In which "Ned" and the Ughmann show how to bore the socks off the weekend ...

Anyone doubting that the Murdochians are more than One Nation curious, and are in fact swinging behind the party that supports the reptile agenda, should take a refresher course with the venerable Meade's outing yesterday ... As One Nation seeks donations to ‘fire the liar’, News Corp gives it front-page billing.

...Full-page coverage of the fundraising continued throughout the week, with headlines including: “Orange flood of cash as Pauline’s People rise up.”
The prime minister had the same reaction to the tabloid’s front page as we did, saying on Thursday that One Nation “had an ad for their fundraising campaign, effectively, free ad in one of the mainstream publications”.

That might have been in the Daily Terror, with the terrorists notorious for their wayward far right ways, but take a squiz at the celebratory tone in the lizard Oz, top of the world ma, splash this weekend ...

That header is meaningless nonsense. 

We're still in Canberra, and the entire point is that it's politics as usual, what with Hanson having been at the politics game since she first became an MP for Oxley way back in 1996.

What it does do is show how determined the reptiles are to celebrate the way that the Hansonists are on a triumphal march ... because what other party embraces the reptile agenda in such a comprehensive, devoted way?

Of course it's also an alarmist, hysterical troll, with nattering "Ned" sent in to numb the senses with an interminable ten minute bout of blather ...

The header: A nation divided as Hanson splits the right, harries the left; Anthony Albanese and Angus Taylor are scrambling to halt One Nation’s rise. It’s the relics versus the unconventional.

And sorry, the reptiles didn't provide a caption or a credit for that evocative piece of artwork, which featured Pauline clutching what might have been a pizza while "Ned" hit the highway to lightning central, so AI should probably take the blame.

It means about as much as "Ned's" seemingly endless tosh.

"Ned" spends his time posing as a non-Hansonite, but at the same time he spends a bigly amount of time dressing up the perils that Pauline poses...

Even that phrasing, that talk of "relics", is remarkable for a full-blown, card-carrying relic who seems to think he might have some understanding of the "unconventional"...
‘It’s the economy, stupid, it’s always the economy,” Anthony Albanese declared this week when One Nation sailed past Labor in the polls. But who is stupid? The voters defecting to One Nation or the Albanese government whose unconvincing economic policies have facilitated the flight?
The Albanese government and Australia have entered a new zone where a once marginal and renegade party under Pauline Hanson now heads both Labor and the Coalition as the most popular party.
Explaining the rot, Albanese said: “Many people feel the system isn’t working for them. They’re working hard, struggling to save, can’t get their own roof over their head.” Reverting to a diagnosis he has used since the 2022 election, Albanese said people felt “they’re working for the economy, not the economy working for them”.
This leads to his main pitch, virtually the essence of his leadership: that his job as Prime Minister is to improve the lot of people, to make life better. It’s mundane, nothing heroic, nothing inspiring, just getting the job done. But are his policies working?
Same message, same agenda
This is a conventional pitch. But it comes in an unconventional time. In his fifth year as Prime Minister, Albanese, while championing his reform budget, essentially has the same message selling the same agenda. Sitting on a massive 94 parliamentary seats, Albanese isn’t panicking about Hanson, who has two seats, but presents himself as the only centrist leader still left, calling Labor “the only mainstream party” in Australia. “I’m convinced that we will continue to be successful,” he told the ABC. The message: stick with Mr Reliable and Mr Conventional.

At this point, "Ned" decided to prove his relic status, by turning to a narcissist of the first water ... celebrated by John Crace a little time ago ...

...Politics is about power. And since I left No 10, the UK has become a second-class global power. So we need to stick close to the US. We need to be partners, not in opposition. Donald Trump is a great guy when you get to know him. Probably the best president since George W Bush. Someone who will be fully worthy of his Nobel peace prize. Just as I treasure the replica one I awarded myself. No one has done more to stop the wars he started.

Have I mentioned that I am the only Labour prime minister to have won a full second term? Not that I am in any way needy.

I am deeply honoured to be a member of Trump’s Board of Peace along with many others from the world’s most eminent list. Keir made a huge mistake by not joining the US in bombing Iran, because it can never be wrong not to go to war along with the US. Can it? There were weapons of mass destruction. I’m sure of it. There has to have been, we just haven’t found them yet.

And so on, and it's always fun to discover someone else who harbours even greater contempt for Tony Bleagh than the pond does... but not "Ned", not on your nelly ...

Listen, however, to Tony Blair in his recent manifesto to the beleaguered Keir Starmer government in Britain, delivering a big message: the conventional doesn’t work any more: “The people don’t want politics as usual. The real reason behind the rise of the leaders from Donald Trump to Giorgia Meloni to Javier Milei is that they answered this call. You can like them or dislike them, but their chief characteristic is they appear to be unbound, not constrained by conventional thinking.”
People in Western democracies these days think “anything is better than the agonising irritation of incremental change that never seems to deliver real change”.
Blair said the unconventional leaders “appear to have the ballast many conventional politicians lack – they have an attitude, a tribe and a project. They’re prepared to raise the middle finger to the part of the media which opposes them. And for protection they build a tribe – a core of support which will follow them, sometimes almost blindly.”

At this point the reptiles flung in a snap of the relic Bleagh...Former British prime minister Tony Blair. Picture: Getty Images

The pond much prefers this version ...

Now that captures the sinister malevolence... and now back to relic "Ned", managing to mangle Bleagh and Starmer, as if somehow all that fits down under ...

Unconventional versus relics
It’s easy to translate this diagnosis to Australia. Albanese and Angus Taylor are conventional leaders while Hanson is unconventional. This is the vital difference. The unconventional leader assails the status quo as discredited and attacks the conventional leaders tied to a conventional system. Albanese and Taylor are depicted as relics to be cast aside.
Blair says the unconventional leader must have a project – this vests them with “strength and purpose”. Hanson’s project is not defined. But its essence, grasped by many people, lies in the pledge: I’ll give you back the country you love that is being stolen from you.
That’s powerful. It resonates and it’s inclusive because most people will focus on something they think their country and their life is losing. What is Albanese’s project? He calls it improving the lives of Australians – it’s what prime ministers mostly say. But it doesn’t resonate much these days.
What is Taylor’s project? It has many dimensions: making life affordable, cheap and abundant energy, restoring aspiration, lower taxes, rejecting net zero and an immigration intake that puts Australians first. Yet these messages haven’t cut through; the Taylor project still awaits ultimate definition.
Blair says Starmer’s mistake before his victory was refusing to clarify Labour’s identity: was it New Labour, Old Labour, Blue Labour? The upshot is his government drifted and defaulted into the “party’s comfort zone”. It looks old-fashioned and leftist, unable to renew Britain. Blair warns that in these unconventional times the party that wins the next British election will run on a radical agenda.

Bleagh is the answer to it all? 

Then we're doomed, as the reptiles resorted to a reminder that the graphics department wasn't entirely dead, and that Emilia could stick it to AI ... As the One Nation wave gathers force, Anthony Albanese, left, and Jim Chalmers risk being seen as political relics. Artwork: Emilia Tortorella

Classic, Emilia, you could take that to the bank.

Now note how "Ned" manages to gloss over Pauline's flaws, and those of womanising drunk Barners, Tamworth's eternal shame, and the absence of useful policies, to portray the Hansonists as big winners, and even biglier dangers...

Boldness is the order of the day in Western politics – the culture of the unconventional translates into radical policy prescriptions. The people who criticise Taylor for moving right are clueless, totally uncomprehending what is happening to our politics.
Hanson’s rise constitutes a historic challenge to contemporary Labor’s successful electoral model – its three-way synthesis of tertiary educated, progressive-oriented, high-income earners; female and young voters; and traditional lower-income ALP voters with a class consciousness.
As Labor’s primary vote sinks to 30 per cent the critical question becomes: can Albanese hold this voting alliance together for the 2028 election? He probably can, but it is eroding and Hanson will erode it further. So expect more class consciousness messages from Albanese and Jim Chalmers.
Give Albanese his due. He decided six months before the budget that status quo politics in Australia wasn’t working. He saw that events were moving fast, that his government had to embrace new policies to keep setting the agenda for 2028. Hence the budget’s initiatives restricting future negative gearing to new builds, imposing an inflation indexation system for capital gains tax along with a 30 per cent minimum rate on assets and trusts, jus­tified by economic theory and equity.
The big danger for PM
Albanese presents himself as a reformer for the times, taking the tough decisions and recruiting intergenerational equity as his sell. “Hard decisions cannot be put on hold for easier times,” he says. “The challenges confronting Australia are too urgent to hang back.”
But the danger is obvious: that Albanese called the politics right but has got the economics wrong. Can his government deliver the economic gains for people to keep the One Nation wolf from the door?
It isn’t going well. The tax changes – a point of Labor conviction – are attacked as anti-aspirational, anti-investment and anti-entrepreneurial, enabling critics to brand Labor not as a government of renewal but as a redistributional, high tax, high spending, deficit obsessed, workplace regulation, weak productivity government presiding over weak economic growth.
At this point Albanese’s economic and social vision comes together. He wants to fight One Nation on “the economy, stupid” but the risk is that Labor’s grand economic vision is misconceived, that it looks a study in old-fashioned Labor convention, an ideology from the past, not a Hawke-Keating growth agenda but a return to big government and state intervention.
Polls show Hanson is the big winner from an unpopular budget. She will exploit every economic grievance for the next two years. And if the economy enters a further economic growth and living standards slump this will only prolong Hanson’s momentum.
How much of Blair’s critique of Starmer applies to Australia? He says Starmer won office not by election acclaim but as the “default option” to a discredited conservative government. He says British Labour came to office without any proper plan to address how the world was being transformed. He says Starmer is governing “from an essentially traditional Labour ‘soft left’ position” that gravely mis­judges the times.

