Thread by @iMusing

good morning from unceded Terramerragal☀️today on #Insiders are ABC radio host Raf Epstein, Guardian politics editor Katharine Murphy, and murdoch columnist Peter van Onselen. The interview is with Peter Dutton.

opening spiel: “natural disaster at home” - he means climate disaster - and humanitarian disaster abroad.
what’s the Morrison perspective, skip? Well, the invasion in another hemisphere is “reshaping the [Australian] election contest”.
#Insiders

the montage is politicians and journalists talking about war, footage of the Putin invasion of Ukraine, and the usual dominance of Morrison clips, including that carefully rehearsed chest thumping line that was delivered in response to a dixer from Uhlmann. #Insiders

Morrison clip count is up to 5 plus Payne, Dutton, and Joyce. Soundtrack is Mad World but not the Tears for Fears original. #Insiders

#MakingNews Putin has broken the ceasefire and declared proponents of a no-fly zone will be considered enemy combatants. Morrison spoke to Zelenskyy. Warnie mate. #Insiders

the editorialising segment includes a line about Scott Morrison being “stuck” in isolation. #PoorScott #Insiders

panel. Epstein opens. He says Putin has not unleashed a fraction of his fire power. In Kyiv anyway, says Speers. The number of displaced persons gets a mention.
Now, about Australia. Speers repeats a Morrison announcement and plays the rehearsed chest thumping AGAIN. #Insiders

the refusal to establish a no fly zone is for the obvious reasons, says Murphy. To avoid a nuclear conflagration, she says. Why is Australia sending military aid? To show support for Ukraine. Van Onselen jumps in to say it is all a conundrum and how he feels. #Insiders

more on the no-fly zone. Epstein says two things Europe can never agree on is refugees and foreign policy. They stopped at planes, he says. Quotes Zelenskyy on the fight for light and darkness. #Insiders

we are also keeping an eye on China, says Speers, and cites the “snap meeting of the QUAD” that Morrison zoomed into. Murphy gets the India question. She says the Indian government has not condemned the Putin invasion yet. #Insiders

the idea that Morrison is a person who can deploy diplomacy - “gentle suasion” - is hopelessly naive but whatever. Van onselen says China has its eyes on Taiwan and that “there are risks”. Thanks, Pete! #Insiders

we could never put these kinds of sanctions on the Chinese economy, says Epstein. The logic of this passed me by. Presumably because they are our biggest trading partner? Van Onselen says Japan is more important than the US on Taiwan. #Insiders

Interview. Dutton says it is hard to get inside President Putin’s head, which has not stopped the pundits including Speers from indulging in pseudo-psyche analysis and bizarre body language speculation all week. #Insiders

no fly zone again. Dutton says NATOs dilemma is whether to provide boots on the ground, planes based in Poland, no-fly or what. So nuclear deterrence worked? asks Speers. Nobody wants a repeat of the 1930s says Dutton. #Insiders

more along the lines of “nobody knows what Putin wants/will do”. Has Australian lethal force arrived yet? Yes, says Dutton. What has arrived? He is not going into that. Missiles and ammunition? Yes we have been clear about that, Dutton says. #Insiders

the aim is to see the Russians turn back, says Dutton. And to protect women and children. The Ukrainians have put up a magnificent fight, Dutton says.
He keeps calling Ukraine “the Ukraine”. #Insiders

China? Dutton says transparency, the Indians are concerned about their boundary with China. He says we do not want conflict and we have wonderful Chinese Australians here. Avoids the Taiwan Q by talking about Hong Kong. #Insiders

would Australia arm Taiwan the way it is arming Ukraine?😳
Dutton says we would do whatever we can to deter acts of aggression. #Insiders

but would we arm Taiwan? We would do whatever we can to deter, Dutton says again. He says China are amassing huge forces, and acquiring nuclear weapons. He repeatedly refers to Australia as “our homeland”. #Insiders

