Tony Fairweather

Founder Curtin Independent

[Jenny Difficult-Frecklington-Jones 🇵🇸🇱🇧🇮🇷 @JonesHowDareYou]

Matt Golding. #auspol #GamblingReform

[Aaron Smith @aaronsmith]

Thank you, Dave. I appreciate you reaching out to ask what you got wrong.

The clip we’re discussing is less than 90 seconds long. What I’m about to do demonstrates Brandolini's Law: where the amount of energy required to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude greater than that required to produce it. Or, in this case, it takes around 600 words to correct 90 seconds of your economic fan fiction.

1⃣ Between 0 and 30 seconds

You begin by confusing government debt with the Future Fund and appear to suggest that the Future Fund can't exist along side Govt debt.

They’re different things. One can exist without the other, and in Australia they do.

Australia's Future Fund was established in 2006 with an initial govt investment of about $60B. Its first annual report, in 2008, showed assets of around $64 billion - not the $100B you suggested.

Then, at around 27 seconds, you talk about the Future Fund as though it ceased to exist (you used the word 'had' as in past tense).

It still very much exists Dave. In fact, it's grown every single year since it was created. Today it's worth around $270 billion, or over $330 billion once the other funds under management are included (eg Medical Research / Housing Australia / Drought).

So before we're even 30 seconds into the clip you've managed to confuse government debt, the Future Fund, its size, and whether it still exists.

That’s a lot of economic history to get wrong in under 30 seconds.

2⃣ Around 32 seconds

You then claim Kevin Rudd used the Future Fund to "flush money through the economy".

Again, that’s simply false. The Future Fund wasn't used to fund the stimulus. It wasn't used to build school halls. It wasn’t used for any of the things you’re describing. In your defence, you do briefly flirt with the possibility that you don’t actually know what you’re talking about. Sadly, it was a very short-lived relationship.

The GFC stimulus was funded through government borrowing.

For context, construction approvals were collapsing, more than a million Australians worked in construction, and the objective was to stop unemployment exploding during the worst global financial crisis in generations.

You're welcome to argue that was the wrong policy (but you didn't). You’re not entitled to rewrite where the money came from.

3⃣ At about 44 seconds

You say, "I might be wrong".

I concede you were correct during this part of the video.

4⃣ From 44 seconds onwards

You make a series of broad claims about the GFC response.

Yes, government debt increased. That's true.

What you omit is that Australia's stimulus largely went directly to households rather than primarily rescuing financial institutions, as happened in many other countries.

The aim was simple: keep people spending, businesses operating and Australians employed while global demand collapsed. It's known as counter-cyclical fiscal policy.

Whether you agree with it politically is your business.

The specific outcome for Australia isn't contested though - Australia was one of only two economies in the OECD to avoid recession during the Global Financial Crisis. There's no reality where that wasn’t a comparatively impressive outcome.

The money didn’t need to "trickle down". The entire point was that it started at the bottom.

5⃣ Government debt

Throughout the clip (and in life generally) you repeatedly return to the theme Labor is responsible for Australia’s debt (which btw is comparatively low).

Here are the actual numbers of net debt added by each Govt since 2007.

> Rudd/Gillard: about $190 billion over six years.
> Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison: about $366 billion over nine years, around two-thirds of which pre-dated COVID.
> Albanese: about $75 billion over four years.

Those figures don’t support the story you've been telling people. And that’s really the issue.

This isn't about getting one date wrong or misremembering one statistic. Nearly every claim in your 90-second clip turns out to be either wrong or misleading.

If you're going to publicly lecture Australians about economic history, the bare minimum expectation is that you’ve first acquainted yourself with it.

Because once the errors have been pointed out, as they have been to you multiple times, every repetition stops looking like an accident and starts looking like a strategy.

Given your very public coffee with Angus Taylor last week, perhaps people are entitled to ask what that strategy might be.

[Kate Chaney @ChaneyforCurtin]

A digital duty of care cannot come soon enough. Platforms must be required to take reasonable steps to prevent harm. They have the tools - not addressing sexual exploitation and other harms is a choice to put profit over safety. #auspol https://t.co/KThx9SyiZJ

[Kate Chaney @ChaneyforCurtin]

PM’s strawman argument again. No one is trying to ban gambling. It’s about the ads.

‘Goes further than the recommendations’ = ignores the evidence & throw in some random stuff

Add your voice: https://t.co/PY3aAcrAFc
#auspol #gamblingreform

[Jenny Difficult-Frecklington-Jones 🇵🇸🇱🇧🇮🇷 @JonesHowDareYou]

Wilcox. #Spiral

[Jenny Difficult-Frecklington-Jones 🇵🇸🇱🇧🇮🇷 @JonesHowDareYou]

Wilcox. #auspol #BaffleNoMore

[David Pocock @DavidPocock]

Fossil fuel companies are spending tens of millions on over 260 programs aimed at children.

