GERARD HENDERSON’S MEDIA WATCH DOG

ISSUE – NO. 748

3 October 2025

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THE LATEST

  • AFR’s Barbara Miller’s War Against The F-35 Fighter

On Friday 3 October ABC Radio National Breakfast presenter Barbara Miller interviewed Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles. Discussion mainly turned on the Australia Papua New Guinea Defence Agreement, but towards the end Comrade Miller effectively campaigned for Australian firms to stop providing parts for the F-35 fighters which are part of the air forces of many Australian allies – notably Israel. Also, the F-35 is central to the role of the Australian Defence Air Force.

Here’s how Barbara Miller pressed her advocacy:

Barbara Miller:  Just on Gaza, Deputy Prime Minister, the government’s repeatedly said Australia is not supplying arms to Israel. But, Australian firms are supplying parts for F-35 fighters. Now, you often cite the Lockheed Martin supply chain, but leaving the legalities aside, is there a point where you’re no longer comfortable with Israel receiving parts as its military campaign continues in Gaza?

Richard Marles:  Look, I mean, again, we’ve made this position clear over a long period of time. We are an F-35 country. We participate in a multilateral process which, as you rightly say, in a procurement sense, is managed by Lockheed Martin out of the United States. And Australian companies, which we have encouraged over decades – it is literally decades, since the early 2000s – to participate in these supply chains because of what it represents in terms of improving and increasing Australia’s defence industry capability. Those companies continue to participate in that, as do all the other countries who are part of the F-35 program. Countries like the UK, countries like Norway, for example, through Europe, Singapore and the United States. So, we are an F-35 country. It’s no secret that Israel is an F-35 country as well, and we continue to be a part of that.

Barbara Miller: Is there a point, though, where legal is no longer right?

Richard Marles:  Well, I mean, our participation as an F-35 nation goes to the heart of Australia’s Air Force capability….

Barbara Miller: There’s no chance that the international community could come together to try and stop those parts going to Israel?

Richard Marles: Well, I mean, we talk to our partners in the F-35 program, but we will continue to be participating in the F-35 program. Let me be really clear about that because, you know, front and centre here is maintaining Australia’s capabilities.

So, Barbara Miller, effectively wants Australia to diminish Israeli air capacity as well as Australia’s. Okay. But this is the job for a political activist – not for a taxpayer-funded journalist who is supposed to be an objective reporter.

  • John Lyons Dismisses President Trump’s Middle East Peace Plan Along with The Support of the Morrison & Albanese Governments support for AUKUS

How’s this for political balance? The ABC’s Washington DC-based Editor Americas John Lyons is a Donald J. Trump antagonist. And the ABC’s Global Affairs Editor Laura Tingle is a Benjamin Netanyahu antagonist.

On Monday 29 September, the ABC Radio National presenter Barbara Miller interviewed John Lyons to discuss President Trump’s plan for peace in the Middle East – which currently has the support of the important leaders of the Middle East nations as well as leaders of some Muslim majority nations.

However, your man Lyons was having none of this. He commenced the interview by stating that “America is not a broker in this issue”. Now let’s go to the transcript:

Barbara Miller: And yet this plan seems to include a possible pathway for Palestinian statehood, something the Israeli leader has previously seen as a red line. It includes also possibly beginning some kind of peace process in parts of Gaza deemed to have been rid of Hamas operatives. Is there some sense of hope from the two leaders standing up and presenting this today?

John Lyons: I don’t think so. I think that that word “pathway”, in fact – it’s interesting because the Israeli propaganda has already been out there, sort of trying to seize on that word…. So still, after two years of this horrible war, Benjamin Netanyahu is still implacably opposed, Benjamin Netanyahu, to a Palestinian state. And I think that says everything. While the rest of the world wants that, 150 or so countries, at the UN even the United States, continues, in a way, to support a two-state solution, but Benjamin Netanyahu is implacably opposed. And this plan today, to me, it’s a plan for the release of hostages, which would be good, of course, we want those hostages out, the whole world should. But it’s certainly not a plan for any peace, and it’s not a plan for any sovereignty.