Still harping on Bleagh, still implying that Pauline is Nige down under? No wonder the reptiles felt the need for an audio break ...

Does relic "Ned" have the first clue how his framing, how his ponderous, pompous discourse elevates Pauline?

Probably not. In the manner of Tony Bleagh, these relics aren't inclined to self-examination ...

Albanese and Chalmers may yet be vindicated with their budget and economic policies – and Albanese is a far superior political leader to Starmer – yet the economic omens aren’t looking too good at present.
While One Nation’s rise reflects mainly on the failures of the Coalition, Albanese cannot escape any responsibility. The Hanson eruption occurred on his watch, under his government and his government’s economic policies. The risk Labor faces with its current rhetoric – there’s plenty of good economic news from low unemployment, stronger living standards than in most OECD nations, the success of renewables driving 43 per cent of our electricity and tax reform to address the housing crisis – is that such assurances are not heard or only anger potential One Nation voters.
Have no doubt, the culture is changing. Policy debates seem less important. Our society is split into competing bubbles, separate tribes though sometimes overlapping, each morally convinced about its version of truth, possessing its own view of the world – the Hanson tribe, the progressive tribe, the conservative tribe, the climate change tribe, the disenfranchised tribe, then feeding into chaotic voting patterns. The broad-based, widely shared Australian culture is eroding – and that’s the opening for a substantial campaign from the right.
Fed up voters
The torment of our age is obvious: people want change, they’re fed up, they want relief and improvement, but there’s no consensus, no agreement, no shared understanding of what sort of change. The gulf between voters in the up-market urban teal seats and voters in regional Australia has never been greater. Growing tribalism means a fractured community but a community that cannot resolve its way forward. This is Australia’s dilemma.
Albanese’s approach to One Nation is to avoid personal criticism of Hanson, avoid criticism of One Nation voters but hammer the idea that Hanson’s policies don’t help the battlers, that she is tied to Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, and that his opposition now comprises “three right-wing parties” increasingly bound together and fatally compromised by Hanson.
But Albanese and Taylor are jointly handicapped by the personalisation of our politics. The more politics is shaped by culture, the deeper are the divisions and the more difficult to find common ground. The rise of social media reinforces the cultural fracture.
People these days are expected to speak their minds. The old days of personal restraint and self-discipline as a virtue are fading. Politics is being driven more by emotion and sentiment, it’s about how you feel, what you like and what you don’t like, what makes you angry and how the political class has let you down. Venting your views often makes the individual feel good, gives them standing and is often seen as justified morality.

Say what? Isn't that exactly what Faux Noise has done, and the News Corp tabloids down under do, and so do the reptiles at the lizard Oz?

Isn't the entire point of the reptiles to make readers angry and generate a venting rage machine?

Now pause for another pumping up of the Pauline volume ...Having turned up the heat on the Coalition, Pauline Hanson is now taking the blowtorch to the Albanese government. Picture: Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman.

Must they keep reminding the pond of her uncanny resemblance to Martin Luther?

Uncanny. 

Thank you Ughmann, the pond will treasure that comparison for all eternity ...

And now, exhausted by "Ned", a final humungous gobbet ...

The Hanson voters are invariably presented in terms of what they oppose. But what does Hanson really represent? That seems mired in confusion. Does One Nation actually aspire to form a government under Hanson, a remote possibility for a political movement with a set of disconnected policy positions that in no way constitutes a viable governing agenda?
The more likely meaning of One Nation is obvious from the polls – it wages a revolutionary culture war within the right, its real purpose being to expose and replace the Coalition parties that it dismisses as historic failures. The polls document this reality, the latest Newspoll showing One Nation on 31 per cent and the Coalition on 18 per cent. The internal voting transfer within the right is massive. Unless the Liberals can reverse this trend and claw back voters, One Nation will become the official opposition at the 2028 election.
In this sense, the eruption of Hanson’s party remains a winning ace for Albanese.
Last week Hanson turned her blowtorch on the Albanese government, anxious to deflect the truth about her spectacular explosion – that One Nation will damage the Coalition far more than it will damage Labor. The creation of division and chaos on the centre-right becomes a permanent gift to the Albanese government. Indeed, Albanese pointed out that despite One Nation leading the field, Labor would still win an election on these polling numbers.
The tragedy of the right is apparent from Newspoll. The total right vote (One Nation plus Coalition) is 49 per cent while the total left vote (Labor and Greens) is 41 per cent. In theory that means the right can win. In practice it means the opposite since the right is locked into two wars – trying to defeat Labor and an internal survival war over which party will dominate the centre-right of politics. Remember: “Disunity is death.”
Pains big call
This situation creates panic among Coalition MPs; witness the statement this week from frontbencher and South Australian Tony Pasin, who broke ranks to say the Liberals should sit down with Hanson to negotiate the seats in which Liberals and One Nation should run so they didn’t compete against each other. This was a declaration of Liberal surrender: giving up its claim on seats to Hanson’s party.
An exasperated Taylor dismissed it: “We’re not going to be doing that.” Frontbencher James Paterson was equally emphatic. If such defeatism penetrates the Liberals, their future as a governing party is finished. Albanese didn’t miss, saying the Liberals were becoming “a fringe party”.
Yet many deluded commentators on the right are filled with “surrender” plans, usually taking the form of the Coalition and One Nation working together. It’s truly weird: asking to Liberals to co-operate with the party that openly seeks the destruction of their entire purpose over the past 80 years and ambition to govern the country.
Paterson also warned that talk of preference deals was premature. Who on earth would be the One Nation candidates? However, recent comments by the new federal president of the Liberals, Tony Abbott, about preferences have raised concerns; namely, that Abbott is learning too far towards an accommodation with One Nation. This is treacherous political terrain.
The conundrum on the centre right is whether policy matters anymore. Consider Taylor: he has supported the radical reform of tax indexation, denounces Labor’s higher taxes on assets, promises lower immigration by tying the intake to built houses, opposes net zero, supports more fossil fuels and will end tax breaks for electric vehicles, rejects Labor’s big government, pledges to reserve future welfare for Australian citizens, will savagely cut the National Construction Code, abolish the safeguard mechanism, reform migra­tion to fit Australian values and lift defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP. None of this so far has made the slightest difference to One Nation’s momentum.
Taylor cannot be cast as a sellout or running a Labor-lite agenda. Those days are over. The policy differences between Albanese and Taylor are immense and growing. The battlelines over a conviction-based Labor-Coalition policy contest reflecting radically different visions of Australia are now being drawn. Nobody following politics could doubt this.
What is the problem? Maybe it’s Taylor’s lack of media cut-through and weak electoral impact. Are One Nation voters aware of such Liberal policies or do they even care? Perhaps they don’t. Maybe the cultural Zeitgeist has prevailed over policy assessment in today’s world. Maybe Blair was right saying the conventional political leader gets no traction in our longing for the unconventional leader. If so, Western democracies are heading into big trouble.

What's the problem with the beefy boofhead from down Goulburn way?

He's a dropkick, and now he has the onion muncher roaming around, determined to make sure that he's the biggest relic on the block ...

Meanwhile, Snappy Tom was also present pumping up the joys of rage ...

Fed-up Aussies are embracing the joy of rage
Voters feeling held back or left behind swing to populists
Politicians are copping it right now, but big business shouldn’t be let off the hook — corporate Australia has been missing in action, too.
By Tom Dusevic
Columnist

Given that the intermittent archive is currently working, the pond thought that a teaser trailer would suffice ...

They really won't stop until they lodge Pauline in the Lodge ...

Some reptiles apparently aren't aware of the ways that they're pumping up the volume, but it seems the ones held back and left behind are swinging to populists, hence snappy Tom's rousing closing line ...

...consenting adults will swing with the joy of rage.

And the reptiles know all about the joy of rage, what with it having been their business model for decades.

Speaking of consenting adults, the pond then went looking for a closing contribution, but the ongoing transphobia jihad ruled out several contenders ...

Court redefines what ‘woman’ means
In the highly contentious Giggle vs Tickle case, it is regrettable that judges adopted the terms used by one side.
By Catherine Carew

The always boiling Rice joined in with an EXCLUSIVE ...

EXCLUSIVE
Court ‘overreach’ in ruling on ‘a woman’
‘Extraordinary overreach’: Former judge slams gender ruling as case set for High Court
Sall Grover was punished for saying a man cannot become a woman. Now she’s appealing to the High Court — and a top former judge says she might just win.
By Stephen Rice

And Dame Slap, being a standard MAGA-cap-donning ravager of the law, decided to expand on failing judges with a piece proposing a pox on the lot of them:

Commentary by Janet Albrechtsen
‘Ashamed’: lifting the veil on the conduct of our judges
Federal Court judge Ian Jackman just lifted the veil on the conduct of judges
We are all too familiar with Australian judges falling for the cheap smell of their own self-importance. This week, we got a glimpse at something far darker.

But where was a reptile truly out there, like the Ughmann last week comparing Pauline to Martin Luther?

Where was the Ughmann?

Sadly the reptiles had allowed him to slip out a day earlier, and all he offered was a standard bit of renewables bashing, not nearly up to his eccentric seminarian-wrecked standards, but wotthehell wotthehell, Archy, i m toujours gai toujours gai, i know that i am bound for a journey down the sound with the bromancer and prattling Polonius tomorrow, so the Ughmann will have to do ...

The header: Australia’s renewables push creates a new China dependency and fails to cut costs; Labor promised cuts to power bills but Chris Bowen’s latest slogan masks the same broken pledge.

The caption for the two villains designed to ruin a reptile day: COP 31 President-Designate Murat Kurum of Türkiye, greets COP 31 President-Designate of Negotiations Chris Bowen in Bonn, Germany. Picture: X

A new China dependency? As opposed to the old China dependency that made Gina great again?

