In which the Ughmann saves the day by nuking the country to save the planet, only for the lights to go out in yet another "Ned" Everest climb ... (fast forward to the Studiebakers)

 

Holy cow, as Seth Meyers - and others - noted yesterday, the war on Xmas and the war on Xmas showers and toilets started really early this year ...

Could the tragically inept reptiles down under keep up the pace set by their American kissing cousins, or would they stumble at the weekend showdown which would finally reveal the outcome of all their sly scheming and malevolent machinations?

Fittingly, the pond was inspired by a Sharri full disrespect moment in the venerable Meade's Weekly Beast...

In a surprise addition to the newspaper election editorials, Sky News Australia host Sharri Markson raised her self-importance to new levels with her very own editorial. “Sharri Markson officially endorses Peter Dutton to be prime minister.” Officially.

There was more - who knew the reptiles were all in on the Duttonator? - but the pond must turn to its very own bestiary ...

The pond decided that it should see which reptiles managed to avoid an election day fuss, and then - on the principle that it would all be digital fish and chip wrapping by night time - avoid them ...

Farewell, snappy Tom, farewell bouffant one brooding about his Seat-o-Meter, farewell simpleton "here no conflict of interest" Simon, and farewell the disgraced pissant Pezzulo, still on a never-ending reptile rehabilitation tour, still seeing his war with China by Xmas as a job opportunity with the Duttonato.

Luckily the climate science-denying Ughmann was on hand with an urgent desire to nuke the country to save the planet, with the pond in awe at the way that zealots zealously love to fling the 'zealot' word around with wild abandon ...

The header: Anti-nuclear zealotry is just net-zero intelligence, Those who fear nuclear energy should avoid all medical scans and never visit France or any of the other 31 countries that use it. It is expensive, but not as expensive as the true cost of renewables. And oh yes, it works 24/7.

The caption: Supporters of the Australian Conservation Foundation protesting Peter Duttons plans for nuclear power at Strathpine in his own seat of Dickson. Picture Lachie Millard

The magical injunction - follow or risk being nuked: This article contains features which are only available in the web version, Take me there

The pond isn't usually one for theatrical demonstrations, but this one pissed off the Ughmann, so must be deemed something of a triumph:

It was a cartoon protest that distilled this election’s infantile energy debate.

On Tuesday, three men, described as “union supporters”, gatecrashed the Opposition Leader’s press conference in the NSW South Coast seat of Gilmore. In low-rent street theatre, three middle-aged men bedecked in dollar-shop hazmat suits and sporting gas masks played a recording of an air-raid siren, as if an atomic bomb were about to detonate in downtown Nowra.

Given their age and clearly declining physical condition, it’s a fair bet that at least one of these cosplay activists has benefited from the very technology they demonise. A cardiac scan? A bone density test? A thyroid function check? All made possible by nuclear medicine, with isotopes probably produced a three-hour drive away at Lucas Heights.

The reptiles were so intrigued they offered the demo a little free publicity with a snap, Nuclear protesters interrupt Peter Dutton’s visit to the Francis Ryan Sporting Fields this week. Picture: Adam Head / NewsWire

Meanwhile, the Ughmann was falling into a nuclear passion as rich as General Ripper's ...

There, tucked away in Sydney’s south, is a national treasure: the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation’s 20-megawatt Open Pool Australian Lightwater reactor. This world-class facility produces lifesaving isotopes used in hospitals across the country every day. From diagnosing heart disease and cancer to assessing brain function and bone health, nuclear medicine underpins modern diagnostics. This organisation’s work is vital, unheralded and, like most things in the energy system, invisible to most.

Nuclear power is the densest form of energy on Earth and produces zero carbon emissions. Nuclear medicine saves lives. Nuclear power enhances life. As the energy analysts at Doomberg put it, if nuclear had been invented yesterday, it would be hailed as a planet-saving technology. It is expensive, but the real cost of chasing the net-zero illusion is tipped to hit $US10 trillion ($15.6 trillion) a year. And, unlike most of the green grifts gorging on this absurd transfer of taxpayer cash, nuclear power actually works.

