This week, liber-net CEO Andrew Lowenthal and I published a longer investigative piece with Michael Shellenberger on Public.
Our investigation began with a Minderoo Foundation “development assistance” credit on the ABC’s The State of Man, a factual entertainment series about algorithms drawing young men into the sordid realm of the online “manosphere”.
The series conspicuously aired just two days before Australia’s Digital Duty of Care Bill was introduced to Parliament. The Albanese government’s PR effort around the Bill has been to draw focus to its easy sell provisions that give Australians more control over their algorithms, while its far more controversial and consequential provisions fly under the radar.
The Minderoo production credit led us to a multimillion-dollar funding network linking NGOs, think tanks, advocacy groups, dodgy studies and media productions to mining billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest and his apparent interest in pushing the Bill through parliament.
Collectively, the work funded by Forrest’s foundation creates a surround-sound media effect that makes the legislation appear to have emerged from the “bottom up”, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has claimed. The reality is that the Bill is a top-down managerial project imposed on Australians by some of the country’s richest and most powerful interests.
Find the full story at the link below, with the paywalled section available to paid subscribers underneath.
