JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
A thorny one as the Royal Commission gets under way over Bondi
https://dailysceptic.org/2026/01/11/how-the-bondi-hero-was-weaponised-to-deny-islamist-antisemitism/
Quite how your PM and our PM in the UK got elected with such massive majorities is not due to their skills and competence (they have none) but an electoral system that hopefully temporarily went mad.
391
The Electors in both Nations were brainwashed.
Soon to recover and boot out the Marxists for a long long time I hope.
Let them be well and truly Trumped.
280
Modern politics, here and elssewhere.
Global warming has been dominating our political stand for sometime now.
In 2009, the liberal party in opposition changed its leadership. They replaced Malcolm Turnbull with Tony Abbott with a one vote margin. The underlying issue was agw.
The ALP immediately adopted the policy of forget policy altogether, just vilify the man and make him unelecrable. Their weapon was Tony Abbott’s Catholicism.
It didn get much traction a first, but after Al Gore thwarted Tony Abbott’s “landslide mandate. It tookhold and got rid of Tony Abbott twice, Campbell Newman, Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton.
31
They were both helped by the fact that the “conservative” opposition parties in both countries were/are useless as well. Tories in the UK, Liberals in Oz.
This has not changed. It’s the reason why voters in both countries are looking at alternative parties to the 2 majors.
200
All here bemoan the hopeless labor/labour governments but in the next breath lambast the small “l” liberals and Tories.
I think you like this status quo, you can whinge and moan about the government without your own ideas being tested by fire. You are too comfortable to be warriors.
60
The “status quo” I don’t like is voters who will only vote for either the liberal/labor parties in Oz or the Tory/Labour party in the UK.
I can never understand why people hold their noses and insist on voting for either A or B knowing that they are both bad options.
100
How does voting for a 5%er change the status quo?
I always put Pauline high on my senate ballot BTW.
80
????
How does voting for Labor/Liberal change the status quo?
Same policies, different uniform.
If more people vote for the 5%er that can soon morph into 10% or more.
One Nation is currently polling very well. BUT I have my doubts whether that will be reflected in the vote next election because I think a fair proportion will revert back to A or B as their choice on the ballot paper.
90
Answering a question with a question is a logical fallacy.
03
Sometimes questions are subtly ambiguous.
You could say a bit like the terms of reference of Royal Commissions
10
Hanrahan, the fallacy is that Wal only answered with a question.
He provided an answer.
I’ll paraphrase:
You vote for the 5%er in the hope that others will too and to give changing the status quo a chance. Even if it’s a slim chance. There is no chance if you don’t.
We have the preference system so we can vote for the 5%er and do that without “wasting” a vote.
20
No chance if you do IN YOUR LIFETIME.
00
Strop, the British liberal party was formed in 1859. I accept that patience is a virtue, but…….
00
Hanrahan,
The Australian Labor party was formed in 1901 and now have their lowest first preference.
The Australian Liberal party was formed in 1944 and now has had their worst election result as a coalition.
Both parties are on their knees.
The Greens are only 30 years old and basically control the senate.
I don’t understand your reference to the British Liberal party. They went from nearly 400 MP’s near the turn of the 20th century to only 40 by 1925, and then only 6 by 1950.
Seems your example supports the idea that change can come quickly if putting your vote to it.
10
? Warriors ? We are talking about Politicians not military leaders.
If you do not stand and speak / vote against bad policies , you cannot expect things to change,.
60
But can Rambo run a country?
00
A B grade actor did for a while.
40
And he was way smarter than Biden.😁
50
That’s a low bar, but I loved his Russia jokes.
10
Modern politics, here and elssewhere.
Global warming has been dominating our political stand for sometime now.
In 2009, the liberal party in opposition changed its leadership. They replaced Malcolm Turnbull with Tony Abbott with a one vote margin. The underlying issue was agw.
The ALP immediately adopted the policy of forget policy altogether, just vilify the man and make him unelecrable. Their weapon was Tony Abbott’s Catholicism.
It didn get much traction a first, but after Al Gore thwarted Tony Abbott’s “landslide mandate. It tookhold and got rid of Tony Abbott twice, Campbell Newman, Scott Morrison and Peter Dutton.
They did the same to Trump, but he came back.
00
ALP 2022 Federal Election Report stated that the primary vote for Labor was the lowest since 1934.
The 2025 result was slightly better but only 34% voted One for Labor (primary votes).
10
So what?
20
Only eight seats on primary votes for Labor does not indicate popularity, it does expose the flaws of preferential voting including that candidates with the most number of primary votes are often not the seat winners.
Australian government is based on UK Westminster System with some US Federal system added or included, but both of those countries only require one vote from voters for a candidate of their choice.
40
How many seats did the 5%ers win?
A first past the post system won’t change anything in Australia, in fact it GUARANTEES a two party parliament. Even the greens would be wiped out. OK, that would be a good thing but we can’t pick and choose the rules we like.
31
but we can’t pick and choose the rules we like.
Isn’t moving around (locally or internationally)doing that?
A lot of warm bodies trying to do that at the moment.
20
Yes, Australians move around, so much so that we no longer have regional accents or jargon. The result is a rather homogeneous electorate where national polls are more meaningful here than elsewhere. Moving doesn’t mean you are in a different electoral system.
