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Saturday

9.1 out of 10 based on 11 ratings

90 comments to Saturday

  • #
    Penguinite

    Anthony Albanese is facing mounting criticism for claiming he called a royal commission into the Bondi massacre in ‘record time’ the probe has the scope to examine bigotry beyond just anti-Semitism but will it? Albanese’s authority and leadership have been injured and he may bear the political scars for the rest of his term. At least we hope so!

    Saddle up for another year of galloping hypocrisy!!

    300

    • #
      David Maddison

      I have about zero confidence that the Royal Commission will have appropriate terms of reference or will be open and frank. It will find only what the Government wants it to find. It’s even worse that Albanese chose the Commissioner, they are therefore not an independent pick.

      I would rather not have a Royal Commission at all than one that is being conducted by Alananese’s personal pick, known to be a Labor/Left supporter. It’s a farce and it’s already getting twisted to be about all “hate” even though there is no evidence for that directed to any other group as falsely stated by those claiming some type of xxxxxxphobia. Just antisemitism stirred up by Australian Government policies rewarding Hamas terrorism and their importation of a certain hateful cohort as Labor-voters-for-life, supported by a vast slave army of useful idiots of the Left.

      261

      • #
        Bruce

        I suggest that the “findings were already “set in stone” before the Bondi bodies were cold.

        Solutions in pursuit of “problems”: The oldest game in politics.

        90

        • #
          David Maddison

          Yes, the reason Albo took so long to establish the RC was that they first had to establish the narrative and write the report.

          20

      • #
        Dennis

        The Commissioner was appointed by PM Albanese after 2022 to head a RC into political opponent PM Morrison and Government

        20

    • #
      John Connor II

      …and in breaking news, Albo has announced he’s resigning and opening a Palestinian daycare.
      “There’s more money in daycare than politics” he said.
      😆

      100

    • #
      Dennis

      The march to the Bondi massacre began at Sydney Town Hall

      Less than five hours after Hamas terrorists crossed into Israel and began massacring Israelis, Palestine Action Group Sydney had already chosen a date, venue and time for its first pro-Hamas rally and it was already promoting it online.

      .
      [From an article in The Australian by Megan Goldin. Please credit quoted sources. – Raquel]

      40

    • #
      Dennis

      Exposed: union’s secret anti-Israel campaign

      Leaked documents expose how a militant union faction has covertly targeted Israeli investments and used the Gaza conflict to drive workplace memberships across Australia.

      .
      [From The Australian 7 Jan by John Ferguson.
      Please credit quoted material. Comments may not be approved without it. – Raquel]

      01

  • #
    John Galt III

    I wonder how Maduro and his Communist wife are enjoying American prison cuisine this morning in New York City?

    150

    • #
      David Maddison

      Well at least he’s in a communist-run city full of his Leftist supporters.

      140

      • #
        Steve

        Yeah, if they really wanted to punish him they’d send him to Oklahoma, though that may be considered cruel and unusual punishment.

        50

    • #
      John Connor II

      And El Trumpo is doing Mexico next, and as I said a week ago, Peru, Colombia and Iran should be worried.
      Esp. Iran…
      Dept of Defence renamed Dept of war…

      60

  • #
    Penguinite

    This is criminal!
    Perth Children’s Hospital enables double mastectomies for teenage girls who identify as boys and no doubt penectomy for young males identifying as female. Parents of teenagers beware! Their offspring need to be allowed to experience some life before making these momentous irrevocable decisions!

    300

    • #
      farmerbraun

      What is the cost , and who pays it?

      80

    • #
      David Maddison

      Surgical procedures for mental illness have been considered grossly inappropriate since the banning of the routine frontal lobotomy, which like surgical “transition” to something else (certainly not the opposite sex) was also based on junk science.

      120

    • #
      Stanley

      Addadicktome?

      20

    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      I read somewhere the case of a Canadian woman who wants to de-transition but the gov’t is getting in the way. She apparently had a traumatic childhood and was almost mute as a young teen, yet a doctor somehow decided she needed to transition into a man. Before she knew it, she’d been put on meds then undergone radical surgery including double mastectomy. Now in her twenties, she feels she made a mistake (or rather the authorities did) and desperately wants help to de-transition.