all this war and threat framing is fantastically irresponsible imo #Insiders

significant investment submarines cyber attacks China Iran North Korea organised criminal syndicates missiles guided weapons, recites Dutton.
War porn, all of it, says me. #Insiders

we hash over the tired old Collins class sub story afuckingain. #Insiders

are you going to stick with your current frigates contract or scrap it like you did the subs?
A: Stick with the current frigate contract. Dutton wants to “acquire capability” much more quickly because of the threat we face. #Insiders

floods. Should ADF have moved in sooner? Dutton says the initial response is states and SES and then Defence comes in. Heavy machinery is being brought in. He is “absolutely satisfied with the defence response” and the “bravery of these people”. #Insiders

and he will not tolerate any criticism of ADF says Dutton. #Insiders

so our strayan weapons have arrived, Speers puts to Epstein, who says we are not setting the strategy and the more anti-missile and anti-aircraft is being fired “the conflict goes on”. #Insiders

he softened his language, says Murphy, of the direct appeal Dutton made to Chinese Australians. Nobody notices that this is a factional manoeuvre. We know from 2018 that Dutton softens his image for leadership aspiration purposes. #Insiders

that is political, says van Onselen, of a politician who is defence minister talking about defence spending. Their supporters know they scrapped the French subs and Collins class announcements/contracts, says Epstein. #Insiders

politically, how has the [federal] government gone with this “natural disaster” - it is climate catastrophe - Speers asks. Murphy says there will be anger at state and federal governments and the disasters put our climate frontline position in the spotlight. #Insiders

he will come back to climate policy but what about the politics for Morrison? Speers asks van Onselen, who tells us there is an election coming and its outcome will be influenced by how voters feel. #Insiders

the billions that sit around collecting interest instead of being spent on mitigation works. Speers introduces this policy failure as “Labor particularly focused on” the fact that emergency relief money is announced but not reaching devastated communities. #Insiders

the trauma is generations deep, says Epstein. He tells a tinny rescue story, punters doing triage in the dark. Murphy says people will have uninsurable assets. Building on flood plains is a known mistake. And the IPCC report coincided with these floods, says Speers. #Insiders

the clean up cost is the carbon tax, says Epstein. He says in Liberal-held seats he visited, Liberals (voters?) raised the issues of integrity and climate. #Insiders

cost of living. Speers helpfully trots out the petrol price rises because war fallacy, a surrogate end point that mirrors Liberal Party messaging. Murphy says yes people are concerned about jobs, security. Van Onselen offers a future Liberal Party scare campaign. #Insiders

he is ham strung in the budget, says van Onselen, after repeating the media-created result about false voter impressions of Liberal Party economic management. Speers says he suspects they will find something in the budget. #Insiders

Tudge. Speers reads out some texts. Murphy is appalled. You can’t have a minister of the crown counselling against being transparent, she says - even tho that is exactly precisely what we do have in Tudge. #Insiders

we have not heard from Morrison on the texts, says Speers, who - like many of his colleagues - likes to wait for whatever lie Morrison tells about a story in order to shape his coverage accordingly. #Insiders

the #Insiders chat about Tudge in terms of his electorate (I am not familiar with that part of Melbourne but apparently it is blue ribbon territory) and indulge a bit of #PoorScott. Such a poorly behaved team he has somehow assembled eh. Random.

#TalkingPictures is up. Lewis is a back to you David Speers man.

https://twitter.com/insidersabc/status/1500243508493312000

#FinalObservations 1 is van Onselen saying there will be a speech to be delivered by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Jenkins at USyd and making performative noises about Womens safety in the workplace. #Insiders

#FinalObservations 2 is Murphy “picking up on that theme” and saying there is an important announcement from high profile women pending later today. #Insiders

#FinalObservations 3 was some oddly contradictory anecdata from Epstein who has been out and about talking to Melbourne voters. #Insiders

the outtake is McMickMack blathering about popcorn. #Insiders

https://twitter.com/insidersabc/status/1500244768042926082

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

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