Thread by @iMusing

good morning from unceded Darug lands☀️today on #Insiders are Guardian chief politics corro Sarah Martin, 9fax (The Age) economics writer Shane Wright and 9fax (AFR) economics editor John Kehoe. The interview is with shadow Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers.

this thread is not fact checked. I block snitch-taggers. If that is a new term to you, google it.

opening spiel: it’s a critical week ahead.
What’s the Morrison perspective, skip? Well, the federal budget is the “last chance” for the Coalition parties to turn their electoral chances around. Speers calls Morrison government vote buying “a spending spree”. #Insiders

the montage opens with an advertising package for the Liberal Party. Very short clips of Chalmers and Albanese pointing out that Morrison is throwing our money at voters for electoral purposes. Morrison lies on Labor and economic management, of course. #Insiders

nb Labor are NOT announcing huge uncosted vote buying and bribes. It is NOT a bidding war. That media narrative is false. #Insiders

#MakingNews also opens with advertising for the Liberal Party. Apprentices. The PBS. Concetta Fiaveretti Wells losing a winnable Senate spot to Molan and Kim Care exiting politics. #Insiders

Speers editorialises that managing #CampaignComms on the budget is tuff for Liberal Party politicians and the budget is in structural deficit. No works on whose garbage economic management has caused the disastrous fiscal outlook. #Insiders

panel. Wright says yes tuff and we go straight to a long clip of Probyn and Frydenberg saying “skyrocketing cost of living”, a line Dr Chalmers has been running for months. #Insiders

Martin and Kehoe are asked about cutting fuel excise. Nobody points out what an emissions increasing/neutralise emissions lowering via price signals measure this would be. #Insiders

is there a magic number we should look at on Tuesday and say that’s too much? asks Speers. No, David. There are no magic numbers. The word you are looking for headline numbers, for media operatives. #Insiders

it is inflationary to throw money around in the budget [paraphrased] but Speers insists on the “helping people” line. Fact-check: the federal budget is for funding essential services. It is not a charity. #Insiders

confidence has gone backwards, says Wright. This is a long term trend by the way. Since 2014. Martin describes a Labor campaign poster from 2007 or maybe 2004. Kehoe says maybe higher wages would help with high cost of living. #Insiders

clip of Gee talking about funding veterans affairs properly. Clip of Morrison condescendingly lying about “always” (a semiotic) pLaNNiNg to spend the money on veterans. The #Insiders say cabinet is in chaos, but in an extremely understated way.

we manage to turn this cabinet chaos into a positive for the junior minister concerned. Well done, #Insiders

are we still facing a structural deficit? Wright: yes. He says the big game is the oil, gas and wheat going out of the country. Speers pretends the aged, unemployed and disabled people cause structural deficits. Fossil fuel subsidies not mentioned. The opposite in fact. #Insiders

now we are talking about the platform Labor took to the 2019 election and its possible future spending priorities. Wright calls the Morrison government budget blowout and “mindset change” to loving its own trillion dollar debt [paraphrased] “astonishing” lol #Insiders

segue to the interview with shadow Treasurer Dr Jim Chalmers is a clip of Morrison lying about Labor. Chalmers says Morrison government spakfilla can not make up for the decade of attacks on wages and job security #Insiders

but will you wave it through? Cost of living pressures did not show up in the last few weeks, says Chalmers. These pressures are a function of Coalition policy. But what about [the climate crime of] cutting fuel excuse? asks Speers. #Insiders

Chalmers runs thru the costs of child care, costs of living, Coalition wages suppression policy etc and Speers insists on making fuel excise the main issue. It is not. #Insiders

we can expect cost of living measures in the budget not because the Coalition understand those pressures but because there is an election in around 8 weeks time, says Chalmers. #Insiders

we want to see wages growth across the board, says Chalmers. There is a minimum wage case at the moment. Cutting penalty rates has stung people. Wages growth under Labor was 6% and has been 2.1% under the Coalition, says Chalmers. #Insiders

so will you reinstate Sunday penalty rates? asks Speers. We are starting with the minimum wage case says Chalmers. Wage justice, he calls this. Speers reverts to his obsession with the cost of an aged care workers wage increase. #Insiders

Chalmers says Labor rejects the proposal for a levy funding aged care wage increase. Not said: just take the cash from the obscene profits trousered by aged care bosses. #Insiders

foreign aid. Chalmers says Labor will allocate foreign aid better, and be responsible about spending in the Pacific. He points to the Solomon Islands. And wastage in defence spending. #Insiders

obviously Speers does not pick up on the massive wastage and $50 billion pa defence sieve and instead asks what it would cost to provide RATs to all Australians. Are there any areas where you will spend less than the Coalition? #Insiders

yep, says Chalmers. There are $30 billion in savings from the egregious wastage like on consultants fees and private contractors. So will you make cuts to spending? Lol. #Insiders

