So the war in Iran lurched back to life yet again, despite the complete obliteration of the Iranian military, and displaying the same interest as they do in climate science, it disturbed the reptiles of the lizard Oz not at all.
Sure, you could find Cameron in full war monger mode buried away from the front page, several clicks away from the hive mind action...
Onus on Trump to act with conviction Iran has launched an unprompted ballistic missile attack on US forces in the Middle East, intensifying pressure on Donald Trump to respond. By Cameron Stewart Chief International Correspondent
In typical fashion, he could only mount a two minute outburst, though possibly that's more than mad King Donald can reliably manage these days ...
Come on Cam, what's really going down?
Forget all that nonsense.
What was really top of the digital edition early this morning?
No prizes for guessing.
That unshakeable comrade Dan obsession, with the lizard Oz jihad on full parade ...
EXCLUSIVE Labor braces for Dan Andrews inquisition Daniel Andrews and Jacinta Allan face being hauled before Victoria’s royal commission as Ben Carroll vows no political figures will be shielded from the probe. By Damon Johnston and Anthony Galloway
The pond quietly cursed the intermittent archive, which had only saved an earlier iteration of the yarn, but decided the beat up was only notable for the awesomely awful collage provided by a new name, a certain Matt Cotton, at the start of the show trial.
It's not all Matt's fault that the pond didn't cotton on to the story.
All that - there was a full five minutes - for a possible appearance before a yet to be formed Royal Commission?
The pond knew that this jihad was on in earnest because just below petulant Peta made an appearance ...
Commentary by Peta Credlin You’ve got to take pity on Victorians, don’t you? Whether Ben Carroll can shrug off his history or be forced to own it will all come down to how well Liberals can frame him.
Here the intermittent archive came good and all the pond needed to offer suffering Victorians was a teaser trailer for yet another burst of insufferable cockroach-laden condescension ...
Five minutes of petulant Peta slagging off?
The infallible Pope tried to help ...
Nah, sorry, infallible Pope, if you're on the right side, you can always consider scribbling for the reptiles.
The pond quickly moved over to the extreme far right of the digital edition, only to discover Jack had joined the jihad.
A sickening feeling of deja vu from the ghosts of ICAC past is likely to be haunting some Liberal Party figures tuning in to the daily drama of the Operation Rosny corruption inquiry. For the second day in a row, Dylan Whitelaw, 25, a former member of an ultra-conservative right-wing faction of the party called the Reformers, had difficulty recalling crucial events. When shown a “sh*t sheet” on then-Liberal police minister David Elliott, which Whitelaw was allegedly involved in compiling, he replied, “It doesn’t refresh my memory. There’s components in there that I have zero recollection of.”
Or lie back and enjoy a cartoon ...
Not to worry, the same ability to ghost and disremember and discombobulate afflicts the lizards of Oz, and with the usual blather about respect, the pond also had not the slightest interest interest in the latest contribution to the Australian Daily Zionist News...
How do you help talk of conspiracy theories? Best done by failing to pay attention. That usually turns the logarithms off ...
But all that winnowing and culling left the pond in a truly dire situation.
Had the pond come to this?
Had the pond arrived at Geoff chambering yet another round, offering sage advice for the beefy boofhead?
Yes, it was time for Geoff to urge the beefy boofhead to go full Pauline, and embrace Gina's pampered pet ...
There wasn't even a question mark in the header, which was more an order than a commentary: Time for Angus Taylor to invite Pauline Hanson for tea and unite against Anthony Albanese; Angus Taylor faces mounting pressure from colleagues to engage with Pauline Hanson as the Coalition’s primary vote languishes at 19 per cent.
The caption for the snap, a feeble uncredited collage (Matt? Matt? where are you) which co-joined a triumphant bright red and orange Pauline, and a downcast, downtrodden, grey and despairing beefy boofhead: Angus Taylor needs to have a cup of tea with Pauline Hanson.
What was truly remarkable was the way the reptiles tried to inject some life into this two minute proposal to run up the flag and surrender was the way snap after snap kept appearing to try to add some weight:
The longer he refuses to pick up the phone and chat with the One Nation leader, the more pressure he faces from colleagues and supporters who want clarity over how he intends to forge a working relationship with Hanson. With the federal Coalition’s primary vote languishing at 19 per cent in Newspoll and core support for One Nation sitting equal with Labor’s at 30 per cent, many conservatives believe Taylor needs an open dialogue with Hanson.
Open dialogue? Is that what the chambering one calls embracing Gina's pampered pet, and her embrace of the most far right lizard Oz policies? Pauline Hanson. Picture: NewsWire/Philip Gostelow
Get it on, beefy boofhead, the reptiles of Oz have spoken and the hive mind is on board ...
The weekly news cycle featuring Coalition MPs and party figures talking about whether or not the Liberals and Nationals should work more closely with One Nation is untenable. There are those in the Coalition who believe a tight conservative bloc is required to defeat the second-term Albanese Labor government at the next election. Others, mainly moderates in metropolitan areas, want to tip-toe around the question. Anthony Albanese is banking on the three conservative parties, and others such as Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party, not getting their acts together. While One Nation and the Coalition play predictable political games, Taylor late on Wednesday finally replied positively but vaguely to Hanson’s good faith offer about working with the Coalition on strengthening national security laws.
Time now for fear mongering of a patented lizard Oz kind, Australian doctor Tareq Kamleh calls for violence in an ISIS video.
The Islamics, the Islamics! Quick, rush to the side of Gina's pampered pet ...
Public anxiety is rising about the returning ISIS brides, and potentially fighters, in addition to ongoing concerns about Islamic extremist threats following the Bondi Beach terror attack targeting Jewish-Australians. This feeds into the broader debate over immigration and its impacts on housing, infrastructure and taxpayer-funded supports. Hanson’s move for One Nation to draft its own Protecting Australians from Foreign Terrorist Fighters Bill and lobby support from crossbenchers ahead of parliament returning on August 11 indicates the right-wing party won’t stand still and wait for the Coalition.
Eek, even more Islamics, ‘ISIS bride’ Janai Safar arrives at a Sydney police station after being escorted from the airport on her return to Australia. Pictire: Will Seitam
Quick now, a preference swap! Maybe even a coalition? Thought about having Pauline as the new minister for immigration?
She'd put those damned Islamics in their place.
