Vance has also proposed giving parents extra votes for each of their children. Trump is having second thoughts about this…
Open Thread – Mon 10 July 2023
- Madame Cackle and her media mates
- Open Thread – Weekend 27 July 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 25 July 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 22 July 2024
- All the drivel fit to print
The media – and the public – will soon lose interest if they’re perceived to be losers.
Yesterday our local supermarket was asking $2.99 for a single lime! Luckily I’d saved some of our own limes before…
I’m similar on 9/11. However I lean towards gross incompetence, unshared compartmentalised intelligence gains and probably an arrogance of “it…
“Avatar”?? More like “Avatard”.
“And if the PM, nor a single member of his Cabinet can actually tell us what the Voice is and how it will work, how the fark does Groogs know?”
No-one knows because they haven’t worked that part out yet.
Since they can’t say how it works, I will vote No, regardless.
Even if they could say, I’m dubious about anything that legalises a race-based layer of government – I’d much prefer they got rid of the existing systemic racism that favours Aboriginal people over all others in certain circumstances. Race should never, ever play any role in determining who gets how much tax payer dollars – that should only ever depend on need and whether or not GovCo deems itself responsible for that individual (eg, citizen, permanent resident, visitor etc) – -nothing else is pertinent IMO.
Your link is paywalled, dickhead.
He bought an acre of virgin bush, now he’s having a cry because he can’t pay the Owners off.
Bad luck.
Tarot cards, numerology etc etc.
for some peculiar reason I have one vivid memory from when I was 3 , nuttin’ else just one for that age, and it were going to a gypsy fortune teller wiv my grandma and an aunt (her sister) ..
anywayz this gypsy did all their “fortunes” and thru a coupla tidbits of me in for free .. the standouts, I remember, were death dating for gran & aunt and a synopsis of my life health outlook & death .. both gran & aunt died at the ages stipulated ( 76 & 82) and so I’ve just accepted what I was told back then and gone thru life expecting to be here for a while .. 75 now and still got a few years left collecting OAP on that basis .. as too health major prediction was fairly standard niggles outlook except for serious problem in my 60s tho I’d recover, being I suppose, Cancer 63 thru 66 .. so if the death side follows thru I’ll, at least, see 3 of my 8 grandees finish school and, hopefully be well enuf for, 2 x 21sts, maybe even manage a wedding if anyone goes early-ish …
The only downside is being aware of the, probable, end date but not the how ..
No-one knows because they haven’t worked that part out yet.
They’re burning Political Capital pushing this thing and they don’t know how it’s going to operate?
Wake up to yourself!
Wow, Groogs gets it! Yes, he can’t “pay the owners off” – and that’s not the name listed on the official Certificate of Title but the “owners” as in some random families who claim its their land (and, even as dumb as you are, you know there are usually conflicting families/tribes on the same bit of dirt).
No-one knows because they haven’t worked that part out yet.
Today’s ALP Talking Point.
Brought to you by the Usual Shills.
“They’re burning Political Capital pushing this thing and they don’t know how it’s going to operate?”
Yep – they’ve said as much themselves, should you care to check.
IIRC, it was along the lines of “We’ll work that out later”.
FREE STUFF!!!!
https://www.perthnow.com.au/politics/free-off-peak-power-for-wa-families-doing-it-tough-c-11232455
Long ago there was a woman in front of me at the library arguing with the librarian over a $2 overdue fine. She went on and on but the librarian wouldn’t move, in the end she paid. I saw her again in the car park getting into a prestige car.
The BOM didn’t tell you, but after the scrubbing of Richmond’s record lows in June, I poked around a few other cool-ish places.
Lithgow recorded the lowest June temp ever on the 21st. -7.2C
Previous record was -7C in 2006 and 1974. Records go back to 1966
Grab a snapshot of it before its removed.. http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/dwo/202306/html/IDCJDW2075.202306.shtml
How can this be Turd Case? You have already assured us multiple times that aborigines neither have nor will ever have any real power. Charging the owner $20k to tell him that his land cannot be used seems to involve at least a modicum of power.
I’m certain I read something similar in a book about American Indians. Could our Danikka be borrowing from other cultures?
“First Nations” was borrowed from the Canadians.
Listen to the never-before-heard audio of a foul-mouthed Lisa Wilkinson trashing Linda Reynolds to Brittany Higgins: Star claims politician only got promoted to minister because of a ‘shallow talent pool’: ‘She’s a nobody’
. Wilkinson, Britany Higgins and David Sharaz bad-mouth senator
. Said she was promoted to minister to solve a ‘women problem’
The criticisms started just 12 minutes into the five-hour conversation, when Wilkinson told the group that Senator Reynolds ‘stood up in Parliament and said the Liberal Party has a women problem’.
Wilkinson then said another Liberal MP, Julia Banks, previously told her Senator Reynolds was only given the defence portfolio ‘as part of that issue being solved’.
‘She was promised a portfolio … in order to be quiet,’ she told the group.
Ms Higgins, who was a staffer for Ms Reynolds when she was allegedly assaulted, replied: ‘Absolutely.’
‘The general sort of notion that there was like a shallow talent pool and who we could foster up, and it likely solved like a temporary short-term issue in the party of who could we elevate to, sort of, mitigate this public image issue.’
A few hours later, Mr Llewellyn told the group he wasn’t sure who Senator Reynolds was: ‘Sorry, I’m ignorant of Reynolds’ status,’ he said.
Mr Sharaz interjected: ‘She’d hate that.’
Mr Llewellyn asked: ‘Is she a senator? … She’s a senator for WA?’
Ms Higgins had to explain that she was a senator for Western Australia and, in 2019, she was the defence industry minister.
Senator Reynolds was intermittently the topic of conversation throughout the meeting, but it wasn’t until the last few hours of the chat that Wilkinson honed in on the former MP.
‘And if anybody wants to feel fired-up about zeroing in on Linda Reynolds, I’ve just found our private messages,’ Wilkinson suddenly declared.
Her fury towards the senator appeared to stem from a social media argument between the pair two year earlier, in 2019.
‘Oh god,’ Ms Higgins replied.
‘Did you see our private exchange?’ Wilkinson asked.
Ms Higgins, who worked as a media advisor for Senator Reynolds in 2019, said: ‘I did, I did, it was very scary.’
Wilkinson said: ‘She went for me publicly, and then I tried to come back reasonably, and then I thought, “I’m not going to do this publicly.”
‘I’m trying to working out who this f**king woman is. Like, I’d never heard of her.’
‘She’s a nobody.’
Mr Sharaz joked: ‘Oh, here’s a big fan.’
Wilkinson’s producer, Llewellyn, then laughed, ‘Huge fan, huge fan, get the T-shirts.
Wilkinson proceeded to read the private back-and-forth between herself and Senator Reynolds, often stopping to gauge reactions from the three other people in the room.
Later in the day, David said he had asked Ms Higgins why she wanted to publicise her allegations on national television – ‘I asked Britt, “ultimately, what do you want out of this?”,’ he said.
‘And she goes “well, I want Bruce to forever have it difficult getting a job, like it’s going to be difficult for me.’
Addressing Ms Higgins directly, he recalled, ‘and then you said, best case scenario, Linda Reynolds”.’
The group erupted with laughter.
.. and a couple of others on the 21st June.
Bathurst Ag station: -8.5C. Previous low -8.2 in 2006 (records to 1965)
Bathurst Airport: -8.5C. Previous low -7.3 in 2006. (records to 1992)
Bathurst Gaol (closed in 1982) shows a record low of -9.2 in 1892, but most recent record below -7C was 1969 when it recorded -7.2 and the Ag station was -6.7)
Labor/Greens pushed by Albosleezy & Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen aim to Screw Australia with ReNewables like this!
Astonishing moment truck carrying 70m wind turbine topples over from the weight – as it’s revealed bridges may have to be razed to transport machinery to the Outback
. 60-tonne truck carrying 68m wind turbine blade rolled
. Rebuilding or bypassing bridge comes at a vast cost
A bridge and a railway may need to be demolished so trucks can transport the machinery to parts of NSW – with the works costing taxpayer’s $340million.
