Why does the pond always put the tastiest reptiles last? Why do correspondents always have to wade through a turgid reptile stew to get to the dessert? Not today ...
The bromancer on Pauline and her consort, Tamworth's ineradicable, execrable shame? Straight to the top of the digital world ma ...
The header: A lesson from Germany: Demonising populist parties won’t improve mainstream politics; One Nation’s weakness isn’t extremism but lack of experience in government, lack of policy bandwidth and the tendency of its elected representatives to defect.
The caption for the clowns: One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson and MP Barnaby Joyce during a press conference in the Senate courtyard. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman
There might be a few stray readers who think the bromancer might be shocked at the triumph of far right, neo-Nazis in Germany.
Foolish readers. The bromancer is on a crusade to give far right extremists and populists a break ...
The slashing victory for the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party (AfD) in the German state election in Saxony-Anhalt shows the utter folly of mainstream politics trying to demonise and exclude populist parties. This is true for One Nation in Australia.
German politics has been rendered disfigured and dysfunctional by its long and unsuccessful effort to demonise AfD. It has made the once fringe party stronger while depriving it of the experience of government that would make it more moderate.
Similar dynamics apply here. One Nation’s candidate won the recent Secret Harbour by-election with 39 per cent primary vote. It’s leading national polls across Australia.
All parties should be held accountable for their choice of personnel and policies. But there’s no Australian electorate where 39 per cent of Australians are extremists. It would be insane for the Liberal and National parties to put One Nation last on preferences. If One Nation retaliated, that would be a recipe for Labor to win almost every seat in the country. That’s not democratic
If One Nation were Nazis, there would be no choice but to do that anyway. But they’re not Nazis. There’s nothing at all in Pauline Hanson or Barnaby Joyce that justifies the tag “extreme right wing”.
Indeed, indeed. They are perfect warriors for the lizard Oz's ideological positions.
How could any of that be extreme right wing? From a fear and loathing of furriners and Islamics to full blown climate science denialism, they're a perfectly rational and reasonable bunch ... if you happen to live in a hive mind.
The reptiles followed up with a snap of Ulrich ... Ulrich Siegmund, lead candidate of AfD, gestures on stage after initial results give the party 44.8 per cent of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt state elections. Picture: Sean Gallup / Getty Images
That prompted the pond to look up a profile of Ulrich and his chums ... Ulrich Siegmund, the smiling ‘popular kid’ who propelled the far right to victory in eastern Germany
...The politician advocates, among other things, for a much more restrictive immigration policy, increased deportations and a fundamental shift in state policy. Among his close associates are individuals who were actively involved in the Heimattreue Deutsche Jugend (HDJ), an organization banned in 2009 for its “affinity with National Socialism.” The group sought to raise children as “National Socialist freedom fighters” and taught minors what it called “racial science.” One of them is Patrick Harr, the parliamentary group’s press spokesman and Siegmund’s right-hand man. For Siegmund, however, these were merely “youthful mistakes” that have long since been consigned to the past.
The politician has also spoken positively about YouTuber Matthäus Westfal, known online as Aktivist-Mann. “There are a lot of good people providing information,” he said. Siegmund appears untroubled by the fact that the livestreamer was on the front lines during the attempted storming of the German parliament in 2020 amid mass protests against Covid-19 restrictions, and is known for his ties to Holocaust deniers.
Then there is Sebastian Schmidtke, a former federal vice-chair of the NPD, now known as Die Heimat, who has also reinvented himself as a livestreamer and was accredited at an AfD federal party conference. Siegmund appears to have a cordial relationship with the convicted neo-Nazi. Moreover, when asked how he personally views National Socialism and the Holocaust, and whether he would describe the years from 1933 to 1945 as “the greatest crime against humanity,” Siegmund responded evasively: “I do not dare to judge it. Because I cannot take the measure of all humanity.”
Exactly. Who could dare to judge a holocaust, especially one that might not have happened?
How could any reader of the Australian Daily Zionist News take offence at that?
The pond could spot only one minor blemish ... In 2017, Siegmund left the Catholic Church. He has said that he still carries its values “in his heart,” but rejects the German institution that represents them.
That's okay. You can take the tyke out of the church, but you can't take the church out of the tyke, and in much the same way, you can take the alleged neo-Nazis out of the AdF but you can't take the AdF out of your alleged neo-Nazis. Or some such ...
