The Saturday Briefing … Dutton’s secret propaganda unit

The email from Mustafa was friendly, cheerful and littered with signifiers of our shared Muslim identity, writes Shakira Hussein. Opening with “Salam Alukum Shakira”, Mustafa introduced himself as the influence manager at Breakthrough Media, “a communications agency that prides itself on telling great stories to help address complex social issues”. Breakthrough, he told me, was planning to hold a Twitter training initiative in Sydney for “a diverse group of Australians, in particular Australian Muslims”.

At first glance, Mustafa’s invitation sounded routine enough. However, Breakthrough Media is far from a routine presence on the landscape of Muslim community politics in Australia. My invitation did not disclose any relationship with the Australian government. However, concealed in the eight-page registration survey Mustafa asked me to fill in, it noted that the Countering Violent Extremism Sub-Committee, under the Australian New Zealand Counter-Terrorism Committee, “funds this project”. This was about producing a controlled voice for “Good Muslims”. It was about propaganda.

Plus: Guy Rundle on Michaelia Cash and Bill Shorten’s factions, and Martin McKenzie-Murray on Nauru’s latest lurch toward authoritarianism.

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The Saturday Paper