Nine chairman Peter Costello is now promoting war with China after making $millions lobbying for defence companies
BYSHANE DOWLING ON MARCH 12, 2023
Nine Entertainment-owned papers have been talking up the prospects of Australia going to war with China while failing to declare that Nine chairman Peter Costello has made $millions in recent years lobbying on behalf of defence companies.
Former Prime Minister Paul Keating has also stuck his head up while never declaring he was and possibly still is on China’s payroll and executive editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Tory Maguire, is sleeping with the enemy.
One of the numerous articles on this matter in Nine’s “Red Alert series” is titled “Australia faces the threat of war with China within three years – and we’re not ready” which is written as a statement of fact but is only an opinion piece which I find pathetic as it is blatant warmongering. The first question that should be asked is who benefits from propaganda like that?
In the next few days, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will announce what will be Australia’s biggest-ever defence purchase which will be for nuclear-powered submarines.
A lot of what is being said in the old media about Australia’s defence and its associated issues such as military spending is by companies and people who have skin in the game and that is what this article is about. With so many media companies and commentators having undeclared conflicts of interest, how is the public meant to make sense of Australia’s defence and the $billions spent on defence contracts?
It makes me wonder if the stories in Nine’s papers are part of a government propaganda exercise to justify the purchase of the submarines because the timing seems very coincidental.
David Miles, who is the husband of the executive editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Tory Maguire, is a Liberal-linked lobbyist and/or Public Affairs lobbyist. Mr Miles played snooker with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the lodge only a couple of weeks ago after paying $10,000 for the privilege. (Click here to read more)
David Miles works for Willard Public Affairs and it says on their website “Willard is a specialist public affairs consultancy, providing political counsel and strategy, media relations, event management and advocacy services.” which would be handy if you had to justify spending $billions on defence.
It must also be handy having his wife run 2 newspapers and their associated websites at Nine Entertainment reaching millions of people daily and even better when Nine Entertainment chairman Peter Costello likes making $million lobbying on behalf of the defence companies.
I have written numerous articles and researched more than any other media about the fact that Nine chairman Peter Costello made $millions from Australia’s failed $5 billion submarine deal with his lobbyist business partner David Gazard who managed to weasel their way into the deal. It was arranged by their good mate former Prime Minister Scott Morrison. (Click here and here to read more)
The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age could have and should have declared Nine chairman Peter Costello has made $millions lobbying for defence companies when they are promoting the likelihood of Australia going to war with China.
Is Paul Keating still on China’s payroll?
Other media such as The Guardian have reported former Prime Minister Paul Keating’s attacks on Nine’s papers The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age for promoting war while failing to declare Paul Keating has been on China’s payroll for years up to and including at least 2019.
The Guardian reported:
The former Australian prime minister Paul Keating has accused two of the country’s biggest newspapers of “the most egregious and provocative news presentation” in five decades, after they published front-page stories warning the country faced war with China within three years.
The former Labor leader, who has long argued Australia should not be drawn into a war over the status of democratically governed Taiwan, took aim at the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age on Tuesday.
The papers published a special report based on assessments of five national security experts who, in a joint statement labelled “Red Alert”, said they believed Australia “faces the prospect of armed conflict in the Indo-Pacific within three years” but was not prepared for such a war.
The story was splashed on the front of the Sydney Morning Herald print edition under the headline “Red alert: War risk exposed”, while the Age used the title “Australia ‘must prepare’ for threat of China war”. (Click here to read more)