We shall see. After all, MWD stands by the view that it is foolish to make political predictions – especially about the future. However, it would seem that Lyons’ dismissal of Trump’s peace initiative was premature. After all, it overlooked the fact that the terrorist organisation Hamas – which commenced the Israel-Hamas war on 7 October two years ago – is running out of support from the Arab nations including Qatar along with finance. Moreover, Iran is not the power it was two years ago.

By the way, Lyons concluded his report by discussing the AUKUS agreement on nuclear-powered submarines:

Barbara Miller: And John – just finally on another issue. There are reports this morning that the Trump administration will proceed with the AUKUS defence pact. Has there been any confirmation from the White House of that?

John Lyons: No, there hasn’t Barbara – but if you were America, why wouldn’t you? When a country, Scott Morrison, comes up with this idea, and then Anthony Albanese runs with it and takes it even further. When a country is offering to pay you hundreds of millions of dollars and you may or may not give them a submarine in 10, 12, 14 years, why wouldn’t you continue with it?

Barbara Miller: A good question….

So, in a few minutes, the ABC Editor Americas dismissed the Trump plan for the Middle East and the AUKUS agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

  • Question: Has Laura Tingle Been to Israel/Gaza/The West Bank? Answer: Get Lost – This is a State Secret

There was enormous interest in last week’s Media Watch Dog report which queried Laura Tingle’s knowledge about Israel/Gaza/the Palestinian Authority and more besides. Ellie’s (male) co-owner referred to an interview with the ABC’s Global Affairs Editor with her ABC colleague Sally Sara on 22 September – in which La Tingle used such words and phrases as “the thing”, “a formal thing”, “this whole thing”, “one thing” along with references to “safety in numbers”, the need for the Palestinian Authority to “get itself into shape” and the “gloves are off”. All this in a short interview.

The confusion continued when Tingle said on ABC Radio AM program on 26 September that “the Palestinian Authority could be trusted to do what it says” when only four days earlier she had declared that the PA was not in the “shape” to achieve this very outcome.

Concerned that the Australian taxpayers are paying a small fortune to send its Global Affairs Editor around the Globe to report on this and that, Gerard Henderson AC (aka Always Courteous) sent this (courteous) note to ABC Communications on 24 September:

Good afternoon ABC Communications Team.

I have a question which I hope the ABC will answer by the close of business tomorrow. ABC Global Affairs Editor Laura Tingle has been commenting from New York in recent days on Israel/Gaza/West Bank etc. My query is this. Has Ms Tingle been to one or all of (i) Israel, (ii) Gaza and (iii) the West Bank?

Here’s hoping for an answer in line with the ABC’s commitment to the Right To Know Coalition.

Best wishes

Gerard Henderson

Alas, there was no reply. So Hendo wrote to ABC Communications on Wednesday 1 October at 11.28 am as follows:

Just in case you didn’t notice my email of last Wednesday re Laura Tingle – here it is again (see below). If I do not receive a response I will assume that, in this instance, ABC Communications is in No Comment mode.

Best wishes

Gerard Henderson

Good news. On this occasion, ABC Communications did communicate, in a kind of way. Bad news. The following email was received from ABC Communications at 11.44 that very morning: “Hi Gerard. No we won’t be commenting on Laura’s travel. Cheers.”

So, there you have it. The taxpayer funded public broadcaster regards Ms Tingle’s past and recent travel as something of a national secret.

There is a serious point here. When Laura Tingle was appointed ABC Global Affairs Editor in early 2025, the Israel-Hamas War was underway. It is difficult for anyone to cover Israel and its relationship to Gaza plus the West Bank – along with Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Lebanon – without having a firsthand knowledge of the local geography. Especially the small land mass of Israel and, in particular, its closeness to both Gaza and the West Bank.

However, the ABC will not state whether its Global Affairs Editor – who comments on Israel/Gaza/West Bank – has any expertise on the Middle East in general or Israel/Gaza/the West Bank in particular. Can You Bear It?