      Now, it turns out that, while the gov’t was happy to fund her transition, they will not help her de-transition. She’s on her own.

      So it seems that, when advocates say people can be ‘in the wrong body’, they don’t mean the wrong body FOR THE PATIENT, they mean ‘wrong’ for the trans movement.

      100

    • #
      John Connor II

      I’ve seen photos of these poor kids post surgery.
      Anyone who’d do that based on transient juvenile confusion or on the wishes of crackpot parents needs to be struck off and never allowed to work in the medical sector again.

      120

  • #
    Penguinite

    PM under fire for not including radical Islam as key Royal Commission focus says Mike Pezzullo The former head of the powerful Home Affairs department has revealed a major deficiency in Anthony Albanese’s antisemitism Royal Commission.

    https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/attacking-philosophy-anthony-albanese-under-fire-for-not-including-radical-islam-as-key-focus-of-royal-commission/news-story/87c058b13dbb7ef985276477754c7e09
    .

    If a tree falls over in the forest, unwitnessed by human eyes, did it really happen?

    130

    • #
      David Maddison

      Yes, they are deliberately ignoring the very reason behind the Bondi massacre/pogrom because they don’t want to offend a major cohort of Labor supporters, of which Labor are importing many more as Labor-voters-for-life into strategic Labor seats. What could possibly go wrong? Lessons of Western Europe and every other country where such a population transfer has occurred voluntarily or by invasion for the last 1400 years are bring ignored! (Just check history books, all well documented, starting with the Mozarabic Chronicle of 754.) But Australians have made their choice – they keep voting Green/Teal/Labor. The process might be unstoppable now, especially with the weakest-ever non-Opposition party, who are so weak and leaderless Australia is an effective One Party State.

      210

    • #
      Ted1

      Yes, it did happen.

      If you missed it, too bad!

      10

    • #
      Ponzi

      I’m pretty sure ‘radical Islam ‘ would be investigated under the term antisemitism

      01

    • #
      Bruce

      Never mind “radical” islam. It is “orthodox” / “by the book” Islam actually doing all this “executive attitude adjustment”.

      Look it up in any of the 23+ “authorized” versions.

      10

  • #
    farmerbraun

    Please may we send our “ coalition of the willing-boots on the ground “to Ukraine.
    Please.
    https://www.rt.com/news/630752-merz-russia-ukraine-ceasefire-troops-deployment/

    31

  • #
    Penguinite

    The deep-seated animosity towards Jews and Christians among Islamists poses a threat to any nation. Including Australia. This cannot be permitted to persist at the current level. Bit like being an alcoholic and or an abuser of non prescription pharmaceuticals. “I can self manage the problem” when deep down they know they’re unable to resist unless and until the crux of the problem is acknowledged! Time to call a sponsor Albo!

    131

    • #
      Vladimir

      Can help but admire the guy.
      He is a real artiste of pretending. There is no failure which, without a moment of hesitation, he will present as their best achievement.
      But, I correct myself – most of them are like that, Hypocrisy is the number one, two and three skills they unashamedly excel in..

      120

    • #
      John Connor II

      “The United Arab Emirates has restricted funding for its citizens who want to study at British universities, the latest sign of tensions over the UK’s decision not to proscribe the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood group.

      The exclusion of British universities is linked to anxiety in the UAE over what it sees as the risk of Islamist radicalisation on UK campuses, according to three people familiar with the matter.”

      https://www.ft.com/content/f256cc27-b80f-4fce-88cf-e80cb2451ef5

      What does it say when the UAE, 80% Islam, doesn’t want to send students to the UK?

