In which the pond glances at Our Henry, groans along with Dame Groan, and takes to ancient Troy's bashing of the beefy boofhead ...

 

For some reason - second thoughts, the pond knows the reason, it's the Australian Daily Zionist News, so there must be a daily serve of Zionism - the reptiles decided to let Our Henry out of his box on a Tuesday with a big splash, and an amazing gif full of terrifying pop-ups ...

No need to go there, but the older archived version - which ran late last night, while the reptiles pretended it was brand, spanking new in the morning- featured Our Henry gazing into a camera in a haunting way. (Some people should never be allowed to stream).

It was a ten minute rant, and punters will be devastated to note an unseemly lack of classical references.

The best the pond could spot was "Manichean choice" and "Manicheanism" (a couple of times), but instead of Thucydides, Our Henry offered up Lenin, Stalin, the storming of the Winter Palace, Frantz Fanon, and a Voltaire cliché:

Voltaire put it best, in his entry on fanaticism in the Encyclopaedia: it is rogues, masquerading as thinkers, who guide fanatics and put murderous daggers in their hands.

Meanwhile, in Haaretz, The IDF Admits It Killed 70,000 Palestinians in Gaza. What Other Accusations Could Turn Out to Be True? The dispute over the number of fatalities may be approaching an end, but the debate on their identities is still expected to trudge on. The Israeli public must ask itself what this belated recognition indicates about the army and the government's credibility regarding Israel's conduct in Gaza

And with the Gaza killings and cleansing going on apace ...

IDF Blocks Palestinian Bedouins From Rebuilding Their West Bank Homes Burned by Israeli Settlers, Bedouin residents of Mukhmas arrived Sunday to rebuild homes torched by settlers but were stopped by Israeli soldiers, who said the area was a closed military zone. When asked about an Israeli man who photographed the houses, a soldier responded, 'He can do whatever he wants'

Back in your box, hole in bucket repair man, and the pond will see you on Friday.

On the upside, the outburst pushed the elephants in the room down the page ...

OPPOSITION CHAOS
Ley and Littleproud in first steps to seal Coalition rebirth
By Greg Brown

A rebirth! Thank the long absent lord, the navels are working again.

That cleared room for doing what the reptiles do best, raging at the government, with Dame Groan leading the way ...

After that bigly splash came chief villain himself, pointing in a nasty way ...

The header: Labor’s spending strategy is driving up inflation; Labor’s trillion-dollar debt disaster shows the government is robbing Peter to pay Peter while ordinary families suffer the consequences.

The caption for the snap of the gesticulating Jimbo, used so many times by the reptiles that if the pond scored a dollar each time, it would be a squillionaire: Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers says public service spending isn’t to blame for a rise in inflation. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Don't blame the pond, it was the reptiles that made Dame Groan first out of the gate, it was the reptiles intent on using demeaning snaps in hideous uncredited collages, and when they prated about "economists warn", of course they had to have an economist to hand, their very own in house biddy.

What followed was an incredibly dull raging at the Jimbo, seen a zillion times before, but the pond is mindful that Dame Groan has a cult following, and it's wise to feed the cultists what they have an insatiable appetite for ...

When Anthony Albanese was asked last week whether government spending was contributing to the uptick in inflation, he immediately rattled off a list of government handouts. He talked about cheaper medicine, Medicare bulkbilling, the guarantee of three days per week of subsidised childcare.
I wondered whether he had misheard the question, but the reality is that the Labor government thinks the solution to inflation is to go long on handouts. What he doesn’t seem to understand is that these handouts are part of the problem, not the solution.
They are contributing to the unsustainable growth in government spending which, in the context of inflexible supply in many parts of the economy, is simply adding to inflationary price ­pressures.
For a short time, Jim Chalmers thought he had discovered a new secret sauce. By introducing universal electricity rebates, he figured the headline rate of inflation would be lower – this is arithmetically correct – and the Reserve Bank would do the right thing by adjusting the cash rate based on this manipulated figure.

