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Annabel Crabb's Civic Duty - Season 1 Episode 2
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00:01There is another large and important group of people
00:03who work in this building.
00:04A group largely unseen and unknown to the general public.
00:08A body of professional journalists
00:10known as the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery.
00:13When the brand new Parliament of Australia
00:16opened for business in 1901,
00:18it was a cramped and ramshackle affair.
00:21Prime Minister Edmund Barton slept in the attic
00:24of the temporary Melbourne building.
00:26And the offices were in short supply.
00:30But premium space was made for the 31 newspaper reporters who made up the press gallery.
00:38Why?
00:39They were the vital conduit of information about Australia's new democracy to its people.
00:45For the political journalist, friends in high places are essential.
00:48Enemies in high places, unavoidable.
00:50These pressmen breathed the same air as the politicians.
00:54And their stories, whether positive or negative, dominated Australia's understanding of politics
00:59when their newspapers came out every morning.
01:02As George Reid, our fourth PM, is said to have implored the pressmen in 1904.
01:07Praise me if you can. Blame me if you must.
01:10But for heaven's sake, don't leave me alone.
01:14But this cosy arrangement was upended in 1939 by a disruptor.
01:19Warren Denning, appointed by the ABC to be the gallery's first ever radio reporter.
01:24Good afternoon. This is the ABC from Parliament House Canberra.
01:28The gentlemen at the press gallery were furious.
01:30Denning would be able to broadcast breaking news straight away, scooping the newspaper hacks,
01:35who were slowed down by the laborious process of typesetting, printing and delivering newspapers.
01:41The pressmen revolted, demanding that Prime Minister Robert Menzies do two briefings a day.
01:47One for all of them, one for Denning.
01:49I ought to begin by asking you whether the procedures that I've adopted in the past are satisfactory to you.
01:56And for six long weeks, Menzies obliged.
01:59Eventually, the pressmen twigged to the fact that they were handing their rival a daily exclusive with the PM,
02:05and sheepishly dropped their demands.
02:07But the episode shows you how powerful the gallery was, how protective of its patch,
02:12and keen to guard its exclusivity.
02:15And how anxious a PM was not to antagonise these men,
02:19his primary means of getting his words and plans out to the Australian people.
02:24It's pointless having a discussion about Australian democracy.
02:53Without considering how Australians find out about it.
02:57And there's no doubt that for much of our history, reporting politics has been a closed shop.
03:03Full of complicated and, at times, mutually parasitic relationships.
03:09Like so many powerful elements of our democracy, this dynamic isn't covered by our Constitution.
03:17And neither is the major technological upheaval that, over the course of this young century,
03:25has blown up so many of the presumptions on which these relationships rested for so long.
03:33Everything's moving so fast that there's barely a second to take stock of just how much it's all changed.
03:43Can you start by just describing what the daily cycle of political journalism was like when you started out?
03:51It was a discernible news cycle.
03:53It began in the morning when the newspaper thumped onto the front lawn.
03:56If a political leader wanted to get a message out,
03:59they very much might put the story in the Daily Telegraph or put the story in the Australian newspaper.
04:05You opened it up, you unfurled it, you saw what the story was above the fold, what was important to that day.
04:11You still had, I think, a landscape you could describe as having centres of gravity.
04:16There were different outlets that were influential in slightly different ways,
04:22but there was a national conversation.
04:24Even if people had different political perspectives, everyone was sort of eating at the same table.
04:29So what does the political news cycle look like these days,
04:32and how does that affect the press gallery's role?
04:35The operating environment is so fractured now,
04:37and the idea of what constitutes political news
04:42is the constant refreshment of the story of the day.
04:46Everyone talks about the 24-hour media cycle.
04:49It's not even 24 hours, it's just now.
04:52Well, I certainly think that the 24-7 media cycle and the rise of social media
04:59coarsened our public discourse.
05:02I mean, you have a look at TalkBack.
05:04TalkBack gave the average person the chance to get on the air and say what they think.
05:09Now everyone's able to do that through a million different apps.
05:12Each individual now can curate for themselves their intake.
05:17And what that means is that no one's curation will be the same as someone else's.
05:22It's made it harder and harder for clear, rational, principled voices to be heard.
05:29There's no such thing as the audience now.
05:31It's so fragmented, there are so many different audiences.
05:34Politicians have to use every available medium to get their message out.
05:41Issues that you might have thought would command the broad focus of the nation can't really do that in the same way.
05:54What is a journalist's primary aim?
05:56To present the facts of any given situation as accurately and as responsible as he possibly can.
06:02To always remain an outsider, never join the mob.
06:05It's a funny sort of relationship between pressmen and politicians.
06:08I suppose you'd say it's almost a classic example of the attraction repulsion, of love-hate.
06:13Never distort news to please people, whether to boss all the readers, all the listeners.
06:19The zookeepers rule is if you work in a zoo, don't try to be friendly with the animals.
06:24It's a tricky rule to follow when the zookeepers and animals mingle so freely together.
06:30Australia is the only Western democracy in which the press cohort has always shared quarters with MPs.
06:39OK, so Nikki, you arrived in this chamber in 1974, yes?
06:43Mm-hm.