  • The AFR Magazine’s 2025 Power Issue – For Readers Who Can Afford A $1 Million Mattress

It was 5 am on the morning of 26 September when the October 2025 issue of the Australian Financial Review Magazine landed with a very loud bang on Ellie’s kennel. It was the AFRM’s annual Power issue and was titled “Power: Party Time – Inside the Labor Landslide”.

The cover shot by Dominic Lorrimer featured Prime Minister Anthony Albanese along with the 28 newly elected Labor MPs. It’s a great pic – but indicated that many of Labor’s new Caucus members (most of whom are young) might be suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder. The PM is looking at Lorrimer’s camera. But – of the new MPs – some are looking to the front, others to the side, some are studying their iPhones, others taking selfies, one is reading a newspaper – and quite a few are laughing. It’s more like a General Rehearsal for the End of the World than a disciplined Labor Caucus meeting.

Turn to page one and there are advertisements for Chanel followed by Tiffany & Co, Van Cleef & Arpels, Grand Vividus (manufacturers of the world’s most expensive mattress), Viking (which provide “no kids” travel) and Poliform furniture.

[Frightfully interesting, I do declare. I hear that Grand Vividus mattresses by Hästens sell for a mere US$1 million tops. And I note that Viking appears to be into “no riff-raff” travel suitable for well-heeled AFR readers. MWD Editor.]

Then there’s “Ed’s letter” section. “Ed” is Matthew Drummond – editor of the AFR Magazine. It commenced as follows:

When the Power issue was created in 2001, it was midway through John Howard’s prime ministership. In a way, it’s an issue that reflected that era; when prime ministerial incumbency invited finely drawn analysis of the pecking order of court. The Power issue was never quite the same through those years of swapping our prime ministers faster than a Labubu bag charm.

After all those advertisements for multimillionaires, your man Drummond’s reference to Labubu bag charms appeared to be an attempt to appeal to everyday Australians.

Turn the page and there is Andrew Cornell’s lead article titled “Risk on Risk off: The prime minister’s power is as close to absolute as possible, making a historic absence of opposition figures”. This is how he led off:

For the first time in The Australian Financial Review Magazine’s quarter-century of analysing power in Australia, there is no opposition leader on the overt power list. In the view of the power panel, Sussan Ley didn’t make the cut. “There is no authority,” said pollster Tony Barry, who has worked across the Coalition spectrum. “Sussan is leading an institutionally broken Coalition and so at the moment, there is no power.” Former Labor senator Stephen Conroy was blunt: “She shouldn’t be on the list, especially at this point of the electoral cycle. And if we put her on the list, it is just charity.”

What a load of tosh. Sure, the Opposition is currently in a parlous state. But Opposition leader Sussan Ley is much more powerful (in AFR terminology) than some others on the “Power” and “Covert Power” lists. The same can be said of Greens’ leader Larissa Waters.

Certainly, the Labor Party won the May 2025 election in a landslide – but it did so on a very low primary vote in the House of Representatives. This reflected itself in the Senate vote. Unlike the Coalition’s Malcolm Fraser in 1975 and 1977 and John Howard in 2004, Labor did not attain a Senate majority in 2025.

This means that Labor needs the support of the Coalition (led by Sussan Ley) or the Greens (led by Larissa Waters) to be sure of getting its legislation through the Senate. In a sense, both leaders have more “power” than, say, ACTU Secretary Sally McManus and The Podcast Influencers – who made it to the Power Top 10.

In his report, Cornell quoted from the panellists who drew up the Power List. He managed to quote “one panellist” (no name provided) who managed to criticise Peta Credlin – who, once upon a time was Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s chief-of-staff. And Cornell found space to exhibit a bit of Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Albanese’s progressive tone and cabinet style is the antithesis of Trump’s divisive, narcissistic and fickle manner. If Trump is Caligula, Albanese is attempting a Marcus Aurelius. And that approach was instrumental in delivering the shock mandate Labor was given.

Could Andrew Cornell have swallowed a copy of Edward Gibbon’s A History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire? and is into a kind of intellectual flashing? Or at least one of Gibbon’s six volumes. And here’s another question: Can You Bear It?

[Well done. I note that Nine Newspapers Comrade Cornell also managed to criticise Rupert Murdoch, News Corp newspapers and Sky News. Quelle Surprise! – MWD Editor.]

