Inlay

## Only 14 months into Hugh Marks’ tenure as managing director at the national broadcaster, the former commercial media executive has cut over 50 jobs despite no external budget pressure, caused ABC staff to walk off the job for the first time in 20 years and now he has forced the public broadcaster’s director of news out the door and replaced him with a captain’s pick. What’s more, Marks seems to actually want everyone to know this. He’s proud of it. At Senate estimates on Thursday, he wasn’t hiding any of this. When asked if he had pushed Director of News Justin Stevens out the door, shockingly, he didn’t deny it. He was asked by Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson: “ Can I assume Mr. Marks, that Mr. Stevens was encouraged to resign very strongly?” “ Well, Senator, I think it's inappropriate for me to go into detail on specific staff matters,” Marks replied. ### This post is for subscribers only Become a member to get access to all content Subscribe now

There was a moment in our post-budget podcast episode that accidentally revealed the enormous challenge the government had created for themselves by making housing tax reform the centrepiece of their economic policy. It was when Scott was breaking down exactly how the changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax would work, and he acknowledged how complicated these changes were. That’s the issue with a lot of tax policy, but particularly when a government tries to reform the kinds of loopholes that sound highly technical. On the surface, reforming tax breaks for property investors should seem like a simple political win. Only 8.7 per cent of the population are landlords, and they aren’t exactly the kind of people who tug on the heartstrings of the rest of us. Renters on the other hand, are a larger proportion of the population, younger demographically and Labor is more interested in winning over people who will be voting in elections for decades to come. So why has Labor’s primary vote taken a hit after the budget, and why is it one of the least popular in modern history? ### This post is for subscribers only Become a member to get access to all content Subscribe now

We're turning one and you're invited to the party! Since launching in April 2025, Lamestream, hosted by award-winning journalists Osman Faruqi and Scott Mitchell, has rapidly built a dedicated following by providing a fresh, independent voice on politics, culture and current affairs, cutting through the spin and bias of the mainstream media. Lamestream's first live shows, at the end of last year, sold out across Sydney and Melbourne and now we're embarking on a national tour, hitting Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney to celebrate our first birthday. Presented in partnership with CLBR, _Lamestream Live: The First Birthday Tour_ will feature Os and Scott providing a mid-year temperature check on the state of media, politics, and current affairs, presenting brand new segments featuring special guests and audience Q&A's. The shows are also an opportunity to hang out with us and get to know the team behind Lamestream. Tickets are $49.90 and are on sale now. **Lamestream Live - The First Birthday Tour Dates:** Tuesday, June 16 @ The Night Cat, Melbourne NEW SHOW ADDED - TICKETS. Wednesday, June 17 @ The Night Cat, Melbourne - SOLD OUT Tuesday, June 23 @ The Vanguard, Sydney - NEW SHOW ADDED - TICKETS. Wednesday, June 24 @ The Vanguard, Sydney - SOLD OUT Thursday, June 25 @ La La Land, Brisbane - TICKETS Saturday, June 27th @ Canberra Theatre, Canberra - TICKETS Wednesday, July 1st @ Rhino Room, Adelaide - TICKETS Thursday, July 2nd @ Goodwill Club, Perth - TICKETS

### Albanese Lies About Australia’s Involvement in the Iran War – But Not a Single Story at Home? Last Saturday, an investigation by the _Wall Street Journal_ revealed that the UAE carried out dozens of its own attacks on Iran, from the very first days of the war. This is not what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the public when he deployed the Australian military to the UAE. “There's been no attack from the UAE against Iran,” he told reporters at the press conference announcing the deployment. According to Albanese, the UAE was a completely innocent bystander that we had a duty to defend, and by doing so, we were not getting involved in the war. That night, Defence Minister Richard Marles said the same thing to _7.30_ ’s Sarah Ferguson. “Our strategic intent here is to make our contribution to the defence of the UAE but also the defence of the other Gulf states, who have been under a sustained attack from Iran since the moment this began,” he said. “They are, of course, states which themselves have not been protagonists against Iran.” ### This post is for subscribers only Become a member to get access to all content Subscribe now