They're trying to purchase social licence and influence young Australians.

With 87% of parents and grandparents saying these programs should be publicly funded, our schools and sporting clubs shouldn't be relying on fossil fuel money.
https://t.co/tga8lK58Hb

[stranger @strangerous10]

Amanda Vanstone unloads on Pauline Hanson’s “legacy”
“What’s she achieved? Two fifths of sweet you know what all!”
“bloody nothing!”🔥🤣
“It’s all about her, she doesn’t give a rats about you.”💥💯

[David Pocock @DavidPocock]

Whistleblowers play a critical role in exposing misconduct, but too often they pay a high price for doing the right thing.

The KPMG whistleblower told parliament they would not speak up again after alleged retaliation, loss of employment, circulation of their identity and gaps in legal protection.

Senators Deb O’Neill, Barbara Pocock and Richard Colbeck and others have done outstanding work highlighting the failure of the system.

🇦🇺 needs a standalone Whistleblower Protection Authority to protect people in the public and private sectors who come forward in the public interest.
https://t.co/aE18C6Uxja

[David Pocock @DavidPocock]

It's absurd that large mining companies receive huge taxpayer-funded diesel subsidies while everyone else pays. Fuel excise doesn't go to roads it goes to general govt revenue.

Treasury forecasts the fuel tax credit scheme will cost the budget $47 billion over 4 years. Coal companies alone could receive another $6.2 billion if more mines are approved.

It's time to end fuel tax credits for large mining companies.
https://t.co/cEiwSiv56M

[Mike Carlton @MikeCarlton01]

The kindness and decency of ordinary Australians - qualities and attributes that the odious Hanson and her rotten ilk would sweep away… https://t.co/GlIiYQdmfA

[Philip Thalis @PhilipThalis]

Lively demolition of Hanson & her rabble by #malcomknox in SMH.
She uses her stupidity as a shield, & Aust public far too forgiving of fools, & too anti the more able.
A history of virulent anti-intellectualism keeps hindering us

[David Pocock @DavidPocock]

Today it's been confirmed: there will be a major overhaul of the parliamentary pass system. This will finally bring more transparency to who gets privileged access to the people's house, and who let them in.

A huge win for the community and crossbench advocacy that pushed for lobbying reform. But the job isn't done. We still need in-house and third-party rules aligned, the revolving door between government and industry closed and ministerial diaries published.
https://t.co/lA789YfoYQ

[David Pocock @DavidPocock]

Huge win on lobbying reform today with reports the govt will establish a public register for sponsored pass holders replicating the voluntary register I established, limit access to the building & publish more information about who has access.

We still need more reform to ensure ALL lobbyists (not just 3rd party lobbyists) are properly regulated by a body with teeth, and to shut the revolving door between government and industries.
https://t.co/oeNJmEFgrt

[Kate Chaney @ChaneyforCurtin]

The WA battery + renewables story:
Battery costs are falling & installation is growing - flattening demand and prices.

[stranger @strangerous10]

It got worse. Brereton actually compares his professional conflicts of interest to personal hobbies
Brereton “Nor do they need to know whether I go to church on a Sunday”
Shoebridge “You can’t see the difference b/w going to church & performing professional work?”💥
No he can’t.

[Dr Monique Ryan MP @Mon4Kooyong]

The tobacco industry is still responsible for the deaths of 66 Australians every day. Phillip Morris was recently granted a secret Senate committee hearing on illicit tobacco. Big Tobacco has a long history of manipulating public debate and purchasing political access. Half the lobbyists working for the tobacco industry previously worked in government.

So, next week I'll move an amendment to the Illicit Tobacco bill, to prohibit the tobacco industry making donations to political parties. If you care about transparency in government, watch closely how your MP votes on this one.
https://t.co/WOoCClmgr7

[☮️💧 Sleeping Giants Oz 📣 @slpng_giants_oz]

Alan Kohler today exposed how #Insiders has been passing off political media hacks as authorities on economic issues.

His authoritative yet plain speaking contribution was a refreshing change to the uneducated politically biased babble of the panel and host.

#Auspol

[David Pocock @DavidPocock]

Shell, whose Australian CEO couldn't tell me what their revenue was or how much 🇦🇺 gas they export during a senate inquiry, make huge $ by exporting gas through Singapore.

Of course gas companies + countries like Singapore don't want us to get a fair return for our gas - they're making a killing out of it. But why do the major parties want this to continue?

It's time to get a fair return for our gas exports.

https://t.co/Tp80QGEiec

Go to https://t.co/Q2DISHjCHC and write to your MP to call on them to support a 25% tax on gas exports.

[Kate Chaney @ChaneyforCurtin]

Kyle’s story is far too common. Self-regulation doesn’t work when gambling companies win from addictions. National regulation & inducements are in the Murphy report. Will the govt accept these recs in its response, promised today? #auspol #gamblingreform https://t.co/MXdcEgKLUA