I can now also be found @AWStephen@mastodon.au Be patient just feeling my way, but feels pretty familiar 👍

milking the public purse is the model: “Pauline Hanson’s One Nation stands to receive $219 million in taxpayer funding over the next five years, according to modelling based on current polling and changes to funding laws.” thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news…

You want straight talking? Here it is. No jet required. Pauline Hanson says she tells it like it is. So let's do exactly that. - While you struggled to pay rent, the gas industry paid less tax than your Friday night six-pack. -While your wages flatlined, CEOs handed themselves $22 billion in bonuses. -While your kids watched 50,000 gambling ads a year, the industry donated $6 million and reform died. -While you couldn't afford to buy a home, negative gearing handed $27 billion a year to people who already own multiple properties. Adani donated $600k, got $400 million in forgiven royalties back. Three men and a woman now own 90% of what Australians read and watch. And the politician who flew in on a billionaire's jet told you the problem is immigrants. The system is not broken. It's working exactly as designed. Against you. These are the headlines the mainstream media won't run. 👇 open.substack.com/pub/suebar… #auspol @deniseshrivell @aaronsmith @BrentHodgson @zdaniel @Anthony_Klan @JoYohana @TheNoisyTrunk

Jacinta Allan seems to be actively trying to lose the November state election. Victoria is dispirited, labouring under enormous debt, failing to deal with corruption and crime. The Liberals don't have mature policies on the economy, education, or policing - and they're riven by infighting. They've previously worked together on political donation reform to stitch up independents and small parties. Hawthorn is lucky to have Shima Ibuki and Kew @Sophie__Torney, as strong independent candidates.

“Sky News should give up the pretense of being a news service and register as a political party,” writes John Hewson. trib.al/e1Jc5nE

Please sign: imagine thinking it is a wise for Aust to be entering any naming rights deal with Trumph ttps://petitions.getup.org.au/petitions/no-trump-golf-course?source=twitter&utm_campaign=No_more_Trump&utm_source=twitter&share=a8f4ae09-f998-4258-b534-5300576d99d2 via @getup

Wilcox. #auspol #Sorry

You can’t be a good economic manager in 2026 without being a climate realist. APRA’s modelling is clear: climate inaction means household incomes up to 20% lower, persistent inflation & higher interest rates. Ignore climate and you’ll pay for it. 🔥 theaustralian.com.au/nation/…

18.5k Australians have signed a petition for a new press regulator. Australia also has one of the most concentrated media markets in the world. Add your name to it here: getup.org.au/campaigns/media… @hackinginquiry @HackedOffHugh

IS AUSTRALIA ABLE TO CHANGE? Australian politics has been much ado about nothing for decades Our oppositions have promised that their taxing and spending would more than 99% match those of the government they’re campaigning to replace And why wouldn’t they? When oppositions did campaign on change (Hewson in 1993 and Shorten in 2019), they lost And when government leaders proposed change (Rudd in 2010, Abbott in 2014), they also soon lost their job as PM Meantime, next year will mark four decades since there has been a successful national referendum Simply put, the Australian electorate loathes change, and so our politicians long stopped challenging us (OK, the electorate allowed Australia to fight crises such as COVID and the GFC, but those crisis-fighting times were very much the exception) So it was a break with the patterns of the past when the government’s budget and the opposition’s reply both promised changes · The government aimed to plug holes in the tax system that allowed some people to cut their taxes in ways that aren’t open to most people · And the opposition promised to stop the set-and-forget ability of the personal tax system to take an ever-rising share of our wage – the ‘inflation tax’ · There’s lots to like in both those proposals I recommended personal tax indexation at the government’s reform summit a year ago. And although I think the failure to allow for ‘averaging’ in the government’s changes to capital gains is a big mistake, it is still true that the taxing of capital gains and of family trusts needed a lot of repair But it isn’t the details of the proposals and counter-proposals that I want to focus on here It is whether the next few weeks and months show that Australia can change The post-budget polls are rumbling, and the punters are getting restless. They don’t like the changes to capital gains and negative gearing that have been announced Yet the first chart shows two lines – the total disposable income of Australians before and after the government’s changes to CGT and negative gearing (My forecasts of disposable income, and my allocations by year and type of Treasury’s tax forecasts) For all the horror headlines, the before and after lines are indistinguishable Ditto if you put it on a per person basis – the second chart below You can see the difference in percentage terms – the last chart. A decade from now those tax changes are sufficient to reduce disposable incomes by one-fifth of one percent And yet they dominate the national headlines To repeat, Australia is terrible at change, and I wonder whether we will So here’s a crazy thought. Even if you utterly hate these changes (I don’t 100% love them either), I think a part of you should hope that they get through If they don’t, then I wonder about the long-term prospects of a nation that insists on staying stuck under the blankets And I wonder just how big a crisis it’ll have to be before something large is finally allowed to change in Australia

Mark exposing how out of touch he is to say “Intergenerational equity is crap”.

The rule of law and the rights of citizens?

"We had to start a war in a foreign country so we could make the foreign country the same as it was before we started the war in the foreign country." Even the writers of Utopia couldn't dream this shite up .

David Farley backed Michelle Milthorpe, donated to her campaign, considered Labor preselection, and doesn't agree with with One Nation’s core positions. So why is he a One Nation Candidate? Because it offers the one thing he apparently wants most: a path to Parliament.

Amelia calls herself a financial analyst. A real one would know opex from capex, and that a $1m asset purchase is not reflected as a $1m operating loss. (like when you buy a house). Lucky Amelia has a trust to fall back on. This analysis won’t pay anyone’s rent. Embarrassing.

For everyone asking what Pauline Hanson does when she doesn't turn up to the job she's paid to do, ~50% of the time: She's at Trump's Mar-a-Lago, with Gina. The free plane doesn't come from turning up to work. It comes from missing work, to hang out with a mining billionaire.

RT @Sophie__Torney: I’m calling on Jess Wilson to condemn James Newbury’s comments.

A man blinded by a flag about to step off into emptiness might be Banksy's best work ever.

Things that are easier to retain than One Nation MPs: Baby teeth New Year’s resolutions Free trial subscribers Kindergarten pet goldfish Andrew Tate’s hairline A Ford Raptor on a novated lease Coalition primary votes A bulk-billing GP Gas industry royalties NACC convictions Helpful RBA rates decisions Gambling ad bans Lobbying reform A cheap rental in a capital city

Hawthorn deserves a state representative who knows our community, listens deeply, and can fight for what matters most to us. Shima Ibuki is a long‑term local, now Deputy Mayor of Boroondara. Shima cares about of cost of living and housing - she supports local development that works with our community, not against it. She understands the importance of having safe, secure suburbs, and how much Hawthorn residents love their community.

Your reminder. Jillian Segal talks ‘togetherness’ while hubby funds ‘Advance's’ hate campaign against ‘Welcome to Country.’ afr.com/politics/federal/jil…