The reptiles relentlessly pursued assorted jihads early this morning.
(1) The Victorian government ... or should that be, ghosts of Victorian governments past ...
Former Victorian premier Jacinta Allan’s water bombshell: Secret Labor privatisation plan
Confidential cabinet documents have revealed the Victorian Labor government secretly explored privatising Melbourne Water for five years to rescue the state’s deteriorating finances.
By Anthony Galloway
Top of the digital reptile world ma ...
Jacinta's gone, but just like comrade Dan, she'll live on forever in the reptile mind ... just check out the artwork by Debbie at the top of the yarn, as well as in that splash...
Age might weary comrade Dan, but he'll always make an appearance in the Oz.
The pond deemed the lead worth only a Golding ...
(2) For the umpteenth time, renewables and solar provided a peril ...
Solar panel peril? Bowen hits roof to prop up target
Businesses offered 20 per cent solar discount to help fix faltering renewables target
Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen will unveil a 20 per cent solar discount for businesses, farms, schools and hospitals as Labor’s 82 per cent renewables target faces mounting pressure.
By Geoff Chambers
The pond was shattered when it clicked on Geoff, chambering his usual round, to discover that thumb portrait of a demonic orange yellow monster had been abandoned at the head of the story ...
Still waiting for a story featuring the ongoing destruction of Europe by the impact of climate change? Keep waiting ...
(3) The Australian Daily Zionist News went about its business...
‘Should be answering questions, not asking’: Matilda’s dad slams ‘hijackers’
The father of the 10-year-old Bondi victim has condemned pro-Palestine groups for attempting to hijack the antisemitism royal commission.
By Bimini Plesser
Leadership comes from witness box as Jewish leader pushes back
David Ossip leads from witness box to prevent royal commission veering off course
On an intensely sensitive day, the inquiry come perilously close to being hijacked by questions on Israel’s military actions.
By Lachlan Leeming
NSW Political Correspondent
Wondering if you'll ever read a story about the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Gaza in the lizard Oz? Keep wondering ...
(4) The important business of keeping the pesky, difficult blacks arguing about points of order took another step forward ...
Marcia Langton and Tom Calma seem to miss an altogether bigger issue. Their report is not the same as Pearson’s calls.
By Eddie Synot
Sorry Eddie your opening line put the pond right off ...
Noel Pearson’s speech at Garma is a welcome intervention in the sorry situation that has followed the 2023 voice referendum.
That's Voice, Eddie, not voice ...and if you can't stand up to the reptiles, what use are you?
(5) Dame Slap was on hand to berate Alan, a reliable target over the years, not just for being a wanker, but for being a gay wanker ...
We’d be infinitely happier with CEOs who just look after the store.
By Janet Albrechtsen
Columnist
Sorry, Dame Slap, the pond isn't interested in journalists conducting social crusades against alleged social crusaders ...
Joyce was just there as a straw dog, a convenient prop for the usual reptile devotion to the ways of mad King Donald and his minions, which happens to include SCOTUS ...
When it comes to campaigning, corporate CEOs should be lobbying for economic reform with the same verve as the union movement lobbies for productivity-killing privileges. And to be fair to Joyce, he did his fair share of that, where others cowered in corners.
Ten years ago, outgoing CEO of the Business Council of Australia Catherine Livingstone said: “The BCA doesn’t want to campaign, it should not have to campaign because the integrity of its policy positions should speak for themselves.” No doubt Livingstone meant well but the failure of corporate Australia to get interested in issues where they really did have a business case (for example, on tax and industrial relations issues) is damning.
They now bitterly regret their indolence and preference for what they thought were soft and easy pickings of a social justice nature during the first two decades of this century. It meant when a genuinely left-wing government came to power in 2022, business had no credibility and no track record in defending policies that truly did have a business case.
They had wasted all their ammunition on social fripperies for 20 years and had been MIA on the hard issues they should have been working on. So no, Alan, the last thing we want is more CEOs crusading for social justice. We’d be infinitely happier with CEOs who just look after the store.
Just the usual far right drivel, and that was as much of it as the pond could take ...
Meanwhile, with that Oz listicle done, the real fun was taking place elsewhere ...with the fun disappeared to the cornfield by the reptiles of Oz, but dammit there has to be some joy in the world...