The Ughmann spent a bigly six minutes denouncing renewables and celebrating ongoing hydrocarbon sovereignty - where would the hive mind be without sweet, virginal, dinkum, decent clean Oz coal? - but it was standard reptile jihad fare, entirely lacking the flair of his last outing.

Perhaps he should have compared devotion to renewables to the Spanish Jesuits devotion to the Inquisition?

On with the torture ...

A new term has entered the political lexicon: sovereign renewables.
It may not have been manufactured in the slogan factory that is the office of Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen but he is its chief salesman.
“We’ve got the best sun and wind in the world, and we’re using sovereign renewables to shield our grid from global energy volatility and bring down your energy bills,” the minister said in a statement in early June.
At the time of writing, Bowen was in the German city of Bonn, filling his role as president of negotiations in the run-up to this year’s global climate jamboree. For those who came in late, this job is a recent innovation. It was given to Australia as a consolation prize for the tragedy of missing out on hosting the event to Turkey.
Bowen has confirmed this role will cost taxpayers $50m and likes to make spurious comparisons to massive international events Australia actually hosted to pitch it as a bargain. Only someone marinated in the culture of waste that is Canberra could find this argument compelling.
For the benefit of delegates in Bonn, Bowen deployed his rhetorical gifts to create a verbal tableau of how renewables deliver electricity sovereignty.
“Solar energy must travel 150 million kilometres from the sun to the Earth, but it does not have to travel the 150km through the Strait of Hormuz,” he said. “The wind cannot be sanctioned.”
The observant will have already noted that the rotation of the Earth interrupts sunshine every single night. Doldrums still the wind. You could cover the continent in solar panels, and several trillion of them harvesting zero sunshine at midnight still would add up to zero power.
And wind and sunlight do not gather themselves into electricity. That requires solar panels, wind turbines, inverters, batteries, transformers and synchronous condensers. Calling that sovereign energy is akin to declaring a Chinese warship Australian because it is bobbing around off our coast.

You see? He's clearly struggling. When the seminary doesn't give him the right sort of Martin Luther metaphor, he's forced into blather about Chinese warships.

It was past time already for a visual interruption, and in these outings, it's always the job of the graphics department to come up with an outlandish shot of renewables at work, designed to terrify the hive mind. Come on down A partial view of a molten salt tower solar thermal power station in China, where spending on green energy has soared. Picture: Getty

It was so terrifying that the pond thought it should be shown in a bigly way ...

Meanwhile, the Ughmann was getting worried by the way that China had stolen a march on the world, and especially on that prize maroon, King Donald ...

China’s grip on solar power
We are all now familiar with the numbers that describe the choke point that is the Strait of Hormuz. Roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas trade is locked behind that narrow passage. But that pales beside the lock Beijing has on the machinery that turns the weather into sometimes-there electricity.
China controls more than 80 per cent of every stage of solar panel manufacturing, from polysilicon to wafers, cells and modules. It also dominates battery manufacturing, rare earth processing and critical minerals refining.
Beijing also dominates the global wind industry, with its manufacturers accounting for around three-quarters of new turbine installations worldwide. But the real choke point is the specialised magnets buried inside the generators. China manufactures around 90 per cent of the world’s rare-earth magnets, giving it an extraordinary degree of control over one of the most critical components in the renewable energy supply chain.
So how sovereign is a system whose construction depends almost entirely on factories controlled by a strategic rival? What might a regional war do to this supply chain? And when all this kit is assembled here, how sovereign do you think it will be when its brains are coded offshore and can be updated at will, with the now not entirely academic possibility of an effective off switch in Beijing?
Where are the electric planes, Minister?

Poor Ughmann. He probably thought that was a killer question.

Why didn't he ask where the methane is Minister? Don't worry, it's here ...

Beyond that, Bowen’s recent role as diesel diplomat has clearly not sharpened his world view into the central role liquid fuel plays in driving our economy. Despite the hype about electrifying everything, we are a short way down a very long road. Electric vehicle numbers will rise, but even if every new car sold from today were electric it would take more than a decade for the national fleet to turn over.
Then you have to work out how to electrify heavy transport, agriculture, aviation and mining. Norway is often offered as an example of success. Two points. You can fit two Norways in NSW and diesel trucks still make up well over 90 per cent of that country’s heavy vehicle fleet. Where are the electric intercontinental passenger planes?
Hard to abate means what it says on the tin. If it were easy, someone would have done it.
Then there are the more than 6000 products that flow from a barrel of oil, from plastics to the petrochemicals that are the base for most of our medicines.
There is no energy sovereignty without hydrocarbon sovereignty.
Bowen also believes that endlessly chanting the claim that wind and solar generation delivers cheap electricity will make it true. If it were, the federal government would not have needed to spend billions of taxpayer dollars on energy bill relief to hide the bill shock.
Unpicking Labor’s broken power bill promise
Since Labor promised to deliver a $275-a-year cut to power bills relative to December 2021 prices, costs have marched ever upward. Every time a model hints at a future cut to electricity prices, Bowen claims it as vindication, despite the growing chasm between what he pledged and what actually happened.
Let’s underscore this point. Models do not pay electricity bills. Australians do. And consumers do not pay the wholesale cost of power; they pay the total system cost. We are conducting a real-world, real-time experiment on the eastern electricity grid and the only metric that counts is the retail power bill.
This is not a debate about forecasts. It is an audit of outcomes against Labor’s promise. So far, the verdict is clear: it is an abject failure.
Bowen’s latest victory dance had a tiny bit more substance than usual as it came after the Australian Energy Regulator handed down a determination that will result in the safety-net price of electricity falling in some jurisdictions in July.

Actually it's the solar panels on the pond's new digs that helps pay the electricity bills, and how the pond is enjoying that novelty.

Meanwhile, the reptiles resorted to an old gripe ... Former Snowy Hydro CEO Paul Broad claims Energy Minister Chris Bowen wanted to blame the project’s massive cost and timeline blowouts on the Morrison government. “When the [Albanese] government came in, and Chris Bowen became the Energy Minister, he was hellbent on knocking me over and rewriting history,” Mr Broad told Sky News Australia. “He wanted me to go out and bag [Morrison-era energy minister] Angus [Taylor] and make all the problems his.”

Um ...

And with that it was time to wrap up the Ughmann ...

It should be noted that the same regulator now has warned twice that a wall of capital expenditure is coming at consumers in the form of higher transmission and distribution charges, which could swamp any falls in wholesale costs and be baked into bills for years. And a close reading of the latest default market offer seems to be bearing that out.
The biggest price cut was in coal-heavy Queensland while the retail price for some residential customers rose in South Australia, the most wind and solar-dependent jurisdiction in the land. That was driven by rising system security costs. Unfortunately, when you dismantle old coal-fired plants, you also remove the essential frequency-control services they delivered as a by-product of the big spinning machines at the heart of their steam-driven generators.
Elsewhere, the ACT’s independent regulator approved a hike in power bills because a fall in wholesale electricity costs was trumped by rising network costs and the expense of the territory’s green policies.
Power retailers absorbing the risk
It also seems clear that retailers are being forced to absorb more risk by the regulator. AGL has objected to its wholesale price calculations, arguing that retailer exposure under a fixed price cap is asymmetric: losses during price spikes are immediate and unrecoverable, while gains in lower-price periods are competed away. It warns of the possibility of retailers going broke.
Origin has attacked the regulator’s treatment of network charges, arguing it is not supported by any logical, analytical or legal basis and risks undermining the credibility of the default market offer process.
Victoria has its own regulator and it also has lowered the safety-net price of electricity. But the default prices there and in the federally regulated states apply to only about one in seven or eight customers. It will be intriguing to see what happens to the cost of electricity when the other 90 per cent get their market offers.
And one swallow does not make a spring; the trajectory of electricity prices is up.
Is it too much to ask the evangelists of the so-called energy transition that they be honest about the costs, trade-offs and risks? That includes not just the politicians but the vast ecosystem of bureaucrats, subsidy hunters, billionaire energy hobbyists, activists and carpetbaggers who swarm around this debate. People can read the results in their power bills, and the blizzard of shopworn slogans about cheap wind and solar is just another reason there is a revolt against politics as usual.
We need real energy sovereignty, not bumper sticker slogans.

Feeble stuff, more bumper sticker rant than insight, a rote parade of standard reptile renewables coverage, what with their lust to see climate change wreak havoc on the planet.

After all that, the pond wondered if it had missed something, and then it dawned on the pond that certain matters had gone AWOL.

Amazingly early on the Saturday, the reptiles didn't find any top of the page space for news of King Donald, Iran, the latest talk of peace, and the whole damn thing.

The pond hadn't expected nipplegate to reach their august pages, but surely they should have been down with the war, or at least the latest in US cultural events?

Must the pond always rely on the cartoonists?

A mid-morning Mad Hatter's tea party, but the pond didn't invite Our Henry or the Lynch mob ...

 

Shattered.

Here was the pond expecting to spend a pleasnt Friday dalliance with Our Henry, enjoying a dash of Zionism or abuse of the ABC, or a denunciation of Al Gore, and "climatism", but instead the old rogue decided to unleash his inner transphobe.

This entirely suits one form of reptile jihad ... but the pond rarely goes there, not least because it gets the pond's TG friends agitated. (Have any of these reptile bigots ever met a TG person, or spent some time in their company?)

On the other hand, there's no reason to deny the hole in bucket man's foray into the arena ...wherein he invokes Julia Gillard, Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, JL Austin, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan, and Tickle v. Google.

So here's the intermittent archive link ...

Self-defined gender fantasy is flawed theory and law
A fatally flawed theory has become a part of Australian law. Tickle v Giggle is, unfortunately, not its last word. It is its first.
By Henry Ergas
Columnist

The pond tends to take a more Sam Rockwell view of life ...

