Thread by @iMusing

good morning from unceded Darug lands☀️this week on #Insiders are ABC Indigenous editor Bridget Brennan, TSP political corro Karen Middleton and murdoch politics editor James Campbell. The interviews are with Liberal Party campaign rep Simon Birmingham and Greens MP Adam Bandt.

opening spiel: a jump in inflation, probably interest rate rise, and now cost of living is front and centre in the campaign, says Speers. #Insiders

in other words, headline economic figures reflect Coalition economic management so disastrous that even the press gallery has noticed. #Insiders

what’s the Morrison perspective, skip? Well, coalition politicians want voters to re-elect them for another term [paraphrased] #Insiders

the montage soundtrack is Out of Touch lol Chalmers gets a few grabs, as does Morrison of course and poor old Frydenberg with his plodding enunciation. Morrison shouting risk risk. Albanese is back! With his dog! #Insiders

#MakingNews opens with the ALP housing market announcement. Liberals “jittery” about independent candidates in Kooyong. A media scare campaign on minority governments. No word on the dangers of a Coalition majority.
#Insiders

live cross to Probyn in Perth. Keating and Rudd are there for the ALP launch. Is the day important for the Labor leader? asks Speers.
Probyn says Labor reckons there are two, three seats in the reckoning. He says Labor has to win seats to win government. #Insiders

will the housing policy push prices up further? asks Speers. Absolutely says property market expert Andrew Probyn. He claims it is “politically smart” and projects something about “how Labor wants to be seen.” #Insiders

apparently the Liberals are “launching” their campaign in the final week of the campaign. Hmm says Speers he will do “some mini rallies before then”. Nobody notes the absurdity and public cost of this Liberal Party campaign strategy. #Insiders

Middleton and Campbell go first, on the ALP housing market policy. It is small, this $10k, the panellists agree. Campbell says people in the market already decide elections. Speers disagrees. Brennan says it is peanuts. People are despairing, she says. #Insiders

every property is $350,000 says Speers, bizarrely. What is? The property? Where does he live? #Insiders Let’s get to facts on cost of living Karen, he says.

Middleton points to the way subsidising private health care has not stopped its premiums increasing. That hugely expensive handout to business was a Howard attack on Medicare from memory, that no government has wound back. #Insiders

petrol. Falling real wages. Is inflation the job of the reserve bank James? Labor has policies at the edges like childcare, says Speers. Labor has talked more about cost of living to be fair says Middleton. #Insiders

long clip of Morrison lying about Coalition economic management and clip of Albanese pointing to garbage Coalition economic management. Middleton and Speers then spell out the pitches, which are already crystal clear. This 90 minute format is bloated and repetitive imo. #Insiders

cost of living has gone from 11th in 2019 to 2nd in 2022 after climate change on Vote Compass, says Brennan. She says the “who do you trust” rhetoric is a missed opportunity for politicians to speak to people about affordability of fuel, kids sport, food. #Insiders

the scrambled PBS announcement, which is Liberal Party #CampaignComms masquerading as government policy. They accidentally announced it early chuckles Middleton. Nothing on caretaker conventions. The “Labor sees health as a strength” line, again. #Insiders

interview. What do you think of the ALP housing market policy? Birmingham says Albanese will be “at the kitchen table with you” under the Labor scheme, a lie. Is co-ownership with government a bad idea? says Speers. #Insiders

our policy is better and a more compelling argument, says Birmingham. Speers quotes the 2019 co-equity announcement by Morrison. Well we have done a lot of work since then says Birmingham. Asked about state schemes, he says a federal co-equity scheme would duplicate #Insiders

and tries to flip the “waste” attacks back on Labor lmao I bet internal Liberal Party polling is showing the Labor messaging on eye-watering waste under Morrison is staring to bite. #Insiders

overseas shocks and disruptions transport and logistics blah blah blah standard Liberal Party lying, externalise the bad news take credit for the “good” [headline figures] #Insiders

why are wages so sluggish here? We are seeing, says Birmingham, citing wages expert James Campbell, that their policy is to keep driving growth. So your plan is to keep doing what you are going [wages suppression]? Our plan is comprehensive and detailed says Birmingham #Insiders

but you have no new ideas? Speers persists. Our detailed plans overseas comparisons our detailed plans recites Birmingham #Insiders

power prices. Birmingham goes to wholesale prices, which is of no moment to retail customers is it Simon. He rolls out a gold plate scare campaign. Based on what modelling? Government, says Birmingham. #Insiders

ahahaha Speers insists on the SOURCE of the modelling. Treasury? Government? Private sector? Energy market?? Birmingham squirms around, not knowing where Treasury starts and PWC ends. Can you release the modelling? asks Speers. I think that was a no. #Insiders

is the big emitters safeguards mechanism a sneaky carbon tax? It is a cost pressure. A carbon tax tho? Costs prices passed on argle bargle. But. Is. It. A. Carbon. Tax? Birmingham does not have the figures to hand. #Insiders

what have businesses been paying under your mechanism? Birmingham does not know. Is it $15 billion? Nope, still does not know. He does however purport your know that Labor has not released details; which he calls a “contrast” to his blank on his own Party’s policy. #Insiders

foreign policy. Birmingham recites anti-Albanese lines that must be resonating in focus groups. He pretends the absolute clusterfuck caused by this government in the Pacific on trade and climate policy is “superior”. #Insiders

final Q was on Solomon Islands and Morrison pretending he has drawn a red line under military bases or whatever like Scott Morrison determines foreign or military decisions of sovereign countries. #Insiders

panel on cost of living. Middleton mentions co-equity with the bank of mum and dad. We cut to #TheCrunch with soundtrack but Briggs is not there. We will whistle him up, says Speers😳#Insiders

