In which the pond returns to the Mein Gott well, before diving in with nattering "Ned"

Liberation Day ... freedumb day ... and all that the foreign-owned News Corp has worked towards will soon come to pass ...

Per the top of the NY Times digital page, as in the USA, Wednesday rolls around ...

Exciting times, though Liberation Day seems to have bypassed the lizard Oz...or at least they thought so little of it that they slipped in a mention of it right down the page, preferring to feature PayPal in a big wrap-around...

Instead of Liberation Day, the reptiles, led by a lesser member of the Kelly gang, were featuring - peddling is a better word - this sort of mystical "Jesus on a cheese toastie" nonsense ...

INSIDE STORY
‘Our little miracle’: how parents asked Pell to save their boy’s life, 

Wes and Caitlin Robinson didn’t believe Vincent would survive after receiving an astonishing 52 minutes of CPR. But they credit the late George Pell with interceding to save their baby after he nearly drowned in their hot tub.
By Joe Kelly

That's down there with PRAISE BE, Trump’s Press Secretary Claims He’s Facing ‘Evil Forces’, Karoline Leavitt is painting the White House as being engaged in “spiritual warfare.” (archive link)

Meanwhile, will someone call on the Pellists to save the planet?

EXCLUSIVE
Liberals to drop fines on car emissions
The Coalition will abolish fines for car companies who breach targets under Australia’s first vehicle emissions standards scheme.
By Greg Brown, Sarah Elks and Joanna Panagopoulos

It took 3 reptiles to write up that story?

The reptiles remained in campaign mode, leading with ...

WAGES
Labor makes inflated promise to low-paid workers
Anthony Albanese will back above-inflation pay rises for 2.9 million low-paid workers, igniting an election fight with Peter Dutton and business.
By Ewin Hannan

Over on the extreme far right, the pond decided that there were some who could be safely ignored ...

Worrywart simplistic Simon (here conflicts of interest) was at it again ...

Dutton now trapped in a Labor double-dare
The politics of Albanese’s call for above-inflation wage rises presents a political problem for Peter Dutton but seems to disregard the problem that lies beneath.
By Simon Benson
Political Editor

Dame Slap was in "must" mode...

Why Dutton must purge shoddy industry super funds
If Dutton wins the May election, he can and should defang these funds. They are now large public offer financial institutions – many of whose members are not union members.
By Janet Albrechtsen
Columnist

The pond must keep avoiding Dame Slap, especially when she wants to purge ...the pond will indulge in bulimia nervosa another day ...

The pond must also avoid Jennings of the fifth form when wanting to bung no a do with China ...

China’s ‘research ship’ just the latest act of an aggressor
The government should direct the air force to fly P8 maritime surveillance aircraft around the Chinese ship.
Peter Jennings
Contributor

Really? Even Japan and South Korea are hunkering down with China ahead of Liberation Day ... or at least having talks.

Perhaps out of sheer perversity, or because the last late arvo Mein Gott inspired the pond's correspondents, the pond decided to reach back to yesterday and savour the Mein Gott outing, Peter Dutton should alert voters to Labor’s hidden tax plans ahead of May 3 federal election, If the Albanese government is returned to power, we must prepare for Labor’s new signature tax on unrealised capital gains to spread and impact a lot more than currently promised.

It was a four minute read, or so the reptiles said, but who couldn't love a piece that began with an AV distraction featuring the Canavan caravan? Nationals Senator Matt Canavan discusses recent polling results, which show the Labor Party ahead of the Coalition. Newspoll, the Resolve Political Monitor, and YouGov have all recorded increases in Labor’s primary vote, although neither major party has been able to achieve a commanding lead. “The changes in the polls are so small as to be almost insignificant,” Mr Canavan told Sky News Australia. “All these numbers show is that it’s very, very close. “I think we’ve got to fight for every vote, I think this election is up for grabs.”

Up for grabs? Not in Mein Gott's world - he was in a state of frenzied, deep anxiety ...

