The pond on its return from the big smoke discovered that the lizard Oz had turned itself into a book publicity campaign, with nattering "Ned" imagining that he was some kind of Haberman/Swan down under, worthy of being top of the digital hive mind, ma ...
...except that it concerned that epic dropkick and clap happy loser, Slo Mo, in his Covid days (waiter, put on Miles Davis's Kind of Blue).
The pond gave a deep, wearied sigh...
The header: Scott Morrison’s mea culpa on Covid error that contributed to election rout; Scott Morrison concedes his legal fight against WA’s border closure contributed to the Coalition’s 2022 election loss, adding he now believes the policy was the right call.
The caption for the tedious uncredited collage, heralding a tedious foray into the past: Former prime minister Scott Morrison concedes his legal challenge against former WA premier Mark McGowan’s border closure was a political ‘disaster’.
Who cares? Who gives a FF?
Why did the pond bother?
Well perhaps someone is curious about the book, and wants just the lowlights as a way of avoiding an actual inspection of the tedious tome itself...
Former prime minister Scott Morrison concedes his mistake in the Covid crisis, saying his legal campaign against the closure of the West Australian border was a political “disaster” and reveals he has changed his mind about the border policy of WA’s then Labor premier Mark McGowan. In his interviews for my book The Twilight of Exceptionalism – The Liberal and Conservative Era 2013-22, Mr Morrison said he now believed closing the WA border was a sensible move – although his opposition at the time was critical in Labor winning four seats in WA, allowing the West to underpin the Albanese majority at the 2022 federal election.
This is what the reptiles are hoping will make punters unleash their precious shekels? Seems so ...
PREMIUM No apology: Howard fires up over Brittany Higgins in new Paul Kelly book Become a member to access our premium video content
In typical clap happy fashion, SloMo cunningly explained it wasn't his fault, it wasn't really anything to do with him, he just went along with the mob ...
Mr Morrison initially supported Clive Palmer’s High Court action that claimed Mr McGowan’s closed borders – which lasted 697 days – were in breach of section 92 of the Constitution guaranteeing free movement between states. The former PM said he had been encouraged to take action by two WA colleagues, Mathias Cormann and Christian Porter. “It was a massive mistake. But Mathias and Christian advised me to do it,” he said. “Greg (Hunt) said to exercise caution, but he was a lone voice. At the start there was no pushback from any Western Australians in our cabinet. “But I knew within a short time it was a disaster. I went to work with Mark (McGowan) to fix it. I can’t blame the Labor Party for using that against me. I mean, why wouldn’t they? And I don’t hold it against Mark either. So yes, it was a disaster. I don’t think we would have lost as many seats in WA as we did.”
This morose, maundering wander through the past is what the reptiles hope will trigger sales? Seems so, because they slipped in a massive snap of the cover, The Twilight of Exceptionalism by Paul Kelly is out on Tuesday July 14
The pond shrank it to the right size ...
The pond is supposed to give a flying fig about all this? (Use your own curse words, but beware the google bot):
The then Assistant Minister to the PM, Ben Morton, a West Australian, said: “The impression left was that the prime minister was saying that Western Australia had got it wrong. The people were never going to accept that. I went to work to get the decision reversed but it was too late. The issue was being presented as Palmer versus the entire state with Morrison on Palmer’s side.” While Mr Morrison later withdrew, the damage had been done. It was Mr Morrison’s worst mistake in the politics of Covid because it had the most lethal direct impact – turning WA from a Liberal stronghold into a Labor on at the election that destroyed the Morrison government. But Mr Morrison’s reassessment goes far beyond the High Court case. He now agrees with Mr McGowan’s decision on the border, an extraordinary rethink. “I have a different view now. In the first few weeks and months of the pandemic we didn’t really talk about borders,” he said. “We had closed the international border, but what did that mean internally? “We didn’t give that enough thought because, ultimately, I think the West Australian border made a lot of sense. It didn’t disrupt the national economy. The border was in a remote area. The borders between Victoria and NSW and between NSW and Queensland were a completely different issue.” Mr McGowan ensured his state remained remarkably Covid-free and without most of the restrictions imposed on other states. At the 2021 state poll he turned the West into a de facto one-party state and for a long time enjoyed an approval rating above 90 per cent, a success unmatched anywhere in our political history.
Could it get any more tedious? Of course it could, bring in comrade Dan, though some might get a snort, a giggle or a laugh out loud moment at the thought of SloMo being "a professional" ...
As a professional, Mr Morrison respected the political skill of both Mr McGowan and Victorian premier Daniel Andrews but his treatment of Mr Andrews was seen as too soft by both his treasurer Josh Frydenberg and health minister Mr Hunt. Mr Frydenberg said: “The problem was that he (Morrison) thought he could work with Daniel Andrews, but every time Andrews saw an opportunity to whack Morrison, he did. There was no quid pro quo. You saw that whether it was on the vaccine rollout, social restrictions, or funding programs where Victoria always wanted more money. The premiers whacked the federal government if it suited their domestic politics.”
What an astonishing revelation, worth repeating ...
The premiers whacked the federal government if it suited their domestic politics.
Who'd have thunk it?
Why the pond will have to do an extraordinary rethink of the relationship between the states and the feds, as the reptiles slipped in a snap ... Police officers and Royal Australian Navy personnel stop drivers on the West Australian border during the pandemic. Picture: AAP
Want further evidence that "Ned's" tome (the pond uses the word advisedly) isn't up to snuff?
Attacking Mr Andrews’ policies that put Victoria in a massive cumulative lockdown, Mr Hunt said: “There was no explanation for the curfew. There was no explanation for the 5km rule. There was no real explanation for a children’s playground being taped off. No medical advice was ever provided on these measures. “We accepted that Victoria went into hard lockdown because they completely lost control of their contact tracing, but we didn’t accept individual measures which were at odds with our medical advice. It was clear many of these were (the) premier’s decisions or Victorian cabinet decisions taken without medical advice but for control or other purposes. “We need to put in place protocols to make it difficult for premiers to do this again.”
Hunt? The name is vaguely familiar, perhaps we need to put protocols in place to ensure he never appears again.
The next caption repeated what had already been written, Scott Morrison, right, was accused by some in his cabinet of being too soft on then Victorian premier Daniel Andrews, left. Picture: Getty Images
Woulda, coulda, shoulda ...
Mr Morrison believed one of the worst instances of premiers acting for political, not health, reasons was their compulsion to close schools as there was no advice to this effect from chief medical officer Brendan Murphy. “Our very strong view was that schools should not be shut. There was no medical evidence to support it. This was being driven by the state teachers’ federations – it was about teachers’ health, not children’s health. I said in national cabinet, ‘Brendan (Murphy) is here. He’s telling you there’s no medical reason to shut schools, so why are you doing it?’ I said: ‘You have every right as premiers to make the decisions you want, but you don’t get to go out and make up health advice. Don’t pretend that’s why you’re doing this’.” Claims by many conservatives that Mr Morrison should have waged a political campaign against the premiers and brought them under control are fatuous. Mr Morrison’s former chief of staff, John Kunkel, said: “The federation did not permit that. Yet the media encouraged this thinking and the populist conservatives encouraged it. They promoted themselves. They weren’t serious commentators on Morrison.” The Twilight of Exceptionalism – The Liberal and Conservative Era, published by Melbourne University Press, is out on July 14.
The pond apologises. That's not the glorious big splash the pond was hoping to make on its return ...
On the upside, at least "Ned" helped the pond avoid yet another sampling of the Australian Daily Zionist News...
I’ve seen less Jew-hatred in Muslim countries After almost three decades as an Israeli diplomat, I’ve never seen such levels of antisemitism as I’ve witnessed in Australia. By Hillel Newman
Well he would say that, wouldn't he, and so would the lizard Oz echo chamber, with a patented EXCLUSIVE that simply regurgitates Newman's piece ... two for the price of one ...
