News Corp HQ Blockade in Brisbane/Meanjin
Extinction Rebellion Australia, 4 Nov 2021
Extinction Rebellion blockaded the road outside the Brisbane headquarters of News Corp this week. A line-up of speakers, singers, musicians and dancers called out the years of misinformation and denial perpetrated by News Corp.
We are in a CODE RED climate emergency. The government has abandoned its DUTY OF CARE and Murdoch has been, and continues to be, their enabler and ally.
As COP26 continues, and while the future of humanity hangs in balance, Newscorpse spins a cover of greenwash to both draw attention away from, and to support the Australian government’s immoral and unprecedented coal and gas expansions.
On the live video stream, an XR speaker talked about why we shouldn’t let Murdoch and News Corp dictate how we spend our tax dollars, or tell us how we should decarbonise.
She said:
“Remember that as Australians we are spectacularly exposed to climate risks… “Climate change means more droughts, more deadly storms, more bushfire summers. If you understand the stranglehold that the Murdoch press has on our media in Australia, and in Queensland particularly, then you should have an idea of how they are raking in the dollars. That’s our dollars and fossil fuel dollars but they’re not acting in our interest. They’re acting unethically when it comes to tax as well – surprise surprise!
“The Murdoch Press has been listed in the highest risk tax category by the ATO, which means the ATO knows they’re sneaks and cheats. So you shouldn’t be surprised when you hear that over the past five years News Corp made $680 million in profits and paid $8 million in tax. In that time they received more than $40 million untied grants from our government. So we’re paying them to lie to us and deceive us. They’re doing that to tighten the hold on power that this LNP climate denialist government has in Australia. They’re giving them free rein to pretend to act on climate but do nothing.
"So if you don’t agree that that is the right thing to do, if you understand the risks that we are putting our future generations in, then you need to stand up, show up, shut it down and join the rebellion!"