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
As yesterday I am amazed that Australian politicians seriously believe we can go it alone in reducing Australian CO2 and see an actual benefit in Australia. Our CO2 fossil fuel emissions are 2% of world fossil fuel emissions. And world emissions are growing. So why would our massively expensive sacrifice make a jot of difference?
Also as has been established over many years all atmospheric CO2 cycles through the atmosphere roughly every 5 years. So the natural massive CO2 exchange between oceans and sky is 20% of all CO2 a year. Fossil fuel ‘Emissions’ are reckoned at a tiny 1%. So why would Australia’s saving make the slightest difference? Australia’s annual fossil fuel CO2 output is 2% of 1% of 2% or 0.0004% of total CO2. And we are over $2Trillion in debt, State and Federal. Who is in charge?
How can politicians like Matt Kean possibly believe that spending a million million on ‘transitioning’ to random electricity will make the slightest difference to the climate in Australia? Or are all these people just lying to us because it’s their job and they get paid to do so? Former Liberal NSW Treasurer and Climate Minister Kean is now head of the Climate Change authority.
I cannot believe Matt Kean believes this stuff? Or Al Gore. But if they don’t, I cannot believe they would be so unscrupulous. And why does not one in the Australian Universities, CSIRO, BOM point out the absurdity of it all? But if you can spend over $42Billion digging up the National Park for Snowy II which has a very good chance of not working or ever being finished or ever used, I suppose no one really cares. After all it is a bandaid for the solar panels and windmills anyway. And they should soon start to fall apart.
And now a bronze statue of monster Victorian Premier and absolute dictator Daniel Andrews who wrecked the lives of so many people in Victoria the most dire and unnecessary lockdown in the world, outside China. The politicians get away with everything because they control the system. Man made CO2 Global warming is just absurd, especially the bit where Australians are fixing the problem locally. It’s like the idea that we need a Royal Commission to work out if the mass shooting of Jews at Bondi beach was antisemitism or not. Because no one knows. And the judge is keeping an open mind.
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The UK Labour government has committed to a legally binding target of reducing carbon emissions by 87% by 2040, as recommended by the independent Climate Change Committee. This builds upon the overarching, legally binding commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
‘independent’, cracks me up every time.
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“‘independent’, cracks me up every time.”
‘Committee’ for Changing the Climate (CCC),
cracks me up every time too.
140
There is group of musicians called Human Nature, maybe they write songs and lines to change the climate?
Church of Climate Change and congregation would enjoy, and after sermons they say God willing, weather permitting.
sarc
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TdeF:
I’m sure you are familiar with Parkinson’s Law (published in 1958). “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”.
In it he suggested that the Royal Navy would soon have more Admirals than ships.
He also noted that the Colonial Office expanded more and more, regardless of the number of colonies. As he put it “When the Union Jack flew over palm and pine, the Colonial Office managed with 24 staff & 2 part-time Turkish interpreters. By 1954, when the Winds of Change had been blowing a howling gauge for 2 generations, it required 1661 staff to maintain the rest.
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Also its sibling law, “Stuff expands to fill the space available’.
This is the basis upon which all sheds and spare rooms operate. It also governs the use of that drawer where we keep pens, paperclips, AA batteries that might not be flat, that old wallet you replaced four years ago, blunt scissors, a mysterious plastic bracket-thingy that nobody can identify but might be important, old USB drives, spare glasses cases, USB cables that don’t fit anything you own but you never know, reels of cotton, scratched ‘spare’ sunglasses, instruction leaflets for a CD player you threw out in 2016, seven SIM card removal tools that all hide when you need one …
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“But if they don’t, I cannot believe they would be so unscrupulous. ”
Hmmm…. seems I have a bridge to sell you too… In my long-gone youth I was steeped in the general propaganda of the time which automatically assumed Govt was good for you and here to help!