Apologies, anyone who bothers to watch might find that a little out there, but the pond had decided to run Sam the next time the pond saw the transphobia jihad reared its ugly head in the lizard Oz, and Our Henry just happened to be the next cab off the rank.

Ditto the pond decided not to invite the Lynch mob to this morning's late breaking tea party.

The pond is always to defame the University of Melbourne's long ago faded reputation by featuring the Lynch mob ... but this day he proudly strode into Tommy Robinson turf ...

Still, there's no reason to hold back an intermittent archive link for the benefit of those with stronger stomachs ...

Will multiculturalism and migration end the Irish Troubles?
These gruesome episodes in Southampton and Belfast reveal, in different ways, new faultlines in Western multiculturalism.
By Timothy Lynch
Contributor

Spoiler alert. As a teaser trailer, this is how the Lunch mob wrapped up his outing ...

...The political realignment that began in the US, but has echoes in Australia and the UK, saw the parties of the left abandon the workers and embrace the wokers. The Democrats have become a party of the American campus, of the managerial elite.
Parties of the right, not least Donald Trump’s Republicans, saw an opportunity in this. “I will be your voice.” With that simple pitch, he tempted working-class men and women into his camp. He adopted, in short, a new vocabulary of class.
The divided right, in Australia and the UK, can take encouragement from this. Rather than construe the murders in Southampton and Belfast as evidence of DEI failure, they need to amplify the impacts of illegal immigration on working-class people.
The left has lost the language of class. As Southampton and Belfast roil, it will insist on better racial diversity training and more hospitals. The centre-right needs to revitalise that class-based vocabulary and speak for workers and their interests.
Timothy J. Lynch is professor of American politics at the University of Melbourne. His first book was Turf War: the Clinton Administration and Northern Ireland (Routledge, 2004).

No doubt so that workers can riot against twats of the campus Lynch mob kind.

Enough already with the defamation and the promotion of an ancient tome of the campus kind.

Some might suspect banning the jihadi bigots might have limited the pond's options. 

But the reptiles are always full of jihads ... and this morning the war on renewables jihad was top of the "news" section ...

The canny Cranston's piece was full of graphs and charts and despair at the way that the reptiles' most beloved - clean, virginal, dinkum Oz coal - had been treated ..

Renewables and green spending drag down productivity, PC warns
Australia’s falling productivity levels have been driven down by the replacement of coal plants with billions of dollars in renewable energy projects, the Productivity Commission says.
By Matthew Cranston

It was too tedious to indulge, but the lizard Oz editorialist chimed in ...sounding like a little Sir Echo, as the editorialist is inclined to do...and that provided more than enough renewables bashing for the day:

At least there were no graphs or any other signs of the canny Cranston's dressing up of the timeless anti-renewables jihad.

This gave the pond a great excuse to do a segue, or a pivot if you will ...

A few might recall that last Monday, Major Mitchell was in his usual climate science denialist funk, and the pond would just like to place on record Graham Readfearn's response in the Graudian ...

When is rare good news on climate science actually bad? When News Corp misrepresents it

The entirety is delicious, but the wrap up in the final gobbet was particularly appealing ...

Now the pond is standing by to see if the Major takes the bait next Monday.

And in turn all that led the pond to Dan 'the man' Tehan ...

The header: Nuclear is still the answer if we want to power the future; Nuclear has advantages no other energy source can match. Instead of recognising this, Chris Bowen and his merry band of technological Luddites put our nation at risk of losing the AI race

The caption: Energy Minister Chris Bowen at the COP31 presidency press conference in Bonn. Picture: Lara Murillo

The reptiles had treated Dan in a shocking way. 

He'd been quickly flung aside like a used rag, the layout was all askew, and he'd only been given one snap, the one of his mortal enemy. 

Not even one of Dan himself, perhaps standing next to some kind of nuke thingie! Perhaps even some kind of SMS, of the sort the pond is planning to instal in the mighty 'Gong, cockies permitting...

Never mind, on with the nuking of the country to save the world, if only the planet needed saving from anything other than renewables, or so the reptiles say.

To be fair, Dan 'the man' largely avoided saving the world this day, he was more anxious to save the country for AI:

Necessity, they say, is the mother of all invention. The gargantuan energy needs of AI has created a race for energy so fierce that America built a functioning nuclear microreactor in less than a year. Last week, America announced that the Antares Mark-0 microreactor achieved criticality at Idaho National Laboratory.
This is the first advanced reactor to reach this milestone under a Department of Energy program designed specifically to accelerate nuclear technologies.
This announcement is fresh off the heels of news that Kairos Power broke ground on the first small modular reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to supply Google.
The significance of these events is grasped by industry, although I suspect it is lost on Energy Minister Chris Bowen, whose renewables-only obsession has left our grid unstable and our future precarious.
Before ChatGPT burst into mainstream consciousness, achievements like these would have been impossible to imagine. Now they feel inevitable, everywhere except here.
I visited Idaho National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory on a study tour last year. Both act as incubators for advanced nuclear technologies in partnership with the private sector. The scale of what I saw was remarkable.
The Americans are incubating dozens of reactor configurations, exotic coolants like liquid sodium instead of water, and designs built for speed and replication. They have a clear, overarching philosophy: more energy is better. They understand that whoever secures the most abundant energy resources secures technological dominance, and they are clear-eyed about what is at stake.
I departed convinced that Australia is dangerously behind the curve. Energy is to AI what shovels were to the gold rush of the 1850s, and Chris Bowen’s renewables-only approach is the policy equivalent of Kodak doubling down on film rolls just as the digital camera was invented.
There is a myopia among the renewables-only crowd that simply refuses to acknowledge that technology, along with the world, is changing, and that we have natural resources that allow us to leapfrog ahead of others and capitalise on this fourth industrial revolution.
When I was in America, the scientists I met were confident the first commercial technologies would be deployed by 2027, and with the recent announcements being only the first of what is to come, they are on track.
What makes this so powerful is that these new reactors can be built using standard production-line techniques, the same methods we use to manufacture cars and trucks. Costs fall rapidly when you industrialise production.
The familiar objections around nuclear’ s cost are fast becoming obsolete, and CSIRO’s GenCost modelling, repeatedly cited by Chris Bowen to kill the conversation, is so systematically biased that it cannot be considered a valid source of information.
Here is what American officials told me, repeatedly, when I visited. They are worried about securing enough uranium to fuel their nuclear ambitions. Every time they raised it, I found myself thinking about the natural synergy between what Australia can offer – our abundant uranium reserves, and what America can offer us in return: the cutting-edge technologies we need to join the AI race on our terms.
But this is bigger than AI, or even quantum if that comes next. It is about diversifying our energy supply chains, restoring affordability and abundance, and building resilience against international energy shocks such as those we are seeing with the conflict in the Middle East.
From a bird’s-eye view, the standard antinuclear objections do not survive scrutiny. “Nuclear would have been great twenty years ago; it is too late now.”
The best time to plant a tree was yesterday. The next best time is today. “It is too expensive.”
Standardised mass production will take care of that, as it always does.
“It is dangerous.”
Nuclear energy is statistically the safest form of large-scale energy generation. We keep invoking Fukushima despite there being no deaths from a commercial nuclear accident since1986.
“We lack the expertise.”
Well, let us build it, then.
When I spoke with Singapore’s energy architects, who also visited Idaho and Oak Ridge, they told me they have a dedicated team inside their energy market operator to evaluate new nuclear technologies. They have formal agreements with both laboratories to train their staff.
Singapore, a city-state with no natural resources, is preparing seriously. What exactly is ourexcuse?
Do we not want high-skilled jobs?
Do we not want to power our datacentres?
Do we not want to give Australian entrepreneurs a fighting chance in the AI race?
Nuclear’ s extraordinary energy density and ability to power facilities entirely off the grid give it advantages no other energy source can match at scale. Instead of recognising this, we have Chris Bowen and his merry band of technological Luddites, with their profound lack of vision, putting our nation at risk of losing the AI race before it has properly begun.
Dan Tehan is the Opposition’s Climate Change and Energy Spokesman.

What need of the Lynch mob or Our Henry's transphobia when you can have that kind of ecstatic futurism?

The pond trembled at the notion of American scientists transfixed by a lack of uranium.

The pond clapped hands with joy at Dan 'the man' smiting the CSIRO.

Oh there was laughter, there were tears.

The almost wept at the way Dan 'the man' Tehan had made the country safe for AI. 

Whether the country can be saved from AI is perhaps best let for another time.

What else?

Well Nick was also out and about but the pond only mentions that to keep John Curtin revolving in his grave.

One Nation’s rise should exhilarate Labor – not terrify it
Hansonism should force Labor to confront the question it has avoided for too long: who exactly is it for?
By Nick Dyrenfurth
Contributor

And so to Golding celebrating the way forward.

In which the craven Craven dominates the day with many fine One Nation policy proposals ...

 

Donald Trump does nipple torture?

Not in the discreet world of the lizard Oz reptiles!

The both siderist NY Times certainly stirred the possum and belled the cat in the Haberman/Swan outing, Inside the White House Freakout Over the Epstein Files, The president’s top advisers gathered in a series of Situation Room meetings as they struggled to contain a scandal engulfing Donald Trump himself. (sorry, no intermittent archive link to hand)

And it seems King Donald and a lot of others are willing to hang out with a brutal thug and pimp, at least if you read read Heidi Blake's truly disturbing and appalling report in The New Yorker, Andrew Tate’s Empire of Abuse, How the defining figure of the manosphere built a fortune—and became a political force—by systematically exploiting women. (* intermittent archive link).

Instead of all this, the pond was attracted to the ongoing One Nationification of the lizard Oz, which continued apace for the hive mind this Thursday.