What to say, except as usual to wonder why the Ughmann gives a toss or a flying fuck about zero carbon emissions, given his energetic efforts to demonstrate climate science is a waste of time.

Just how seriously the reptiles are taking all this is that they decided on an AV distraction, featuring Tamworth's shame, and serial climate science denialist, the Bolter, Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce discusses the Coalition’s nuclear energy plan and how it will be important for Australia. Mr Joyce told Sky News host Andrew Bolt that Anthony Albanese is telling a “lie” on the price of nuclear energy. “Don’t listen to their lies … don’t be that naïve.”

By golly, he's looking the worse for wear each time the pond sees him, but his florid visage did the trick and kept the Ughmann ranting ...

Most major economies understand this. At the last global climate jamboree in Dubai, 25 nations signed a landmark pledge to triple global nuclear power capacity by 2050. Showing his now legendary visionary leadership, Australian Energy Minister Chris Bowen refused to join.

He is a young man. I hope, with the help of advanced medical technology, he lives a long life. Time will be a great teacher.

Those who fear nuclear energy should avoid scans and never visit France or any of the other 31 countries that use nuclear fuel. That list will grow. China has 58 nuclear reactors, 28 are under construction, and it plans to build 118 more by 2035. But fear not: our activists, lobby groups and state and federal energy ministers are way smarter than those foreign dolts.

This column, among a small army of commentators, has criticised politicians for the campaign’s dismal tone. They are only partly to blame because the real summits of stupid are scaled in the disinformation campaigns run by cashed-up pressure groups pushing cynical agendas under the banner of progress.

Take the self-described Smart Energy Council. It is the source of a risible piece of “analysis”, from where Labor draws the farcical $600bn cost of the Coalition’s nuclear energy pledge. The headline on the council’s own press release says its estimate for building seven nuclear reactors ranges from “$116bn to $600bn”, a spread so vast it reveals just how little rigour underpins the claim. When your margin of error is $500bn, you’re not doing analysis; you’re doing propaganda.

Indeed, indeed, and speaking of costings ...

All this nuking carry-on has been rehearsed in the lizard Oz a zillion times, and always with a snap of the renewables villain, usually in ominous or smirking mode, Energy Minister Chris Bowen. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

That kept the Ughmann ranting away ...

This is not the work of serious people. It’s a lobbying pamphlet from an industry association pushing its own barrow. As Berkshire Hathaway former chairman Charlie Munger said: “Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome.” The incentive is to protect the business interests of a multibillion-dollar wind and solar industry that sucks money out of taxpayers’ pockets more effectively than a vacuum cleaner.

Given the council believes it fair to cast a wide net when doing analysis, let’s run a free-range thought experiment. The Smart Energy Council is backed by Chinese solar manufacturers, firms that operate as commercial handmaidens to the Chinese Communist Party. So what other motives may lie behind “analysis” that is essentially just a hit job on nuclear power and, by extension, nuclear submarines?

Could it possibly serve Beijing’s interests to get rich burning coal to churn out solar panels made with slave labour, sell them to the West and then bankroll activist campaigns that stop us from using the coal and uranium buried under our own soil?

Ah, the deviant Chinese, of course, of course, but sadly the reptiles were reduced to stock imagery and a regurgitated caption, Those who fear nuclear energy should avoid scans and never visit France, or any of the other 31 countries that use nuclear fuel. Picture: AFP

Perhaps the pond would have been better off with reptile election talk. That would have only had a half life of a day, this sort of Ughmann stuff stinks up the place for centuries ...

To be fair, I would put this at the $600bn end of the analysis scale, which means so far at the outer reaches of speculation as to be a moonshot. But by the standards of the council and the Albanese government, that’s close enough to use in a nationwide advertising campaign.

