Thread by @iMusing

good morning happy Sunday☀️today on #Insiders are TSP chief corro Karen Middleton, 9fax (Age/smh) columnist Sean Kelly, and murdoch (Oz) assistant editor Cameron Stewart. The interview is with liberal party leader Peter Dutton.

opening spiel is Speers kicking the media campaign to influence tax policy along. #Insiders

more from Speers on whether the federal government is un/likely to change tax policy. The montage is a media-run tax policy campaign clip. They are out of control lol #Insiders

for more than 3 years, every Morrison announcement was treated as carved in stone - despite overwhelming evidence - including his 2019 tax policy campaign. Now media are trying to dictate policy to an elected government. #Insiders

#MakingNews is David Speers. “I understand” tax policy has not changed since 2019, says Speers. Christ alive he is a bore. Ukraine is also in the news. #Insiders

now Speers is editorialising about tax policy due to “kick in” in 2024. Imagine if media got behind #RaiseTheRate the way they back themselves to influence tax policy. #Insiders

he then invites the panel to speculate about a 2024 tax policy legislated in 2019. Middleton obliges with the broken promise narrative. Speers then plays a bunch of “promise” and “trust” clips and conflates tax policy with “integrity”. Bad faith bullshit. #Insiders

Kelly also repeats the broken promises lines. Speers asks is there might be perhaps some media pressure? Kelly asks whether the electorate is really aware of fiscal pressures on the government and answers himself no. #Insiders

another tax policy clip. This is an all-out free-for-all on how media can dictate policy to an elected government. Which is a four month old government, Stewart reminds Speers. #Insiders

polling. Of course. The fifth wheel of media influence over government policy. Apparently polling companies have product that can be used by media for copy on tax policy. #Insiders

Sean you have a long memory of prime ministers being accused of broken promises, chuckles Speers, referring to the brutal misogynist bullying and lies run by Abbott and the corporate press against Julia Gillard, led by Speers’ then employer. #Insiders

more conflation of tax cuts for rich people legislated by the Morrison government with “trust” and “integrity” in “government”. These people are so confused. Kelly says the policy kicking off in 2024 will be tweaked not “broken”. #Insiders

we have now had 20 minutes of journalists obscuring and legitimising the desire of media operatives to dominate fiscal policy. They will not stop. It just keeps going. #Insiders

the only comparative point is Gillard because the media do not bully Liberal Party prime ministers like this. Clip of Liberal Party deputy leader, suitably emboldened by the press campaign, saying they will fight for rich people and inequality every step of the way. #Insiders

interview. We are STILL talking about a 2024 tax change legislated by the Morrison government in 2019. Dutton hilariously opens with claims of disunity and cites Swan and Keating. He repeats the key words workshopped by press gallery journos all week - trust etc #Insiders

lmao FIFO mine workers sacrifice time with their families, says Dutton, about tax cuts for rich people. Yes Pete I am sure they would rather be home cleaning the toilet than at the pub after work. #Insiders

the rich people whose future tax cuts he is defending could be a single mother or a young lawyer, says Dutton, bafflingly. He is just making stuff up. Once a cop always a cop #Insiders

reaching the half way mark, #Insiders is still only and solely about a 2024 fiscal setting. Even Dutton is getting jack of it. I don’t know what game you are playing, he says to Speers, who claims to be “just asking the question”. Dutton obliges with more “trust” stuff. #Insiders

this is fucking pathetic. One topic. No actual news. Wholly speculative. Laundering media interference and bullying of elected government - when Labor are in government. #Insiders

finally. He wants to move on, says Speers, and asks about repatriating Australian women and their children from refugee camps in Syria. Dutton runs his terrorist fear mongering lines and argues for giving more money to police. #Insiders

it will not cost a million dollars to monitor toddlers tho, says Speers. Nobody is talking about monitoring toddlers, says Dutton, that is just a nonsense argument. He has no time for Speers #Insiders

why was it okay to bring back 8 people under Morrison but not these families? Indoctrination says Dutton. He dithers over what age male children become a threat according to pig logic. He is thinking about safety and security of toddlers and their families, says Dutton. #Insiders

Essendon. Thorburn. Dutton prattles about discrimination and belief and different and great country and lies about the track record of Thorburn at NAB. #Insiders

i don’t support discrimination on any basis, says Dutton, a former police officer and liberal party politician. What about teachers and students at religious schools tho? asks Speers. Dutton thinks Thorburn should be reinstated [despite RC findings] #Insiders

mcsween haha Dutton says he walks in Howard’s footsteps and runs the bullshit line about Liberal Party broad church they always use to paper over the deep deep disunities that characterise how much they all hate each other. #Insiders

panel, repatriation decision. Stewart says “these women effectively decided to side with ISIS”. Wow. He says men are more dangerous than women “statistically around the world”. It is not politically beneficial but the government needs to “bring these ladies back”. #Insiders

Middleton says the government has assessed the risk is greater leaving them there than bring them home. The story of the 22yo mum of four taken there at 15yo is cited. #Insiders

clip of Marles talking keeping the Australian people “safer at home”. Fund public housing then, mate.#RaiseTheRate. Abolish #ParentsNext. Lots and lots of women and children are not safe at home. #Insiders

citizens gave rights, says Middleton, and cites an HCA decision about citizenship that would back some of what the previous government was trying to do. I think she means Love and Thom on the deportation of non-citizens? Not sure. #Insiders

back to Thorburn. Stewart says it would be different if he was just a congregation member but as the chair or whatever he is seen to own the values of the church. They call religious bigotry “conservative Christian values”. #Insiders

she agrees with Cam on the recruitment process, says Middleton. She says “the debate about religious discrimination is difficult for the Labor Party” and the conservative Christians expect the government to coddle them [paraphrased] #Insiders

clip of Andrews saying he does not support bigotry. Kelly says it is not about the footy CEO it is about LGBTQI kids and youth suicide and Andrews was reminding that we should focus on the big picture. #Insiders

something about Solomon Islands that I am not up on. Stewart says Sogavare leverages the west against China and vice versa to get more aid. #Insiders

#TalkingPictures is with Cathy Wilcox #Insiders

#FinalObservations 1 is Kelly on human rights in China. #Insiders

#FinalObservations 2 is Middleton on recommended changes to the MPOS Act and electoral staff - all MPs need more electorate staff is the gist. #Insiders

#FinalObservations 3 is Stewart on Ukraine and the nuclear threat. #Insiders

Speers then spruiks his podcast. The outtake is a cricket parody of NSW politics turnover. Reminder that the current premier *entered parliament* at the same time this government was formed under O’Farrell. #Insiders

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

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