good morning from unceded Darug lands☀️today on #Insiders are ABC Indigenous affairs editor Bridget Brennan, 9fax politics chief David Rowe and murdoch associate editor Cameron Stewart. The interview is with shadow foreign affairs minister Penny Wong.
opening spiel: tough talk and targeted sanctions but Ukraine left to fight on its own. Russia mounts a brutal assault. #Insiders
the way political journalists relish war really turns my stomach. Bombs, tanks etc described enthusiastically. Anyway, what’s the Morrison perspective, skip? He is keeping his options open. #Insiders
the montage is mostly international footage with the obligatory clips (5) of Morrison talking about himself. Sacktions gets a run. Wong (1) and Payne (2), Biden (2) also. #Insiders
#MakingNews is the battle for Kyiv. Speers has assembled international sources here too and warns us that the #Insiders will be discussing “political” implications - he means Australian politics.
the panel opens with Australian political journalists (Stewart) discussing what Putin wants in the same way they usually discuss what Morrison wants. #Insiders
what does Putin want? Speers asks Brennan. She says it is unclear and switches the frame to “a cruel invasion of a sovereign nation”. Is the timing because the West is weakened? Yes says Crowe. The Davids are sailing close to Fox-brand wokeist blame here. #Insiders
Crowe says Putin (he calls him “Russia”) has deployed 50% of his combat power. The West has not done enough to deter him from using it, apparently. Stewart asks if “ordinary Russians” support imperialist nostalgia. Well we don’t know do we says Brennan. #Insiders
sanctions. It is debatable how effective they have been, says Speers. Clip of Biden conceding sanctions can not stop an invasion, which Speers editorialises into what Morrison says. He does not expect sanctions to end the invasion either. #Insiders
the one month time frame allows for a humanitarian crisis in Ukraine says Brennan. Putin would have factored in the incremental approach. The Davids chat about German reliance on Russian gas and… China. #Insiders
cutting Russia out of the banking system, the west, including the UK, says Crowe. Stewart calls sanctions “a boomerang” (😳) that they come back to hit the country imposing them. Brennan says we need to hear what our (Aust) humanitarian response will be. #Insiders
the government and all parties need to tell Australians with family in Ukraine what we are doing on visas and humanitarian support, says Brennan. But what about not supplying lethal weapons and maybe sending body armour, say the Davids. #Insiders
exiling Russia from SWIFT (a thing I know exactly zero about and does not want to) and we segue to the interview with with a clip of the Ukanian president. #Insiders
Wong opens by expressing support for Ukrainians and saying this [the Putin invasion] is an attack on the rules based order, an attack on sovereignty and independence. She names Putin. #Insiders
we can engage with our partners and allies around the world to put sanctions and ratchet up sanctions swiftly. It will take coordination and resolve to hurt Putin financially, and the exclusion from SWIFT will bite, says Wong. #Insiders
again with the “non-lethal weapons” from Speers. Wong says most important thing is a coherent response from the international community putting pressure on Putin for this invasion, she says. So Labor would support [thing senior Labor Senator just said]? asks Speers. #Insiders
no historical narrative can justify this invasion, Wong says. Speers persists with trying to locate a point of partisan conflict in Australian politics over the response to Putin invading Ukraine. She is not going to look for difference here David, says Wong. #Insiders
China is a power, says Wong, and it needs to express support for principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and international law. By supporting these in its foreign policy but not on Ukraine means its position is inconsistent, she says. #Insiders
unjustified aggression, Wong says again. Will Putin’s invasion embolden China to seize Taiwan? Wong cautions (“no country should”) against leveraging Ukraine for territorial expansion. What should Australia do if China moves on Taiwan? #insiders
you know I will not speculate about hypotheticals, says Wong, replying to the China-Taiwan scenario Speers put to her. There should be no unilateral change to status quo international order, says Wong. A more aggressive China is a challenge, she says. #Insiders