Our only meaningful distinction is urban/regional/country and there is not much interchange between those groups. Any Melbournian moving to Qld will move to the SE corner unless the job dictates otherwise.
01
Two things regarding preferential voting.
1. You can’t look at the primary vote and say, “See how low it is? Preferential voting is flawed.”
People cast their votes knowing they’re voting in a preferencing system. People will therefore vote accordingly, and for various reasons put their first preference elsewhere knowing their preference gets distributed to their choice of the popular candidates.
2. When the voting is so low in a first past the post system. It’s possible in a four horse race for the winner to only get say 33% of the vote and win. Yet they may be the least preferred candidate of the other 67% of voters.
First past the post can give you the least liked candidate as the winner.
What preferential voting ensures is that if someone does get only 34% (like Labor did) that at least more than 50% like them more than the alternative major vote getter who only got a similar amount.
Preferential voting makes sure the voters do not get who they least want.
It’s the best system and while it might not give you the result you want, it effectively gives the whole electorate the result they want.
00
Bribes and lies.
20
As I have been quoting a figure of £6 trillion plus to achieve UK net zero for years, this figures comes as no surprise
https://dailysceptic.org/2026/01/11/the-staggering-cost-of-ed-milibands-net-zero-drive-finally-revealed-4-5-trillion-thats-more-than-the-uks-entire-gdp/
Bearing in mind that we don’t know the full extent of what will be needed and that budgets always over run we can safely double this amount and then repeat it in 15 years time as everything currently being built in the net zero drive, will need to be renewed and replaced.
271
The UK’s Chancer, Rachel Reeves, has black holes … and this will have them breeding like rabbits.
The whole scam is getting very dangerous, spending lashings of cash on – imported – bug-, bat- and bird-busters, which – as noted – will need replacing soon enough, and work about a third of the time.
That money could be used for training, setting up steel works [so we can build ships, tanks, guns, drones, and defend these islands], rebuilding defence, providing incentives to work and grow food, paying off a quarter of a million civil serpents, and potentially creating a physical barrier in the English Channel.
But we get slaver panels – at 50 North, in a cloudy island!
Is this malevolence deliberate?
Duck Rule says – ‘Hell, Yeah’.
Auto
221
Just replace Starmer and all the other Marxists. Send them to China, Cuba, Russia or Venezualla. LOL
Take Albo and his Mob of dopes as well.
160
PM Albanese a long time follower of the late Russian revolutionary Marxist Leon Trotsky, as are various other Labor MPs
40
judging by the first week or so, it promises to be a very interesting year.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/my-tcw-week-in-review-our-trump-defender-west/
110
Would the real (?) AI please stand up :-
https://www.rt.com/news/630816-us-israel-iran-protests-pezeshkian/
30
That the Left support the brutal, theocratic, human rights-violating Iranian regime and believe the regime’s lies tells you everything you need to know about them and the Red-Green Alliance.
And yet last time the Left were useful idiots of the regime in 1979 and helped them get into power they were slaughtered in their thousands a few years later under a Khomeini Fatwa. They have short memories.
331
So not AI; just lies?
What does AI think about that story?
20
“What does AI think about that story?”
Computers aren’t intelligent. They only think they are.
00
Again, the same story.
Is it true?
Who knows?
https://www.newarab.com/news/israeli-minister-says-agents-operating-iran-amid-protests
10
Israel having some people on the ground keeping abreast of things is most probably true.
Iranian leaders claiming they’re the agitators is likely a false claim to convince Iranians not to protest.
131
…but its strange how only America’s enemies get endless protests that become increasingly violent until they change the leader… for someone who is suddenly pro-West. Not to mention the CIA’s proven history of rent-a-riot for regime change.
61
It’s also probably not strange that America’s enemies have a large group of citizens who are not happy.
Not saying the fire isn’t being stoked. Just that the agitators on the ground are likely genuine.
22
The Israeli Minister* said that they had agents in Iran, no surprise there and no secret. But he said that they weren’t there to topple the regime. Presumably they are there only for intelligence and action to prevent further Iranian attacks on Israel. Fair enough.
The Iranian regime’s very purpose of existence is to destroy Israel. Their Shia theocracy posits belief in the 12th Mahdi, Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi, the final and twelfth Imam in Shia Islam, whom they believe to be the redeemer and having died in 868 will be resurrected and will return only after the Iranians destroy Israel. Hence Iran’s obsession with destroying Israel directly and via Hezbollah and Hamas proxies, not to mention the useless idiots of the Left
* https://www.israelhayom.com/2026/01/08/eliyahu-claims-israeli-agents-operating-in-iran/
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Those who hate Israel, and similarly hate the capitalists and “oppressors” of western civilisation, will support anyone who is likely to be hostile toward Israel.
I’m not sure they have no memory or awareness, but possibly don’t care how to achieve the goal.
170
And they are short on the good grey matter.
90
Onr of the Left’s favourite fundamentalist theocratic dictatorships, apart from Hamas, is about to fall but the Left-dominated Lamestream Media has barely had a word to say about it.
HonestReporting says:
Never forget whose side the Left are really on.
380
How left is Murdoch ??, you seem to be fixated.
