6 News Stories The Australian Media Could Cover Instead Of Spending A Month Fixated On A Podcast Nobody's Heard Of

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As the nation enters its fourth, arguably fifth week of carrying on about a stupid fucking podcast appearance where the Prime Minister said some dumb shit, many are starting to wonder what is going on.

Despite most people being in agreeance that the comments were stupid and ill-suited to the man in charge of the country, most people are also in agreeance that we've heard more than enough about them.

With wall to wall mentions across all news channels, the 'Kylie saga' has turned into the 'Melons saga' and is potentially about to turn into the 'Kiwi saga.'

This comes after it was 'revealed' that the PM joked about taking over New Zealand in the Bush Deep Podcast with Nikki Osborne.

It's unknown whether journos are so incompetent that none of them listened to the whole thing to pull out all of the clangers from the PM a month ago, or whether they are revealing one a week to keep the 'drama' going for as long as possible.

However, with the nation at the crossroads of uncertainty in regards to its future, a housing crisis, a cost of living crisis, an economy built on a property bubble and fossil fuels, and a femicide crisis - the nation's media have been urged to consider working on some actual journalism.

Here's a list of 6 thought starters that any media person reading this might want to consider.

1. The $2.5 Billion Handout To Rio Tinto
   Yeah a nice glossy announcement about Aussie jobs and decarbonising our future. The Federal and State Government of NSW revealed yesterday that they will be tipping in $2.5 billion to bail out Rio Tinto and keep their Tomago aluminium smelter going. This comes on top of the 400-450 million Aussie pesos they get a year from the government as part of the 'diesel rebate.' Of course its great news that 1000 jobs and a industry will be secured into the future and the smelter will be run on renewables by 2033 - but does anyone wanna ask what the taxpayer gets in return for giving the second largest mining company in the world $2.5 billion? Are the anti-renewables crowd all good to back renewables when its handouts to giant mining companies? Who knows, but maybe it's worth having a bit more of a look at this one instead of just running the press releases from Gov, Rio Tinto and the Unions.
2. The Opposition Leader's Connections To A Corruption Inquiry
   Is it worth asking a few more questions about the man who wants to be Australia's next PM being allegedly connected to a full blown corruption enquiry in his home state? Or is that trickier than repeatedly asking the PM about whether he was talking about tits or not? Taylor has not been accused of any wrongdoing or unlawful conduct by the corruption watchdog, but it would be good to know why the Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney allegedly stated he wanted to "shake down Angus for $10K." It would be also great to know why his name keeps coming up into an inquiry about corruption in the NSW Liberal Party. Or are corruption enquiries TOO BORING?
3. The Mounting Death Toll Of Australian Women
   You wanna talk about crises? We won't use the word 'saga' because it is grossly inaccurate for what is happening to Australian women and girls in this country. While the nation can have endless questions about whether it's misogynistic for someone to say they'd root Kylie Minogue, another woman has been murdered by her partner. That takes the count to 45 women killed this year. On top of the hundreds killed in the last few years. We've had more articles written about melons than the shocking spate of murders over the last few weeks. Maybe we could actually make some noise about these to compel our leaders to do something about a reign of terror that seems to claim an endless amount of lives.
4. Sportsbetting Reform
   Yeah, you know the thing that Australians are losing like 26 billion dollars a year on (at-least). I mean we could talk about the other 26 billion a year lost on pokies, but maybe the media shouldn't get too ahead of themselves so let's stick to sportsbetting. Might be worth putting some pressure on the PM to strengthen the laws around sportsbetting in Australian before he just throws in the towel for the year and who knows how many more young Aussie blokes and their families lose everything to predatory behaviour of large multinational online gambling companies. Obviously most commercial media organisations benefit from the rivers of gold that come from gambling advertising, but hey, maybe the media can pressure the government to give the media another bail out package.
5. The Treatment Of A Whistleblower In Our Armed Forces
   Is it fair that the guy who blew the lid on behaviour in our armed forces goes to jail? Should national security be used as a reason to jail people who reveal things that make the top brass and our politicians look bad. Is this an issue that should be discussed in the nation's media regardless of the opinion of people about the whistleblower? Punters are supposed to be smart and able to cut through the bullshit right? Maybe the media could then provide more information to the public in the public's interest for a debate about whether the top brass should take more accountability.
6. Australia Being Thoroughly Outplayed By Bangladesh In Darwin
   Where do we start? How are we currently getting rolled by a team a team that lost its last two games by an innings to Zimbabwe and and Cricket Australia XI. How are we being dog walked by Bangladesh in our opening Test match of the summer (in winter)? This will probably get discussed to be completely fair. However if things continue they way the have, it won't be enough.