At the end of the day, even if One Nation’s primary vote slips ahead of the next election, the Coalition will desperately need preferences from Hanson’s party. That scenario will play out at the November state election in Victoria. For Victorian Liberal leader Jess Wilson to win, she will need strong preference flows from One Nation.
Time to bring in a nobody, Outgoing opposition home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones
But what of that terrifying dragon, evoked by the immortal Rowe?
No time for that, time for another reptile anxiety attack.
Leading on national security matters should be bread and butter for the Coalition. It is a concern that Jonno Duniam remains in the role of opposition home affairs and immigration spokesman almost seven weeks after announcing he was quitting politics. Duniam, who is expected to remain in the role until the end of the year, is ready to leave the parliament and his other job as manager of opposition business in the Senate. Taylor will need to replace him and appoint an acting finance spokesman when Claire Chandler goes on maternity leave within weeks.
Quick, drag in the beefy boofhead, Angus Taylor. Picture: NewsWire / Gaye Gerard
And now for the reptile orders.
Quick step, march, look lively now, you must follow the orders, you will obey ..
Taylor must take control of the critically important portfolios and lead the narrative around the Coalition’s national security and immigration policies. While the Coalition and One Nation tout similar policies, One Nation currently has greater cut-through with conservative voters. The Liberal leader has waged a strong case on the economy and warned about the perils of One Nation leading a government, but he needs to strengthen his messaging on immigration and national security.
A brief promo for the Vics, so that the hive mind will recognise more than a snap of Moira Deeming in a headlock.
Come on down Jess, you're lucky snap number seven in a two minute chambering, Victorian Liberal leader Jess Wilson. Jason Edwards
Now for the wrap.
Follow orders and there's redemption. Fail, and there's only doom ...
Wilson, who followed a long list of failed Victorian Liberal leaders, has shown her federal colleaguesthere is a pathway back through hard work, grit, ruthlessness and consistency. David Crisafulli and Lia Finocchiaro did the same in Queensland and the Northern Territory, respectively. The Coalition needs to present as a viable and credible alternative government. The Liberals and Nationals must keep repeating messaging that connects with voters who are seeking real action and support in their lives, rather than “pie in the sky” slogans and Canberra-driven policies.
Just do it ... just get into bed with Gina's pampered pet and all will go well. What could possibly go wrong?
As for those European wildfires?
Again the pond can proudly boast that there's not a single mention of Europe or wildfires on the front digital page of the lizard Oz.
The pond apologises for producing such a dismal outing, but is always unnerved when petulant Peta makes a return.
She'd last been sighted in the lizard Oz way back on 4th June, and the pond had almost forgotten she existed ...
Speaking of reprobate, deplorable, reprehensibles, it would be remiss of the pond not to note a guest appearance by shameless Sharri, full disrespect, with her come hither look designed to stimulate the loins of the aged hive mind demographic ...
Dr Fauci’s journals show he followed reports by The Australian about Covid Diary entries of America’s top pandemic adviser reveal he was angered by an investigation in The Australian that exposed his funding of risky research in Wuhan. By Tia Clarkson-Pascoe
Again the pond failed the test.
The sight of this unholy visual conjunction, Fauci up against the simpering one was simply too much ...
Who could blame them for there ongoing comrade Dan fixation when Ben himself mentioned the ogre?
What a feeding frenzy it was ...
FANTASY VICTORIA The truths behind Jacinta Allan’s delusional farewell Jacinta Allan failed to mention corruption, debt and crime in delusional farewell speech It’s what the outgoing Victorian premier chose not to mention that reveals her farewell as a giant episode of self-serving delusion. By Damon Johnston, David Tanner and Lily McCaffrey
INSIDE STORY Bad blood: the Dan Andrews and Jacinta Allan era is over Ben Carroll dumps on Dan Andrews and Jacinta Allan, seizes the leadership New leader Ben Carroll says it’s a fresh start. Make no mistake: this was a brutal Labor reset. The Andrews-Allan show ended with a political execution. By John Ferguson
Over on the extreme far right, the baying of the hounds - or should that be the chomping of the reptiles? - continued apace ...
Can Carroll survive the Allan-Andrews retribution? Jacinta Allan, Daniel Andrews and their dwindling band of loyalists will make Kevin Rudd look like a saint based on Tuesday’s events. ByAnthony Galloway Victorian political editor
The reptiles tried to inveigle the pond into the storm by proposing a flicker of hope, as if the pond remotely cared a jot or a whit...
Can Ben Carroll save Victorian Labor? It’s possible Victorians aren’t pleading for a grand vision. Grand visions are how governments end up buying tunnelling machines and hosing money at mates. By Toby Ralph Contributor
The reptiles even dragged in the craven Craven as a way of tempting the pond ...
But the pond could have written the craven Craven's offering in a hive mind sleep, as this excerpt shows - spoiler alert, it's the last few lines:
...For the now departed Allan, the only real question left is her legacy. Will she be dismissed by history as Andrews’ untalented sidekick who just could not keep the show on the road? Unlikely. Allan will benefit from Labor’s female sacrifice theory. Failing Labor governments certainly have a record of putting in female leaders once a government is in its death throes. This includes Joan Kirner in Victoria, Carmen Lawrence in Western Australia, Kristina Keneally in NSW and now Allan in Victoria. The argument goes that after the men had stuffed it up, innocent and compassionate women were forced to carry the can. This is complete rubbish. Take Kirner. She was no bystander in the Cain government. She was its long-term deputy premier and education minister. She was as much mired in the disasters of that administration – the forced sale of the State Bank of Victoria, the Pyramid Building Society disaster and the catastrophic misinvestment of government funds – as John Cain. She also was a vicious and effective political operator. She may have worn frocks, but she always had a knife up the sleeve. Yet she now is remembered by Labor groupies as some sort of progressive angel. Allan falls into the same category. She was chief facilitator of the Andrews government. Her hands have as much dung on them as Dan the Man. But doubtless she will be remembered by many progressive Victorians as a feminist martyr. The truth is, she was just as complicit. Greg Craven is former vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University.
Joan Kirner? John Cain? If he's into ancient history, why not John Bannon and notables of the Bob "Slippery Sam" "run the bastards over" Askin kind?
Is it any wonder that the pond settled for a few 'toons so it could move on ...
Sheesh, Mr Golding, you're as bad as the craven Craven.
Does anybody remember having a good lie down, let alone taking a Bex, except perhaps for the pond's dead uncle's failed kidneys?
As for those wildfires in Europe?
The pond can proudly report that there wasn't a single mention on the top page of the digital edition early this morning.
