If only Sam Johnson had said "patriotism is the first and last refuge of the unprincipled scoundrel", he might have been hailed as a Nostradamus, foreseeing the appearance of the cranky Caterist in the lizard Oz yesterday ...
As it is, the pond will merely note that the careening Caterist was blessed with the sort of flag-waving snap you might expect in one of the more pathetic marketing catalogues for a supermarket chain...(yes, Aldi)
Put it another way ...
More than enough already.
It's bad enough that the Poms already still occupy far too much of that flag's space. Having a third rate black sheep lecture vulgar youff on the need to bray about the country is too much.
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Off to the intermittent archive with him...
A shared national story begins with pride, not perfection, yet patriotism is an emotion with which intellectuals struggle. For them, history is a burden, not an inheritance
The pond has done its duty and can do no more, though it confesses it should hae done its duty yesterday ...
And having done that and the doing feeling good, the pond can also consign the wretched, beyond the valley of the readable, Dame Slap to the same distant cornfield ...
Many Australians will no doubt wish, as we do, that this rotten saga was over. But if we let the egregious wrongs done to Linda Reynolds and Fiona Brown continue unchallenged, it will never end.
By Janet Albrechtsen
Columnist
For some bizarre reason she was briefly top of the reptile world, ma, this morning ...
The pond is so far over the perils of being Linda that no light emanates from the pond's fundament, but the pond will note one moment of low comedy, dubbed a reptile EXCLUSIVE, once again featuring Dame Slap...
‘Truth matters’: Reynolds threatens legal action over film with Higgins focus
Linda Reynolds warns film producers on ‘Brittany silenced’ claims
Former minister Linda Reynolds warns she will sue documentary producers if their Sundance Film Festival premiere suggests she tried to ‘silence’ Brittany Higgins.
By Janet Albrechtsen and Stephen Rice
Sublime, if a tad far-fetched for a movie plot.
Good old Linda proposes legal action to silence film-makers for suggesting she tried to (scare quotes if you please) 'silence' Brittany.
Shades of Melania and Michael Wolff (as the pond breathlessly waits for Melania's opus).
Will there be no end to Dame Slap rabbiting on about this matter and its many spin-offs?
The pond will also note the astonishing number of reptiles who gathered to scribble this nonsensical hysteria about invasion day ...
Traitors versus the true: our values under siege on Australia Day
A celebration meant to unite the nation has descended into chaos as competing rallies feature antisemitic tirades, violent clashes and a crude bomb thrown into crowds.
By Anthony Galloway, Joanna Panagopoulos, Mohammad Alfares and Euan Kennedy
The true?
George would truly be proud ...
Amazingly this meretricious tripe was still up this morning, long after it was needed as an assault on the pond's tired eyes ...
The pond will also note the reptiles attempting to keep up to date with the latest fascist regime to disgrace the planet ...
Trump to send border tsar to Minnesota after Walz call
Trump eyes reducing number of federal agents in Minnesota, sends border tsar Tom Homan
Donald Trump has agreed to look into reducing the number of federal agents in Minnesota after a ‘productive’ call with Minnesota governor Tim Walz.
By Agencies
The chairman decided to use one of his rags to voice his displeasure, though in the sycophantic way you might expect of toads ...
His tragic mistake was to haul out his phone and record fascists at work? Or was it carrying a gun like a true 2nd Amendment patriot, only to discover guns were useless up against baddies with guns?
(in full at the intermittent archive here)
... while his hacks at Faux Noise keep on with the money-making machine's propaganda ...
Fox News’ Joe Concha raged about Minnesota Democrats “gaslighting” the public about the recent ICE shootings in Minneapolis before making a false claim about the Alex Pretti killing.
Such a contemptible corporation.
Here no true, no true here. Just damned lies and Murdochians ...
The rogue, clearly losing his marbles, deeply demented king's cavortings continue to sent shock waves ... and all the Murdochians can do is marvel at the slouching beast they helped bring into the world ...
Rattled by Trump, Taiwan debates whether to fight or surrender to Xi’s China
Behind closed doors in Taipei, conversations have not been this gloomy since Richard Nixon went to China more than 50 years ago, as The Australian found on a recent reporting trip.
By Will Glasgow
The pond baulked at one of those hideous uncredited reptile collages and at spending seven minutes in Will's company, but did wonder what the bromancer might make of it all, and what it might mean for his war on China, fading yet again over the horizon as King Donald looks to selling out every ally in sight.
The reptiles were so alarmed that they doubled down ...
China’s military suffers leadership void as Xi Jinping purges ‘untouchable’ general
The disappearance of Zhang Youxia, who was expected to lead any war against Taiwan, leaves a large void in the PLA amid questions over Beijing’s ambitions for reunification.
