Murdoch’s end, wasteful defence spending, nothing for Jobseeker, and the No-alition

In this episode: a boost in military spending, but what does it mean for funding of other important areas; The Dominion case in the United States is the beginning of the end of News Corporation; And the continuing federal “No-alition”: is it a recipe for success or a disaster in the making?

ANZAC Day was held this week and what better way to commemorate this than the federal government announcing an extra $19 billion as part of the review of the Australian Defence Force. The military industry is like a beast that keeps needing to be fed: there will also be an additional $42 billion spent on defence over the next decade, and it’s an area that rarely receives the same cutbacks that apply to virtually every other sector in the community – all the defence department has to do in Australia is ramp up the fear on China and every dollar that they ask for will be given. National security and defence spending are important issues that every country in the world needs to consider and take on seriously but, sometimes in Australia, these matters force every other issue onto the backburner.

There’s two defamation cases concerning News Corporation – they've had different outcomes, but have a similar message: News Corporation is a diminishing influence and overstretched itself as a right wing propaganda unit and is now paying the price. In the United States, News Corporation settled a defamation case with Dominion Voting Systems for $US797 million – a quarter of its cash reserves – and it’s a punishment for spreading the lies about the 2020 presidential election being rigged and stolen from President Donald Trump and the Republican Party. In Australia, Lachlan Murdoch has dropped his defamation case against Crikey News, claiming that he didn't want to give Crikey any more publicity. Up until recently, News Corporation would have doubled down, poured more money into litigation costs and defending itself. But this time, it has given up without much of a fight. This is a humiliation of one of the biggest news media companies in history and it could also be the beginning of the end of News Corporation as well.

A Newspoll was released last week and, as predicted, the news is getting worse for the Coalition, with a confirmation of the poor standing of the Coalition and the Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton. This can provide an opportunity for change for a political party to understand that everything is not currently working, and doing politics differently might be a better option. But the Liberal Party is not for changing and hasn’t understood that opposition for the sake of opposition doesn't work anymore. And with a change in demographics and voting patterns, they might be out of office for a long time. This change isn’t good news for the Labor Party either, and there are suggestions that this could be the last majority government – from either side of government – and the future will be based around coalitions of common political interests.