As usual there were a few AV distractions - got to plug Sky Noise - starting with this one, CommSec’s Ryan Felsman claims there are a lot of “rate hike jitters” around the Australian share market following the release of the latest inflation data. New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has revealed inflation surged to 3.8 per cent in the year to December while the trimmed mean inflation lifted to 3.3 per cent. This means the chances of the Reserve Bank of Australia lifting interest rates next week have increased. “There’s a lot of rate hike jitters around the market at the moment on the back of that stronger than expected core inflation data yesterday,” Mr Felsman told Sky News Australia. Presented by CommSec.

Alas and alack, that only wound up the groaning to eleven:

Alas, the good folk down at the bank see through this sort of thing and concentrate on the trimmed mean figure of the CPI. But think about if Chalmers had been correct, he should have doubled, tripled or even quadrupled the rebates. He would have slain the inflation dragon while allowing the bank to cut the cash rate. How good would that have been?
But here’s the thing: it has become increasingly clear that Chalmers simply doesn’t understand how the economy works. When confronted with the unwelcome CPI release last week, the Treasurer pulled out all the talking points given to him by Treasury and attempted to tell us that black is white.
Evidently, inflation is now all about the evil workings of the private sector. It has nothing to do with government spending. After all, the RBA managed to cut the cash rate three times last year. In any case, the governor of the bank doesn’t attribute blame to excess government spending, at least explicitly. (There are quotes around from the governor that put a different spin on this story.)
Chalmers also has some weird analysis about the components of the CPI increase – housing and childcare were big-ticket items. But we are expected to believe that these changes have nothing to do with what the government has been up to.
The Treasurer is living on another planet if he thinks that the ramp-up in government spending is not making inflation worse. Just look at the figures. According to MYEFO, real government spending will increase by 4.5 per cent this financial year; it grew by 5.5 per cent last financial year. Government payments as percentage of GDP are close to 27 per cent, another record outside Covid and several years in the early 1980s.
His relocation to another planet is confirmed by his declaration that the budget is now in “better nick”. Someone should tell the Treasurer that no one cares about what was laid down in the 2022 pre-election and fiscal outlook statement which was written at a time of great economic uncertainty. Comparisons with the Coalition government voted out in 2022 are also becoming extremely stale.

Satan himself made an appearance, though he tried to surround himself with camouflage ... Australians have been told to expect to see 'a huge shift' this year towards the universal childcare system Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has long vowed to deliver

Dame Groan was terrified, or at least frightened enough, and never mind what meltdown or run on gold King Donald was provoking each day ...

The reality is that the four-year cumulative underlying cash balance provided in the MYEFO at the end of last year was negative $143bn, while the more meaningful headline cash balance which takes into account off-budget spending was negative $237bn.
But if these figures are not frightening enough, it turns out Treasury has become increasingly inept at forecasting spending. For example, there has been a close to $60bn deterioration in the overall budget position since May 2025, overwhelmingly because of higher payments. There is now no expectation that the budget will return to surplus within a decade given the very significant underestimate in payments.
There is not a sensible economist anywhere who would describe these developments as being consistent with the description of the budget being in better nick. In fact, the fiscal picture is grim and worsening, with the government either unwilling or incapable of restricting the growth of payments. Recall here that government debt is now over one trillion dollars and growing rapidly.
Take the case of childcare. The cost of the childcare subsidies has now crept into the six fastest growing government payment items – interest is the fastest, followed by the NDIS. It is hardly surprising that the cost of childcare services has grown by over 20 per cent since 2022, and by over 10 per cent in the last year, according to the CPI print. This is what happens when demand is pumped through government subsidies and supply is slow to react.
It’s now clear that the government will struggle to rein in the annual growth of NDIS payments below 8 per cent, having failed to seal an immediate deal with the state governments to hive off a separate program for children with mild autism and developmental delays.

How the reptiles love Joel - he's the new Jennie of finance - how the reptiles love rats in the ranks, so Joel made an appearance on Sky Noise... Former Labor cabinet minister Joel Fitzgibbon has warned the Albanese government to wind back public spending to take pressure off the economy as inflation soars and rate hikes loom. “Some economists today will be asking about the amount we’re spending on the NDIS in particular where you see a crowding out of the labour market, which is again putting pressure on inflation,” Mr Fitzgibbon told Sky News Australia. “At some point the government is going to have to become very very serious about winding government spending further back to take pressure of the economy more generally.”

