The pond woke to more news that Europe was in a bad way, and not just from wildfires.
Big rivers like the Rhine and the Danube were way down, and landlocked Hungary's nukes were struggling.
The pond knew that none of this would mentioned in the lizard Oz, but could at least note Rhine falls to record low levels as drought strains Europe's rivers.
Bear it in mind, those dismal record levels will come in handy when we get to groaning ...
The pond also knew it wouldn't be reading this kind of report, the sort that appeared in another place yesterday, starring the onion muncher and his friends, and noted by correspondents...
‘No corruption’: Abbott says ICAC a factional hit job as Taylor faces questions (*intermittent archive link)
Abbott, whom Taylor picked as federal president in May, described the religious-right Reformers group as a group of enthusiastic young Christians with a strong sense of mission, and argued there was no suggestion of self-enriching corruption.
Taylor’s long-time friend and supporter, Catholic schools boss Dallas McInerney, is among those being investigated by the ICAC for funnelling Catholic Schools NSW funds to the hard-right Reformers through lobbying companies as illicit donations.
Abbott acknowledged the Reformers, whose key members provided evidence in the first week of Operation Rosny’s hearings, “might have let their enthusiasm get the better of their judgment.”
“There seems to be a level [of] incredulity directed against people’s Christianity, but my main problem is the factional weaponisation of what’s supposed to be an instrument of justice,” he said.
“I’m surprised that ICAC has allowed itself to be caught up in an internal party squabble that involves no conceivable ‘corruption’ in the sense of people gaining an unfair advantage for themselves, especially this close to a state election.”
The probe into his allies has already been a distraction for Taylor, who remains behind One Nation in the polls. ICAC’s hearings are due to continue for another seven weeks.
The inquiry last week produced a message from McInerney to Reformers members saying he planned to “shake down Angus for 10k”, while another witness said McInerney boasted of securing a pledge for $15,000 from Taylor. Taylor has repeatedly insisted no payment was made.
A key Reformers operative told the commission last week that Abbott, a former prime minister, featured in the group’s first event, in February 2018.
Abbott’s statement represents the firmest defence of the bid to install up to 5000 right-wing members to fight the rival centre-right faction, led by MP Alex Hawke, and generate a more conservative stance on social and cultural issues.
His remarks go further than the limited responses from Taylor to questions last week about the claim that he donated money.
While Taylor has not been called by ICAC and is not accused of wrongdoing, some of his federal colleagues have held informal talks about the process for changing leaders if he was implicated more directly.
The MPs and factional opponents of Taylor, who asked for anonymity to discuss the live inquiry, are not necessarily expecting more damaging revelations about the opposition leader. But they are questioning why he has not distanced himself more forcefully, and are on guard in case there are further claims.
And there's more this day from Kate McClymont ...
The ICAC has lit the fuse on an explosive inquiry that will examine the behaviour of (from left) Jean-Claude Perrottet, Dallas McInerney, Jean Nassif and Charles Perrottet, among others.
Day six of the ICAC’s blockbuster inquiry was reminiscent of the fantasy TV series, including allegations of backstabbing at former premier Dominic Perrottet’s wedding. (*intermittent archive link)
Barking mad Xian fundie rats everywhere, but the reptiles of Oz know how to disappear that sort of gossip in a trice and so it was today, as they led with this at the top of the digital edition ma ...
Going, going gone: ALP’s $230bn hit to property values
ALP’s policies of ‘fear’: $230bn hit to property values
Australia’s property market has shed $230bn in four months, with a developer warning Albanese government policies have created a ‘sentiment of fear’ threatening to deepen the housing crisis.
By Mackenzie Scott and Noah Yim
Get 'em coming, get 'em going.
Bleat about young potential home owners being locked out of the market, bleat about inflation, then bleat about struggling property investors ... but why the square quotes on "fear", what with fear being the daily serve the reptiles offer the hive mind?
Well played team.
Over on the far right, Geoff chambered another of his rounds, weeping at the fragility ...oh the fragility.
An assistant minister charged with defending Labor’s housing policy has offered a definition of negative equity that economists say is simply wrong.
By Geoff Chambers
Here, have a 'toon to celebrate ...