My lifetime has shown that to be absolute rubbish, the vile self-serving graspers who inhabit Parliament are there for themselves and no-one else. I cannot imagine why you would think otherwise T.
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Politicians are virtue signalling to save the grandchildren, they are scientific illiterates and will eventually be thrown out of office.
20
You mean the great-great-great-great-great grandchildren, surely?
00
They say the tipping point is just around the corner.
00
https://www.cfact.org/2026/05/20/waste-and-fraud-allegations-plague-esa-salmon-recovery-program/
Shaking up the ESA program. Defenders of all the underfunded species will want some of the excessive salmon money. Opens the door to real reforms along the way.
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Your link would not work for me but the WUWT link does.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/05/20/waste-and-fraud-allegations-plague-esa-salmon-recovery-program/
[I fixed the link to the original source in Davids comment now. – Jo]
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Waste and fraud in gov programs! Who’d a thunk it.
30
Tuvalu is still sinking, thanks to global warming…
.
Despite Tuvalu growing by 73 hectares in the last 40 years.
.
AND land ‘reclamation’ (but how does one ‘reclaim’ land that never existed?) claiming an increase in land mass of 2.5 to 2.6 square kilometers.
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The ABC? Really?
I refer to Charles Darwin -whom I don’t think the ABC has heard of – published in 1842 about coral atolls and pointing out that they gained in area during calmer times and might lose area due to storms.
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But Graeme, due to ‘global warming’ – a mere fraction of a dodgy degree – those storms will become bigger and badder and boulder! And as we know, the HMS Beagle under the helm of Capt FitzRoy never encountered a storm, a cyclone, a blizzard, a dunkelflaute – it was plain sailing and tortoises all the way down… Ahoy! Ahoy!
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It’s amazing what the government of Tuvalu can do with money from the dim witted Australian government & their source of money, being dim witted taxpayers!
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Starship now noon, Sydney time, today-
https://www.spacex.com/launches/starship-flight-12
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Nope- put off until 8.30am tomorrow, Saturday, a bolt didn’t retract in one of the arms.
00
Last night on Bolt at Sky News former National Party Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was a guest as he regularly is with Bolt Report, he mentioned Snowy 2.0 and was critical, emphasising the word Liberal almost hissing as he spoke. I fact checked, Deputy Prime Minister Joyce fully supported Snowy Hydro Limited Snowy 2.0 Project in Parliament and spoke publicly in support of it, that was 2016, he also supported Prime Minister Turnbull and signing Paris Agreement 2016 (Paris COP late 2015).
Checking further I discovered this reference: Senator Pauline Hanson has expressed support for the Snowy 2.0 project, highlighting its potential benefits for energy generation and stability in Australia. However, she has also raised concerns about government accountability and spending in other areas.
Note that it is a government owned Snowy Hydro Limited company project and that the government is the only shareholder and receives dividends from the company the profits from electricity generating supply hydro power stations and also elsewhere some large diesel generators and soon to be completed a gas turbine generator plant (Kurri Kurri NSW), and have retail electricity providers including Red Energy. And that Snowy 2.0 approved by the government was based on a Snowy Hydro capital expenditure approval submission with project details and costings.
My point once again is the conservatives not being united against the Labor governments that are causing so much financial, economic and other damage. The conservatives and in this example the minor party of 4 Senators and 2 House of Representatives MPs playing the political blame game against the Coalition Liberal National/LNP.
Uniparty does not exist of course, but One Nation now pretending to have clean hands is ridiculous, if their criticism of their former colleagues is warranted, they were involved.
42
Wise people admit their errors – Barnaby is clearly a wise man. Stupid people double down on their errors and compound them.
The fundamental error with Snowy 2 is that it is an energy sink not generator. It will consume a lot of energy while producing none. Can only be justified, in economic terms, by using coal generated electricity to replace gas. That benefit will not even cover the interest on the still estimated $42bn being spent.