What we need is better, more dinkum populism and extremism down under. Hearken unto the bromancer ...
Australia needs the best One Nation party it can get, just as it needs the best Liberal, National, Labor and Greens parties.
Precisely. In much the same way that the Weimar republic needed the very best Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei:
One Nation’s weakness isn’t extremism but lack of experience in government, lack of policy bandwidth and the tendency of its elected representatives to defect.
This is where Joyce is critical. He gives One Nation daily political presence. David Farley has the ability to make a big contribution from Farrer but has sent out disturbing, egocentric signs that he doesn’t want to be a team player. If he defects from One Nation, sooner or later, he will have hurt Australian politics, not helped it.
Come on chaps. Pull together. If you want to truly stuff the country in a coherent, organised way, you need to be bigots working together, or perhaps dip in for a share of a magic pud..
Hearken unto the bro:
In Europe, most right-wing populist parties have moderated considerably while retaining core commitments on touchstone issues such as reducing immigration. Italy’s Giorgia Meloni is the leading stateswoman of Europe. No one could describe her as extreme right. Nigel Farage in the UK has recruited figures who would make a Reform government credible. Farage still has many problems and establishment efforts to keep him out of office are huge. But he’s not remotely an extremist.
In France, Marine Le Pen is leading national polls. The AfD is Europe’s most problematic case. They are also leading national polls and form the official opposition nationally. But all the other German political parties except one are committed to a strategy of the so-called firewall. This means they will not form a coalition at state or federal level with AfD and will not accept its votes in parliaments, determining always to construct parliamentary majorities without AfD.
Talk about great advice, and of course the reptiles had to feature Nigel, no doubt busy making plans to score more billionaire funding ... Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage addresses delegates during day two of the Reform UK party conference in Birmingham. Picture: Anthony Devlin / Getty Images
There's a 'toon to go with that ...
Why is anyone surprised? Back in his early days, the bromancer was a disciple of Santa, and that led to some peculiar ideas.
The pond rarely quotes Phillip Adams, but there he was back in 2015 in the lizard Oz...
Santamaria’s back in the news. As well as being hero and mentor to a younger Gerard (Polonius that is) he remains an inspiration to Tony Abbott, while journalist Greg Sheridan is also sharing memories...
...Gerard made much of Franco declaring Spain “neutral” during World War II. (What kind of Fascist would do that?) The truth is that, after a meeting in France, Hitler refused to accept Franco’s terms for full membership of the Axis — which included Spanish control of French North Africa. Another problem was a profoundly different view of Catholicism. Nonetheless Spain’s “Blue Division” would help Hitler in his war on the Soviets while Franco offered Hitler naval facilities for warships and U-boats. Franco also supplied Himmler with a list of 6000 Jews for the Final Solution, though he did not hand them over. (It should be acknowledged that some Spanish embassies in Europe provided some Jews with diplomatic protection.) And he considered blocking Allied access to the Mediterranean by seizing Gibraltar. What kind of neutral would do that?
Franco’s influence lived on in other totalitarian thugs — one who attended his funeral was his biggest fan, General Pinochet.
I’ll concede that Santa wasn’t alone in his support for Franco. So for a while was Churchill. And the western democracies kissed and made up during the Cold War, with Eisenhower visiting the Caudillo de España in 1953.
Franco a fascist? Never.
Of course he wasn't, at least in the bromancer's formative years, and thus black can be made white, and a bashing of furriners, in the manner of Herr Adolf's rise to power, can be made to seem perfectly normal ...
This policy has been an unmitigated disaster for Germany and a blessing for AfD in every way. As AfD support has grown, the great natural opponents in German politics, the Christian Democrat conservatives and the centre-left Social Democrats, have had to form deeply unnatural coalition governments just to secure a parliamentary majority.
This has rendered German politics completely incoherent. Parties with directly contradictory platforms must, post-election, form compromise coalitions, time after time. This alienates voters who can’t get any change by opting for any mainstream party. And it reinforces the AfD message that all the other parties are the same, the “uniparty”, only in it for themselves and completely indifferent to voters’ wishes.
Carry on in a far right way and you can end up with a better kind of uniparty ...
How soon before the beefy boofhead steals all One Nation's policies in his quest for a uniparty?
What the bromancer wants is an experienced, able, competent party of extremists ...