the Canavan man. Told to pull his head in. And is he only one? Says Brennan. How many National Party and Liberal Party colleagues privately agree with him. She says Liberal candidates in seats with teal challengers must have poured a large wine lol #Insiders

it is a narrative of chaos, says Campbell. It makes the Coalition “look” divided he says. Well the point is they are divided says Middleton. Are they really committed to net zero, or have they stitched up appearance of a plan for re-election purposes (abbr.), she says #Insiders

what is different is where it cuts in, says Middleton. Labor has a steeper trajectory, she says. Business wants this. Brennan agrees that business does not want messy climate debates. She calls the Coalition carbon tax scare campaign “vintage”😂#Insiders

nobody understands the mechanism, says Campbell. Nobody does, agree Brennan and Speers. It is a simple concept says Middleton. If you emit too much you pay more. The Guardian is full of explainers on this so how well is it really known sneers Campbell. #Insiders

deadset giveaway on the murdoch project of dumbing down the public sphere there James. #Insiders

#TheCrunch Briggs is up. He has numbers on cost of living, mortgage stress, rental stress (growing at the same rate, so housing cost stress) and some stills from major Party social media attack ads. #Insiders

Briggs says the major parties have vacated the space on renters. Speers asks if Scott Morrison is making up enough ground? Enough ground to what, David? #Insiders.

the non-major party vote will be higher than in past elections says Briggs. The independent vote is up. We know. #TheCrunch. Back to panel. #Insiders

back to the Labor launch. It needs to be an energised speech today, says Brennan. Speers says the Labor team stepped up. Such a terrible position to be in guffaws Campbell to be competing with your own team members. Such bullshit. #Insiders

there is no evidence voters want this pseudo-presidential presentation offered up by lazy horse race political journalists. It is just as or more likely that voters appreciate the depth of team talent (Ed). #Insiders

still of a Frydenberg billboard. Panic, says Middleton (I think) or Brennan. What’s it like in Kooyong? Campbell says “Josh’s material” is bought and paid for in empty shop fronts and on trucks and billboards while Dr Ryan has corflutes on peoples actual houses. #Insiders

is Frydenberg in trouble? Panel consensus that Frydenberg is indeed in trouble and that means the Liberals are in trouble. Middleton says Frydenberg is seen as a future leader and seen as a moderate.

Given he comes across as a talentless hack, that speaks for itself. #Insiders

there is some concern expressed about the Liberal Party moving even further to the right (because men like Frydenberg lack the talent and commitment to do anything other than leverage the Liberal Party as a vehicle for personal ambition). #Insiders

so what if the Liberal Party make themselves unelectable under a religious rump run by Hawke and Robert is my view of that. #Insiders

interview 2. Bandt. Energy prices, minerals for batteries, renewables. Bandt has been to Gladstone too. Speers steers back to coal towns that will not have a lithium mine. The Greens plan is a job-for-job guarantee. This is policy based on just transition principles. #Insiders

you pay for this you pay for that says Speers, all of this spending he says. He says he can not find the costings. Bandt says the PBO has done the costings, that farmers are losing billions to climate disasters, that taxing billionaires will pay for just transition. #Insiders

we need to get out of coal says Bandt. Speers asks if we are $50 billion better off by shutting down coal by 2030? Bandt steps him through the overall transition plan set out by the Greens #Insiders

will the Greens back Labor? We are not going to support the Liberals, says Bandt. The Greens policy is to build a million new houses and support people to buy or rent at around 25% of their income (an affordability benchmark). #Insiders

should Steele John have said Australia trying to direct the foreign policy of sovereign nations racist [paraphrased]? Speers says Indonesia and others have also expressed concern [about a Chinese base in the Solomon Islands]. #Insiders

tensions are rising, says Bandt. We should distinguish the Chinese people from the CCP, says Bandt, because Chinese people often cop it. The government continues to sell them coal, he says. But who is racist what is racist says Speers #Insiders

Uluṟu Statement. We support every aspect of it, says Bandt. Truth, Treaty and Voice, says Bandt.
Fact check: Voice Treaty Truth sequencing is integral to the Uluṟu Statement.
#Insiders

Speers insists on an answer regarding a referendum. Bandt defaults to winnability and cites two First Nations Greens senators to support his position. Eventually he concedes the Greens will not campaign against a referendum on Voice #Insiders

Bandt talks about Victoria, says Brennan, but negotiating Treaty is a huge task. It could take decades. Speers tries to move on but Campbell wants to talk Voice. He says the Liberals “will go bananas” and run a wrecking referendum campaign on Voice if they lose. #Insiders

the first three vox pops curated by Speers are a bloke and another bloke and a bloke sympathising with Scott Morrison. #Insiders

then he talks to a woman who does not like Scott Morrison and thinks Anthony Albanese needs to lift his profile. Back to the Coalition voter who says he “wants someone there who knows what they are doing” (it is incredible to me that anyone thinks that way). #Insiders

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

https://twitter.com/insidersabc/status/1520559878124756997

#FinalObservations 1 is Brennan saying whoever wins government should take the time to meet with families of Aboriginal people who died in custody, saying the evidence at the Veronica Nelson inquest are devastating. #Insiders

#FinalObservations 2 is Campbell saying there are two campaigns, one the trad marginal seat routine and the other in marginal Liberal seats with independent challengers [paraphrased] #Insiders

#FinalObservations 3 is Middleton saying we need to learn the Anzac lessons of mass loss of life for no strategic gain. #Insiders

the outtake is that cringe moment when Deves volunteers try to rustle up enthusiasm for their candidate.

https://twitter.com/InsidersABC/status/1520561137657339904

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

tip jar here:

paypal.me/IngridMM

I have to walk straight out the door today so apologies in advance if I do not get to all your replies later✌🏼