06:44You weren't sitting here, obviously.
06:46Definitely not.
06:47It's such a squeezy little chamber, isn't it?
06:50And the press gallery is tiny.
06:52Well, it didn't seem so to me at the time.
06:55And it was filled almost every day.
06:59So Parliament was the centre of the universe, if you like.
07:04And what was the press gallery like when you arrived?
07:07It was still mostly male.
07:10There were only six women journalists in the press gallery.
07:14And I was probably the youngest and there were very few ethnics around at that time.
07:22How did it work?
07:23It was quite a closed shop back then, right?
07:26You had to have an office in the building if you were going to be a political correspondent.
07:31But because this is such a small place, there was nowhere for the politicians to hide.
07:38So you got to build up relationships and you mixed so often and so freely.
07:48You could just go down to the Prime Minister's office and say,
07:51I've got this story that's going to kill you.
07:53What do you say about it?
07:55In that era, what did politicians and journalists or media organisations rely on each other for?
08:03Well, one could not survive without the other.
08:08They needed us as much as we needed them.
08:11If they wanted to get their stories out, they had to deal with us.
08:16And we needed stories.
08:18If a Prime Minister or a Minister wants to get a story out, they'll make sure it has exclusivity.
08:23They'll give it to a particular journalist in a particular newspaper or a particular television station or a particular radio station for a particular reason.
08:32They know it'll start a cycle, the news cycle, and that people will necessarily talk about it through the day.
08:38I think politicians use radio hosts and radio hosts use politicians.
08:42It's a very equal kind of relationship in that regard.
08:46Tony Abbott has come on my show many times to talk about things that Tony Abbott wants to talk about.
08:50So the cold drop comes to you without much work done at all.
08:54You can sit back with hands behind the head and try, there's a good story, and then smash it out and away it goes.
09:01But equally there have been times when Tony Abbott doesn't want to talk about something, and I've used that association to force him to talk about it.
09:09The better way is getting the story they don't want out. That's the good story.
09:13Let's not overlook that quid pro quos could go on.
09:18And the problem when the quid pro quo involves information and the releasing of information is you open the door really to political manipulation.
09:27I'll give you this, you'll bury that.
09:29Well, gentlemen of the press, I understand you have a pre-dilection for press conferences, and now for the next 30 minutes I'm in your hands while we have one.
09:38Like any high-stakes codependent relationship, this one can pan out in a variety of ways.
09:45Sometimes, careful negotiation yields a mutually beneficial outcome.
09:50How long does it go for?
09:51Oh, two or three minutes.
09:52And all.
09:54But look, we will be doing the something on the dam, for God's sake.
09:58Yes, yes.
09:59Certainly.
10:00Yeah.
10:01Sometimes, there's a period of no speakies.
10:03Laurie, I accidentally turned Prime Minister, I'm tempted to ask the same question again for the third time because we still haven't got an answer.
10:10Clearly, there is a capacity for a political leader, particularly, you know, a Prime Minister or an opposition leader, to ice a journalist, right?
10:19Just put them on ice.
10:21They get nothing.
10:22And sometimes, there's no option but open combat.
10:27Mr Hawke, could I ask you whether you feel a little embarrassed tonight at the blood that's on your hands?
10:31It's a ridiculous question, you know, it's ridiculous.
10:33I have no blood on my hands.
10:35Politics is a combative business, and obviously, if you're a journalist, sometimes you have to ask tricky questions.
10:43And sometimes that can really get under politicians' skins.
10:46Now, sometimes it's justified, you know, maybe sometimes it's not justified.
10:50But, you know, there is nothing more fascinating in finding out what actually makes a politician completely fly off the handle.
10:58Bullshit comes from the press gallery.
11:00Do you have any favourite kind of journo v politician moments?
11:07Look, I did very much enjoy the Mark Reilly, Tony Abbott stare off. That was absolutely sensational.
11:15Mark Reilly wanted to talk about my visit, my recent visit to Afghanistan.
11:21Hello.
11:22G'day, Tony.
11:23And he wanted to create a gotcha moment.
11:25It's over here, Tony's next to me.
11:28There was no ambush.
11:30I had Tony's press secretary in my office for 20 minutes showing them the vision.
11:36He was being told about an operation that went horribly wrong and cost the life of an Australian soldier.
11:43The commander was explaining where things had gone wrong.
11:47And this was Tony Abbott's response.
11:50Shit happens.
11:53Now, what Mark Reilly tried to do was to take out of context that expression, shit happens,
12:00and present me as somehow making light of the death of Lance Corporal Jared McKinney.
12:08Honestly, it was a contemptible thing to do.
12:10Imagine if Julia Gillard had said that.
12:12This is what I thought.
12:13Imagine if Kevin Rudd had said that.
12:15It took me quite a while to work out exactly what he was driving at.
12:20Well, that's about the day that Jared McKinney was killed.
12:27My question to Tony was, well, that was it.
12:31Yeah, look, you've taken this out of context.
12:33You weren't there.
12:35I would never seek to make light of the death of an Australian soldier.
12:40OK, well, tell me, what's the context and if it's out of context, what is the context?
12:50You're not saying anything, Tony.