Crossie
Jul 10, 2023 2:35 PM
At one point we got lost and were struggling to find our way back, but the ancestors sent a sign — the eagle. This eagle is a well-known spirit animal to our family and often likes to visit us. The eagle circled in the sky, leading us back to the path…….
That old chestnut. I’ve read that several times over the years and yes, I think it started with the American Indians.
That poor old eagle must be getting sick of leading lost people out of the bush ‘cos he’s been doing it for years.
Re temperatures in NSW Central Tablelands – yeah – our valley read -8 degrees on that morning.
And why is it always an eagle? What’s wrong with a parrot or maybe a cockatoo? If you’re lost near the coast, why not a seagull? (Ok, maybe the seagull recognises that you haven’t got on any chips so it leaves you to your fate.)
British police: it is perfectly legal for men in dresses to publicly call for the bashing of women.
https://twitter.com/ripx4nutmeg/status/1678042753878441986
The question I ask myself a lot these days is this: why aren’t men in the now lawless West taking certain matters into their own hands? Because their unwillingness to do, IMO, is the unlocked gate allowing entire nations to be destroyed.
Speedbox – you forgot Pelicans
Lake Eyre: An Unusual Pelican Paradise (MAP)
During Australia’s rainy seasons, brimming waterways flow thousands of miles inland toward Lake Eyre, the usually-dry saltpan situated in the Australian Outback and the lowest point on the continent. The amount of rainfall determines whether water will reach the saltpan, and if so, how much. While Lake Eyre does not fill often, 2011 marks the third consecutive year water has reached the area, and this year experts are predicting unusually high water levels. Current monsoonal activity in the surrounding areas leads scientists to believe Lake Eyre flood levels could rival those of 1974, which peaked at 20 feet. (Heavy flood seasons generally peak at no more than 13 feet, and that level of flooding is generally limited to no more than once every ten years or so.) As of March 2011, the southern part of the lake is almost entirely filled, and the larger area in the north is 75 percent covered. With the waterways showing no sign of slowing, 2011 is shaping up to be another fantastic season for Australia’s pelicans.
The birds will travel thousands of miles to populate these temporary waters, where they will feed on the bounty of the lake and raise a new generation of chicks.
Mysteries of the Australian pelican
THE AUSTRALIAN PELICAN (Pelecanus conspicillatus) has mythological significance for Aboriginal people. It was harvested for food by the Yandruwandha people in the Coongie Lakes, has long been persecuted and had nesting colonies destroyed by European fisher folk as perceived competitors for their fish stocks. It learns quickly to capitalise on human and other novel sources of food (friendly anglers, municipal garbage dumps), and is a common sight around wharves and harbours in coastal Australian towns, particularly fishing centres.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=pelicans+on+lake+eyre&iax=images&ia=images
“to forever have it difficult getting a job, like it’s going to be difficult for me.’”
Higgins, Shazza, the Amphibian, the three amigos. Who’d employ them? I reckon the Amphibian’s media career is finito after these all of these grotesque revelations. It’s an ignoble end to an ignoble career for the Amphibian. Nobody will touch her, I reckon even her friends on the left have done a runner and are keeping well away from her, because the stench is palpable.
“The group erupted with laughter.”
I don’t think anyone in that group is laughing now, and nor should they.
I don’t think even the smartest AI bot could’ve predicted the Popcorn Level on Higgins “saga” lol!!
I note that our Danikka, she of the fabled eagle spirit (the feathered type, not the footy players) is a student at the prestigious Mercedes College in Perth.
Annual fees payable about $13K.
Poor disadvantaged tyke.
Who the hell is recording these conversations, and why?
I’m not knocking it, though. Genuine question.
“Who the hell is recording these conversations, and why?”
The better question is “Who the hell is releasing these conversations?”
KD
i presumed (perhaps incorrectly) that it was material and information gathering to go into the Project’s story??? Obviously they went down some rabbit warrens along the way….???
I do sometimes get a bit tired of the ol’ race movies about the 60’s and 70’s in the US, but yesterday watched a movie called The Best of Enemies and it was actually quite moving. Worth a look, Cats.
You’ll find that empty vessels make the most sound.
– John Lydon
And while on the topic of movies (and no, I’m not trying to take your job Wolfman), but how on Earth does one watch the Sound of Freedom? I’ve tried downloading Angel studios’ App, online account, tried to buy on Google but is nowhere to be found???)
Conservative AI bot, GippR has been cancelled…
Civil rights activist Ann Atwater faces off against C.P. Ellis, Exalted Cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan, in 1971 Durham, North Carolina over the issue of school integration.
Every iteration of the KKK after 1950 was founded by the FBI.
Basically, it’s a film about an [other] angry black woman.
Who wants to watch that shit?
Thanks Shatterzzz. I’m now convinced that palm reading, tarot cards, numerology etc are 100 % accurate.
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Jul 10, 2023 3:21 PM
Royal Flying Doctor Service in $8M partnership with Rinehart Medical and Roy Hill
to fund an aeromedical fit-out of a PC12 NGX plane…..
I’m not a pilot but had a look at the aircraft at Pilatus’ website. According to the website, it can be flown by one pilot, has a maximum range of about 1750nm, can take off in less than 800m fully loaded and sports the ‘duck’s guts’ (my words) in the latest avionics.
About $AUD10m each ready to go. So, that $8m from Gina plus a little extra although I imagine the RFDS gets some volume and regular customer discounts.
https://www.pilatus-aircraft.com/en/fly/pc-12
Watched a Canadian true crime show a while ago, Canadian Aboriginal woman was murdered in town, mother on the reservation was telling a story about how the Eagles came during the course of the investigation and stopped when the murderers were identified, or something.
Lots of eagles with plenty of spare time on their hands.
but how on Earth does one watch the Sound of Freedom?
If your into pirating it’s readily available ……..!
If your thinking of buying .. the hype is better than the movie .. I thought it was a doco but NO it’s basically, a kidnap/rescue movie based on a true story with paid actors ..
as opposed to the fictional like Liam Neeson’s TAKEN collection or even RAMBO, Last Blood ……
Bunjil the Eagle is everywhere in Melbourne too.
After all, he created the place.
I suspect that Channel Nein (or was it Channel X?) was recording them to use as necessary in producing a show.
Someone in the back rooms of the TV station who is less than impressed by the Cane Toad seems likely.
US Sending Most Deadly of All Weapons to Ukraine That Kills More Civilians Than Soldiers
“Cluster Bombs kill more civilians than soldiers and are one of the most lethal weapons that destroy any territory. More than 120 countries have signed on to an international treaty banning the weapons, which typically scatter a large number of smaller so-called bomblets over a large area that can kill or maim unwary civilians months or years later. The United States refuses to sign the treaty. Our Neocons block anything to reduce their blood-thirsty hatred of Russians and Chinese. The United States is kept divided, using abortion and LGBTQ and pushing transgender on minor children all to divert our attention from the cold hard reality that the United States has undergone a coup where the Neocons are now in full control of the government and intend to wage world war III. There is no way they will allow Trump to win, nor will they allow RFK Jr. Biden will win and the CIA, etc, will ensure the vote is rigged in 2024. There is no way they will allow anyone to come to Washington to stop this war they have dreamed about their entire lives.
The US has maintained that Cluster Bombs are a war crime in themselves. Yet, the United States intends to now send Cluster Bombs to Ukraine. The Neocons care nothing about international law or even the opinion others have of the United States. The Neocons have pushed torture in Guantanamo Bay and don’t forget about what they did in the Middle East. The Neocons directed the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency to commit a series of human rights violations and war crimes against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq,
What they did in Abu Grab was a war crime but nobody in Washington will dare accuse a Neocon. The US pays professionals on how to torture. There would be nobody in Guantanamo Bay prison if they were guilty. They would put them on trial publically and pump up the press and the prosecutors would become famous and then run for political office. Their best case was put on trial and the jury found him innocent of over 200 charges and guilty of only one count of conspiracy. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani was the best case they had. Obama reiterated his first campaign promise to close Guantanamo Bay and end torture back in 2008. – it’s still open.