There were times when the centre right could have taken AfD in as a junior coalition partner in some states or at least a party on whose votes it was willing to rely for what we call confidence and supply. This would have made AfD take responsibility for some mainstream decisions. It almost certainly would have domesticated AfD to some extent, meaning AfD got used to horse-trading within a semi-coherent centre right tradition.
The same thing happened on the other side with the German Greens. It’s hard to believe, but once the German Greens were almost as bad as Australia’s Greens are today. They were effectively domesticated by the responsibilities of government. They now support NATO, support Ukraine, as well as supporting the environment.
AfD has been allowed to maintain the purity of the impotent, as Gough Whitlam once described it. That means their support has steadily grown. Their signature issue is immigration. They hate the size and scale of the immigration Germany has experienced, especially from North Africa and the Middle East.
Is there anything more problematic to a lizard Oz journalist than a black or brown person? Not really ... Marine Le Pen
Colour the bromancer Marine adjacent, AfD curious ...
A fear of black people is perfectly reasonable, and it's one of the great policy failures of Australia that Aboriginal people weren't "bred out" or assimilated, or just made to go away somehow, or so the hive mind might think, and then there are those bloody tolerant loons who want to ruin the country's whiteness:
That’s not a Nazi position. The failure of mainstream German parties to deal with immigration has fed directly into AfD’s rise. AfD wants to deport people who are in Germany illegally and force other asylum-seekers who are in Germany legally to work for welfare benefits. These too are not Nazi positions and it’s mad to demonise them.
They're just your average hive mind readers of the lizard Oz. Now let's hear some more tolerance for bigotry ...
AfD wants to do a lot of culture wars stuff, some of it a bit nutty. It wants to remove gay pride flags from public schools. It’s a good thing that democracies are tolerant of everybody’s sexuality. But it is not a necessary condition of democracy that gay pride flags must fly from all public schools.
Get lost gay people, with your moaning and whining, but is there anything at all that troubles the bromancer? There was one minor billy goat butt, an awkward affinity for a sociopathic invader intent on resurrecting an empire ...
There are, certainly, elements of the AfD identity that give rise to legitimate concern. One of their worst features is their sympathy for Russia and Vladimir Putin.
Steady, there's a billy goat butt for that ...
But the European establishment drove some right-wingers into Russian arms.
And there's your standard defence. The left, or the centre, made me do it. I didn't want to be a fascist, but what's all this nonsense about having to get along with the gays next door?
Mainstream banks for a time wouldn’t deal with Le Pen’s movement in France, and Farage was briefly de-banked in Britain. Le Pen’s movement thus went to Russian banks. But banks should not have this absurd political censorship role in any democracy. Behaviour like that is a good argument for renationalising banks or regulating them to prevent such nonsense, just as so many Australian banks won’t finance fossil fuel projects. Who voted for the banks?
Indeed, it's not just a wrecking of the country, but the ruination of the entire planet by refusing to accept the science of climate change. Where's the harm in that ... Pauline Hanson speaks to the media in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman.
There's a 'toon for that ...
Once a Franco apologist, always a Franco apologist ...
The same dynamics that operate in Europe operate in Australia, though less intensely. The obscene Bondi massacre led to a huge rise in One Nation’s support. At first this seems strange. What’s the connection?
The Bondi massacre convinced many voters that the two major parties had both made a mess of the nation. Look what you’ve done to my country, was voters’ agonised cry. And the one figure in Australian politics who has stood most strongly against unregulated immigration from the Middle East, and from South Asian nations with strong Islamist traditions, is Hanson. Her position may have been right or wrong but it has been clear. Immigration populists are reshaping Western politics. That represents historic failure by mainstream parties. Shooting the messenger is no solution.
Um, perhaps the bromancer shouldn't raise the spectre of Bondi and get the AdF started on the subject of the Jews ...
The spectacular electoral victory of the right-wing extremist Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt represents a threat to both Germany and Europe, reminding us that antisemitism is on the rise again in Europe. “AfD often employs camouflaged antisemitic ideas and slogans or tolerates antisemitism in its midst, but at times it also disseminates overt antisemitic propaganda,” notes a Report from the American Jewish Committee (AJC) by Lars Rensmann.
“AfD’s election win in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt marks a grim milestone: The party is now within reach of forming Germany’s first far-right state government since the Nazi era,” AJC posted on X on 6 September. The AJC “has been sounding the alarm on the AfD’s rampant, intrinsic, and foundational antisemitism that is deeply embedded in its authoritarian-nationalist politics. The AfD’s rise remains a threat to German democracy and the future of Europe.”