  • According to the AFR’s “Rear Window”, the Savage Club is a home away from home, even for the dead

While on the topic of the AFR, MWD would like to advise avid readers that Ellie’s (male) co-owner keeps a “The Dead” file. Partly in recognition of the brilliant but incoherent Irish novelist James Joyce who wrote about the dead. And partly to keep in touch as to who is in – and who is yet to enter – the Requiescat in Pace Club.

But MWD digresses, yet again. Media Watch Dog notices with interest that “Rear Window”, the Australian Financial Review’s gossip column, is fixated on the news from Melbourne’s gentlemen’s clubs. Such as The Australia Club, the Melbourne Club, the Savage Club and so on. For its part Nine Newspapers’ other gossip column – CBD in The Age and Sydney Morning Herald – is also obsessed with gentlemen’s clubs along with high fee-paying schools.

On 23 September, Myriam Robin wrote “Rear Window” which commenced as follows:

Maintaining a proudly male-only space in today’s increasingly genderless society requires eternal vigilance. For reasons of economics and practicality, some will always suggest a measure of flexibility on the question.

But such backsliding cannot stand. In June this year, Melbourne’s Savage Club – the home away from home of figures like comedian Barry Humphries, publisher David Syme, senator George Brandis and businessman John Elliott – took the tentative step of allowing women to dine with male members on Tuesdays and Wednesdays because the dining room was virtually deserted then anyway.

Well, the Savage Club may be a home away from home. But since all of the above are in RIP mode – except George Brandis – it doesn’t mean much.

Then, on 1 October, Hannah Wootten wrote this in “Rear Window”:

The Savage Club certainly boasts some Bohemian types among its current and former membership. There’s publisher David Syme, artist David McCubbin and historian Geoffrey Blainey. As well as members of the staid professional variety, such as former politicians George Brandis and Ted Baillieu and businessmen Tom Hudson and Graeme Billings.

As far as MWD can work it out, among the above, Syme, McCubbin and Elliott have “passed”. The question is – who really cares whether some blokes once, allegedly, called the Savage Club their home-away-from-home. Moreover, Can You Bear It?

A MARK KENNY MOMENT

As avid Media Watch Dog readers know only too well, Mark (“Please call me Professor”) Kenny has enjoyed a brilliant career. Departing the University of Adelaide as a student earlier than expected, your man Kenny soon found employment with a Labor MP in the South Australian Parliament who was a member of the socialist left faction. From there Comrade Kenny moved to Canberra and attained a job at the Conservative Free Zone that is the ABC. From there he went to the left-of-centre Fairfax Media (now Nine Newspapers) becoming national affairs editor for The Age and Sydney Morning Herald. In this capacity he became – and remains – a panellist on ABC TV’s Insiders program. And then, lo and behold, on leaving Nine Newspapers Mr Kenny became Professor Kenny at the Australian National University’s School of Politics & International Relations. Oh yes, the learned professor now writes a column for the Canberra Times and presents the (somewhat boring) ANU-funded Democracy Sausage blog.

Quelle Surprise! Mark (“call me Professor”) Kenny rants against the Liberal Party

As avid Media Watch Dog readers know, ABC Radio National Late Night Live (aka Late Night Left) only engages left-of-centre comrades to comment on politics in Australia, Britain and the United States. This year the commentators on Australia have been Laura Tingle followed by MWD fave Annabel Crabb, followed by Tom McIlroy, followed by Anna Henderson, followed by Mark Kenny. It could well be that Mark (“Please call me Professor”) Kenny has recently stood in for Comrade Henderson (of SBS World News) who accompanied the prime minister on his recent visit overseas to such nations as the US, the United Kingdom and Qatar. We will find out next Monday.

Interviewed on Late Night Left on Monday 22 September by David Marr the (learned) ANU professor decided to bag the, wait for it, Liberal Party. He declared:

Mark Kenny: But these days, in this really kind of jangly, hard-edged politics, this polarised political discourse that we have now for a moderate [Liberal Party leader] to pursue moderate policy instantly gets described as them being merely Labor-lite, “they’re losing their identity, what’s the use of having a Liberal Party if it’s just going to be the same as the Labor Party”, blah, blah, blah. And this is a Liberal Party now that is taking its cues, really from “Sky After Dark” and the right-wing press. And it seems to me to be playing more to applause than it is to the idea of expanding its voter base.