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It is ok for, as you posted, Barnaby Joyce to admit errors (of judgement) but not ok for former Ministers for Energy Matt Canavan (Nationals), Angus Taylor (Liberals) and others today?
Change parties and policies now and escape from the past blaming others who you sat alongside and publicly supported?
And in the case of Senator Hanson supported many Coalition government legislation items including Snowy 2.0?
I ask that all conservatives cooperate together and concentrate on the common political enemies, Labor Green Teals.
21
I agree, a lose coalition is the way to win back government.
The multipolar model is good for democracy, in three cornered contests the wrinkles could be ironed out.
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“Clean hands”? havent they just changed their minds? Not sure what would satisfy you. Do you want a long winded mea culpa everytime SH2 is mentioned , a bit like a welcome to country?
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ON changed their minds the way labor did with -ve gearing, so all’s well.
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If people researched the history in the rear view mirror image of past decisions and outcomes the participants and many no longer in the Parliament, others remain, will see through the political propaganda spin and claims of being first, or denying support, that the blame games and ladder climbing tactics are.
My concern is what is happening now and how to achieve a much better future. What positions were taken by whom and when cannot be changed but the future can be changed
22
I fact checked, Deputy Prime Minister Joyce fully supported Snowy Hydro Limited Snowy 2.0 Project in Parliament and spoke publicly in support of it, that was 2016…
Arguably forgivable: at $2 billion it would have looked like a reasonable deal to a politician. However, as the wheels inevitably started to fall off Turnbull’s dreamboat project at the first contact with reality, Joyce openly argued against it.
https://esdnews.com.au/joyce-calls-for-coal-over-snowy-2-0/
Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce has called for the $4.5 billion Snowy 2.0 hydro project to be scrapped in favour of building more coal-fired power stations.
Mr Joyce told The Australian he would prefer coal-fired power stations over the Snowy 2.0 hydro project, stating the cost of the project kept blowing out due to the geology being more difficult than was first thought, and an additional $2bn would have to be invested to upgrade transmission systems.
“When you take the initial estimate of all these costs, one thing which is certain is that it is miles away from what the final contracted figure will be,” Joyce told The Australian.
He said for the cost of the project a coal-station could be built, as well as a more modest hydro plant using the existing infrastructure.
The government faces a final decision on whether to proceed with Snowy 2.0 in less than two months, and Joyce’s comments could cause more agitation in a Coalition conflicted over energy policy.
That was in October 2018. So the Beetrooter has been consistent in his opposition for around 8 years: approximately 2.6 lifetimes in politics years.
Ahh, Snowy 2.0 + infrastructure for a mere $6.5 billion.
Good days.
Happy days.
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Hindsight is a wonderful position of present knowledge based wisdom isn’t it. Note that the proposal for Snowy 2.0 (and references to 3.0 and 4.0 future projects) was submitted for capital expenditure approval by the owner (government) by Snowy Mountains Hydro Limited company executives and with supporting reports and recommendations. The Turnbull Coalition Government, Deputy Prime Minister Joyce of the National Party supporting the approval decision by Cabinet and in Parliament where Labor also supported it.
https://www.skynews.com.au/business/energy/massive-cost-blowouts-at-snowy-hydro-20-covered-in-labors-budget-as-the-projects-price-tag-balloons-to-42-billion/news-story/1d85f1e21c31e27bfc5dec671246d24a
Note that the cost blow out followed Albanese Labor changes to the contractual progress payments system
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Hindsight is a wonderful position of present knowledge based wisdom isn’t it.
Dennis: I don’t disagree that Snowy 2.0 is a debacle owned by both Liberal and Labor governments and the Snowy Hydro team. Not at all.
However, you’ll see from my post that Joyce was 8 years and $35.5 billion ahead of the curve in terms of recognising the emerging catastrophe. Importantly, he went public with his concerns before the project was committed.
As for those of us with energy and infrastructure experience (or an internet connection)? About 10 years – from noting the absence of connection, the massive bust between the original $2bn estimate and published international costs of TBM construction, and the unrealistic project timing.