Inter alia: ...Lara Schwarz, an environmental health scientist at UC Berkley who led the research, said: “As wildfires become more frequent and severe in the context of climate change, with California being at high risk, understanding how these harmful wildfires will affect us in the long term is critical to informing better public health action and response.”
Fergetit ... is it any wonder that the pond settled down to the quiet life with a dose of "Ned's" natter?
The header: One Nation is a thing of beauty for the Labor Party; One Nation will give Labor the electoral exemption it needs to dodge proper accountability for its flawed agenda.
The caption for the collage for which there was at last a credit, though the pond didn't linger long looking at it, so wretched it was: “Pauline Hanson is a political gift to Labor with the government now enshrining One Nation at the heart of its re-election pitch,” writes Paul Kelly. Artwork by Frank Ling.
"Ned" spent a bigly five minutes moaning about Gina's pampered pet and her implications for the beefy boofhead ...
How does Anthony Albanese view the eruption of support for Pauline Hanson? Hanson’s surge is a threat to Labor, as its tacticians recognise. But she is something else – Hanson is a political gift to Labor with the government now enshrining One Nation at the heart of its re-election pitch. Outgoing former ALP federal president Wayne Swan’s speech told the party the mantle on the conservative side had now passed to One Nation. Hanson’s party was the new enemy. Swan said Labor’s history had been a series of battles – against Malcolm Fraser, John Howard, Tony Abbott and now “a new battle awaits” against Hanson. His contempt was undisguised: the conservatives had chosen to “confer legitimacy on a charlatan who walks into the Senate wearing a burka for shock value”. Warning that “the stakes are high”, Swan said Labor was now engaged in a new struggle, aware Hanson directly threatens some Labor seats. Indeed, Labor’s loss of primary votes has flowed heavily to Hanson.
The reptiles for some reason inserted a snap of the Cold Chisel man ...Outgoing ALP President Wayne Swan
Perhaps unable to discern the social relevance of Don Walker's lyrics, "Ned" kept on brooding, determined to play down the impact of Gina's pet ...
Like dude, get real, the way that "Ned" gets real, a real Fonz, or mebbe, in the Craven spirit, a real Kookie, eh daddy-o?
But let’s get real. Hanson is not a Fraser, a Howard or an Abbott. She doesn’t have the authority of being a PM with a proven record of electoral success over a sustained period. Making Hanson the prime threat has many consequences – it vests Labor with a new demonic opponent unacceptable to a majority of people; it highlights and perpetuated the fracturing of the centre-right; and it helps to solidify the unity of Labor as a fighting force seeking to hold its wavering voters inside the ALP tent. In Albanese’s keynote address to the national conference he offered a startling account of Labor’s strategy to win the 2028 election: “In every way that matters, the Liberals, Nationals and One Nation are already a coalition. It’s not just that they need each other to form government. They agree with each other about what they want to do in government.” Albanese said the differences between Labor and its political opponents were now greater than ever. It didn’t matter who led the Liberal Party; it didn’t matter that One Nation would be plagued by “personality clashes, policy confusion, conspiracy theories and candidate chaos” – the Liberals and One Nation were tied together. Albanese seizes the logic from the current opinion polls. With the centre-right vote fracturing, neither the Coalition nor One Nation has a sufficiently strong primary vote to form federal government in their own right. For Labor, this polling situation is a double bonus – not only can’t the Coalition win but it can be depicted as needing One Nation to govern. No imagination is needed to predict Labor’s 2028 election message: “A vote for the Liberals is a vote for One Nation – and a vote for One Nation is a vote for the Liberals.” The more that message resonates, the more forlorn is the Liberal prospect of winning votes in urban Australia.
Just to rub salt into "Ned's" bleeding wounds, the reptiles flung in another snap, Anthony Albanese during day three of the ALP national conference at the Adelaide Convention Centre. Picture: Matt Turner.
That only compounded "Ned's" grief at the unfairness of it all ...
The real role of One Nation is more obvious than ever – as Angus Taylor almost daily rebuts any suggestion the Liberals would govern with Hanson’s party, Albanese invokes this as an inescapable reality. The bottom line is apparent. Both Taylor and Albanese work from the same assumption: the more One Nation is inexorably tied to the Liberal Party, the more damage is done to the Liberal-National election winning prospects. There is a further devastating consequence. As Labor’s economic policies are increasingly seen to fail the country over the next 18 months, One Nation can deliver political immunity for Labor from full electoral accountability for its failures. The more the centre-right looks illegitimate, the more Albanese can purchase an exemption from a public backlash at the 2028 poll. The extent to which Labor has already redefined the next election was revealed by ALP national secretary and campaign director, Paul Erickson, in his interview last week with News24. Erickson said: “At the next election, the choice will be between a Labor government that’s delivering real change … or an alternative of a chaotic and divided Coalition-One Nation government. That’s the case that we have to build and set out over the next two years.” Albanese is busy on the job. He contrasted Labor’s commitment to practical action and social cohesion with a Hanson-driven agenda that rages against the system, blames people who can’t defend themselves, but represents a movement that can’t build anything, can’t change anything and doesn’t help anyone “find a job, pay their bills or put a roof over their heads”. This is now the embedded Labor mantra. What justification did Victorian deputy premier Ben Carroll offer when challenging Jacinta Allan for the premier’s post? It was no surprise he said: “The stakes at the upcoming election are simply too high. The prospect of a Liberal-One Nation government that will cut schools, health and frontline services is simply too high a risk to ignore.”
Well yes, after all, Gina's pet is just espousing the policies that have been at the heart of the lizard Oz these past few decades, and it's a bit rich for "Ned" to try to row this back ... and blame the Labor party for seizing the moment ... Labor national secretary Paul Erickson
In desperation, "Ned" reverted to a litany of despair about wayward lefties...
This pitch won’t work in a politically bankrupt Victoria where Labor has run and controlled the state for too long. Labor has governed for nearly 12 years, defined by its left wing, its trade union movement, its institutional corruption courtesy of the CFMEU, its massive state debt, fiscal profligacy, high taxes and economic mismanagement. No distractions or scare campaigns deserve to save Labor. But there is a wider lesson for the Labor Party from its crisis in Victoria. The longer this state government survived the more it was exposed as dishonest, incompetent, obsessed with state power and governing in the interests of the party, not the Victorian public. Herein is the trap for modern Labor. Across America, Britain and Australia the parties of social democracy are moving decisively to the left, often driven by activists who seem to replicate the tactics of Donald Trump. Consider the ALP national conference. While Albanese was proud of its unity, this conference was a trip into a grassroots Labor fantasy land where activists promoted their pro-Palestinian obsessions, public ownership in the energy sector, strategic distancing from the US, extending euthanasia provisions and backing even more powers for the union movement. At a time when Australia is facing unprecedented national challenges, the conference operated as a left-wing fringe pressure group, an insight into the Labor heartland.
