Four days ago, the Head of Turning Point Australia, Joel Jammal revealed in an interview on Michael West Media that he has been approached by numerous individuals and organisations to support various causes for cash.
In the interest of bringing greater transparency to the issue, Joel shared a handful of examples of this without naming those involved or when these offers were made to him and his organisations.
Not only did Joel express his rejection to these offers made in his direction but he also called for greater disclosure and in some cases banning of this sort of influence in the online world. Certain examples are incredibly morally bankrupt & harmful to the Australian political system.
In the days after this interview, the response has been overwhelmingly supportive and even won people over to better understand Joel’s character and what he stands for and what he rejects.
Both Joel and Michael West Media see that Australia’s political system is vulnerable to these dark funding mechanisms for influence.
They are so concerned about this that it prompted Joel to appear on a show with numerous ideological differences to him and to an audience geared against him.
Despite that, it prompted the right questions we should be asking ourselves as Australian voters:
- SHOULD this be happening?
- CAN this happen under current laws?
- Is this happening to other creators?
- What should be done about it?
This prompted responses from other creators like Chris Katelaris, or ‘Big Chocky’ who said:
“Remember kids, once you’re on the devils payroll theres no coming off.”
“I was offered over $60k for 4 stories on IG (yes the 24hour stories) for an online casino just as a TRIAL run. – paid prior to stories going live.”
“If you find $300k/month hard to fathom you have never been approached by people who have money to burn that want to influence masses or you don’t have the ability todo so.”
“Personally I like calling whoever I want a fuckwit so being a paid actor ain’t my thing.”
This isn’t a right vs left issue. This is an up vs down fight.
Joel Jammal and West Media are standing on the side of greater transparency & a rejection of both foreign influence but also cash for changing one’s tune on a topic.
If we’re ever going to ‘Make Australia Great Again’ we’re going to need to find a way to work together to the benefit of our fellow citizens that we disagree with.
We can’t do that if foreign interests are taking priority over Australian interests.
If that isn’t a part of the Australia First Doctrine then I don’t know what is.