      80

  • #
    Penguinite

    So halal foods are usurping our takeaway staples. The problem is that Middle Eastern food is tasty and nutritious. That’s not to say a good old T-bone isn’t but so much other western ‘food’ masquerading as food isn’t tasty and nutritious. Ham/chicken burgers used to be but ever since they have been infiltrated with imitation/chemical stuff it’s all gone down hill. Take sausages for example they are packed solid with grain and edible animal parts NOR (not otherwise required) in other words GUNK! Consider the official requirements to qualify as a sausage
    “In Australia, sausages must meet specific compositional requirements set by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). At least 50% of a sausage must be fat-free meat flesh, which includes skeletal muscle from slaughtered animals, along with attached fat, connective tissue, blood vessels, and in the case of poultry, skin”.

    60

  • #
    David Maddison

    https://medial.app/post/6940293f8c118c47eded79c7

    “If a drug cured asthma in three days, we’d kill it. Chronic disease is where the money is.”

    This quote attributed to former Pfizer executive turned whistleblower Peter Rost keeps resurfacing because it forces an uncomfortable question.

    Is healthcare designed to heal people or to monetise illness?

    Rost later wrote The Whistleblower: Confessions of a Healthcare Hitman, arguing that pharma success is often measured by long-term treatment adoption rather than cures. While some legal claims were dismissed, the incentive problem he highlighted remains real.

    Chronic treatments mean recurring revenue. One-time cures do not.

    When success is rewarded by market size instead of recovery, outcomes get distorted.

    SEE LINK FOR REST

    121

    • #
      Ronin

      A patient cured is a patient lost.

      100

    • #
      Steve

      it forces an uncomfortable question.

      An uncomfortable question with a bloody obvious answer … monetize illness.

      Nobody ever got rich by shrinking their market.

      The new wrinkle in the 21st century is not only monetizing illness, but adopting a subscription business model. Vaccines are no longer one and done. You need to get a new one every year. Same goes for fat loss drugs like Ozempic … it’s a life sentence of paying for ‘make me skinny’ drugs. Ditto for transgender stuff. It’s not a one-time expense. It’s a lifetime of taking hormones and getting regular checkups to make sure that your open surgical wound doesn’t close up or get infected. And so on and so forth down the line. The new ‘subscription’ medical services have been a boon to the bottom line.

      70

  • #
    another ian

    FWIW – for the covid record

    The jab scene heats up – start here towards the end –

    “Just when you thought the covid jab story could not get any more twisted and bizarre, the poop-show around covid “vaccines” (scare quotes intended) just exploded in a whole new direction. Late last week, Reuters ran a legal story headlined, “Bayer sues COVID vaccine makers over mRNA technology.” Just wait. If you thought Pfizer’s and Moderna’s problems were already bad, they just got substantially worse.

    Ignore the misleading headline— it’s not actually Bayer proper storming the courthouse steps. No, it’s Bayer’s subsidiary Monsanto, the same one that turned “Roundup” into a household name and “glyphosate” into a four-letter curse word for half the planet. Monsanto filed suit in Delaware federal court against Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, with a side dish against Johnson & Johnson in New Jersey. The allegation is that these companies allegedly cribbed Monsanto’s 1980s breakthrough in stabilizing messenger RNA so crops could produce more durable, pest-resistant proteins —patented as US No. 7,741,118 (granted in 2010, expiring June 2027)— and repurposed it to “stablize” the fragile mRNA in their covid jabs— and don’t ask questions about mRNA persistence in human bodies.”

    More at

    https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/honor-among-thieves-friday-january?

    50

  • #
    Vladimir

    This morning some specialists agree the answer to Ultimate Question is not 42 .

    It is 40, that is $40/barell.

    True or not, they glibly say – “… you laughed at me when I insisted that Trump has a Plan”

    10

    • #
      Steve

      I don’t see it happening. It costs more than $40/barrel to get it out of the ground in many cases. If the price ever dips that low, thousands of wildcatters will go out of business. Even at $60/bbl you get a bit of that, as folks working difficult/expensive to extract fields shut down and wait for prices to go back up. The price dropping to $40 would absolutely crush the supply side of the equation, making it very difficult to achieve ‘energy dominance’ over much easier to extract middle eastern oil fields.

      10

      • #
        Vladimir

        I apologise, I always do – just in case.., how does geography works in that case?
        I mean geography in a wider sense – say, with troubles at South China Sea or Bab El Mandeb straits.
        Like – would possible but unlikely skirmishes on Texas and New Mexico border affect that number 40 ?