And then it was on to the wrap up, and a final Groaning ...

In any case, it’s hard to get too enthusiastic about this because establishing another program with another name doesn’t necessarily alter the amount of government resources being devoted to disability services, with all its waste and inefficiency.
The fact is that the Labor government has taken the wrong fork in the road by stepping away from means-testing of social spending. Only by means-testing is spending targeted at those who cannot afford the services. Recall that this was the principal means former Labor finance minister Peter Walsh used to get the budget into better nick. Mind you, he saw it as both an economic and moral imperative.
For reasons that are not entirely clear, although the changing demographics of Labor voters is part of the explanation, the Albanese government has been rapidly walking away from means-testing, with the slight exception of aged care.
Why do high income earners require bulk-billed GP services? Why do families with combined incomes of more than half a million dollars require subsidies for childcare? Why should those on high incomes not contribute to the disability services needed by them or their family?

Hang on, hang on, has Dame Groan gone all perfidious socialist, with an outrageous desire to tax the rich?

Steady, steady, it was only a momentary aberration ...

The irony now is that consideration is being given to taxing people on high incomes more, including through the removal of economically justified concessions. It’s the classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul, except it is actually robbing Peter to pay Peter.
With the prospect of several interest rate hikes this year, the government is peddling hard to sell the likely economic developments in a positive light. Add in the prospect of falling real wages – the growth has been very weak in any case – and it’s an unattractive picture. Were it not for the complete ineffectiveness of an opposition in tatters, the government might be on the ropes.

And the pond trusts that the cultists are, albeit perhaps briefly, satiated...and please, no blaming the pond, it was the reptiles wot did it. The pond would much rather have had other topics to hand ...

As for over on the far right, the canny Cranston picked up where Dame Groan left off ...

Treasury, RBA too close or too far apart?
Australia’s government spending has hit levels not seen in decades, prompting economists to question whether the Reserve Bank should abandon Treasury’s consistently wrong forecasts.
By Matthew Cranston
Economics Correspondent

The only thing the pond will note is the uncanny way the reptiles continue to pick the most defamatory snap to hand ...see how they recycled that one of the Guv, featured in the collage above...

And pace Our Henry, the ADZN continued apace ...

PM’s chance to reset relations with Israel – will he take it?
Anthony Albanese should make it clear during Isaac Herzog’s visit that if someone denies Israel’s right to exist, there is no daylight between this position and antisemitism.
By Anthony Bergin

Ah, but what if you thought no theocratic state had the right to exist, Mr Bergin, what then? What if you thought religion had no business running a state, what then Mr Bergin, what then?

No way the pond was going there, but that meant the pond was left with an agonising choice.

Should the pond go with the bouffant one, doing his very best to see sunnyside up?

Best hour in weeks but it’s a long way back
Liberal leader Sussan Ley and Nationals leader David Littleproud have begun talks to heal their Coalition split, but the damage may already be done.
By Dennis Shanahan
National Editor

The archived version was an earlier edition, though it still featured snaps of Black Jack and the man who crashed a Spittie, but how could the pond resist ancient Troy trashing the beefy boofhead from down Goulburn way?

The header: Liberal leadership infighting threatens to deepen party’s existential crisis; Liberal geniuses scheme to topple first female leader as the party desperately needs to win back women voters who have abandoned them in droves.

The caption for that oft repeated collage (another dollar in the pond's kit?): Andrew Hastie, Susan Ley, Angus Taylor. Picture: Newswire

Ancient Troy spend a goodly four minutes bagging the beefy boofhead and laying with Ley, what with him being something of a feminista, as much as a wet reptile can be ...

So a bunch of blokes in the right wing of the Liberal Party think the answer to the party’s problem of regaining the votes of women, who have deserted the party in droves at recent elections, is to terminate their first female leader, Sussan Ley, after serving less than a year in the top job.
They plotted Ley’s downfall in the hours before attending the funeral of former MP Katie Allen, a Liberal woman who was respected and admired across the political spectrum. Their backstabbing, plotting and sheer treachery took attention away from Allen’s funeral and dominated the media last week.
With firebrand Andrew Hastie bowing out of a leadership contest for now, preferring to bide his time, the path has seemingly been cleared for Angus Taylor to seize the Liberal leadership, despite failing to convince colleagues he should get the job last year after his woeful performance as shadow treasurer.
As the men scheme to topple Ley, have they considered how voters, especially women, will view this latest act of political sabotage? At the last election, just 28 per cent of women voted for the Liberal and National parties, barely a quarter, according to the Australian Election Study. Good luck lifting that vote share.