And so on and on, and there's nothing like an ethnic cleansing to be way more interesting than "Ned", especially when it's a reminder that there are many areas of the world ghosted by reptile coverage, as they keep insisting the hive mind, and the pond, should stay focussed on Gina's pampered pet, and the beefy boofhead ... One Nation leader Pauline Hanson; Liberal leader Angus Taylor
Disclaimer: the pond didn't co-join Gina's pet, and the beefy boofhead, the reptiles did, and it was the reptiles that selected the snap that showed him looking like a startled ferret...
Why are they always so cruel? Easy to be hard, easy to be cold. How can reptiles have no feelings?
"Ned" granted himself one last sob into his teacup ...
Albanese Labor looks trapped between adverse global events and its stubborn doubling down on flawed ideological attachments. Labor now owns a low-growth economy, persistent inflation, weak productivity, falling real wages, high social spending, rising taxes and a deep faith in state power. Unless the situation is reversed, the evidence points to the failure of Labor’s economic model. The Liberals now see rays of hope coming from Victoria, where party leader Jess Wilson is gaining votes and stature, now leading One Nation 31 to 19 per cent, with the One Nation vote expected to fall further before the state election. This highlights, yet again, the conundrum for the pro-Hanson political, cultural and media warriors still calling for more co-operation, even a coalition or partnership of sorts, between the Liberals and the Hanson party. This is the perfect message for Albanese and Erickson. It plays seamlessly into Labor’s song book and declared strategy to win the next election. It is a truly beautiful and rare thing when your opponents validate your strategy. Its deeper beauty lies in giving Labor the electoral exemption it needs to dodge proper accountability for its flawed agenda at the next election.
Oh I know, I know ...
And that's almost a wrap.
The pond will be aware some might be outraged at the pond passing by yet another manifestation of the Lehrmann matter (always re-labelled by the reptiles as the Higgins affair), especially as it had the Rice boiling over yet again ...
The 55 times Labor told Fiona Brown: ‘We don’t know’ The Albanese government fought Fiona Brown every step of the way Labor’s treatment of Brittany Higgins and Fiona Brown could not have been more different. Higgins got $2.4m. Brown was forced into the fight of her life. By Stephen Rice
Sydney Bureau Chief
The pond has always avoided the Lehrmann matter, even when Dame Slap hasn't teamed up for another frying of the rice ... even when there's an easy chance to take a snip at SloMo, who started the government mayhem surrounding the mess (as if Liberal staffers were worth all the fuss).
Instead the pond thought it should offer up Dame Groan, a day old and reheated to a tepid level of squawking ...
The header: Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock warns further interest rate rises needed to tame inflation, Australia’s economy has shrunk per capita for eight of the past 11 quarters – yet the Labor conference celebrated its economic record as if the good times were rolling.
The caption, without any kind of credit for that masterly visual concoction. Come on down AI, let the planet die so you can perform miracles for the reptiles and keep mad King Donald in meme heaven: The economic conundrum that now faces economic policymakers such as Treasurer Jim Chalmers and RBA governor Michele Bullock is how to fix the problem of unacceptably high inflation
Dame Groan only spent three minutes explaining that we'd all be rooned, but there was some fine entertainment to be had in the rooning ...
As the triennial Labor Party national conference wound up last week, it occurred to me that there was probably more debate in the meetings of the Politburo in the heady Soviet Union days than during those carefully stage-managed sessions. Rose-coloured glasses were universally in use as the Labor Party congratulated itself on achieving better outcomes for everyone, as well as unravelling the evil effects of the unfortunate time when the Coalition was in government. Here’s the thing: it requires the verbal gymnastics of Jim Chalmers to cherrypick the data to show that the Australian economy is travelling well. Concentrating on absolute economic growth – enlarged by excessive immigration – only gets you so far. The real facts are that per capita GDP has declined in eight of the past 11 quarters, and real wages are more than 4 per cent lower than in the first quarter of 2021. Bear in mind that some other economies have been enjoying higher real wages – Korea and the UK, for example – and the average for the OECD is slightly positive. Living standards in Australia are clearly slipping, even if the Treasurer prefers to deny this.
Here the pond must interrupt to note that reference to the "real facts". Some might think this tautological, but in reality, it's important to distinguish "real facts" from "unreal facts" or even "alternative facts" of Kellyanne fame ... and perhaps only Humpty Dumpty has the time to explain "surreal facts".
The reptiles interrupted with an AV distraction, and all the pond could wonder was when the Sky Noise down under rebranding might come to pass ...On tonight’s episode of Paul Murray Live, Sky News host Paul Murray discusses the RBA’s warning of government spending, political polls, Iran war and more. Mr Murray said RBA Governor Michele Bullock “spoke truth to power” about government spending. “She’s not afraid of displeasing the government in order to keep her job.”
For a moment the pond thought Dame Groan might mention EVs - for some reason she thinks that we're less dependent on oil - but no such luck ... her reasoning must remain arcane and mysterious ...
The major economic conundrum that now faces economic policymakers, including Reserve Bank governor Michele Bullock, is how to fix the problem of unacceptably high inflation in the context of an increasingly sclerotic economy in which supply constrains the feasible rate of growth lest higher inflation emerges. In her speech to the Annika Foundation Fundraising Lunch, Bullock outlines the impact of supply shocks on the economy and the way in which inflation can be controlled. She makes the obvious point that in days gone past, external shocks often made a strong impact through the economy, particularly before we had a floating exchange rate. Our lower dependence on oil also means that we are less susceptible to oil price shocks than we once were – although we shouldn’t assume that we are immune. We are potentially about to enter a new round of higher oil prices, with countries’ reserve supplies partly depleted and the trick of lower excise rates unlikely to be repeated. The key message of Bullock’s speech came at the very end: “It’s important to remember that inflation and capacity pressures in the domestic economy were already too high prior to the recent shock … Against a backdrop of ongoing capacity pressures, the board remains focused on preventing elevated cost pressures from entrenching inflation. This does mean that some further easing in the growth of demand is likely to be required.”