Back across the way and moving a little further down, having set up Noel for a fall yesterday, the reptiles delivered today ...
Marcia Langton and Tom Calma call out Noel Pearson on remote Indigenous takeover: good idea … but you rejected it
Indigenous leaders Marcia Langton and Tom Calma have declared Noel Pearson’s remote communities proposal is identical to the reform he rejected five years ago.
By Paige Taylor
Paige was just regurgitating the source, in the usual reptile way in a bald faced 3 minute summary in the usual reptile way ...
The intermittent archive eventually got around to saving the source (link updated)..
Pearson has found his way back to the voice he refused
Where do we go from here, Noel? Back to the blueprint. It has been waiting for five years.
Whatever, both are only noted to show how the reptiles love to feature fussing, feuding black people, especially when it's about the voice, not the Voice (when it comes to caps, the lizard Oz can sometimes be almost Graudian).
How the reptiles would love to return to the glorious days of their Voice jihad.
Over on the far right there was a splendid array of offerings, rare for a Tuesday.
The pond had to exercise some discretion, so walked on by this offering...
Since the Arab Spring, Morocco’s Islamists have struggled to offer a credible governing agenda. Instead, they’ve spent years convincing young Moroccans their country has no future.
By Zineb Riboua
Contributor
The alarmist, terrified header is more than enough to set the tone, and her credit sealed the deal ...
Zineb Riboua is a research fellow at Hudson Institute’s Centre for Peace and Security in the Middle East. This piece was first published on her Substack, Beyond the Ideological.
It was, of course, profoundly ideological, but it did at least give the pond a chance to reference Anne Applebaum's latest work for The Atlantic ...
We’ve seen this before. (here's hoping that guest link works)
Inter alia ...
But the most important precedent was in 2015, when the Russian destruction of Syria produced a massive wave of migration that also was filmed and photographed, especially after Germany declared that it would accept hundreds of thousands of war victims as refugees. Social-media posts showing migrants walking toward Europe, some amplified by the Russians who destroyed Syria, then played a major role in the Brexit campaign in the U.K., as well as the rise of the far right in Germany. The scars left by this memory are so deep that several European leaders, including the social-democratic prime minister of Denmark and the nationalist prime minister of Italy, this week accused Sánchez of endangering the Schengen Area even though, once again, the integrity of the zone was never threatened.
Readers can be forgiven for feeling a strong sense of déjà vu. For more than a decade now, European and indeed American politicians have known that real, fake, enhanced, or context-free pictures of migrants jumping fences will immediately create a wave reaction. Military rhetoric will be used—attack or invasion—and, to quote Vance, “radical left-wing globalist policies” will be blamed. Hardly anyone will ask why it is that so many people are so desperate to move that they will risk their lives. Few will mourn the dead.
Instead, far-right and MAGA politicians, influencers, and podcasters will immediately use the most divisive language possible in order to make voters as angry as possible, as fast as possible, regardless of what actually happened. Almost everyone else will be intimidated by their fury. As it turns out, it’s harder to stop the wave of anger than it is to stop the migrants themselves.
Well yes, it's the far right lizard Oz way, and after all that, the pond had to pay attention to its long time favourites.
First the bromancer, desperate to distract from mad King Donald ... and while updating links, the pond couldn't fail to notice how the reptiles had dressed up his hit piece with some splendid artwork and a pride of place position... (the pond couldn't be bothered checking the text to see if it had also been fiddled with).
The pond was bursting with pride that the bromancer was so honoured, knowing he'd explain that there was nothing wrong with AUKUS, except perhaps the UK and the US ...
Such incredible art, and yet so uncredited. So subtle and nuanced ...
AI, you've done it again.
Compare and contrast the original dullard illustration as the bromancer set out on his journey, where all the reptiles could come up with was a shouty shouty snap ...
The header: Defence for dummies? Marles and Conroy certainly fit the bill; One day Albanese government defence policy will be studied in universities around the world as the Platonic ideal of disastrous policymaking.
The caption for that angry man shouting at clouds: Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy talks about the AUSKUS submarines at the Osborne Naval Shipyard. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards
Where would the country be without its very own Reichsmarschall des GroßAustralisch Reiches, always standing by to deliver his advice in language most genteel...