12:53I was just bemused.
12:54I mean, I think you can see it in my face.
12:56You've arranged the time for this interview.
12:58You know what I was going to ask you about and you don't have any response.
13:02And I thought, what do I do here?
13:04What the hell?
13:05Is he going to thump you?
13:06I tell him to get stuffed.
13:08I get up and walk out.
13:10I hit him.
13:11I just thought he was buffering.
13:13Tony was thinking of punching him.
13:15He was thinking of punching Mark Riley.
13:18Slog him in the head.
13:20And all he could think was, don't punch him.
13:24So if you're wondering what was going on in Tony Abbott's head,
13:27I mean to tell you, that's what he was thinking about.
13:29So I thought silence was the best response.
13:31Closed mouth gathers no foot.
13:34Nothing else to say, Tony.
13:38Okay.
13:39Just turn the cameras off.
13:42Now you know.
13:45That's a scoop for you.
13:47I don't think our relationship was ever quite the same after that.
13:51At the end of the day, look, if you're going to give it, you're going to get it.
13:56And if you're going to give it, you can't be upset about occasionally getting it back.
14:01And if you are that sort of person, well, you're not in the right place, Toto.
14:05Sometimes the tension between politicians and political journalists arises from their mutual conviction that they could do each other's job better.
14:15Lose wire.
14:16And there is, in Australia's early history, one utterly spectacular example of this exact phenomenon.
14:23For the first 13 years of the Australian Federation, readers of the Morning Post in London enjoyed a spicy anonymous weekly column summarising the events of the Antipodean Parliament.
14:35Given that the nation splashed through 10 prime ministerships in that time, it was action packed.
14:41The writer was coyly badged as our own correspondent, but was incredibly well informed and articulate and could be harsh.
14:49Mr. Deacon may well view the position before him with rueful solicitude.
14:54Harumphed the correspondent in 1903, after Prime Minister Alfred Deacon came perilously close to losing the federal election of that year.
15:04His own party in his own state, in spite of his appeals, flung away half a dozen seats and imperiled as many more.
15:12Ouch. Poor old Deacon. He must have flinched to read such words.
15:17Actually, he probably didn't. Because in fact, Deacon wrote those words.
15:22That's right. In Australia, our own correspondent was better known as our second prime minister, Alfred Deacon.
15:31Lawyer, vegan, seance fanatic, moonlighting as a commentator on his own parliament for the handsome salary of £500 a year.
15:40More than he was paid as prime minister.
15:43Mr. Prime Minister, could you elaborate on what Mr. Berry has said?
15:47For all of the accusations over the years of political journalists and prime ministers being in each other's pockets,
15:54this is the only case where it's because they're the same person.
16:00But in 2025, political journalism is facing a more profound disruption than the odd prime minister in disguise.
16:08Cheers, prime minister, for coming to the pub.
16:11Welcome to It's a Lot podcast, prime minister.
16:13Great to be here, Abby.
16:15People listen to my podcast, for example, I do maths recaps, I do blow job tips, I interview the prime minister.
16:22You know, it's a spectrum.
16:23Politicians these days realise that now to get in front of people, particularly the people who aren't already politically engaged,
16:30the ones who you've got to win over if you want to win an election, you need to go to them.
16:34This budget is all about helping with the cost of living, strengthening Medicare and building Australia's future.
16:40We're legit pulling up a parliament house and we have no idea what we're getting ourselves into today.
16:46For the first time, influencers were invited to this year's budget.
16:49So I was invited to the budget lockup as an influencer, as a podcaster.
16:55I didn't go because my theory was I can read it on the internet. Why would I go there?
17:01I'm not driving to Canberra. I have things to do.
17:04Yes, that's what we need more of in hard-nosed budget analysis is social media influencers.
17:10Today I am interviewing the prime minister and so we will get ready together.
17:13Many of these creators don't necessarily come from traditional journalistic backgrounds
17:17and so people have criticised them for not applying scrutiny to what the government is necessarily putting out.
17:23You know, people might derisively call them cheerleaders.
17:26The Labor Party just announced $1 billion for mental health.
17:30What's the problem having people there that maybe you don't see as qualified,
17:34but they have the ability to translate their budget into terms that people can understand?
17:39I mean, what is an influencer going to do in the lockup?
17:43What, pour through the impairment on assets on government warships? I don't know.
17:48It feels quite elitist to be so in shock and horrified that influencers would be allowed anywhere near Parliament House
17:57as though influencers aren't citizens of this country.
18:00There are always going to be things that political journalists know more about
18:06in terms of getting information or fact checking or things like that,
18:09but it doesn't bother me in the slightest.
18:14It's not that. It's that the vocation is different.
18:19It's that the task is different.
18:21I know that there were some people, probably mainstream media people,
18:24who were like, this is our domain.
18:27No, it's not yours. You don't own it. We live in a democracy.
18:31And influencers have become players in that political game.
18:37Politicians have fanned out across social media platforms
18:41in search of voters who aren't looking for them.
18:44On YouTube, the most watched election interview with Anthony Albanese
18:49was one he sought out with cult video artist Aussie Man Reviews.
18:54Good shit. Thank you, Albo. Thanks, mate.
