With a Labor win now looking more likely in #AusVotes22 one niggling question is why News Corp is still running daily & increasingly hysterical interference when we know the wily Murdoch rarely backs a loser. A couple of theories: 1/5 One is that Lachlan, not the nonagenarian Rupert, is now running the show. Unlike the pragmatic business savant father, Lachlan sincerely believes the neo-fascist culture wars schtick promoted daily by his Fox stable of far right opinionators & their Sky News tribute bands. 2/5

Ouch! Australia just posted a 5.1% annual inflation rate - housing costs up 6.7%, education up 4.7%, food and alcohol up 4.3%, transport up 13.7% Maybe one of the travelling journos wants to ask the PM how young people can just "go and buy a house" when rents are going up well ahead of overall inflation and far outpacing wages growth of 2.5% - rents rose 11.3% in Darwin in the last year, 9.7% in Perth, 5.9% in Hobart.

The big issue in media coverage of the first week of the election campaign has been the media itself. Social media provides a behind-the-curtain view, allowing the public to see that journalists are not objective outsiders but are implicitly part of the machinery of politics. 1/5 The mediated ‘reality’ of the campaign in legacy media is exposed as a construct. The ‘story’ is decided on day one and the facts are arranged to fit that narrative. With such concentrated media ownership journos represent the powerful to the people, not the other way around. 2/5

Journos say Albo’s ‘gaffe’ was unforgivable miss the point. Yes, within the ‘rules of the game’ as the media-political class plays it, Albo should have been able to recite the numbers, just as Morrison should have known the price of a loaf of bread. 1/6 In the game as it is played in Australia, a professional politician, properly briefed, should be able to recite these factoids. We get it. But journos arching up over this are missing the point. It is the game itself that is in question. 2/6

To the media working itself up over Albo not knowing the cash rate, if you asked Biden what the fed funds target rate was he wouldn't know either. Neither would Boris Johnson know what the BoE bank rate was. This is not their job. They are politicians, not technocrats. 1/5 This 20-questions brain-dead media 'gotcha' game plays into the myth that the government "runs" the economy, with the PM sitting behind a big machine flipping dials like the Wizard of Oz. 2/5

What do those who plan to vote for the LNP on May 21 expect them to deliver? Climate action? Wages growth? A stronger economy? Improved governance? Better treatment of women? More reliable healthcare? Investment in education? More secure global relationships? 1/8 What is the LNP’s record on those issues? Climate action? They have actively sought to support the interests of the fossil fuel industry. Wages growth? We have had none for a decade. The economy? Business investment has collapsed, public debt has soared. 2/8

As we brace for the predictable editorials sneering at ‘the inner city left’ and and how they don’t understand the grass roots interests of ‘rural and regional Australia’ and the ‘ordinary people’, here are a few thoughts. 1/8 The fact is that just as with Brexit and Trump, legitimate grievances about economic injustices against working people and those on the rural fringes are being conveniently redirected toward cultural issues and a resentment of ‘elites’. 2/8