With the opinion polls telling us that the Albanese government is set to win the election, Australians must prepare for the ALP's new signature tax – a tax on unrealised capital gains or the “savers tax”.
The launch pad will be those with superannuation balances above a non-indexed $3m, but that’s just the start. With the Greens’ help, it will extend deeper into superannuation and then almost certainly break out into the wider investment field.
Given the government knows it can raise most of the superannuation money via a fair and well-accepted taxing system, it is clear that the unrealised gains tax is destined for a much wider net outside superannuation.
Many speculate it will eventually hit the family home.
Bill Shorten lost the 2019 election to Scott Morrison partly because of a botched franking credits tax. But Anthony Albanese faces Peter Dutton, who appears to be a much less effective election campaigner than Morrison in 2019.

Don't you just love the audacity of "many speculate."

Many speculate that the reptiles get their snaps from cheap stock sources these days and wrangle and mangle them into pathetic collages using AI ... Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese. Picture: Supplied/iStock

Mein Gott wildly speculated away ...

Nevertheless, the government is going to the 2025 election with another and arguably more dangerous botched tax.
If you hold shares or property, you will be taxed on the rise in the value of those shares and property even though you have not sold. The annual property values will be determined by the Australian Taxation Office.
Initially, the tax aims to attack those who hold farms or commercial property in a superannuation fund, but if it breaks out of superannuation the “savers” tax will hit all equity investments.
The government will deny it has any intention of taking the tax out of superannuation, but the massive unsustainable deficits projected in the latest budget means the government may have no choice but to use the tax widely. Treasury will be well aware of this “backup”.
What makes the tax so dangerous to the nation is that it has been carefully concealed in the budget, and it makes absolutely no sense to introduce it unless it is planned to extend eventually beyond superannuation into all investments.
Whoever wins the next election will need to grow the economy or introduce either a major new tax or substantial cost-cutting.
The ALP vows not to cost cut, and its high-cost energy plus industrial relations and environmental legislation mean growth will be restrained.
If it wins, the ALP can raise most of the extra money required by extending the “savers tax” into most equity investments.

Oh the government might deny, but Mein Gott knows, in a way that only Mein Gott knows, perhaps by channelling the 'little to be proud of' man, Nationals Leader David Littleproud says the Albanese government is trying to tax unrealised capital gains. Housing Minister Clare O'Neil has ruled out any immediate changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax. “They said they wouldn’t touch superannuation, and now they’re trying to tax unrealised capital gains, which is an ideology that every Australian should have a shiver down the back of their spine on,” Mr Littleproud told Sky News Australia.

It's a hidden plot, a fully masked conspiracy,  unmasked by Mein Gott, though with a 'perhaps' here and a 'perhaps' there ...

Indeed, the masks used to conceal the tax's launch make the savers tax looks like it was created to give the ALP a second term option to raise vast sums.
The savers tax had its origins in a widely discussed measure to lift the tax on superannuation balances above $3m from 15 to 30 per cent.
The logical and simple way to calculate that tax was to apply exactly the same method of calculation to the second 15 per cent as applied in the first 15 per cent.
A conventional 30 per cent tax calculation on income derived from assets over $3m in both self-managed funds and industry/retail funds was extremely easy to administer.
Where a person had, say, $4m in super that was spread over several funds, it was that person’s responsibility to alert the funds that the member was liable for the extra tax to require a conventional return statement containing the necessary data.
Those industry or retail funds unable to provide that data would suggest to members that they switch their money to a separate fund in the group that was structured so it could provide the required data.
There might be problems in the first year and a low deeming rate could be applied for that year. After that, those not able to provide the required data would be penalised, perhaps with an unrealised gains tax.

The reptiles flung in a snap of the chief unmasked villains, Anthony Albanese and Jim Chalmers in Brisbane. Picture: Jason Edwards/NewsWire

Vicious, the bloody vicious animals are vicious, and that set Mein Gott off...

