders

it is very sluggish, says Murphy. This is where the states wanting to change the definition of fully vaccinated to three shots? interrupts Speers. Murphy resumes her stride on the ACTUAL PROBLEM of re-opening schools with such low kids and booster vax rates. #Insiders

Speers and Coorey have a cosy chat about how *the Morrison government* will cope with movements in CPI, cost of living, inflation, and potential interest rate rises. Coorey paid $40 a kilo for his rump just this week! #Insiders

housing is unaffordable, petrol, child care, “a very volatile landscape between here and May politically”, says Coorey in his chat with Speers about how Scott Morrison and Coalition MPs will cope with skyrocketing costs of living. #Insiders

I missed the reply from Murphy but she did say earlier she was sorry to bring people down in the first episode of the year but “winter is coming”. Why anyone would look to #Insiders for uplift beats me lol😂

#TalkingPictures is up, where Invasion Day and 2021 AOTY actually get a mention (the rest of the show has been clearing away dreck for a clean whiteboard so the press gallery to pivot on election coverage). #Insiders

https://twitter.com/insidersabc/status/1487559933050585088

Mark Humphries is a speersie man. #Insiders

#FinalObservations 1 is Coorey saying Perottet has announced one billion public dollars for small biz, Frydenberg has refused to go halves. #Insiders

#FinalObservations 2 is Murphy saying she spoke with Simon Birmingham last year. She will be watching sex harassment reform? The review into who knew what about Higgins’ allegations? The other review into workplace culture in the parliament? I missed which one sorry. #Insiders

I also missed most of #FinalObservations 3. Parker saying something about Kate Cheney being the one to watch? Was it the NSW by-elections or the indie movement. Losing my touch😩#Insiders

the outtake is up.

https://twitter.com/insidersabc/status/1487561195318136836

this has been another edition of watching #Insiders so you don’t have to👋🏼👋🏼👋🏼

tip jar here.

paypal.me/IngridMM

thank you! Murphy’s final ob was on the Jenkins review. The usual sleight of hand is for ministers to say the government has “responded” to or “accepted” recommendations, where accepting *is* responding under a reporting framework; and neither mean taking any action at all.

https://twitter.com/catecoburg/status/1487562987187572736

and Parker was talking about a WA indie candidate in the federal election. Thank you again to fact checkers on this thread🙏🏼

https://twitter.com/concrete_cowboi/status/1487563360858116096