Prime Minister Scott Morrison (Image: AAP/David Gray)

On the campaign trail Yesterday gave us a masterclass in Morrisonism. It had it all: a blatant lie testily tossed at questioning journalists; plenty of playing up to the cameras; gratuitous hi-vis; making various meals, and getting a haircut. As if that didn’t scream “campaign mode” loud enough, we’re also being treated to a whole new tranche of slogans.

After the refrain “technology not taxes” accompanying his nothing-much of a climate policy, today he added that climate action will be led by “can-do capitalism”, not “don’t do” government policy, which definitely means something.

But most striking of all has been the emphasis on “choices not mandates” — he used the word “choice” 12 times in the course of a single answer in yesterday’s press conference.

But surely no politician in the COVID era can use the word “mandate” as a pejorative and not know what they’re doing. The prime minister has of course dragged his feet on any kind of vaccine mandate, and given the vax rates across the nation perhaps it feels like a safe enough bet to wink at the ever-shrinking number of holdouts against getting vaccinated voluntarily.

Bringing it back Yesterday gave us two instances of a phrase we were happy enough to see in the dustbin of history. Warren Entsch on the confected voter ID problem: “You’ve got the democratic right to vote — why wouldn’t you show who you are? We’re not a Third World country.” And then Bill Shorten simultaneously attacking and taking credit for the government’s electric vehicle policy: “Australia is in danger of becoming an automotive Third World.”

Why are politicians bringing this terminology back? Partly because we suspect if you were to use “developing nations” or “global south”, the old-fashioned and frankly unsavoury connotations of the phrase might be a bit clearer.

Ruddocracy Here at Tips, we’re deeply reluctant to call attention to, let alone praise, the non-Crikey work of any of our colleagues. But if you’ve not caught it yet, Murdocracy, a podcast about the influence of Rupert Murdoch and News Corp hosted by our very own Cam Wilson with comedian Sami Shah is well worth a listen.

The latest episode features an interview with Kevin Rudd. Apart from describing Murdoch as someone without much interest in what Rudd calls “the world of the mind”, Rudd tells us of his “dilemma” regarding the show Succession. Rudd hasn’t watched it yet (he has to finish The Good Doctor first), partly on account of who owns the network airing it in Australia. Following a recommendation from his daughter, he apparently said “What’s that on, Binge? That’s owned by Murdoch. So do you mean I’ve got to become a subscriber to watch it? Well, bugger that.”

Magic numbers By common agreement, there’s a magical quality to Scott Morrison’s 2050 net zero plan, which relies on new technology descending from heaven to save us from global heating — especially as he refuses point blank to release the modelling behind the plan.

But there’s nothing as magical as the sorcery unveiled by Fairfax journalist Rob Harris.

His piece about a purported “New $1 billion fund to back Australian companies to develop low-emissions technology” shares the claim that government “expects to leverage $3 to $5 for every dollar invested — or up to $126 billion in total public and private investment over a decade”. Huh? Even accepting the idea that $500 million will be coupled with another $500 million from “private investors”, $5 for every dollar invested is, um, $5 billion, not $126 billion. It’s even more bizarre given that the piece goes on to note that the Clean Energy Finance Corporation has so far spent $9.5 billion (or nearly 10 times the new fund) to leverage $33 billion in investment. 

Of course, Nine is far from the only one to do this — as Renew Economy‘s Michael Mazengarb points out, several publications credulously repeated the $1 billion claim, ignoring the part where the government kicks in only $500 million.