Party-washing at The Australian, the Tele’s bad maths, and Marjorie Taylor Greene says… something sane???

Mistaken identity at The Australian: Daryl Maguire, the no-name NSW Parliament backbencher who rose to national notoriety when it was revealed at an anti-corruption probe that he had been engaged in a secret relationship with the then premier of the state, has been found guilty in a Sydney local court of misleading the inquiry.

At the time of the inquiry, news of Maguire’s entanglement with premier Gladys Berejiklian sent shockwaves through the ranks of the Liberal Party, the party both belonged to. That’s right, Maguire was a Liberal, not a Labor MP, as The Australian erroneously wrote in a print headline at the weekend. 

The newspaper’s page nine headline, “Disgraced ex-ALP MP guilty on ICAC evidence”, understandably annoyed many online, with an X post that tagged the ABC’s Media Watch garnering nearly a thousand likes, hundreds of reposts, and dozens of angry comments. 

However, it appears those who directed their anger at the reporter who wrote the story were misguided. The copy was carried by The Australian under its partnership with News Corp’s news service NCA NewsWire, and the headline error would have been on the part of the newspaper’s own subeditors. The wire’s original story contained no mention of any political parties at all. 

Maguire will face a sentencing hearing on August 15. 

We’re ‘novel’ here at Crikey: You may remember that Crikey ran for parliament this last federal election. We wanted to illustrate how political candidates take advantage of loopholes in the electoral system from the inside. We had to know, though, just how much attention did our project receive from our good friends at the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC)? 

A freedom of information request reveals: they loved it (probably). Still, it’s hard not to read a little into acting electoral commissioner Jeff Pope’s observation that it was “Important that a number of us continue to closely monitor [Crikey’s project]”.

“It’s certainly novel,” noted Joanne Reid, assistant commissioner.

“Some pleasing commentary about our nominations team, even if they found the process frustrating (they should try it from our side)” a state AEC manager added. Fair.

Electoral officer Nye Coffey enjoyed our bit about his speech (we appreciate you too, man).

But probably our favourite bit among the 60-odd pages released to us (many fully redacted, which we assume is where the real slander is) was the internal chat where one baffled staff member asked, “BLACK, K. Is that his name lol?”

“It’s the manager’s mum. It’s a whole thing,” came the reply.

MTG says… something true?: Curiously absent from most coverage of the Israel-US assault on Iran is any mention that Israel has a longstanding nuclear weapons program with warheads numbered in the hundreds. Israel has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and does not allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors into Dimona, where it produces fuel for its nuclear weapons. 

So, let’s acknowledge an unlikely stater of the truth: senior MAGA Republican, conspiracy theorist and all-round nutjob Marjorie Taylor Greene, who in a tweet lamenting Trump’s attack on Iran, said: “I can easily say I support nuclear-armed Israel’s right to defend themselves and also say at the same time I don’t want to fight or fund nuclear-armed Israel’s wars.”

Now, let’s not forget Taylor-Greene has a history of antisemitism — or antisemitism-adjacent language: she’s claimed that “Zionist supremacists” are behind the “Great Replacement Theory”, and that the Rothschilds — for centuries the reliable figures at the centre of most antisemitic conspiracy theories — were involved in a plot to start forest fires with orbiting lasers. 

Unlike Jewish space lasers, a nuclear-armed Israel is one Taylor-Greene factoid that checks out. Strange that she can say it but journalists can’t.

Triple M maths: Rugby league columnists (and journalists at large) can be many things, but mathematicians they are not. Here at Crikey, we’ve endeavoured to regularly bring you the Australian media’s crimes against maths and data visualisation — and here’s the latest effort, from News Corp rugby league guru Phil “Buzz” Rothfield in the Sunday Telegraph.

Rothfield, on the latest NRL radio ratings, wrote that Triple M had 15.8% of the combined Sydney and Brisbane markets, having won 5% of the Sydney audience and 10.8% of the Brisbane audience. Assuming Sydney’s population to be approximately 5.5 million and Brisbane’s to be 2.8 million (per the ABS), Triple M would have had a combined market share of about 6.9%.

Likewise, Rothfield wrote that Triple M had edged out rivals 2GB with 10% in Sydney and 4.6% in Brisbane, a combined 14.6%. It is in reality closer to 8.2% — 2GB would have had a greater proportion of listeners, as well as a higher number of aggregate listeners.

Inconvenient for the Telegraph, given 2GB is owned by News Corp’s rival Nine. Back to school for Buzz.

That was then, this is now: Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong on June 23, 2025, after US Strikes against Iran:

We are all clear that Iran cannot be allowed to get a nuclear weapon. We all know what the United Nations nuclear watchdog has said. So yes, the government does support action to prevent that.

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong on June 24, 2025, after Iran struck US bases in retaliation:

Australia condemns Iran’s strikes on US bases in Qatar and Iraq. We do not want to see further escalation. A full-scale war in the Middle East would be devastating for the people of the region and the world. Australia continues to call for de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy.

Minns <3 Afterpay: Chris Minns announced new tech and innovation funding yesterday by shouting out three “NSW success stories”: Canva, Atlassian and Afterpay. You know, the predatory, small biz rorting and potentially money-laundering buy-now-pay-later giant.

Sydney real estate BNPL crossover, when!?