The Coalition in opposition has voted against legislation designed to halt the massive increases to energy costs for Australian households due to the gas company cartel and its control of that market. The Coalition has, also, voted against the creation of a future fund designed to build 30, 000 new social housing units. Australia is in the midst of a housing and cost of living crisis with rents increasing by up to 30% in places like Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. High inflation has put up the prices of food, energy, and rents. The RBA is increasing interest rates and wants to increase unemployment in Australia to bring down inflation. Despite these facts the Australian media have not challenged leader Peter Dutton on this behaviour. How can this be? The Coalition has opposed everything without being questioned during a cost-of-living crisis. The Coalition plays politics whilst Australians struggle.
Peter Dutton & Coalition Votes No On Measures To Help Australians
Could this be another example of the Australian media being controlled by corporate interests? Murdoch, the rabid right-wing owner of Fox News, and Nine Fairfax control most of our newspapers and media networks on TV and radio. This concentration of media ownership means that the voices we read and hear represent the interests of corporate Australia to the exclusion of more diversity. The ABC is an outlier in this conservative, white, mainly male echo chamber. Of course, we have social media these days to lessen the influence of this unhealthy concentration of commercial interests. Despite this the headlines are controlled by the traditional media, and they all follow the leader on this basis.
Conservative Corporate Media Gives Coalition A Free Pass
Editors and producers control the stories journalists write and film. Owners and managers of media organisations determine the direction their editorial policies follow. The youthful foot soldiers of these networks and publications are pointed in particular directions when going after stories.
News Corp is blatantly unobjective in its coverage of political events, as its perspective is always conservative, white, propertied, and mostly male. Nine Fairfax is more concerned with the interests of its major advertisers when reporting news.
There is a complete absence of our political class meeting the challenges of the cost of living/housing crisis in a non-partisan manner. Australians are living in tents on the fringes of our cities, but the Coalition plays politics over contributing to solutions. This is despite having had 10 years in power and their economic management being largely complicit in where we find ourselves today. The Robodebt scheme illegally attacking poor and vulnerable Australians, which cost the lives of some. This has cost us $1.8 billion in a settled class action against the government. The complete failure to build social housing or support the states in doing so. The unnaturally generous tax arrangements given to multinational miners and gas exploration companies. The many rorts and pork barrelling exposed by the auditor general. The waste involved in the Job Keeper subsidies paid to corporate Australia during the pandemic. The labour hire deals and consultancy outsourcing which have damaged wage growth and gutted the public service in Australia. These were all ideological attacks on the fairness and equitability of our nation.
The neoliberal manipulation of the economy to favour their coterie of business insiders to the detriment of ordinary working Australians in financial terms. The Australian media has been largely silent on these gross misuses of Coalition power and position whilst in government.
“Labor is now the preferred party to handle the rising cost of living and interest rates after a collapse in the proportion of Australians who believe the Coalition is best on key aspects of the economy.
The result of the latest Guardian Essential poll of 1,123 voters is a warning sign for the Peter Dutton-led opposition, suggesting that voters are not angry at the Albanese government’s handling of the economy, despite the pain of 12 interest rate hikes and inflation.”
Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters: Navigating Credit, Debt & Financial Freedom
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