The day was also distinguished by petulant Peta going MIA, with her most recent appearance a week ago in Labor’s AUKUS revolt should come as no surprise, There’s already disquiet about AUKUS and with the Left faction now in control, Ed Husic’s push is ominous.

Ah, AUKUS.

A certain Ms. Moloney was also haunted this day by the sub folly ...

Right now, AUKUS needs public confidence, not political drift
As AUKUS shifts from strategy to delivery, public trust may prove as important as submarines.
By Cathy Moloney

The only notable feature of this outing was the canny recycling of a sub collage at the start of the piece...

Splendid stuff. 

Waste not, want not, in a manner worthy of Uncle Ebenezer, followed by a blather fest ...

The piece wrapped up with a strident plea for understanding, which made the pond doubt even more the entire venture ...

...The central questions are no longer theoretical. Do we have the workforce? Can suppliers qualify at pace? Are communities confident? Is government aligning regulation, skills, infrastructure and industry participation with enough discipline? These are the questions that determine whether strategy becomes capability. They are also the questions ministers should be answering more consistently in public if they want confidence to grow rather than drift.
Of course, Australians should expect, and demand, transparency about risk, opportunity cost, and delivery. But there is a difference between informing the public and cultivating a climate in which each development is treated as evidence of failure or bad faith.
That does not deepen understanding. It diminishes it. And it distracts from the more necessary work of explaining why AUKUS matters, what its success will require, and what it offers to a broader Australian industrial uplift project; AUKUS is about more than just submarines.
What is needed now is not less scrutiny, but steadier leadership doing their best to avoid the ­slipstream of politicisation and partisanship.
Government, opposition, industry and national security leaders need to explain more clearly why the strategic environment has changed, why deterrence and undersea capability matter, why sovereign industrial uplift matters, and why this project must be understood as a national undertaking, not just a defence one.
That conversation should be sustained, open and mature, not triggered only by controversy or reduced to slogans.
Leaders cannot assume that the public will have an innate acceptance just because they have been told this is the only way to secure our nation. There is already good work under way to build workforce pathways, strengthen supplier readiness and improve infrastructure planning. That foundation matters and should be acknowledged. But because AUKUS is a whole-of-nation enterprise, the conversation cannot remain confined to geographic epicentres.
Discussions need to occur with experts and with communities, from local stakeholders to the most senior national leadership, and with everyone in between. Social licence is therefore not only geographic; it is also demographic. It must be built across age groups, sectors, regions and communities, including those that may never see a submarine but will still be asked to support the strategic, industrial and fiscal choices behind the ­enterprise.
AUKUS will secure its place in Australian public life only if Australians understand what is at stake, why it matters, and how the country will share both the responsibilities and the benefits of making it real. This is not call to place Australia on a war footing, but it is a recognition that the era of strategic complacency has passed. If social licence is the basis of long-term national security delivery, then the task now is not to weaponise it, but to lead it.

Credit please ...

Cathy Moloney is vice-president, Australia, of The Asia Group.

Clearly it's doomed. Deeply, deeply doomed ...

Meanwhile, the reptiles were busy discovering that a cease fire actually means ceaseless firing, and that the war that had ended had also continued on its merry way.

Naturally it was all the fault of the Iranians, as Cameron obligingly tugged his forelock in ...

Commentary by Cameron Stewart
Middle East at a tipping point as defiant Iran goads Trump
The so called-ceasefire is fast crumbling as a belligerent Iran flexes its muscles across the region and thumbs its nose at peace.

Actually, as Cameron eventually gets around to noting, Netanyahu is the one who has kept on goading the Iranians, not to mention hapless Palestinians and Lebanese people, and King Donald ...

...This has created a rift between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump, with the US President demanding that Israel stop its attacks in Lebanon to give the peace process a chance.
Trump maintains that he “calls the shots” with Netanyahu and that the Israeli leader eventually ended the retaliatory attacks on Iran this week at his request. Trump has warned that if Israel ignores his demands, then it may have to go it “alone” against Iran.
But Netanyahu may not be as pliable as Trump claims. Netanyahu is facing an election and is under enormous domestic political pressure to continue the fight against Hezbollah regardless of what Trump or Iran are demanding.

But never let that get in the way of a reptile headline, because the Oz Daily Zionist News must maintain its standards.

So it goes ...

But the pond has other fish to fry this day, namely the increasing One Nationification of the One Nation rag of choice.

Early in the day came this yarn, given a big EXCLUSIVE splash ...

EXCLUSIVE
Non-compete clause: Angus Taylor confidant Tony Pasin’s shock call on One Nation
Angus Taylor’s close confidant and numbers man, Tony Pasin, has urged the Liberals to divide seats with One Nation.
By Rosie Lewis, Greg Brown and Paul Garvey

Angus Taylor’s close confidant and numbers man, Tony Pasin, has urged the Liberal Party to sit down with Pauline Hanson to identify the seats in which Liberal and One Nation candidates should run so they’re not competing against each other, in an ­attempt to oust Labor without ­cannibalising the Coalition.

Mr Pasin, a Liberal frontbencher and member for the South Australian seat of Barker, in which One Nation came third at the last election, broke ranks to say an agreement must be considered if there is to be a conservative government elected.

The controversial intervention comes as a major split emerges among Liberal MPs on whether to preference One Nation, after new Liberal Party president Tony ­Abbott and the Opposition Leader left the option open.

“We should work hand-in-glove to defeat Labor. We should work together to identify which seats are more appropriately targeted by a One Nation candidate or a Liberal candidate,” Mr Pasin, who is the opposition scrutiny of government waste and accountability spokesman, told The Australian.

“(The Liberal Party could say to One Nation) ‘We’ll support you in Spence, we currently hold the seat of Sturt. We could both spend our money in a Liberal v One Nation contest in Sturt or we could take the lead in Sturt and support One Nation to pick up the seat of Spence’. Conservatives then get two seats for the price of one.

And so on and on, bargain basement thinking, worthy of Uncle Ebenezer.

By golly, by hook or by crook, they're determined to make Pauline grate again ...

Over on the extreme far right the craven Craven heard the call, and that's when the pond really perked up ...

The header: Can the Coalition counter One Nation’s ‘joy rage’? As One Nation gains support, the Coalition faces a choice: chase populism or reclaim a broader, more inclusive Australian nationalism.

The caption for the snap, which once again reminded the pond of the unnerving resemblance of Martin Luther to Pauline (thank you Ughmann, for helping the pond understand): One Nation’s rise continues to challenge both major parties’ electoral strategies.

The craven Craven spent his entire four minutes of verbiage attempting to rescue the beefy boofhead and his brand of onion munching Liberal party ...

Australian conservatives have traditionally looked at One Nation as a cross between a cockroach and a scorpion. It is dirty and unseemly, but it also stings. The best way to deal with it is to avoid touching it lest you become befouled yourself. Better still, crush it before it stings you.
But now the scorpi-roach commands a historic 31 per cent of the primary vote in Newspoll. For the Coalition, a great many of them are your former supporters.
For Labor, this has been a dream come true. If the Coalition reviles One Nation, it sheds votes from the right. If it so much as talks to it, let alone preferences its can­didates, genuine Liberals will desert in droves.
In theory, Labor should have the same problem with the Greens, some of whose positions are truly repulsive. But the vast majority of Green voters automatically preference Labor, so it does not have to defile itself by touching pitch. But now Labor also is shedding traditional supporters to One Nation. Pauline Hanson is the hand grenade that just keeps on giving.
As the polls show, she authorises all Australians, regardless of class, political background, age or economic circumstances, to imbibe the ultimate political elixir. She sells The Joy of Rage. The Coalition remains her chief victim.

Hang on, hang on, selling The Joy of Rage (lizard Oz ™) is the entire lizard Oz business model, and all Pauline is doing is following the reptile way.

Is it any wonder that the lizard Oz is the favourite rag for MAusGA and One Nation types?

Is it any wonder that the dullard from down south struggles to match the rage? Though it does look like he might be able to do a good shouty shout,  Leader of the Liberal Party Angus Taylor. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake / Getty Images

The hapless craven Craven seemed not to understand that abusing minorities and waving patriotic flags was apple pie lizard Oz hive mind stuff ...

One Nation will actually be helped by an economy undermined by oil shortages and the free spending of the Albanese government. As interest and unemployment rates rise – the Whitlam syndrome – so does Hanson’s vote. What the Coalition desperately needs is a viable strategy to deal with One Nation. Realistically, it cannot kill it. Demands it should become a watered-down One Nation itself are inane. Liberal conservatism is ideologically opposed to Hansonism’s race obsessions and poisonous sectional hatreds. Besides, it would be electoral suicide for a classic centre-right party.
The way forward is a bit more sophisticated. It would recognise that many of the vote-garnering stances of One Nation are merely the bastard, lunatic offspring of ­respectable centre-right thinking. These positions have been abandoned by fastidious Liberals as just too populist. But the thing about populist positions is they tend to be popular.
The central point is that the ­Coalition has ceded the high ground of being the party of Australian nationalism and handed the space to One Nation.
Labor is far too addicted to fashionable internationalism and academic critiques to compete. If anything, it is ashamed of Australian nationalism.
There is huge potential for the Coalition to offer an attractive platform of moderate, humane and thoroughly enjoyable nationalism against the shrill stunts of One Nation and a censorious Labor. Take One Nation’s obsession with the Australian flag. It seems to have been copyrighted by Hanson. It dominates her rallies. Why does the Coalition not wrap itself in the flag? Why not promote Howard-style positions protecting it from desecration, requiring it be flown at schools, and mandating that its history and symbolism be taught to the kids?
Of course, the genteel left would hate it, which is part of the attraction. But the common people would love it, as evidenced by the improbable flag orgy every Australia Day. One Nation would be ­outflanked, not by even crazier rightism, but by a strongly conservative, perfectly rational package of patriotic policy.
Speaking of Australia Day, most Australians love it, too. They celebrate in a very Australian way by going to the beach or having a picnic, and in either case drinking the local brewery dry. They have no interest in changing its date.