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“Note that the cost blow out followed Albanese Labor changes to the contractual progress payments system”
One would expect that when it happens the ATO would be rotating their senior auditors through the Snowy2 offices on a weekly basis.
Every dollar spent should be approved by Govt and made public, it should just be part of the joy of a cost-plus contract worth billions. However, when there’s billions floating around and half a million here or there means nothing, no-one wants to miss out.
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And ever since the change the costs have increased markedly and allegedly via contractors and unions.
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The US House has PASSED legislation to stop the transgender indoctrination of kids in schools nationwide
https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/2057273529276457165
198 Demoncraps voted in favour of crimes against children…
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Calcium and Vitamin D supplements taken by millions DON’T prevent painful bone fractures and falls
It directly challenges the long-standing NHS guidance that older adults should routinely take vitamin D to support bone health. The Health Service also recommends that those who do not get enough calcium in their diet should take a daily supplement.
They compared the effects of calcium supplements, vitamin D, or both combined, against a placebo or no treatment at all.
The verdict was damning. Calcium supplements showed little to no effect on fracture risk.
Vitamin D alone fared no better – with evidence from 36 trials involving more than 92,000 patients showing no meaningful benefit. Combining both supplements made no difference.
Crucially, the supplements failed to protect even those already diagnosed with osteoporosis – the brittle bone disease that affects some three million people in the UK.
https://www.dailymail.com/health/article-15833421/Calcium-Vitamin-D-supplements-bone-fractures-falls.html
…and you’ll need vit K2 to push Calcium towards those rickety bones, otherwise it goes to soft tissue storage…
Sun exposure and weight training. 😁
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When D3 stimulates the production of osteocalcin, that doesn’t mean the osteocalcin is activated (carboxylated osteocalcin)…. 🙁
Kiran Krishnan and others have been looking at this area in fine detail FOR crikey darn AGES
Thanks again John Connor II for transfering this vital info from the future..
“Vitamin D3/K2 — The Calcium Connection with Kiran Krishnan”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgztBs-DDN8
Disclaimer:
I do not promote Kirans products but do quote him often due to his ability to reference numerous studies and his extensive biological knowledge…. I just ferment my own beans to make Kinemma, chungookjang, natto as it is known in other countries. No need to buy nattokinase or vitamin K2 I especially do not take any D3.
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What nonsense you speak.🙄
You want me to bite back, I did. Happy?
I’ll give you a future timeline – September 2026…
10
What daily dose of D3 was given? Prolly 600 iu which is way short of 5,000 I believe necessary and, of course, K2 mentioned above.
A trial designed to fail?
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The mechanical swan built in 1773
https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_tfbrgwPWZt1zwrq1v.mp4
Meanwhile in 2026: 2+2=5, men can have babies…Brawndo anyone?
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Thanks for the link about the Silver Swan. It was always a favourite exhibit to see for me while visiting the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle, County Durham. Really magical.
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Comment in The Australian Today on Labor frets about capital gains tax Catch-22 carve-out deal with tech sector
MATTHEW CRANSTON
Economics Correspondent
Hopefully the Teals lose many seats in the next election. Zali was noticeably missing to the hugely attended meeting last night to save HMAS Penguin and the Angophora forest on Middle Head. Much booing when her name was mentioned.
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From The Sydney Moaning Herald today – Albanese believes this T-word will win him a third term. It’s not ‘tax
Choosing to create losers, not just winners, in this budget was a deliberate decision.
The government has already taken on a bit of water, with a fall in its primary vote in this week’s Resolve Political Monitor, but the ship of state is not about to sink.
The poll showed that about a third of voters supported the tax rises in this budget, about fifth opposed them and a little over a third were undecided.
For anyone who thinks the prime minister is fretting over that poll, just quietly – he’s not.