Let us note this in passing. It is a matter of historical fact that during the last Cold War, the Soviet Union covertly funded anti-nuclear protest movements in the West to undermine their energy security and defence. Strategic disinformation isn’t novel. It simply finds fresh targets and new useful idiots.

And only an idiot could swallow Australia’s current position on nuclear power. To do so requires anaesthetising the part of your brain that deals with hypocrisy.

Oh sheesh, if having the Ughmann nuke the country in print wasn't enough, the reptiles followed up with an AV distraction featuring the Ughmann and petulant Peta, not that you'd guess it from yet another snap of a smoking stack, Sky News contributor Chris Uhlmann discusses how Labor’s $600 billion nuclear energy claim has given them a lot of “traction” in the election campaign. “The $600 billion claim which clearly had a lot of traction for the Labor Party,” Mr Uhlmann said. Mr Uhlmann sat down with Sky News host Peta Credlin to go over the final stretch of the election campaign battle between Labor and the Coalition.

Might the Ughmann mention and explain away the recent earthquake in the Hunter valley? Of course not, he's busy confusing and conflating nuclear power stations with unicorn nuclear subs...

The Albanese government insists nuclear energy is too expensive, will take too long and is too dangerous to be part of Australia’s civilian power mix. Federal frontbencher Andrew Leigh was among the Labor MPs who festooned their social media with three-eyed koalas and fish, so don’t expect to see him on junkets to glow-in-the-dark Paris.

How could the pond resist?

The pond has been a fan of Blinky for a long time, though this YouTube history should have been in 4:3 like the originals ...

Credit the Ughmann for bringing back fond memories, and credit the Ughmann for evoking those unicorn subs, nestling in harbours ...

Yet this same government has committed to acquiring a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines: arguably the most complex, hazardous and expensive application of nuclear technology on the planet. These submarines will carry young Australian men and women deep beneath the sea, sealed in cigar-shaped steel tubes, entombed within metres of a nuclear reactor for months at a time. Over the span of their careers, those sailors will live in close quarters with technology the government claims is too risky to operate in the suburbs of Adelaide or the outskirts of Brisbane.

These same reactors will dock in Sydney and Fremantle, nestled in harbours right next to cities.

And what is the argument for nuclear subs? That the fuel source makes it the best possible technology, giving us a capability unmatched in range and endurance. That the wait is worth it because they will serve us for decades to come.

Now forget Barners, how desperate does the Ughmann get? 

The reptiles provided a clue with a snap of Tony Bleagh, The father of New Labour, former British prime minister Tony Blair, had a moment of truth telling this week when he admitted that limiting energy consumption and fossil fuel production was ‘doomed to fail’. Picture: AFP

If you think the gyrations, distortions and relentless stupidity of a man addicted to fossil fuel money means anything, then the pond has an aged, but still heavily sexed up Iraq war to sell, and waddya kno, the Ughmann is a buyer...

But if endurance, sovereignty and longevity matter so much in defence, why are they irrelevant in energy? Does the world end in 2050?

And if the government checked its own plan, in 2050 the weather-dependent grid will not function without 15 gigawatts of gas generation.

So Labor and the vast army of virtue signallers who claim their mission is to save the planet are arguing against the only zero-emissions technology with a hope of getting within cooee of their fantasy target: net zero.

The gulf between Labor’s position on nuclear subs and nuclear energy is not a gap in reasoning. It’s a chasm that no sound mind could cross.

And let’s end with this inconvenient truth. Net zero has zero chance of being met because the world is not serious about achieving it. New evidence of this emerges every day. The latest shoe to drop was former British Labour prime minister Tony Blair’s moment of truth-telling, when he admitted that limiting energy consumption and fossil fuel production was “doomed to fail”.

Downing Street swiftly made him recant but, to quote Doomberg again, in the battle between physics and politics, physics is undefeated.

What a relentlessly stupid man this unreformed seminarian is, and yet what a relief that he provided a nuking good distraction, given the circus celebrated by the immortal Rowe ...

