The Unshackled Waves Ep. 137 Facebook Data, Victorian Labor Rorts, Union Campaign and ABC Comedy

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It was a week of scandals, both domestically and internationally and both in politics and sport. To discuss it all we were joined by Chief Correspondent of the The Unshackled Steele Archer.

The biggest scandal of the week was the so called Facebook data breach. A company called Cambridge Analytics collected Facebook users data through quizzes and apps and it was eventually used by the Trump campaign in the Presidential primaries. The main issue is these Facebook users didn’t consent to their data being used in this way. The Obama campaign in 2012 used Facebook information in a similar way but were viewed as revolutionary in another sign there is a double standard applied to conservatives. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said he will tighten access to data to developers and is open to government regulation.

The Victorian Labor Government was revealed to have diverted electorate staff in Labor MPs’ offices to its election campaign in the 2014 state election. 21 MPs used this scheme with 14 still serving, $380,000 of taxpayers’ money was spent, 1 million was spent in legal fees to stop the state ombudsmen investigating. Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews claimed no knowledge of the scheme and that Labor has paid back the money however other MPs have claimed he did know. Labor is hoping the scandal will blow over and that voters will forget come election day due in November 2018, though this is wishful thinking.

The ACTU under its Secretary Sally McManus is launching a new advertising campaign attacking casual work, labor hire and independent contracts under the slogan #changetherules. It is likely to be effective given how poor the business lobby has become at campaigning, all they did to lobby for the company tax cuts were to have leading CEOs sign a letter. Part of the reason unions are launching this campaign to maintain their relevance and influence so they can recruit members in the new gig economy and negotiate more enterprise bargaining agreements.

The ABC’s alleged comedy channel has hit a new low with its flagship program Tonightly with Tom Ballard airing a segment on the Batman by election which called Australian Conservatives candidate Kevin Bailey a c**t. Cory Bernardi wrote a letter to the ABC demanding an apology while Communications Minister Mitch Fifield asked ABC to investigate. The ABC’s Director of Entertainment apologized for any offense called but no heads will roll. The issue was not the word used but the skit wasn’t funny and was simply designed to abuse a conservative.

Author Details
Tim Wilms is the Founder and Editor in Chief of https://theunshackled.net. the Host of Tim’s News Explosion, the WilmsFront interview program and The Theorists with Andy Nolch. He based in Melbourne, Australia where he also conducts field reports.
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Tim Wilms is the Founder and Editor in Chief of https://theunshackled.net. the Host of Tim’s News Explosion, the WilmsFront interview program and The Theorists with Andy Nolch. He based in Melbourne, Australia where he also conducts field reports.