Similar concerns are advanced by Yonathan Arfi, President of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF).
“The AfD, a shadow over German democracy, a threat to Jews! The AfD is a party with neo-Nazi undertones, which claims, among other things, to put an end to “the teaching of guilt for the Shoah,” Arfi posted on X, highlighting that those in France who rejoice at the AfD’s victory in Saxony-Anhalt cannot claim to fight antisemitism in France. (
here)
And why does the pond usually place the immortal Rowe down the bottom? Not today, not when he's featuring the bromancer's friends ...
And now the reptile hits, the top of the reptile charts, keep coming...bring on the groaner for a groaning ...
The header: Working from home is no way to revive our dismal economy; Is there a correlation between the decline in the quality of policy advice from the public service and the prevalence of WFH?
The caption for that splendid, uncredited collage of a Victorian fiend, and a stock shot of a young missy hunched over a computer ... ‘The harmful impact of the WFH legislation on private sector employment and investment is still dismissed by the Carroll Labor government home laws,’ writes Judith Sloan.
What's the bet that Dame Groan pounded out this column while working from home? It's a stretch to substitute her for the female figure in the collage, but work hard, and it can be done.
Sure, she could have hopped into a cab and headed into a News Corp office and pounded away.
Or she could have sensibly saved the cab fare (is she a tram person?), and wrote her yarn in the comfort of her home, filing it via the full to overflowing intertubes, pausing only to make herself a coffee at her own expense, so she could get fired up in a caffeine way ...
But then the reptiles always follow the chant "what's right for me is certainly not right for thee":
Working from home is very popular among workers. Forget the grind of the daily commute; fit in a Pilates class, grab a coffee from the local cafe, pick up the kids from school. How good is WFH?
But just because something is popular doesn’t mean governments should impose an obligation on employers to offer WFH. This is a message that sits uncomfortably with most Labor governments.
In the case of Victoria, the Allan Labor government thought it should take it a step further and impose a statutory right of WFH for workers – a minimum of two days a week for full-time workers and a pro-rata number for part-time workers.
Under the legislation – which is dubiously based on anti-discrimination laws – employers would be required to foot the bill for any set-up costs for those employees working from home as well as any ongoing costs. Liability for any occupational health and safety mishaps would vest with the employer. Employers who could demonstrate the unworkability of employees working from home could seek an exemption, but the default position would be the minimum WFH entitlement.
Any dispute would be sorted by an administrative tribunal, with employers required to establish their case that workers attend the workplace – a clear reversal of the onus of proof. One can only imagine the queue that will quickly form for adjudication of disputes about WFH.
Notwithstanding the economically beleaguered position of Victoria, the former premier could see only the political benefits of mandating WFH. The fact the Liberal Party was wedged by the proposal was simply icing on the cake.
On the upside, if Dame Groan did write this at home, she wouldn't have been confronted by the deplorable sight of furriners littering the streets, always distressing to her and the rest of the hive mind, and so she wasn't provoked into another diatribe about how furriners are ruining the country.
This was a more modest explanation of how the Labor party was ruining Victoria. Remember Jacinta (so sorry, no room for comrade Dan) ... Jacinta Allan resigns at a press conference. Picture: Jason Edwards
How all the reptiles yearn for a golden age, a time when everybody could congregate in offices, and indulge in the classic political games that made certain TV comedies great hits ...(looking at you Gervais and Merchant):
It is worth recalling where the WFH debate began. Before Covid, WFH was rare. At the time of the 2016 census only 2 per cent of workers worked from home on the record date.
Just before the onset of the pandemic about 10 per cent of workers worked at least one day a week at home. This percentage is now closer to 40 per cent. In the public service the proportion is higher again, close to two-thirds.
In the offices of some government departments and agencies, a cat can be safely swung and not crash into any workers. Junior workers may decide to go into the office for a bit of mentoring only to find the supervisory staff are all working from home.
There are of course some jobs that are more amenable to WFH. Clerical, repetitive tasks where external monitoring is possible and inexpensive often can be undertaken at home. But if the task can be done in Balwyn, it can probably be done in Bangalore.
By contrast, there are plenty of jobs that simply can’t be done from home, including those requiring contiguity between worker and client/patient as well as manual work in general. Surgeons can’t work from home; neither can bricklayers.
By favouring those workers who can work from home, there is a danger that resentment builds among those who can’t.
