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Rachel Withers

@rachelwithers.bsky.social

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

435 Posts9943 Follower542 Folgt
Crikey@crikey.com.au · 3w ago

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...

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.

crikey.com.au

Rachel Withers@rachelwithers.bsky.social · last mo.

"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🔥

Nick Feik@nickfeik.bsky.social · last mo.

New: The false material and bad-faith arguments presented by Jillian Segal against the ABC and SBS draw attention to deeper flaws in the royal commission

Rachel Withers@rachelwithers.bsky.social · last mo.

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...

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...

crikey.com.au

Rachel Withers@rachelwithers.bsky.social · last mo.

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.

Scott Mitchell@scottmitchell.bsky.social · last mo.

We counted, so you don’t have to. Insane is the number of things Jillian Segal actually HERSELF conceded she had no evidence for, or backflipped on, but went completely unreported. www.lamestream.com.au/we-counted-a...

Rachel Withers@rachelwithers.bsky.social · last mo.

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.

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.

crikey.com.au

Nick Evershed!?@nickevershed.bsky.social · last mo.

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."
John Birmingham@birmo.bsky.social · last mo.

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!!”

Rachel Withers@rachelwithers.bsky.social · last mo.

This is so fucking funny. Even better given the way Sarah Henderson, a former ABC journo, goes so hard after the national broadcaster.

stranger@strangerous.bsky.social · last mo.

💥 Sarah Henderson steamrolled after claiming she didn’t commit an offence by making non emergency test-calls to 000. Insists the law allows for it.🙄 Clogging up the emergency number for her own political gain. Disgraceful. Police should act. Otherwise anyone can do it.

Rachel Withers@rachelwithers.bsky.social · 2mo ago

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.

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.

crikey.com.au

Rachel Withers@rachelwithers.bsky.social · 2mo ago

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.

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.

crikey.com.au

Rachel Withers@rachelwithers.bsky.social · 2mo ago

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.

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.

crikey.com.au

Ette Media@ettemedia.bsky.social · 2mo ago

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?

Jessie L@jessielilley.bsky.social · 2mo ago

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.

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.

theconversation.com

Yung En Chee@yungenchee.bsky.social · 2mo ago

honourable exceptions being journos like Rachel *property market downturn is my passion* Withers 🙌

Rachel Withers@rachelwithers.bsky.social · 3mo ago

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.

Rachel Withers@rachelwithers.bsky.social · 3mo ago

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...

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.

crikey.com.au