Well, he got this off his chest, as the saying goes.

Then on Monday 29 September Comrade Kenny was interviewed by left-of-centre presenter Nick Bryant who was standing in for the left-of-centre David Marr on Late Night Left. So, what did the one-time Labor Party socialist-left staffer do? Well, he ran the (currently) fashionable leftist line that democracy is under threat worldwide – most notably in the US and possibly in Britain. Groan. And the ANU professorial comrade attacked what he termed “the political right”. Quelle Surprise! Let’s go to the transcript:

Nick Bryant: And this patriotic progressivism [of Anthony Albanese], presumably as a countervailing force to the kind of populistic nationalism that we’re seeing so much of now.

Mark Kenny: Yeah, indeed. I think it’s a very strong counterpoint to that, because it’s a substantial one. I mean, I don’t know how the political Right has got away with being absolutely slavishly supportive of foreign states like the US and Israel, irrespective of their behaviour – whilst also claiming the sort of singular mantle as being Australian patriots. There seems to me to be a contradiction there, and I think the PM might have identified that.

Nick Bryant: Professor Mark Kenny, it is always great to get your thoughts on politics….

Yes, Professor Kenny. It’s always great to get your (leftist) views on politics – especially when you do anti-Liberal Party rants. However, what Comrade Kenny forgot in this instance is that, until recently, Australia had a bipartisan policy on the Australia-US Alliance and Australia’s relationship with Israel. In other words, Kenny’s rant against the “political right” in this instance also applied to the “Labor right”. But, then, Comrade Kenny’s political background is on the socialist left – so, no surprise here.

NEW FEATURE – A SYDNEY MORNING HERALD MOMENT

  • How much is the SMH really into “Reason”? Jenna Price & Alexandra Smith case studies

On Monday 29 September, Ellie’s (male) co-owner thought that some Sandalista must have died. [Perhaps you should have written “passed”. –MWD Editor.]

Look at it this way, The Sydney Morning Herald arrived on Ellie’s kennel, but it carried no news on its first and last five pages. Instead, there was a hard-to-read cover of white type on a black background headed “Here’s to reason: Sydney is a city of many individual views and perspectives. But we all believe in reason.”

Really? Are all Sydneysiders committed to reason? Inside the lift-out on Page 2 there was a section titled “Why reason?” It contained this (somewhat pompous) introduction:

In the world of extremes, one that feels more and more divided, reason is the boldest choice. It guides us to think clearly, question more smartly and to listen. It nurtures better decisions, challenges, assumptions, and creates a space where everyone can be heard. That’s why The Sydney Morning Herald chooses reason. And why we choose to give our readers balanced, reasonable news that helps them make the right decision for themselves and our city. Here’s to reason.

There were equally pompous messages – of the “I’m more reasonable than thou genre” – by SMH journalists Jacqueline Maley, Anthony Segaert, Peter Hartcher, Jordan Baker and Kate McClymont. All this accompanied by photos of people in the dark looking at something or other.

That was Monday 29 September 2025. On Wednesday the SMH published a column by a somewhat angry Jenna Price. The middle-aged Comrade Price launched an attack on a 22-year-old conservative presenter Freya Leach – who had apologised for presiding over an interview on Sky News with a right-wing reactionary nut job which was thwarted, and for which she apologised and for which she was not primarily responsible because decisions on interviewees are invariably made by producers. Even ABC TV’s Media Watch acknowledged that Ms Leach had attempted to right the wrong live on air.

Price then attempted to ridicule the articulate Leach by claiming “she had a robotic appearance of someone whose AI prompter had failed”. That’s just (unreasonable) abuse. And Price referred to Leach’s ATAR score of 99.7 as “dux of the troubled St Andrews Cathedral School”. Price did not state why St Andrews Cathedral School is (allegedly) ‘troubled’. What’s more – is it reasonable to describe a school as troubled?

