Thread by @iMusing

good morning from unceded lands of the sovereign Darug people☀️today on #Insiders are murdoch politics editor Samantha Maiden, murdoch foreign policy columnist Greg Sheridan and former fairfax national affairs editor, Professor Mark Kenny.

the interview is with Morrison government finance minister and federal Liberal Party campaign manager Simon Birmingham.
This thread is not fact checked. It is not and does not pretend to be neutral, objective, or impartial.

opening spiel: Labor wins in South Australia, first pandemic change of government, incumbency myth repeated. #Insiders

sweeping win, federal-state distinction myth repeated, Kitching gets a mention straight up, and the apparently triumphant and exciting notion that “the polls were right” emerging as a fave with the gallery. #Insiders

the montage legitimises and normalises the fact that a/ Morrison has not called the federal election but the campaign is in full swing and b/ the Liberal Party cynically abuses incumbency via the federal budget for its own partisan political purposes. #Insiders

tbf there is a clip of opposition Treasurer Chalmers saying the Morrison government abuses the budget for political purposes. #Insiders

#MakingNews starts with a Ukraine announcement, and headlines Kitching ahead of the Labor win in South Australia. Clips of both SA leaders. #Insiders

Speers gives his editorialising segment to Antony Green’s wrap on the SA result. He calls a majority of five and also runs the “polls were right” and “first pandemic change” and federal implications lines. #Insiders

we need to see the SA result in the context of Liberal Party scandals, but it “had a strong economic story to tell” says Professor Kenny. Speers interrupts to admire pandemic management in SA. #Insiders

yeah but they opened the borders at the wrong time says Maiden. You both seem o be saying this is more about Marshall and the Liberals than… Labor? Speers asks incredulously. No he ran a good campaign says Maiden of Malinaukas. He “looked like a winner” she says. #Insiders

federal implications that they “have to be a bit cautious about” and go full speed ahead. Professor Kenny says Labor ran hard on health and ambulance ramping and he is young and handsome. #Insiders

but does Anthony Albanese have [Kennedy-esque youth and handsomeness] asks Speers. Well we will find out after the next election says Maiden. She calls the SA result a “post pandemic” election. #Insiders

christ. Sheridan also opens with remarks about the physical appearance of Labor politicians. Speers asks him if Morrison is a much better campaigner than Marshall. All of this has an emasculating (of Labor + Marshall) subtext, for the obvious reasons. #Insiders

clip of Morrison promising vote buying handouts. No doubt Bevan has costed these for smh readers. #Insiders

blah blah Defence and big cash handout budget and “the electorate is grumpy even tho it has no reason to be grumpy” says bloke with no clue how the majority live. Which one? Sheridan. #Insiders

the MCG will be chockablock with people celebrating Shane Warnes life on budget day says Professor Kenny. He and Speers agree that there is not much time between now and the federal election. #Insiders

budget repair. Maiden says “they have to do something”, meaning the Morrison government. Professor Kenny also agreed that it is time for budget repair. Sam also says there is a “danger” (🤞🏼🤞🏼) people will take the money and vote “for the other mob”. #Insiders

timing, says Professor Kenny. No point waiting til July he and Speers agree. Voters might not buy it and the Morrison government risks looking desperate, Kenny says, and Maiden interjects “I’m sure they’ll take it”. They have such contempt for voters lol #Insiders

interview. It is a disappointing day for the Liberal Party family in SA says SA Liberal Party Senator Simon Birmingham. He says the hospital-centred Labor campaign was a scare campaign. He rolls out the mediscare furphy. Pitiful stuff. #Insiders

so SA voters were tricked? asks Speers. Birmingham backtracks and blathers about “timing” and “bad luck” and runs a union-bashing line. He cites Professor Kenny “on your program” saying Labor ran a tight campaign - as an insult tho - to try and shore up his weak points. #Insiders

this is really pitiful. Now Birmingham is sorrowfully citing the tragic war in Europe - he means the Putin invasion of Ukraine - and lies about the Liberal Party record of being consistently highest taxing governments by lying about Labor. #Insiders

fuel prices, tax cuts for the rich. Should all Australians expect some help? He means cash handouts immediately prior to an election.
[The budget is not for “helping”. It is meant to fund essential services - ed]. #Insiders