18:56It is a fundamentally different thing to sit down for an interview on 7.30
19:03and be interrogated in that way than it is to sit down with someone
19:08who is cheerleading for a particular side of politics
19:12or a particular party or a particular outcome.
19:14When you start to blur those things, that's a net loss for democracy,
19:20and we have started seeing that in America.
19:42In America, the disruption of the press corps is more explicitly orchestrated.
19:47For more than a century, the pecking order of journalists
19:52in the world-famous White House briefing room
19:55has been managed by the White House Correspondents Association.
20:00But President Trump, in his second term, has asserted control.
20:05He banned the veteran-associated press organisation
20:08because it refused to rebrand the Gulf of Mexico
20:12to the Gulf of America, as per the presidential decree.
20:16We are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico
20:20to the Gulf of America.
20:23He's also opened up the press room
20:25to influencers and partisan campaign groups
20:28who now jostle for access with legacy media outlets.
20:34Here's where all of the anchors are going to air.
20:37Yep, we've got your Fox News here.
20:39Uh-huh. CNN has two tents.
20:42Yeah, you've got your ABC, your Newsmax, your NBC.
20:45Monica Page Baldwin is the White House Correspondent
20:48for the pro-Trump youth activist group
20:51Turning Point USA.
20:53From the White House, four front lines with Turning Point,
20:55I'm Monica Page.
20:56Which has been credited with boosting
20:58Donald Trump's youth vote at the 2024 election
21:01by as much as 10%.
21:03So, welcome to Pebble Beach.
21:07Pebble Beach.
21:08Is that what it's called?
21:09Yes.
21:10I believe there were pebbles at one point,
21:11but now I don't think that there's any pebbles here.
21:13It's all just mulch.
21:14But yeah, this is where everyone works out of.
21:16You're working in the heat, the freezing cold,
21:18rainstorms, thunderstorms, lightning, you name it,
21:21you're working out of these tents for the most part.
21:24But yeah, this is the West Wing of the White House sort of deal.
21:27So how did Turning Point come to have a spot
21:29in the White House media corp?
21:31So you have your CNN, your Fox, your MSNBC,
21:34they're all in there.
21:35But there was never a spot for new media.
21:37And now with this current administration,
21:39they've kind of said we're going to add a new media spot
21:41in the press briefing room.
21:42And we recently got access to be in that new media section,
21:45which has been incredible.
21:46Part of the new media seed is so that everyday Americans
21:49across the country have a voice in this room.
21:51Is it hostile in there when all of these new media Arabists turn up?
21:56and start demanding space?
21:58Yeah, so the dynamic is okay.
22:01You can kind of feel a little bit of tension in there,
22:03especially within the first couple of press briefings
22:06when this administration returned.
22:08Monica.
22:09Thank you.
22:10So what are some of the other new media organizations
22:12that have got a place here now at the White House
22:15that didn't have five years ago?
22:17There's a number of people with podcasts or radio shows
22:21or streaming outlets.
22:23You've got your Lindell TV, which is Mike Lindell of MyPillow.
22:27Oh, that's the pillow guy.
22:28I'm bringing you exciting new products, overstock specials,
22:32and closeout deals you won't find anywhere else.
22:35Got his own TV crew here and reporters here.
22:38Right.
22:39But we have a president right now who I truly believe
22:41is doing his best to unify the country
22:43and make sure that everybody has a voice.
22:46But see, you sound like a campaigner now.
22:48I saw yesterday when you were delivering questions
22:51to President Trump.
22:52He says, oh, I love that question.
22:53On the southern border, you've had record low numbers
22:56for the month of May.
22:57What do you attribute that success to?
22:59I like you.
23:00Who are you with?
23:01Turning Point USA.
23:02Well, they're very good.
23:03Turning Point.
23:04The journalist in me goes, oh, my God, that's a disaster,
23:07because I don't want a politician ever to love a question
23:09that I ask them.
23:10So how does that work as a journalist for you?
23:13Well, I mean, of course, with every administration,
23:15there's something that I will disagree on, including this one.
23:17So it's not like I'm just reporting
23:19on all the glorious things that are happening.
23:21I think it is important to acknowledge
23:23what people find negative in this administration
23:25and still giving light to that as much as I am
23:27giving some of the positive.
23:29So when you looked at, as an outsider,
23:32the press corps as it functioned
23:34under the previous administration,
23:36did you think of it as a neutral kind of body of people?
23:41Well, yes and no, because there were a lot of times
23:45when I was in the press briefing room
23:47and some of the questions that the reporters would ask
23:49would be very, I don't know,
23:51not really in tune with what everyday Americans are feeling.
23:54And it was kind of disheartening to hear questions,
23:56what's Joe Biden's favourite ice cream flavour?
23:58What's he doing this weekend?
24:00So it makes you furious to listen to left-wing journalists
24:03ask about President Biden's taste in ice cream,
24:06and then you get criticised for asking soft questions
24:10or inviting Donald Trump to reflect on his own brilliance.
24:14I mean, is this just...
24:15It's the name of the game.
24:16Right? So...
24:17It seems like that's the name of the game.
24:19People are just...