The pond loved one detail, and it wasn't the nuclear hat or the SMR under the bed, fine though they were, because every bed should have this sort of ornament, at least if in a Poe nightmare ...

And so to the bonus, and here the pond simply had to fold. 

How could the pond ignore its weekly nattering "Ned" Everest climb, what with "Ned" doing a "pox on both their houses" routine yet again in Bitter politics and shallow policy: Election 2025’s leadership deficit signals dismal fate for the country, There is one certainty: neither the policy agenda of the Labor government nor of the opposition Coalition will be adequate for the numerous storms that lie ahead.

No need for a caption - the animated gif that made the figures wobble about was nauseating on its own - just be aware that the reptiles clocked it at a ten minute read, and that the pond obeyed the mystical command, This article contains features which are only available in the web version, Take me there

Now lie back and relax as a way of getting ready for the climb, safe in the knowledge that one way or another it should be over in 24 hours...

The astonishing feature of Anthony Albanese’s campaign, with polls predicting his re-election, is his “more of the same” policy agenda. Albanese is telling the public the second term of his government will merely amplify the first term. No big changes, no rethink, just status quo stability.
This is a retail politics message for a retail campaign. It is astonishing because the public has been widely dissatisfied with Labor’s first term and with Albanese’s effort as Prime Minister but every sign is that Albanese still will be rewarded. If this occurs there will be two main reasons: the abject failure of the Liberal campaign under Peter Dutton and the superior political skills of the ALP.
Election 2025 may earn an ignominious place in our history – the time when Australia, facing a world in transformation and the imperative for a recasting of its national policies, retreated into denial, timidity and introspection, leaving the impression the challenge was too hard.

The reptiles helped the astonished "Ned" with an AV distraction featuring that man, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese argues only Labor is offering “sensible mainstream reforms” at this election during his closing pitch to voters. The Prime Minister is set to begin his last full day of campaigning in Brisbane. With less than 48 hours remaining, Anthony Albanese is expected to visit Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania.

Sure enough, the interruption sent "Ned" into a brooding, but as you leave base camp for the climb, remember, it'll soon all be over ...

The final Newspoll suggests Albanese has out-campaigned and outpointed Dutton. But minor parties and independents are rating strongly – perhaps performing even better than in 2022 – signalling deep disenchantment with major party leaders who are seen as ineffective and unreliable.

The test for Albanese is whether he might pull off a remarkable majority government re-election. The test for Dutton is whether he can collect a tolerable number of face-saving seat wins. But the tide of voting support alienated from the mainstream parties points to profound changes and challenges for effective government in Australia.

There is one certainty about this election: neither the policy agenda of the Labor government nor of the opposition Coalition will be adequate for the numerous storms that lie ahead. The politicians cannot say they weren’t told. The reality is they are prisoners of a low-expectations political system where any serious effort to seek genuine change and reform will be shot to pieces in a firestorm of self-interested negativity.

Unless this cycle is broken, Australia will slide into a trajectory of decline. The leadership deficit in the country is apparent in this campaign. In truth, neither side has a national interest manifesto that warrants their victory at this election – a truly dismal fate for the country.

This is a period of historic challenge for Australia – it faces a prolonged productivity and living standards slump, weak economic growth, an uncompetitive economy outside resources, chronic deficits and debt, unprecedented strategic dangers, a bungled energy transition and a looming demographic time bomb. Yet this campaign, with a couple of exceptions, has chosen to ignore our challenging future for short-term and glib improvisations.

The pond usually isn't into glib, but between "Ned" and glib, maybe glib - in the sense of fluent, smooth and ready - is the way to go, especially as "Ned's" piece is accompanied by glib snaps and glib captions, Neither leader has put forward any real policies for the urgent reforms the nation desperately needs.

Perhaps the pond isn't as desperate as "Ned" or that hideous visual banality. If the pond had happened to be a US citizen, at the moment the pond might be feeling desperate ...