Neocons always do whatever they want. They will NEVER comply with international law and could care nothing about tarnishing the image of Americans worldwide.”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/war/us-sending-most-deadly-of-all-weapons-to-ukraine-that-kills-more-civilian-than-soldiers/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS
Ta Shatterz…
Speedbox, the current RFDS have jets… why would they opt for turbo prop? (Shorter runways?)
I will add Speedbox,
in a previous life I used to get to ride this baby almost weekly:
https://www.corsaireaviation.com.au/our-fleet/cessna-citation/
Unfortunately though, I had to also ride this hellish thing:
https://www.corsaireaviation.com.au/our-fleet/cessna-441-conquest-ii/ (hellish cos I never remember having a non-bumpy ride)…
Speedbox
Jul 10, 2023 2:55 PM
Because eagles are mostly solitary birds, fairly rare an impressive.
Imagine a flock of cockatoos trying to lead you?
Breaking up half way.
Wilkinson’s producer recorded it, with everyone presents permission for their own future use in Nobel Peace Prize type winning future Projects.
It got subpoened for the criminal case? and then furiously leaked by persons unknown.
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse for the Victorian Liberals….
From The Oz…
UK women’s rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen threatens Victorian Liberal leader John Pesutto with second defamation suit
By RACHEL BAXENDALE
Kellie-Jay Keen has accused John Pesutto of telling “egregious lies” that have put her safety and that of other women at risk.
In an exclusive interview, the Britain-based women’s rights activist said she was considering taking legal action against the Victorian Opposition Leader, meaning he could face a second defamation suit in addition to a case expelled MP Moira Deeming says she intends to file in the Federal Court in August.
Ms Deeming will this week issue the Liberal leader with a third concerns notice, with the intention of initiating Federal Court proceedings 28 days later.
The expelled Liberal alleges Mr Pesutto accused her of being a “Nazi sympathiser and Nazi associate”, and used that as a basis to “threaten and bully” her out of the state partyroom.
The dispute between the pair dates back to Ms Deeming’s appearance at a March Let Women Speak rally that was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis.
The protest was organised by Ms Keen’s group Standing for Women UK, which campaigns against what its supporters see as the infringement of transgender rights upon those of women and children.
Transgender rights activists held a counter-protest, and a third group, of masked men dressed in black, taunted the transgender protesters and performed the Nazi salute on the steps of state parliament.
Mr Pesutto initially attempted to expel Ms Deeming in March but was forced to resort to suspending her for nine months amid a lack of support from colleagues.
In seeking to make the case against Ms Deeming, Mr Pesutto circulated a 15-page dossier of social media screenshots and media reports – mostly relating to Ms Keen – accusing the MP of “organising, promoting and participating in a rally with speakers and other organisers who have been publicly associated with far right-wing extremist groups including neo-Nazi activists”.
A letter sent to Ms Deeming by Mr Pesutto’s lawyers in June indicates the Liberal leader stands by this dossier and his original expulsion motion, which will be key to his “truth” defence.
Speaking from Europe, Ms Keen said: “Being lied about in the egregious way Pesutto, and his Liberal Party colleagues, did, was a new very serious low.”
Mr Pesutto’s dossier seeks to portray Ms Keen as having an “association with far-right extremists”, citing a Wikipedia article that states she was interviewed by a “far-right YouTuber” and photographed alongside a Norwegian neo-Nazi in 2019.
“Not only was it unfathomable that anyone would be so cavalier with such vile accusations but it’s mind-blowingly stupid to rely on Wikipedia as a trusted news source,” Ms Keen, aka Posie Parker, said. “He literally put my life at risk. Following his comments, the protests at my Let Women Speak events were far more intimidating and aggressive. In Auckland, I was lucky to get out alive.
“After being assaulted and mobbed, I had to go into police protection until I left the country. I am a women’s rights campaigner who facilitates a space for women to speak about their concerns about the quasi-religious dogmatic cult of transgenderism and the impact on us and our children.
“There must be consequences for those who try to silence me with dangerous lies.
“His comments not only put me at risk, but any woman attending my events, including the courageous MP Moira Deeming.
“It sent a clear message to all women that speaking out runs the risk of being accused of the most heinous things, which may destroy their lives.
“We’re looking at what the best legal route is, whether to go through the Australian legal system or international. Obviously, he’s defamed me all over the world.”
Mr Pesutto’s dossier also made reference to Ms Keen’s use on social media of a profile picture featuring a Barbie doll wearing a Nazi uniform. Ms Keen said the profile picture was a “joke” after she had been dubbed a “Nazi Barbie” by ideological enemies. “I wear make-up and I have peroxide blonde hair, so obviously I was a vacuous, stupid, doll-like woman, and I have views they don’t like so I’m a Nazi,” she said. “I put up the profile picture as a ‘sod you’ to those who had called me that.
“For anyone to think that that was an indication of my political beliefs is so ridiculous, and for a serious politician to actually include that in a dossier to talk about my political beliefs, I just can’t believe anyone is that stupid.”
Ahead of issuing her third concerns notice, Ms Deeming said she had been forced to take the action after Mr Pesutto had “refused to apologise or otherwise make an offer of amends in response to the first two concerns notices”.
“My family and I used our savings to have a defamation lawyer prepare a rebuttal of the dossier so that the parliamentary party leadership team could understand the risk and liability of pressing ahead with my expulsion, but sadly to no avail,” she said.
“This situation was entirely foreseeable. It’s a situation that I spent $10,000 of my own money trying to steer the leadership team away from, (but) defamation destroys people’s lives, damages our careers, and puts us and our families in direct danger.
“What’s worse about it all is that it’s based on an outrageous and easily disprovable lie.
“I believe that every single woman who has been harmed by the defamatory narratives around the Let Women Speak rally in Melbourne deserves to have their name and reputation restored.”
A second member of Mr Pesutto’s leadership team has also been issued with a concerns notice over an entirely separate issue, after upper house deputy leader Matt Bach was accused of defaming Queensland lawyer and LNP executive member Dan Ryan.
In a June article in The Age entitled “Menzies is dead. It’s time for the Liberals to forge a new path”, Mr Bach accused the Mandarin-speaker and former Australia-China Council board member of “odious race-baiting”, prompting Nine Newspapers on Friday to retract the reference and publish an apology.
Mr Bach’s claims related to an opinion piece Mr Ryan had written in The Australian in which he argued that immigrants “strain the social fabric by culturally transforming suburbs”, but also contended that “at some level Menzies underestimated the capacity Australia would eventually have for incorporating people from different walks of life”.
Mr Ryan and Mr Bach declined to comment publicly, with Mr Bach yet to formally respond to a concerns notice demanding he personally retract and apologise.
Mr Pesutto’s office declined to comment on the possibility of a legal threat from Ms Keen.”
A few points…
1. I want Keen to sue Prosciutto for defamation and I want Angie Jones to sue him for defamation too.
2. The fact that Prosciutto remains leader beggars belief.
3. What’s tragic for Victorians is that they deserve a better opposition, instead they’ve gone from Guy to Prosciutto.
Linda Reynolds:
Squawked about Liberals Women Problem, got a Ministry out of it, failed as a Minister and was the primary cause of the Liberals having a real ‘Woman Problem’ at the 2022 Election.
If there’s a lesson to be learned from the disaster, it’s don’t make token female appointments and don’t promote anyone trashing the Liberal Party.
And why is it always an eagle? What’s wrong with a parrot or maybe a cockatoo? If you’re lost near the coast, why not a seagull? (Ok, maybe the seagull recognises that you haven’t got on any chips so it leaves you to your fate.)
Cos “champions” has to have a “presence” ..
Try to imagine Luigi descending Ayres Rock wiv the VOICE (tablet edition) ..
he ain’t no Charlton .. is he? .. LOL!
Never really occurred to me, as obvious as it is, but listening to Tucker’s commentary on how new buildings in London, versus the historic ones, are very ugly. “It’s almost like they don’t like you” he said…
I thought a bit more about it and think the reason for ugly rectangular class boxes that are made these days, obviously reflect our culture, but am thinking (?) there’s also an element of “we don’t want to upset anyone” so we’ll make it as bland as possible.