The next election is two years away. Albanese plans to have the new taxes through the parliament by the end of the July sitting period, with a few tweaks and the help of the Greens, and he has told colleagues he expects the caravan will then move on.
In May 2028, the prime minister will borrow a line from John Howard and ask voters, “Who do you trust to manage the economy?”
Running on trust when you’ve just broken a handful of major election promises is a high-risk strategy.
But with a thumping majority and two years to persuade the Australian people, Albanese believes he can still pull it off.
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“But with a thumping majority and two years to persuade the Australian people, Albanese believes he can still pull it off.”
That’s what Keir Starmer in the UK thought …
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FWIW
“QotD: Software developers as wizards”
“A lot of software developers are feeling disoriented and threatened these days. Programming by hand is clearly going the way of the buggy whip and the hand-cranked auger**. Which is how we’re finding out that a lot of people have their identities bound up in being good at hand-coding and how it feels to do that.”
“Maybe the fact that I’m not feeling any of this disorientation disqualifies me from having anything to say to people who are. On the other hand … if you can learn to emulate my mental stance and be completely unbothered, maybe that would be a good thing?
So. If you’re a programmer, and you’re feeling disoriented, try this on for size:
I like being a wizard. I like being able to speak spells, to weave complex patterns of logic that make things happen in the world. Writing code is a way to manifest my will.”
More at
https://quotulatiousness.ca/blog/2026/05/19/qotd-software-developers-as-wizards/
Via https://instapundit.com/798176/#disqus_thread
** Mind you if you desperately need to make a hole in something a hand cranked auger will do it. The wizardry is in having one and knowing how to use it.
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FWIW – more word hijacking
FWIW
“If this is ‘inclusivity,’ I don’t want it”
“The problem I have with inclusivity, as a concept, isn’t that it’s inherently bad. I think opening things up to more people, in many instances, is good for everyone. There are exceptions, mind you, but there are a lot of times when it’s a solid idea.
The issue I have is that it’s been used as a bludgeon to force us to accept people and ideas that we don’t want to accept for what should be obvious reasons.
Not everyone who wants to come to the United States, for example, is someone the United States should welcome. From terrorists to rapists, from gang leaders to pedophiles, many of those who seek entry into the US are people who shouldn’t be here.
Yet the left will argue that we should be including all of these people, that it’s wrong to kick them out of the country for being evil pieces of filth who never should have been here.”
More at
https://tomknighton.substack.com/p/if-this-is-inclusivity-i-dont-want
Via https://instapundit.com/798185/#disqus_thread
And going with “inclusivity” –
“NOW THEY’RE TRYING TO TAKE THE WORD ‘MERITOCRACY’. MERIT, PEOPLE, INDIVIDUAL MERIT: You Keep Using That Word. It doesn’t mean what you think it means.”
“Language used to mean something. A word’s definition was formed by the dictionary, and by common usage. Now we’re in Orwell land, and it’s a further push towards a physical crash. A crash no one should want.”
“I’ll start with a thing from a Chaired Professor of Economics at Harvard. The quote is the Quote of the day and found at the bottom of this post.
Meritocracy: noun. the dictionary says “government or the holding of power by people selected according to merit” Apparently that’s not what that word means any longer. Now, according to this Gopinath psychopath, it must mean “Government or the holding of power by people selected to ensure representation by all perceived ‘disadvantaged classes’.”
More at
https://wlehman.substack.com/p/you-keep-using-that-word?r=kihcf&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
Via https://instapundit.com/798179/#disqus_thread
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FWIW – not before time
“‘AI Slop’ Is Flooding Science Publishing, And One Major Site Is Fighting Back”
“The preprint website arXiv has announced that researchers who have put their names to papers that included errors clearly generated by artificial intelligence (AI) will face a year-long ban and ongoing restrictions.”
https://www.sciencealert.com/ai-slop-is-flooding-science-publishing-and-one-major-site-is-fighting-back
https://instapundit.com/797956/#disqus_thread
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‘Reporting a dramatic rise in submitted papers and a drop in quality, the authors conclude that “the current state of AI tools, amplified by existing publish-or-perish incentives, appears to be pushing the system toward an equilibrium of more rather than better research”.
