Don’t get the bitter, twisted and old hacks who compile this column wrong; there may be nothing at all wrong with what the ABC online was leading their Budget coverage with at 9.38pm on Tuesday night.

Nothing wrong, really, with the Opposition’s response to Jim Chalmers’ speech (above). Up-to-date news, Aunty might argue. But MGH did wonder what the national broadcaster highlighted in the hour-and-a-half after that speech ended and the good folk at the ABC decided Peter Dutton’s mob’s response was more important than detailing the goodies and baddies contained in the 2025-26 budget.

One chap on X pondered the same thing.

Now, the MGH doesn’t know where Peter hails from. Probably one of those city woke lefties who, along with countless other Australians who once had faith in the ABC, thinks that Dutton’s mob has been given a dream run by the national broadcaster over the past three years of the Albanese government.

So here’s what we are going to do. At 9.35pm tonight (Thursday), we’ll see if ABC news online is leading with what Dutton had to say in his budget reply speech and not what Labor had to say!

The Bug has no doubts whatsoever that the ABC has been rather “What Dutton says” obsessed; that if Albanese had stumbled and broken a toe in this current term of government, there would have been every chance the ABC would have led with Peter Dutton saying he hadn’t broken his, adding that Albanese was a weak and incompetent PM.

So tune in as The Bug posts yarns on Friday. Let’s see how things go. We’ll compare the 9.35pm pair.

But before we go, what’s with the 15 hours ago!

What Dutton Says! was very smart out of the blocks!

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