I should add that Keen is right, the odd but very deliberate appearance of those Nazis in Melbourne that March day, then Prosciutto, dancing to Chairman Dan’s Nazis, Nazis, Nazis tunes, inflamed it further with his Wikipedia nonsense about Keen. This contributed to the feral hostility in Hobart, and it contributed to the very real violence in Auckland a week later, when women were assaulted by perverts. Prosciutto, wittingly or unwittingly, with his ludicrous claims, contributed to it.
I went to Keen’s first rally, here in Sydney, whilst there were feral protesters, the NSW police did its job, very well.
Lysander
Jul 10, 2023 3:46 PM
Speedbox, the current RFDS have jets… why would they opt for turbo prop? (Shorter runways?)
Dunno. Not a pilot. Maybe shorter runways but also many runways in the bush are (obviously) dirt so dust sucked into the jet fans could be a significant maintenance issue over the medium-longer term.
A few Cats are pilots – any comments?
I just wasn’t sure as they currently have jets and are moving to props.
But, maybe it is for shorter runways as I’ve landed on some dirt patches throughout the State where they’ve had to open the farm gate prior to landing… a few brown trouser moments 😛
Hopefully he’s going down, big time, in court and politically.
Utterly beneath contempt.
And he’s supposed to be the opposition to Dictator Dan?
God help all of us opposed to Labor/Greens in Victoria.
Gabor
Jul 10, 2023 3:49 PM
Speedbox
Jul 10, 2023 2:55 PM
Because eagles are mostly solitary birds, fairly rare an impressive. Imagine a flock of cockatoos trying to lead you? Breaking up half way.
We have hundreds of cockatoos living in our area and yes, them leading the way would be a challenge. What about the pelican as mentioned by OldOzzie upthread.
Alternatively, one could just take a compass or a remote area GPS instead of relying on some eagle to mysteriously appear. Yeah, I know, its all about some mythical relationship between the noble savage and the ‘king’ of the sky.
As I said, this eagle, and/or his mates, have been leading lost bush walkers for decades that I’m aware of. Seems to be a transcontinental and intercontinental thing as well. Amazing.
Political firebrand Craig Kelly has lashed his bunfight with the Australian Electoral Commission over the size of the “authorisation” line on some of his election advertising as a waste of taxpayers’ money after it spilled into a courtroom on Monday.
Apparently the AEC had four barristers and six lawyers on their team…. over a font size.
What are you waiting for?
If Pesutto was a dud, they wouldn’t be hammer & Tongs Lawfareing him.
Remember Matthew Guy?
Total dud, never looked like being sued.
Who’s paying for Deeming’s Legals?
It’ll amount to way more than she’s got.
Another Good assessment from
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/azov-commanders-return-6th-column
One of the features of aboriginal culture which is very different from Western culture is that aborigines consider it bad manners to contradict someone or argue with them. Particularly elders. We have something of the sort with middle class women who would ban sex, religion or politics as dinner table subjects for discussion, a general belief that anything confrontational is to be avoided. I see it here even, although fortunately we have also some tough chicks who do not fear confrontation. I’m looking at you, Cassie! 🙂
Western men take it for granted that they can say frightful things to each other, things that in other cultures would lead them to beating each other to death with iron bars, but in Australia lead to them going down to the pub.
A culture in which people can argue without murdering each other is one which learns. If you’re wrong about something, someone will be sure to point it out. A culture which values conformity is one where the only thing you learn is to keep your mouth shut. This is not conducive to progress.
Lord have mercy, indeed.
Don’t Jump into a Trench that is not Yours
Allow me to translate the hodgepodge, as I have the advantage of insight from other reports from the Russian lines echoing the above. In short, Ukraine is trying out a new tactic of ditching heavy armor and simply raiding Russian trenches in fast MRAP advances. The Russians, purportedly much more casualty averse, retreat if they are even in the slightest danger of being overrun. Such a fast advance causes them to retreat from the 1st line of trenches to a 2nd position. The AFU troops then occupy this 1st position and await as massive Russian artillery bombardments hit them, destroying this position. The surviving AFU then move away, leaving this trenchline completely destroyed and un-recoverable for Russia. It’s a fairly desperate and braindead tactic but they claim it helped them capture a couple insignificant hamlets.
And even that is not guaranteed to work as Russian forces are now mining their trenches when they retreat, wiping entire hapless AFU squads like so:
Yes, all about box ticking nothing about punishment and reform.
He is being “lawfared” because he has gravely slandered two women as Nazis, not because of his alleged effectiveness or otherwise.
Pesutto is a dud and is barely distinguishable from Labor and the Greens on policies, apart from possibly economics.
Opposition leaders are supposed to oppose.
As a Victorian, I don’t know anyone personally on the conservative or right side of politics who thinks he is doing a good job; quite the opposite in fact.
SUBTITLED VERSION OF RUSSIAN VDV CLEANING UP CAPTURED UKRAINIAN TRENCH IN KREMENNAYA (18+)
I saw a meme on the interwebs where a tweet announcing that an abortion clinic had burned down got the response “So? It’s just a clump of bricks.”
Woo.
Big US banks to report largest jump in loan losses since pandemic
Rising interest rates pile pressure on borrowers and commercial real estate losses mount
The largest US banks are this week set to report the biggest jump in loan losses since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, as rising interest rates pile mounting pressure on borrowers across the economy.
The publication of second-quarter results is set to show that banks have benefited from higher interest rates to some degree, by boosting lending and investment income. But after three years of relatively low defaults, in part fuelled by pandemic-era stimulus cash and other government assistance, lenders are also starting to see the negative effects of higher rates and inflation on borrowers.
The nation’s six largest banks — JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley — are predicted to have written off a collective $5bn tied to defaulted loans in the second quarter of this year, according to the average estimates of bank analysts, as compiled by Bloomberg.
The six lenders will set aside an estimated additional $7.6bn to cover loans that could go bad, analysts estimate.
Both figures are nearly double what they were in the same quarter a year ago. However, they remain below the hits big banks took at the beginning of the pandemic when charge-offs and provisions peaked at $6bn and $35bn respectively.
Credit cards are the biggest source of pain for a number of the banks. JPMorgan’s card loan charge-offs totalled $1.1bn in the quarter, analysts estimate, up from $600mn in the same period a year ago. At BofA, credit card loans represent about a quarter of its charge-offs.
Commercial real estate (CRE) loans are also proving a drag on banks’ performance. Property owners face reduced demand for office space as remote and hybrid work arrangements persist even though the pandemic has ended.
Wells Fargo, the biggest CRE lender among the nation’s largest banks, told investors this month that it added $1bn to its loan loss provisions to cover potential losses tied to office buildings and other poor performing properties.
Investment banking is also likely to hit earnings. Revenues in the banks’ Wall Street and corporate advisory businesses are expected to fall again this quarter owing to a dearth of dealmaking activity that has dragged on for longer than many executives had anticipated.
Trading revenues, which soared in recent years amid volatile financial markets, are expected to slow.
Nonetheless, bank analysts say the benefits of increased interest rates are likely to outweigh the negatives for most of the big banks. On average, analysts expect the six largest US banks to report that earnings per share rose 6 per cent year on year.
The biggest banks “have been a good place for investors to hide amid liquidity concerns for regional banks coupled with concerns regarding increased regulations”, wrote KBW bank analysts Christopher McGratty and David Konrad in a note to clients. “That said, it remains a challenging environment for the universal banks.”
JPMorgan, which will be one of the first to report on Friday, is expected to announce the biggest percentage jump in loan losses from the same period a year ago.
Analysts predict the combined cost of loan charge-offs — losses marked as unrecoverable — and new provisions was $3.8bn in the second three months of the year. That would be up 120 per cent from the $1.8bn in soured loans costs reported at the nation’s largest bank in the same quarter a year ago.
Combined loan losses at Wells Fargo and BofA are expected to have more than doubled in the quarter, with a 70 per cent jump at Goldman Sachs and 60 per cent increases at Morgan Stanley and Citi.