The abuse suffered by members of the Gaza aid flotilla, which included 11 Australians, has provoked outrage around the world and been condemned by numerous world leaders. As well the ritualistic abuse and humiliation inflicted on flotilla members detained by Israel at the hands of government minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, numerous detainees have also alleged physical and sexual assault. But the reporting of these allegations, at least in Australia, has been unlike coverage of previous incidents of Australians being detained, mistreated and physically abused overseas. Multiple stories quote Israeli government officials denying the allegations before they actually quote any victims. The usual jingoism that accompanies stories of Australians being mistreated by authoritarian governments overseas is absent, replaced instead with significant scepticism and, in some instances, heavy-handed interrogation. The most extreme example of this was an interview of flotilla participant Neve O’Connor conducted by ABC _7:30_ host Sarah Ferguson. Very rarely, if ever, will you see a victim alleging physical assault and sexual harassment whilst being imprisoned questioned in this manner. ### This post is for subscribers only Become a member to get access to all content Subscribe now

__Tickets to our live shows featuring guests like Ben Lee, Tony Armstrong, Grace Tame, and more are__ on sale now__.__ Charlie Pickering doesn’t owe the ABC everything, but he does owe it _a lot_. His first regular media gig was as host of Triple J’s _Drive_ program back in 2001, a position he landed after being invited by Wil Anderson to do guest spots on _Breakfast_. After stints in commercial media, including on the Comedy Channel and Channel V, as well as co-hosting _The Project_ for five years, he returned to the ABC to host _The Weekly_ , a satirical news program that has run for the past 11 years. As well as that, he co-hosted another ABC TV program _Tomorrow Tonight_ , hosted ABC Melbourne’s _Breakfast_ show on Fridays in 2023, took over hosting Richard Glover’s _Thank God It’s Friday_ show __ on ABC Sydney, and just last month was announced as the new host of _Drive_ on ABC Melbourne. The public broadcaster has showered him with gigs, including his continued hosting of the ABC’s last remaining satirical news show, which has outlasted Shaun Micallef’s _Mad As Hell_ and Tom Ballard’s _Tonightly_. He’s in an extremely rare, lucky and privileged position. That is why his decision to publicly criticise the broadcaster for working with former Australian of the Year Grace Tame – a decision that has provided the ABC’s powerful enemies with fresh ammunition to use against the broadcaster – has left so many of his colleagues bewildered and disdainful. ### This post is for subscribers only Become a member to get access to all content Subscribe now

### Trump vs. the Australian music industry, but our media makes it all about Abbie Chatfield The Trump regime’s ramped-up border security apparatus ensnared an unexpected victim this week, with Australian musician Adam Hyde (who performs under the name Keli Holiday and is one-half of Peking Duk) being denied entry into the US and, as a result, was forced to return home. It’s a particularly bizarre case because Hyde, whose song _Dancing2_ finished number two on Triple J's Hottest 100 countdown, was midway through a North American tour and had already performed a series of shows in the US, before travelling to Toronto to play there. It was on his return to the US for a final show in New York that he was detained, interrogated and ultimately refused entry. In fact, his whole tour party had their visas cancelled and were forced to return to Australia. The fickleness of US border officers since Trump’s re-election has been well documented, but as far as we can tell, no Australian touring musician has been rejected in this way. It’s a new precedent that should have the local music industry up in arms, because of how crucial cracking the US market has been to generations of Australian artists. ### This post is for subscribers only Become a member to get access to all content Subscribe now

### Israel’s Ben-Gvir isn’t a rogue element. He is emblematic of the government There’s a deliberate and concerted effort underway, led by the Israeli government, its embassies, and its allies in the media. They want to frame government minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s abuse of Gaza aid flotilla detainees as some kind of shocking aberration, that sits outside the norms of how Israel operates. ### This post is for subscribers only Become a member to get access to all content Subscribe now

### The ABC says 8 Million Australians are reliant on income support!? The ABC has reported that a shocking number of people are “reliant” on income support – but after speaking to _Lamestream,_ the author of the study, is distancing himself from the central claim of the ABC’s story. “The number of people accessing income support payments has risen by 2 million, with more Australians unable to work due to deteriorating mental and physical health,” read the ABC News story this week. The reported 8.3 million people would be an enormous number of Australians unable to work. There’s just shy of 15 million employed people in the whole of Australia, so once you take out children, the elderly – where are all these unproductive souls fitting into Australia’s population? The original headlines on the story. Unemployment and welfare activist Tom Studans was the first to spot the problem: the entire story was based on a study that included sick leave that all workers are entitled to as a form of “income support” – fully 7.5 million of the 8.3 million people this study is talking about. That’s right, the vast majority of people the ABC called “rely on income support” and “unable to work”, are actually gainfully employed and took some sick days. ### This post is for subscribers only Become a member to get access to all content Subscribe now