That about sums it up.
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And about time too.
AI is in a self-reinforcing cycle – and this is being deliberately exploited by bad actors to strategically weaken its usefulness.
“Nation-states are contaminating the open web at an industrial scale to corrupt LLMs, AI agents, and RAG pipelines. The proof is no longer theoretical. Leaked documents, published research, and measured contamination rates show the attack is real and prevalent.”
https://blackbird.ai/blog/poisoned-at-the-source-ai-training-data-is-under-attack/
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Budget hits middle Australia’s wealth, not just the rich
This budget came with a smile and a promise of fairness. What lies beneath is only now becoming clear, and it is alarming.
JAMES GERRARD
4. Valuation woes
Under the CGT changes, all investment asset owners will need to obtain a formal valuation as at July 1, 2027 (Note: This includes Pre 1985), to be able to split CGT between the grandfathered 50 per cent discount method and the less generous inflation indexation method that applies beyond July 1, 2027.
However, if you do not obtain a valuation, when you go to sell the asset in the future the budget papers state the ATO will “use a specified apportionment formula that estimates the asset’s value on July 1, 2027, based on its growth rate over the asset’s holding period.
The ATO will provide tools to estimate this value for taxpayers.”
This is yet to be clarified, but it could mean that the ATO apportions CGT evenly over the total ownership period, which disadvantages owners who experienced significant asset growth prior to July 1, 2027.
Therefore, obtaining a valuation for all business, unlisted and property assets will be crucial to avoid potentially unnecessary CGT down the track.
But the problem is that Australia only has 3000 valuers, and over three million investment properties and over 2.5 million actively trading businesses.
If each valuer had to do their fair share, this is 1833 valuations per valuer.
And with the average property valuation costing anywhere from $500 to $1500, and $5000 to $15,000 for a business valuation,
one area the government may have underestimated in its budget forecasts is the extra tax revenue it will generate from the 3000 valuers who become overnight millionaires.
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Snowy 2.0 information from Snowy Hydro Limited, a wholly owned government company;
https://www.snowyhydro.com.au/snowy-20/documents/feasibility-study-economics-and-revenue-stream/
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Pauline Hanson 🇦🇺 Oz
When One Nation win seats in the next Victorian parliament, we will relocate the new Daniel Andrews statue to a special Museum of Underwater Art in Antartica.
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What? Doesn’t she now about the effect on penguins? And on the CSIRO Global Warming CABAL?
20
I’m predicting that the Albanese government will lose the next election. I’m also predicting that they will gut what’s left of the economy so as to hand the next incoming government a complete economic shambles. Regardless of how bad it gets, most of us and our descendants will foot the damage bill well into the future.
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“I’m also predicting that they will gut what’s left of the economy so as to hand the next incoming government a complete economic shambles. ”
Yes, that is normal. Screw the country hard for a couple of years to build up some cash, then splash it out in election year and leave the place bankrupt. If it looks like you’re going to lose, spend even more so you can call the new Govt incompetent and unable to do anything.
40
2028 election?
Bit late by then.😆😆😆
20
That was effectively what Rudd Labor did via their 2013/14 Budget with various expenses like NDIS and Gonski Education Grants without provisions made to pay for them.
The Abbott Government, Treasurer Hockey, commissioned an independent auditors report and it discovered many problems – budget deficit under stated, gross debt well exceeding Labor’s debt ceiling limit, and of course the unfunded budget commitments and with no surplus requiring more borrowing to pay for, and when that was announced by Treasurer Hockey Labor blamed the Abbott Government and ridiculed them for breaking an election commitment to reduce debt. Hockey said we need to increase debt to $400 billion and will add $100 billion provision to borrow if it becomes necessary during the following years of budget repairs. Labor also denied budget repairing was necessary and some media blamed Treasurer Hockey for 2014/15 Budget measures explained but reasons ignored by critics.