Kenneth Leon, a bank analyst at CFRA, predicts that BofA, Citi and JPMorgan will also add to their reserves that cover potential losses in commercial real estate this quarter.
“As lenders, banks can always do loan workouts with problem loans,” he wrote in a note to clients last month, “although certain individual office buildings may be challenging to remedy”.
JPMorgan, Citi and Wells Fargo report earnings on Friday followed by BofA and Morgan Stanley on July 18. Goldman Sachs reports on July 19.
The US banking sector withstood a crisis in its regional banking system this spring, but stress test results from the Federal Reserve showed the largest banks could suffer billions of dollars in losses and still have more capital than required by regulators.
Unlike many small and midsized banks that have been paying higher savings rates to retain customers, larger institutions are still offering relatively modest interest rates for savers, boosting their profit margins.
However, analysts anticipate that larger banks will eventually have to start offering better rates.
“In the third and fourth quarter the banks got a windfall to net interest income that was way up and above anything that anyone expected. Now you’re going to give some of that back. Nobody knows exactly how much but I don’t think it’ll be the majority,” said Chris Kotowski, research analyst at Oppenheimer.
Turd Case supports Prosecutto because Prosecutto supports everything Labor does in Victoria. This allows Turd Case to shill for Labor while claiming to support the liberals.
Pearl-clutching masker complains about being sole masker when going out and OMG-LOL the quote-tweets
Goood eating.
Pennsylvania Poaching Suspect Admits Killing Bald Eagle (8 Jul)
Nebraska sheriff stunned as migrants allegedly kill bald eagle for dinner but feds pass on charging them (6 Mar)
I’m sad, I like bald eagles. OTOH my currawongs have a lot of difficulty telling mince from fingers, since both are pink. They’re eat me if they could, but I’m kind of stringy. So I have a ready supply of disinfectant for their errors.
An Alternate View
The Big Read War in Ukraine
Nato’s dilemma: what to do about Ukraine’s bid to join?
Membership represents the long-term security that Kyiv wants and was promised 15 years ago. But Russia’s war has complicated things
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy strides into Nato’s annual summit in Vilnius on Wednesday, his country will have been fighting a full-scale war of survival against Russia for 503 days.
As his battered troops continue to fight off a relentless invasion and attempt to claw back occupied territory in the country’s south and east, Zelenskyy comes to the Lithuanian capital with another strategic objective: to gain a seat at Nato’s table.
To Zelenskyy and his government, the US-led alliance represents long-term peace and security. Article 5 of Nato’s treaty is an ironclad mutual-defence clause backed up by American, British and French nuclear weapons.
But Kyiv’s objective goes beyond defence. Through Nato membership, Ukraine would receive an unambiguous ticket into “the west”, a break from centuries of subjugation by Moscow, and the security required for its reconstruction and economic revival.
Yet Ukraine poses a series of questions for Nato’s 31 members. Those questions reach to the heart of the alliance’s purpose, from how prepared its members are to fight a war against Russia to whether Nato’s mutual-defence clause is a security blanket to be thrown around states, or a badge of distinction to be earned.
“What I believe is that Ukraine will become a member of this alliance and that Ukraine’s rightful place is in Nato,” the alliance’s secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg tells the FT. “It’s for allies to decide when the time is right.”
“Compared to 2008, Ukraine is much closer to Nato now,” he adds, referring to the year Ukraine’s potential membership was officially announced without a timeline. “That’s a factual thing.”
“[But] of course there are different ideas, different proposals on the table, as it always is when important issues are discussed,” Stoltenberg, whose term as secretary-general will be formally extended to a tenth year this week, says. “I’m absolutely confident that we will end on something that will unite the allies and will send a clear message.”
When the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania acceded to Nato in 2004, it was over a decade since they had regained independence from the USSR. Russia was then in a state of chaos, caught between economic collapse and political upheaval, with ill-equipped and poorly-managed armed forces.
Today is markedly different. Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has killed hundreds of thousands of people and forced more than 10mn Ukrainians from their homes, in a stark demonstration of President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to use force to achieve militaristic ambitions.
Now, after more than 17 months of war, during which Nato allies have provided Ukraine with over $160bn in military and financial support, western capitals are grappling with a far larger question.
Having given Ukraine the means to stop Russia’s conquest, are they now ready to promise that if it were to happen again, their troops would be fighting and dying too? And if not, what might they be willing to offer instead?
“The sole task here [in Vilnius], and one that all allies agree on, is that we left grey areas on the map 15 years ago which Putin took advantage of, and now we need to make sure there is no more grey,” says one senior Nato diplomat. “It is about making crystal clear where the lines are.”
A fateful breakfast
It was over breakfast in Bucharest in 2008 that the seeds of Nato’s current dilemma were sown.
At an early morning meeting on the second day of the alliance’s summit that year, then-secretary-general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer met with US president George W Bush and his French and German counterparts Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel.
The outcome of that breakfast, and a result of Merkel softening her opposition to Bush’s proposal to offer membership to Ukraine and Georgia, was a statement by the entire Nato alliance.
Both countries “will become members of Nato”, it said, without providing a timeline.
That declaration, at the same time both unequivocal and non-committal, was hailed as a major achievement. It has since sunk into infamy.
Those like Germany and France who opposed Ukraine’s membership — each of whom had a veto, given Nato’s unanimous requirement for new members — believed it put an indefinite pause on the country’s ambitions.
But in Moscow, it was seen at the other extreme: tantamount to Nato’s annexation of both republics. That, Putin said the next day, posed a “direct threat” to Russia and broke what he understood to be a pledge for Nato not to add members from the ex-USSR.
Kyiv and Tbilisi found themselves trapped between both positions: exposed as future Nato members but without any of the alliance protection that comes with accession.
Four months later Putin’s tanks rolled into northern Georgia. In 2014 his special forces annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. Nato, as Putin knew well, refuses to accept new members with “frozen conflict” on their territory. Aside from condemnatory rhetoric, Nato did little to punish Moscow. Putin, who had been present at the Bucharest summit as a guest, had called Nato’s bluff.
“The most dangerous place for Russia’s neighbouring countries is to sit in the waiting room of Nato,” says Margus Tsahkna, Estonia’s foreign minister. “And we did exactly that 15 years ago with Georgia and Ukraine.”
It’s like arriving at triage in a hospital emergency room, he adds: “?.?.?.?you go in, but you’re waiting and you’re not labelled yet. Are you a green, yellow or red patient? We must label [Ukraine]. We must start the process.”
Nato has a self-proclaimed “open door” policy towards prospective new members. Since 2008 it has not stood still, accepting five new members in the 15 years that have passed. Last year, in response to Russia’s invasion, Finland and Sweden launched fast-tracked applications to join the alliance. Finland acceded in April; Sweden is hopeful of becoming a member in the next few months after Turkey lifts its veto.
Dotting the i’s
Updating the language on Ukraine agreed at Bucharest is Nato’s thorniest task this week. While no member of the alliance believes Kyiv can join while at war, the discussions on whether to advance its status, and how to convey that, are intense and emotive.
“There’s this huge spectrum from 2008 language through to full membership. As an alliance we have whipsawed up and down that spectrum over the past year of debate,” says a senior US diplomat. “We’re pretty close to knowing where we will land as 31 [members], and everyone agrees that unity is the primary objective here.”
Few officials are willing to disclose what language their government has proposed or would accept, such is the sensitivity over what will probably end up as one sentence in summit conclusions running into pages.
Those like the Americans and Germans, who are more strongly opposed to any sort of language that would imply immediate Article 5 commitments, want to make sure that Ukraine only enters when it can make the necessary reforms.
Biden said last month that he would not fast-track Ukraine’s path to membership. “I’m not going to make it easier. I think they’ve done everything relating to demonstrating the ability to co-ordinate militarily, but there’s a whole issue of: is their system secure? Is it non-corrupt? Does it meet all the standards every other nation in Nato does??.?.?.?it’s not automatic.”
Others have shifted their prior position. Emmanuel Macron, France’s president, said in May that Ukraine should be given a “path to Nato membership”.
The intervention from Macron, who only four years ago voiced his belief that Nato was “brain dead”, has been crucial for those campaigning for more ambitious language in Vilnius.