        00

    • #
      RickWill

      If the $40 barell of oil was burnt at 60% efficiency, it would produce electricity at $40/MWh. That is what is needed to keep aluminium smelters in Australia.

      In energy value, $40 barely of oil corresponds to $180/t of coa high rank thermal coall. So current coal price around $100/tonne is a bargain.

      Australia is idling its remaining low cost coal plants through the day to allow rooftop solar into the grid. So average cost of reliable generation is through the roof. No wonder industry is shutting down.

      121

      • #
        Rowjay

        Australia’s biggest energy problem is liquid hydrocarbons – pretty much all imported and easily blocked by an aggressor. Natural gas and both high and low rank coals – all ok.
        So it does make some sense to reduce our dependency on liquid hydrocarbons by going electric for smaller vehicles – heavy haulage not so much.
        Electrified rail networks instead of powerlines to nowhere in particular is even better.

        00

  • #

    Wow:

    https://x.com/RyanSaavedra/status/2009438577567109167

    UAE cuts funds for citizens keen to study in UK over Muslim Brotherhood tensions
    An Arab country does not want its citizens to go to the U.K. due to the risk of Islamic radicalization.

    50

  • #
    RickWill

    The tropical low off North Queensland is now 993hPa so still not reaching the intensity of a Cat 1 cyclone but getting closer as it moves south and toward the coast.

    https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/overlay=mean_sea_level_pressure/orthographic=-222.00,-32.16,1098/loc=143.087,-38.712

    Plenty of wind in Victoria and hot or cold depending on the direction of the wind. SE Melbourne starting to get a little smoke from bush fires. today.

    Enough moisture over the middle to northern part to retain low pressure ensuring generally onshore winds. But those circulating over NSW and down into Victoria are transporting heat south.

    30

  • #
    another ian

    FWIW

    “NEWSFLASH: Cellphone Footage From Agent Destroys Liberal Narrative”

    https://hotair.com/david-strom/2026/01/09/cellphone-footage-from-agent-shows-she-hits-him-with-the-car-n3810676

    40

    • #
      Chad

      Still , hardly seems like a just cause to use lethal action against an unarmed driver ?

      03

      • #
        ozfred

        Would you stand peaceably in front of a 1500kg car starting to accelerate towards you?
        Unarmed driver in this case may be mis-information.

        50

        • #
          Chad

          No, i would move and rely on other means of stopping a wanted driver.
          The shot was never going to stop the vehicle , before it hit the agent ,anyway

          00

          • #
            Mooka

            It will stop the next useful idiot fromthinking that they can get away with driving their cars at ICE workers.

            20

          • #
            Bruce

            Once you introduce motor vehicles as weapons, the “20 foot” rule comes into play, with physics factored in.

            The twenty-foot (6m for the youngsters) rule is basically this:

            If you are facing an aggressive opponent, armed or not, at a distance of 20 feet or less, and…

            If YOU do not have a serious weapon already drawn or your hand on it…..

            The aggressive opponent WILL be able to cover those 20 feet and strike you, BEFORE you can raise tour sidearm OR make an evasive move,

            Being struck by a grown adult bearing you a lot of ill-will, is NOT a good thing. Even if you get a quick shot away at a metre or so, inertia will carry that mass hard against yours.

            Being violently knocked backwards onto hard pavement (probably without a decent helmet), will result in your skull being driven hard into said pavement; usually a “kill” shot.

            When I was somewhat younger and relatively “unbroken”, I ran some of these drill with high-level Martial Arts instructors. On nice padded floors, in good lighting. Out in zombie-land, a loony, juiced on PCP or similar off-licence pharmaceutical can cover 6m in surprising time AND adsorb considerable damage before “lights out”.

            A 60cm knife slash across the chest will hurt like Hell; the rib cage will do its intended job, protecting heart and lungs. a 60cm slash across the belly WILL eviscerate you; possibly exsanguinate you if your liver is slashed, resulting in death in minutes.

