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Rachel Withers

@rachelwithers.bsky.social
10K followers 542 following 435 posts

Freelance writer with an unfortunate penchant for Australian politics. clippings.me/rachelwithers/

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Reposted by Rachel Withers
Jessie L @jessielilley.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Tonight on Spin Cycle on @3rrrfm.bsky.social we are chatting to Sarah Martin about her @australia.theguardian.com Pauline Hanson podcast, The Populist. Plus the power of student journalism in the Cornell 7 story. And The Greens. With @rachelwithers.bsky.social. Tune in at 7pm.
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Crikey @crikey.com.au · 29/07/2026
Opinion | Jacinta Allan was right to step down. But as @rachelwithers.bsky.social writes, Ben Carroll represents the death of progressive Labor politics in Victoria. www.crikey.com.au/2026/07/29/b...
crikey.com.au
Can the bland man save Victoria? Maybe. But say goodbye to Victoria’s progressive Labor government
Jacinta Allan was right to stand down, with more than a decade of scandals weighing down her leadership. You know who else is Right? Ben Carroll, Victoria’s new centrist premier.
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Debate about a gas tax “evaporated” at Labor's national conference on Thursday, a cute media euphemism for the fact it shrivelled up and died 🫠
crikey.com.au
If Labor wants to sock it to One Nation, introduce a gas tax. Ignoring it isn’t brave — it’s stupid
Hopes of enshrining a gas tax in Labor’s platform were dashed on Thursday, as the party — and its once rebellious leader — kept a firm lid on dissent.
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
On now!!! rrr.org.au
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David Marler @qldaah.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
From 2016. Pauline Hanson was paid as a commentator by Channel 7's Sunrise in the lead up to her election to the federal senate. She had also run as a candidate for the Queensland state seat of Lockyer in 2015. #auspol www.news.com.au/national/fed...
news.com.au
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Don’t think about the donations you might lose if you cut off the gambling lobby. Instead, think of all the good you might do if you are no longer in thrall to an addictive, harmful, compromising industry, which is costing you more than you might realise.
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Crikey @crikey.com.au · 22/07/2026
Opinion | Labor, sit down — it's time we spoke to you about your gambling addiction. @rachelwithers.bsky.social writes. www.crikey.com.au/2026/07/22/l...
crikey.com.au
Labor, we've invited you here for a gambling intervention. Please sit down
With Labor hoovering up millions in donations from gambling bodies — and a pokies giant nestling up to its recent national conference — is it time we had a little chat?
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Labor, are you addicted to gambling donations? The first step to recovery, after all, is admitting you have a problem.
crikey.com.au
Labor, we've invited you here for a gambling intervention. Please sit down
With Labor hoovering up millions in donations from gambling bodies — and a pokies giant nestling up to its recent national conference — is it time we had a little chat?
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
"For all of Segal’s assertions about how the local Jewish community was being conflated with the state of Israel and blamed for Israel’s action, it was her testimony that insisted on the link between them, as if any criticism of Israel’s actions constituted antisemitism" Read to the kicker on this🔥
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Stop asking leaders to "rule out" hypothetical parliamentary coalitions, and start asking them to "rule out" preferencing racists. www.crikey.com.au/2026/07/15/a...
crikey.com.au
Journalists, please 'rule out' this silly gotcha question to politicians
An incessant Sarah Ferguson demanded Angus Taylor 'rule out' governing with One Nation on ABC's 730 — an inane ask about a hypothetical situation. She’d be better off asking him about things he is act...
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
🫠🫠🫠
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Obsessed with Scott and Os' forensic coverage of this farce of a royal commission. Every journalist that uncritically reported Segal's trainwreck testimony should hang their head in shame.
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Liberal president Tony Abbott might as well be One Nation president, claiming “mass migration” would “dilute” Anglo-Celtic culture, which @mrdtjames.bsky.social rightly labelled “white nationalism”. Taylor needs to shut this behaviour down now, with Abbott only offering more One Nation affirmation.
crikey.com.au
Well done, Angus? Now it’s time to dump Abbott, Antic and all your One Nation hangers-on
Liberal leader Angus Taylor has finally called out One Nation, but he still needs to purge the Hansonites in his ranks.
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Nick Evershed!? @nickevershed.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
it cannot be emphasised enough how stupid this whole debate is. every time any politician is pushed to describe what they actually want Australia to be like if not 'multicultural', they end up describing what the vast majority of us would understand as 'multiculturalism'
"You've got the woke right pushing for monoculturalism. You've got the woke left pushing for multiculturalism. I sit with most sensible mainstream Australians somewhere in the centre. I think there is a third way," he said.