“Of course, the Ukrainians want to see the word ‘invitation’ in there somewhere,” says one European official involved in the negotiations. “But it won’t be unqualified; instead, some kind of words will be found that don’t allow for it to be automatic.”
Having recognised that a membership invitation would fail to meet US and German approval, in a private meeting of Nato foreign ministers in May, Stoltenberg offered an alternative sweetener. When the invitation is finally presented to Ukraine, he suggested, it should be shorn of the bureaucracy that comes with the formal Membership Action Plan most states go through to join.
That should speed up the process, Nato officials say. But it would not cut corners on non-negotiable issues including anti-corruption reforms, use of modern, Nato-standard weaponry interoperable with allies’ armies, and structures to protect secret alliance intelligence.
“If the Membership Action Plan is no longer the path to Nato membership, there can be no so-called shortcut,” the European official adds. “Preconditions must still be fulfilled.”
How long that might take depends on who is asked. Russia hawks such as Poland, for example, say that Ukraine is already meeting some of those preconditions.
“Poland is very clear that we want Ukraine to become closer to Nato at an institutional level,” foreign minister Zbigniew Rau told reporters last week. “When [the preconditions] are met, we can think of a relatively quick pace of bringing Ukraine into Nato.”
An ‘Israeli model’?
Ukraine has realistic expectations of what will happen this week.
“Membership is not on the table and it’s too late to change the agenda,” says one Ukrainian adviser to his country’s defence ministry.
“Turkey and Hungary have even opposed Sweden’s accession to the alliance. It’s not going to be possible to achieve anything [on Ukraine],” the adviser adds.
But Nato leaders are aware that a message would be sent were Zelenskyy to leave Vilnius empty-handed. They have a plan: formalising security commitments.
Nato is at pains to stress that proposed security assurances are wholly separate from the issue of alliance membership, to protect the distinction of Article 5. But the reality is they are generally regarded as a stepping stone to accession.
Not least because the core countries set to provide them — the so-called Quad of the US, UK, France and Germany — are four of Nato’s five biggest military powers.
While the formal promises are not yet agreed or stated publicly, officials involved in the discussions tell the FT that they will centre on codifying existing military supplies and making a clear pledge that they will continue. Plus there will be guarantees on the training of Ukrainian troops, intelligence-sharing and assistance with defence policy reforms. There is also likely to be a multilateral declaration of some kind with countries making individual pledges.
Nato will also elevate the existing Ukraine-Nato commission to a council. That gives Kyiv an equal seat at the table with Nato members and allows it to call meetings for “crisis consultations”. The inaugural meeting will take place on Wednesday in Vilnius.
Proponents say that these measures not only help to protect Ukraine in the short-term, but both increase longer-term security and better prepare the country for Nato membership.
But sceptics, such as Estonia’s prime minister Kaja Kallas, warn that they “blur the picture” and distract from Nato membership. Kallas likes to joke that to a non-native English speaker, “assurances”, “commitments” and “guarantees” can pass for synonyms, whereas only Article 5 can be relied upon.
Ukraine is understandably wary of paper promises. In 1994, under an agreement called the Budapest Memorandum, it gave up its arsenal of Soviet-era nuclear weapons, then the third-largest in the world, in return for security assurances from Russia, the US and the UK. These counted for nothing in 2014 and 2022.
Some officials have pitched the commitments as an “Israeli model” akin to the overt military support Washington provides to the Jewish state.
The US currently commits to making sure Israel has a “qualitative military edge” in the Middle East and signs memorandums of understanding every 10 years. Officials envision Ukraine could have something similar, putting the country’s defences on a suitable footing — it would be impossible to commit to parity with Russia.
Ben Tallis, a senior research fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations, says that such commitments have an additional benefit for the US. “The US is still blocking [Ukraine’s membership], and blocking for not wholly unfair if still blinkered reasons: they want Europeans to take more care of their own defence and to not simply add another European country that is dependent on them,” says Tallis.
But some countries are nervous about the potential cost of the commitments, tying up tens of billions of taxpayer money at a time of rising inflationary and budgetary pressures.
“The concern is that the more we talk about security guarantees, or assurances, or commitments, the more it becomes obvious that this is really expensive,” says one senior European official who speaks regularly to Zelenskyy’s cabinet about security issues.
The choice for Nato members, the official adds, is: “either the Israel model, which is them [Ukraine] being able to defend themselves, which is expensive in terms of investment, or the Nato model of us defending them if they need it, which is expensive in terms of the responsibility we take on.”
‘Too much hesitation’
Russia’s land forces may have taken a beating in Ukraine, with western intelligence estimating that over 200,000 soldiers have been killed or wounded since last February. But the country’s armed forces remain a potent force. And they are learning invaluable lessons about modern war on Ukraine’s battlefields.
Ukraine’s most vocal supporters, particularly in eastern Europe, say this fear should only compel Nato to move faster. Only with Ukraine in Nato and armed to the teeth can Europe sleep soundly, they argue.
“There’s too much hesitation, and so much of that runs through Berlin,” says Tallis. “What we are seeing is an interesting historical forgetfulness, from Germany in particular, given that they relied on Nato and the Americans to protect them as they rebuilt themselves after the second world war into the state we see today.
“They’re not realising the real cost of European security. The short-term savings aren’t real if they come with long-term insecurity,” says Tallis. “They need to see this as an investment, not a cost.”
For Stoltenberg, the answer to the alliance’s Vilnius dilemma on Ukraine may come to define his tenure.
Having maintained Nato’s unity through the war so far — and ensuring allies provided the support that has allowed Ukraine to fight back — he must now find agreement on an issue that will define what Ukraine, Europe and Nato’s future security looks like.
One big thing that the war has changed, according to Tsahkna, the Estonian minister, is Ukraine’s place in the western world. Before the invasion, doubts remained about whether Ukraine had fully shed its Soviet past — whether it was still in Moscow’s orbit. “Now, it’s clear for generations, the Ukrainian nation has made their own choice,” he says. “Our question is whether we ask them to join. They are sharing the same values?.?.?.?They belong to us, to the west.
“They have decided,” he adds. “And I think we also have to have the courage to make historical decisions.”
Opinion The FT View
Vietnam’s economic moment has arrived
It must capitalise on the manufacturing boom for its long-term development
THE FT EDITORIAL BOARD
After decades of showing promise, Vietnam’s economic moment may have finally arrived. It was the fastest-growing economy in Asia last year (8 per cent growth) and one of only a handful globally to achieve two consecutive years of growth since the Covid-19 pandemic.
The south-east Asian nation has become a major beneficiary of manufacturers’ efforts to “de-risk” their exposure to China as geopolitical tensions between Beijing and the west mount. Foreign direct investment soared to a decade high in 2022. Big names including Dell, Google, Microsoft and Apple have all shifted parts of their supply chain to the country in recent years, and are looking to do more as part of a “China plus one” strategy.
The allure is obvious. Since the late 1980s, its communist government has overseen a transition from a controlled economy to a more open and capitalist model. In turn, its proximity to China and vast young, cheap and well-educated workforce has attracted manufacturers. Though “Made in Vietnam” was initially synonymous with apparel such as Nike shoes, it is now increasingly associated with higher-end electronics such as Apple’s AirPods.
Businesses have grasped the opportunity to diversify their supply chains, as rising labour costs and political risks erode China’s relative advantage as a business destination.
Over $20bn in FDI flowed in last year mainly from Japan, Singapore, and China.
The US share of imports from Vietnam has also risen almost 2 percentage points since US-China trade tensions began to flare in 2018.
Rapid export-led growth has pulled millions out of poverty in recent decades, but Vietnam’s economy is now at a crossroads. In the near-term, to continue riding the wave of investor attention, it needs to bolster its business environment. In the long run, to meet the government’s ambitious goal of becoming a high-income economy by 2045, it must also leverage the manufacturing growth boon to diversify its economy.