EXCLUSIVE Australia the worst country I’ve seen for antisemitism, says Israeli envoy Australian antisemitism worse than in Muslim nations, declares Israel’s top diplomat Hillel Newman has called the nation’s antisemitism scourge significantly worse than the two Muslim countries where he was previously ambassador. By Richard Ferguson
Just a way of making a living, eh Fergo?
That old saw came out for another dance ...
“When people march and chant ‘From the river to the sea’, they are calling for the annihilation of the state of Israel. That is a sign.”
If even Benji is deeply anti-Semitic, if he's calling for the annihilation of Israel, then Israel has a real problem ...
As for the rest of the rabble, Dame Slap was still hanging around like a bad smell ...
Shag, marry, kill?’ Sorry folks, I’m with Albo on this one Let’s play an experiment, ladies: Keating, Hawke, Rudd. If I were to say to you ‘shag, marry, kill’ you’d probably have an answer straight off the bat. I certainly do. By Janet Albrechtsen Columnist
Spoiler alert. She isn't really with Albo, she slags him off every which way, but the pond will leave yesterday's droppings to the intermittent archive.
If the pond wanted fun with Albo, it'd settle for the infallible Pope ...
And if it wanted a female columnist being witty, it would settle for a serve of Marina Hyde. Mad King Donald's World Cup follies, Taylor getting hitched, and so on, and what's not to like?
Heck while the pond is at it, cutting reptiles dead like a Becky Sharp, why not send Miles off to the cornfield ...
The real reason the CCP hates America The CCP does not fear America itself, but the ideals it represents – ideals capable of inspiring the very people the party seeks to control. By Miles Yu
American ideals? On what mad King Donald part of the planet is Miles living?
The pond was titillated enough to sample Miles and see how he dealt with mad King Donald's reinvention of "American ideals", and could only come up with this ...
Donald Trump flies over the 60-foot high faces of (from left to right) Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln carved into the granite in Marine One at Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Picture: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
That's it? That's the sole mention of mad King Donald in a treatise on newly minted American ideals?
A mention in a caption for a snap?
And it got worse, ending with this blather, entirely out of sorts with the currently disunited States, ruled by a grifter and a con artist ...
...It is the idea that free societies flourish through openness, liberty, equality and consent of the governed, while dictatorships survive only through coercion, censorship and fear.
You guessed it. Mr Yu was inside the Bezos tent, a rag much reduced by a billionaire's whims ...
Miles Yu is director of the China Centre at the Hudson Institute. This article was first published in The Washington Post
Sorry, you must do much better, Mr Yu, before the pond pays any attention to you ...
Desperate stuff, and the pond also ruled out Alex...
Despite living barely 10 minutes west of the largest inland city in New South Wales, Uranquinty residents have long struggled to get the major telcos to understand just how bad their mobile reception is. "We had a telco executive come out once to discuss the issues we were having with reception and he was sitting on the back verandah of one of our homes and was challenged to call the owner of the home," Deb Bewick recalled. She said he was "surprised" when he could not make the call so close to Wagga Wagga.
Tell the pond about it. Sitting in the Sydney-Melbourne train is like being in a Faraday cage, at its most effective at blocking all signals around Wagga Wagga.
So being in Sydney with no phone yesterday was just more of the same.
Again the pond apologies for the dismal crock of reptiles on parade this day.
If the pond had had its druthers, it would have been featuring a version of le stylo-plume, courtesy the immortal Rowe ...
Or better still, Nige and Pauline...
The pond is looking forward to Nige v. Count Binface, with little England making a great attempt to upstage mad King Donald in the entertainment stakes ...
A postscript:
Speaking of Pauline and monoculture, as some do, the pond was vastly relieved yesterday at the chance to drop in to Sydney's Chinatown, which has had some bigly changes since the pond last made a visit ...
There were inexplicable visual mysteries, with this sighting in Kimber Lane ...
There were also signs that 'monoculture' never had a chance.
The pond and partner attended a Thai restaurant, and discovered we were of totally unique origins ... of some 50 or so in the diner, we were the only visible signs of a non-Asian heritage, at least until another couple turned up, and we became only slightly unique.
Elsewhere on our wanderings we reverted to being totally unique.
Strolling around the markets felt like being in an Asian outpost, and nothing wrong with that, because it was invigorating, if at times disconcerting when seeing the sort of games that distracted the younglings.
And if you happen to be wandering around the markets (a long way from ancient Paddy's markets times) and you need a script filled at 8 pm, there was a franchise pharmacy open, with an adept, attentive pharmacist at hand. The pond suspects she might have been of Vietnamese descent, but only because she was a parishioner at St Josephs, a Catholic church just up the road from the pond's old digs.
In short, it's too late for the monoculture brigade, unless they happen to plan mass deportations of an ICE kind, and the pond can't imagine the country standing for it, because the Thai meal was good, and the markets a great place to acquire a lucky cat, and we all need a bit of luck sometimes...
Now back to that entertainment, free for all to enjoy ...
A little housekeeping: the pond will be in the big smoke tomorrow morning, so the pond will not be keeping company with the reptiles, but given the way the pond's penultimate post attracted a measly two comments, it's likely nobody will much care.
Those who do can head off to the intermittent archive for their reptile fix, and hopefully the pond will be back in business on Thursday.
Meanwhile, on with the entertainment ... with ancient Troy coming at ya ...
The header: Taylor’s lurch to the right will lead Liberal Party to extinction; At a time of existential crisis for the Liberals, Angus Taylor has taken the party backward since he became leader in February. The caption for the collage, as Emilia strikes again: Pauline Hanson, Anthony Albanese and Angus Taylor. Artwork by Emilia Tortorella. Sources: iStock
The only reason the pond decided to spend quality time with ancient Troy - a bigly four minutes - was to settle the vexed question of the lettuce.
Would the lettuce have to come out of retirement to stage yet another gladiatorial contest with an incumbent?
It took ancient Troy a long time to get there, but eventually he did...
Invitations for the Conservative Political Action Conference in October have gone out. They feature Liberal leader Angus Taylor flanked by Nationals leader Matt Canavan and One Nation leader Pauline Hanson. There it is, the image suggests, the future three-party coalition of conservatives seeking to govern Australia. “Angus Taylor. Pauline Hanson. Matt Canavan,” the invitation from the far-right CPAC says, enticing supporters to come to Brisbane. “Different lanes of the same movement, in the same room, pointed at the same goal: changing the government and getting Australia back on course.” This association is toxic for the Coalition. To be linked with the far-right xenophobic, nativist, populist Hanson as part of her movement at the same place with an identical purpose is ruinous branding for the once mainstream centre-right party. What on earth is Taylor thinking? There is good reason Sussan Ley avoided CPAC like the plague. The Liberal Party risks being devoured by One Nation if it does not seek to defeat the Hanson party. Taylor seems to miss this fundamental point even though the evidence is blindingly obvious. The rise in support for One Nation has come mostly at the expense of the Liberal and National parties. Unless the Coalition fights One Nation, it will be replaced by One Nation. At a time of existential crisis for the Liberals, Taylor has taken the party backward since he became leader in February. His MPs are openly questioning the party’s strategy, philosophy, policies and image. He lost a safe seat – Farrer – and thus presides over a smaller party than the one he inherited. He’s losing Jonno Duniam from the frontbench. And the Liberal Party is tanking in the polls.
Sheesh, that doesn't sound at all positive for the beefy boofhead from down Goulburn way ...Angus Taylor atthe (sic) LNP Conference in Brisbane. Picture: John Gass
Rowing against the tide and conventional reptile wisdom - hadn't Polonius himself blessed the beefy boofhead as the right sort of chap as recently as Sunday?- ancient Troy carried on with his litany of despair ...