How the reptiles love that Mafia shot of the Dons out and about, and for once the pond can't blame them ... Angus Taylor, James Paterson, Matt O’Sullivan and Andrew Hastie leave the meeting in suburban Melbourne on Thursday. Picture: Liam Mendes

What a bunch of boofheads and thugs!

Of course ancient Troy could have selected the pastie Hastie for abuse, but whatever ...

Nor do they seem to have contemplated the transition costs of toppling a leader. Leadership contests create winners and losers. Rarely do the losers depart happy; they and their supporters are usually filled with resentment and bitterness, and many seek revenge. It was ever thus in politics but the lessons are frequently not learned.
While Ley clings to the Liberal leadership, stoic and defiant, the public watch on as a pantomime plays out in public and private, and knives are sharpened. Hastie went to social media affirming he would like to lead the party but did “not have the support needed to become leader” at this time, so would “not be contesting the leadership”.
Hello? Is there a ballot for leader scheduled? No. The naked ambition of the man is not disguised while the current leader gets on with the job. If this kabuki-style statement was not enough, then Taylor chimed in, offering a paean of praise for his “colleague and friend”, noting he shared “many of his views” and was “a great asset” to the party.
This is a not-so-subtle undermining of the leader of which we have seen far too much in the past 20 years. Recall Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard? Or Brendan Nelson and Malcolm Turnbull? Or Turnbull and Tony Abbott? Or the cunning Scott Morrison, who took the prime ministership when Turnbull fell. Hastie and Taylor are repeating the destabilisation formula.
It is surprising that some Liberals seem to be taking seriously the idea of Taylor as leader. His colleagues have told this column he has a reputation for not putting in the hard work and, as shadow treasurer, seemed not to be across details of his portfolio. Why did he not return from a European holiday when parliament considered new gun ownership and hate speech laws in response to the nation’s worst terrorist attack?

At this point, the reptiles retreated to safer visual turf, a reminder of other assassinations ... Former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard attend the ALP campaign launch, South Brisbane, 2019. Picture: Liam Kidston

And at this point the pond should note others were gunning for the beefy boofhead.

This morning The Echidna popped into the pond's tray (no link, newsletter) with John Hanscombe in a whimsical mood ...

...From where I sit, it's more comedy gold than soapie or reality TV. Especially if Taylor gets the leader's gig, a prospect more likely now Andrew Hastie has removed himself from contention.
When it comes to pass - few are saying "if" any longer - the government will be chuffed. Since coming to office in 2022, it has relished every moment Taylor has risen to his feet in question time.
"The gift that keeps giving," Treasurer Jim Chalmers quipped in 2023 when Taylor muddled a question about the budget. It's hard to keep a straight face, Chalmers told the chamber, wearing a smile so bright it was reflected in the glasses of those sitting opposite. He then demolished the premise of Taylor's question.
Throughout the last term of Parliament, Chalmers ran rings around the then shadow treasurer. Every question asked would be met with ridicule, Taylor returning to his seat, shaking his head in frustration and looking as if comprehension was just beyond his grasp.
Taylor also ran rings around himself, even prompting the Coalition-friendly Sky News to list a "litany" of Taylor's errors on the floor of the House: the price of Vegemite rising by 8 per cent in month, which it hadn't; confusing monthly inflation with the annual rate; asserting half of Australia's mortgage holders were about to go from fixed to variable interest rates when they weren't: and saying he'd always supported the government's energy bill relief when he'd previously stood up calling it the worst legislation ever.
Even in government Taylor made spectacular errors. There was the smear job on Sydney's Lord Mayor Clover Moore, using bogus statistics, which prompted a police investigation. Oh, and don't forget the time he posted "Well done, Angus" on his own Facebook page.
You couldn't ask for a better leader of the parliamentary Liberal Party. If you were the Labor government, that is. We've seen less of Taylor this term. As shadow defence minister, there have been fewer opportunities to put his foot in his mouth. But as Liberal leader, he'd have to be first on his feet, to the delight of Labor.
All well and good if you enjoy easy laughs with your question time. If you believe the business of parliament should be more than comedy and canned laughter from the government benches, perhaps Taylor isn't such a good idea.