Instead of this simple process, the government launched a vicious unrealised gains tax, which made no sense unless it was planned to extend well beyond people with $3m in superannuation.
The government won the debate on the fairness of a properly constructed 30 per cent tax on income from superannuation balances above $3m.
Such a tax would have been regarded as fair by the community and would have passed the parliament without substantial opposition.
The new tax when incorporated into the 30 per cent superannuation tax scheme caused the entire legislation to be rejected by the Senate.
But the government left the amounts to be raised by the “savers tax” in the forward estimates, so although it is not mentioned in the budget, the funds from the unrealised capital gains tax calculation are in the expected revenue for 2025-26. Only a government that had a wide agenda for this tax would play such a game.
The biggest victims from a wider tax will be those trying to develop a new business and asking for capital to help.
Nobody will invest if they have to sell assets to pay for the unrealised gains tax.
And if there is a later loss, they must wait for capital profits to get the money back. The existence of the tax will impact all Australian equity markets.
There are very few leading countries, if any, that have an unrealised gains tax, which means that we should alert overseas investors that any unrealised gains tax will not stop at superannuation.
Fascinatingly, former US vice-president Kamala Harris put an unrealised gains tax in her set of policies. But whereas the Jim Chalmers cut-off was at $3m, the Harris cut-off was $US1bn ($1.62bn).

Fascinating, amazing how airy castles can be built in an airy Mein Gott world, and the pond thinks it has done its duty by domestic politics ...

The pond isn't sure it works like that. Five weeks or ten, it's all a blur ...and the blur might go on for years.

Just a small example.

The pond is in the habit of turning on the news to accompany an early lunch, and yet yesterday the ABC decided it would break schedule and indulge the Duttonator ...

The pond immediately turned over to SBS, which was running the Beeb's news ...a temporary fix, but a chance to step outside the bubble ...

Actually they say a day is a long time if you bump into Australian media.

To be fair, the pond would have done the same if Albo had intruded, but it means that the ABC is on the pond's banned list going forward ...

Would that the pond could do the same with the reptiles, but herpetology studies insist that the pond must pay attention to at least one other reptile each day, and so nattering "Ned" stepped forward with Malcolm Turnbull’s AUKUS plea will fall on deaf ears, While it’s essential for Australia to reassess our ties with the US, Turnbull’s insistence that Albanese and Dutton must now adopt a tougher and aggressive stand towards Trump constitutes a demand that, right now, is pure folly.

No Liberation Day for "Ned", he's all for bending the knee and kissing that arse ... (not that there's anything wrong with arse-kissing in the right circumstances with the right people)

The reptiles decided on a more sedate portrait of Doge City in action, President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before signing an executive order in the Oval Office.

It turned out that Malware had given "Ned" a fright, though it's likely that the pompous, portentous bore is easy to scare, what with his devotion to Chicken Little routines, with much flapping and clucking ...

Malcolm Turnbull’s effort on Monday to secure a “fundamental rethink” of the Australian-American alliance generated a broad consensus that the Trump presidency means deep changes in the alliance – probably the most profound recalibration in its 75-year history.
While Turnbull’s opposition to the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarine project is unwavering, the reaction at the Canberra conference he convened came with a twist – the warning that AUKUS is in trouble but the immediate problem is homegrown, arising in Australia before it materialises in the US.
Turnbull’s purpose in hosting his Canberra forum was to penetrate what he called the “realities” of Donald Trump that both Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton “prefer to ignore”. The sentiment of the conference was that Trump is far more dangerous to the global order, and to Australia, than is publicly recognised by either the Labor Party or Coalition.
But Turnbull’s remarks in his National Press Club speech on Tuesday reveal his motivation is to intensify his campaign against AUKUS based on his belief there is “very little prospect” of Australia getting the Virginia-class submarines the US has pledged to sell to Australia under the agreement.