At this moment the reptiles inserted a series of Bullock moments, a bit like inserting a Hitchens speech on atheism into a sermon from the groaning papal mount:
Those dire intrusions forced Dame Groan into dot point form.
How else to explain the complete and utter ruination of the country no later than Xmas?
Stand by for a kicker or four ...
And here’s the kicker: “The board is prepared to act as required to achieve its mandate, including increasing the cash rate further if needed.” The bottom line is this:
The Reserve Bank can’t do anything about the supply side of the economy but is very worried about the low/zero rate of productivity growth.
Demand continues to grow too quickly given the spending activities of the federal and state governments – OK, this is written in invisible ink but it’s a clear implication.
It’s not clear whether the three increases to the cash rate implemented this year have done enough to slow the economy and dampen the rate of inflation.
The board will not hesitate to further raise the cash rate, which will quickly flow into higher mortgage rates.
Four kickers, four bottom lines!
That must be something of a bottom line record, as Dame Groan wrapped up with a final word on the country's utter roonation ...
Whether Anthony Albanese and Chalmers take the hint and address sluggish productivity and restrict the growth of spending is uncertain, but it would be unwise to bet the house on it. The one area that should be carefully watched is the current wealth effect on the economy. Falling house prices and lower real estate activity can have quite widespread negative economic consequences as people become spooked by the uncertainty. The combined effect of higher interest rates and the budget tax changes may end up spreading well beyond the real estate market. The end result could be the dreaded stagflation – rising unemployment with unacceptably high inflation.
Yep, it's a disaster, and even worse for the pond, there's no escaping the Victorian saga by way of a relieving 'toon ...
Hang on, hang on, the pond knows where the infallible Pope is going with that one ...you just have to look at the small print down in the bottom right corner.
Fond, fond memories, back in the days when the ABC was what saved Tamworth folk from running down Peel street in a foaming frenzy of madness ...
And this one's an "in memoriam" for anyone as old as the pond and who can remember the good times when the Goodies offered a cross between Python and Benny Hill ...
The pond could even understand why the reptiles wanted to pretend comrade Dan was still in charge, and could play a disinterested bystander at a train wreck, as Fergo went feral ...
ANALYSIS Worst I’ve seen: Allan devoid of ethics and talent John Cain stands guard over Jacinta Allan’s odd take on accountability A hypocrite who takes the moral high ground, the Victorian Premier is the worst Labor leader I’ve covered in 41 years of journalism. By John Ferguson
John Cain? That pretty much defines the reptile demographic. Stop a vulgar youff on the street in Melbourne and marvel at the blank stare that name produces.
But ancient Cain phobia is mild compared to the way that comrade Dan still lives rent free in the hive mind ...
Ghost of Teflon Dan haunts Jacinta Allan Jacinta Allan chose to ‘stand with Dan’. It may cost the Premier her job A lack of political courage and a blind loyalty to Daniel Andrews leaves Jacinta Allan on the brink as Labor rips itself apart just 124 days from the election. By Damon Johnston
Uh huh ... just as it's always been, what with the pond's father convinced for years that Victoria had been the ruination of the country, what with their fancy airs, their aerial ping pong, and Ming the Merciless ...
The pond knew Dame Groan would have words to say - but the pond put her aside for the moment to wonder if the reptiles were aware what was happening in Europe.
You had to hunt like a seagull at an outdoor restaurant to discover a small peck of grain way down the page ...
FIRES RAGE Hundreds of thousands flee as wildfires threaten cities Bordeaux authorities are planning to evacuate the entire city as fires spread and the region faces soaring temperatures. By David Chazan, Shanti Das and LaraBowman
This time it was a pick-up from The Times and this time it dared to mention "climate" twice ...
“Our whole town was evacuated. About 20,000 people left after we got alerts warning us to go late on Friday,” said Mr Lafitte, 52. “My son is with my parents in Pau. He’s lucky not to be here.” He said the authorities had been ill-prepared for the wildfires. “With climate change, this is happening every year now. Our firefighting planes are made in Canada but France should be making its own.”
And again ...
...More than 150,000 hectares have burned across Spain this year alone, six times the area destroyed during the same period last year, requiring “a major public pact on the climate emergency” that would align central government and regional administrations, he said. King Felipe VI said the wildfires had caused “incalculable” damage to the nation’s natural heritage during a visit to one of the reception centres for evacuees from the affected zone, where he spoke with people spending their second or third night sleeping in sports centres. “Some have had a very bad time, some have been away from their homes for four days now, some have lost many possessions. Collectively, we have lost an incalculable amount of natural heritage,” the King told reporters.
Uh huh... as if the reptiles down under cared ...
And with that the pond turned to the far right of the digital edition for a little relaxation and pleasure.
First up came the bromancer ... always a treat, and here producing a splendid blend of both siderism and McCarthyist-1950s-red scare scribbling ...
The header: If you think the populist right is bad, wait until you meet the populist left; Many analysts see the rise of left-wing populism answering right-wing populism, but this left-wing populism is much worse.
The caption for an image designed to terrify the hive mind: Zohran Mamdani arrives at the NBC studios to participate in a Democratic mayoral primary debate.
Please admire the way that the bromancer ignores mad King Donald to invoke that terrifying commie threat, coming straight at you from the 1950s ...
Donald Trump has taken to calling some of his US political opponents communists. This has led to a slew of tut-tutting articles from the bien pensants, accusing Trump of fomenting a red scare and once more paltering with the truth, if not outright lying. There’s one problem. Some of the people Trump’s talking about are communists. Surely the most under-reported story in Western politics today is the rise of the Democratic Socialists of America and their incredible success in Democratic primaries, getting extremist candidates up at the expense of mainstream Democrats. The whole world, it seems, is distressed by right-wing populism – Nigel Farage in the UK, Pauline Hanson in Australia and many analogous figures across Western Europe. But Farage and Hanson are Eleanor Roosevelt reincarnated compared with the DSA. This column readily agrees Trump lies. But here’s the thing: a statement can be true even if Trump says it’s true. The DSA itself is not purely communist but it is extremely left. However, structurally it’s a coalition and several members of its ruling soviet, I mean committee, are self-declared communists, members in good standing of communist organisations. The communist label is not a Trump slander, it’s self-description. Hasan Piker, an influencer and social media star central figure in the far left’s surge among Democrats, recently declared that communist dictator Mao Zedong, who was responsible for the death by state famine and slaughter of tens of millions of innocent Chinese, “one of the great leaders of this world”. It’s a tragedy of the political illiteracy of our age that communism’s staggering crimes against humanity are now little known. They hardly figure in school or university education.