By North Asia Correspondent Yoni Bashan
Sad, and apparently no room at the reptile inn for the mad king's best joke of all ...
Meanwhile, the reptiles were back on an old, favourite jihad that took the pond back to the days when they routinely featured dashing Donners ...
Unis reveal public is revolting against activism, poor teaching
Universities have launched a campaign to weaken government control over the proposed education watchdog despite some vice-chancellors acknowledging public cynicism about teaching standards.
By Natasha Bita
Sadly Natasha is no Kev, and even a bit of her biting couldn't attract the pond, not even the line that the "public is revolting."
The public is not nearly as revolting as the hive mind at the lizard Oz, trying to head back to the good old days of the mutton Dutton's crusading.
Having sent so many reptiles packing, the pond had to find some pleasure, and ancient Troy was just the tonic, with his piece answering the question WWMMD? (For those unfamiliar with reptile speak, What would Ming the Merciless do?).
The header: How the Liberal Party forgot the lessons of its founder, Robert Menzies; Robert Menzies would be dismayed at the Liberal Party’s decline and rupture of the ‘fruitful alliance’ with the National Party that he said was among his greatest achievements.
The caption for yet another of those hideous uncredited collages atop a hive mind story: Sussan Ley and David Littleproud
The reptiles only interrupted ancient Troy's four minutes of nostalgia with a couple of worshipful snaps of Ming the Merciless in his hey day, and the pond will follow in their footsteps ...
Sixty years later, the Coalition has fractured and the Liberal Party is existentially challenged, having lost safe seats, bled voter support and alienated women and young people, its purpose and philosophy confused, and members deserting in droves.
The centre-right is rupturing with profound implications. The far-right One Nation is winning more support than the Liberals or Nationals. The Coalition that united and stabilised the centre-right, a landmark achievement of Menzies, is broken and its future uncertain.
How Menzies led his party and the Coalition could not be more relevant. This colossus of Australian politics, who towered over his contemporaries and set up a record 23 years in government (1949-72), would be dismayed at what has happened to the centre-right of politics.
The Coalition has split four times: after the 1972 election, when the parties led by Billy Snedden and Doug Anthony separated, in 1987, at the height of the comical push by Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen to become prime minister, and twice since the 2025 election.
David Littleproud said the Nationals would not be in coalition with Liberals led by Sussan Ley. Most observers seem to have forgotten it is not the first time this has happened. John McEwen vetoed deputy Liberal leader Billy McMahon succeeding Harold Holt in 1967. The fault lies with both Ley and Littleproud in not managing their differences to avoid a split.
Menzies prized the Coalition with Country Party leaders Arthur Fadden and McEwen. He worked cooperatively with them, respecting their views, ensuring disagreements on policy, strategy or appointments – which there were from time to time – were resolved without public squabbling. McEwen said “mutual respect” kept the Coalition together.
Come on down Ming, so the hive mind might worship, Robert G. Menzies arriving in New York from London today aboard the SS Queen Mary, July 27, 1950.
Tom Switzer (“Knowing when to go: could Albanese ever do a Menzies?”, January 22), said Menzies had given “no hint that retirement was imminent”. In fact, speculation was rife. It was joked about in parliament and various hints were reported, such as the purchase of a house in Malvern. Menzies told Labor leader Arthur Calwell in advance. Moreover, on January 19, Menzies informed the cabinet before his public announcement.
Menzies is the only prime minister to depart at a time of his own choosing in the post-war era. In the six decades since, all of his successors have either died in office, lost the support of their party, were defeated at an election or dismissed. (McEwen was a caretaker prime minister.)
But Menzies was not the only prime minister to retire on his own terms. Edmund Barton, Australia’s first prime minister, resigned to take up an appointment to the High Court in 1903. Andrew Fisher resigned in 1915 and became high commissioner to London.
No Liberal leader looms larger than Menzies in the modern party that he played the pivotal role in establishing at twin conferences in 1944 to unite the non-Labor forces in national politics. He is routinely invoked and interpreted because it bestows legitimacy on his successors.
A new book edited by Zachary Gorman, The Menzies Legacy (Melbourne University Publishing), is released on February 10. It is the concluding volume of a splendid four-part history initiated by the Robert Menzies Institute. It is highly recommended for anyone eager to analyse the Menzies era and offers a range of assessments.
Menzies was pleased to depart “under his own steam” rather than “somebody else’s steam”, as had happened when he lost the prime ministership in 1941 during World War II. Asked about policy achievements at his farewell press conference, he noted ANZUS and expanding universities. He also regarded the development of Canberra as a notable achievement.
Another bit of visual adoration to interrupt ancient Troy ... Tea and army cake with Robert Menzies, October 1939.
"Tea, tea! is that your answer to it all? Tea!"
