Elon Musk is a twit. Here's why.

1. Crown v Star. And the winner is ...

2. The good news from Tesla's bad news results

3. The miserable Jim Chalmers

4. Woodside's very uncomfortable reality

THIS WEEK'S BIG STORY

Elon Musk is a twit, but does he have a point when it comes to censorship?

X, and its owner Elon Musk, says it is censorship. Musk is particularly concerned that a ruling in Australia can effect what X shows in other nations. He argues on the basis of free speech and jurisdictional concerns. Social media has no geographic boundaries. But unfettered social media means it also has no social boundaries. In an overly blase and offensive tweet, Musk said: "the Australian censorship commissar is demanding global content bans." Musk also sarcastically praised PM Anthony Albanese, following an injunction on Monday night forcing X to remove the content, "for informing the public that this platform is the only truthful one." 

What's the fight about?

Video of the stabbing of a bishop during a sermon in western Sydney, which was being livestreamed at the time, was posted on X (formerly Twitter). The eSafety Commissioner instructed X and Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, to hide any posts depicting the graphic footage of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel being attacked. X complied in Australia but allowed it to be viewed elsewhere. If a person in Australia uses a virtual private network, which hides their location, they can still view the content. Also the rules don't apply to re-posting, so as a Victorian Senator showed this week, people can repost the footage with impunity.

X's defence

I think Elon Musk is a twit. I also think he's a hypocrite. X has taken down content at the behest of the Turkish and the Indian governments this year. But Mr Musk isn't 100 per cent wrong on censorship. Having governments determine what can and can't be seen on social media is fraught. Why should a determination in Australia apply in other countries? In every free society there needs to be rules, and because X, Meta, TikTok and others are central to modern society, there must be ways to police them. Otherwise it becomes a society ruled by Elon Musk and friends. Everyone has the right to free speech, but only within the society's boundaries. Take the video down, you twit.  

The PM said companies had a social responsibility to remove content if requested by the eSafety Commission. He said it wasn't about freedom of expression, but about the implications of untruths spreading online, and the potential to inflame a difficult situation. Mr Albanese called Musk an arrogant billionaire. The Opposition broadly agree. Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones described X as a playground for criminals and cranks and a factory for trolls and misinformation. Emergency Service Minister Murray Watt said the public has “had a gutful of these narcissistic billionaires who think they are above the law.” 

Does Musk have a point?

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CALL IT FOR WHAT IT IS

BEST SOCIAL CALLOUT 

 

Jaylah: 

"I signed up to have a HECS debt 9 years ago. No one told 18 year old me that there’s a risk it won’t continue to only be indexed 1%. If someone did I would have reconsidered."

 

Potentially123: 

"HECS is an ultra low “interest” facility that allows everyone to have higher education, with a safety net of repayments only when you earn over a certain level. Can't believe the whinging."

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Thanks for reading my opinions on the week's biggest stories.

- Sean Aylmer

 A little over ten years ago I was editor-in-chief of the Sydney Morning Herald when Crown Resorts, then controlled by James Packer, applied for a gaming licence to establish a high-end casino. It meant two casinos in Sydney. The newspaper was ferocious in its reporting not so much about whether Sydney needed a second casino, but the flawed process in which Crown got its licence. Fast forward a decade and there is now a strong chance that within a year, Crown Resorts will be the only casino in Sydney. This week the Barangaroo-based company got back its unrestricted licence. In contrast, Star Entertainment chief executive David Foster conceded the group is not suitable to operate a casino in Sydney, and it needs supervision for months. At best, that's what it will get. At worst, it will lose its licence. Victory to Crown Resorts. 

Tesla's March quarter results this week were bad, but the good news is that the electric vehicle manufacturer is going to accelerate plans for cheaper EVs. It will happen in the US and China first, but should filter through to Australia. Also this week the International Energy Agency said despite the tales of woe around at the moment, in a few years time one in two cars sold in China will be electric. In Europe it will be one in four, and in the USA one in nine. So what will prevent people from buying an EV? Charging times. The Holy Grail is to get charging times down to fill-up times. This still seems a long way off.

What chance do the free-to-air television networks have? Figures this week from FreeTV show that teenagers spend 13 minutes a day watching free-to-air TV. In 2011 it was nearly six times that amount. Ten years earlier it would have been at least a dozen times that level. The business model for free-to-air, like records and newspapers before it, is decidedly shaky. In the US, Netflix now accounts for eight per cent of TV viewing. Our household no longer watches free-to-air - though occasionally uses a free-to-air streaming service, or catch up TV. Almost everything is via a streaming service, and we are prepared to pay to have several of them. It is hard to see a way forward for the big networks.

Woodside is Australia's largest oil and gas player, unashamedly using fossil fuels for energy. It is also at the centre of the climate change debate, not only because of what it does, but also because its board is under fire for not doing enough to transition towards a greener future. Woodside has an aspiration to be net zero by 2050. It has provided an 84-page Climate Transaction Action Plan to show shareholders how it will get there. But shareholders, as demonstrated by voting at today's AGM, don't buy it. Some of those shareholders are major super funds who insist on climate action because their members want it. Reality is biting Woodside - how can an oil and gas company transition for a cleaner, greener world? The board and management don't have an answer yet. 

Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers, ahead of the next federal budget in less than three weeks, keeps saying there's no money in the kitty (in fact, there is $700 billion in the kitty). He warns of the slowdown in the global economy and the fight to get inflation under control. Dr Chalmers is becoming tiresome and far too dismal. Unemployment in this country is under four per cent. Inflation is falling. The economy is growing in the 1.5 per cent range - not great, but at least it's growing. And while the global economy is under stress, forecasts for the US, the powerhouse of growth, are rising. Dr Chalmers will, in all likelihood, deliver a budget surplus. The 'bad news Treasurer' is overdoing it. Come on Jim, spark up.    

5. Under 18s deserting free-to-air television

Canberra's response

Fear & Greed's TikTok video on the indexation of HECS debts went viral this week - around 450,000 views, and a massive online debate. Higher inflation means student loans will rise by about 4.5% in June, after a record 7.1% spike last year.