John Howard shrewdly observed that the immigration discussion is blighted by a pointless debate about abstract nouns – monoculturalism and multiculturalism – which could mean almost anything. He might have made the same point regarding the debate about AUKUS, another abstract noun with a wildly elastic range of meanings. Certainly, the statements of Defence Minister Richard Marles and Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy range from implausible to contradictory to ridiculous a good deal of the time.
The latest almost comically implausible mess seems to have been all Conroy’s work. Under AUKUS, from next year, American and possibly British submarines will rotate through Perth in an arrangement called Submarine Rotation Force West. They won’t be permanently based in Perth, but will visit sometimes for months.
The Albanese government has consistently sold this as contributing directly to Australia’s security, contributing to allied deterrence, giving the US a useful regional access point, and allowing deep maintenance of both US, and eventually Australian, nuclear submarines. This would relieve some of the congestion in the US maintenance program and thus free up more sailing days for US nuclear subs. So would reducing the time for US subs transiting from Hawaii to the Indian Ocean side of the Indo-Pacific.
Still with AUKUS and the subs? Acting Prime Minister Richard Marles, left, Vice Admiral Jonathan Mead, Chief of the Nuclear Powered Submarine Task Force and South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Brenton Edwards
Still with the notion that mad King Donald and his minions were of any interest at all?
Did that 'toon mention Gaza?
The ethnic cleansing continues apace, and What We Can Learn From Trump’s Short-Lived “Historic Breakthrough” in Gaza, This is what happens when you bring in amateurs to negotiate peace in the Middle East
But you can't expect the bromancer to go there ...
This sent a frisson of worry through the Albanese government, as it has never succeeded, largely because it’s never tried, in selling AUKUS in principle to its activist base. An infinitely superior generation of Labor leaders, Bob Hawke and Kim Beazley, convinced the Labor Party to support the welcome of US naval ships to Australian ports even though the US had a “neither confirm nor deny” policy regarding whether any particular ship carried nuclear weapons.
But the Albanese government is not only incompetent, it’s cowardly. It’s frequently caught in an unmanageable vortex of conflicting imperatives from conflicting impulses of cowardice.
In any event, on July 29, in an interview on the ABC’s 7.30, Conroy said: “Submarine Rotation Force West is due to come to an end in the early 2030s.” He repeated this point several times, specifying the year 2032. The context is important. Sarah Ferguson was asking him if, after Virginias began potentially to carry nuclear weapons, their presence in Perth would cause a problem. Conroy chose to answer this by saying the arrangement would come to an end in 2032. In that interview, he at no point suggested any ongoing arrangement to replace it.
Ferguson herself, in her promo for the interview, was under no doubt in interpreting Conroy’s statement. She said: “(Conroy) said for the first time that the American Navy submarine rotation would end in 2032.”
This would have been astounding news to Washington. It’s hard to know, too, why so many naval personnel berths are being built in Perth if we’re only going to have the minuscule Australian crew there after 2032. Gone too, apparently, are all those arrangements about long-term maintenance.
For a couple of days no one could get any reaction from the Pentagon. Then on July 31, Marles gave an interview in which he repeatedly said: “Submarine Rotational Force West is intended to be an enduring feature of that American force posture in Australia and it’s a really important part of the AUKUS framework.”
At this point the reptiles introduced an AV distraction ...Former Labor MP Michael Danby says the AUKUS submarines have the opportunity to “deter” the aggressive Chinese fleet. Mr Danby told Sky News host Jaimee Rogers that drones are the “future” of modern warfare. “These drones are unbelievable. “We should just be importing vast quantities of this stuff; it’s incredibly cheap.”
The pond wasn't just distracted by having a host called "Jaimee".
What's this talk of Faux Noise down under?
Hasn't there been a rebrand?
Will the reptiles ever become aware of it?
And will the bromancer continue to burble about the joys of being in bed with mad King Donald? You betcha ...
That, and Conroy’s initial 7.30 statement, cannot both be true. What seems to have happened is that the Pentagon slapped Marles into line, and Marles slapped Conroy into line. Conroy could attempt some kind of verbal sleight-of-hand defence that the name under which US submarines rotate through Perth might change. But that’s not what he said on 7.30. He just declared the arrangement would end.