Over the next decade, Vietnam must raise its productive capacity to meet the growing demands of manufacturers investment plans. Youthful demographics provide a large pool of workers to choose from, yet competition for technical skills is growing. Vietnam’s schools outperform globally, but vocational training and universities need a leg-up. A decentralised political structure means numerous signatures are needed to obtain investment approvals. Red-tape needs to be slashed. Above all, the country’s infrastructure needs upgrading — its electricity grid is straining under the weight of rising industrial demand.
The country’s onward march to high-income status is not preordained, however. Malaysia and Thailand were on a similar trajectory to Vietnam’s now in the late 1990s. But they succumbed to the so-called “middle-income trap” — when countries are unable to transition from a low-cost to a high-value economy, making it difficult to compete with both low- and high-income countries.
As Vietnam’s economy grows, wages will rise too. It cannot rely on its low-cost model forever. Dependence on export-led growth would leave it vulnerable to the volatile global trading environment.
Over time, Vietnam will need to reinvest its current growth dividend to support the development of more productive, knowledge-rich sectors, to meet its 2045 goal. Backbone services like finance, logistics, and legal services create high-skilled jobs and add value to existing industries. The World Bank recommends greater support for tech adoption, strengthening management skills, and further reduction to restrictions on FDI in services.
The business excitement around Vietnam is justified. But there is much work to be done to convert today’s “de-risking” trend into long-term prosperity.
Maybe the West Coast Eagles could do with some of those Eagles.
Building boom is turning to bust
Michael Read – Reporter
Employment and activity in the construction sector is surging even as more builders go bust, but the industry says a downturn looms as higher interest rates deter people from buying new homes and renovating old ones.
Turnover in the construction sector grew by 18 per cent over the past 12 months, outstripping annual growth in all other sectors of the economy, Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Monday show.
It is the latest sign of bumper conditions in the industry. About one in four jobs created over the past year were in construction, where employment has grown faster in the past 12 months than any other industry.
The sentiment appears at odds with the surge in insolvencies in the sector, but Housing Industry Association chief economist Tim Reardon said builders were going under because of their dependence on fixed-price contracts, rather than a lack of demand.
Builders who locked in customers on fixed-price builds have witnessed the cost of materials soaring, making the work unprofitable.
“The bank and the borrower both want certainty and the builder bears that risk,” Mr Reardon said.
“Because the cost of construction has increased rapidly over the past few years at levels not seen since the ’70s, the cost of the contract hasn’t been sufficient to reach completion and build times have been longer, further compounding and adding to the cost.”
Outlook has soured
More than 2000 construction businesses went under in the 11 months to May 31 this year, with the sector making up about 30 per cent of national insolvencies.
Mr Reardon said the insolvency cycle in the sector was largely over.
The time taken from signing a contract to starting work had fallen to about three months from at least 12 months, meaning there was less scope for cost overruns.
The surge in building activity reflected work done on homes sold more than a year ago, before the Reserve Bank of Australia started increasing interest rates.
“There’s almost double the volume of homes currently under construction compared to typical volumes pre-pandemic,” Mr Reardon said.
However, the industry was entering the “cold shower” phase of the building cycle, and volumes would contract in the second half of the year all the way through to 2024, he said.
“If we’re looking at the amount of work prior to commencement, there is very little work in the pipeline. Very few homes were sold over the past 12 months since the first increase in the cash rate,” Mr Reardon said.
Demand for new homes has plummeted as a result of surging material costs and rapidly rising interest rates.
Building approvals, which are a leading indicator of the construction sector pipeline, have fallen by about a third since mid-2021.
Mr Reardon said the expected downturn would make it increasingly difficult for Labor to achieve its goal to build 1 million homes over five years to ease the housing shortage crisis.
John, he thinks the secret Guardian supporter Turnbull did a good job as PM, and has previously stated his preference for the utterly disastrous Biden as opposed to Trump.
Enough evidence there where his real political allegiance lies …
Morrison getting a taste of his own medicine with several Coalition figures calling for him to resign, despite Dutton’s support.
Janet Yellen, Human Dippy Bird, In China
Further, it seems likely Morrison & Co. will face civil action for misfeasance in public office.
ABC radio announcer, not one of their bad ones.
WA is not that big; and going to UWA you are certain to find a few names becoming famous later in life, whatever your year.
A lot of the names you respect most, are not the ones who get in the papers a lot, except maybe the Post.
The WA RFDS has two Pilatus PC-24 jet aitcraft, purchased about four years ago. These have twin jet engines high mounted on the tail end of the aircraft, and apparently this configuration allows the PC-24s to land on many dirt airstrips without sucking dirt and gravel into the engines.
The main “workhorse” used is the single engine turbo prop PC-12 which has a much shorter take off and landing distance than the jets, and can withstand a good whack with gravel etc from bush airstrips.
The two types of RFDS Pilatus aircraft.
FMD. More lamp-posts for Labor ex-PMs!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12280819/Transgender-woman-crowned-Miss-Netherlands-time.html
On second thoughts, don’t click that link. The pictures of the winner make for grim viewing….
I have no brief for the modern day Liberal Party, but is Labor descending into U.S. Democrats-style vengeance politics?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12280819/Transgender-woman-crowned-Miss-Netherlands-time.html
Uggh!
Grotesque, skin and bones, and Ardern-like buck teeth.
A massive insult to all women.
OldOzzie
Jul 10, 2023 4:41 PM
SUBTITLED VERSION OF RUSSIAN VDV CLEANING UP CAPTURED UKRAINIAN TRENCH IN KREMENNAYA (18+)
Must’ve been killed by vampires.
Where’s the blood?
“Her” (ahem) obvious man hands and arms give him away immediately.
Civil action, Lee.
Brought by lawyers on behalf of victims of the illegal program.
One more scoundrel.
I generally avoid these vids but it’s not unusual to see little blood.
Ugh, the Post Chris!!! I’ve had my fair share of public spats with that outfit. I mean, but, does anyone outside of Applecross actually read it?
*People from Applecross are, like, from another dimension. The live there, work there, play there – nobody is allowed in and nobody is allowed out whilst all having very agreeable discussions on progressive social topics…
Lordy…where will the migrants [c. 235k p.a. acc. to Treasury projections] live?
Too cheap to meter and too big to fit.
Road to renewable ruin: NSW turbines unable to be transported (DT, 10 Jul, paywalled)
I’m not a subscriber, so that’s all I can put up, but the story sounds like fun.
John Wayne Takes Apart Liberals, Feminists, White Guilt,
One fundamental rule of life is not to publicly proclaim you have done things, or been to places when you have not done them or been there.
You will always, always come undone, because people will check and there are records to be inspected proving you are a lying sack of shit.
I am curious, however, to see how Andrew Rule responds – if at all. Generally he writes stuff that is almost impeccably sourced. In the last few days he put a column out on Glasl and his SOG heroics.
30 years of crime writing, and his cred’s been burnt to the ground.
You root one goat.
Rafe has a post up on this blog regarding submissions needed to oppose a Solar Farm near the Goulburn River National Park in NSW. Dover may have already mentioned it but they need more submissions. It’s a great area that needs protecting from an awful project. Worth filling out, it only took me 5 or 6 minutes.
Thanks Real Deal… I’m onto it…
Sky News: Stoker standing for Credlin. Not on my watch. Off to watch reruns of reruns of JAG. That programme beats the “Reality” fakes hands down. Kill me if you must, but make sure you have a solid comeback. I’m here all night!
Solar power update
At great expense to management (30k) my brother installed solar plus Tesla battery
It will pay for itself within 13 years
So far pretty good !
Today I learned the battery loses power ( dead dead dead) by 9.30 pm when the reverse cycle heater is operating
And when the battery goes flat at 9.30 it automatically recharges off the grid.
Leaving it fully charged the next morning when the sun shines
If sunshine there is ….
Lordy…where will the migrants [c. 235k p.a. acc. to Treasury projections] live?
They’ll deal with it Administatively.
A bedroom tax to get oldsters into Unit accomodation, then they buy the house to accomodate the migrants.
Job done.
why would they opt for turbo prop?
Apparently most jets with low slung engines it’s due to FOD or gravel inadvertently being ingested into engines which are really bad for jet fan blades. They need extra engineering too like guards on landing gear as well. I had heard this from mates before as well, just confirmed with a quick internet search.
