Tricky Governments, New Economies And The Turnbull–Murdoch Battle Royale

Just because there's a coronavirus crisis, we can't assume a government will act in the best interests of its people. Trust in governments and authority is at a low level, so why would the public have trust in a Tracing App, when all it's going to do is soak up personal data the government can then on-sell to third parties? No thanks. And especially after the debacles of the 2016 Census, the Centrelink crash and MyHealth. This is not a government that can be trusted to do the right thing. For its donors and support base, yes. But not for the general public.

And the LNP Government will have to work towards a new type of economy: the old one stopped working. But are they up to it? We think not. Time to buy up essential services and accepting an economy isn't just all about GDP, it's also about love and relationships, just like in the happy countries of Bhutan and New Zealand.

Malcolm Turnbull has released his memoirs and has announced he wants to do all the things he didn't do while he was the Prime Minister of Australia. Well, that is very good news, but it might be wise to let Turnbull know the time to do all these things is when you are the Prime Minister, not when you are not the Prime Minister. And a big announcement about the symbiotic relationship between News Corporation and the Liberal Party – tell us something we didn't already know. Yes, Murdoch is a cancer on the Australian political landscape, but standing up to Rupert Murdoch means actually standing up to him, not giving him more of Australia's media, installing an inferior NBN that protects News Corporation assets, and gifting a lazy $30 million to Foxtel: no questions asked. That's not standing up, that's being ‘owned’ by Rupert Murdoch.

And the Ruby Princess incident: a cover-up or standard police work? We'll just have to bide our time but the truth has to come out, if trust in governments and institutions is to be restored.