But many of Menzies’ values and beliefs were frozen in another era. The Australian, like most newspapers, welcomed his departure. Polls showed a majority of voters thought he should retire. He was the last prime minister born in the 19th century. He did not support ending the White Australia policy or the referendum to make laws for the benefit of Aboriginal Australians – two initiatives quickly embraced by Holt.
Well into the 1970s, he did not support diplomatic recognition of China, a relationship that is the foundation of our economic prosperity, and was also recognised by the US. He supported a high tariff wall, a controlled currency and regulated financial and labour markets, and last delivered a budget surplus in 1952-53. He took Australia into the disastrous Vietnam War.
Where Menzies’ legacy is contemporarily relevant is in politics rather than policy. Founding the Liberal Party is a milestone achievement. He was a brilliant orator and parliamentary debater, superb campaigner, astute manager of his party and cabinet, and the Coalition, and welcomed frank and fearless advice from public servants.
He spoke about the Liberal Party being positive, with clear values and vision. It should favour “political and economic progress” and not be “a party of reaction”. He insisted it be “pragmatic and not dogmatic”, and occupy the “middle of the road”. It is astonishing how many Liberals fail to really understand Menzies and what he stood for.
But Menzies’ Australia is not the Australia of today. Menzies personified the old era; Holt the new era. Liberals no longer believe in much of what Menzies believed. That is why Liberals are better off looking to how Menzies mastered politics, party management and governing. This is where his legacy is best heeded today.
All the way to get to that final astonishing insight?
Menzies’ Australia is not the Australia of today
Colour the pond astonished.
Colour the pond justified in taking ancient Troy with a cuppa and a biccie.
Who'd have thunk it, who could have managed that level of stupendous awareness?
And credit where credit and book plug is due ...
And so to a now ancient and venerable pond tradition, which sees the pond publish the thoughts of Dame Groan, while leaving any response to the groaning to the pond's correspondents, who are devoted to her prognostications.
Once again the old biddy's dedication to the dismal science makes desiccated coconut seem positively wet.
The header: ‘Breathtakingly naive’: Why OECD advice on Australia’s economy is of little value; There is little value in the latest report on Australia by the world’s most influential economic club, even if it gives an unjustified pat on the back to our Treasurer.
The caption for that vulgar man daring to smile and display his set of choppers: Treasurer Jim Chalmers immediately claimed the OECD report as ‘a powerful endorsement of Labor’s economic management and reform agenda’. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage
Whatever Jimbo is for, Dame Groan is automatically agin, and it took the old biddy a good five minutes of hers and her readers' time to do a Perth Scorchers and smash them all into the bleachers.
As usual, she began with an astonishing insight ... as if the NRMA and similar organisations didn't have any work to do in ancient times ...
When it comes to economic reports, however, it’s still worth checking out what’s going on under the bonnet. In this way, the interpretation that should be placed on findings and recommendations can take on a different complexion than a superficial scan throws up.
Take the Economic Survey of Australia, recently released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. (The OECD is a club of ostensibly democratic, developed economies based in a salubrious part of Paris. Former Australian finance minister Mathias Cormann is the secretary-general. Stephen Jones, Labor’s former assistant treasurer, is the current Australian ambassador to the OECD.)
There is plenty of content in this report praising the Labor government for “Australia’s relative resilience to global economic shocks”. Evidently, “the economy is returning to its pre-pandemic growth trend”.
The reptiles interrupted the old chook as she was beginning to wind into her standard "we'll all be rooned err Xmas comes" routine ...
The latest employment numbers for December have been released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. According to the ABS, the unemployment rate fell from 4.3 per cent to 4.1 per cent. Sky News Business Editor Ross Greenwood analyses the latest employment numbers and how they could potentially affect the Reserve Bank’s next interest rate decision.
The rate fell? Time for a bigly Groan:
Gosh, this report could have been written in the Treasurer’s office, with some additional assistance from the good folk in Treasury. Add in scrutiny of drafts by the Australian delegation to the OECD, and Bob’s your uncle.
Bear in mind here that the OECD staff responsible for writing these country economic surveys don’t necessarily know much about the country in question. They are principally guided by the material provided to them, mainly from the country’s public servants.
To be sure, the final report needs to broadly fit the OECD policy paradigm. But in this case, that is not a problem. The OECD these days is a left-leaning progressive organisation with a strong emphasis on net zero, plentiful social welfare spending, high taxation and a regulated labour market.
Unsurprisingly, the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, immediately claimed that the OECD report on Australia “is a powerful endorsement of Labor’s economic management and reform agenda”. No kidding, Sherlock.
Then came a snap of a man the pond could barely remember ... In September last year, OECD boss Mathias Cormann declared Australia must move on from the net-zero debate and figure out how to meet the 2050 emissions target in ‘the best possible way’.
It was past time to put that left-leaning progressive back in his box ... (the pond keeds, it really does keed) ...