There, you see, even the craven Craven can't help but indulge the One Nation agenda, especially when that fiend, Satan's helper, is hovering and getting the reptiles agitated... Anthony Albanese addresses a press conference. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sharon Smith

The craven Craven doubled down on One Nation thinking ...

If they ever found out about the postmodern race theory that underlies the rationale for changing the date – that Australia was founded as an invalid racist settler state and that we all remain ­invalid racist settlers – they would be burning academics on their ­barbecues.

Why Pauline herself couldn't have put it better, though perhaps she might have needed a briefing on "postmodern race theory". 

Second thoughts, postmodern would have immediately triggered alarms... and that mention of "race" would have immediately evoked difficult, uppity blacks, the bane of lizard Oz journalists, and the subject of a reptile jihad which has run for decades ...

Now carry on with the One Nation agenda ... spouting patriotism and doing some flag-clutching and waving ...

Why wouldn’t a flailing Coalition demand comprehensive entrenchment of Australia Day? Why not politely impose it on every self-righteous, nourish bowel-munching local council that refuses to let its citizens celebrate? Why not support humungous Australia Day community street parties? Our thoroughly nationalist immigrant populations would be first to arrive.
The great opportunity for the Coalition is to embrace the force that drove everything from Federation and Anzac to AFL and Sam Kerr – and own it. It would subvert the mean, ersatz nationalism of One Nation with a deep, genuine national commitment, which just happened to be a very attractive political offer.
Think of education. Many Australian parents are dimly aware their kids are being force-fed a ­correct-thought version of history where every white male from Arthur Phillip to John Howard is a war criminal. They look nervily at mentions in the popular media – never read by leftist education tsars – of teaching practices that could not be right, and gender education that seems biologically ­implausible.
This is a policy swamp that Hanson infests. A tough, hard but principled Coalition assault on the current politics of Australian education would outmanoeuvre Hanson, win votes and improve outcomes. Labor would be pinned to the wall by its allegiance to radical teacher unions. Yes, there would be challenges flanking Hanson on issues like migration, where One Nation’s visceral dislike for foreigners will always attract backers. But grabbing the Tony Abbott trifecta of Indigenous heritage, British constitutional government and migrant enrichment is a formula that resonates with most Australians.

Dear sweet long absent lord, he actually went the onion muncher as the solution ...Tony Abbott

So we're now officially back to the days of Knights and Dames ...

The craven Craven expanded on a great set of One Nation policies ...

Endorsing moderate skilled migration, excluding plausible terrorists, maintaining our borders, and not enticing ISIS brides appeals as much to Vietnamese and Chinese Australians as to Anglo-Celts.

Yes, yes, it's Pauline approved!

But wait, it's also very frank, friendly and exceptionally moderate, in the Pauline way ...

This type of frank but friendly nationalism easily embraces, for example, our immensely successful Indian immigration, that has given Australia citizens of hard work, democratic principles and family values. Rational nationalism can do this. One Nation’s politics of dislike cannot.
If the Coalition can recover its historic position as a political force that overtly loves and celebrates our country, but without rancour, it can out-patriot One Nation on the right and leave Labor flat-footed on the left. For a party that is generally regarded at the point of death, there might even be life in the old nag yet.

Most excellent stuff, and it turned out that the craven Craven hadn't done anything credit worthy since his days at the ACU, Greg Craven is former Vice Chancellor of the Australian Catholic University

So there's the craven Craven's solution. 

Carry on carrying on, deplore migration but politely, embrace "rational nationalism", whatever that means.

Make sure to keep on the right side of certain ethnic groups, a handy way of demonising certain other ethic groups, by way of omission.

Pauline and the reptiles know who the craven Craven means.

What else? Well, keep on with climate science denialism, celebrate coal, help in the ongoing ruination of the planet, and soon enough, Gina will be on board.

Off to the knackery with the lot of them. 

If that's the best these oldnags can do, better to do a Boxer on them, and turn them into something useful, like dog food or glue... 

And don't forget to take King Donald and his Faux Noise flock while you're at it...

And that was about it for the pond this day.

Sure the war on China continued, albeit imported from WaPo ...

China is a slave to history – and the Indo-Pacific is paying the price
The CCP offers perhaps the most cynical example of weaponised history in modern geopolitics.
By Miles Yu

But as always the pond will await the bromancer's scintillating insights ...

And Jack the Insider went full Jacinta...

Roll up for the very worst job in politics. No takers? Not one?
Victorian Labor’s dominant Socialist Left faction has turned on Jacinta Allan, with polling pointing to a catastrophic 30-seat wipeout.
By Jack the Insider
Columnist

But they were just providing a little additional reading and policy proposals for their devoted One Nation followers...

Not to worry, the pond isn't that fussed by talk state governments. 

After all, if you voted Chris Minns, you ended up with a splendidly Liberal party government...

Premier Chris Minns won't face legal action as two charged over campaign donations

He's not even LNP lite these days, he's the full quid.

And so to wrap up proceedings with the infallible Pope for the day ... with a great policy proposal for the craven Craven. 

A bit of Nasho is just what he needs ...

You are invited to a sedate late One Nation breakfast with two Dames and a Geoff, with spicy hot climate science denialism served in a tureen ...

 

What a relief.

The pond's big smoke escapade didn't result in any significant losses, as the One Nation rage machine, aka the lizard Oz, was quite sedate yesterday.

And there's not much action today.

Instead it was left to the Press Council to take up the Zionist cause with this mindless adjudication about a Wilcox cartoon .

The gormless Nine rags couldn't even dare to show the thing, instead resorting to a contorted description ... when it's clear enough...

The original fuss about the cartoon came way back in January, with the MEAA then defending Wilcox...

So it's taken the Press Council some five months to arrive at its wretched condemnation.

Never underestimate the contempt which the pond holds for that appallingly incompetent body.

Meanwhile, the greater Israel project continues apace, and some governments decided to lash out with a wet lettuce leaf in the form of sanctions against the Israeli finance minister and others.

As if that in any way will halt the ethnic cleansing currently going down in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.

Speaking of the lizard Oz turning into the One Nation paper of choice, Dame Slap was at it again today, urging on Hansonism, as you'd expect of a MAGA cap wearer...

The header: Memo, Mr Albanese: serious money talks – and listens – to Hanson; Could it be that the groundswell of support for One Nation from people across different demographics signals not just grievance, but a love of country too?

The caption for the snap that made a mockery of the headline: Angus Aitken and Gina Rinehart are proud Pauline Hanson supporters. Pictures: News Corp

Gotta love the filthy rich the way a reptile does, as Dame Slap spent a bigly five minutes pumping up the volume for the Hansonite cause.

Before getting down with it, the pond should note you won't find Dame Slap going deep. Nor giving much of a toss about policies, as you can find elsewhere ...

One Nation defence plan could blow out budget by $400b and require conscription (*intermittent archive link)

We'll have none of that sort of talk in the lizard Oz, especially that suggestion in that last line that Pauline's meekly following her mistress's echo. Ginah, Ginahhh ...

Instead, admire how Dame Slap ignores such grovelling and joins the bandwagon ...

Critics who claim Pauline Hanson is in the pockets of big business are tone deaf. And they can’t count either.
Voters would once participate in democracy by joining one of the big political movements of the 20th century. More than a hip pocket-fuelled tick of the ballot paper, membership likely signalled a belief that the party they joined is not just good for them, but good for the country.
For years now, membership of the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal Party has tanked. By contrast, One Nation’s membership is booming, attracting between 60,000 and 70,000 members, well ahead of the two major parties. Pursing one’s lips offers no insight into the continuing rise of One Nation. Listening to why Hanson is attracting support and money is the starting point to taking Australian voters – and her – seriously.
Could it be that the groundswell of support for Hanson from people across different demographics signals not just grievance, but a love of country too?
Later this week, a group of big business leaders will meet the firebrand One Nation leader at a dinner hosted by Gina Rinehart in Perth. This is not a one-off. On the east coast, too, Hanson’s One Nation party is attracting support – and money – from scions of business who have had enough of the two major parties.

Just to remind the pond of the dickheads who've joined the cause, the reptiles slipped in a snap, Angus Aitken.

Dame Slap was mightily impressed, what with her being tone deaf about being in the pockets of big business ...

Well-known Sydney stockbroker and businessman Angus Aitken, founder of Aitken Mount Capital Partners, makes no bones about why he switched to One Nation. The former lifelong Liberal supporter says: “Albo is the worst prime minister in my memory and it’s hard to believe anyone could be worse than Malcolm Turnbull as PM, but he is. He has absolutely ruined Australia to the point where flying an Australian flag is in some way bad.”
Aitken and his wife Sarah have donated $1m to One Nation. Given this week’s poll, showing One Nation’s primary vote ahead of the two major parties, Aitken believes a minor change is not enough. He told this column this week: “The country needs a massive reset. It’s cultural and it’s economic.”
A businessman who attended a recent private dinner with Hanson at Aitken’s Sydney home says there was close to $90bn of wealth around the table. They were some of the largest employers in the land. Serious people taking Hanson seriously. What brought them there, says the businessman, was a shared frustration with the constantly changing policies of the two major parties and a growing belief that Hanson is a street-smart realist with a real focus on fixing Australia.
Aitken is known for calling a spade a “f..king” shovel. His grievances with the state of Australian politics are likely shared by millions of other Australians. “The bureaucrats are setting the agenda, and most of them have never worked in the real world,” he says. “When all of those pro-Palestine rallies were happening you could feel people going, ‘what the **##!! has Australia turned into?’. Then you have the Bondi terror attack, and letting in ISIS brides, the shocking treatment of veterans – and you add a budget that will hurt every hardworking Australian.”
The businessman says Albanese has changed the Australian spirit of self-sufficiency to a narrative of welfare and lack of productivity. “If you are a self-starter running a small business, you’re penalised. That is a massive problem where hardworking people see themselves subsidising people who never want to work hard,” he says.