In this context, Gina's pet seems like a blessing sent to relieve the huddled masses, Pauline Hanson meets up with Nigel Farage in the UK. Picture: Facebook/ Pauline Hanson
After that opening flourish, some might think that the bromancer had hit his stride, but he was just getting started on his rant.
He donned his special McCarthy garb and went full tilt ...
Yet communism is an ideology fully as evil and murderous as Nazism. Nazism was purely evil, communism was its moral equal, though at times less explicit about its grotesque intent. Communism killed more people than Nazism. The Khmer Rouge, authors of the Cambodian genocide, were mainstream communists. The DSA is associated with left-wing senator Bernie Sanders and also radical New York mayor Zohran Mamdani. Candidates the DSA has backed have won primary after primary in the Democratic Party. The DSA is conscious that while it’s having great success, especially via social media, it’s also generating opposition. So it recently published a manifesto to show how warm and cuddly it is. But this is the most radical document to have mainstream political influence in America in decades. It calls for an end to capitalism. It wants the abolition of the presidency and the Supreme Court, with a new executive to be chosen by an elected congress. It wants a 32-hour work week with full pay and benefits, universal free housing, nationalisation and permanent state control of all the biggest corporations, an end to all student debt as part of an end to all debt, and an end to US sanctions on Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. It wants ultimately to abolish the police and defund the military. And of course it has the usual stuff about climate change, demonising Israel and demonising America itself. In New York recently, three congressional candidates backed by Mamdani and the DSA defeated more mainstream Democrats, including two sitting members of congress. The DSA has not had universal success but a slew of candidates backed by it have won important Democrat primaries.
Who knew that the Bernie bros would get the bromancer so wild-eyed and delirious, but here we are, Bernie Sanders speaks during a campaign rally for Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.
Even though he's disappeared from the scene, Platner still lives in the bromancer's mind ...
Yet in any normal age, association with a platform as clinically insane and monstrously wicked as DSA’s would be the kiss of political death. Many analysts see the rise of left-wing populism answering right-wing populism, but in my view this left-wing populism is much worse than much of the right-wing populism it seeks to combat. Nonetheless, there is certainly an element of the dynamic of two extremes feeding off each other at work. The far-left populists clearly want to ape many of Trump’s tactics: a concentration on social media, the absolute demonising of their opponents, a reliance on conspiracy theories, talking directly to voters – in this case often the young, which mainstream media has difficulty reaching – promising impossible benefits etc. They don’t want to convert the middle. They want to anger and energise a base. A fascinating case was Graham Platner, who until recently was the Democratic candidate for the Senate in Maine. Platner was discovered and recruited by a political agency. He was a former marine and oyster farmer who wore a beard and spoke with an attractive roughness. And espoused far-left positions. The Democrats, aware of how they’ve lost the working class, have recruited a number of working-class hero candidates. Yet Platner’s working-class identity was essentially performative. He won most of his support within the Democratic Party not from working-class voters but from the college-educated elites who liked his left-wing policies and wanted to demonstrate how cool and hip they were by voting for someone who was a bit rough.
The reptiles were also determined to keep Platner alive in the hive mind.
Conjure up a triptych: Platner, arts, university, and say no more! Graham Platner speaks at the Collins Center for the Arts on the University of Maine.
And stand by for a familiar litany, and you guessed it, as Europe burns, the bromancer disses climate change yet again ...
But in this attempt to create a Democrat version of Trump, the Democrats went too far. Platner had a Nazi tattoo on his chest. He was the subject of countless serious allegations from his past. Finally a rape charge from a former girlfriend led to Platner withdrawing his candidacy. Sadly, today both sides of US politics are terrifically hypocritical. Democrats who would have excoriated any Republican with this many skeletons in his past supported Platner all along until it became literally impossible. Of course, the fact that Democrat politicians embrace the DSA rhetoric and enjoy its support doesn’t mean they will try to implement its grotesque platform. But they will trend in that direction. The DSA told Mamdani not to increase the size of the New York police force and he complied. Democrats will likely score gains in the November congressional elections because of inflation and because the Iran war is so unpopular. DSA types will falsely claim this vote as ideological vindication. The DSA is already exerting a big and destructive influence on the Democrat mainstream. It is concerned with Gaza, climate change, identity politics, LGBTQI, inclusion. Sounds something like the ALP national conference.
You see? Why would a reptile be concerned with climate change or any of that other stuff, it being incredibly destructive.
How dare anyone take away the pleasure of persecuting minorities? That's what the bromancer's god put them on this earth for, endless persecution ... and by golly, the bromancer is Her messenger.
And after that bromancer rant, the hive mind could completely forget all about what's really going down in those disunited states ...
Ah, the bromancer, ironically retro, and in constant fear of the filthy commie menace.
And so to the bonus, and the pond did think for a nanosecond about the indefatigable Geoff chambering yet another of his rounds ...
Lessons for Taylor: get back to basics, beat One Nation One Nation could walk away from the Victorian election on November 28 without winning a rump of lower house seats, or potentially any. By Geoff Chambers Political editor
It was a potent rallying cry for Jess and the beefy boofhead ...
... but the pond had to make room for Killer, and Dame Groan was still waiting in the wings, always ready for a good groaning...
The header: Sorry to say, for the young, super won’t be a golden ticket; It’s fashionable to beat up on Boomers, but actually it was their parents and grandparents who enjoyed the most salubrious investment conditions.
The caption for the truly hideous and thankfully uncredited graphic atop the Killer piece: ‘It turns out every generation since the Boomers has experienced progressively lower-risk adjusted investment returns,’ writers Adam Creighton
The pond can't rate this outing as a top class killer Killer outing, but it only runs three minutes, and remarkably Covid returns to haunt him yet again.