24:20They listen to a question or listen to a report
24:22and they immediately place somebody in a box.
24:24They're like, OK, that sounds like a more left-wing question.
24:27You are left-wing media.
24:28I'm not going to consume your information or your media.
24:30OK, you're more right-wing.
24:31Nope, I'm not going to listen to that.
24:33And to me, I'm like, will there ever be a moment
24:35that can unify us not only as a nation but also in the media?
24:38Ten weeks later,
24:40the argument about who gets to ask questions where
24:44is overtaken by a ghastly act of political violence.
24:49Monica's boss, Charlie Kirk,
24:51is shot dead while speaking at a university in Utah.
24:55Charlie Kirk has been credited with mobilising young people
24:58to vote for Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
25:01We are the media now.
25:03Not them.
25:04Their power is fading and waning.
25:07No-one reads their stuff.
25:09Their subscriptions are going down.
25:11In a split second, the 31-year-old father of two
25:15goes from online disruptor to conservative martyr.
25:20Kirk's death is a violent escalation of polarisation in America
25:25where the political extremes don't just disagree with each other.
25:29They don't even gather in the same places.
25:32When social media started,
25:34it felt like it was going to be the democratisation of news
25:36and it was going to be these sort of, in a sense,
25:38online town halls that we could debate things.
25:41We think the new landscape is a billion tweets
25:44and it's the democratisation of politics
25:47or the democratisation of the public square.
25:50But now we're beginning to get savvy
25:53to the fact that there are algorithms and all sorts of things
25:56and a lot of what gets out and a lot of what gets shared
25:58and all this sort of stuff is manipulated.
26:02They're not neutral town halls.
26:03They are profit-driven ecosystems
26:06to make a lot of money for the people who own them.
26:09And they know that the way to make the most money
26:11is to get people engaged and outraged.
26:16If you looked at a busload of people, everyone on their phones,
26:18scrolling through the same platform,
26:20they'd all be seeing completely different things.
26:23They funnel.
26:24So we are being funneled into biases.
26:28These silos are bias.
26:30Both sides think the other is more extreme than it actually is
26:35because they're only hearing from the most extreme on both sides.
26:39There are people who their whole world is shaped
26:45by what the algorithm is serving them.
26:47The more content they can put in front of people
26:50that gets them angry, the more money they make
26:54because the more people engage with it,
26:56the more they can charge advertisers to be there.
26:58And what that does is it distorts the public discourse.
27:02What has the disruption of reporting around politics in particular
27:08done to your ability to project and whiten political arguments?
27:14It's made change harder.
27:18And it's made constructing the case for change harder.
27:23And it's made bringing people together harder.
27:29Because the nature of the fragmentation of the media
27:33and what we've seen in terms of different channels of discussion
27:42means that we often, as a society,
27:48are not actually talking to one another
27:51and we're certainly insufficiently listening to one another.
27:54If you feel like everyone's a little bit angrier today,
27:57it's because they legitimately are.
28:00The temptation is to go for highly charged issues,
28:04particularly in a country like the United States
28:07where religion plays a big role,
28:09things that people feel deeply and passionately about
28:11and will get them to the ballot box.
28:13I think one thing in Australia that is so important
28:17is compulsory voting.
28:19So in America, where that kind of new media works particularly well
28:24is when you have to get people out to vote.
28:27If you can get your whole base out to vote, you win.
28:30And the way to get people out to vote is to get them really, really mad.
28:33Could you explain what effect you think compulsory voting has
28:37on the tenor of political debate?
28:40I think it encourages more likely the forces of moderation
28:45and therefore consensus building within the democracy writ large.
28:49It disadvantages the zealots.
28:51It means that elections are not won or lost at the extremes
28:54but are won or lost in the centre.
28:56I'll tell you what, I've got friends from all walks of life.
28:59Some of them have got no interest in politics whatsoever
29:04and that is their right.
29:06Do we really want them to vote?
29:08Really?
29:09And again, I'm not 100% sold on my view on this
29:11because I understand that there is an advantage
29:14in getting everyone in there
29:16and I've got American friends who say,
29:18I wish it was the way in our country like it is in yours
29:20but I don't know.
29:22I guess it's not a perfect system.
29:24Nothing is.
29:25I've sort of come to the conclusion that we are saved in this country
29:30by the politically disengaged who are forced to engage at moments.
29:36Globally, compulsory voting is rare
29:39but our adventures with it began in Queensland,
29:42which in 1915 staged the first election
29:45in the English-speaking world
29:47at which voter attendance was mandatory.
29:50A bold democratic experiment?
29:52No, think more desperate self-preservation tactic
29:56by a man who was in mortal fear of losing power.
30:00Now, you're in the way. Come on.
30:02That man was Liberal Queensland Premier Digby Denham.
30:05Businessman, butter entrepreneur,
30:08scourge of the union movement.
30:10As the state election approached, Denham had issues.
30:14He was deeply worried about the mobilisation power
30:18of the Queensland trade union movement.
30:21Brisbane was paralysed by striking workers
30:23and Denham tried everything to break the unions.
30:27He banned protests, armed police with bayonets
30:31and even tried to borrow troops
30:33from a visiting German warship to help him out.