Oh come on Mr Hanscombe, gotta be able to laugh ...

Meanwhile ancient Troy kept on sounding like he wanted to be in The Canberra Times or even worse, a Nine rag, or perhaps don an ABC cardigan ...

During last year’s federal election campaign, as I noted at the time, Taylor struggled to communicate the Liberal Party’s values and policies, did little to prepare a detailed economic agenda to take to the election, and was comprehensively outgunned by Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Taylor looked weak and evasive, and his attacks fell flat.
This has been confirmed by the AES, which showed the most important issue for voters was cost of living at a time of high inflation and rising costs for households, yet Labor was judged the better party over the Coalition on nine of 10 policy areas, including economic management and taxation. That is the verdict on Taylor – surrendering the party’s long-held advantage on economic policy.
Taylor blew up the party’s economic and budget credentials at the last election with policies that betrayed the Howard-Costello model. He routinely expresses fidelity to their legacy, yet as shadow treasurer did not support Labor’s modest income tax cuts and planned to have bigger budget deficits if the Coalition returned to government.
Peter Costello, who as treasurer delivered 10 budget surpluses, paid off government debt and reformed the tax system, told me just six weeks ago that the Liberal Party surrendered its reputation on economic management at the last election. Guess who was the shadow treasurer?
“The Liberal Party walked away from that central commitment to economic security and I think it did enormous brand damage,” Costello told me. “At the last election, they got themselves into a position where they were proposing to increase income taxes, run bigger deficits, no real plan to reduce debt.”

The reptiles were so startled they again reverted to ancient times, perhaps to forestall a hive mind panic, Tony Abbott (left) and Malcolm Turnbull at the conclusion of Question Time in the House of Representatives at Parliament House, in Canberra.

Soothed by the sight of the onion muncher and Malware and fond memories of destroying the NBN, the reptiles could allow a final bout of wet ancient Troy flinging mud and standing up for Susssan, to the wilting lettuce's despair ...

Ley is not perfect and has made mistakes, but deserves time. Her challenge is immense. The Liberal Party has lost many seats, its voter support is in decline and its members are walking away. The Coalition with the National Party has been severed. Ley needs to redefine the party, craft a viable electoral strategy, develop a policy agenda and repair the Coalition.
Australia needs an effective opposition to keep the government accountable. We get a better government when we have a better opposition. The opposition is now just the ever-shrinking Liberal Party, while the National Party sulks on the crossbench. The Liberal Party, self-indulgent, devoid of responsibility and utterly divided, is like a clown car at a circus that has seen better days.
Meanwhile, the government dominates the parliament with almost two-thirds of seats in the lower house. The Labor Party remains well ahead in the polls and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is dominant. The centre-right of politics is rupturing with the rise of the far-right One Nation, and neither the Liberal nor National parties have a clue what to do about it.
Albanese, whose prime ministership has been a study in determination, conviction, steadiness, resilience and luck, has his 2028 election slogan ready to go: “If you can’t govern yourselves, you can’t govern the country.”

At this point the pond would usually wrap things up.

Try to do a segue a cartoon for a closer, especially if it might inspire more ditties in the comments section, and that would be that ...

But damn it, having glanced at Our Henry, groaned through the groaning, and took to the Susssan battlements with ancient Troy, the pond needed a treat, and what better way than to see the Murdochians serving it up to Nosferatu himself...

That's not the pond's preferred snap, the pond always prefers the vanity snap ...

Sure the pond could have left it to an archive link,  but there's something fragrant about the panic in the WSJ air, as they took to Nosferatu, armed with garlic and righteous Murdochian holy water ...

Eek, it's all coming together in a nightmare of cross-pollination, at least if you trust the immortal Rowe ... (and the pond always does)