If only generations Y and Z were as exercised about compulsory superannuation as they are about housing affordability. Losing 12 per cent of their wages and salaries every week to untouchable accounts obviously makes buying a home or renting ever harder. But it turns out it’s worse than that: the consumption and investment they’re giving up when they are raising families and fit enough to enjoy their incomes won’t necessarily deliver the vaunted honey pot of retirement savings they’ve been led to believe will come, which their parents and grandparents enjoyed. It turns out every generation since the Boomers has experienced progressively lower risk-adjusted investment returns. That’s according to a recently released landmark analysis of 150 years of Australian asset returns by four Bond University finance academics. “Consistent with current discussion around generational inequity, we document higher returns for prior generations of investors, notably for Baby Boomers in relation to equity and bonds and the Silent Generation for property,” the authors found in their paper, Long-Term Comparative Performance of Australian Asset Classes, published in April in the Pacific-Basin Finance Journal. Baby Boomers, whose investment period was defined as 1975 to 2019, earned about 2.6 percentage points a year more on property than Generation X (investing from 1992 to 2020) and about 4.6 percentage points a year more than Generation Y (from 2007 to 2020).
At this point the reptiles had to explain a term which was completely mystifying to the reptile demographic, A teenager holds a banner with the words OK Boomer, a popular phrase among Generation Z to dismiss or mock Baby Boomer generation.
Um, so why didn't it say OK Baby Boomer?
Never mind, the pond understands vulgar youffs are completely clueless, not attuned to the fine nuances of meaningless attempts to define events by birthdays ...
Killer wouldn't have a word said against Boomers, what with them being the entire lizard Oz demographic ...
The ranking was the same in the sharemarket, where Boomers enjoyed nominal returns of 14.7 per cent while generations X and Y earned four and seven percentage points lower on average, respectively. Inflation narrowed the differences only a little. “Existing public policy tacitly assumes that the ability of an individual to prepare for retirement is not impacted by their generational circumstances, and therefore the asset class returns … are similar over time,” the paper’s authors write. But clearly the returns aren’t, and these are vast differences across a 40-year working life. It’s fashionable to beat up on Boomers, but actually it was their parents and grandparents who enjoyed the most salubrious investment conditions. Across the whole period equities averaged 8.4 per cent a year after inflation and property 6.2 per cent. The so-called Missionary Generation (investing 1891 to 1935) lapped up 9.6 per cent a year on average in the stockmarket, while the Greatest Generation enjoyed 7.7 per cent a year after inflation in property across the 40 years to 1976. “Almost every generation earned lower risk-adjusted returns than the generation before them,” the authors conclude. The double-digit average past returns big Australian super funds like to advertise to their “members” – as if joining were optional – are before inflation, remember, which is steadily rising, as are interest rates, which also tend to reduce property and sharemarket values. Moreover, the world has just lived through one of the greatest bull markets in history, thanks to falling interest rates, huge strides in technology stocks and relatively low inflation. In Australia the steady ratcheting up of the compulsory superannuation rate across the past 30 years to 12 per cent itself has probably boosted property and especially sharemarket values, which younger generations are now forced to buy every pay packet. The only sectors generations X and Y could have done best in were government and corporate bonds, which averaged about 5 per cent a year after inflation from 1992 to 2020 (the last year of data in the paper), much higher than any period since 1870.
At that point came a snap of a man who would play a minor role in the final gobbet, Historian John Hirst
Just like an acid flashback, Covid returned to haunt Killer. Not a mask, anything but a mask, and as for vaccines...
The Covid experiment would have up-ended that short-lived first prize, given governments have showered trillions of units of currency on their populations since then that will continue to push up asset and consumer prices for years. What else could explain the secular decline in returns, a result probably shared throughout developed nations broadly? Certainly the genuine private sector here and around the developed world has been shrinking as the formal and de facto government sectors continue their inexorable growth. Australia is one of the worst offenders in this regard and has produced some of the worst economic statistics in the OECD across the past few years. Perhaps the only good decision the federal government has made in more than four years is to align (as of June) payment of mandatory “employer” super contributions with payment of wages and salaries. The insidious genius of Labor’s system has been that employees have never paid attention to their own savings or typically misunderstand that their gross pay would be more than 12 per cent higher were the whole system abolished. Even the government knows people are being forced to save too much. The Treasury’s 2020 Retirement Income Review projected that by 2059 $1 in every $3 paid out of the super system would be inherited compared with $1 in $5 then. The best thing the Abbott government ever did was delay the increase in the superannuation guarantee. The next government should make at least part of it optional, amid uncertainty about future returns and the obvious need for income when workers need it most. Something one of our greatest historians, John Hirst, said has always stuck in my mind. In a crisis he expected superannuation money, by now trillions of dollars tied in a legally distinct bow, to be nationalised or at least forced into government bonds. Imagine how bad the returns would be then! Adam Creighton is chief economist at the Institute for Public Affairs.
So we'll all be rooned yet again, or at least vulgar youff will be, as if the pond cared.
The pond can't help thinking Killer might have been better off going full Hirst, and for those wondering about Hirst, he has a wiki here, and there's more than a whiff of some of his quaint notions at The Conversation.
Now be warned vulgar youff, back into your bunkers, no travel for you ...
And so Killer had paved the way for Dame Groan, and the rooning filled the air with despair ...
The utterly despairing header: No Labor leader can fix Victoria’s catalogue of failures; Replacing Jacinta Allan with another Labor stooge won’t make any difference.
The caption for the opening snap proving that Comrade Dan still lived rent free in the hive mind: Anthony Albanese and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan tour the Burwood Suburban Rail Loop. Picture: Jay Kogler / Newswire
It was way back in September 2023 that comrade Dan abdicated, but how the reptiles still fear and loathe him.
The reptiles rated this Dame Groan rant as a five minute read, but the pond reckons it's really a classic 'we'll all be rooned' outing, which even found time for Dame Groan to mourn the loss of the Commonwealth Games.
Who knew the old Groaner was the sporty type, keen to see squillions spent on a bunch of minor former British colonies, arranged so that Oz athletes could rule them all, at least until an Olympics or world games produced some real competition...
As leadership speculation consumes Spring Street, it appears the Victorian Labor government is on borrowed time. Replacing Jacinta Allan with another Labor stooge won’t make any difference. No matter the result, it’s a long road to recovery for Victoria. It’s worth remembering that, had everything gone to plan, regional Victoria currently would be hosting the series of events that make up the Commonwealth Games. But the only thing the state has to show for the reckless proposal of the Labor government to stage the Games is a bill close to $600m, with $200m simply handed over to the grateful Glaswegians. The initial cost of staging the Commonwealth Games in Victoria was put at $2.6bn. This figure has been criticised by the Victorian Auditor-General as understating the total costs and the risks. At the same time, the benefits were massively overstated by the key department. According to the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office, the relevant public servants “did not advise government to delay a decision on hosting until a fit for purpose business case could be provided”. But bear in mind the event was to be perfectly timed to meet the political objectives of the Labor government. Months out from the 2026 election and located in wavering regional electorates, the Commonwealth Games would have provided the perfect springboard for the government’s re-election campaign.