            Forget the bull about “shooting for the legs”: Two reasons.

            The upper leg / thigh contains the Femur and the FEMORAL ARTERY.. In the unlikely event you “get lucky” and shoot out the Femur, the assailant will find it very hard to run. HOWEVER, the bullet may have shattered the bone, with bullet and/or bone fragments puncturing the femoral artery. Terminal bleed-out in three to four minutes. Second point is that their UPPER body is still functional. In those few minutes, a juiced-up or determined assailant can shoot a lot of holes in you.

            There is a thing called “The Mozambique Drill”.

            In its basic model, the mantra is:

            “Two to the chest,
            Face gets the rest”

            Final point: Repeat the above until ALL “voluntary” movement has ceased.

            This is a last-ditch close range defensive drill.

            “Near misses”? “Close” only counts with hand-grenades and Horse-shoes”.

            Attempted vehicular homicide? Kicking and or “evasion” will do very little to dissuade the driver. A motor-vehicle of 1500 + Kg, deliberately aimed at a human body is basically a “no-contest”. Note that our sand-pirate “cousins’ long ago weaponized cars and trucks, (and airliners)..

            50

      • #
      • #
        Honk R Smith

        Chad,
        please analyze and explain* ‘just cause for lethal action’.
        You have one second.

        *Experimental integrity requires that you be surrounded, harassed, and impeded for an hour prior to your allowed one second for mental processing. One option allows your personal future awareness of accuracy. The others do not.

        20

        • #
          Chad

          If you consider a vehicle as a “lethal weapon” , then why put yourself in the high risk zone front of it ?
          Especially if you have had previous experience of the consequences !
          Basic safety even for police /agents,…. I would have thought ?
          I have no sympathy for the anti-ICE cause or the driver in question, but from the video she didnot seem agressive and definitively not armed ( both hands on the steering wheel)
          The whole incident should have been no more than a failure to stop/ failure to comply with a federal officer, and a warrant issued……rather than the instant justice of the wild west !
          No matter the legal outcome, no one is going to come out of this smelling of roses.

          00

        • #
          Stuart Jones

          guy had been hit a few weeks before by a protester in a car and he was dragged 100m, so I think he was well aware of the danger

          00

  • #
    Hanrahan

    Is Renee Nicole Good a candidate for the Darwins?

    70

  • #
    David Maddison

    Australia’s biggest scam might not even be “renewables” but NDIS.

    It might even be bigger than the US Somalli scam, but Australia doesn’t have a leader that cares, unlike TRUMP.

    NDIS is not means tested either.

    Video: https://youtu.be/MWO-b43o_QA

    Worth reading the comments on the video as well.

    110

    • #
      John Connor II

      Somali daycare fraud?
      That was last week!
      Now it’s IRANIAN daycare fraud in California!
      $42M grant to one guy and no kids in sight for 9 months.
      Who runs the government? Not americans.

      90

      • #
        ozfred

        Who runs the government? Not americans.
        Apparently the leading members of the Somali (dual citizen or not) community in MN agree with you.

        20

    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      Somebody elsewhere said, with respect to the massive frauds taking place in America, if billions of dollars can go missing and the government doesn’t even notice, surely we’re paying too much tax?

      130

    • #
      Brenda Spence

      Unbelievable!

      30

  • #
    Vladimir

    For our own sake – every success to Victorian Emergency Management Commissioner.
    He seems to be a professional very experienced in his specific area.
    I only found a mention of his volunteering with Victoria SES since his school years – great from my point of view.

    30

    • #
      another ian

      Hmmm!

      “He seems to be a professional very experienced in his specific area.”

      That will probably get him fired!

      10

  • #
    another ian

    FWIW – latest Kunstler

    “The Democrats Last Rodeo

    “. . .the Minnesota protests look less like a local eruption and more like the latest deployment of an international revolutionary machine.” —Insurrection Barbie on “X”

    https://www.kunstler.com/p/the-democrats-last-rodeo

    10

    • #
      Gob

      An awful experience arose when I followed the link and was redirected to substack and then was required to verify my age so as not to violate Australia’s newly introduced totalitarianism. Too bad eh. I wonder how long Jo’s site will survive the encircling of the political monsters behind this initiative.