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has called for Australia to reject multiculturalism and embrace monoculturalism at an address to the National Press Club. She later told the Senate that the Socceroos represent her vision of a monocultural Australia.

But Hastie says it should be about subscribing to common values and institutions.

"It doesn't matter where you're from or what colour your skin is. If you sign up to our shared language, which is English, our shared institutions like parliament and the rule of law or our judiciary, and if you sign up to our shared symbol, that is the Australian national flag, then you're Australian," he said.

The son of a pastor, Hastie says his early years in inner-west Sydney still inform his vision for the future fabric of Australian society.

"There were people from different countries, but bound together by a common faith, common values and a common institution. That's what multiculturalism means to me," he said.

"But there are people who would advocate for multiculturalism where we balkanize and ghetto-ise our country where people are able to opt out of our language. They're able to opt out of our institutions. They're able to opt out of our symbols. And I reject that as much as I reject those who insist on a monoculturalism, which is sort of based in ethnicity."
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John Birmingham @birmo.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Millenia from now, historians will argue bitterly about the meaning of the sole recovered fragment of documentary evidence recovered from this age. Letters painted on a wall in a buried London alley. “F CK HIM UP B NFACE!!”
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
This is so fucking funny. Even better given the way Sarah Henderson, a former ABC journo, goes so hard after the national broadcaster.
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Former Liberal MP Jason Falinski reckons "Community Strong" throws into doubt the entire independents movement, arguing it has a "marketing snow job" ahead. Falinski's jibes ignore one crucial fact: only two of the indies have so far joined it, proving the "teals" were never a homogenous unit.
crikey.com.au
What Liberal-types like Jason Falinski get wrong about the 'teals'
The fact only two MPs have joined the new party shows the independents have agency. Perhaps Jason Falinski is mad that he never thought to use any of his own.
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
Maybe we should make candidates declare these things BEFORE we vote for them www.afr.com/politics/fed...
afr.com
One Nation’s new MP owns five properties, pharma stocks
David Farley has disclosed his financial interests, which include stakes in obscure ASX-listed stocks, trading accounts and an expansive property portfolio.
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
The gun-toting senator might be able to mimic the language of the far-right, jumping on podcasts to defend “masculinity”... But McKenzie is one of the very elites she is trying to rail against, a politician best known for her role in one of Australia's most memorable pork-barrelling exercises.
crikey.com.au
Bridget McKenzie is no Pauline Hanson. She clearly wishes she was
Perhaps it’s finally time the Nationals senator whips out the red hair dye.
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
To belabour the military metaphors, it is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees. Better also for a Liberal leader to stand for something than to let the party die in their arms, while on their knees, clinging to a tightrope, while insisting that they don’t understand the question.
crikey.com.au
The Liberals are no monoculture on how to deal with One Nation. To fight, or capitulate?
Angus Taylor and Andrew Hastie offer two very different paths forward on how to handle to the existential threat posed by Pauline Hanson — and thus on the future of the party itself.
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Ette Media @ettemedia.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Kyle gushing about spending time with One Nation 'working on getting their messaging across' is just the latest in a line of white men over 50 in the media playing footsies with the far-right in recent months. From Karl Stefanovic’s podcast guests to Dave Hughes’ rants, who's next?
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Crikey @crikey.com.au · 19/06/2026
Tim Wilson's outburst on breakfast TV this week is far from the first time he's said something odd. It inspired Rachel Withers to ask: "You good, babe?" www.crikey.com.au/2026/06/19/t...
crikey.com.au
Tim Wilson, you ’right babe?
The shadow treasurer used a morning TV interview to angrily claim his Labor opponent needed to 'grow up' and 'get a breathalyser'. Perhaps those close to Wilson need to have a little word.
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Tune in from 7pm for a Tim Wilson role play: rrr.org.au
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Charlie Lewis @theshufflediary.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
We're going to be talking all about this, plus Wilson, AI at Seven and Anthony Green popping off from 7pm. Join @rachelwithers.bsky.social and I on @3rrrfm.bsky.social ! www.crikey.com.au/2026/06/18/p...
crikey.com.au
No-one laid a glove on Hanson. It's not hard to understand why
Sitting in the National Press Club, albeit at the back near the kitchen, it's clear that no-one really knew how to handle the One Nation leader.
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Crikey @crikey.com.au · 17/06/2026
Opinion | At the end of the day, this is simply about paying less tax — I know it, you know it, even they know it. www.crikey.com.au/2026/06/17/t...
crikey.com.au
Tax reform has winners and losers. Business makes an ugly loser
For all the talk about investment and risk, at the end of the day, this is simply about paying less tax — I know it, you know it, even they know it.
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Coming up now on RRR: rrr.org.au
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Jessie L @jessielilley.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Tonight on Spin Cycle on @3rrrfm.bsky.social we talk to Jeff Sparrow about his essay on @ahjohnson.bsky.social's, How to Sell a Genocide: the Media's Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza. And boy do we have some local examples. 7pm with @rachelwithers.bsky.social.
theconversation.com
Friday essay: How to Sell a Genocide exposes the double standards of reporting on Gaza