The Coalition primary vote has fallen to another diabolical record low of 17 per cent, according to Newspoll. This is a political party in its death throes. Labor, for all its ups and downs in and out of government, has never reached that low in more than 40 years of Newspoll. The Liberal Party resembles a minor party, on the fringes, polling not much higher than the far-left Greens. The political circumstances, however, could not have been more favourable for Taylor. He was given the gift of Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers breaking iron-clad election promises on negative gearing, capital gains tax and trusts, facing a huge public backlash and forced to retreat, yet the Liberal leader could not capitalise on it. When Taylor toppled Ley, his promise was that he would do better than her. Approaching six months on, Taylor is floundering and performing worse than his predecessor. Nobody knows what the party stands for under his leadership: he has failed to define the party’s purpose or craft new policies. He is a terrible communicator. That was evident when he could not state that he supported multiculturalism. His colleagues, including deputy Jane Hume, had no problem supporting a multicultural Australia. Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said at the weekend his LNP government supports multiculturalism. What message does Taylor’s stumbling equivocation send to migrant communities that have deserted the Liberal Party at recent elections?
Cue a snap of malevolent Melissa ...Melissa McIntosh holds a press conference in the Mural Hall at Parliament House. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman.
Ancient Troy continued, inconsolable ...
The party’s dire position prompted calls for a “rebrand” from Liberal frontbencher Melissa McIntosh. This cannot be interpreted any other way than a critique of the party and its leader. But McIntosh is right. The party does need to rediscover what it stands for, what its purpose is and who it wants to represent. As she said, it goes beyond image to values, policy and strategy. The party seems to have given up on reclaiming previously safe seats in Liberal heartlands from the teals. Tim Wilson had luck on his side when he regained Goldstein at the last election but winning back other seats held by teals seems to be a low priority. Yet this is where the party’s shrinking membership and donors still predominantly live. While it is highly unlikely the Liberal Party can return to government without winning back seats lost to independents in multiple states, it is unlikely to survive as a major political force unless it takes on One Nation strongly. Yet senior Liberals are refusing to rule out preference deals with One Nation or power sharing in a coalition government. So rattled is the Liberal Party that MP Tony Pasin, a close colleague of Taylor, went public urging a deal with One Nation to carve up the seats they will target and “work hand-in-glove” to defeat Labor. This is the three-way conservative coalition in all but name.
At this point the pond became confused, because the reptiles introduced a snap of ...NSW Minister for Transport David Elliott
... while ancient Troy dubbed him a "former NSW minister".
Whatever, it led to a gloomy conclusion:
If Taylor does not have enough problems or know how to deal with them, another has lobbed in his inbox: the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption’s Operation Rosny, an inquiry that will, among other things, examine electoral donations and branch stacking in the already dysfunctional NSW division of the Liberal Party. Former NSW minister David Elliott said Taylor should resign over his relationship with Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney, a close ally and fundraiser for Taylor, who has stepped aside during the investigation. Taylor dismissed Elliott’s allegations as “nonsense”. Senior Liberals say they are worried what will be uncovered and who will be implicated. Meanwhile, Andrew Hastie stands in the wings. The Liberal leader-in-waiting has signalled he is up for the fight against One Nation. He has the cut-through Taylor lacks and says he will not be intimidated by “a relentless campaign of personal attacks” over possibly being called as a witness in the war crimes trial of Ben Roberts-Smith. Taylor was never going to be the messiah for the Liberals. The party has started to consider alternatives. The clock is ticking on his leadership.
Not a ticking clock, ancient Troy, it sounds like the lettuce must come out of retirement. Say the word, and it's ready to do battle ...
What's remarkable is that this dirge of despair comes as the government does its best to give the beefy boofhead a break.
Not to worry, Tuesdays at the lizard Oz always feature stale offerings from aged hacks, and the pond is keen to freshen up the algae-laden waters with fresh insights.
Come on down a certain Cristina Talacko, who has never appeared in the pond before.
A little reheating is necessary, because she was out and about yesterday in the hive mind, but hey, she's one of those "we need to nuke the country to save the planet" types, and the pond is always keen to celebrate the genre.
First a word of introduction.
Christine can be found at the Mothers for Nuclear site - no, the pond didn't invent that name, it really does exist - with this her pitch.
Nuclear energy is one of the safest, most heavily regulated technologies in existence. Its carbon footprint is as low as wind and lower than solar. And the next generation of reactors, smaller, faster to build, and even safer, is already on the horizon.
Ah, the horizon.
And she could be found furiously scribbling for the AFR on a couple of occasions, both saved by the pond to the intermittent archive.
There tended to be a certain sameness to the offerings and the rhetoric.
Inter alia ...
A decade ago, leaders might have claimed ignorance. Today, globalisation and real-time information remove that excuse. Around the world, advanced economies treat energy as strategic infrastructure – the foundation of economic competitiveness and national sovereignty. Crucially, they are adjusting course where reality demands it. Germany is the most striking example. Once the global champion of renewables-first strategy, Germany now faces some of the highest electricity prices in the OECD and is being forced to strengthen gas and capacity mechanisms to stabilise the grid. Germany is the future Australia is walking toward – only Australia still has time to change direction. Other countries have already shifted. France is investing €52 billion ($92 billion) to expand nuclear capacity and secure long-term competitiveness. South Korea reinstated nuclear expansion after its phase-out weakened energy security and threatened heavy industry. Japan is restarting reactors and locking in long-term LNG supply because its economy cannot function without firm power. The United Kingdom is investing in both large reactors and small modular reactors to ensure future baseload. The United States is approving record LNG export infrastructure to support allies and domestic industry, while revitalising nuclear through production tax credits. The pattern is clear: nations that secure affordable, firm, reliable energy prosper; nations that treat energy as ideology decline.
...Australia is phasing out coal, but what is replacing it? Intermittent renewables cannot run a modern economy alone. And so, gas is filling the gap. The Australian Energy Market Operator projects gas generation will need to increase by 14 per cent by 2030 to maintain grid reliability as coal retires. Gas peaked plants, gas capacity investments, gas purchase contracts – not temporary, but structural. That is not an energy transition; that is greenwashing fossil dependence. At the same time, we continue to ban nuclear energy, the only zero-emissions technology capable of providing reliable baseload power at scale. Australia is the only G20 nation with a ban on nuclear energy. Yet while we block nuclear, the rest of the world is shifting. In June 2023, Sweden’s parliament changed its energy target from “100 per cent renewable electricity” to “100 per cent fossil-free electricity”, explicitly reintroducing nuclear as central to achieving industrial competitiveness and energy security. The UK is doubling down on nuclear with its £20 billion ($40.3 billion) Great British Nuclear program. The US passed the ADVANCE Act in July 2024 with overwhelming bipartisan support, accelerating advanced reactor development and unlocking over US$100 billion in private capital for next-generation nuclear projects. Japan has restarted nuclear reactors. Canada is building modular reactors. Poland is transitioning directly from coal to nuclear. The Philippines, Ghana and Kenya are preparing nuclear programs as part of their decarbonisation strategy. France, which already generates approximately 70 per cent of its electricity from nuclear, announced a program to build six new EPR2 reactors with an estimated investment of €52-67 billion ($92-$118 billion), affirming nuclear as essential to its climate and energy independence goals. South Korea reversed its nuclear phase-out policy in 2022, returning nuclear to the centre of its energy strategy. These are not reckless nations. These are pragmatists who understand physics. It’s time for Australia to do the same, to design a transition that is real. That means putting people, nature, and national security back at the heart of climate policy. It means embracing every technology that works, instead of clinging to a single narrative. It means measuring success by outcomes: lower emissions, lower bills, stronger ecosystems; not by construction targets or political slogans. Above all, it means restoring integrity to a debate that has drifted dangerously far from evidence. Net zero is still the right destination. But the road we’re on is broken. Australia must learn from the global reset already underway. We need an all-technologies approach that prioritises performance over ideology. We need to stop confusing megawatts built with emissions reduced. And we need to stop sacrificing nature in the name of saving it.
