The Daily Telegraph, which at this point we should remind you all is primarily a Sydney-based newspaper, used its front page this morning to not only find a way to dig into Victoria and Premier Dan Andrews, but to do so in a fairly uniquely racist way.
With News Corp smelling blood, the Sydney-based Daily Telegraph has inexplicably gone in on the Victorian Labor leader this morning, attacking the Andrews Government’s discussions with the Chinese Government over the Belt & Road Initiative. At this point it’s important to note that, despite what News Corp’s reporting has said thus far, the Victorian Government has only a Framework Agreement with the initiative, which isn’t quite the iron-clad “deal” News Corp seems to want people to think it is.
The Daily Telegraph’s front page this morning twists the knife, backing in a fairly remarkable Federal Government power grab that will see Prime Minister Scott Morrison et al gifted the ability to review any agreement a state signs with a foreign government.
The Morrison Government will have the discretion to tear up – essentially veto – any lower-tier government agreement that it deems contradictory to its own foreign policy.
The Daily Telegraph expressed this in a rather baffling attempt at demonising the Chinese Government by utilising the fairly racist, but lazily so, epithet “panda huggers.”
The subsequent article, remarkably enough, only makes mention of the Belt & Road Initiative once, in passing. Instead, it focuses primarily on NSW-based programs that will also be subject to Morrison’s quote-unquote “veto” power, including a memorandum of understanding UTS currently has with China Electronics Group Corporation. The article also, for reasons I can’t quite ascertain, makes mention of the NSW State Government’s “Confucius Classroom” program, which was scrapped last year.
Despite the relatively minimal – bordering on no – presence the Victorian Belt & Road arrangement has in the article itself, the Daily Telegraph has nonetheless seen fit to hang its entire front page on attacking a state it doesn’t primarily serve. And in a curiously racially-charged way at that.
For what its worth, the Melbourne-based Herald Sun also put the issue front-and-centre on its front page this morning. Though in a rare moment of restraint, they managed to do so without including poorly-constructed hate speech.
Just another day in the News Corp dream factory, really.
