“Commercial TV at its worst”: Sam Armytage under fire for welfare comments
The Project’s Managing Editor Tom Whitty has slammed rival Seven’s morning show Sunrise, labelling it “commercial TV at its worst.”
Whitty took to social media to launch the blistering attack in response to a Sunrise “Hot Topic” segment on Wednesday, which claimed “all Australians would receive a welfare payment with no strings attached under a radical proposal from The Greens”.
Host Sam Armytage announced during the segment, “taxpayers would foot the bill for a minimum monthly pension to everyone, whether they work or not,” before debating the story with guest commentators Tom Elliott from Radio 3AW and Ron Wilson from Smooth FM.
“What are the Greens smoking? How could the country possibly afford this?” she asked her guests, before the trio mocked the idea for the entirety of the segment.
Whitty took to Twitter to slam the breakfast show for the way they presented the issue.
“Here’s commercial television at its worst. Misrepresent an idea and then mock it, with no attempt to engage with it or explain it to your audience. Automation is coming and an estimated 57% of the world’s jobs will become redundant. It won’t be commentators out of a job,” he tweeted.
“These three will be just fine. It will be truck drivers, labourers, factory workers, fast food workers, postmen etc (basically Sunrise’s audience) who will be out of work due to a very few who own the automation that will cripple entire industries.”
The topic was taken up by The Project on Thursday night, with host Waleed Aly explaining the Greens' idea of creating a "universal basic income" for all Australians wasn't "leftie pinko nonsense".
"This will be a massive social challenge," Aly said. "If robots make everything, regardless of whether you want to work or not, there's a good chance you won't be needed.
"The upside, many of us can stop working full-time or even at all and spend our time focusing on things that make us happy.
"If you think this is some leftie pinko nonsense, think again. Richard Nixon proposed a universal basic income back in the '70s. Automation will make Elon Musk (of Tesla fame) the richest man in history and he reckons a basic income is a goer.
"We will have to have a basic universal income. It's being trialled in Finland. A place that's known to be universally awesome."
Reading this while sitting next to someone else? I’ve got bad news: if it’s not them, then you’ll likely lose your job to a computer or robot by 2030.
This mass unemployment we’re facing is the reason some people think we need to introduce a Universal Basic Income. #TheProjectTV pic.twitter.com/3k9kfQCLTN— The Project (@theprojecttv) April 5, 2018