Sorry, the pond was so desperate to offer distractions on the "Ned" Everest climb that it turned to TT... but even an excellent 'toon can offer a modicum of relief ...

The campaign has entrenched Labor’s political identity for the 2020s and exposed the Coalition’s lack of firm identity. And that’s a double problem.

An Albanese victory, if the polls are accurate, will affirm Labor as a party of high spending, chronic government intervention, high taxation, ambitious social agendas, biased towards free service delivery, pro-union, pro-renewables and pro-identity politics. On balance this is not a viable agenda for Australian success in the rest of the 2020s.

Any majority victory for Albanese will strengthen his authority as Prime Minister, constitute an immense personal achievement and vest Labor with a possible third-term government and the opportunity to put its values and ideological stamp on the country for the rest of the decade.

While the Dutton agenda offered more hope for economic reform, the Coalition’s game plan has been unpersuasive in its caution (the troubled idea of nuclear power aside), its lack of bold policy, lack of preparation, its delays and its belated and flawed policy releases. The sheer extent of Liberal Party underperformance is astonishing. The fear for the Liberals is election 2025 being a repeat of election 2022.

Underneath the Coalition’s scramble over policy is a deeper malaise – the lack of conviction. The Liberal Party of John Howard and Peter Costello is retreating before our eyes. The Liberals have failed to address the core cultural and structural problems revealed in their May 2022 defeat under Scott Morrison.

Yes, yes, but the pond has already taken the obvious path ...

The reptiles provided their own AV distraction. 

Someone must be expert in stuffing irrelevant figures into shape, giving them some kind of animation, then shoving them in front of a camera, Former Labor senator Stephen Conroy says Peter Dutton and the Liberals have failed to produce “any significant platform” in their federal election campaign. Published in The Australian on Sunday, the Newspoll showed support for the Opposition had continued to slide from its high point at the beginning of the year. Primary support for the Coalition fell to 35 per cent, with this the third consecutive Newspoll reporting a decline in the party’s vote share.

The pond hasn't thought of Conroy for yonks, no wonder the reptiles avoided putting him in the thumbnail, as "Ned" moved along with a host of woulda, coulda, shouldas ...

Whether the Liberals are in government or opposition after this election, they will fail at their tasks until they have the long-deferred internal debate to sort their identity and purpose in the 2020s and produce more considered and robust policies.

The Liberals misread the nation. They convinced themselves Albanese would slide out the backdoor and they forgot the golden rule of deciding what you believe and devising policy to project that belief. Their brand is tarnished. Their policies were riddled with contradictions – standing for lower tax but opposing Labor’s tax cut; opposing Labor’s IR laws but retreating from their removal; attacking Labor’s deficits but offering a weak “bottom line” response in reply.

Any Labor victory will come more from clever politics and massive revenue windfalls than genuine policy advances. For Albanese Labor, the era of Hawke-Keating market and productivity-based reform to deliver their famous “growth with equity” successes is long dead.

There is no denying that a Labor win would be a singular electoral feat after seven quarters of negative GDP per capita pointing to an unprecedented retreat in Australian living standards. Yet the risk – staring us in the face – is that Labor will misread the meaning of any election victory thinking “more of the same” will do the job when it obviously won’t.

Labor’s legitimacy as a re-elected government depends on delivering its core pledge – reviving economic growth not just through immigration but also productivity gains, thereby delivering sustained increases in household living standards and private sector investment.

"Ned's" speciality is the bleeding obvious, and yet again it came to pass in the next caption, Albanese’s guiding mantra, ‘No one held back, no one left behind’, taps into a deeply old-fashioned Labor agenda reliant on state power. Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

Quaint really, "Ned" calling someone else deeply old-fashioned, as if "Ned" himself wasn't some holdover from the 1950s, but hey ho, on we go with saucy doubts and Chicken Little fears ...

