good morninghappy Sunday! Today on #Insiders are purveyors of Morrison government messaging James Campbell (Melbourne murdoch attack rag) Fran Kelly (ABC Radio National) and Phil Coorey (ninefax AFR).
This thread is not fact checked. All tweets hashtagged for muting purposes.

“border battles turn nasty” = Scott Morrison ramps up nasty attacks on Labor premiers.
“relations with China steadily declining” = Scott Morrison is a hamfisted bully on foreign affairs too.
#Insiders

The montage is not so much anti-China propaganda as depersonalise-Morrison-government-failures-on-China propaganda. Like Sheridan and Hartcher, Speers has figured out that he gets to look like a higher level international relations guy by faking China expertise. #Insiders

#WhatThePapersSay ASIO raids (last June!) and the Courier Mail has “another sad story” - more Morrison propaganda - at the “Queensland border” (which one? one?) from the file Liberal Party HQ have compiled to weaponise people’s tragedies for political gain. #Insiders

I missed #TheCurve sorry (coffee needs must) now Speers has moved straight back to the deportation of Aust journos from China. How significant is that? he asks Coorey, who mumbles away. Quite but not much, bit of this, some of that. #Insiders

apparently DFAT briefed ABC and AFR journos on the detention of Cheng Lai, an Aust journo working for Chinese media, Kelly says. Campbell points out that China distinguishes between white and ethnic Chinese Australian journalists #Insiders

Campbell is right (jesus screenshot that lol) to say there is a difference between China detaining an ethnic Chinese Australian [woman] and two white [male] Aust journos but it makes Speers super nervous. Hang on we’re talking about an Australian journalist, he says. #Insiders

ASIO ASIO speculate speculate. By definition. We’re not allowed to talk about it says Coorey, as he is talking about it #Insiders

the CCP everts dome control amongst businesses says Kelly. Influence. Corruption. This is the level of discourse here. Nobody, obviously, mentions the corrupted election of Liberal Party politician Gladys Lieu to the Australian parliament. #Insiders.

Dutton gets a friendly home quarantine welcome from Speers. Can you confirm ASIO raided the homes of four Chinese journalists in June? Dutton is not going to comment on that, he says, and comments that ASIO and the federal pleece only ever act on the best evidence #Insiders

raids on journalists are fine because ASIO and the federal pleece have Australia’s best interests at heart and there is absolutely no connection between ASIO raiding Chinese journos and China detaining/expelling Aust journos, says Dutton #Insiders

lol Dutton thinks there should be bouquets for DFAT because Birtles and Smith are back in Australia - that’s instead of doing their job on assignment in China #Insiders

Speers cites Smethurst to ask Dutton about ASIO raids. Honestly. The “answer” amounts to nope nothing to see here and Speers says okay. #Insiders

like frondly goondies, Dutton is a big rule of law bloke. Relying on authoritarian tropes like “the governments position is very clear and has been there for a long time” (which means whatever tories want it to mean) he avoids the question #Insiders

after the goons raided Smethurst, home affairs minister Dutton released a ministerial guideline saying “the free press” is a thing, and he is repeating lines from that year-old direction here #Insiders

Queensland border. Speers asks Dutton if he is as worried about other tragedies at other borders. Dutton, a federal minister in the lower house, says “I’m a Queenslander” even tho being a Queenslander is not his fucking job. #Insiders

given way too much time to push the anti-Palaszczuk line, Soeers eventually asks Dutton about international borders, his actual job. Chalk and cheese, says the minister. #Insiders

Speers is trying to land a few points on international vs state borders by citing the Tom Hanks example but it just lets Dutton duck shove Border Force/visa granting onto Qld Health. #Insiders

before times up, Dutton slips in a gratuitous lie on “support for the arts industry”, on the back of “letting Hanks in” story, which Speers lets straight through to the keeper. #Insiders

#Rabbitandcoffee splices more clips of Morrison saying announce and announcement than any audience should have to hear #Insiders

back to borders. Coorey says the ACT chief minister wants borders open too. No wonder Morrison picked an ACT woman to weaponise for political gain this week, with all those gallery journos twiddling their thumbs in Canberra to hand #Insiders

incredibly, Kelly says she agrees the Prime Minister is “attacking Queensland” and then effortlessly moves to pretending Morrison responded to Palaszczuk rather than on a political brawl of his own making. She says it was Palaszczuk who handled “it” badly. #Insiders

there were a lot of contradictions in the Dutton interview, says Fran bravely, without mentioning what these “contradictions” (lies) are. #Insiders

the gamboling from “Abbott went to Europe” (sic) and Hanks came here and “this poor young lady” at the Queensland border and what Palaszczuk should have done according to Morrison/Coorey/Kelly is quite something #Insiders

the big scoop from Coorey is that Palaszczuk relies on public health officials to make public health decisions. That she chooses not to pull political strings to override rules for everyone else when the prime minster calls seems to upset Phil and Fran #Insiders

oh ffs. Coorey’s hatred of Dan Andrews is so blatant that David “ease restrictions” Speers interrupts to say at least the case numbers are coming down. #Insiders

poor old Fran is making the usual error of telling audiences her opinion in the guise of what “people” think and how “people” feel. They all do it but Fran is a real champ #Insiders

down there down there Coorey just sounds so contemptuous when he mentions a whole state dealing with a pandemic compared to that one woman from the ACT #Insiders

they belatedly get around to kamikaze Barilaro. A big fat nothing in the end but political journos gotta political journo. Well hang on are you just interested in your own power? Kelly asks. Of a minor state politician. A nobody, in the scheme of things. Baby steps. #Insiders

#TalkingPictures has some pretty good riffs on Barilaro too but tbh I just find this stuff all so disrespectful of koalas as kin, totem and iconic species #Insiders

full #TalkingPictures segment here. https://twitter.com/insidersabc/status/1304931549557604352

[rate limit exceeded]
#FinalObservations 1 was Coorey but sadly I missed whatever precious gem he shared. Fran flags planned changes to clean energy finance. The aim is to give more public money to gas industry donors, which Morrison comms call “technology neutral” #Insiders

#FinalObservation 3 is Campbell on what he calls “covid welfare”. The rest of the country - by which he presumably means “the Federal government” - will have to take a good hard look at helping Victoria, he says #Insiders

we go out with a clip of Dandrews explaining that intimate partner relationships are different in nature from other types of relationships in his usual earnest, explainy way, hearing himself, blushing a bit, and saying yeah he’ll stop there thanks. #Insiders

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

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