Leaks, lies and Liberals: The closing minutes of Damien Tudehope’s ICAC evidence were a disaster
Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane surely won’t want one of the Liberal Party’s faceless men showing his face any time soon.
By Bevan Shields
That ongoing saga, disappeared by the reptiles, inspired John Hanscombe to pen a few words for The Echnida, The Canberra Times' newsletter (which also boasts of supplying cartoons each morning, including the infallible Pope, and so is worth a subscription):
I'm reminded of their poisonous antics daily, as the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption's Operation Rosny lays bare the scheming and chicanery behind another bruising factional war within the NSW Liberal Party.
The public hearings are delving into the way money from prohibited donors financed the efforts of a conservative Christian group called The Reformers to stack local branches and influence preselections.
Newly minted federal president of the Liberal Party Tony Abbott, himself a seasoned right-wing factional warrior whose best days are behind him, tried to dismiss the ICAC probe into an internal party squabble as a factional hit job.
Abbott's dismissal papers over the role allegedly played by fugitive developer and banned donor Jean Nassif in financing The Reformers, which ICAC is also investigating. Phone taps revealed Nassif, now hiding out in Lebanon, gloating about the influence he believed he had over the NSW government.
The branch-stacking, the backstabbing, the blind ambition of young milk-fed Liberals are all depressingly familiar. A few years ago I watched it play out on my own turf as Gareth Ward, now in jail for sexual assault, went to war with John Howard's Class of 96 veteran federal MP for Gilmore Joanna Gash.
Ward enlisted the support of a coterie of well-groomed, similarly milk-fed Young Liberals to erode support for Gash. Gash, in turn, relied on the backing of the local Liberal gerontocracy. It was a bitter contest that endured long after Gash resigned from federal parliament. Her successor and close friend, Ann Sudmalis, also resigned after the local branches elected a hostile executive after a concerted campaign of leaks and white anting.
It should have ended there but in 2019, then prime minister Scott Morrison staged his own intervention, parachuting Warren Mundine as a candidate into the seat of Gilmore over the locally preselected Liberal Grant Schultz, son of Alby who held the seat of Hume now occupied by Angus Taylor.
The Liberals lost their once blue ribbon seat to Labor, which has held it ever since.
As the 1969 Motown hit asked, "War, what is it good for?" Not much, when it comes to what Abbott calls internal party squabbles. The Liberals lost their seat, the protagonists their careers, and the electorate their faith that the people they elect are there to represent their interests, not those of their factions.
More broadly, the factional warring within the Liberal Party has only hastened its decline and headlong slide into irrelevance. The ICAC hearings expose just how destructive it's been.
Milk fed.
So true, so apt, and you won't be reading that sort of stuff in the lizard Oz. (Not that the pond has got anything against milk).
And the accompanying infallible Pope?
The pond lives in daily fear for the cockies, maggies and kookaburras of the mighty 'Gong, but not so much for Gina's pampered pet.
And after all that winnowing, ducking and weaving, the pond was left with just one early morning reptile.
Come on down nattering "Ned" ...
The header: An alliance with Hanson? Don’t forget Gillard’s fate; Any Liberal-National Coalition that included Hanson would have a short shelf life. The chaos and crisis on the centre right would be far worse than now.
The caption for the overly familiar snap: Angus Taylor and Pauline Hanson.
Right at the get go the pond had a problem.
That risible opening snap, featuring a downcast beefy boofhead, and an ascendent Gina's pet, seemed familiar, and so it was ... it was there for when Geoff had chambered another of his rounds, proposing the exact opposite to "Ned"...
And that's how the reptiles do business.
First one proposes something, and then another comes along to stir the pot, though when "Ned" gets to stirring, it's a dull old affair, his usual wandering back in time, so admonishments can be made in his usual ponderous way, and lessons can be learned...
The agreement was followed by two subsequent written agreements Gillard reached with independent MPs that turned Gillard’s floor minority into a 76 to 74 majority over the Tony Abbott-led Coalition – an apparent triumph of coalition building by Labor.
But the reality was far different. These agreements doomed Gillard as prime minister. The deal with the Greens, in particular, was ill-advised with irreparable consequences for the Labor brand.