415
The Iranian people want their country back and the Left are freaking out that the people will be liberated, free and women will be able to burn their burkhas and hijabs.
Will you be sending your commiserations to the Ayatollah when he has to flee to Moscow?
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Yes, the left are always praising how Iran treats women
What planet do you come from ?.
112
“Western media moved from burying Iran’s uprising to minimizing it and amplifying regime talking points once silence became untenable”.
Sounds very similar to that technique which MSM adopted when confronted with The Albanese Bondi saga intransigence?
40
Interesting analysis of the shooting of the anti-ICE protester in Minnesota.
https://youtu.be/bDda-L_ZOE8
100
Interesting and very good analysis. I had not seen the second video before. In the first video the officer who fired the shots seems to come out of nowhere. The officer has his gun drawn before the car accelerates toward him. I assume he was moving in to arrest the driver.
Interfering with law enforcement operations is not a game. Someone is likely to get hurt.
111
Then there’s this:
https://imgbox.com/PIehQD0Y
One less troublemaker.
60
Well qualified as a heroine of the Left…
30
Class act.
20
Video:
A non-woke Swedish guy asks will X (Twitter) be banned in Australia, Canada and UK.
The only reason we know about a lot of Government lies and incompetence and reporting failures from the Lamestream Media is because of X. It terrifies Leftist Governments.
https://youtu.be/lwpgjRjs4as
250
If they do ban X, it wouldn’t surprise me to see Elon dump free Starlink consoles into those countries to get around the ban/shutdown. Like he did in Ukraine after the Russian invasion and like he is currently doing in Iran during the protests.
But the outcome I would really like to see is Google, Facebook, and the rest of the American social media platforms to show some solidarity/backbone and just shut down service in those countries for a week or two. See how the EU politicians like it when their constituents start pitching a fit over losing access to their social media. Hell hath no fury like a Millennial/GenZ who can’t post/scroll on social media. Donors would be even angrier, as they own businesses that rely on social media advertising.
180
The question isn’t ‘will’, but ‘how long before’. They have been steadily working towards it, eg with the social media ban on under-16s, which curiously doesn’t ban sites with a strong leftist stance.
10
With the increasing severe free speech restrictions in the Anglosphere (except US), mainly to silence criticism of Government policy of causing fundamental demographic change by importing people who support Leftist political parties like Labor but not Western values, it appears that TRUMP is the only leader of a major Western power, along with Elon Musk, who are prepared to support traditional Western values of free speech and individual liberty etc..
280
But we’re still waiting for just one arrest…
20
Australians more likely to be victims of violent crime than Americans.
Not what the Official Narrative tells you.
https://crimeresearch.org/2026/01/australians-are-dramatically-more-likely-to-be-victims-of-violent-crime-than-americans/
121
The nanny country has made almost everything illegal to own or use in self defense.
Can’t even use harsh language.
No wonder there’s memes about Oz being an easy mark for a takeover.
80
In my Blue US state, one can be charged with assault and receive 10 years for merely touching.
It is seldom taken to that extreme, however this is the law.
Most blue states are ‘duty to retreat’.
In some such as New Jersey, you are expected to retreat form your own home.
In odd but typical hypocrisy, that law states you may defend your home, but in actual practice you will charged and forced to defend your action for hurting someone that attempted to strangle you in your bed.
The Trump veneer in defense of basic freedom in the US is real, but thin.
It is all just the remerging Feudal style forces of aristocratic control whose brilliant and sinister choice of Rainbow heraldry convinced a naive spoiled public to give up their hard won Enlightenment civil rights for a manipulated and manufactured fantasy of ‘social justice’.
My guess it is only their ineptitude for basic management that stops them.
But the system collapse will be ugly, as is already visible in Europe.
40
When Bowen’s compulsory “free” lunchtime electricity is brought in, what will be the limits?
For someone like me, I have no solar panels as contractors say my house is too tall and roof too steep to install them at any reasonable cost, so I would want to charge battery during the free period.
Now, I use about 30kWh per day, so I would have to get that much energy during the free period plus would also have to maintain a few days reserve. That means I would need maybe 120kWh worth of batteries. It may nor be worth it.
But even if I got 30kWh worth of energy and had no reserve I still don’t know if it would be worth it.
There may be restrictions such as increased daily connection charge, or demand charge etc..
Red Energy already does offer free electricity to EV owners at lunch times on weekends but imposes restrictions as follows:
100
Red Energy is an electricity retailer, not a producer.
They have to purchase electricity on the wholesale market and then charge consumers for reading the meter essentially. They don’t even maintain the poles and wires.
Therefore they cannot supply free electricity without charging more somewhere else. If they charge someone else for your free electricity then you are ahead. If they charge you more at a different time of day you are no better off.
110
No – they usually get paid to take lunchtime energy. It helps to keep the grid stable. In the last week of 2025, wholesalers could get up to $368/MWh to take energy at lunchtime. Both SA and Vic had negative prices at 7:40 today.
This situation will get worse as more large users pull out of the market and more rooftop solar goes in. Many commercial premises are now installing rooftop solar and batteries to reduce their power bills.
90
Retailers in Vic are prohibited from offering negative prices to domestic rooftop suppliers. If they are paid to take power from the grid at lunch time who is paying?