It seemed for a minute a government minister had announced a major shift in policy but people were right to assume that because these ministers so incessantly talk such implausible rubbish that it was just another gaffe. My interpretation of this baffling but typical Albanese government defence mess is that it was Conroy attempting to make some response to the Pezzullo intervention, to help the government among Labor branches and activists.
One interpretation is that the government was exercising leverage against the Americans. If you don’t sell us a Virginia on schedule in 2032, we might kick you out of Perth. That is either implausible or it shows the government in an even more foolish light than we have yet imagined. If we don’t get a Virginia in 2032, and as a result we kick the Americans out of Perth, we would then end up with neither our own subs nor the presence of allied subs, a result so wholly ridiculous and against our national interests it must be beyond even the compass of Albanese defence policy. Then again …
The AUKUS debate is mostly a clash of conflicting fantasies. Of course it will be great for Australia to have nuclear-powered subs. The real problem with AUKUS is that it’s going to take so long and the government is doing almost nothing else in defence in the meantime. It’s as though you were building a new rugby league team to enter the competition in 2032 and you recruited Bulldogs captain Stephen Crichton, the best player in the league, as your star player for the new club, but then forgot to add the other 12 members needed to make up a team.
One day Albanese government defence policy will be studied in universities around the world as the Platonic ideal of disastrous policymaking.
And that done and dusted, and speaking of ongoing disasters, will the bromancer ever get around to scribbling about the disastrous policymaking conducted by mad King Donald and his minions?
Some within the tent, such as the WSJ editorial board, are able to manage it...with a recent offering beginning with the piquant joke “A friend quipped the other day that President Trump truly deserves the Nobel Peace Prize because he has already ended the Iran war eight times.”
Sheesh, another distraction, but what the hell Archy ...
He again calls off the military escalation he threatened, with little detail disclosed.
By
The Editorial Board
Why is it that the bromancer never goes, though it seems clear enough who's the real fuster-cluck (so clever, so witty):
Indeed, indeed...
And here's a few other things not mentioned by the lizard Oz...
Nah, none of that, and so to the regular Tuesday treat, wherein old biddy Dame Groan explains why we're all rooned ...
Did the pond mention the way that climate change is currently stuffing Europe?
What we need is even more stuffing, perhaps by way of a bigly gassing, a sure fire way to conduct a holocaust ...
The header: Will El Presidente have time to fix our shoddy gas policy? As the air goes out of the net-zero tyre, it would’ve been preferable for Chris Bowen to focus on the energy issues we face at home.
The caption for the snap of that eternal villain: Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen.
Did you like that jibe about El Presidente?
That's a sign Dame Groan is in top form, and so the old biddy spent a bigly four minutes dissing renewables and wind and batteries (she hates wind as much as mad King Donald) and so on, because what climate science?
It’s not entirely clear what Australia stands to gain from the minister’s overcommitment. There are numerous problems emerging in relation to the difficult – probably impossible – transition of the electricity grid away from fossil fuels that need urgent attention.
Large-scale wind projects have become almost unbankable, and we have the bizarre possibility that an expensive new transmission system will be built in the New England region without any new renewable energy projects.
The early bidders into the federal government’s Capacity Investment Scheme are having second thoughts and are seeking to renegotiate terms to push up the degree of subsidisation. These bidders, largely overseas companies, are also seeking assistance under state schemes, although in these instances the costs are directly borne by energy users via higher prices rather than taxpayers.
Talking about fleecing taxpayers, the federal government’s Cheaper Home Batteries program really takes the cake. It was originally expected to cost $2.3bn over four years. But a design glitch meant “the actual average battery support was 75 per cent higher because households chose to install higher average battery sizes”. At one stage, the cost of the scheme had blown out to $14bn but has now been wound back to $8.5bn.
There came another snap of the two main villains, posed together, Anthony Albanese and Chris Bowen hold a press conference in Sydney. Picture: NewsWire/ Nathan Smith
Dame Groan ploughed on in her inimitable way, in the style that has made her much cherished by pond correspondents ...
