Fund manager Geoff Wilson, a prominent public critic of the government’s tax reforms, has removed an incendiary AI-generated video he reposted from a right-wing nationalist account depicting Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers taking money from white Australians and giving it to recently arrived migrants wearing Islamic face coverings.
Mr Wilson said he had not watched the entire video or looked into other accounts before sharing it, and some of the content he reposted on Wednesday morning included content related to the QAnon conspiracy theory, and he removed the post after being contacted by Guardian Australia.
“Once the inappropriate associations were identified, we immediately removed the two posts,” he said.
The videos posted by Wilson, a relative of shadow treasurer Tim Wilson, also include AI-generated images of protesters marching holding placards reading “diversity is not our strength” and “treason,” as well as images of a white family with a blonde child left home, left homeless, and then occupied by a triumphant South Asian family.
In other social media posts about X on Wednesday, Wilson also reposted content related to the QAnon conspiracy theory and from accounts that regularly share anti-immigrant content.
“We are just getting started. We will stop this insane CGT on all Australian businesses!” Mr Wilson wrote next to the reposted AI-generated video.
Wilson, founder and chairman of Wilson Asset Management, is a prominent investment manager and frequently cited in the media as an expert opinion on tax and finance matters. His views are regularly featured on 2GB Radio, the Australian Financial Review, The Australian Newspaper and Sky News Television.
He has been a leading public critic of Labour’s controversial changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, calling them “economic sabotage” and “aspiration taxes” and criticizing the government for breaking its promise not to change these settings. Mr Wilson was also one of the most vocal opponents of Labour’s proposed franking credit reforms in 2019 and the proposed changes to the taxation of unrealized superannuation gains in 2025.
Coalition leaders have cited and touted Jeff Wilson’s views on tax law in recent media appearances.
An AI video reposted by Jeff Wilson on Wednesday morning shows Albanian and Chalmers robbing a homeless white Australian of a bag of money and handing it to a dark-skinned, Islamic-style face-covered person leaving the plane.
It then depicts a crowd of people of South Asian and Middle Eastern appearance who appear to be rushing across an airport tarmac. The video ends with footage of an angry protest crowd led by a blonde woman. People appeared wearing clothes that read “Resist” and holding signs that read “Diversity is not our strength,” “Treason” and “No world order.”
The clip was reposted by an account that describes itself as “nationalist” and “white lives matter,” and has previously posted Holocaust denial and other anti-Semitic claims.
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Another post Wilson shared included a video from an account that regularly posts content about the QAnon conspiracy theory, a reference to the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon, saying, “And just like that, everyone who laughed at us suddenly started believing in Q.”
Reached for comment, Wilson said he “shared the material without fully verifying all sources and content.”
“We posted this content as part of our campaign against the government’s harmful CGT changes to Australian businesses. The focus was to send a clear message that our campaign against this illogical new tax on Australian businesses is just beginning,” he said.
“I unequivocally reject racism, anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories of all kinds. I remain focused on opposing these outrageous tax changes that have a clear negative impact on Australia’s economy, aspirations, investment, small business and economic growth.”
He later deleted the AI-generated video and the post that referenced QAnon.
“We’re just getting started,” Wilson’s post was a reference to the song of the same name by American pop duo The Carpenters, for which he also later posted a video on X.
Mr Albanese previously rejected Mr Wilson’s criticism of the budget tax measures, saying: “Being a political participant for a period of time…Jeff Wilson has opposed everything my government has done.”