The risk for Labor is failing this job – being poleaxed on the trio of escalating income tax via bracket creep, chronic spending and deficits, and faltering productivity that means subpar growth.

Campaign 2025 has been conducted in a fog of disillusionment, lies, confusion and trivia. Both Albanese and Dutton have struggled to improve on their low primary votes from the 2022 poll and are hostage to preference flows that will decide the outcome.

This campaign has been about the symptoms of our problems – not the real problems. Plugging cost-of-living pain with energy rebates, fuel excise cuts and one-off tax breaks are fixes the public eventually pays for by higher deficits, higher taxes or spending cuts. Making this the test of electoral success was a gross deception.

The destructive paradox of our politics is on full display – having Labor and Coalition primary votes in the low to middle 30s induces a caution in the major parties lest they fall further, yet such caution only weakens their claims to strong government, thereby boosting further the independents and minor parties. It is a repeating cycle of gloom and distrust.

The risk for the major parties with their institutional anchors is that the country is moving away from them. That’s driven by the culture. But cultural change bears no necessary relation to effective government.

Having more diversity in parliament outside the main parties may be good, but it doesn’t equate to better government. Indeed, minority government in the House of Representatives probably means weaker government, though if Albanese just slides into minority the damage is probably limited.

How many times has the pond endured this gloomy, poleaxing word merchant? 

Too many times, so cue a snap of terrifying teals, Teal MPs Kylea Tink, Zali Steggall, Kate Chaney, Monique Ryan, Zoe Daniel and Allegra Spender. Picture: Martin Ollman

The truth is, these days climbing the "Ned" Everest is pretty much unendurable, unless you're a professional herpetologist ...

The truth is, most of the minor parties and independents succeed because of alienation from the system, often justified – yet they rarely have answers to the nation’s problems and possess little ability to contribute to more effective government.

Exposing the fraud in our energy politics has been advanced in this campaign. The energy transition with its utopian targets and green moralism will occur only with higher power prices. This truth is now seeping into electoral consciousness; witness the humiliation of Albanese’s 2022 pledge to lower power bills by $275. The debate is shifting – the reality of a “renewables-dominant” model, with its infrastructure and reliability demands, guarantees overall higher costs inherent in that system. This is the trap facing Albanese Mark II.

Oh sheesh, as if the Ughmann, version 0.09, wasn't enough ... but then "Ned" finally managed to Everest peak (oh okay Everest pique) the pond's interest ...

The election has missed utterly the meaning of Donald Trump and the world he wants. 

At last the chance for an expiation and a contrite recantation, a disavowing of all that Faux Noise and "Ned's" US kissing cousins had done ...

Sorry, that was a leg pull ...

Sure, Dutton misread the Trump factor and Albanese deftly exploited Trump against Dutton. It’s hard for the Coalition because its voters include Trump addicts and Trump haters.

But the bigger Trump message is as a catalyst for a world being transformed. For Trump, “Making America Great Again” equates to withdrawing the US from its global leadership role in strategic and economic dimensions.

The reptiles seized the moment to slip in a snap of the ultimate Faux Noise money-making entertainer, There is nothing in modern times to compare to Donald Trump’s first 100 days as president, which has convulsed, repelled and transfixed the world. Picture: AP

The pond seized the chance to slip in a Luckovich ...

It was only a temporary relief, because it was on to the deviant Chinese yet again ...

That will shake the foundations of Australia’s security dependence on the US and its reliance on the disappearing so-called globalised rules-based order. Australia is about to have deeper responsibility and maturity imposed on it. Our great US ally is going to be less reliable but more demanding. Trump will open the door to Beijing’s regional ambitions, leading to a tougher existence for Australia. The imperative for Australia will be greater self-reliance, still operating within the US alliance but rapidly increasing its defence budget.

The suspicion is that the public and most of our elites are psychologically unready for this task. It means prioritising a strategic response that will involve most of the community in a way today’s Australians have never experienced. It will unleash new domestic political tensions – the ground is laid in this campaign for a major political split between Labor and the Coalition over defence and strategic policy in relation to China, defence spending and foreign policy.