There's more on the full to overflowing intertubes, but the pond will consider the introduction compleat, because with that track record, it was almost inevitable that Cristina would find a natural home amongst the reptiles, and so it came to pass:
The header: Australia’s energy policy is living in its own private Idaho; Australia is the energy outlier: an isolated continental grid, no neighbour to lean on and a legal ban on the one firm zero-carbon technology the rest of the world is racing to deploy.
The caption for the snap of the renewables heel, who clearly needs to think a lot harder (sorry, no human credit for that remarkable collage, so perhaps it was AI, devouring resources with the enthusiasm of a raptor): Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen.
Cristina spent a bigly 4 minutes explaining why she wanted to nuke the country to save the planet:
Which advanced economy plans to power itself by 2050 overwhelmingly with variable wind and solar – no nuclear, no interconnection to a neighbour’s grid, no great rivers left to dam? Yes, Australia. I spend much of my time inside other countries’ energy transitions, and every flight home arrives with a 1980s soundtrack: the B-52s’ Private Idaho – “living in your own private Idaho, underground, like a wild potato”. A state of sealed windows, where the echo passes for the world. It is an apt description of Australian energy policy in 2026.
Actually, if the pond might briefly interrupt, sealed windows are now all the go.
A remarkable number of the pond's relatives and acquaintances are investing in the design and building of their own private Passivhaus (passive house if you insist).
This was the pitch for insulation and sealing doors and windows and so on ...
The Passive House concept initially met some resistance in Australia because some people believed that it was only suited to a cold northern European climate. This idea was dispelled by the rapid uptake of Passive House ideas in China, where entire precincts are being built to Passive House standard in all climates, from cold to hot and humid.
Sorry, the pond didn't mean to interrupt, and perhaps it's too bold to suggest that maybe a different metaphor might have been used, for fear of otherwise sounding like a serve of half-baked musical rhetorical chips.
Do go on, open the window, ruin the seal, and spend a bucketload more on your energy ...
Now open the window. The world has changed. Denmark, the poster child with renewables above 80 per cent of its electricity – a fifth of it from burning biomass – is wired into Norwegian hydro and Swedish nuclear, and last year ended a 40-year ban on nuclear power. Germany spent roughly €500bn on the Energiewende, continued to burn coal, imported French nuclear electricity through the winter, and is openly rethinking its approach. Finland gets 40 per cent of its electricity from nuclear and in 2022 its Green Party became the first in the world to formally back the technology. Norway and Iceland run on hydro and geothermal. Spain and Portugal discovered in April last year, in Europe’s largest blackout, what a stressed grid can do in 15 seconds. The United Arab Emirates built four nuclear reactors from a standing start in just over a decade. Every other G20 economy – the US, China, Japan, South Korea, Canada, France, Britain, India – is building or restoring nuclear alongside renewables.
Of course this will be extremely familiar to students of the reptiles, who love to feature snaps of nuked countries, because it makes them shiver with delight at their naughtiness ... The cooling towers of the nuclear power plant in Grafenrheinfeld, Germany, on August 16, 2024, shortly before their controlled demolition. Picture: Daniel Peter / AFP
Apart from breaking assorted seals, Cristina has a concrete propensity for banal words, perhaps because necessity isn't always the mother of invention:
Necessity is the mover. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine turned energy policy into security policy overnight; AI rewrote the demand curve, with the International Energy Agency expecting data centre consumption to roughly double to 945 terawatt hours by 2030. The response has been concrete. Thirty-one countries have pledged to triple nuclear capacity by 2050. The World Bank lifted its decades-old financing ban; the Asian Development Bank followed. About 70 reactors are under construction. Italy legislated its return four decades after walking away; Belgium repealed its phase-out. And the most data-driven companies did their own maths: Microsoft is restarting Three Mile Island, Google has contracted small modular reactors and Amazon is targeting five gigawatts of new nuclear. Against this trend, the outlier is Australia: an isolated continental grid, no neighbour to lean on and a legal ban on the one firm zero-carbon technology the rest of the world is racing to deploy.
Then came another unfortunate metaphor:
The psychology of the Australian cocoon is worth understanding.
Actually if the pond might be so bold, cocoons are actually a jolly good idea.
As well as being protective, nature uses these structures to maintain a constant, regulated microclimate, buffering external temperature shifts and retaining moisture.
Silkworm cocoons are important biological materials that protect silkworms from environmental threat and predator attacks. Silkworm cocoons are able to provide significant buffer against temperature changes outside of the cocoon structure. We present our investigation of the thermal insulation properties of both domestic and wild silkworm cocoons under warm conditions. Wild cocoons show stronger thermal buffer function over the domestic cocoon types. Both the cocoon walls and the volume of inner cocoon space contribute to the thermal damping behaviour of cocoons. Wild silkworm cocoons also have lower thermal diffusivity than domestic ones. Calcium oxalate crystals affects the thermal behaviour of wild silkworm cocoons, by trapping still air inside the cocoon structure and enhancing the thermal stability of the cocoon assembly. The research findings are of relevance to the bio-inspired design of new thermo-regulating materials and structures.
The pond shrugged its way out of its cocoon as Crista continued:
Politicians committed so fully to one pathway that questioning it means questioning themselves. A heavily subsidised industry depends on the pathway continuing. Consultants are paid to make the chosen path look workable, not to challenge whether it should be chosen at all. Inside such a room, consensus feels like evidence. The cocoon is warm because everyone inside is paid to keep it warm. Consider where our own pathway is taking us. Snowy 2.0 was sold by Malcolm Turnbull in 2017 as a $2bn project before a completed business case had tested the claim. At the 2023 reset, it became a $12bn project. Last month, the Auditor-General found “significant deficiencies” in its management, while independent estimates put the direct cost closer to $20bn and the all-in cost, including transmission and financing, as high as $42bn.
At this point, the reptiles introduced a favourite whipping boy, Malware, and never mind that he was the sort of doofus who set out to destroy the internet on the onion muncher's orders, Malcolm Turnbull during a visit to Snowy Hydro in Cooma. Source: Alex Ellinghausen /Fairfax
It's all familiar stuff, and it's a fair bet that with this outing Cristina would find a home with the beefy boofhead and Ted:
The hydrogen and the wind stories are no better. The flagship Queensland hydrogen project, once valued at more than $12bn, has collapsed. Origin, Fortescue and Woodside have all walked away from major hydrogen ambitions. And this year’s budget quietly redirected $1.3bn from clean-energy programs it once trumpeted, including $1bn from Hydrogen Headstart. The Illawarra offshore wind zone has no feasibility licence. A Hunter offshore wind proposal, the 2GW Novocastrian project off Newcastle and Port Stephens, failed to proceed after Equinor withdrew and the developers declined the federal feasibility licence. Moonlight Range was refused. Proserpine was shelved. The transition is being slowed by finance, approvals, transmission and communities who don’t want to host turbines. Meanwhile, the Capacity Investment Scheme has taxpayers underwriting 40GW of renewable and storage capacity, supporting about $73bn of investment, with the key contract terms largely hidden from public view. Frontier Economics puts comparable transition costs above $600bn, while the Australian Energy Market Operator’s headline figures remain a planning estimate, not a single audited national bill. No government has yet put a clear, whole-of-system cost in front of the Australian people. Security tells the same story. AEMO’s final 2026 blueprint concedes under “constrained delivery” Australia reaches 75 per cent renewables by 2030, not 82 per cent. Project costs are assumed to rise by 30 per cent, transmission is delayed and coal remains in the system until nearly 2050.