Want further confirmation of the big business syndrome that so appeals to Dame Slap?

Cue another snap, Billionaire Gina Rinehart has gifted One Nation leader Pauline Hanson a plane. Picture: Facebook

Is there anything more nauseating than seeing a politician deep into the grift, while pretending to be for the people?

Is there anything more nauseating than the sight of rich folk pretending that they're dinkum and down wit it?

Yes, it's the nauseating sight of Dame Slap pumping up the volume ...

Aitken says the most common question he is asked is whether the party will cannibalise the conservative vote. He predicts a huge swing to One Nation in traditional Labor seats, “from people who just want to work hard, a tradie, a miner or whatever, people who want to get ahead from their own steam, without relying on government handouts”.
“Labor is not the party their mum and dad voted for,” Aitken says. “This is the party of green inner-city woke losers who love wind farms, just not in their backyards.” Aitken is happy to be quoted but other businessmen, who would prefer to remain nameless for fear of retribution, are equally scathing. They come back to the budget as a sign of Labor’s cluelessness and arrogance. They say a big parliamentary majority has infected Albo and the ALP with hubris, which could well cause them to lose government.
But they agree that the conservative side of politics needs to work together, and recognise that the political enemies are Labor, the Greens and the teals. Not One Nation. In the same vein, many readers of this column have expressed what one reader, David, wrote on the weekend: “I’m no fan of Hanson and ON. But I will support them if it makes the Liberal Party liberal again.”

After all this hagiography, Dame Slap finally decided to slip in a truly feeble billy goat butt ...

Notwithstanding the shift to One Nation, two big question marks hang over the party’s ability to turn today’s impressive popular momentum into power: the quality of its people, and the quality of its policies.

But, if the pond can do a butt of its own, before Dame Slap could actually consider any policies, the reptiles inserted an AV distraction ...

One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson fires back at Andrew Hastie, arguing the Coalition's collapsing poll numbers show voters are rejecting its approach. “I thought he meant make Australia great again,” Ms Hanson told Sky News host Caleb Bond. “Of course I do want to make Australia great again; I’m not going to back away from that. “Clearly his party’s not been accepted by the Australian people, which keeps going down in the polls, so he still hasn’t got it right.”

You go Caleb, but still no rebrand?

The pond anxiously waited with baited breath (Yates brand) for Dame Slap to get on with that in depth policy analysis ... and instead copped this final gobbet:

On one view, battlers such as Hanson and bombasts such as Barnaby Joyce are quintessential Australian characters. And attractive to voters, it would seem. But the turnover in Hanson’s party over the years prompts questions about how cohesive and dedicated her team is, and will be in the future. Hanson’s big personality may explain some of that instability. But the party’s poor infrastructure and less professional style don’t help either.
The nagging question is whether One Nation can attract, and keep, first-rate people. Being a Rhodes Scholar is definitely a mixed blessing – indeed in some cases it can be a clear contraindication of political skill, and the last qualification Hanson would want in her people. While One Nation probably doesn’t need to worry about Rhodes Scholars joining her party, and may not want them to, the question remains: Can it attract serious candidates?
Questions linger too over the quality of One Nation policies. What it is against is tolerably obvious, but what is its core underpinning philosophy? And translating that into day-to-day policies requires a level of economic, legal and policy skill that One Nation may not yet possess. If the heat of an election exposes economic black holes or policy absurdities, the wheels just may come off mid-campaign.
Hanson’s attraction to some of Australia’s leading business leaders signals that One Nation may be listening to people who understand the economy. The question is whether the media and political elites are listening to why Australia’s most enduring political leader has reportedly attracted 60,000 members to the party and is out-polling both major parties.

It's a nagging question, but there's nothing for the old nag to actually nag about?

Sorry, we might be waiting until the end of time (a long, long time) for Dame Slap to get around to doing some serious policy analysis. 

She seems to prefer to grovel at the feet of the filthy rich, count mug punters and polls, and pump up the volume.

There's more depth of analysis in your immortal Rowe cartoon ...

And so to the catch up, and it so happens that Dame Groan was also obsessed with One Nation in her outing yesterday ...

The header: One Nation, two parties, big problem: A slow build has become a sudden, undeniable force; One Nation’s rapid ascent, marked by parliamentary gains in South Australia, transcends local factors to mirror a global fragmentation of the centre-right.

The caption: One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, with party MPs Barnaby Joyce and David Farley. Their growing presence reflects a global political realignment. Picture: Getty

No one could possibly expect Dame Groan to match the astonishing understanding of the Ughmann that Pauline Hanson and Martin Luther are two peas in the same deep pod ... which perhaps explains why the Old Groaner turned to a man who stuck a shotgun in his mouth for her theme ...

“Gradually and then suddenly.” That’s Hemingway’s unforgettable description about going broke. It applies no less to the rise of One Nation as an electoral force.
At last year’s federal election, ON received 6.4 per cent of the vote, a swing of 1.5 per cent from the previous election. It was a creditable performance without being spectacular.
From July, there were four ON senators. With the defection of Barnaby Joyce and the victory in Farrer, there are now six ON federal parliamentarians.
Fast-forward to now, ON is polling about 30 per cent of the total vote, above Labor and well above the Coalition. The two major parties – perhaps they should be called legacy parties – command less than half of the total vote according to the latest Newspoll. This is an extraordinary outcome.
Of course, polls and election outcomes are not the same. But the recent election in South Australia indicates that the rising popularity of ON can translate into parliamentary representation.

At this point, Dame Groan's narrative broke down, as the lizard Oz thrust in a welter of snaps designed to promote their newly adopted One Nation brand.

Bear with the pond and the hapless old biddy as we wade through this torrent ...

Celebrating at The Bended Elbow Pub in Albury, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson with newly elected One Nation member for Farrer David Farley. Picture: Richard Dobson

The pond was kept busy sorting out the captions from Dame Groan's one liners ...

After SA’s recent election, there are now seven ON members of parliament, four in the lower house. Bear in mind that ON did not have a strong presence in the state before the election this year.

One Nation SA Leader Cory Bernardi with MPs David Paton (Ngadjuri), Jason Virgo (MacKillop), Chantelle Thomas (Narungga), Robert Roylance (Hammond), and MLCs Rebecca Hewett and Carlos Quaremba. Picture: News Corp

This fragmentation of the political centre-right has strong parallels overseas. We see it in the UK with the rapid rise in the popularity of Reform under Nigel Farage. We see it in the rise of Alternative für Deutschland in Germany. We see it in the rise of the National Rally party in France.
The point is that the reasons for the surging popularity of ON cannot just be explained by local factors. It is part of a major realignment happening in other parts of the world. The reaction of the legacy parties has been to denigrate the “interlopers” and to gang up against them where possible. Arguably, this simply serves to bolster support for the new competitors.

One Nation Senators Pauline Hanson, Sean Bell, Malcolm Roberts, and Tyron Whitten in the House of Representatives chamber at Parliament House, Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Fundamental to this shift is the collapse in trust in the traditional parties to deliver sound policies and to reflect the values of ordinary folk. The system looks to be rigged, with the emphasis on identity politics clearly enraging some voters. Close to open-borders immigration has left many voters wondering where they fit in terms of the government’s pecking order.

Nigel Farage and Reform candidates reflect a global trend: the fragmentation of the centre-right, mirroring similar shifts seen in Australia’s political landscape. Picture: Getty

The pond began to understand what was the real intent of the lizard Oz editorial team. 

Flood the zone with images of barking mad far right loons, and see how the hive mind salivated, such that it didn't much matter what Dame Groan said.

After all that, there was just a little clear water for Dame Groan to make a stand, but in conformity with the new reptile tone, instead she found the bashing of pesky furriners pleasing to her ears...

One issue thrown up by the clear snowballing of the ON vote is the implication for the quality of public policy in this country.
The leaders of the legacy party will wail about the lack of policy detail provided by ON, even though their own policies and policy positions are proving to be defective. Moreover, their policy promises made during election campaigns are often ignored or broken – see the recent budget changes as a significant case in point.
The accusation that ON is not a party of government assumes that people believe Labor and the Coalition are effective parties of government. It’s clear that many don’t sign up to this distinction. It’s one of the reasons the “uniparty” meme has gained traction: they are as bad as each other.
In fact, the ON policy cupboard is not as bare as many assume. The party has even been prepared to put numbers to its policy of reducing the number of new migrants. The figure cited is 140,000 visas to be granted each year.
Asking for more detail suggests Labor and the Coalition have everything worked out when it comes to immigration. This is simply not the case.
Labor has sat on its hands, hoping the excessive number of net migrants would self-correct even when this won’t be the case. Some tweaks have been made with visa numbers but the distinct impression for voters is that Labor favours high migrant intakes and saying anything negative about migrants is an abomination.
The Coalition has placed much store about removing some government benefits and income support from permanent residents, albeit on a grandfathered basis. Putting numbers on a lower migrant intake is seen as a bridge too far at this stage.

Then came yet another AV distraction, and from the dismal illustration, it can be assumed that "He" is actually referring to Barners, Tamworth's eternal shame ... He issued an on-air backflip over plans to evict migrants from their homes in a Sky News interview, prompting host Andrew Bolt to say One Nation is "making up policy as it goes"

If the Bolter can manage to suggest that that One Nation simply makes stuff up, might the old biddy attempt some sort of serious policy analysis, with that field having been left blank by Dame Slap?