bipartisanship is a national asset when it comes to dealing with foreign aggression, says Wong. She repeats this point as Speers digs for partisan conflict on China, again. There is always more we can do, says Wong. #Insiders
Wong talks about what a comprehensive approach to foreign affairs and trade would look like without criticising the bumbling failures of the Morrison government on China. She repeats the value of bipartisanship on regional and international challenges. #Insiders
statecraft should be done soberly and carefully, says Wong, still without directly criticising the way Morrison and Dutton are using Ukraine to play out personal and factional hatreds in the Liberal Party. #Insiders
what are your plans [on defence spending]? These are big decisions David, says Wong, and she is not going to be making defence spending announcements on #Insiders
D2 also notes that Wong refused to take the bait and criticise the government, and had a strong bipartisan message. He also reckoned she signalled a stronger Labor position on defence spending, which she refused to do. #Insiders
more on China. Stewart agrees with Wong’s articulation of the inconsistency of China’s position on Putin. Brennan says China has been opaque, saying it respects sovereignty in principle but has not expressly condemned Putin. #Insiders
clip of Morrison grinning happily as he talks about the Putin invasion and the stage that gives him to chest thump on China. A truly ugly picture. #Insiders
we have not listened to Ukrainians and we need to listen to Taiwanese people who are watching the Chinese response to Putin, says Brennan. She keeps valiantly moving the frame from aggressive males to subject (victim) populations and the males keep switching it back. #Insiders
finally Speers lands in his happy place: is a foreign invasion good for Morrison and bad for Labor [paraphrased] he asks eagerly. D2 and Stewart say yes, broadly. They ignore the fact that voters chose Labor to steer us thru WWII and get us out of Viet Nam. #Insiders
the bipartisanship strategy gets another run. D2 says Wong made a solid point about not spending so much as capability and leadership. Stewart says Wong has been instrumental in moving Labor foreign policy to the right. #Insiders
more ahistorical revisionism from Stewart. The government is trying to pin Labor on its history, he says. What history? Leading the country through the Pacific war? Out of Viet Nam? Or the legacy lies and myths propagated by Liberals and advertised by media? #Insiders
they will want to campaign on domestic issues, cost of living, says Brennan of Labor. If petrol goes up to $3 a litre, she says. Crowe jumps in to say yes wages too. He cites a survey of perceptions of wages instead of falling real wages facts. #Insiders
yes world news did crowd out domestic issues this week says Speers, of decisions made by journalists and editors and newsroom bosses. Another clip of Morrison shouting his pro-oligarch anti-science stance on climate change. #Insiders
apparently Cannon Brookes has amassed $24 billion, according to Crowe, who then repeats some Liberal Party messaging about despatchable power. Speers chimes in to recite more pro-coal Liberal Party campaign slogans, verbatim, on the public broadcaster. #Insiders
the Davids and Stewart chat about Eraring and coal for a bit until Brennan says it just shows how far behind the rest of the world we are, talking about 2030 like this. Yes moving on, says Speers, to “our #Insiders family news”, which is Walkleys for Murphy and Maiden.
Jenna and Vic are back to you Brittany Spears laydeez😂 #Insiders
finally, Speers reports that the AWU was cleared after Australian media broadcast wall to wall bullshit about the class war mounted by Liberal Party politicians. Bill Shorten feels aggrieved, says Speers. #Insiders
#FinalObservations 1 is Crowe on the wildly dysfunctional Sydney Liberals. Hmm yes it has to be sorted out soon, agree the Davids. (Ed: Why? What does it matter if Sydney Liberals can not sort themselves out? It just means they will lose seats, which is a good thing) #Insiders
#FinalObservations 2 was Stewart but I missed it. Brennan, a recently returned ABC Europe correspondent herself, pays tribute to the journalists on the ground reporting on the Putin invasion. #Insiders
the outtake was advertising a stunt by Morrison government tourism minister Dan Tehan with his Vegemite at the airport. #Insiders
this has been another edition of watching #Insiders so you don’t have to👋🏼👋🏼👋🏼
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