It was a conspiracy! And yet here we are, as the smirking comrade Dan haunts the reptiles, Commonwealth Games Australia boss Craig Phillips has warned Dan Andrews’ ‘rubbery’ cost figures have spooked state governments from hosting future Games.
And so to more pleading for the fun of bunging on a Commonwealth do ...
When Dan Andrews finally decided to pull the pin, he staged a further stunt by declaring the cost of the Games had blown out to $6.9bn. Let’s be clear here, this figure was simply invented or, in the more polite words of the Auditor-General, “overstated and not transparent”. It included sums of money that were already recorded as contingencies as well as items that had nothing to do with the event. The obvious purpose was to convince Victorians that such a ludicrously large sum of money meant it would be irresponsible for the Games to proceed.
And with that springboard, Dame Groan leapt into the air like an artistic gymnast intent on demolishing Victoria, carrying off the Nagornyy triple pike in style ...
The saga of the Commonwealth Games is illustrative of the appalling quality of governance in Australia’s second largest state by population. A politicised bureaucracy, inadequate attention paid to policy and project development, and the wanton handing out of favours to politically favoured groups – these are the core features of the way Victoria is governed. Add in the high and rising tax burden placed on Victorians and it’s not a surprise that the Victorian economy is lagging the rest of the country. According to the most recent labour force figures, unemployment in Victoria is 5.1 per cent compared with 4.4 per cent nationally. The rate of underemployment – people wanting more hours of work – is 7.3 per cent in Victoria and 6.5 per cent Australia-wide. In 2024-25, output in Victoria per capita fell by 0.8 per cent compared with a fall of 0.3 per cent in Australia. Across the past decade, per capita output in Victoria has fallen from 93 per cent of the national average to 88 per cent. It’s not even clear that Victorians are still richer than Tasmanians. The ongoing revelations of gross mismanagement and cost blowouts of Victoria’s Big Build infrastructure projects are simply excused by the Allan government as the result of inflation. No one is buying this as the examples of favouritism and pay-offs to preferred unions, as well as extortion on the part of organised criminal gangs, pile up. The fact Allan refuses to call a royal commission is really all you need to know. The power to compel witnesses to testify and to extract vital documents is essential. It is only through a royal commission that the full facts will ever be known.
How badly are the reptiles haunted by comrade Dan? Beyond badly, Street artist Jarrod Grech unveils his artwork near Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne, spray-painting the word Dictator across the face of former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: NewsWire / David Geraghty
Sheesh, did the pond mention that Melburnians are rooned? If only there was a way to stop comrade Dan continuing as premier of Victoria ...
There is scant evidence that the current Labor government has learnt any lessons from the mistakes made during its terms in government. Pressing on with the vastly expensive Suburban Rail Loop is an act of sheer madness, but the Allan government is intent on locking in future elected governments to the project. At the same time, it will keep the unionised workforce in highly paid jobs for years to come. For example, a lucrative maintenance contract involving unionised workers has already been signed a decade into the future. This is the sort of depth to which this government is prepared to stoop. Contracts worth billions of dollars also have been signed involving a Chinese-owned construction company. This is notwithstanding the fact the Suburban Rail Loop has not met any transparent business case or been recommended by any infrastructure authority. The first stage linking Box Hill and Cheltenham, a route that is rarely travelled, makes little sense. At one stage, an attempt was made to market the SRL as a housing project, with Melbourne becoming a city with centres. There was even a naive view that some of the vast costs could be recouped by capturing some of the enhanced value of these centres for property developers. It’s now back to being a transport project. One astonishing aspect of the SRL is the financial support given by the federal government. It is part of a broader under-the-table bailout of the state, although the Allan government has promptly spent more than the value of the additional money received from the federal government. Victoria is now a net recipient under the GST distribution given its parlous situation.
What a relief. An open mouthed villain who isn't comrade Dan, Jaclyn Symes at the Victorian State Labor Conference at Olympic Park in Melbourne. Picture: David Crosling
And so to the final gobbet, and Dame Groan reverting to a couple of her favourite fear and loathing topics.
Regular correspondents will know immediately what they are...
State government debt is rapidly approaching $200bn, with the rate of deterioration in the fiscal position of the state setting an unwelcome record. The Department of Treasury and Finance provides unconvincing cover for the fiscal profligacy of the government by assuming low rates of expenses growth in the outyears of the forward estimates and optimistic forecasts of state output. In this way, the inexperienced Treasurer, Jaclyn Symes, claims that the ratio of government debt to gross state product will level out and then fall. The notion that the state can grow its way out of debt is unpersuasive. The ratings agencies are watching carefully. In any event, net interest payments will account for at least 10 per cent of government outlays by the end of the decade. It’s also worth mentioning the damaging energy policy implemented during Labor’s terms in government. Based on a great deal of wishful thinking and the determination to decarbonise the state, the result has been a patchwork of subsidised renewable energy installations coupled with the hidden costs of taxpayer support for the continuation of coal-fired plants. Gas was demonised until it wasn’t. Offshore wind farms were praised but have failed to progress. Energy-intensive manufacturing plants have shut, with barista and Uber jobs replacing those jobs lost. Opposition to intrusive transmission lines and renewable energy projects has grown but has been largely ignored. Draconian laws have overridden the rights of private landowners. Victoria, in effect, has become a laughing-stock, a crime-ridden place with falling living standards. Its main distinguishing feature is high population growth based on excessive immigration. It is overtaxed, overregulated and extremely poorly governed. No new Labor premier is capable of fixing this sorry mess.
Damn you climate change, and damn you filthy vile furriners for ruining everything.
The total number of police proceedings recorded in 2024–25 were:
197,902 in New South Wales
146,690 in Queensland
114,432 in Victoria
Go cockroaches! Watch out for the deep north toads! (And for those keen to do a per capita calculation, NSW's population at the end of 2025 was 8,641,1000, while Queensland had 5,712,100 and Victoria 7,121,900)
What Victorians need this summer is a healthy, enjoyable European experience, say Rutherglen transformed into Bordeaux ...
And so the way is paved for the fundamentalist far right TG bashing Xian nationalist Liberal party to seize the moment and return the state to the glorious days of Jeff ...