Almost all major human rights organisations agree the destruction of Gaza meets the legal definition of genocide. Yet liberal news outlets still do not use the word.
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Fantastic. Great Move. etc etc
crikey.com.au
The Coalition only has itself to blame
From sexist billboards to cries of 'communism', the Liberals and Nationals normalised the kind of politics One Nation excels at.
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Yung En Chee @yungenchee.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
honourable exceptions being journos like Rachel *property market downturn is my passion* Withers 🙌
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Does Andrew Bragg, who has a Bachelor of Arts and a Master’s of Business from ANU, actually know what communism is? What is he referring to, and does he actually believe we are getting closer and closer to it under the People’s Glorious Albanese Government? www.crikey.com.au/2026/06/05/a...
crikey.com.au
Does Andrew Bragg know what communism is? An investigation (of sorts)
No-one has been more concerned about the creep of communism evident in Labor’s budget than Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg.
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Jessie L @jessielilley.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Tonight on Spin Cycle on @3rrrfm.bsky.social the ratbags are back. We'll chat to ABC reporter Emily Baker about her investigation into Byron Bay's predatory SA culture in the 2000s. And we'll be picking over the bones of Pickering. 7pm with @rachelwithers.bsky.social and @theshufflediary.bsky.social
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Andy Fleming @slackbastard.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Today on 'Yeah Nah Pasaran!' on @3crmelbourne.bsky.social, @sexenheimer.bsky.social & I talk to @rachelwithers.bsky.social about #auspol ... 4.30pm, June 4, 2026 /// 855AM, digital, streaming, Community Radio+ app, podcats 🐈 slackbastard.anarchobase.com?p=54322
slackbastard.anarchobase.com
Yeah Nah Pasaran #289 w Rachel Withers on The Wonders of #auspol : June 4, 2026
This week on Yeah Nah Pasaran! we talk to Rachel Withers [Bluesky]. Rachel is a freelance journalist whose work can be found at Crikey (and elsewhere) and who co-hosts Spin Cycle on 3RRR. We last s…
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The Cathy Wilcox @cathywilcox.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Do something. My @smh cartoon.
Four frames. 1. Two people declaiming. One says, “Omigosh! The Cost of Living!! Everything is unaffordable!” Other says, “Real estate prices are through the roof!” 2. Same people, “Young people are losing hope of ever being able to afford a home…” “The government should DO something!” 3. PM Albanese at presser says, “OK. We listened. We’ve changed some tax rules to make housing more affordable.” Panel says “A FEW WEEKS LATER…” 4. Same two people, first says, “Omigosh! House prices have CRASHED by 1%” second says, “How will people ever get ahead if the value of their asset plummets?!
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boothwobblies.bsky.social @boothwobblies.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Absolutely. If you only have one house it doesn't matter what 'value' is put on it from markets. Unless of course you plan to borrow against the inflated price. Banks used to push borrowers to draw down and spend the inflated equity. Short sighted. I welcome the down turn for the next gen.
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Tom Swann @tomswann.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
I own property and I want house prices to fall
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
The next person who labels the budget “communist” should have their house seized and turned into public property, so that they can learn what communism actually is.
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Simon Rosenberg @simonrosenberg.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
"It’s unclear how any party claiming to care about 'affordability' or 'supply' can be against a price decrease. And yet somehow those blaming migrants instead of investors continue to get away with it." #HousingCrisis #auspol
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
Property market downturn is my passion 🫠 In all seriousness, what is the intent of any policy to cut migration or increase “supply” if not to deflate the market? What on earth is the point if prices keep rising beyond what people can afford? Weirdly, these questions aren't put to Hanson or Taylor.
crikey.com.au
Er, don't we want house prices to fall?
The Coalition wants to pin a recent property price drop on Labor’s tax changes, but it's unclear how any party claiming to care about 'housing affordability' or 'supply' can be against it.
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Simon Rosenberg @simonrosenberg.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
If Liberals are trying to attract the younger, female, 'ethnically diverse' voters it needs, says @rachelwithers.bsky.social, then "It’s difficult to imagine a worse choice for Liberal Party president than Tony Abbott." #auspol www.crikey.com.au/2026/06/02/t...
crikey.com.au
Tony Abbott is the perfect example of the Liberals’ dwindling male boomer base
The new Liberal Party president might win some old white men back from One Nation, but he’s the worst possible choice to appeal to the women and young people the party needs to survive.
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
President Abbott is emblematic of the dwindling Liberal base: a 68-year-old white man in thrall to whatever Sky News say, already flirting with the idea of One Nation. Sure, the Libs may now hold onto a few more of the Abbotts of the world. But they'd be better off putting them all out to pasture.
crikey.com.au
Tony Abbott is the perfect example of the Liberals’ dwindling male boomer base
The new Liberal Party president might win some old white men back from One Nation, but he’s the worst possible choice to appeal to the women and young people the party needs to survive.
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Lucy Hamilton @lucyham.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Your reminder that the new president of Australia’s long-term main “conservative” political party is still, as of midday an active member of a fascistic Hungarian influence-operation. Tony Abbott is a component of a transnational influence operation fighting to break democracy. #auspol
Abbott’s registration at the AG’s office for foreign influence, taken approx midday today. 