Gillard’s flawed tactics constitute a case study in how not to run a minority government and are relevant today given the confused claims about whether the Liberals should form an alliance or a coalition with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation after the next election.
Gillard’s story provides a definitive answer. She made three mistakes. First, she assumed she needed a formal alliance with the Greens when the Greens had no option since they were never going to make Abbott the PM over Gillard. Second, once committed to a formal deal Gillard had to make concessions and the concession she made – consent to a carbon price (known as the carbon tax and not part of her election agenda) exposed her to claims of “betrayal of the Australian people” in Abbott’s words, an accusation from which she never recovered. Third, by entering into formal alliances Gillard compromised the Labor brand for the rest of her government.
It's almost as tiresome and as tedious as the reptile obsession with comrade Dan, this desire to live in the ancient past.
Speaking of Alan Jones - much in the fondling news of late, if not in the lizard Oz - does anyone have a chaff bag to hand? Former PM Julia Gillard speaks during a press conference. Picture: Alan Porritt / AAP Image
They say that history arches towards irony and in the case of the parrot the pond is prepared to believe it. Remember the good old days?
Back to "Ned" as he reaches the "lessons to be learned" phase ...
This is Anthony Albanese’s assessment, having lived through these events. He has previously made clear if Labor was forced into minority government he would not seek a governing coalition with the Greens. That is obvious. Albanese, moreover, wouldn’t need to since the Greens would never support a Coalition government. Yet the current debate seems not to grasp the power realities in these minority government situations.
Of course, the Liberal-National Coalition is unlikely to be in a position to form a minority government after the 2028 poll – that would require a huge loss of seats by Labor and, in addition, the Taylor-led Coalition could call the shots only if it had more seats than One Nation.
Yet this contingency seems to be consuming both centre-right politics and the related media coverage, with senior Liberals from Angus Taylor down repeatedly being asked whether they would variously strike a deal or agreement or coalition with the Hanson party to create a minority government.
What is pivotal in this debate is the distinct difference between a formal governing alliance or coalition with One Nation that gives Hanson’s party official entry into executive government decision-making as distinct from merely having One Nation agree to give a Liberal-National government support on supply and confidence. That latter does not make One Nation a party to executive power. The difference is fundamental.
The reptiles flung in a snap of a man almost as arcane as the parrot and Flinty in that cartoon ... Greg Combet
Stout-hearted "Ned" stayed loyal to the cause, no matter what the fiends might fling at the beefy boofhead, or what he might do to himself ...
The implication is that the only way the Liberals can govern from a minority position is with a coalition or formal alliance with One Nation. This is obviously wrong. If the Liberals post-election have the potential to form a minority government then Hanson’s party must give confidence to Liberals or Labor – and having Hanson king-make Albanese into a third term is nonsense.
Indeed, the disastrous branding consequences for Taylor, as head of a Liberal-National government that would be triggered by opening the executive door to One Nation, would be far more lethal than the grim fate that befell Gillard.
Recall that Gillard was deposed by a desperate ALP caucus in June 2013 with internal research showing its coming defeat would be worse than those of Gough Whitlam in 1975 and 1977. Gillard’s tenacity was vital in her surviving as long as she did against Kevin Rudd’s political assault when the polls had long shown she was doomed.
Her political adviser, John McTernan, said: “All the flak of minority government was sucked into her prime ministership because she was so central to the deals and maintaining the deals.” The further lesson is that any minority government arrangement must be drama free, based on genuine concord.
That makes any coalition with Hanson impossible. Can you imagine the perpetual disruption and dramas having Hanson involved in any alliance or coalition, given that personal grandstanding and fanning grievance is her modus operandi?
Any Liberal-National Coalition that included Hanson would have a short shelf life. The chaos and crisis on the centre right would be far worse than now given it would be governing. If Taylor tried this, he would be lucky to last three months as PM, let alone Gillard’s three years. The damaging legacy would be hung around the neck of the Liberal Party for years.
There came another grim reminder, featuring the onion muncher and that woman ... Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott in Question Time in the House of Representatives, Parliament House in Canberra.