How did the pond know that Cristina was a winner?
Why the reptiles interrupted with Lloydie of the Amazon, dedicated climate science fudger, explaining to petulant Peta how we'll all be rooned (and still no rebrand!).... The Australian’s Environment Editor Graham Lloyd says the cost of Australia’s energy transition will be ‘much larger’ than the AEMO estimated $128 billion. “The real figure on what it’s going to cost is much, much larger than 128 billion,” Mr Lloyd told Sky News host Peta Credlin. “Modelling that was done by Frontier Economics has put it at about $650 billion.”
Eeek, windmills, eeek ravaging solar, and the coins, oh the despairing coins, heaped and scattered..
Cristina insisted that she must keep up with her song metaphor:
Then there are people. Households were promised power bills $275 lower. Instead, more than $5bn in rebates has been used to hold bills down temporarily, and once those rebates were exhausted the Australian Bureau of Statistics recorded out-of-pocket electricity costs rising 37 per cent in the year to February. Governments are negotiating rescue packages for smelters. Industrial leaders warn that Australian energy costs are far above those in competitor countries and manufacturers are leaving, taking sovereign capability with them. The song Private Idaho carries its own warning – a deadly radium clock ticking at the bottom of the pool. Ours ticks in plain sight: coal retiring on a fixed schedule, the energy demand wave arriving on someone else’s, capital allocating now to jurisdictions that kept their options open. None of this requires betting the house on nuclear; renewables, storage and grid modernisation remain essential. It requires something more modest and more radical: lift the ban, commission a genuine full-system cost study and let the options compete on evidence, in public, with the numbers on the table. “Get out of that state you’re in” is no longer a lyric. It is a deadline. Cristina Talacko is co-founder and chief executive of GLOW Strategies.
Is it wrong for the pond to want to stay in a Passivhaus or snuggle into a cocoon? At least that way the pond could avoid all the reptile braying about the weevils of renewables and the joys of nuking the country to save the planet.
Apparently Cristina has yet to catch up with a favourite reptile ploy, explaining why doing anything was useless and much too expensive ... and anyway, was there much wrong with the world, apart from the odd record heat wave?
Trust Lloydie of the Amazon blathering away on Sky Noise down under to explain it to her in a few choice words ...
Sure can. The Australian’s Environment Editor Graham Lloyd says Australia’s emission reduction targets will do “absolutely nothing” to reduce global emissions. (Sorry, the pond doesn't usually link to News Corp, but it's easy enough to find).
So according to ancient reptile lore, there's absolutely no point in nuking the country, or doing much of anything else, and we may as well keep on with clean, dinkum, pure, innocent virginal Oz coal, because it's all existentially pointless. Enjoy your coming summer...
As for the alternatives this day, the reptiles made a big fuss at the top of the page early in the morning.
Naturally the pond went there, because these days the reptiles are increasingly obsessed with the past, what with current realities not offering much joy ...
Imagine the pond's despair to discover it was just "Ned" nattering away ... and there were only two minutes of natter.
Such a wretched offering and in such small portions...
It turned out it was just a book promo, and best despatched in three gobbets ...
Will the pond be lining up for a copy, to hear a tired, old, irrelevant fart blather to another tired, old, irrelevant fart? Not likely, hopefully a street library will provide, and in the meantime, the cover will suffice...
There were a few alternatives this day ...
How Australia became NIMBY capital of the world When the NIMBY reflex can stop a family’s extension and a piece of infrastructure, it’s stopped being about genuine grievance and become sport. By Julianna Burgess Contributor
Ben, in lieu of the bromancer, was packing it in his usual way ...
China says missile test was routine. Pull the other one Australia’s run of security agreements with Pacific nations are closing off China’s options to establish a military base in the region. By Ben Packham Foreign affairs and defence correspondent
All that's well and good, but how could the pond forget it's Dame Groan Tuesday? Holding her back until last was just a tease, a playful troll.
On with the groaning ...
The header: Why Labor’s pro-union IR agenda is a productivity killer; How the PM can keep a straight face telling us he doesn’t condone the behaviour of the CFMEU is anyone’s guess. The caption for the snap of two heels: Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers on the campaign trail. Picture: Mark Stewart / NewsWire
Dame Slap spent a bigly four minutes announcing we'll all be rooned by Xmas, for the squillionth time, but she introduced something of a variation.
She went back to union bashing roots, taking to the task like Homer Simpson on snake-bashing day.
As well as being all the fault of Jimbo, there were other flies in the pudding...
Over the years, I’ve written a great deal about industrial relations. But in recent times it’s simply become too depressing to spend time on the subject. The retrograde changes that have been made since Labor secured office in 2022 have been entirely politically motivated, rewarding its trade union partners – some would say masters. They are completely unrelated to increasing productivity, improving employee-employer relations or securing win-win outcomes. Like a covetous teenager, the Australian Council of Trade Unions and several other influential trade unions have set down a “must have” list of gifts. The Labor government has worked through the list, ticking each one off as they are made law or delivered through the tribunal system. By right, Jim Chalmers should have raised strenuous objections to these productivity-sapping initiatives, which now mean any annual GDP growth above 2 per cent is essentially impossible, lest the rate of inflation accelerate. But the Treasurer has a very skewed view of the workings of the labour market. He was happy to be convinced that labour’s share of national output had been artificially suppressed under the Coalition government and measures to increase it were both justified and economically harmless. For this reason, he’s fully supported higher mandated wages set by the Fair Work Commission.
Naturally the reptiles flung in an AV distraction from Sky Noise down under - still no rebrand! - but the pond finds it hard to get past that spelling of "Jaimee" ...Sky News host Jaimee Rogers criticises Labor’s alleged plan to amend industrial relations laws to favour unions. “It creates an exemption under discrimination law, allowing the Commonwealth to give preference to businesses with union enterprise agreements when awarding government support,” Ms Rogers said.“Why should a company's relationship with a union have anything to do with whether it receives taxpayer-funded support?“Shouldn't the best project win?“If these decisions will genuinely deliver better value for taxpayers, then publish the criteria.“Let the public see who benefits and why.“Because if there is nothing to hide, there should be nothing to fear from transparency.”
Dame Groan continued to rage, and the pond let her, in the hope that it might at last winkle out a comment or three ...
If he had done his homework – or been properly advised – Chalmers would have learnt that the fall in the observed labour share is a worldwide phenomenon that is about changes to technology and forms of employment, including the shift to independent contracting. He would’ve also learnt that the forces of supply and demand apply no less in the labour market, and the key to higher real wages is growth in productivity. Let’s run through some of the economically damaging changes the Albanese government has made to the law and regulation of industrial relations. The first cab off the rank is the abolition of the Australian Building and Construction Commission, a key demand of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union and other unions. Notwithstanding the assertion of the then minister, Tony Burke, that the ABCC had been ineffective in dealing with the industrial relations problems in the construction industry, the fact that the unions were so keen to see it gone is telling. At the margin, the ABCC constrained the most egregious union behaviour, partly because of its powers to compel witnesses to testify. This was payback. Big time. How the PM can keep a straight face telling us he doesn’t condone the behaviour of the CFMEU is anyone’s guess. Sure, the union has been put into administration. But reading the ongoing revelations, it’s clear the union continues to operate in a largely unconstrained fashion. The infiltration of criminal elements into the industry is probably irreversible.
Time for another heel, Tony Burke addresses the House of Representatives before the winter recess. Picture: Hilary Wardhaugh / Getty Images
And so to wander back in time, because - amazing scenes - Juliar is going to be trotted out by the groaner...