Has Atlas Network-linked Danube Institute as “active” connection.
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Chris Wallace @chriswallace.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
‘…most founders I know are not complaining about their hypothetical tax bill. They know Australia is a great place to start a business, and a great place to live.’ Technology lawyer David Turner, Empirical Legal. www.afr.com/technology/a...
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Never mind that this is the continuation of a polling trend, or that the LNP didn't see a lift, or the Farrer by-election win, or people's ongoing pain... It must be that the CGT changes are upsetting the “aspirational,” who simply cannot wait to sell their fish and chip startup for a massive gain.
crikey.com.au
Is the latest One Nation peak really due to Labor’s 'budget flop'?
Sections of the media reckon 'aspirational' Australians are 'flocking' to One Nation over the tax changes that same media has been railing against. How convenient.
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Damien Irving @drclimate.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
"It’s just as easy to claim this latest spike [in One Nation's vote] was because the budget didn’t go far enough for a polity crying out for radical change as it is to blame Labor’s mild changes to CGT, which will make little meaningful difference in the short term." - @rachelwithers.bsky.social 🎯
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Crikey @crikey.com.au · 01/06/2026
It’s terribly convenient for the media to suggest that One Nation’s latest bump in the polls is due to tax changes that these same media outlets happens to despise, writes Rachel Withers. www.crikey.com.au/2026/06/01/p...
crikey.com.au
Is the latest One Nation peak really due to Labor’s 'budget flop'?
Sections of the media reckon 'aspirational' Australians are 'flocking' to One Nation over the tax changes that same media has been railing against. How convenient.
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Crikey @crikey.com.au · 26/05/2026
Opinion | "There are voters nationwide seeking a less selfish, less red-pilled, less nasty centre-right option, one that stands for individual enterprise without seeking to punish the poor and cook the planet," @rachelwithers.bsky.social writes. www.crikey.com.au/2026/05/26/t...
crikey.com.au
The Liberal Party is dead. Long live the Speggull Party?
Australia could do with a party on the right that isn’t batshit insane. But it should draw its members from Liberal ranks, not the crossbench.
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Whatever “moderate” Liberals still remain in the party of Menzies are not going to be the ones to start something new, no matter how urgent. Perhaps in 80 years we'll be talking about the “party of Speggull”, a centre-right party born from the ashes of defeat, amid a declining conservative wreck.
crikey.com.au
The Liberal Party is dead. Long live the Speggull Party?
Australia could do with a party on the right that isn’t batshit insane. But it should draw its members from Liberal ranks, not the crossbench.
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Won't somebody please think of the children, and the 50% discount they need on their taxable gains when they sell their lemonade stands at a large profit!!!!!!!
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Rachel Withers @rachelwithers.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
“An assault on aspiration” = Rich people should aspire to a tax-subsidised investment portfolio. "Broken promise" = How dare you try to alter the status quo! "Death tax" = Labor better not even THINK about implementing actual inheritance taxes...
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Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
"one of the main proponents of the social media campaign, startup founder Frank Greeff, admitted that it favoured attention over accuracy." Always incredible how the rich/business/conservatives are allowed to lie and the media writes it up as a minor point www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...
smh.com.au
Labor in overdrive to rewrite CGT narrative amid ‘incorrect’ meme war
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and key ministers have spent the morning fighting a growing view their tax changes will crush ambition.
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