Sorry, all she does is forgive errors and omissions, and note good points ...

ON is supporting family income splitting when it comes to the collection of income tax. Instead of income tax being calculated solely at an individual level, couples will be given the choice of filing jointly and thus lowering the amount of tax payable in most cases.
In fact, many advanced countries have income splitting – the US, for instance. It is seen as relatively uncontroversial. And because many more women now work, and work on a full-time basis, the fiscal cost of shifting to an income splitting arrangement is not as punitive as it once was. The shift would also create an opportunity to rethink the role of Family Tax Benefits A and B, and whether it would be better to replace them.
Perhaps more controversially is ON’s policy on the gas industry and the need to replace the petroleum resource rent tax with different imposts collected earlier and at different points along the production chain. In theory, the left should be embracing ON’s policy – or the discussion of alternative ways of taxing the industry, at the very least – because one aim is to bring in a great deal of revenue sooner than the PRRT.
As for the accusation that ON is not a professional outfit because it has not submitted policy proposals to the Parliamentary Budget Office, this is real insider stuff. Do you really think ON voters, both actual and potential, are fretting about this oversight? Let’s face it, most of them would never have heard of the PBO.
And ON leader Pauline Hanson makes a good point when she highlights the massive costing errors the PBO had made about certain policy initiatives – think tobacco excise tax, home batteries, fringe benefit tax exemption for electric vehicles.
Up to this point, Labor has shown a certain indifference to the rise of ON, apart from making occasional abusive remarks. With compulsory preferential voting, the Coalition probably has more to lose from the fragmentation of centre-right.
But it’s also clear that ON is on the march in certain Labor strongholds where voters don’t have post-secondary education and work in blue-collar or low-level service jobs. The election result in the seat of Elizabeth in Adelaide – a Labor-held working-class electorate – was telling of what could happen in the future.
ON has been around for 30 years, so the “gradual” bit has been lengthy. But it’s clear we are now in the “suddenly” part, and it’s probably not going away. The Victorian election at the end of the year will be one to watch.

So even Dame Groan is onboard, with the transformation of the lizard Oz into the One Nation paper of choice suddenly everywhere. She too is at one with the rage machine ...

All that aside, the pond should note that there were a few outliers brooding about foreign affairs. 

The pond didn't bother with them, but these intermittent archive links might appeal ...

Why a rogue North Korea could be Xi’s weakest link
The more aggressive and militarily capable North Korea becomes, the more likely Japan, South Korea and the US threaten China.
By John Lee

Why was it left to this Lee to carry on the war with China? Where's the bromancer?

...The nightmare scenario for Xi is that the US, Japan and South Korea form an integrated military network of sensors, weapons and command systems against North Korea, which can also be used against China in the event of a Taiwan contingency.
The more aggressive and militarily capable North Korea becomes, the more likely this integrated allied military network will emerge.
An even worse scenario for China – which maintains a mutual defence treaty with North Korea – is that Kim’s aggression inadvertently drags Xi into an Asian war that would be as disastrous for China as for every other participant.
There is also the matter of loss of Chinese leverage and therefore control over North Korean activities. In return for sending troops and weapons to help Russia’s war efforts against Ukraine, it is likely that Moscow has shared military technology with Pyongyang. This might well include Russian missile and nuclear secrets. This will not only intensify military co-operation between Asian allies but also reduces North Korea’s dependency on China as the latter appeared to be caught unawares by the Pyongyang-Moscow arrangement.
What does this mean for Australia as we slowly progress AUKUS? Geography provides only temporary relief. As the saying goes: We might not be interested in the geopolitics of Asia, but the latter is, and will be, increasingly interested in us.

John Lee is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.

Quick, bring on that war by Xmas!

And the lesser member of the Kelly gang was full of gloom ...

Iran war could trigger Middle East nuclear arms race
Donald Trump is facing warnings that his Iran war has weakened US deterrence, hardened Tehran’s nuclear ambitions and increased the risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.
By Joe Kelly
Washington correspondent

Relax, Joe, Israel can nuke 'em all, as Joe turned to the plea deal warrior for a final word ...

...In his Wall Street Journal piece, Bolton said the best way to forestall a Middle East nuclear-arms race was to re-establish confidence in Washington’s resolve and reliability.
But this means tough choices for Trump – decisive action to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and the use of military force to protect commerce.
“Tehran is counting on Mr Trump’s reluctance to resume military activity, which is exactly what worries Israel and many Gulf Arabs,” Bolton said. “If Iran is left able to dominate the strait, the Gulf Arabs’ economic future is endangered, along with regional peace and security.”

Sorry, if it ain't the bromancer, it must be reptile lite ...

For some reason, the pond was also determined to catch up with Geoff, who chambered another round yesterday...

The header: Angus Taylor needs to start showing up if the Liberals are to survive Pauline Hanson; Angus Taylor’s claim the existential crisis confronting the Liberals is because of an unpopular Labor budget is illogical and desperate. Meanwhile, it’s Tony Abbott out rallying the troops.

There was no caption, or credit for the collage, but perhaps just think Martin Luther, as the Ughmann does.

Geoff was in a state of panic, apparently unaware that the fix was already in at the lizard Oz, and it was time for all reptiles to go full One Nation ...

Angus Taylor blaming Anthony Albanese’s budget for the Coalition’s diabolic polling performance is akin to a dog ate my homework excuse.
Taylor’s claim that the existential crisis confronting the Liberals and Nationals is because of an unpopular Labor budget is illogical and desperate.

Well yes, but he's a beefy boofhead from down Goulburn way, you can't expect logic or sense ... all you can do is just hate windmills, and blow into the wind.

It is the Opposition Leader’s job to show up every day, and make their case.
If the budget is as bad as Taylor says it is, why can’t he lay a blow? Why can’t he cut through? Why can’t he can’t lift the Coalition vote?
Labor’s big taxing budget was a gift for Taylor. Oppositions should do well out of “bad budgets” and governments struggling to keep their heads above water, with leaders whose popularity has taken a hit.
Taylor and his senior team, who have led the Coalition’s primary vote back to the 18 per cent nadir in February that triggered the leadership challenge against Sussan Ley, need to stop chasing shadows and searching for excuses. Taylor says voters are “swinging the bat” but they should be swinging the bat at Labor not the Coalition.
The final remnants of the Liberal Party’s base is close to joining the masses in abandoning the party of Robert Menzies and John Howard for One Nation.
In ousting Ley from the leadership, Taylor declared: “It’s on us to regain that trust and earn it but the choice is simple for the Liberal Party … change or die, and I choose change”.
Taylor needs to follow the example of Tony Abbott, his former prime minister and new Liberal Party federal president, who was relentless and unforgiving as opposition leader.
Any sign of blame-shifting or weakness from Taylor and Coalition MPs will be ruthlessly dispatched by Albanese and Pauline Hanson.

The reptiles decided to compound the misery by slipping in a snap of the beefy boofhead alongside that ancient monument to endless follies, the onion muncher ... Angus Taylor and recently elected Liberal Party president Tony Abbott. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images

It'll get worse according to Grattan, View from The Hill: Tony Abbott to tour the country, trying to energise Liberals.

So the beefy boofhead is now just a sock puppet for the new regent, who's going to embark on his usual narcissistic grandstanding tour? 

How pleased Hungary must be to be rid of him, and no wonder Geoff was in a state of despair at the new drivel emanating from the mad monk ...

Abbott on Tuesday e-mailed Liberal Party members to rally the troops.
The former PM said: “Like you, I can read the polls. While the majority of Australians now would like a change of government, there’s an unprecedented split on what’s the best alternative. And while many of you have noticed Angus Taylor’s determination to stop the toxic taxes, end mass migration, abolish Net Zero, and put Australia first, some are sceptical about the extent of the party’s change of heart or its willingness to do much about it in government.”
“While it’s the parliamentary party’s job to set and to implement policy, and to provide strong political leadership, you can be confident that the new federal executive will support Angus and his team to continue to be bold and resolute. We certainly won’t win the next election as slaves to focus groups and being a little bit less ‘woke’ than Labor.”
“For my part, I’m keen to arrange a series of meetings around the country to give Liberal members and supporters the chance to gather, to learn from each other, and to recommit to giving our country the better government a great people deserve. I hope you might consider coming to one of these and perhaps bringing along any friends and family members equally keen to see Australia develop its full potential.”
It is true the Coalition breached faith with voters and is viewed by many voters as part of a uniparty system with Labor.
Families struggling to pay the bills in a worsening cost-of-living crisis are sick of politicians.
Taylor’s budget-in-reply speech was one of the most ambitious delivered by an Opposition Leader.
But you’ve got to be able to sell your key measures and explain the Coalition’s plan to reform bracket creep and lower income tax cuts.
Taylor, Abbott and new Liberal federal director Lincoln Folo, who is understood not to have been the first choice to replace Andrew Hirst, will have to rebuild the party from the ground up. But time is running out.
Some Coalition and Labor strategists still believe support for Hanson and One Nation will fizzle out. They believe Australians are protesting and parking with One Nation.
With 23-months to go until the next election, it’s a massive gamble to assume that One Nation will fade into the background.

It's even a bigger gamble to assume that the onion muncher is the cure, rather than the disease ...

But relax Geoff, the lizard Oz editor is busy outlining more policies for One Nation...

Sure The Conversation might carry yarns of the climate change kind ...

Climate change has already made Australians in one state much poorer, and more’s to come

But this is the real One Nation deal ...

Sorted. It's all a hoax, renewables are a joke (forget that solar rebate), and remember to vote Pauline for a sunny future. Expect extreme temperatures and general mayhem.

And with that it's time for the infallible Pope to toss in his own kind of distraction this day...