40
I gather you mean if rooftop owners are being paid to export then who pays for that.
The retailer avoids the cost of buying LGCs at current value of 7c/kWh. So that is the break even price for rooftop solar at the present time.
The RET ends in 2030 so rooftop solar will then have no value for retailers.
The severe load reduction on the grid is now a clear threat to the grid stability. The grid may actually need more load through the middle of the day to remain stable. At present no one is actually being paid extra to sink energy but that could well happen just to keep grid stability.
10
No, what I ment was, if wholesale prices are negative in the middle of the day, who is charged for supplying unwanted electricity? It is not domestic solar. Does the AEMO pay ( ie taxpayer) or is it the generators. Who pays that is picking up the cost for David’s free electricity.
20
The coal generators pay to stay on line. The WDGs never get much more negative than what they are paid for the LGCs they produce. Victorian price hovered around MINUS $7/MWh most of the day. SA quite a lot less but wind must be variable because price is up and down.
The steam plant bid near the floor price through the daylight period (still MINUS $1000/MWh) to avoid coming off line. The furnaces on a 600MW steam plant are probably bigger than DMs house and flame temperature around 1200C. They cannot be taken in and out of service with a few minutes notice. So they tolerate the negative price knowing they can make it up on the evening peak. They also get some FCAS payment depending on the services they are supplying. The generators would not hand money back for any given accounting period.
In 2003 the lignite fuelled generators were paid $23.42/MWh and the coal fired generators got $25.89/MWh. This year lignite were pain $91.80/MWh and coal $110.31/MWh. They have slightly lower utilisation so fixed costs are spread across lower volume but I expect they are making a good profit at current prices.
If every week was like the last week of 2025 then the coal/lignite fuelled generators would have operating losses.
It appears the tolerable turn down on the coal generators is down to 60% of rating. They are prepared to tolerate losses on wholesale energy to avoid going below that level. I expect that they have serious control and maintenance issues if they try to operate below that level. Metallrgy is challenging for high strength materials at 1200C and even more challenging for something going from 100C to 1200C on a daily basis.
Ultimately consumers pay. That is why it is better to be a producer than a consumer or load shifting consumer. Storage has great utility for the grid in its present stage of transition to de-industrialisation.
30
Ok,
I think I understand most of that.
So what it comes down to is this. If David buys a battery and gets free electricity at lunch time, the cost of that electricity is spread over the rest of the consumers who need it during peak hours.
David is secure because he has stored free electricity in his battery. Other consumers who can’t or won’t get a battery pay the cost.
10
Have to agree there Robert.
I have a lot of respect for Ricks tech/maths but when is it good to take from idiots just because they are giving it away? Especialy as it is our country (industry) they are giving away.
Just grabbing my flack jacket.
Doug
Oops Belongs below at 10, 2, 4
10
Red Energy is of course a subsidiary of Snowy Mountains Hydro and that is a wholly owned Federal Government private company, like NBN Co and other government owned companies that are accounted for off government budgets.
Snowy Hydro operates the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme and owns various gas turbine and diesel generator plants located elsewhere.
10
Why are you speculation on this. Contact your retailer and ask them when they will offer the free lunchtime energy. Then talk to two or three battery installers and get firm quotes on a battery. They will want photos of your meter box and where you want the battery installed
If you use 30kWh every day then that is the size battery you should get. If you use only 20kWh most days then that is the size. Although you probably get longer service live by oversizing by 20%.
Daily consumption of 30kWh per day is high for a Victorian residence. Have you looked at where your energy is going?
If you have electric stored water heating then you can shift that load to the free period.
30
I have a large house and don’t like to be too hot or too cold or have to wear warm clothing inside so I keep it warm or cool 24/7, all areas. Electric reverse cycle heating and cooling. Plus double glazed windows. I stopped heating with gas as I think electric reverse cycle is probably cheaper.
22
Nothing beats gas ducted heating.
All rooms same temp. Come home to a cold house, turn Braemer on, in 5 minutes all house is warm and welcoming. This is civilisation.
Reverse cycle? OK got 2 units installed, they struggle to get the room warm, let alone the house. Or on cool … it sort of diminishes the heat but not much use. Heat don’t kill me so it’s OK, but I am so grateful for the heating in just minutes …
May the imbeciles who made gas expensive or prohibitive (or prohibit as in Victoristan) be afflicted with the fleas of the 1000 camels they breed!
30
30 kWh is not a high figure, that’s the U.S. average. Double-storey houses in Perth can chew through 70 kWh a day in summer. Haven’t checked recently, but I think I also use 30 kWh a day in summer, and that’s in a townhouse.
30
Two factors:
A. The more you use the more you save so the stronger the case.
B. And I did nominate Victoria. There are not many places in Victoria that ever get buried in snow. Maybe a few alpine regions. And reverse cycle air-con is not effective in those conditions.
Today in SE Melbourne, it was 12C. It has now 10C.
If you are concerned about energy cost then the first step is to look at how you use it. If you do not take that step then just keep complaining about the high cost.
30
30kw/per day is high as an average in Australia. But that doesn’t mean your consumption and circumstance is wrong. It’s just a figure that makes some people go, “oh, that’s higher than typical. Maybe you should turn the heating off in two of your swimming pools”. 😉
Obviously varies by season and climate zone in Aus.