Working from home also doesn’t encourage teamwork and informal training; Zoom meetings are no substitute for face-to-face contact. Is there a correlation between the decline in the quality of policy advice from the public service and the prevalence of WFH?
The impact of WFH on productivity is a complicated story, although the avoidance of the daily commute has an upside. But if we consider what has happened to productivity since WFH has skyrocketed, it’s hard to make the case that it has been a boon at the macro level.
The avoidance of the daily commute has an upside?
So she did write this piece at home?
Quick, an AV distraction ... Victoria’s working from home legislation debate has been delayed as businesses pile on Premier Ben Carroll to scrap the laws entirely.
Some might be wondering why this old biddy still tenaciously holds onto a place in the pantheon of lizard Oz columnists, instead of some early career hiring to take a fresh look at life.
Blame WFH ...
A recent large-scale study examined the combined impact of artificial intelligence and WFH on junior workers. The hypothesis is that these are the two factors that may damage the job prospects of young people. Using data from the US, Britain, Canada and Australia, the conclusion is that “WFH is a robust predictor of the decline in early-career hiring”.
So, what’s the situation in Victoria? If Jacinta Allan had her way, the legislation would’ve passed and come into effect this month. She was never keen on consulting with employers, regarding them as self-serving and irrelevant. Their many complaints landed on deaf ears, notwithstanding some convincing campaigning headed by the resuscitated HR Nicholls Society.
Allan’s replacement as Victorian premier, Ben Carroll, has been prepared to meet employers and has noted their suggestions for several amendments to the bill. While he has pushed the start date to July 1, the legislation has still been put to the parliament. It has passed the lower house and is awaiting consideration by the Legislative Council. There is a motion that the bill be the subject of an inquiry but it’s not clear this motion will be passed.
Time is running out before parliament rises and we are in election campaigning season. Labor’s political objective was to force the hand of the Liberal Party to vote against the bill, thus revealing to the electorate its refusal to meet the preferences of workers while siding with employers.
The clumsy handling of the WFH issue by the federal Coalition at the last election campaign has partly guided its thinking. The harmful impact of the WFH legislation on private sector employment and investment is still dismissed by the Carroll Labor government or seen as unimportant. It would be just another state government intervention that has damaged the economic prospects of the state while sending its fiscal position into dangerous territory. The ratings agencies are watching anxiously.
Great news, the HR Nicholls Society has been resuscitated! Watch out Albo ...Anthony Albanese during Question Time. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman
And now a final gobbet from the groaner, with the pond still wondering if she actually stayed at home to scribble this offering ...
In case you think this is just a Victorian folly, the reality is that a statutory obligation to provide WFH would likely flow on to other states, in part because of national employers as well as unions keen to spread this entitlement.
The most economically efficient WFH outcome is when employers can freely negotiate with workers to reach mutually beneficially arrangements. This will generally take the form of hybrid work, where workers work some of the week at home but the rest is undertaken in the workplace.
Any outside imposition of WFH entitlements will undermine the right of employers to insist on workers coming into the office. Victorian Libs don’t need to object to WFH; they need to oppose statutory mandating.
When the Prime Minister rattles off a range of workplace perquisites – WFH; the right to disconnect; elimination of junior rates of pay; same job, same pay; and the list goes on – there is an implicit assumption that these conditions can simply be mandated at no cost to employers or the economy. If he understood markets and how the economy works, he would know this is not the case.
Our dismal record on productivity and falling living standards tells us otherwise.
And so another reptile has enhanced the country's productivity by spending an entire column bleating into an uncaring universe about the unfairness of it all. As for helping living standards, if you buy a copy of the tree killer edition, you can use it as mulch and grow your own vegies.
Relax, the pond didn't forget the lizard Oz headlines ...
How they love that snap of Barners eyes wide shut.
This day the reptiles were valiantly fighting a rearguard action, against the best advice of the bromancer ...
A teaser trailer ...
There's more at the archive, but sadly the archive refuses to save the best bits ... so here they are ...
And it would be remiss to ignore Jamie's contribution, though it might have compounded the bromancer's horror at the cruel way that One Nation is sometimes treated ...
If Jamie keeps on rabbiting on like this, the bromancer will have to have words with him...
And so on, and now to celebrate Dame Groan and the bromancer a little more.
Release the 'roos!
Another mob the bromancer needs to get behind (there are English subtitles available):