The reptiles confirmed "Ned's" worst fears with a bit of social media, featuring a thumb of evil, threatening plates, The video, which was posted by a Chinese influencer with over 1.3 million followers, shows the council sing "Happy Birthday" to the Prime Minister.

Relax, it'll soon be over, both in the real and in the fervid imaginings of "Ned's" world ...

A feature of the campaign has been Labor, stubborn and in denial about the new reality. It mouths the rhetoric of a more dangerous world but doesn’t act on what it says. Its insistence that 2.3 per cent of GDP on defence in a decade will meet our needs verges on the irresponsible, is rejected by most defence analysts of both right and left, and risks betraying Labor’s heritage.

As for the Coalition, in the dying days of the campaign it unveiled a major strategic shift and difference with Labor, pledging 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence in five years and 3 per cent in 10 years. This probably made no different to the result. Most of the media accepted Labor’s framing that strategic issues were largely irrelevant. They seem besotted by Trump and reluctant to accept the consequences of Trump.

Labor’s central scare – that the Coalition would cut government services, cut Medicare or even dismantle Medicare – reveals the depth of electoral resistance to spending reductions and urgently needed public sector reform. With stacks of cost-of-living pain, the electorate has no interest in claims the nation is living beyond its means. Indeed, the public is saddled with expectations that cannot be sustainably delivered in current fiscal settings.

The constituency for deficit and debt reduction and public sector reform seems almost non-existent – yet the potential for Labor to exploit Medicare against the Dutton Liberals seems almost limitless, endemic to the Liberal brand and impervious to Dutton’s funding pledges and assurances. But it is not just social policy where the Coalition was penalised.

By this point, the reptiles were shoving in whatever campaigning they could find, perhaps aware that it would soon be over, Independent Candidate for McPherson Erchana Murray-Bartlett claims the Liberal Party has taken the people of the Gold Coast “for granted”. “There’s a huge appetite for change here on the Gold Coast,” Ms Murray-Bartlett told Sky News Australia. “I think what people are realising the most is because of being a safe seat, we’ve been absolutely taken for granted, we’ve never shifted from LNP. “When a party assumes it has your vote, the needs of the community fall by the wayside."

"Ned" went into mourning mode ... the full Yeats, as rough beasts slouched towards Canberra (or perhaps Kirribilli) ...

Surveys show that Dutton’s lead over Labor in the critical areas of economic management, tax policy and cost of living eroded substantially as the campaign advanced, revealing a faltering performance in areas of traditional Liberal Party strength. This points to a deeper problem: cultural changes in the country put more emphasis on compassion politics, service delivery and government paternalism, and that means more resistance to a Liberal agenda of tax reform, smaller government, lower deficits and deregulated industrial relations.

The Liberals are culturally isolated but seem unable to engage at the cultural level. In this campaign Dutton seemed to shun any major cultural agenda yet Labor was vulnerable on vital culture-based issues, the single most important being our declining school performance and an overloaded and hopelessly long curriculum – issues that should be addressed given every family with kids is affected. The work and research has been done; the campaign is loaded and ready. But it wasn’t fired.

Sadly, it seems the Coalition’s victory at the voice referendum – a tribute to Dutton’s judgment – misled the party into thinking traditional values were being revived when that revival depends on issue-by-issue political campaigning and winning the battle of ideas.

Yep, bashing the uppity, difficult blacks and the chance of a Voice is a tribute to what the reptiles and the Duttonator have to offer, and the reptiles followed up with a snap of the visionary and inclusive man in action, Queensland plods marching into the future, Peter Dutton delivers a speech last month at the Building a Bigger, Better SA Forum. Picture: NewsWire / Brenton Edwards

Next "Ned" turned to the notion of nuking the country to save the planet, so lovingly celebrated by the Ughmann...