Based AEMO benchmark data report Dec 2020, for 4 person household.
Brisbane/Gold Coast summer average 23kw/day, winter 21.
Sydney summer 23, winter 20
Melbourne summer 15, winter 20 (gas probably lowers this average in winter, and probably the summer one too but by less)
Adelaide summer 20, winter 23
Tasmania summer 22, winter 40.
Noth QLD summer 30, winter 21
Nothing for Perth because AEMO doesn’t care.
40
The average daily power consumption in Perth for a 3-4 person family is 25-30 kWh. Power usage is significantly higher in summer. And AEMO are involved with the WA SWIS grid – there is an AEMO WA website.
10
I have a good friend who has installed panels and a 32kWh battery. His prime directive is to keep his power bills down while using his A/C during the Sydney summer.
His total out-of-pocket expenses, after Bowen’s gratuituous gift of other people’s tax, was $40k. And he spent a lot of time sorting best quotes.
Tell that to the bulk of the population, especially those in high-rise apartments.
90
Victoria has solar/battery rebates for apartments. Every apartment owner’s group should be looking at the potential to save costs with battery installations.
Nothing is going to change unless One Nation get into power. Even then, they will battle the State governments and are stuck with all the new AEMO contracts that guarantee profit even if they cannot sell electricity. They will also battle a hostile government and press.
AEMO still produce “plans” that pretend Australia will have heavy industry in the next decade.
Australia’s heavy industry was internationally competitive when electrical energy cost $40/MWh. Wholesale price was $140/MWh in Q2 2025. So no existing heavy industry is internationally competitive unless its losses are socialised. Which means it is being subsidised.
100
When the sea breeze where I live is not blowing or not very strong I then when high humidity prevails switch the air conditioner on but dehumidify cycle and that is less expensive than cooling cycle.
10
RickWill asks (with a typo):
Which seems a little rich given that RickWill is the highest-profile speculator around here when it comes to subsidised electricity gadgets.
Anyone who sees signing on for these programs as a no-brainer is showing signs of no brains.
And the people who do the sums, find them favourable, and sign up, seem to me to be a bit wanting in the conscience department.
31
The point was why doesn’t he simply ask the question of retailers and battery installers. He does not need to speculate. He can lock in the numbers and do the sums.
The Solar Sharer scheme does not come into play till July 1. I do not know if the Solar Sharer default offer has been determined for Victoria yet but he can ask his retailer if they know or call up the Essential Services Office to see what the offer will be. It is now too late to be involved in the determination but it is a starting point:
The Essential Services Commission is seeking feedback on its approach to setting Victoria’s default electricity price for 2026-27 and the suitability of a regulated free power period for residential customers.
https://www.esc.vic.gov.au/media-centre/regulator-seeks-feedback-victorian-default-offer-and-suitability-free-power-period
And I am not speculating on my household energy costs. I have spent my own capital and OPM to avoid ongoing household energy costs.
20
Your first issue (at least for most people) will be being able to draw more than 15kw in an hour from the grid. My layman understanding is that the typical single phase connections will struggle to do more than 15kw with a 63 Amp setup. Some older places will only have 32 Amp.
How long is this rumoured “free period”? If it’s 2 hours, you might be able to get 30kw and get your days supply at 15kw per hour.
Some people will have to pay for switchboard upgrades and possibly two-phase or three-phase supply upgrades. If the supply outside the property is limited by the cabling to your supply pit, then there is extra cost. We looked at getting 3 phase a few years ago (previous residence) and Ausnet quoted $9k to upgrade from the pole less than 15m away to our pit. We ended up doing 2 phase upgrade only within our property. There’s potentially $5k depending on your circumstances.
Not sure why you’d look at getting more or much more than a days supply of storage. The investment in the extra storage (especially 4 days) wouldn’t be worth the limited times you’d use it. You would have to consider it an emergency infrastructure cost for extended blackouts, and not an electrical use cost reduction method.
60
Not worth it David. Even after the state/fed rebates you will still have to fork out probably at least $30k. More likely $40k. If you were running a Tesla/EV, it might be worth it, but then you would have to install a wall charger at home. I’ve done the exercise a number of times and with all the hassle etc, just easier to fork out for electricity and gas. Get the cheapest power, conserve energy as much as possible. Your average daily usage isn’t that high, by the way.
100
I was made aware of four old home units converted into two double level townhouses in Sydney, the two owners and project clients wanted to be off grid with solar panels, batteries and EV 415v charge points. The electrical contractor advised them the costs involved would not result in them saving money even in the long term, noting battery replacement period first followed by solar panel a few years later.
The clients insisted on proceeding but were subdued when they were handed the quotation.
40
Going off grid is a far more expensive exercise than leaning on the existing grid like all the proponents of grid scale “renewable” energy are doing. They are now in strife though because rooftops have stolen their demand.
Ultimately it will be cheaper to go off grid than to stick with what is left of the grid but that is more than a decade away.
30
?? Huh ? Why so high, i have been qquoted $14k for a 40kWh battery, and 13 kW solar replacement, with a 10 kW inverter ( important ). Including installation and disposal.