It's been interesting to watch media outlets steadily shift the tenor of their budget coverage in the days after it was unveiled, and slowly come to accept how minimal the housing tax reforms really are. As we covered on Thursday's episode of the show, because political reporters had spent weeks reporting government drops that this was going to a huge, radical, never-before-seen kind of shake up to the housing sector, they were stuck with that line even when the actual details revealed on Tuesday showed it was much, much more marginal that what had been teased. But in the second half of the week, more stories that point out how little it will do have emerged, including at the ABC and The Guardian. It's a fascinating case study of why the government puts so much emphasis on pre-budget spin. They use it as an opportunity to drip-feed information and craft a narrative. Even if that narrative ends up being disconnected from the reality of whats in the budget, they hope that people just swallow the government line. It looks like the strategy is wearing a bit thin, because ultimately you can't actually spin people into thinking its getting easier to buy a house if it doesn't actually feel easier. It's a reminder that as powerful and influential as the media is, it doesn't stand a chance when it crashes against actual material reality. * **Killer Grabs:** Quotes from around the traps. * **Why is Australia media celebrating an artist being banned from the US? Plus, the housing tax explainers that got it wrong** —****_By Osman Faruqi and Scott Mitchell_ And apologies from us, Os has been travelling, running around and hasn't had much time to watch his usual volume of content this week, and Scott has been working hard – **The Good Ones** will return next week. Listen to this week's Lamestream podcast * * * ## Killer Grabs > "Taylor’s bold budget reply is a mix of sound and dubious policy commitments" — **Michelle Grattan, in** her column for The Conversation This was the headline on Grattan's story analysing Angus Taylor's budget reply, where he focused on cutting immigration and stopping migrants accessing government benefits. The closest thing to a sound policy idea Grattan discusses is Taylor's proposal to index income tax brackets, but beyond pointing out Malcolm Fraser briefly did it in the 1970s, nowhere are we told why this is good. Sometimes a politician just delivers a pathetic speech aimed at race-baiting and trying to out-do One Nation and its OK to call it that! You don't have pretend these people are secret economic geniuses when it's very clear they aren't. > "You can have a disagreement with a policy of a government... but that doesn’t mean that I believe Israel doesn’t have a right to exist." — **Anthony Albanese when asked on ABC Radio if Australia should have boycotted Eurovision.** Firstly, it's incredible to call ongoing slaughter, genocide and occupation taking place across two different countries "a policy of a government". Secondly, somehow even more incredible to respond to a question about boycotting Israel's participation in Europe and saying "I believe they have a right to exist". Boycotting Eurovision does not somehow automatically wipe Israel's existence off the face of the earth, what is he even talking about? Have Ireland and the Netherlands nuked Israel out of existence by not participating in Eurovision? Of course not. * * * ## **Why is Australia media celebrating an artist being banned from the US? Plus, the housing tax explainers that got it wrong** ### Trump vs. the Australian music industry, but our media makes it all about Abbie Chatfield The Trump regime’s ramped-up border security apparatus ensnared an unexpected victim this week, with Australian musician Adam Hyde (who performs under the name Keli Holiday and is one-half of Peking Duk) being denied entry into the US and, as a result, was forced to return home. It’s a particularly bizarre case because Hyde, whose song _Dancing2_ finished number two on Triple J's Hottest 100 countdown, was midway through a North American tour and had already performed a series of shows in the US, before travelling to Toronto to play there. It was on his return to the US for a final show in New York that he was detained, interrogated and ultimately refused entry. In fact, his whole tour party had their visas cancelled and were forced to return to Australia. The fickleness of US border officers since Trump’s re-election has been well documented, but as far as we can tell, no Australian touring musician has been rejected in this way. It’s a new precedent that should have the local music industry up in arms, because of how crucial cracking the US market has been to generations of Australian artists. ### This post is for subscribers only Become a member to get access to all content Subscribe now