The pond couldn't think of a single reason to feature a Golding, but did it anyway ...
Kill joy "Ned" brought his sermon to a close ... (if we can't see a coalition government in abject crisis, what's the meaning of life?)
The day after Gillard announced her five-page 2010 written deal and concessions to the Greens, I wrote on page one of this paper: “This deal puts Gillard’s leadership on the line” since it was an act of “strategic folly”. It got Gillard into minority government but doomed her leadership.
With Hanson, this is a debate about an issue that won’t happen. But Labor’s rhetorical campaign and repeatedly false signals sent by Liberal and Coalition MPs probably mean the media will keep its focus on an issue that won’t happen – much to Labor’s benefit.
The real challenge for the Liberals is not what happens post-election but what happens pre-election. The imperative for the Coalition is to have a higher primary vote than Hanson, thereby reclaiming its status as the superior party on the centre right. It seems the Victorian election is heading in this direction, with Newspoll showing the Jess Wilson-led Coalition on 31 per cent compared with Hanson’s party on 19 per cent.
As Gerard Henderson has written, the persistent claims that the choice at the next federal election might be between a Labor and a Coalition-One Nation government is a fantasy. That won’t be the choice. The inexplicable irony is that many figures on the centre right are promoting this idea. They should reflect upon Gillard’s fate.
The pond has already been there and done that, and rather than end on the unsavoury sights and sounds of Dan "the man" Tehan, here's an immortal Rowe ...
John Hanscombe: "More broadly, the factional warring within the Liberal Party has only hastened its decline and headlong slide into irrelevance. The ICAC hearings expose just how destructive it's been."
ReplyDeleteDoes that really explain the Libs rapid demise and the rise of PHONy ? If not, what does ?
Killjoy Ned: "The imperative for the Coalition is to have a higher primary vote than Hanson..."
ReplyDeleteWho would ever have thought that the Libs and Nats could sink this low ? And so very quickly, too.
In other circumstances - if, say, being considered by a conservative government - the Reptiles would have been cheering on the possibility of a privatised water utility. Despite the disastrous lessons of such measures elsewhere Thames Sewage… sorry, Water, for example), it’s the sort of Thatcherite exercise that gets them all misty-eyed with nostalgia. However when it provides an opportunity to bash Jacinta, and even better once again raise the spectre of Dictator Dan, than any such proposal - even when it’s only for a feasibility study - is clearly sneaky, deceptive and probably treasonous to boot.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Dan may end up as the Victorian equivalent of Gough; a bogeyman figure used by the Murdochians as a symbol or code word for all that is evil, incompetent and disastrous about pinko socialist governments for decades after he’s faded from the public consciousness?
Wonder no longer. Pitchforks tomorrow.
Delete"Victorian corruption watchdog finds ‘concerning’ conduct by Andrews government but no evidence premier was blackmailed in tabled report
Benita Kolovos
Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog has tabled a long-awaited report into the former Daniel Andrews government’s dealings with the United Firefighters Union and its secretary Peter Marshall.
The Operation Richmond report did not find that any individuals engaged in corrupt conduct, but it found that senior members of the Andrews government engaged in “serious and concerning” conduct in their dealings with Marshall when negotiating pay deals for the Country Fire Authority and Metropolitan Fire Brigade, and their later amalgamation into Fire Services Victoria.
This included “actions contrary to policy, procedure and codes of conduct, deliberate attempts to conceal and mislead, and the misuse of information.”
The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (Ibac) found the government made an “undisclosed deal” with Marshall, “to the exclusion of other key stakeholders,” which allowed him to “exert extraordinary influence over the negotiations” for both the CFA and MFB enterprise bargaining agreements.
Ibac also found that Marshall was granted “privileged access” to responsible ministers.
The final release of the findings comes after years of legal attempts by the UFU to keep the report secret, including a high court challenge. The investigation first began in 2018 following a tip-off that Marshall “blackmailed or otherwise compromised” Andrews “to change his position on the CFA EBA”. Ibac found no evidence of blackmail and did not substantiate the allegation, which both Andrews and Marshall denied.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2026/aug/05/australia-news-live-jetstar-charge-overhead-luggage-labor-tax-coalition-economy-wednesday-ntwnfb