30:36None of it worked, so he came up with a new plan.
30:39A cunning one.
30:41He made voting compulsory.
30:43If the more moderately inclined were forced to vote,
30:47Denham figured, he might stand a chance.
30:50The good news? Turnout was strong.
30:53Nearly 90%.
30:54The bad news?
30:56Denham got smashed.
30:58Not only were the parliamentary ranks of his party halved,
31:02but the Premier lost his own seat
31:04and there wouldn't be another Liberal government for 42 years.
31:09The great thing about, you know, cunning plans
31:12in Australian politics when political leaders go,
31:16ha ha, I have a cunning plan like Digby Denham
31:19is that they often end up as an exploding cigar.
31:22Denham's gambit didn't work out as planned.
31:25But the system stayed put
31:27and in 1924 compulsory voting was adopted nationally.
31:32Ever since then, Australian politicians
31:35have had a very particular obligation
31:38to pursue and convince every single voter,
31:41even the ones who aren't interested.
31:43It's triggered a constant cycle of disruption.
31:46Right, OK.
31:48Every time a new form of media emerges,
31:51politicians are obliged to learn how to use it.
31:54A century ago, it was all about the ability to yell at crowds
31:59whilst balanced on a stump or the back of a truck.
32:02Mr Hawkins is the one to represent you.
32:04He is fit to represent you in every possible way.
32:06People attended in mass numbers public meetings.
32:11So if you look back, say, at Andrew Fisher, Prime Minister,
32:15on three occasions, when he went to a town like Gympie to campaign,
32:19you'd have mass crowds of more than 10,000 people.
32:22I don't think anyone would have been at home.
32:24Everyone went.
32:25So once parliament was being reported on,
32:28the incentives for the people in the business of politics
32:31to deliver a terrific speech that could be read in a newspaper
32:37and could be re-read and re-quoted
32:40becomes part of the language of politics,
32:43part of the presentation of politics,
32:45part of the representation of politics.
32:47Once you hear the voice, which is radio,
32:52you get almost a different idea of politics
32:57from the elector's perspective as well.
32:59My opponents in parliament have done their very best
33:03and only narrowly failed.
33:06So RG Menzies, good radio voice, Ben Cheffley,
33:10old-style Labor bloke, looks terrific on the stump,
33:14is really, really good in a smoke-filled caucus room,
33:16but does not persuade you on radio.
33:20Hello, citizens. The war is over.
33:24Then along comes television.
33:25By the time you get to Gough,
33:26he's kind of got a bit of the Menzies in him
33:28because he's obviously been raised in that era
33:30and he could also preen for the camera.
33:33We see the allegation that Bill Hayden
33:35had stolen some Treasury documents.
33:41Like Graham Kennedy in a way.
33:42You know, grew up on the stage
33:44and as soon as they pointed a camera at him,
33:46everything worked at the same time.
33:48And then you've got Bob Hawke watching,
33:49Whitlam from the sidelines saying,
33:51I can make the camera work for me.
33:53For generations, even as the technology
33:56gently evolved from notebooks to microphones to cameras...
34:00Smile.
34:01Have you got your photograph?
34:02Australian elections were fought in essentially the same way.
34:05One aspiring Prime Minister from the Labor Party,
34:08one from the Liberal Party,
34:10both pitching their visions to the nation
34:12via an accompanying rabble of print, radio and TV reporters.
34:17themselves employed by media proprietors,
34:21whose canny decision to purchase vast clanking printing presses
34:25or broadcast TV networks
34:27harvested them not only handsome profits,
34:30but intense political power.
34:33Could you compare the old style of media mogul,
34:37you know, your Murdochs and Packers
34:39with the tech super moguls of today?
34:42Look, I think the moguls of the past in the media,
34:45whether it was, you know, Rupert Murdoch
34:47or Kerry Packer or, you know,
34:49they had a big influence on Australian media
34:51and Australian politics
34:53and obviously Murdoch still does.
34:55But they don't have the influence they used to have.
34:57They still have influence.
34:59They can certainly help shape the agenda.
35:01They can certainly shape how people see what's happening today.
35:05But I think the moguls of, you know,
35:08the Elon Musk and Twitter, for example,
35:11are really quite a different and, I think, more alarming beast.
35:17So what you have is everyone pursuing a prophet,
35:20concentrations of power in the hands of relatively few people.
35:24One at least is held accountable to some extent
35:28by an ethic, by a code.
35:31The other thumbs its nodes at all codes
35:35and doesn't really have one to begin with.
35:38If you just look at the dais for Trump's inauguration,
35:42it was the masters of the attentional universe, right,
35:46sitting on the dais.
35:47It was Sundar Pichai of Google.
35:50It was Zuckerberg.
35:51You know, it was Bezos.
35:53It was Musk.
35:54And Trump understands that these platforms control
35:58and shape what people think.
36:00So it's a mutually beneficial relationship.
36:03The only ethic, the only ethos that guides this really, it seems,
36:09is whatever services the profit motive.
36:12The net result for Australia?
36:14After a century of awkward codependence
36:17between politicians and political journalists,
36:20both now gamble for wins and losses
36:23with moguls they struggle to regulate
36:25according to algorithms they cannot see.
