good morninghappy Sunday! Today on #Insiders are no fax columnist Jennifer Hewitt, and politics editors at the ABC and murdoch press, Andrew Probyn and Samantha Maiden. The interview is with ALP deputy Richard Marles.

opening spiel: a covid turning point. Should we stay with hotel quarantine given more virulent strains? National leadership is wanting (“bipartisanship is breaking down”). #Insiders

the extremely convenient and very false narrative about Morrison “struggling to rein in” his hard right colleague Craig Kelly is repeated by Speers.

*Reminder that spreading disinformation on fb is core Liberal Party strategy, not some side show. #Insiders

the montage is also devoted to nurturing the false narrative about Kelly as tho he is not a member of the Liberal Party room. Did he vote for Morrison or Dutton? Morrison at the #NPC gets multiple outings, including his crass rudeness to Laura Tingle #Insiders

#WhatThePapersSay the Morrison government has floated some balloon about “Australians” getting vaccination certificates on our smartphones, Speers repeats obediently, as they all did on the pointless and expensive failure that is the Covid app. #Insiders

panel time. Quarantine. Sowers opens by providing ABC viewers with what Scott Morrison is “clearly trying” to do, a standard - and low risk, gutless and uninformative - press gallery frame. #Insiders

clip of Albanese on hotel quarantine and aircon systems, which you will notice is a relevant fact based variable. Sam Maiden responds with same on time of exposure to the virus eg transporting returned travellers. She adds the “questions to be answered” formula. #Insiders

without being asked, Hewitt quickly jumps in to praise the Morrison position on state-based quarantine. Speers shifts credit for HQ to the states, saying how good we are at jumping on cases. Maiden adds virus mutation considerations. #Insiders

gawd. Hewitt also drops some fairly unbelievable stats on transmission rates that I have not seen before and that imo promotes complacency but look I guess she has a valid source #Insiders

the failure in national leadership - Scott Morrison’s poor negotiating skills - to reach agreement on defining hotspots is attributed to “the states” by Probyn, when it clearly, by definition, did I mention, is a thing that requires skilled national leadership. #Insiders

Maiden also points to action by the Premiers shifting and responsive. The lumbering shitclown in the room, Scott Morrison and his failures, again go unmentioned. #Insiders

Speers puts a Morrison announcement - doubling Howard Springs capacity - in the present tense, pretending this is a thing that is actually happening, to Marles. He then demands, repeatedly, that Marles provide policy advice to Scott fucking Morrison. #Insiders

inside 10 seconds, Speers then reframes as the federal government “is looking at” Howard Springs. Marles says the federal leadership has a role in showing leadership on state borders. Speers again demands that Marles tell the Commonwealth what to do on borders. #Insiders

Q: are you saying the Labor states (sic) should not have closed their borders?

wow. Has Speers forgotten the snap SA lockdown? Is he so deeply immersed in the nasty partisan Morrison perspective that he can not see things any other way?
#Insiders

A: the federal government could and should have provided federal leadership in a federation [paraphrased].
Speers repeats his demand that the ALP deputy set out a full policy map for the Morrison government several times. This kind of badgering is his stock in trade. #Insiders

to Marles’ new portfolio. National reconstruction. Sounds like “post war” says Speers. Can we expect bold reform? asks Speers. So, is it a big agenda? he demands. That’s a small agenda, he interrupts. Badgering, badgering. #Insiders

then as he seems to think is his job description, Speers puts the Morrison government position. He calls the Liberals’ agenda to steal from workers and give to bosses, to escalate inequality and fuck PAYE and unemployed people over, “industrial relations reform”. #Insiders

the press gallery fave hedge, speculation that Morrison maybe one day might make some future commitment to a thing (net zero this week) is again put by Speers.

Marles is like look he said fuck nothing definitive and the Liberal party room is deeply divided on climate.
#Insiders

ye old “tax-payer funded” twaddle, including on the public broadcaster. Maiden says there is more than one loon on the public purse. Speers accepts unequivocally the claim Morrison made about telling Kelly off. To not do podcasts with “Mr activated almond” (Maiden). #Insiders

clip of Morrison claiming the Kelly thing is “finished” in that defensive, belligerent and raised pitch-obviously lying way. #Insiders

Casey Briggs has done a “deep dive” into the lies spread by a backbencher on fb, as several journos including Cameron Wilson have already done. Nobody mentions the fact that spreading lies on fb is core Liberal Party campaign comms. #Insiders

Speers asks Briggs - he can not keep himself out of a single segment, ever - if Kelly’s fb activity has slowed following the claim Morrison made about [insert coals hauled cliche here]. Briggs has one interesting little unit of info: Kelly posts mostly round midnight. #Insiders

Hewitt minimises and trivialises the influence of Kelly. He’s just a backbencher. He won’t get pre-selection again. She wants to pretend the problem away. Maiden says no, he has influence, look at the party room. She means factions. #Insiders

fark. Here we go. Cue press gallery journos collectively scrutinising a single word dropped by Morrison as evidence that their imaginary Morrison - the one who isn’t a coal-hugging, poor-hating, racist and misogynist pig - will this time some time soon one day emerge. #Insiders

and because pretending the word preferably is a whole cup of tea can not be sustained, they all default to openly criticising Labor, which is the opposite of how the treatment they just gave Coalition policy (fossil fuel expansion) on climate. #Insiders

more unfounded speculative discussion, this time about an as-yet non-starter, a vaccination program in Australia. Maiden tells us what the prime minister has said, again. #Insiders

Maiden says jobkeeper and jobseeker are bold reforms. This is untrue - there is no JSP reform, just a supplement, and both are temporary and due to end in March. Speers springboards off this mischaracterisation to say what he thinks about Labor reforms (“not bold”). #Insiders

both Probyn and Hewitt correct this slightly. Hewitt is asked about the RBA Governor’s speech and if his position will influence “economic policy” - meaning the Morrison government. Recall that Lowe has repeatedly called on the government to #RaiseTheRate, for years. #Insiders

anyway, Hewitt confidently states that the Morrison government will #RaiseTheRate, a claim for which there is zero evidence. They have had seven years and a pandemic to do it - and in fact steal from income support recipients instead so #Insiders

#TalkingPictures here. https://twitter.com/insidersabc/status/1358187464997761025

and the Briggs segment here: https://twitter.com/insidersabc/status/1358186422285389824

thanks very much Mike and back to you David, says David to Mike #Insiders

#FinalObservations 1 was Hewitt but I missed it sorry. Two is Probyn on vaccine complexities #Insiders

#FinalObservations 3 is Maiden warning us to keep an eye on os developments re strains and vaccines.
Hmmm, lots of jabs, says Mr Cliche.

*In fact there have been zero “jabs” delivered in Australia. Lots of announcements. Zero vaccines administered. #Insiders

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

tip jar here https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/IngridMM

Hewitt’s #FinalObservation here ty Carl. https://twitter.com/stevens_carl/status/1358192900421505027

addendum: text book example of this press gallery bluetick stock-in-trade: amplifying anon and/or bot JayCee68489047 type accounts that match journalists’ widely-platformed, deeply erroneous and very hostile opinion of how we punters use our own twitter accounts.

“don’t amplify #Insiders ratings by hate-watching” a politics show on the ABC is a ludicrous flex from the ABC politics editor.

last one sorry I just noticed this typo lol that should read ninefax columnist - Hewitt writes predictable and orthodox tory trope comment dressed up as analysis for the AFR. https://twitter.com/imusing/status/1358173433390014465