      20

      • #
        Gob

        Even switching on the Opera vpn was no help as then I was obliged to create a substack account a directive with which I did not comply; oh well this is the twenty-first century and I will make do as best I can with the diminishing set of privileges granted me.

        30

      • #
        RexAlan

        Not for me. The link worked perfectly. No substack account and no age verification needed.

        00

  • #
    ozfred

    Can one of the more technically educated types please assist (or commiserate)
    I have Telstra fixed (mobile) wireless for internet access.
    Access via a yagi antenna pointed at the nearest (6-7km) Telstra tower.
    Last Sunday performance became sporadic at best.
    When (randomly now) connected ping times to sites still using IPv4 went from normally 50/60 ms to as high as 3500ms. It would seem the performance hit is because the DNS resolution is not happening for the multiple links now used by most (graphics heavy) sites. Amazingly at 2300 (11 pm local) reception is “normal” (for me based on 7-8 years of connection)

    How would one detect a new (and illegal) cell phone booster?
    Or
    Convince Telstra their tower site is Heavily (over) congested during daytime (prime) hours.

    Theoretically the Telstra trouble call is level 2.
    With seriously sporadic internet the Wifi calls (internal house hub) are also randomly “unhearable”.
    And less than 5 minutes notice is given by SMS that they will call. So very easily missed.

    When would it useful to contact the Ombudsman?
    Or do I have other options remaining?

    10

    • #
      John Connor II

      Presumably your yagi is NOT across the roof and you’ve tried varying the alignment?
      Have you tried an app like “Aus phone towers (3G,4G,5G) to see where all the towers are where you are?
      Apps like Opensignal offer info on speed and performance.

      As for illegal repeaters, best you talk to Telstra and have them investigate as they’ll have the gear needed.

      00

      • #
        ozfred

        The yagi is about a meter over the peak of the roof and the location has been used for 17 years with minimal interference.
        Yes I was told I would not get a wireless connection back then. The tower of choice was changed with the installation of 4g towers with a new closer one (black spot removal). And the feed in cable from the antenna was upgraded to a lower loss version at the same time. There is yet another one that is about a km closer but with 10m less height at the tower so have not tried that one. And at this point I would need a portable angle grinder and new U-bolts.
        As for Opensignal they do not seem to offer a desktop version and my desktops are all connected to the router (and on to the modem) by cat5 cable. I will see if there is a difference with the Android hand sets connected via my wifi or native LTE from my veranda. Colorbond roof and siding limits the EMF from the 130kV power line nearby but also 4g signals inside the house.
        I would love to talk with Telstra but find 2 or 3 minutes notice with no call back options rather user unfriendly.
        Someone may have done something at the tower as download speeds have improved back to last month levels, but with sporadic “can not find that site” messages indicating DNS resolution “issues”, including this site this morning.
        Another price decrease from Starlink may provoke the end of long term engagement. Which my son finds Starlink acceptable.

        00

  • #
    another ian

    FWIW – “The moving finger writes and having writ”

    “Britain’s Surging Reliance on Gas Deals Fresh Blow to Miliband Net Zero Hopes”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/01/09/britains-surging-reliance-on-gas-deals-fresh-blow-to-miliband-net-zero-hopes/

    10

  • #
  • #
    another ian

    FWIW – the “Elbow should resign” petition closed

    “This petition had 374,584 supporters”

    20

    • #
      John Connor II

      Resigns but like his predecessors gets a 6-figure annual indexed salary for life, a wide range of perks and freebies, half the public taxation rate, immediately accessible super, and all for what?
      Doing a dreadful job and failing in his promises and failing the Australian people?
      How about a nice trial, life in prison, and stripped of all assets and entitlements?

      60

  • #
    John Connor II

    Funding UK digital ID scheme requires cuts for other departments: Starmer gov’t

    UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer may have found the fastest way to sink his government’s plan for a national digital ID. Reports from Bloomberg and the Telegraph say Starmer’s Chief Secretary Darren Jones has asked ministers to find money in their departmental budgets that can be funneled into the digital ID program – “savings that could be diverted to finance the policy.”

