Six habits I’d like to keep when this is all over

First the first time, the Archibald Prize has an indigenous winner

We will pay for the attack on our universities

Jordan King-Lacroix was born in Montreal, Canada but moved to Sydney, Australia when he was 8 years old. He has achieved a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney and McGill University, Canada, as well as a Masters of Creative Writing from the University of Sydney.

Share via: 876 Shares













While it’s been established that Scott Morrison and a notable QAnon conspiracy theorist are “old friends”, few in the media have decided to cover it. Why?

Over the last few weeks, information has emerged about a friend of Scott Morrison. Tim Stewart, otherwise known as @BurnedSpy34, is a “world class” QAnon conspiracy theorist and is married to a member of the PM’s cabinet. Over in America, QAnon was recently listed by the FBI as a domestic terrorism threat.

The source of this information, Peter Alexander Richard Priest, has released a statutory declaration, in order to clear the air about the story, notably a Guardian article that broke the story.

THE #MATEGATE STAT DEC

I am an advocate of fact based investigative journalism, especially when it comes to Australia’s National Security. I see others have wandered into childish ad hominem rants in YT to get views.

My Pop was a POW for 3 years for a better Country than this. pic.twitter.com/pyuupvPcdp — Priest (@dropbear44) October 14, 2019

He states that Tim Stewart approached him on the Signal app “for the purposes of passing sensitive information onto the Prime Minister of Australia Mr Scott Morrison”. Stewart only informed Priest later on that he ran @BurnedSpy34 on Twitter.



He goes on to say that Stewart was close friends with PM Morrison and that he had passed on “sensitive information” to the PM, “attempting to influence the Prime Minister politically”, especially in relation to “information” he had learned on 8Chan from the poster ‘Q’, “whom is (at) the centre of the QAnon conspiracy cult”.

Stewart’s tweets are listed as “world-class” in QAnon circles, meaning that he is considered of high quality by his fellow conspiracy theorists. An example of his conspiracy pushing is him wondering whether Julie Bishop was part of a paedophilia ring, due to her wearing a pair of red shoes.

Now, for his part, Stewart – quoted anonymously in the Guardian – has said that he has not spoken to the PM about “anything of a political nature”, although this is hard to believe, especially considering the two are “old friends”.

Clearly, someone involved in a conspiracy group (that is considered a serious domestic terror threat) has the ear of the Prime Minister and Kirribilli House. What’s of further interest is that the Guardian has given Stewart the cover of anonymity despite the threat he and his views pose. It is in the public interest that we know who is surrounding the Prime Minister and whether or not that person is a potential threat.

Priest also refutes Stewart’s version of events from the Guardian article.

“I confirm for the record that Mr Stewart did pass several letters to through his wife Mrs Lynelle Stewart,” he writes in his statutory declaration, and further says that he remembers “clearly” the content of a specific letter regarding US FISA warrants and their declassification.

Either the Prime Minister is deliberately forbidding the media from pursuing this story, given there is so little coverage of an extremist in the PM’s circle, or every single outlet is inept.

Also of note is how little coverage this is getting.

Why is the media not reporting on the fact that a long-standing friend of the Prime Minister has hard ties to a conspiracy group that the FBI has said could “inspire domestic terrorists”?

Either the Prime Minister is deliberately forbidding the media from pursuing this story, given there is so little coverage of an extremist in the PM’s circle, or every single outlet is inept.

Neither option has particularly fantastic implications for this country.

To this Priest, once again, has made a statement. The Guardian piece said that Priest was visited by the AFP due to “concerning emails he sent to government officials”.

This, he says, is not true.

“It was actually senior counter-terrorism detectives,” he writes. “They did not visit , but because of a complaint made to QFTAC from Prime Minister Morrison’s AFP security team in relation to social media comments I had made about Stewart and Morrison.”

He also alleges that accusations of his alleged mental health issues are a “crude attempt” to discredit him. Priest has evidence to back up his claims, and goes on to say that the Guardian article only exists because of information he has saved.

What’s interesting, however, is how the declaration ends. Priest writes that he and Stewart fell out because of the latter’s continued support of QAnon on 8Chan.

The document also says that Stewart’s son Jesse Stewart (under the handle @Jesse_onya_m8) conspired with other QAnon supporters to “defame” him with false allegations, including regarding the death of mutual acquaintance of Stewart and Priest, Isaac Kappy.

Kappy, an actor and “QAnon proponent”, was the initial point of contact between the two men. Kappy killed himself in March 2019, writing a lengthy note in which he apologised to the QAnon movement for “bringing shame onto the greatest military operation of all time”.

There’s just so much to parse through here.

But once again, it’s weird that this isn’t front-page news. Why? After all, a QAnon conspiracy theorist friend of the Prime Minister allegedly passing on information to the head of our nation in an attempt to influence him politically – is a hell of a story.



The man who provided proof of this had terrorism detectives sent to his home, as well as his mental health called into question, and the conspiracy theorist’s son made allegations that he was involved in the death of an American actor.

This sounds like some mad nonsense, yet here we are. I feel like I’m pinning string and pictures to a corkboard.

The PM has a lot to answer for, and the media better step up and probe him with questions.