36:29I now don't have to have a conversation
36:32with a senior journalist.
36:34I have my own social media platforms
36:36and say what I need to say, whack it up online,
36:39and the community knows instantly that it's happened
36:42and we're in a conversation.
36:44Well, a classic example is this.
36:47In my last media piece, Facebook has 280,000 views.
36:54There's another one, if I go back, 800,000.
36:58Man, that beats a paper for dead.
37:01That beats ABC for dead.
37:04Man, that's gold.
37:06Gold.
37:07For the community independent movement,
37:09social media and social media platforms
37:11have been a really effective way
37:13of getting a message out and finding your community.
37:16And we're not reliant on legacy media
37:19to talk to our communities.
37:22For the two major parties,
37:24disruption means the advance of independence
37:27into parts of their empires they once took for granted.
37:30As an independent, I answer to you, not to a party.
37:33We deserve better representation.
37:35The major parties have failed to deliver.
37:37And we need community independence
37:39standing up to best interests
37:40and holding the major parties to account.
37:42Put one on Dai Li here,
37:44and then number all the boxes.
37:47Political parties have two real tools
37:48when it comes to social media.
37:50The first one is the normal, organic posting,
37:52which is the versions of posting, like any of us have.
37:54You know, you post an image of yourself doing something.
37:56Go back a bit.
37:57The other tool that they have is paid advertising.
38:07And this is where political parties are able to cash in
38:10on the huge amount of information
38:12that all the social media companies have on each of us.
38:15But the real revolution for political advertising in 2025
38:20isn't in the message or execution.
38:24It's in the targeting.
38:26We saw the Australian political parties use political advertising
38:30on social media more than ever before
38:32because you can incredibly target individual voters
38:37based on things like demographics, your occupation, even your interests
38:43because they think that they can reach you at the right time
38:46with the right message to win your vote.
38:48If you're watching your Married at First Sight, you know, online now,
38:52you're watching it in a local sort of...
38:55It's fed to you locally, so it means that you can target by postcode.
39:00You can target by electorate
39:02and you can pay a lot less than you used to.
39:06A political campaign can create an ad and say,
39:10OK, I want to reach women ages 25 to 35
39:13who live in Sydney and have these characteristics.
39:16And then Facebook, using the data that it has in people,
39:19will then show that ad to those people with those characteristics.
39:24So, in this hectic new world
39:26where anyone can be a political reporter
39:28and political parties can swarm your device with cheap ads...
39:32Kind one.
39:33What are the rules?
39:34You can kiss goodbye to the dream of homeownership.
39:37In this wild west of information,
39:39is there a sheriff to be seen?
39:43With five weeks to go before the election,
39:45Electoral Commissioner Geoff is requested by a Senate committee
39:50to look into the curious case of the People versus Abby Chatfield.
39:55There's a new element of electoral matter
39:58and I just want to understand how the AEC is engaging it.
40:01And that's through influencers and collaborators.
40:04This is something that we haven't really seen before this election.
40:07For example, I know that the Prime Minister put up
40:10three separate collaborative reels on Instagram with Abby Chatfield
40:14where they both explicitly promoted the Labor Party
40:17and opposed the Liberal Party.
40:19So, electoral matter.
40:21Geoff Pope is very used to being asked by senators to look into stuff.
40:26We'll have a look at the ones you've highlighted
40:28and we'll consider if there's anything that we might need to adjust.
40:32We'll have a think about that.
40:33Abby Chatfield, podcaster of maths recaps, intimate coaching
40:38and the odd Prime Ministerial interview,
40:40is very much not used to being investigated by the AEC.
40:45There was an accusation from Jane Hume that I was being a little bit,
40:51you know, secretive or I'd broken a rule of some kind.
40:55I was being a little bit duplicitous maybe.
40:58Because there's another element to it too.
41:00Obviously, there are some influences that are potentially being paid
41:06to produce political social media.
41:09And if I was paid, then I needed to put an authorisation
41:14from the Labor Party or from the Greens Party.
41:16That little thing at the end of an ad that's like,
41:18authorised by the Australian Government Camera.
41:20One of those things.
41:21And listen, I would have loved to have been paid by the Labor Party.
41:23I would have loved to have been paid by the Greens Party.
41:25What are you talking about? I would have declared that.
41:27But I wasn't. I wasn't in their budget.
41:30And then there was an official investigation, I think they called it,
41:33and that was just so stressful.
41:37I mean, there's a two-part test
41:38as to whether political advertising needs to be authorised.
41:42Stressful as all hell.
41:44The first part is actually whether the communication
41:48has the dominant purpose of influencing how a person
41:51is going to cast their vote.
41:52And the media made out all day, like if I had done something wrong
41:55and it was found to be wrong by the AEC,
41:57that I would be fucking clink clink, fucking 20 years in prison,
42:00lose my account, $100,000 fine.
42:01Like, they made out like it was some huge big deal, right?
42:04It was going to ruin my life, and oh my God,
42:06she's being investigated!
42:07I'm being investigated!
42:08And the second part test is,
42:11is it paid political advertising,
42:13or is it being distributed by or on behalf of a disclosure entity,
42:20which in this case would be the Prime Minister or the Labor Party?