The white elephant in the Liberal campaign was nuclear power. It is a proven power source but the Coalition has yet to show how it works in Australia. Nuclear power needs bipartisanship and is stymied by state and federal laws that outlaw nuclear and won’t be repealed just because the Coalition might win an election. The difficulty in this transition was highlighted by the Coalition’s proposal for government ownership and fraught debate about the costs with Labor’s successful exploitation of the $600bn price tag, one of the big lies of the election.

A big lie? This much is true outside the reptile hive mind ...

In a nutshell: CSIRO has found that building nuclear reactors in Australia would cost at least twice as much as renewable power and that it would take at least 15 years to build nuclear here.

Sorry, the pond had resolved it wouldn't get down in the weeds or the Ughmann nuts, and luckily "Ned" was finally running out of energy ...

At the National Press Club this week Albanese performed as an assured frontrunner, his guiding mantra being: “No one held back, no one left behind.” It is reflected, above all, in his dubious claim 90 per cent of GP visits will be free by 2030. His compassion agenda builds on the first term – more funds for Medicare, cheaper medicines, cutting student debt, the budget tax cut shaving the lowest rate from 16 to 14 per cent, moving towards universal childcare, support for working from home, more renewable energy, supporting first-home buyers into the market and more industrial relations changes to buttress worker rights.

It is a deeply old-fashioned Labor agenda relying on state power. There is almost no discussion of Australia’s economic future or an economic growth strategy, no effort by Albanese to elevate economic reform and barely any discussion of productivity – now running for a full decade at the lowest rate for 60 years.

Can you see the charming contradiction? "Ned" blathering about relying on state power, and then blathering about the need for state power to elevate economic reform and do something about productivity.

It was a form of sublime stupidity worthy of the windmill-hating boofhead from down Goulburn way, which is perhaps why he turned up in the next snap, juxtaposed with Jimbo, in a way designed to make Jimbo seem like a lesser weevil, Liberal Angus Taylor slammed Labor’s handling of the economy; Treasurer Jim Chalmers blasted the Coalition’s ‘savage cuts’.

And that about did it, with "Ned" down to his final gobbet,  and the ten minute read feeling more like ten hours...

This week’s election costings from both sides revealed a complacency before a decade of budget deficits. Labor made a calculation about this campaign – that it could spend big without being penalised – and that has surely been vindicated. Albanese Labor has increased government spending as a share of GDP to record levels and at the fastest rate since the Whitlam government, with debt forecast to top $1.2 trillion down the track. Its two budget surplus were delivered by windfall revenue gains.

The Coalition at least preserved a modicum of credibility, forecasting a modest $14bn better budget across four years and a $40bn reduction in gross debt and a set of rules, spending growth to be lower than economic growth and a tax-to-GDP limit. But the Coalition’s bottom line is $8bn worse than Labor’s across the first two years and opposition Treasury spokesman Angus Taylor provides no timetable for the Coalition to return to budget surplus.

The reality is that the Coalition, to a large extent, duplicates much of Labor’s spending.

Every sign is that election 2025 will be conspicuous because the campaign mattered. If the polls are right, Labor has achieved a remarkable turnaround since February and during the campaign. This suggests when the public focused on the comparison – Albanese v Dutton – they went for Albanese.

Remember, however, the enduring myth of election 2025 – that Australia doesn’t need to change fundamentally or reset its core policies. In truth, the nation is frustrated. It wants something better. It is unsure of what that needs to be – but it knows the main parties have fallen short.

Ah yes, they want state power to do what "Ned" wants ... and speaking of state power, what we apparently need is more of this sort of thing...

And now farewell to the hamlet of Barraba and its Studebaker display ...

Like all hamlets, the town had a splendid clock memorial ...

Apart from the Stuebaker mob, the town was humming with vitality, and all modern facilities and accessories ...

But it was the Studebaker mob that caught the pond's eye ...

Sadly one of the Studies had a rough journey and retired for repairs...

But there were plenty of other vehicles to admire...