Having ruled out any return to multi-employer bargaining prior to the 2022 election, Labor quickly broke this promise by introducing several changes to the Fair Work Act that made agreements between several employers in the same industry entirely possible. Clearly, the aim of the unions is to pick off the easiest target within an industry sector, gain concessions and then spread them across as many employers as possible. It’s the antithesis of the model of enterprise bargaining envisaged by Paul Keating all those years ago, but also by Julia Gillard when she was the minister for workplace relations. The same job, same pay was another example of payback, this time for unions operating in the mining industry. To achieve what flexibility was possible under Gillard’s legislation, several companies developed a model of having a core workforce covered by an enterprise agreement and a secondary workforce sourced from labour hire companies or internally. The result of the new provisions on same job, same pay has been very significant increases in the remuneration for some workers, particularly in mining. The change has imperilled the viability of some operations, but the high commodity prices have cushioned the short-term effects. Over the longer term, there is no doubt it has made Australia a much less desirable place to invest in the resource industry. This has been made clear by the leaders of some of our biggest mining companies. The US and South America are now seen as preferable investment locations. We have also seen small businesses caught up in a new definition of casual work as well as being swamped by claims for unfair dismissal. They have also been impacted by very generous increases awarded each year in the national wage case.
The pond distinctly remembers that in Juliar's day, she was rooning the country by Xmas, and a chaff bag was urgently needed, but it now seems like she's living rent free in the hive mind, and provides a handy club for the present ... as Dame Groan relentlessly returned to the past, like some aged mariner in an old folks' home, Julia Gillard addresses the parliament
That led Dame Groan to a final gobbet of ruination and damnation, and the pond wondered if this might be a new template for fulminations and foamings ...
Just as mad King Donald had dragged commie swine back from the 1950s, might not fear of all powerful, all conquering unions rooning the country become a new reptile meme? (And never mind that unions are pretty toothless, remember, they're in league with the guvmint!):
The needs of workers have dominated as a criterion over employers’ capacity to pay, a position egged on by the submissions lodged by the federal government. Under the most recent decision, award wages were increased by 4.75 per cent, with even higher increases for the lowest-paid workers. The Reserve Bank is now expressing some unease about the growth in wages, although the Treasurer doesn’t see the dangers. In the meantime, the FWC has simply been mandating higher rates of pay for aged care and childcare workers, which are way beyond the scope of employers to fund short of massively increasing fees. The government is now using taxpayer funds to co-fund these wage rises, which is a complete fiscal folly. Having failed twice to persuade the FWC to eliminate junior rates of pay in key awards, a stacked panel finally decided this year in favour of the unions. This decision will again hit small businesses particularly hard as junior rates of pay are phased out for workers aged between 18 and 20 in retail, fast food and pharmacy. Just recently, a new clause in the legislation was slipped through without any serious parliamentary scrutiny to allow government procurement to discriminate in favour of companies with union enterprise bargaining. This government simply shows no shame in handing out favours to the unions. Let’s not forget union membership is less than 10 per cent in the private sector. What can’t be won through recruiting members can always be obtained from tame politicians. As the Productivity Commission notes: “Australia’s labour productivity growth is going from bad to worse. Labour productivity fell by 0.6 per cent in the March quarter and over the year to March has grown by only 0.3 per cent. Australia’s labour productivity appears stuck at the levels we settled into after the Covid pandemic.” There’s no doubt that the backward slide in the regulations in industrial relations is a major contributor. Just don’t expect any remedial action from this government.
But could we at least have a 'toon in our despair?
So soon? Just one comment on the Saturday, suggesting an unhealthy torpor, a lassitude, a lackadaisical approach to herpetology studies has set in, and the pond hasn't even yet conducted mid-term exams.
Correspondents have gone MIA, the desultory responses suggesting that they need a good lashing, a shaking into life.
What they need is a return to nasho, a way get them doing pond community service, and it wouldn't hurt vulgar youff either ... or so says a Bergin, brimming with plans to give the younglings a newfound purpose...
It was such a Westfield billionaire vision splendid that - while the full text could be found at the intermittent archive - the pond couldn't resist the rest of the spiel, the pitch to bring back nasho ...
...Lowy’s national service push could be achieved if we established an emergency management corps modelled on the Australian Defence Force Gap Year program. The ADF program enables 17 to 24-year-olds with a year 12 education to experience segments of defence force training and employment for up to 12 months. There’s no obligation to continue their service beyond the year. An infantry soldier in the Gap Year program is paid about $82,000 a year. The program is now established as a key avenue of entry to the ADF. There were 825 young people enrolled in the program last year. A high proportion of entrants elect to remain in the permanent defence or part-time reserve workforces. The EMC should be a two-year program, during which participants work with emergency management organisations in the states, gaining and practising skills applicable in emergencies without demanding a long-term, full-time commitment from them. They would be paid like defence reservists and would be required to maintain their participation in the EMC when conditions demanded it until the age of 40. The EMC would introduce a common national approach to the training of emergency workers that would enable them to be used cross-jurisdictionally. Under the EMC, the main roles for corps members would include severe flooding response and post-impact recovery and clean-up, bushfire and severe storm and cyclone response. Once they’ve completed their training, they’d be kept at a high state of readiness, available for immediate deployment within the state or nationally. Resources would need to be provided to the states to train, direct and deploy EMC members. Defence might be able to assist in some aspects of training in the EMC. Civil defence roles could be part of the work of the EMC: our strategic environment has changed and warning times may be very short. Long-range missile strikes on this country are a possibility. We need some planning on how and what civil defence measures are needed to protect the civilian population during conflict and recover from any hostilities. The EMC could be trained in civil defence roles such as assisting in evacuation, management of protective shelters, rescue and emergency accommodation and supplies. Most young people would consider counter disaster and rescue work more appealing than military service, although that would be included as a choice. There is some element of danger in countering disasters that might worry parents, but much less so compared with the military. A manageable element of danger (in a good cause) would be an attraction to many young people. Mixing at an early-stage EMC member will bring subsequent benefits of greater mutual understanding and co-operation. Lowy should be applauded for advancing the idea of national service to help Australia get ambitious again about its values, giving young Australians an outlet to contribute to our pluralism. Anthony Bergin is an expert associate at the Australian National University’s National Security College.
Well played - the pond just loves reptile 1950s and 1960s dreamings - and good luck with all that ... as the conscripted reptiles went about the right and proper jihad for the day, giving Albo a bloody good hiding at the top of the digital edition this morning ...
If you want to be shocked, startled and appalled by that line up of reptile EXCLUSIVES, the sudden transformative reptile approval of feminists can be found here, with the shocked, newly feminist Shanners tit-titting and clucking here. (Only 3 minutes worth, mind).
Sheesh, and there was the pond thinking it was just another sample of bro influencer culture, but it turned out that there was nothing to laugh about, as the reptiles went full feminist pious apoplectic.
As for the reptiles desire that AI should roam wild and free, that could be found here - please, no heavy-handed regulation of AI - while the conventional, "we'll all be rooned"- gotta make gas run wild and free warm up for tomorrow's Dame Groan - could be found here ...
What a pity that they couldn't save all the verbiage by running an immortal Rowe ...
The pond regrets it couldn't spend more time in a state of alarm and panic, just as it couldn't find the time to spend with simplistic Simon, sounding an apocalypse now alarm ...
16pc state primary vote signals Libs wipeout The path once trodden by the Coalition through NSW on its way to government in Canberra is now looking more like an overgrown goat track. By Simon Benson Political analyst
The pond saved it to the intermittent archive, but does commend the reptiles for coming up with a most excellent opening illustration, featuring a deer caught in the headlights ...
Speaking of the windmill-fearing beefy boofhead from down Goulburn way, the quarry whispering Caterist was also on the case:
The header: Taylor’s TikTok challenge: complex policy in 45 seconds; The TikToxicisation of politics is spreading infection across the broader civic landscape.