And the Sydney Morning Herald boasts that it’s all about reason. This is a bit like the Irish saying “we’re tops for humility”. But at least this is an Irish joke. Jenna Price is on record as saying that she is devoid of humour. As MWD readers will recall, Dr Price (for a doctor she is) wrote this in the SMH on 26 April 2025:

I’ll be honest and reveal I don’t have a terrific sense of humour. I sat stony-faced through endless Monty Python movies while at the same time asking my patient, beloved spouse to explain scenes to me. While I enjoyed The Castle, I didn’t laugh. Kath & Kim, same. Frontline, an Australian classic, made me extremely uncomfortable yet turned me into a fan for life. I will often describe something as hilarious based on the reactions of those around me.

Enter Alexandra Smith

The Sydney Morning Herald is well-known for its critical coverage of private schools – including low fee-paying private schools. However, on 2 October it published a column by its political editor Alexandra Smith titled, “I’ve signed my kids up for tutoring. It’s quite an education”.

The implication in Smith’s piece is that parents like her are undermining the government school system by hiring private tutors. Here’s what she had to say:

Well-meaning parents (I accept I am one of them) are fuelling a crisis in confidence in our education system. We have allowed a shadow system to explode in which there is an unspoken fear that if we do not join the masses and pay for extra schooling, our children will be left behind. At the same time, the Wild West of education is being allowed to balloon with very little oversight from governments while capitalising on parental anxieties.

There has been a drift away from government schools in NSW of late. International measures show that the quality of education in some state schools is poor. Perhaps the SMH should do more reporting in this area rather than campaigning against quite a few non-government schools. As to Alexandra Smith’s implied suggestion that the private tutoring section should be regulated by government – how reasonable is that? After all, Australia is currently flooded with regulations.

WHAT I KNOW ABOUT DOGS

  • Ellie Hendo

Occupation/Media Watch Dog/Age 9

Relationship/Co-Owned by the Hendos

Best known for/Not much at all

Ellie’s (male) co-owner is a huge, huge fan of the “What I Know About Men”/”What I know About Women” segment which is published in the Sun Herald’s “Hindsight” magazine. Last Sunday, actor and comedian Michelle de Swarte did the “What I Know About Men” gig. She described her relationship status as “single”.

Due to readership demand, MWD has agreed to do a “What I Know About Dogs” interview with Ellie. Due to the fact that Ellie Hendo is as deaf as a doorpost (to use an old saying), MWD sought the help of the American Mystic John Edward – a MWD fave – for this interview. Here’s how it went – starting with Ellie.

My mother walked the streets of the Australian Capital Territory and I have no known father. That’s why I ended up in what used to be called “the pound” – but these days we are called Rescue dogs.

I ended up meeting lots of canines there. They were dogs like myself. And there were what I call non-dog dogs. You know – the sort of canines welcomed by the Obama set at Martha’s Vineyard who want dogs that do not shed hair. What sort of a dog is that?

For my part I shed heaps of hair. Enough to fill a mattress. By the way, why should bespoke mattresses produced by Hästens only carry horse hair? This is a canine rights issue.

As to other non-dog dogs, I have in mind inner-city type dogs who were bred for well-heeled owners. They are petite and quite useless when it comes to the watch-dog business. Anyone heard of a Cavoodle breed scaring off a house-breaker? It is to my certain knowledge that these petite non-dog dogs are owned by sandal-wearing Teal voters who are so well-off that they can afford to have their E-Vs stolen.

As to accommodation, I like my kennel. It’s very comfortable. Except when the “Power” issue of the Australian Financial Review Magazine lands on my roof once a month – with lotsa advertisements – aimed at wealthy Teal voters who own enough moolah to buy a horse-hair filled mattress and advertised in the AFRM. While I sleep on hard boards. It’s a real dog’s life.

As to fine dining – it’s denied to me. I get fed on print copies of the Crikey newsletter – not even the red ink tastes nice.

