Australian Tax Chief Mocks Own Team With AI Meme

A Taxing Sense of Humor

In a move that blends corporate communication with modern internet culture, Australia's Commissioner of Taxation, Rob Heferen, shared an AI-generated meme with all 20,000 employees of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). The image playfully mocked supporters of the Collingwood AFL football club, depicting them as slovenly, overweight, and missing teeth. The punchline? Heferen himself is a die-hard Collingwood fan.

The Commish Connect Chronicle

The meme was distributed as part of Heferen's regular weekly email to staff, known as "Commish Connect." According to documents released under a freedom of information request to the transparency website Right to Know, these emails typically cover tax matters and agency news but frequently veer into sports commentary.

In a mid-April edition, after thanking a supporter of the Parramatta Eels NRL team for sending him the image, Heferen shared the AI-generated action figure of a Collingwood fan. The figure featured an unkempt hairstyle, a protruding stomach under a team jersey, and tattoos. Heferen cheekily commented, “Not a bad likeness, I must say.”

This self-deprecating humor was consistent with his previous emails, where he had lamented the team's early-season performance, stating, “the AFL season is long, and it doesn’t matter if your team loses its first game because everyone knows that the first round doesn’t mean very much.”

The Meme and The Stereotype

The stereotype of Collingwood supporters is a long-running trope in Australian sports culture. As a 2023 article on resurrecting the Collingwood Pride support group noted, words like “toothless” and “feral” are common jabs.

Journalist Antoun Issa wrote, “The ubiquitous loathing of the Magpies, rooted in century-old tropes of the working class, persists despite neither the club nor its suburb today reflecting their humble origins.” He highlighted the irony that while the stereotype endures, the club is now one of the richest in the league and its home suburb has become affluent.

Internal Reaction and Official Response

The email wasn't met with universal applause. An ATO spokesperson confirmed that the agency received two complaints regarding the meme. “The commissioner’s office received one piece of correspondence from an employee about the parody representation of a Collingwood fan (of which the commissioner is one himself),” the spokesperson stated. “Commissioner Heferen responded directly to the correspondence.” Another inquiry was lodged through a separate internal channel and was also addressed.

A Sign of the Times

The incident came to light after an anonymous user named “Collingwood Fan” filed the freedom of information request in April. The use of the AI-generated action figure meme reflects a broader social media trend from around that time, where users created and shared similar images based on various subjects.

This unique intersection of government leadership, workplace culture, sports rivalries, and AI-driven humor offers a fascinating glimpse into the modern Australian office.