Meet Albo, the high-vis, small-biz raider – and other deepfakes |
Meet Albo, the high-vis, small-biz raider – and other deepfakes
May 24, 2026 — 5:00am
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Pity the man who attempts tax reform in the age of artificial intelligence. Anthony Albanese is that man, and so far, the internet has been unkind, although not nearly as unkind as it could be, and as it undoubtedly would be if the prime minister was a woman.
Since Labor unveiled its plans in the budget to roll back capital gains tax concessions (among other things), the prime minister has been the subject of a meme-powered social media campaign, depicting him as the gormless, grinning, self-appointed co-owner of small businesses across the country. The man who started the meme parade, business founder Frank Greeff, posted the first AI-doctored effort online.
In it, the prime minister is sandwiched between Greeff and his business partner, giving Greeff a fist-bump, above a caption that reads: “Every Australian founder just got a new-co founder with 47 per cent equity.”
This is a misleading distortion of Labor’s proposed policy, which is to remove the 50 per cent discount on capital gains that people like Greeff have previously enjoyed, courtesy of the taxpayer. But like all the best disinformation, there is a thin, oily residue of truth in it. The 47 per cent is a reference to the top marginal tax rate, which business owners could pay – in the single year they sell their business – if their capital gain is large enough.
That is quite different to the government nationalising a near-50 per cent stake in a business.
But hey, this is the internet, right? Memes often employ irony, and effective rhetoric is needed to win any argument.
Greeff encouraged other business owners to follow suit, and they did. Dodgy AI versions of the prime minister were........