The Australian Used Their Front Page To Have A Crack At Q&A’s Duncan

It doesn’t look like the folks over at The Australian were pleased to see all the attention heaped on Duncan Storrar, the bloke who appeared on Q&A to ask the panel why the rich were getting a tax cut but he, a disabled father, was not. He got loads of sympathy, including a crowdfunding attempt to raise dosh for him to buy a toaster – in reference to Kelly O’Dwyer’s reasonably tone deaf reply to his question.

The Oz, who generally editorialise in favour of tax cuts and reduced spending, obviously aren’t keen on Duncan. Their front page today makes that fairly clear.

The article itself comes across a little more compassionate: they acknowledge that he had had a difficult life and needs his Austudy payments to get by. But it also feels extremely weird to further the quest to slash spending by exposing a single welfare recipient as being a drain on the taxpayer purse.
They even included a helpful little infographic of Duncan’s income! Fun!
Storrar appeared on ABC Radio where he confirmed that his disability is post-traumatic stress disorder, and that he doesn’t drink or take drugs, and is focused on providing for his daughter’s education, as education is the road out of poverty. He doesn’t like to be called a ‘battler’, either.
It’s all a bit seedy – the Oz can claim that their actual article is compassionate for Storrar’s position, but whacking it on the front page with ABC ‘BUDGET FAIRNESS’ VICTIM PAYS NO TAX is clearly intended to enrage the kind of people who think low-income earners are a drain on the economy and the human spirit.
As you might imagine, people online were a little skeptical of the Oz’s take. The main angle was that though Storrar might not pay tax, New Limited tends not to either.

Keep fighting the good fight, folks. 
Source & photo: The Australian.

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