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-08/uk-government-asks-departments-to-make-savings-to-fund-id-plan

    A bit broke are we?
    All those gimmigrants and the neocon war draining the govt coffers?
    Aaawww…

    30

  • #
    David Maddison

    Video:

    Topher Field looks at the rise of One Nation according to the latest poll.

    https://youtu.be/IzuK-Y4kb_4

    But One Nation needs to run candidates in lower house seats and also offer an alternative PM like Barnaby Joyce.

    ON, in coalition with other minor conservative parties (but not the Liberals, also now a minor party but not conservative).

    00

    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      I don’t see Joyce as a potential PM, good though he can be in debates and articulating the conservative POV. It will be difficult for One Nation to nurture a prospective PM because Pauline would have to effectively step aside, because most people would expect that the leader of a party would be its PM candidate. Anybody else would be seen as Pauline’s puppet.

      And Pauline, as much as I respect her, doesn’t have the credibility or intellect to be PM. I hated typing that because we’ve seen quite a few village idiots become PM, Albo perhaps being the best example. I suppose I’m shooting for somebody that I personally would like to lead the nation, somebody of high intellect, sound reasoning, charisma and with extraordinary leadership abilities. Somebody I could look up to and follow.

      Could we reincarnate Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher? I fear we may have broken the molds when they left the building 🙁

      10

      • #
        mareeS55

        Do you recall the Australian Democrats, in 1980s/90s, whose sole aim was to control the balance of power in the Senate, in order to “keep the bastards honest”?

        I think that may be the role of ON next time around.

        40

  • #
    Sambar

    Here in Godzone after a couple of harrowing days, I hear that our premier has given police the power to forcibly remove people who refuse to evacuate. Once again the nanny state strikes. No local knowledge, no knowledge of individuals preparations, just do as we tell you, we are from the government and know best. I hope they have plenty of police officers to visit every property, oh wait the “police force” is currently undermanned by a couple of thousand, she will be right, we will just broadcast the directions, oh wait, the mobile phone system failed to work for several hours, I know, they can use the local radio, oh wait, that went off the air for about 20 hours when I (and others ) needed it, I know we can send messages over the internet, oh wait, that went out of service sometime last night, no one seems quite sure when it will be back up, but soon hey.
    In the mean time do as we have done for decades, always prepare around the house very early in the season, guarantee our water supply, monitor the conditions closely, no heroics just a bit of pragmatism. If we can fight it we will, if not we will decide when, where and how we leave. The government loves to interfere in peoples lives but continually fails at their job. In 2026 how do mobile phone towers fail in fires, how does a multi billion NBN system not have disaster planning built into its construction, why do major roads get closed in an instant when fires cause trees to fall. Im not talking minor roads Im talking major Victorian highways. Yeah tell me to get out, then tell me which way to go. Once again no roads open for in and out traffic, once your out your out. stay out till you get permission to go home. Trust us Winston, we have your best interests at heart.

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    ozfred

    After a number of observations elsewhere and some semi-private discussions here (don’t ask), I ask you to contact your member of Parliament about the proposed hate speech laws.
    Specifically to clarify if quotations of scripture from ANY religion will (perhaps even automatically) be considered hate speech, since it would be guaranteed to offend SOMEONE.

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    yarpos

    So the day after the peak of the fires we loose NBN all day and over the final few hours d the outage we loose mobile as well.

    Starlink is looking attractive I think. I will start looking at it more seriously.

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    Hanrahan

    It’s a weird feeling, sitting here in the path of a cyclone. I am not concerned as such, I haven’t stocked up on water or toilet paper, and my house is built to specs which seem effective. I am unaware of any properly built house being destroyed by wind in the last 40 yrs.

    I doubt visitors/newcomers could pick, as I do, that this is NOT just summer rain, that there is definitely a blow “out there”.

    I know I would rather be threatened by a cyclone than a bushfire.

    Best wishes to our southern friends. Take care.

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