“careful calibration” again. This is what Coalition politicians call corrupted spending and cash handouts of public money to targeted voters and seats. #Insiders

government debt. This is all gibberish. It is off the charts, Birmingham takes exactly zero responsibility for the trillion dollar public debt and structural deficit in the budget, and runs another scare campaign line about Labor. #Insiders

the greatest threat to future budget security is of youth unemployment remains high and creates a long welfare expenditure tail (or some approximation of sane) says Birmingham, a lie. Welfare payments to young people has nothing on Defence spending and waste. #Insiders

Ukraine. Speers tries to get to the legal basis for imposing sanctions. Birmingham says “his understanding” is “existing laws” have allowed them to target individuals. Foreign Affairs does not list the Maglinsky law as being operationalised? Birmingham does not know. #Insiders

Kitching. Speers invites Birmingham to support a Senate inquiry into allegations of bullying. Birmingham pretends Morrison takes “strong action” on allegations against a colleague, a lie. #Insiders

anyway it was a free kick in Albo bashing #Insiders

it does not sound like Birmingham supports a Senate inquiry into [checks notes] allegations of factional manoeuvres in a political party [paraphrased] so let’s talk about Kimberly Kitching says Speers with graceless eagerness. #Insiders

Maiden discloses background relationships with Wong (40 years, school with brother) and Kitching (pre-politics) and that she interviewed people for her book. Speers quotes Markson and Maiden tells Speers “that did not happen”. #Insiders

god this stuff is so far inside the bubble. I can not stand it. The woman is dead. How much time a supposedly serious federal politics show is devoting to factional fighting involving the late Senator Kitching is terrible judgement by Speers and his bosses. #Insiders

now Professor Kenny is giving his impression of what it “seems like” the late Senator Kitching felt. Speers interrupts to say the point is her relationships with non-Labor politicians. Kenny persists. Maiden interrupts. This is a fucking mess. #Insiders

they are still going, wallowing around in Labor Party internals, because a central player has died. Her funeral has not yet been held. Kenny puts on the record that causation speculation is bad. Speers and Maiden agree in principle and go straight back to the goss #Insiders

clip of Albanese asking the media to stop. Narrator: the #Insiders do not stop. They discuss the rightness of discussing Labor internals catalysed by the death of a Senator.

we have to move on, says Speers, after drawing out the Kitching segment [checks watch] for over ten minutes of a one hour national show. He gives Sheridan Q on Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to bookend a clip of Morrison chest thumping. #Insiders

which Speers calls “the prime minister really sharpening his language”. Professor Kenny says there is “some domestic politics” (all politics are local - Ed) and Morrison likes campaigning on national security [paraphrased]. #Insiders

are we going to sanction ourselves? asks Maiden, saying increased sanctions will “boomerang” and risk retaliatory sanctions. Sheridan says Morrison is overdoing the natsec tub thumping and it is obviously domestic campaigning [paraphrased]. #Insiders

#TalkingPictures is up. The dick and balls logo gets a run. “That is a John Thomas.. with a set of plums” says Mark Knight who is a back to you Speersy man.

https://twitter.com/insidersabc/status/1505316938439823362

#FinalObservations 1 is Kenny saying the non-anglo surnames of Premiers reflects multicultural Australia. #Insiders

#FinalObservations 2 is Maiden mentioning a candidate (?) called Elizabeth Haberman (?) but I missed the significance sorry. #Insiders

#FinalObservations 3 is Sheridan banging on about the failure of politicians to “give us anything” on relevant defence capability. Speers has to shut him up. #Insiders

the outtake is Joyce saying he congratulates Albanese on his weight loss and “god knows I have to” lol #Insiders

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

tip jar here

paypal.me/IngridMM

thank you to the Liz Habermann fact checkers.

https://twitter.com/cayteya/status/1505321162854731776

lotta snitch taggers around today. Here is the rule: if you want to tag, do it on your own tweets.