Fancy imagining that a snake-oil salesman might run out of snake oil ... but to be fair Malware himself isn't bad at snake-oil-selling, Malcolm Turnbull addresses the National Press Club.

"Ned" a-flapping he did go, perhaps startled by that look on Malware's face...

This is a frontal assault by Turnbull on the joint Labor-Coalition position. It has become a personal obsession and crusade. Turnbull has never recovered from Scott Morrison’s abandonment of the conventional submarine deal Turnbull did with the French. He brands AUKUS as “born in deceit” and perpetuated by leaders “sucking up” to the US and engaged in dishonesty about the project.
But Turnbull has conflated two issues. While it is essential for Australia to reassess our ties with the US, his insistence that Albanese and Dutton must now adopt a tougher and aggressive stand towards Trump – he censured them to “get off your knees and stand up for Australia” – constitutes a demand that, right now, is pure folly. This is advice no responsible PM would follow.
Australia must defend its interests; but we are not Canada. Premature gestures of toughness towards Trump have no place now, when we still await Trump’s Indo-Pacific thinking, and when strength will be required further down the track. This was bad, self-glorifying advice from Turnbull.

Indeed, indeed ...

Relax, "Ned" was on top of those tariff thingies...

Obviously, Albanese and Dutton will reject any of Trump’s tariff decisions this week that damage Australia. But this cannot obscure the broader challenge Australia faces from Trump’s transformational policies that were effectively canvassed at Turnbull’s Monday forum.
Former departmental head Heather Smith told the opening session: “The fragmentation of the international economic system is now a fact. The post-Cold War order isn’t collapsing, it has collapsed. The US is dismantling the foundations of its global hegemony, along with the norms and values that have underpinned the US-Australia relationship. And this dismantling cannot be reversed by a change of administration – once gone, always gone!
“The US has adopted a mercantilist view of the world with conflicting goals – where tariffs are the answer to everything. We are in uncharted waters. It will be lonelier and more fraught for Australia in this multipolar world – as demonstrated by both the US and China having engaged in economic coercion against us.

Hmm, perhaps time for an exchange of views with those left out in the cold?

The reptiles then turned to an AV distraction, featuring Malware in action ... Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has told Australian politicians to “get off" their knees and "stand up for Australia”. “Be as transitional* with America as it is with us,” Mr Turnbull said at the National Press Club on Tuesday. “Trying to get a into a race of who can do the most sucking up, particularly with Mr Trump … it’s not the way to advance your interests, or your nations interests.”

(* Did Malware really say "transitional"? Did he mean "transactional"? Or did the reptiles pull a classic Graudian? The pond is betting on the reptiles).

"Ned" did what he does best ... regurgitate the thoughts of others ...

“To say that Australia is not well positioned is an understatement. It’s a dog-eat-dog world. But our political and some of our bureaucratic class are largely admiring the problem. So, the biggest challenge to overcome is the inability of our political class to position Australia for this new world.”
The universal sentiment was that Australia must become more self-reliant in defence. Indeed, this will be a Trump demand. It is an essential but insufficient response. How self-reliant is the question. One polarity was offered by ANU professor Hugh White and the Lowy Institute’s Sam Roggeveen basically saying Australia needed a capability to defend itself – and that this is achievable.
Yet it heralds a pivotal change in our national existence and a defence budget at least in the range of 4-5 per cent of GDP. Roggeveen said while Australia long had a fear of abandonment, when it happens, we respond effectively. White said Trump “is doing us a favour” – he was exposing the fraudulent assumptions of our defence policy: if the US faced a military challenge from China then it would confront “a war it doesn’t want and cannot win”.
Smith said Trump was “clearly not interested in retaining US primacy” – a decisive but probably true assessment. White said effective deterrence meant convincing your opponent you are willing to fight a war and, judged by this test, Trump was unwilling to run effective deterrence against Russia or China.
Yet there was an unreality about the cost of self-reliance. Smith said economic success at home was “central” to Australia’s ability to project power. The domestic debate about economic reform and productivity should be recast: improved economic performance is now a security imperative. Yet the politicians still cannot talk like this.