The caption, with exceptional Emilia credit, for a most moving collage: Pauline Hanson, Anthony Albanese and Angus Taylor. Art: Emilia Tortorella. Sources: iStock
The pond couldn't see a problem - it usually only takes 45 seconds to understand the Caterist at his most complex is a form of drivel - but the flood waters decipherer was determined to show he was down with the exotic and arcane ways of vulgar youff:
In August 2018, Australian politics quietly entered a new age. Almost nobody noticed. The trigger was the creation of an exceptionally addictive digital platform by Chinese technology company ByteDance. ByteDance’s new supercharged TikTok algorithm used artificial intelligence to process mountains of information containing clues to an individual’s appetite for, say, performances by dancing cockatoos compared to acrobatic cats. If that makes TikTok sound trivial, it is because, at one level, it is. It prefers attention-grabbing stunts and smart-alec comments to lectures on quantum physics or reasoned discussions about tax policy. The algorithm craves attention above everything, which explains why the federal Disability Minister was caught on camera in his office last week behaving like a jackass, waving his arms around theatrically and gyrating in his suit. Mark Butler, 55, wasn’t drunk or amusing a restless infant. He was trying to grab your attention to tell you the great news about Labor’s tax cut, the one so small you’d otherwise miss it. The TikToxicisation of politics is spreading infection across the broader civic landscape. Time senior ministers once spent poring over policy documents or crafting cabinet briefs is now spent crafting clever one-liners.
What to do, what to do? Turn to a man with the charisma of a wet and rather smelly sock? Angus Taylor reacts to a speech in the House of Representatives. Picture: Getty Images
Just the man to deliver a most engaging leer... as the Caterist stayed on the case...
Indeed, some younger backbenchers newly arrived in politics seem to think entertaining social media audiences is all they have been elected to do. One Nation has adapted quickly to this brave new world. Pauline Hanson’s Please Explain cartoon series was tailor-made for the algorithm. Facebook-era social media helped One Nation build a network of supporters in a limited older demographic. The TikTok era has broadened the party’s geographic and demographic appeal. The good news for Angus Taylor is that the algorithm doesn’t much care about partisan politics. Previous Liberal leaders have struggled with the proliferation of pro-Labor and Green bias in what we now call the legacy media. All the algorithm cares about is engagement. Taylor understands the need for strong digital content better than most. Lifting the opposition’s digital technology game was one of his top priorities when he was elected leader. The challenge for Taylor, however, is not form but content. The reforming policies the national interest demands from grown-up governments are not easily explained in 45 seconds. Platforms that prioritise engagement respond less well to complex arguments for fiscal reform than to emotionally compelling narratives spiced with crude ad hominem attacks. The bias Taylor faces is not partisan but structural. The serious debate on economic reforms he knows he can win will struggle to survive a hard fight for attention when Labor ministers are prancing around like performing seals. The relationship between politics and the fourth estate has survived other technological revolutions. The introduction of rotary presses in the 19th century vastly increased the circulation and influence of newspapers.
Quick, a snap of a villain devoted to the superficial, Health Minister Mark Butler has gone to great lengths to grab your attention.
And how does the Caterist cope with all this new-fangled stuff?
Why, by reverting to Ming the Merciless and little Johnny and Arthur Calwell, because nothing signals contemporary relevance better than trotting out the names of politicians that vulgar youff wouldn't have a clue about ...
Robert Menzies adapted quickly to the radio era, recognising the potential for politicians to talk directly to voters sitting comfortably in their own homes. His Forgotten People radio essays in 1942 were not just a forum for political communication but also a platform to assemble a coherent statement of philosophical intent. The end of Labor leader Arthur Calwell’s career was hastened by his inability to perform on television. John Howard bypassed the hostile press gallery by mastering talkback radio. Taylor’s challenge, however, will be considerably harder in the era of media abundance, which accelerated with the arrival of smartphones and ubiquitous high-speed internet. In the analog era, consumer choice was constrained by technological and commercial limitations. Today, market choice is effectively infinite. The scarce resource the algorithms allocate is time. Watch time, rewatches, comments, shares and likes, and similar behavioural metrics provide the price signals that inform the market. Like Adam Smith’s invisible hand allocating capital, the algorithm apportions the scarce resource of human attention to the highest bidder. Structural biases are inevitable. Nuance is cognitively costly. Outrage is cognitively cheap. Engagement systems value moral-emotional and conflict-oriented content, discounting subtlety and reason. Ad hominem attacks triumph over substance. Content expressed with certainty typically outperforms content that acknowledges complexity and uncertainty. That may suit populist parties advocating simple solutions but it is inimical to politicians who recognise the need for trade-offs. A video that argues for and against in the hope of arriving at an acceptable middle would sink without a trace on TikTok.
By golly, this day he's up there with his insights on the movement of floodwaters in quarries, as the reptiles flung in the real reason the lizard Oz is still in an abject panic ... Pauline Hanson and One Nation have adapted quickly to the brave new world Picture: Martin Ollman
From the wreckage, the Caterist managed to produce signs of hope, because he was down wit it...
Instead, the algorithm creates feedback loops that reduce exposure to competing perspectives. There’s little to be gained in challenging a mind that is already made up. It is tempting to look back at the quarter-century that began in the early 1980s and expired in the late 2000s as the golden era of reform, presided over not by mere politicians but by leaders blessed with a sagacity that transformed them into gods. Yet it is a moot question if Howard would have survived four elections in the era of social media. Would the GST have become law if its second-reading speech had been delayed for 25 years and been subjected to the mockery, smears and distortions that drive engagement on TikTok? In his reply to the budget in May, Taylor outlined the most substantial economic reform proposal from an opposition leader this century. The arguments for abolishing bracket creep might not be particularly engaging to the algorithm. Yet Taylor is determined to persist. Taylor did not abandon a successful career as a business consultant to become a social media content provider. He did not withdraw from running his family’s farming business to grow clickbait. His objective is not to accumulate Facebook friends to gain power, fame and influence for their own sake. Taylor remains true to the spirit of his party’s founder who, when the party faced a low ebb in the early 1960s, delivered a counterintuitive line that may well have gone viral, framed in contemporary rhetoric. “We are not here just to win elections,” Menzies told a party gathering at Hawthorn Town Hall in the heart of his Kooyong electorate. “We are here to win something for the country.”
Say no more, the Caterist and the beefy boofhead are going to score by staying true to the spirit of the 1950s and Ming, and that'll larn them vulgar youffs ...
Aside from this form of low comedy, do the reptiles even begin to realise that the current government has vulnerabilities?
The pond thought that as yet another ad for gambling flashed across the pond's screen, despite the pond's very best attempts to block such advertising ...
And yet the hive mind is clueless ...
Meanwhile, the Australian Daily Zionist News strand of the hive mind featured yet another piece by Major Mitchell ...
The header: How Israel’s reality of happy coexistence shatters the narrative of global hate; The Israel of social media hate bears no resemblance to everyday life in the country.
The caption for the snap of one of the Major's enemies: Former Adelaide Writers Festival director Louise Adler appearing on the ABC’s 7.30. Picture: ABC
The pond only runs the Major so that it can provide the odd alternative, like this one...
And so on, and it goes without saying that the Major's portrait of the current state of Israel under the current far right government bears no actual connection to the rabid, extremist reality ...