Treasurer Hockey predicted that returning to a budget surplus would take a few years to achieve and that forecast surplus was made in the 2019/20 Freydenberg Budget Plan. It was not achieved because COVID-19 pandemic commenced start of January 2020. And could not be achieved 2020/21 or 2021/22 and for 2022/23 another defect forecast but after October, four months into that financial year, Labor Treasurer Chalmers announced a budget revision and forecast a surplus year end June 30, 2023.
How was that surplus achieved? Recovering economy post-pandemic period and windfall taxation revenue collected, also creative accounting including cancelling and deferring expenditure items, example Defence and 28 RAAF on outstanding order F-35 Lightning stealth fighters cancelled and MQ-28 Ghost Bat stealth fighter jet drone development of weapons system funding cancelled, and various other examples.
No doubt if Albanese Labor lose the 2028 election, and informed sources doubt it, they estimate a conservative scattering of preferences and other reasons conservatives side will benefit Labor, the budget repairs will be a very difficult many future years of management.
11
‘I’m predicting that the Albanese government will lose the next election.’
That is a fair assessment, but there are a lot of unknowns. The geopolitical situation could alter the political dynamics in Australia.
The big whisper going the rounds is that the world is returning to the gold standard and the US dollar would become an ordinary currency. This is Beijing’s handiwork and to get the Americans on side they plan to build manufacturing in America on a grand scale, jobs aplenty, supposedly.
A return to the gold standard will give leverage to those countries with the most gold, so for Donnie its a win and Xi gets a seat at the big table.
02
Documents obtained by the Herald Sun show that even though the Victorian government was prepared to lock up law abiding citizens at home during Covid, the government subsequently cut 2,270 years off prisoner sentences due to Covid-19 disruptions.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/covid-pandemic-loophole-strips-huge-amount-of-time-from-victorian-criminals-sentences
20
FWIW
“‘BLACKOUTS’ BOWEN NOW HAS AN ‘OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENCY’ ”
https://richardsonpost.com.au/cliff-reece/42285/blackouts-bowen-now-has-an-office-of-the-presidency/
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RAAF VIP Flight new Boeing 737 Business jets rebadged Office of Presidency Emissions Exempted
sarc
30
Meanwhile in the UK, police tag 1 year old baby as crime suspect
A one-year-old baby girl has been officially recorded as a crime suspect by Kent Police after allegedly causing a minor injury to another toddler. This is part of a shocking tally where 683 children under 10 were reported for offences over three years.
https://modernity.news/2026/05/19/uk-police-log-one-year-old-baby-as-crime-suspect-hundreds-of-kids-flagged-for-offences/
20
In support of BRS.
I watch a lot of these videos, let’s be kind and call them “AI enhanced”. This one is of an SAS operation in Afghanistan. The first half is the operation itself where SAS save some Yanks but it the rest I want to bring to your attention, it tells of the number of rotations the troopers do and how it effects them. We can argue details but the thrust of the vid is correct: The SASR is a unique band of men who have been pushed far beyond what we should ask of any man. We should not judge them post hoc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUOrkFraG0g
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Many years ago there was a suspect charged with murder of a hotel patron in a bar area fight, the alleged murderer and returned veteran who had been grabbed by a drunken man as he stood at the bar enjoying a drink. Without hesitation the man quickly dealt with his attacker and later explained he had acted on reflex and without malice.
I forget what the judgement was but think it could have been manslaughter and no sentence just a good behaviour order.
We train defence personnel to defend us and to defend themselves, we know many suffer forever after retiring from service, I do not know if there is an answer.