#Insiders the gallery always frame responsible economic management as spending cuts and prolific waste as investment according to the Party.

referring to corrupted Morrison government spending as identified by the ANAO, Speers says “pork barrelling as you call it” and claims Labor “has spent” $30 million on swimming pools, a first grade piece of time machine bullshit. What spending? They are in Opposition. #Insiders

Charlton. Apparently Chalmers co-wrote a UBI piece with the candidate for Parramatta. Chalmers says these are the sorts of ideas we can explore. #Insiders

back to panel. Wright says Labor has to cost its promises. They will wave through the budget tho? Martin says there is no way Labor is going to get between voters and a bucket of money. Not says: bucket is profligate vote buying by the Coalition. #Insiders

the Solomon Islands. Clip of Dutton, as the responsible minister, deflecting responsibility from his disastrous government and its dangerous decisions that has given rise to the Solomon Islands decision to negotiate port access with China. #Insiders

this is happening throughout the Pacific and the Australian government is alert to it, says Martin, which seems an extremely generous interpretation of the Morrison government foreign policy and defence bumbling. #Insiders

the NZ resettlement issue. Is it a cynical election move? Can’t be too cynical says Wright or Kehoe I missed who. Lambie? Martin says we do not know, which is odd, because we take whatever known liar Scott Morrison says at face value. #Insiders

nevertheless a lot of people have suffered for three years needlessly since the #medevac repeal was passed, says Martin [paraphrased]. The #Insiders are not clear on whether resettled refugees can re-enter Aust after naturalisation in NZ. They can. #Insiders

Kitching, for the third straight week. Kehoe could tell Speers to drop it but he buys in with some nonsense about hypocrisy - we are talking about basic factional brawling - Speers switches back up his and Morrison’s preferred line, about an “inquiry”. Into what? #Insiders

Martin agrees with an inquiry into “culture”. She says it is “staggering” that factional players - actual politicians - are playing politics. No word on why the press gallery are so obsessed with stringing this dead Senator politicking along. #Insiders

are we really clicking on Kitching stories in such vast numbers? Or are gallery journalists desperately scrambling to influence the election outcome? So hard to know. #Insiders

accused abuser and Morrison mentor Brian Houston. Clip of Morrison dissembling ie lying. Wright says it is a narrow issue. Morrison associating with alleged abusers is not a side show, Shane. It is central to his aggressive misogyny and toxic masculinity. #Insiders

we saw cameras in the church last time, says Speers, who also re-capped the Morrison-Houston White House story - by repeating Morrison’s excuses at the time. Martin says she does not see why not. #Insiders

it [the church] is the one (or one of the few?) areas where the prime minister appears genuine after all says Martin lol #Insiders

#TalkingPictures is up. Spudnik is the theme this week. Fiona Katsaukas is a back to you Speersy laydee.

https://twitter.com/InsidersABC/status/1507853653490606088

#FinalObservations 1 is Kehoe saying Morrison struck a Pareto (no worse off) deal with WA on the GST which has blown out by billions. More shot economic management in other words. #Insiders

#FinalObservations 2 is Martin saying the Hughs government almost lost during/after the last global pandemic in 1919? A deal was struck with Independents? I missed the significance of this history sorry. #Insiders

#FinalObservations 3 is Wright saying there may be some difference between budget claims made by politicians and PEFO costings by Treasury boffins. #Insiders

the outtake is another promotional clip of Morrison on the campaign trail, just like he was given blanket coverage of every daily stunt throughout the 2019 campaign - except earlier. #Insiders

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

tip jar here.

paypal.me/IngridMM

bit more on the final ob from Martin here. Seems there was also some suggestion regarding a potential minority government backed in by teal independents.

https://twitter.com/oldlillipilli/status/1507855930813079552

okay another titbit on the 1919 election story. Personally I hope the Liberal Party is wiped off the electoral map and forced to reconvene as something else again, but. It is quite delicious to think this is keeping Morrison awake at night.

https://twitter.com/tpythia/status/1507954650414448648

there are not really any senior MPs for the teal indies to negotiate with tho. Dutton is worse than Morrison. If they get that much sway, Frydenberg is likely gone. Hunt is leaving. Hawke is insufferable. The “senior” women plus Birmingham and Tehan are Senators.

idc as long as the possibility is eating away at Morrison.

thank you fact checkers. Tehan is in the lower house. Imagine your best bet for negotiating a minority government are Dan Tehan and people like Stuart Robert and Amanda Stoker.