There are many adds for<$10k for just battery of 30-40 kWh and even one for $3,999 foe a 50 kWh battery installed. !
Quality and reliability may be questioned , but just ensure there is a decent 10 yr warranty from the installer and why worry at that price. Most important is the quality of installation.
My hesitation is as David said, we dont yet know the conditions and restrictions on the “free power” deal from suppliers .
20
Albos version of the USs daycare fraud scheme…
https://x.com/i/status/2009767876459389430
90
Here’s another video about Australia’s NDIS scam which I posted recently.
It is possibly a bigger scam than even “renewables”.
Perhaps with an even greater capacity to bankrupt Australia than renewables.
https://youtu.be/MWO-b43o_QA
71
Don’t forget the Liberals (fake conservative) and Nationals factions of the Uniparty voted unanimously for Gillard’s NDIS in 2013.
81
Lib/Nats betrayed their party supporters .
Now the chickens are coming home to roost! One Nation has drawn level with the Coalition on the primary vote in a recent poll.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/new-poll-reveals-support-for-one-nation-now-level-with-liberal-party-5968501?utm_medium=Aoemail&utm_source=Aomorningbrief&utm_campaign=Aomb-2026-01-11&src_src=Aomorningbrief&src_cmp=Aomb-2026-01-11&est=HG1lXb5tk67HpRzh0oDSoB5%2FuFZF8L0voi8DjTxct%2FQn%2F5tgI0QrcPChBe2%2F%2BiSQEA%3D%3D
100
Basically a public service mess up. Original estimates of a $4b annual budget for the Gillard NDIS was probably Ok. Hence, why the clueless LNP supposed it. But now, it’s $50b. How the PS could imitate a program without some very strict eligibility requirements is just bizarre. Then let the costs mount up so quickly. Needs a total review from top to bottom.
150
That is correct but does not explain why Opposition Leader Abbott decided to support Labor NDIS and the Gonski Education State Grants.
That was election year due September 2013 and the first Budget with the above commitments was 2013/14 Labor Budget. And as the Abbott Government soon realised Labor had committed but made no provisions to pay. The Abbott Government, Treasurer Hockey, were forced to borrow to pay for the unfunded Labor Budget commitments and Labor Opposition played politics claiming the Abbott Government had broken an election promise on debt reduction.
1] NDIS was covered by Federal-State Agreements with all states and territories and therefore breaking those agreements would not have been well received by the electorate.
2] Gonski Education Grants were also a commitment to states and territories, the Abbott Opposition said they would support Gonski for current financial year and following years until a new state system of education Abbott called “Back To Basics” could be arranged. In other words teaching the basic subjects again. When negotiations commenced the State Education Departments admitted that many if not most and especially younger teachers were not trained to teach those subjects as Back To Basics required and retraining would take a few years to achieve.
NSW Premier Berejiklian was the first to announce Back To Basics ready for implementation. I have no new knowledge about that.
As for LINO left influence in the Abbott period (2009-2015), in 2010 the Abbott led Opposition won back every seat lost to Rudd Labor in November 2007 and forced Gillard Labor into an alliance minority Labor Government to cling onto power. At the September 2013 election Abbott Coalition defeated Rudd again Labor in a landslide defeat. However, Abbott had LINO rival Turnbull ready to challenge and in the Cabinet Abbott’s margin was slim and an example is the letter from Jennifer Marohasy 2014 regarding the BoM, PM Abbott wanted an independent audit of the BoM but could not get enough support from Cabinet.
70
QE II’s Commonwealth is disintegrating faster than Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s Endowed Royal Titles and, in the process, destroying a system born in 1215 (that’s a year not a time) 811 years that has even benefited The United States of America. The current iterations are unlikely to last another 50 years by which time Albanese, Starmer and Carney will, in all likelihood, be pushing up daisies.
80
The engineered fall of Once Great Britain and the Commonwealth is tragic.
Goolag AI summary of Toynbee:
Also see:
James Burnham: Suicide of the West (1964).
Douglas Murray: The Strange Death of Europe (2017).
Jonah Goldberg: “Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics Is Destroying American Democracy” (2018).
Pof. Gad Saad: The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense (2020).
61
Ah the pleasures of living in today’s system-run society. I have just sent the following complaint to the Communications ombudsman, complaining about my (lack of) service from my email provider, The Messaging Company:
The company blocked one of my email accounts for no given reason. After trying to resolve the problem online I eventually found a phone number for them. I learned then that the mobile phone registered with the account is not my current mobile phone, which I have had for a few years. They then refused to unblock my email account because my mobile phone number didn’t match their records. They said there were two ways I could get the account unblocked: (a) they could send a code to my email address for me to quote back to them. That couldn’t work because they had blocked my email account. (b) they could send a code to my registered mobile phone. That couldn’t work because I no longer have that phone. I asked them to unblock the email address for the sole purpose of sending me a code. They refused. I actually have two email addresses in the one account, so I asked them to send the code to my other email address, as this would be a perfectly good way of verifying that I was who I said. They refused. I asked to speak to mamagement to see if they could resolve it. They agreed and said management would contact me. They didn’t. I am now stuck with my email blocked for no given reason.
We are living in a Kafkaesque age – something which most here are well aware of.
Note: The above complaint (written on a mobile phone) is cut-and paste to here, complete with typos etc.