The Israel of social media hate and look-at-me public protesters globally bears no resemblance to the actual country. This column is being filed from Tel Aviv and the country’s north where Israelis seem back to their best after a pall of sadness was lifted with the return of Hamas’s hostages last October. A year ago, again visiting my daughter, grandson and son-in-law who live in central Tel Aviv, the usual boisterous Israeli mood had given way to a feeling of national mourning after October 7 and the hostage crisis. Huge “bring them home banners” – some many storeys high – were draped down the outsides of buildings and on people’s verandas and car windows. The faces of the hostages were plastered in adhesive stickers across lamp posts, bus stops and park benches in towns across Israel from the north to the Negev. The country’s national purpose, to provide a home for Jews who for thousands of years have known this is their homeland, was – as this column wrote in October 2023 – always going to be challenged by the taking of hundreds of hostages. That piece said Israel’s psyche demanded every Israeli everywhere be rescued no matter the cost. Israel, after the loss of six million Jews in the Holocaust, is where Jews must always find safety.
The reptiles flung in a snap ...Rachel Goldberg and Jonathan Polin, parents of Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, attend a demonstration calling for the hostages’ release. Picture: AFP
This is a country that sent the late brother of its present Prime Minister as a 30-year-old soldier to rescue the Entebbe hijack hostages in 1976. Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu was killed leading the successful rescue of 100 hostages in a daring mission on the tarmac at a Ugandan airport. This is the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who in 2011 traded 1027 Palestinian prisoners for a single soldier captured by Hamas, Gilad Shalit. Among those freed prisoners was Yahya Sinwar, who would go on to plan the October 7 pogrom that killed 1200 innocents on a Sabbath morning in their homes, in their beds and at a music festival for peace. Western protesters who understand nothing about Israel or the Middle East love to hate Bibi, but he came to the latest conflicts with Iran and its proxies with a far deeper understanding of Palestinian terror than any politician alive anywhere. Last Saturday, the Sabbath, we went to a local beach. Thousands were on the white sand and in the water – Jews picnicking on the grass by the sand alongside Palestinian families. On Tuesday morning at the same beach, a young Palestinian mum in what Australians might call a burkini was swimming with her two young sons next to a small group of Israeli mums. I accompanied my daughter to an indoor swimming lesson for the 18-month-old in northern Tel Aviv. Two Palestinian mums in similar swim attire were in the heated pool with their toddlers singing along in a Hebrew version of Eensy Weensy Spider. This is not the Israel the West’s foreign correspondents report, always keen for an easy line on Palestinians and their Jewish “oppressors”. Nor would the keffiyeh-wearing crowd at an Australian pro-Palestine march find a European settler coloniser society were they to visit. Even among the Jewish population, 60 per cent are of Middle Eastern background. My grandson’s paternal grandfather left Iraq in 1950 and the Iraqi government confiscated all his property. He had lived in Erbil so dodged the June 1941 anti-Jewish pogrom in Baghdad. Known as Farhud, Nazi-aligned forces killed 500 Jews and injured 1000 in two days. Like much of the Middle East, including Palestinian Grand Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini, the Iraqis were Hitler’s allies.
That Haaretz piece opened with a few words relating to a few of the Major's notions...
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has a long record of historical revisionism. Take, for example, the Holocaust. Over the last decade, he has claimed that the (pro-Nazi) Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, invented the Final Solution, not Hitler; whitewashed Nazi collaborators in Poland and Hungary; and declined to push back at Russian President Vladimir Putin's claim that his army was "denazifying" Ukraine. Netanyahu's habit of calling the Iranian regime, Hamas and U.S. college encampments the "new Nazis" is not only analytically substandard, but legitimizes the flattening of the Holocaust in global public rhetoric to become a cheap and ubiquitous slur. But Netanyahu's campaign of revisionism regarding the Hamas attack of October 7, 2023 is not only blatant and egregious, but its success or failure will determine the results of Israel's imminent elections – and the fate of millions of Israelis and Palestinians.
As for Benji, so the Major, as the object of the Major's worship intruded, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Picture: AFP
Then came a gross defamation, a profound distortion of what actually happened during the 1948 Nakba ...
My daughter’s mother-in-law migrated from Algeria. While 700,000 Palestinians left the newly formed, United Nations-backed state of Israel after independence in 1948, more than a million Jews from around the Middle East fled the other way.
They just upped and left? Appalling, but not if you want to act as Benji's Lord Haw-Haw:
Many had lived in places like Baghdad, Tehran, Cairo and Damascus since long before the Prophet Mohammad was born. As Sabine Sterk wrote in The Times of Israel on August 7 last year: “Israel absorbed its refugees, often from hostile lands, building housing, jobs and education. Arab countries weaponised their refugees, refusing them citizenship, confining them to camps and using their suffering to demonise Israel. “These Jews didn’t have to be expelled by war, they were expelled by hate.” And yet people in this country are happy. The global World Happiness Report released in March rated Israel eighth worldwide. Most of its Middle Eastern neighbours rank near the bottom of the index. Israel’s under-25s are even more happy. They rank third, while the youth of the US plummeted to 60th, according to the Times of Israel. The study said the young in Israel benefited from strong “family ties, community faith, a sense of belonging and strong social bonds”. Precisely the attributes young Australians seem to be missing. Researcher Anat Fanti from the Bar-Ilan University said young Israelis did military service while their foreign peers were still in college.
Somehow the reptiles think this sort of snap works, People enjoy a day at the beach along the Mediterranean at Tel Aviv, Israel. Picture: AP
As if it is a counter to the ugly reality of the ethnic cleansing, and the rampant destruction, which the UN has estimated will cost US$70 billion to make good ... what a mess ...
And there's other stories that never enter the hive mind orbit ...
As for the rest, it's predictable, a kind of ongoing Major set of thought crimes in support of a far right government intent on producing a greater Israel ...
“They make decisions between 18 and 21 that are far beyond their years,” she wrote. It’s a country the Western left once lauded for its working class socialism in action on Kibbutzes, in the government-subsidised healthcare sector, and the fact education is available to all citizens, whether Jewish, Bedouin, Muslim or Christian. Yet to hear the likes of former Adelaide Writers Festival director Louise Adler describe it, Zionism – which is no more than the acceptance of the reality of Israel’s legal existence – is a kind of racist thought crime. Adler wrote on Deepcut News on June 29 – the day Steven Lowy, son of Westfield founder and Holocaust survivor Frank Lowy told the antisemitism royal commission his family had received 1500 online threats a month – that the inquiry should really be looking at the Israel lobby to find the cause of Australia’s rising antisemitism. She argued much of the evidence presented to the commission was about the hurt feelings of Jewish Australians before and after the December 14 massacre of 15 people during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach. Adler’s piece ends with a defence of the idea that ordinary diaspora Jews “should be held responsible for Israel’s conduct”. Why? Because the “Israel lobby” conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism”. A more cogent assessment of the “guilt by association” thinking of modern leftists was presented in The Australian by Nick Dyrenfurth on Wednesday, critiquing a push by academics to force a Melbourne University scholar to hand back a prize linked to a Jewish institution. An open letter published in Overland called for historian Matthew Champion not to accept the Dan David prize for a work on medieval concepts of time because of the Dan David Foundation’s links to Israel. “Totalitarian regimes of both the left and the right perfected the technique of guilt by association dressed up as virtue,” Dyrenfurth wrote. People in Israel understand the moral and historical inversions being framed against their country – the deliberately warped use of words such as genocide or apartheid that could never apply to Israel in their ordinary meaning. Palestinians have been offered a two-state solution many times since the 1930s. They have rejected these offers. Today, sadly, Israel and Jews globally have few friends, even in the US, UK and Australia.
And why is that? Because genocide and apartheid can be applied to Israel in their ordinary meanings, and all the denialism in the world won't alter that reality.
But there are some things that are impossible to ignore, unless you happen to have a pair of the Major's rose-tinted glasses to hand.
It's a bit like trying to deny other current realities, ones for which Faux Noise and News Corp must shoulder a bigly amount of blame...
On the other hand, there's always Vladimir Rudolfovich Solovyov, the crème de la crème of contemptible Lord Haw-Haws, to provide a little light relief ...
