Peter Dutton foreign fighters isis
Peter Dutton (Image: AAP/Sam Mooy)

The further adventures of Spud and Magic Mike Much attention in Canberra these days is directed at the pending reshuffle of ScoMo’s ministry, widely expected around October. Among the hottest tips is that Peter “Spud” Dutton — who’s been notably quiet this year — is going to take on a re-imagined defence portfolio which will include Australia Border Force, which is currently in Home Affairs.

That means Dutton’s uniform-loving mate, Mike Pezzullo, currently secretary of Home Affairs, gets to come along for the ride. Which begs the question: will the workers at Home Affairs will be free to wear high heels and polka dots? Two of Magic Mike’s pet hates, apparently.

Checking in on the Shanahan curve Over the weekend, Victoria finally recorded a day where new infections fell to double figures. So we thought it might be a good idea to check back in on the “secret government modelling” The Australian put on its front page back on August 6.

The story reported that the “modelling suggests the daily total will shift but average cases will rise to a peak of 1100 in the last week of August”.

The reality:

The story remains online with no clarifications or corrections.

Arndt you going to check? Men’s rights activist Bettina Arndt is never all that surprising. But at least she can be inventive. Last Friday she contacted her followers with her take on the Kamala Harris-Joe Biden ticket: it will be disastrous for men.

She uses as evidence Joe Biden’s support for the Violence Against Women Act, which, she argues “led to untold numbers of women across the county making false accusations to turf men out of their homes” (“untold” being the key word), adding that it “totally neglects” male victims.

As it happens, the act provides coverage for both men and women, something that has been clarified time after time when the act was reauthorized — until the Republican leadership in the Senate banded together to ensure the bill expired in 2019.

News Corp on the ABC Watch What’s this? A sympathetic piece on the ABC in The Australian? Today’s Media Dairy has launched an impassioned defense of ABC hosts Leigh Sales and David Speers from “left wing thugs” (ah).

The piece quotes former ABC man and current Nine political editor Chris Ulhmann:

The bile routinely spewed at Leigh and David, largely by the identity warriors of the left, offends every standard they claim to represent. It is violent, intolerant and, in Leigh’s case, often sexist.

Strident and stirring from Ulhmann, leaping up to defend his fellow journalists from hordes of Twitter users with 79 followers and names like “reg.hates tories #slomoistheslimeminster #stopthefracking”, who, to be fair, are tedious at best and vile at worst.

Still, does Ulhmann have any thoughts on the ABC’s treatment at the hands of the national broadsheet? Say, reveling in Emma Alberici’s employment woes, making space for anti-ABC columns so rote and predictable they feel like the product of auto-complete, or paying truly surreal levels of attention to people engaged by the ABC? If so, he either keeps them to himself, or the Oz neglects to publish them.