42:24The amount of media coverage on this was as though
42:27I had been caught on CCTV murdering someone.
42:31So when you look at that two-part test,
42:33we didn't see that what was in that podcast met the threshold of that two-part test.
42:40And then it turns out that the AEC, even if I had been found guilty,
42:46which I wasn't, I was found innocent, okay?
42:48Then all they would do is tell me to not do it again.
42:53Is it journalism or an ad?
42:56If it's a paid ad, it needs to bear an authorisation.
43:00Those garbled postscripts that have kept Australia's small
43:03but distinguished industry of high-speed voiceover artists
43:06in works it's time immemorial.
43:09Authorised by Aho's Liberal Canberra.
43:10Authorised by AROB for the Liberal Party Canberra.
43:12Authorised by...
43:13Authorised by...
43:14Authorised by...
43:15Authorised by...
43:16Authorised by Palmer for the Earth Australia Party Brisbane.
43:17Can you explain the level of control
43:19that you have over the truth or otherwise of campaign advertising?
43:24Well, when it comes to campaign advertising and political advertising,
43:27parties and candidates can say whatever they want
43:30and we have no regulatory authority with respect to that.
43:34The parliament's growing band of independents and third parties
43:38are pushing for truth in political advertising laws
43:41to give the AEC more powers.
43:44When you're buying a product or a service,
43:46we have consumer laws that protect us
43:49so that we don't get scammed out of our money
43:51to make sure that what we buy is actually fit for purpose.
43:55But when it comes to our voting rights,
43:57we have no such protection.
43:59So basically advertising in the political context
44:02can be misleading, it can be deceptive.
44:05Who's deciding what's true?
44:07The Liberals would say,
44:08oh, Liberals are better money managers than Labor
44:10and Labor would say,
44:11actually you have left us with a trillion dollars of debt
44:13and nothing to show for it.
44:14So you could make arguments on both those things
44:17and you should be able to.
44:18So who's going to decide
44:20whether one of those is true or not?
44:23This is my concern.
44:24Coalition voters, Labor voters, Greens, One Nation,
44:27all overwhelmingly support truth in political advertising
44:30and I keep pushing, knocking on the door for the government to do it.
44:34Would some sort of truth in political advertising laws
44:37make things easier for the AEC?
44:39No.
44:41Seems very definite. Why not?
44:44We're not the truth police.
44:46And I don't think we should be.
44:48If the AEC was given that responsibility,
44:50my view is it would ruin the AEC's reputation for neutrality.
44:55And our impartiality is just so critical.
44:59We need to preserve that at all costs.
45:01It's up to the voter and it always has been
45:04and it always will be up to the voter
45:07to navigate their way through what they're seeing and hearing
45:11and to make up their own mind.
45:14At last, we find our way to the Australian voter.
45:20Around 18 million of us, obliged by law to take a ballot paper each election,
45:26free to complete or deface it as we see fit.
45:30The five-week federal election campaign is about to reach its climax.
45:34There are not many places in the world where you see what we see on our election day.
45:39Australians turning up to cast their vote or write on the ballot paper
45:43that they don't like any of us, which is their democratic right,
45:45expressing different political views but doing so peacefully and respectfully.
45:50We should be really proud of that.
45:52Of all the entities that the wholesale upheaval of the media universe
45:56has disrupted this century,
45:59perhaps the least charted are the human building blocks of our democracy.
46:04You and how you cast your vote.
46:08And so, the counting begins.
46:11Given we all got different values, different opinions,
46:14it's always been that way, always will be that way.
46:17But underpinning all of that, there should be a common factual basis.
46:21The AEC has started what will be a long night for them.
46:24Fragmented, scattered, stripped of old certainties,
46:28we're voting in a way that's transforming our parliament.
46:32The social media revolution and the fact
46:34there's no longer a common platform for discourse
46:37is slowly contributing to the fracturing of the vote.
46:41The number of independents that have been returned to the crossbench.
46:43We've got Fowler, Curtin, Kuyong, McKellar, Goldstein, Wentworth, Indy, Warringah, Mayo, Clark.
46:50And then we've got Bradfield.
46:52New technology, new ways to access information
46:54has radically changed the way people look at how their political system is working.
46:59And with their votes, the people have spoken.
47:02Peter Dutton's lost his seat.
47:04The duopoly of the major parties is breaking down.
47:07The media concentration of the press gallery is being broken as well.
47:13This could be a big win for Labor.
47:16It is certainly a win.
47:20That beats ABC for dead.
47:23Mate, that's gold. Gold!
47:26So you don't need journalists anymore?
47:28No, I need journalists because if you don't have journalists,
47:31if you don't have the fourth estate, you haven't got a democracy.
47:35This is our question time.
47:37The things Australians think are normal really aren't.
47:41It could never happen in the Danish parliament.
47:43You don't argue with the speaker. Period.
47:45Dismantling the two-party system that's dominated our history.
47:50It would not at all surprise me if we end up in an environment
47:53of just perpetual minority governments.
47:56And a tiny community that changed the course of our nation.
48:00It was a fight.
48:01Fight for land rights.
48:03Next on Civic Duty.
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