In this instance, there is some querying of fiscal sustainability as well as a weakening of competition over the past two decades.
Again, it’s hard to take any of this seriously, although many of the suggestions are firmly of the motherhood category. Hands up those who are against “improving spending efficiency” or “optimising tax revenues”?
The reasons for paying some attention to the report’s policy suggestions is that they often will be ones being workshopped by the key players of the country in question.
When there is a suggestion of negative gearing being phased out, for example, we should take this to mean that this is being seriously considered by the Treasurer. When there is a suggestion to introduce inheritance taxes, again there are reasons to think that this is up for discussion, at least.
Some of the other policy changes mentioned in the report include road user charges; reducing the capital gains tax discount; eliminating stamp duties while introducing property taxes; indexing income tax brackets; reducing superannuation tax concessions; introducing a broadbased resource rent tax, and; reforming the GST by increasing the rate and removing the exemptions.
If you think you have seen this sort of list before, you’re not wrong. Most of these ideas have been around for yonks. It just goes to show you that innovative thinking has clearly gone on holiday at the OECD.
Who to turn to? Why not a man who has shown the franchise way forward?
The millionaire Jim’s Mowing boss Jim Penman has launched a blistering attack on Australia’s government bureaucracy, urging it be cut down by two-thirds and how public service lacks accountability, efficiency and incentives for performance.
Put it another way ...
Iconic Aussie brand under fire
One of Australia’s most well recognised chain left one dad despairing as he’s been left in a mountain of debt. WARNING: DISTRESSING (warning, link to another Murdochian front).
Back to the old biddy, still ranting away ...
I guess that’s why the previous attempt at imposing a mining super-profit (rent) tax went so well.
The naivety in this suggestion is breathtaking. Economists have long recognised that it is essentially impossible to identify economic rents as the basis for taxation.
And the idea that the mining industry is just made up of “immobile, land-based assets” indicates that the OECD staff really need to get out of the office more.
Mining is a highly resource-intensive and risky activity. By and large, the companies are price-takers, with commodity prices set on global markets.
Many of the companies are multinational and there is a vicious international competition for capital within these corporate groups. Any detriment to the post-tax returns that can be secured from mining in a particular country is likely to lead to lower investment, certainly in the medium term.
Dame Groan saw sinister types, treasury ghouls behind it all ... The influence of Treasury Assistant Minister Andrew Leigh is evident in the OECD’s ‘weird’ emphasis on the issue of competition. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman
And after that Stephen Miller/Nosferatu look alike contest, enough to terrify any old chook caught out in the dark, the old biddy wrapped up proceedings ...
But it has not gone well, with the Starmer Labour government forced to tweak the new arrangements. There has also been a noticeable departure of citizens who might have been caught in the snare of the higher inheritance tax net. If promoting higher saving and investment is an aim of government policy – and it should be – then death duties is one of the last options that should be considered.
The OECD report weirdly emphasises the issue of competition, claiming without any convincing evidence that “competition has weakened over the past two decades, pointing to the need for more robust enforcement of competition law”. It’s reasonably easy to detect the influence here of Andrew Leigh, Assistant Minister for Productivity, Competition, Charities and Treasury. Competition is one of his obsessions.
But let’s be serious. Making it easier for a hairdresser to relocate from Western Australia to Victoria is hardly likely to move the dial on productivity. Occupational registration can work against productivity, but it can also underpin consumer safety. It exists in all countries.
Giving more power to the regulatory authorities to enforce competition is also no guarantee of better outcomes for the economy. After adding in the massive compliance costs and the scope for agencies to make mistakes, it’s not clear that stronger competition policy should be a first-order policy priority for the government.
There is little value in this latest OECD report, even if it gives an unjustified pat on the back to our Treasurer.
When it comes to improving the economic policy environment in Australia to generate higher per capita income, you won’t find the answers in these predictable pieces of advice.
Splendid stuff, and yet apparently only the pond's correspondents pay attention to the old biddy's relentless groaning and endless warnings...
And so to end in the usual way with the immortal Rowe ...
"The caption for yet another of those hideous uncredited collages atop a hive mind story: Sussan Ley and David Littleproud"
ReplyDeleteThe collage currently in the UK is getting the same nips and tucks over to the lower right corner...
More UK lettuce & $70 legs of lamb, just like Australia, hoping the fire will be safer than the frying pan...
"Authoritarian bigot Suella Braverman joins racist weirdos Reform
by Maddison Wheeldon
26 January 2026
...
"However, the Guardian’spolitical editor Pippa Crerar has astutely reminded the public that Farage had previously been adamant against Braverman joining the ranks. In turn, others have now entertained the possibility that ‘lettuce PM’ Liz Truss might follow closely behind her old colleague in government.
...
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2026/01/26/braverman-reform/