20
The BRS saga stinks. The forces applied against him and their sheer determination to ‘get him’ are wildly disproportionate to his alleged crimes, not that I think murdering civvies is OK, but that he has been singled out from a war that involved pretty dirty and extreme situations as our brave soldiers fought an enemy that hid among a civilian population that generally supported them. The media’s dogged interest also seems suss. This is, after all, a guy who should be a hero and a role model for Australians, who normally revere exceptional Aussies. Let’s not forget, this is a nation that hands out OAs and ‘Australian of the Year’ to some pretty ordinary people so, in that context, BRS is the one who should have a statue erected in his honour, not Dan Andrews.
So why exactly is he being pursued so relentlessly? I recall him being mocked in a very sexist manner by a female TV figure some years ago, to an extent that pinned my eyebrows up, but who else has he upset? Andrew Hastie is said to hate him but I can’t see Their ABC and the leftist media generally supporting Hastie, can you?
So what’s going on? It reeks of politics but I can’t figure out why even that makes him a big target. It can’t just be leftists eager to take a high-profile scalp amongst our military, can it?
70
Steve
Around that
“When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier of the Queen!”
From Rudyard Kipling’s “The Young British soldier”
https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_youngbrit.htm
20
“So what’s going on?”
Isn’t it partly fueled by anti-Trumpamericaism?
But then I think Pandemic was primarily a get Trump operation.
And the general Progressive, destroy Western civilization (except Amazon, Google, BlackRock and Netflix), reason to exist.
10
Uh Oh ….
‘One Nation’s rapid expansion of local branches across the country is in disarray, with the party being forced to dissolve and re-establish its new network less than eight months after the ambitious roll out began.
‘Documents seen by Guardian Australia show the party’s new general manager, Kelvin Morton, issued a directive to the party’s branches in April ordering committee members to properly reconstitute their branches after an internal review uncovered “significant risks”. (Guardian)
13
I just ordered a CD player/burner so that I can dump my old CD music collection onto my phone.
I ordered it from Amazon. It’s crazy that the thing was made in China, shipped across the globe to America, then shipped across once more to Australia, yet it’s still cheaper than the same thing bought from an Australian supplier.
We’re doomed.
40
Have you got a lazy US$85.8 million to spend?
You could have bought this Rothko painting.
Or you could have hired the local kindergarten kid for much less.
https://youtu.be/wYgvbrQObHU
21
Because they know it’s rubbish and never imagined that someone smart enough to have $85 million would pay more than the delivery fee to have it.
Actually we painted something very similar just a couple of years ago when renovating our house. To test wall colours and cupboard colours in the rooms before deciding on the final choice. The colours weren’t exactly the same, but the principle and size was there. And we just threw it out or painted over it at the end.
12
Now, what were we going to pay for a nuclear power station?? …and how long to build it? $600billion for 11GW and taking 50years??
“The first nuclear fuel shipment for Egypt’s El Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant, built by Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, is expected to arrive in 2027, CEO Aleksey Likhachev said on Tuesday.
The project includes four VVER-1200 Generation III+ reactor units, each with a capacity of 1.2 GW. It was launched in 2017 and is being financed jointly by Moscow and Cairo, while Rosatom will supply nuclear fuel to the facility throughout its life cycle and assist the Egyptian side in training personnel and operating the plant. The total cost of the nuclear power plant is estimated at around $28.75 billion.”
Well, Australia reckons ” recent international experience shows actual construction costs of $15 billion to $28 billion per GW ” $28billion per ONE GW and the Russians are building 5GW for that!
Fence off the area, lets the Russians come in and stay inside, then they hand over a turn-key power station and get paid.
https://www.rt.com/africa/638449-egyptian-nuclear-plant-first-fuel/
https://ieefa.org/articles/oppositions-nuclear-costings-are-unrealistic
https://smartenergy.org.au/nuclear-fallout-116-600-billion-to-build-7-nuclear-reactors/
11
Have been tied up elsewhere and missing the Victorian legal action High Court about missing millions. Can anyone here kindly update me with a considered summary of the past week as I tend to mistrust media reports on this. ta.
Geoff S
20