If you help "Ned" out, join the wise men discussing the shape of the camel, you score a snap, Dennis Richardson

Or was that a giraffe? How they fervently argued about the meaning of the giraffe's neck ...

Richard Denniss, from the Australia Institute, asked what will become smaller to finance a bigger defence budget. Was this about higher taxes and less welfare? The central problem, of course, is the public won’t accept defence at 4-5 per cent of GDP, short of a major crisis.
White offered the most contentious view, saying he believed the US wanted either regional primacy or no regional role, a view that was widely disputed. Former Defence and DFAT chief Dennis Richardson said that regardless of who was the US president, given the power of the US, Australia would always seek a close relationship with Washington. But he warned of risks to relations depending upon how far Trump went; for example, if he used the military option to annex Greenland.
Former ambassador John McCarthy said Australia needed to revise its thinking about the US. He said Trump’s stance towards Asia was uncertain but if Trump favoured a sphere-of-influence policy for China that would have “enormous consequences” for Japan and South Korea before Australia.
McCarthy said China always believed the US alliance networks had given America a permanent strategic advantage over China – a devastating implicit critique of Trump. He said China could be seen as a “potential threat” to Australia and that meant the US alliance would remain an asset. McCarthy, contradicting White, envisaged a strategic equilibrium in the region was possible, with Australia working with the US to try to maintain that equilibrium.

Two more of the wisemen were gifted huge snaps, Retired navy admiral Peter Briggs, Hugh White

The pond wasn't fussed. After all, the Cantaloupe Caligula had shown himself to be a man of compassion, deeply Xian and caring, on a range of matters ...

(That story ran in WaPo, where democracy went do die in the darkness of a billionaire's pocket, but you can also find it at Reuters. Also try Jonathan V. Last in The Bulwark if you want to cultivate a sense of nausea) ...

Meanwhile, the parade of wise men continued, with the bearded one redeemed ...

Former foreign minister Gareth Evans listed his four points of our calibration: less America, more self-reliance, more Asia, more global engagement. Analyst Alan Dupont warned Trump was a “radical change” to the US alliance, and the US was losing its deterrence value for Australia. Dupont articulated the broad position of the forum – don’t sever the alliance but recognise a Trumpian alliance will be more limited and transactional, and that Australia must do more, notably building a world-class defence industry.
Addressing the AUKUS conundrum, Richardson contradicted Turnbull, saying the “worst possible” option for Australia was changing submarine policy yet again. “If we are going back to start again, we have learnt nothing,” he said. Richardson agreed there were “risks” with AUKUS but “the biggest risks were in Australia” and came under three headings: political will, the budget and organisation.
This is a critique of the Albanese government. While Turnbull focused on possible US non-compliance next decade – and there are genuine concerns – the more immediate test is whether Australia is equipped to meet the unfolding AUKUS timetable in the next few years.

The next few years? But if we believe the troller-in-chief, we'll have oodles of time...

"Ned" wound up with more a whimper than a bang ...

Turnbull was searching for a Plan B. Rear Admiral Peter Briggs offered a passionate case for a switch to the French nuclear-powered Suffren-class submarine, but his passion was not widely shared.
In his speech on Tuesday Turnbull said a Plan B was needed but he didn’t embrace a specific option, calling instead for the politicians to admit the problems in the AUKUS project. His plea will fall on deaf ears.

And that's how snake-oil salesmen keep reeling in the all-day News Corp suckers ... still willing to believe that somehow AUKUS will work out, and perhaps might even help in the invasion of Greenland and the occupation of Canada.

But why worry, why the hills are alive with DOGE-style snake oil sellers... (archive link)

Still, even as they face the chop, the infallible Pope closed out this day by bringing good news for the cardigan wearers ... what with special exemptions all the go ...