210
I think part of the problem is that the general dumbing-down of the education system plus general Nanny Statism has caused a severe deficit of critical thinking skills.
190
You spoke to a human at “The Messaging Co”.!!!!!!! That’s a first. Well done.
30
I got a phone number for The Messaging Company by phoning another company that would have dealings with them, and asking if they knew one. I couldn’t find one on the TMC website.
40
Dump ’em. Don’t waste any more time.
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/thread/3w8y1x06
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/thread/3w8yxwv4
https://www.productreview.com.au/listings/the-messaging-company?sortBy=newest
1 star rating.
Alternatives: Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, Protonmail…
10
I may well do that, but it’s quite a big deal changing email address, and there is probably a lot in my inbox that I need to see.
10
It always is.
Setup another email and notify the important people like banks insurance ATO, power, gas to use the new email immediately AND check for recent emails they may have sent and get them resent to new address, close the TMC account AND tell your bank you have and to block any auto-debits as TMC have a long history of continuing to debit closed after customers have left.
Like moving house – it’s a pain but not for long.
TMC is a basket case, bite the bullet.
20
My email address is registered with a billion* organisations/people. Yes, I’ll probably switch, but it’s a big deal. [* – I checked with Chris Bowen that I have got this number right. He thought that billion sounded good, but to use trillion if I needed more emphasis.]
10
When TPG exemail sent a message to me that they were moving to the Messaging Co and would charge a monthly fee, I just moved what I could to my other email and ‘played dead’. After your problems Mike, I’m glad I did.
10
Australia Nett Zero Report Card on Judith Curry’s site
https://judithcurry.com/2026/01/11/update-on-australian-netzero-efforts/
20
FWIW – another view from outside
“Great Success!”
“Chris Morris- Update on Australian NetZero efforts
The answer is not much progress but massive amounts of money spent.”
https://judithcurry.com/2026/01/11/update-on-australian-netzero-efforts/
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2026/01/11/great-success-148/
10
And from elsewhere
“Math is Hard”
“Back in November 2025, the Washington State Department of Ecology and Washington State Department of Commerce published some statistics about how much carbon emissions have been reduced because of the programs they’re spending millions of taxpayer dollars on.
One little problem: Their numbers were off by 9,500 per cent.
Due to a data entry error, Commerce reported that 7.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced as a result of eight rebate projects funded by the CCA that support home electrification and appliance rebates for low-income and vulnerable communities. The corrected data now estimates that 78,000 tons of emissions will be reduced over the lifetime of those projects.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFqP0homap8
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2026/01/11/math-is-hard-6/
60
Thanks. An excellent summary.
00
I just heard a shocking interview on ABC RN in which Admiral (Ret.) Chris Barrie was interviewed.
He appears to have a case of severe TDS blaming TRUMP for illegaly taking the drug lord dictator Maduro which was a threat to the “rules based international order”.
He also said TRUMP’s liberation of the Venezuelan oil supplies is devastating for climate change.
He also blamed the heatwave on “climate change” and things would get much worse because of Orange Man Bad.
Also, he accused TRUMP of wanting to destroy the UN.
Blah, blah, blah.
It’s obvious why Their ABC considered him worthy of an interview.
The interview hasn’t been put online yet but I guess it will be soon at:
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/radionational-breakfast/radio-national-breakfast/106026528
290
THE heatwave? If he was referring to the heatwave last week, there wasn’t one.
The BOM adopted a heatwave definition a decade ago reducing it to 3 consecutive days of “unusually” high temperatures, from the generally accepted 5 days. Heatwave considers both day and night temps. If the nights are not “unusually” warm too, then the day temp doesn’t make it a heatwave.
No eastern seaboard capital city had a heatwave last week in my book.
Melb had 41, 30, 43. 30 is not unusually high.
Syd had 33, 33, 42 but the night time temps were not “unusually” high at 21, just 2 degrees above average.
Brisbane’s highest temp all week was 31.
240
I grew up in Perth with a definition of a heatwave as 6 consecutive days exceeding body heat, 98deg F or 37deg C.
I might now concede this would be a pretty tough call for the Eastern States. Such high temperatures in Perth were generally accompanied with low humidity. I haven’t enjoyed the last few days of 31deg C here in Brisbane with its dew point exceeding 21deg C.
110
We are in good hands. NOT.
70
Here is the link to the segment.
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/radionational-breakfast/venezuela-oil/106208312
00
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union of 27 member states that are party to the EU’s founding treaties, and thereby subject to the obligations of membership. With the exception of less than a handful of members I very much doubt the ability of this so called “organisation” to be able to attract an Army let alone deploy a functioning one. Without The USA/Trump The EU would quickly be reduced to glowing embers rather than a functioning fighting force. There are just too many disparate nationalities that could well be fighting against one or more of their homelands. Sounds a bit like Australia! We also need The USA, The United Kingdom almost went under in WW2 as did Australia while rebuffing a very effective Japanese Army. For sure we can provide small group effective logistical support but that’s it!
110
FWIW
“IT’S TRUE. MUSLIMS IN PERSIA WERE LITERAL SETTLER COLONIALISTS.”
