Barnaby Joyce isn't Jesus Christ + Opting out of the manosphere

Sacha Barbour Gatt (0:08)

Hey, Sacha Barbour Gatt with you, welcome to The Briefing. Amid millions of young boys and men being swept up by the Manosphere, advocates have pushed for an end to the algorithm. The Australian government is this week coming on board, with plans to let us opt out of it altogether. So what sort of dent could this put in the hateful, misogynistic content being peddled online?

Amber Schultz (0:29)

TikTok was by far the worst offender. Within 13 minutes, it was showing me gender war content, which is sort of along the pipeline of the Manosphere content. So it was showing me content where it would be a woman saying, this man's doing something terrible, and then an anti-feminist coming in and saying, this is why feminism is ruining the world. So that was 13 minutes in.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (0:47)

A chat with the journo who posed as a teen boy online to see just how quickly the algorithm worked to feed her Manosphere content is coming up in the second half of the episode. First, it's time for the headlines with Chris Spyrou on Tuesday, the 8th of September.

Chris Spyrou (1:03)

Morning, Sacha. Starting today with politics and One Nation has been forced into a quick defense of its plan for superannuation. As we reported in headlines yesterday, the party has put a major policy forward that would allow Australians to withdraw money from their nest eggs for three years. In announcing it, Pauline Hanson declared seven million Aussies would be better off.

Amber Schultz (1:23)

This is not the government's money.

SPEAKER_4 (1:25)

This is their money.

Amber Schultz (1:26)

I'm not going to deny Australians the right to access their money if they feel that they need it.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (1:32)

But the government and experts have been quick to shoot the idea down. Treasurer Jim Chalmers warned One Nation would end super as we know it, while the big super funds put forward modelling which showed the median worker would be $25,000 worse off under the plan by the time they reached retirement. In a fiery appearance on ABC's 7.3 last night, One Nation's Treasury Spokesperson Barnaby Joyce was pushed by host Sarah Ferguson to detail just how much a person would lose in retirement savings under the plan. I'll do it for you straight down the barrel.

SPEAKER_4 (2:03)

Barnaby Joyce, if I may, obviously this is a policy that your party has come up with, so we would expect you as the Treasury Spokesman for that party to be across.

Barnaby Joyce (2:14)

Treasury Spokesman, not Jesus Christ. I mean, you have to actually give me the details of these things if you're going to put them forward to me.

Chris Spyrou (2:20)

Oh, that soundbite is going to be in every single news wrap at the end of the year. I just know it.

He was also asked whether the party had figures in the impact the policy would have on inflation, something he didn't answer, although Hansen claimed earlier in the day it would have a neutral impact. As to how the coalition responded, leader Angus Taylor said it was lacking detail, offering bipartisan support to the current super scheme. I find this fascinating that we're having this back and forth over super. And I know when we did do the deep dive on it, Jim Chalmers, and I spoke about it in the deep dive, Jim Chalmers said that the upcoming election is going to be a referendum on superannuation.

Sacha Barbour Gatt (2:58)

He said it again yesterday.

Chris Spyrou (2:59)

And I'm just like, really? Of all the things we could be debating and taking to an election and arguing over, I'm like, is it superannuation? Like, is that really at the top of the political agenda? That's something that we have to be talking about. And in the context, I get it, cost of living, people want access to their money that they see just hanging there, and people are feeling like it's theirs and they want to get it. But like, is this really what we have to be talking about and what it needs to be dominating headlines at the moment?

Sacha Barbour Gatt (3:24)

But this is what One Nation is pushing. One Nation is making it an agenda item. They've come out with a policy. It started with Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg, who spoke at the National Press Club and kind of brought up this idea of needing a rethink. But it wasn't something that the coalition had come forward on formally. And also, Angus Taylor has at this point offered bipartisan support to how super currently works. However, the reason I think that One Nation is latching on to this is because they know it could be very popular with the people.