As to dating – I have not been successful with canines. Perhaps it’s because I can’t stop barking, which seems to upset real canines of the hearing kind. As to the non-dog dogs type – there is no point. Blue Heelers don’t date Cavoodles and the like and/or the other small canine offspring of Guardian readers.

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Ellie will be eating on a Crikey print-out tonight outside her one-star kennel.

DOCUMENTATION

New interview with Former Chief Health Officer Of Victoria Brett Sutton should cause reflection by the Covid-Era “Dan’s Our Man” media club

On 23 September 2025 Neil Mitchell released an episode of his podcast Neil Mitchell Asks Why featuring an interview with Brett Sutton, who is best known for serving as Chief Health Officer of Victoria during the COVID pandemic.

Dr Sutton went into “no comment” mode on certain topics relating to the decision making around public health orders – hotel quarantine failures, closing playgrounds, etc. However, he was able to be candid about some aspects of how COVID was handled in Victoria. When asked by Mitchell what he got wrong during COVID, Sutton replied that the list was probably “too long for this podcast”.

Specifically, Sutton conceded that the time and effort spent trying to prevent spread via surfaces was wasted. For example, bumping elbows instead of handshakes and wiping down groceries.

The most interesting part of the interview involved lockdowns, where Sutton gave somewhat contradictory answers, which were challenged by Mitchell. Let’s go to the transcript:

Neil Mitchell: What did we learn about the effectiveness of lockdown? Does it work?

Brett Sutton: There are different versions of that. There are different contexts in different countries of the world. And timing is everything again, and it depends on what your objectives are and when you institute it, and how long you do it for, and all of those elements. But the idea that we didn’t need any kind of public health and social measures, and we just needed to tell the elderly to stay at home for a year while the vaccine was being developed is absurd to me.

I think you can manage public health and social measures a number of different ways, but it’s pretty clear that if you’ve eliminated the virus across the country, and you need to eliminate it in the last place where it exists so that we can all move about freely, then it’s reasonable to have those social distancing measures instituted.

Neil Mitchell: Including lockdown.

Brett Sutton: Including lockdown. And maybe we will agree as a society that we never want to do that again. I’m okay with that.

Neil Mitchell: Really? Why, if it was effective, why wouldn’t you do it again? And I think you’re right, by the way, I don’t think people wear it.

Brett Sutton: Yeah, because we should be able to choose what we want as a society in terms of balancing those competing issues.

Neil Mitchell: So, do you think we’ll ever see lockdowns again?

Brett Sutton: Look, if a pandemic came and it was killing 10 per cent of us, I think some of us, I think many of us, would say we need to do something really robust here. By the same token, there are other ways to manage stuff. And if we all wore masks and we all got vaccinated and we all kept distances without them being mandated, that’s a potential path we can take.

These are certainly interesting concessions from the man who helped institute some of the longest lockdowns in the world.

Later in the interview the topic turned to the effect Victoria’s lockdowns have had on Victoria’s youth. Sutton stopped short of endorsing Mitchell’s view that lockdowns are largely to blame for the rise in youth crime. But he did concede that they may have had some effect and that children bore a disproportionate burden during the pandemic, despite being the least at risk from the virus.

Avid MWD readers will recall the existence of a “Dan’s Our Man” fan club among the media during the COVID years. That is, certain members of the press took the view that Victoria, under Labor premier Dan Andrews, represented the gold standard for COVID mitigation, particularly when compared to NSW, under Liberal premiers Gladys Berejiklian and Dominic Perrottet. Victoria leading the nation in COVID cases and deaths never seemed to negatively impact this view.

The ABC’s COVID coverage, led by Dr Norman Swan, certainly subscribed to the “follow Victoria” point of view. Nine newspapers columnist Peter FitzSimons and Lisa Wilkinson, who was then appearing on Network Ten’s The Project, were also prominent members of the “Dan’s our Man” club. All three frequently pushed for NSW to adopt ever-harsher restrictions to match what was happening in Victoria.

These three, and others, should listen to Sutton’s interview. He comes across as thoughtful and reflective about the path taken by Victoria during COVID. And he is certainly willing to admit that some mistakes were made. Will any members of the media be willing to make the same concession about their COVID record?

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Until Next Time.

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