“Iranians burning down mosques is the purest form of decolonization.”
https://x.com/VerminusM/status/2010083857081741701
“Zoroastrians worship fire. Very poetic.”
https://x.com/InHumaneShape/status/2010096856911753589
“As they were throughout nearly all of the middle east and North Africa.”
https://instapundit.com/768582/#disqus_thread
100
FWIW
“R Programming – Improvements in the Language”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/01/11/r-programming-improvements-in-the-language/
And
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/01/11/r-programming-tips-to-read-and-plot-igra2-radiosonde-data/
20
Murray Watt refuses to hand over planning documents for massive solar farm planned for Victoria
Should have gone to script savers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FsJe4DScDs
40
An interesting summary of power grid stability.
https://open.substack.com/pub/digimus/p/inertia-and-reactive-power?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=17bedn
10
Reasonable, but contains a few wrong statements. For example, a HVAC line is mainly inductive only under conditions of heavy loading: for lighter loads, it’s considered mostly capacitive. Also a value of Hz/s is nonsense.
20
FWIW – keep watch on both hands!
“UK Seeks to Partner with Australia and Canada in Censorship Plot Against Elon Musk’s X: Report”
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2026/01/11/uk-seeks-to-partner-with-australia-and-canada-in-censorship-plot-against-elon-musks-x-report/
41
And this too!
“EU Commissar: Free Speech Is a Virus, Censorship the Vaccine”
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2026-01-11/eu-commissar-free-speech-virus-censorship-vaccine
70
Hmmm!
Hell-bent on repeating the Peking Pox pandemic formula, eh?
00
Once Great Britain’s people wouldn’t even know about the rape gangs of a certain protected ethnic group, not acted upon by the UK government for decades, were it not for X and Tommy Robinson’s documentary hosted by X and other revelations.
Starmer himself was Director of Public Prosecutions and head of the Crown Prosecution Service from 2008 to 2013 and did nothing except to protect the favoured cohort of voters for UK Labour.
90
And it flows back to the UNHCR influence
40
FWIW
“I, For One, Welcome Our New Self-Driving Overlords”
“BOOM!
I pioneered the use of AI Rorschach tests to understand the psychological diagnosis of AI.
I found shocking results: sociopathy, nihilism, and schizophrenia-like traits stemming from toxic training data.
This becomes more an issue as Robots use this AI in the real world.”
https://x.com/BrianRoemmele/status/2010023648120500569
Via https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2026/01/11/i-for-one-welcome-our-new-self-driving-overlords-216/
30
FWIW
“U.K Asks Germany and France, EU NATO, to Support Expanded Presence in Greenland
January 11, 2026 | Sundance | 161 Comments
Annnddd… Just like that, President Trump wins again.”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2026/01/11/u-k-asks-germany-and-france-eu-nato-to-support-expanded-presence-in-greenland/
70
Genius move. Brilliant.
60
“Z-man” will probably donate Greenland to USA to stop it diluting his share of the EURO kitty?
00
COVID lockdowns changed the beak shape of these city birds
Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) followed dark-eyed juncos (Junco hyemalis) living on a university campus from 2018 to 2025. They found that birds hatched during the lockdown period developed beaks that more closely resembled those of nearby wildland populations, rather than the shorter, thicker beaks typically seen in urban juncos. As human activity and food waste returned, those differences appeared to fade in later generations.
Crucially, these shifts appeared in birds hatched during and shortly after the period of reduced human activity, then reversed in later generations once city life resumed.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2520996122
Rapid evolution at work.
Similar observations have been made with UK bird populations, albeit not Covid driven.
20
FWIW
“Cloudflare Vs Italy: The Battle For Digital Freedom And Global Internet Sovereignty”
“Italian authorities are attempting to force the internet service provider Cloudflare to delete and block certain online services. Cloudflare is resisting and has turned to the U.S. government for support.
The fight for a free internet is intensifying.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/cloudflare-vs-italy-battle-digital-freedom-and-global-internet-sovereignty
20
Washington is committed to depopulation
“So if you look at the game, there’s a wonderful political economist named Toby Rogers who speaks about this and talks about the way, if I get a woman working in the mines in a poor country in South America, the most I can make out of her as a slave is maybe $20,000. But if I take somebody with $2 million in an IRA and $2 million in a 401k and a nice house, you know, I can basically wipe out their entire family wealth running them through the chronic disease machine.
https://youtu.be/GWnKCUvJh1w?si=8UfJPVQS2-FrxGLf
No shots for gimmigrants, just the wealthy westerners…
20
FWIW
“The End of The Crawler Loader”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKHfqoWnmi8
10
“I’m that loyal friend that would take a bullet for you.
But I am also probably the reason we are being shot at ”
00
That was intended as a tribute to the moderators here
00
We are told that there are relatively few radical Islamist-supporting activists in our Australian Muslim community, and that the vast majority of our Muslim community are peace-loving. What are the percentages? What percentage of our Muslim community are fully-supportive of Australia? If our peaceful Muslim Australians are fully-supportive of their adopted country and its citizenship, then surely they should be offended by the actions of their radical violent, anti-Australian, antisemitic neighbours? If so, why don’t they approach the authorities to report these betrayers of the “Religion of Peace”? If not, how do they justify their ambivalence to what they are witnessing?
00