But a recent event in South Australia clearly demonstrates why expensive household batteries are not really the answer to our prayers. A wind drought – it was described as the worst wind lull in SA since 2019 – meant that virtually no power was being generated from wind sources for a period.
While batteries, both household and larger-scale, were useful for a while, they soon ran low. The maximum wholesale price of $20,300 per megawatt hour was reached on two occasions and gas-fired power was required to meet demand.
What this episode clearly demonstrates is the fragility of the system and the need to cover all events, not just events on average. The required redundancy in the system is one of the reasons for our extremely high electricity prices.
In turn, this feature feeds into the appalling loss of productivity in the utilities sector, as noted by the Productivity Commission.
“Productivity growth in the utilities industry, of which the electricity sector is a part, has been poor. In fact, from 2000-01 to 2023-24, the utilities industry was the worst-performing industry in Australia (falling nearly 40 per cent). The electricity sector itself did not fare much better.”
In the meantime, Bowen has been spending some of his scarce time devising a gas reservation scheme, having vigorously opposed such an arrangement during the last election campaign. Recall that the Coalition promised to introduce a gas reservation scheme to reduce east coast prices. The expectation was that an additional 50-100 petajoules would be made available to the domestic market, with east coast demand totalling around 500 petajoules.
Bowen labelled the proposal a “scam-phlet”, referring to the document outlining the Coalition’s proposal. But that was then, and now he is all aboard a national reservation scheme even though there are effectively three gas domestic markets in Australia: the east coast, the Northern Territory and Western Australia. Bear in mind, WA has had a gas reservation scheme for many years. While there are some issues about the way it works, it’s hard to make the case for disturbing that arrangement.
Who better than the Ughmann, devoted former seminarian and renowned climate scientist, to add to the debate, in discussion with petulant Peta ...
News24 political contributor Chris Uhlmann says the world is moving towards prioritising energy security, warning Australia’s current policies risk making the nation poorer. “There is undoubtedly a shift which Chris Bowen refuses to acknowledge,” Mr Uhlmann told News24 host Peta Credlin. “Right around the world, the world understands now that energy security trumps everything else. “What Chris Bowen says and does is somewhat a sideshow. “We continue to pursue policies which will in the long run make us a poorer nation.”
Say what? There has been a rebrand/
And speaking of Martha, Dame Groan offered a final gobbet, grandly climaxing in a triumphant dissing of net zero, because there's never been a better time to gas the planet ...
What is now being proposed by the federal government doesn’t fit into this mould. A very large tranche of gas is to be reserved – around 250 petajoules, or 20 per cent of the total exports of LNG – and this must be sold to users each year, not just offered. This is absurd and would basically force most small domestic gas producers to the wall.
There is very little domestic demand in the Northern Territory and yet the proposal is that the reserved gas must be sold before any residual can be exported. This is completely unworkable. Given the prospects of the very large Beetaloo project coming to fruition, the last thing the country needs is this sort of impediment to stand in its way.
The basic idea is that downward pressure should be placed on the domestic price of gas and this would help industrial users of gas as well as gas-using households. The trouble is that a much lower domestic price will kill the incentives for exploration and new developments because the anticipated risk-adjusted returns will be simply too low.
There is also the possibility that the LNG export contracts entered into by the three producers operating out of Gladstone will not be fully honoured. Not only would there be important implications for our trading relationships, but there could also be a threat to the security of our liquid fuels sourced from Asian refineries.
The consultation process for the proposed gas reservation scheme – at least there has been one – has drawn stringent criticisms from a wide range of participants. Apart from some gas users, who are still wary about long-run price and supply sustainability, the scheme is essentially friendless. It partly reflects the complete gutting of the bureaucracy in terms of expertise and experience in the field.
There really is no choice but to return to the drawing board. A much smaller quantity of gas should be nominated; it will need only to be offered to users, not sold; Western Australia and the Northern Territory should be excluded; and specific commitments must be made to the facilitation of the opening up of new gas fields, including support for the required infrastructure such as additional pipelines.
As the air goes out of the net-zero tyre globally, it would have been preferable for Bowen to focus on the various pressing energy issues we face at home. These COP conferences come and go, but they won’t solve our domestic energy problems.