High slung engines like unsure.
I’d say at a guess having worked on tenements with only a rough RFDS capable small airstrip and the nearest med centre/hospital 4 hours by veh it is due to runway size.
I am curious, however, to see how Andrew Rule responds – if at all. Generally he writes stuff that is almost impeccably sourced. In the last few days he put a column out on Glasl and his SOG heroics.
Course you’re curious, Joffa.
What I find interesting is that VicPol re concerned about the accuracy of something that happened in Tasmania.
Did Mr Glasl deviate from the accepted narrative on Port Arthur.
It’s a long way to the brave new world.
In the meantime, consider a wood heater.
RFDS planes.
Props are better on gravel or dirt than jet engines.
Id estimate some of the prop aircraft have pilled up within 250m of their touchdown here, comparable to the larger cessna type aircraft.
We have had jets here a couple of times for time critical patients, but its obvious theyd rather send the more robust prop planes.
I reckon about as likely achievable as Ardern’s similar spectacularly failed housing promises in NZ …
The government and migrants (who I don’t want) can go f#ck themselves before they get my house.
JAG hey.
Catherine Bell could read the stock market report and I’d watch.
Feel the reconciliation
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-10/cultural-heritage-act-not-behind-halting-of-queen-jubilee-event/102580734
An Aboriginal woman involved in halting a tree-planting ceremony in Western Australia says her family was not consulted about the decision to honour the late Queen Elizabeth II on what is a significant site to them.*
….
Ms Ronan said her great-great-grandfather had a shared market garden at the site in in the mid-1900s.
While the non-Aboriginal co-owner had been recognised, she said, her forefather’s role had not.
“It was the fact that my great-great-grandfather was part of this land and worked on it,” she said.
“That was the whole reason that I came, because I felt he was not being recognised for his work and they were acknowledging somebody who has never been here.”
….
Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn, who was not present at the site on Saturday, said the event was the first in WA to be cancelled due to confusion around the updated Aboriginal Heritage Act.
“A respected local knowledge-holder shut down proceedings on the basis of ground disturbance and the new Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act and the ‘significance’ of the site to the family,” he said in a Facebook post.
Posted by Shane Van Styn – Mayor on Friday, July 7, 2023
Cr Van Styn told the ABC that the request might not have specifically cited the act, but language, such as “ground disturbance” and “knowledge holders”, were used in the legislation and city staff respected the family’s request.
…
Premier Roger Cook said the laws did not include provisions to disrupt works.
“The works that were anticipated by the City of Geraldton on the weekend could not have been stopped by the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act,” he said.**
* Its the site of a market garden her grandad worked at…..
** As the carny music played and his bow tie spun while he honked his nose and sprayed the crowd with a substance from a pressurized flower in his lapel.
Sounds like Hillary Clinton.
As you put it, Knuckle Dragger, she is also “a lying sack of shit.”
The difference between the left and the right is that the left is driven by Marxist ideology, which holds that its enemies are evil and therefore must be destroyed.
The SFLs, federal and state, have collapsed into Labor lite because they believe in nothing but, to Labor and the Greens, they are still ideological enemies who must be destroyed.
For Labor and the Greens, putting Scott Morrison to death (figuratively) is an ideological duty.
Listening to the news today for me has been hilarious as 99% of journalists follow Marxist doctrine of destroying communism’s enemies. So the media has spent today parroting Australian Labor’s talking point about helping arm Germany’s war against Russia.
World War Three? Who gives a sh*t! Today we burnt a former SFL leader at the stake for the Robodebt fiasco.
Top-selling Special Operations Group book pulled after doubts about its accuracy
The Australian understands that author Christophe Glasl has now admitted to publisher Hachette that he was not in fact on duty in Port Arthur, and never pretended to be.
Wasn’t Hachette Louise Adler’s bolthole after MUP got rid of her?
And didn’t it have to issue a grovelling apology to a NSW copper after embittered former copper (and ABC/Fairfax fave) Peter Fox’s Hachette-published memoirs described the copper in question as a corrupt and incompetent protector of Catholic pedophiles?
Aboriginal “Cultural” “Heritage”
LOL. What culture, what heritage? Petrol sniffing and child molestation? Name one thing they have done to improve humanity. Just one. – Go!
Stories my Nanna told me…
We had a classic case of U.S. Democrats-style vengeance politics in the corrupt and contemptible Stalinist political prosecution of Cardinal Pell. The name of Mr John Cain, then Solicitor for Public Prosecutions, was all over the indictments. Revenge for the 1955 Split?
And in his arrogance he may just have given them the rope to do it.
Scummo the piece of shit needs to be sent into the dust bin of history.
Things are gonna get a lot tougher from now on. People I know are now pulling their kids out of private schools and into the public commie indoctro centres to combat cost of living. This will put more pressure on the overlords.
But, but wait! Burning wood is no good for the environment – so to preserve our Planet and reduce out carbon footprint, we must ban burning wood.
Trust me, it’s coming and it’s just over the horizon as I type.
It’s been floated in VIC the last two winters but they’ve backed down.
Wood heater owners vote!
Regarding parsimonious middle-class women,was on the gate at a Farmers Market Usual gold coin donation.
Well dressed woman comes up to me,”the stall holder I wanted isn’t here today,can I have my $2 back”
Gave it to her and rolled my eyes somew h at theatrically whereupon she took offence at my attitude.
Save me from entitled middle-class women.
mendacious, prevaricating, arrogant and self-serving – Scummo often quoted the Bible — a pity it was just words he quoted and didn’t heed the lessons therein. Like: Proverbs 16:5 “The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.”
Hmmm yes indeed – and there’s more where that came from.
In Europe they’ve decided wood is a renewable source of energy – after all it grows on trees.
Morrison has to go. No question about it. Dutton – you know what you must do, to save face.
And I am one of them. Watch this space, Roger. They are already restricting access for firewood collection in Victoria. Most of it is now only available on private property in my location.
As a purely political calculation, yes.
Morrison’s chances of getting a cushy sinecure in the private sector just evaporated.
His continued presence in parliament whilst the legal ramifications of robodebt unfold in the public domain is untenable.
From the Hun
Just think, Albanese is copping more grief from an former Labor PM than he is from the Liberal Opposition leader.
Should I install a fireplace before the overlords ban it?
Surely at least one of them will be subject to the immortal Lord Flashheart lines:
Just to keep up appearances, you know.
After everyone who went under SloMo’s bus a bit of hari kari wouldn’t go astray.
“mendacious, prevaricating, arrogant and self-serving – Scummo”
And a liar.
ZK2A
Flew back into the ‘ville today. Yanks everywhere at the airport and 2 USAF C17s parked up in the RAAF Garbutt area. Drove past Lavarack Barracks this arvo for a look after doing some errands around Aitkenvale and the normal 30 x 40ft tent city on the open areas they normally use for landing choppers has been replaced by hootchie lines, LOL the Aus government must be stinging this year.
Least we are getting a respite from the F35’s that have gone somewhere else, they have been buzzing the area constantly before I left. Marine Ospreys are here as well, they look like they shouldn’t be flying, very awkward looking machine….
Haven’t seen any Asian faces around yet or even Euro accents. Seems to be all yanks.
If the Constitution still holds, they can’t stop it coming in from interstate.
Yes – but the cost would be prohibitive.
No. 1 son has been deployed on Talisman Sabre for the first time.
Left base by convoy this morning.
Perhaps worth it to make a point but…
I’m not normally one to indulge in schadenfreude, but in this case I can make an exception.
No political leader in Australia has inflicted more bastardry on the general population.
The 2003 CSIRO study “Life Cycle Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Domestic Woodheating” showed that firewood was the domestic heating fuel with the lowest greenhouse gas emissionss.
https://www.firewood.asn.au/resources/articles/article/3/csiro-greenhouse-study-says-firewood-is-best.html
All the best, from someone who remembers the “Kangaroo” exercises.
Can always import firewood. Screw the overlords.
Premium Kiln Dried Firewood / Oak fire wood from Europe
$25.00 – $45.00/ ton |5 ton/tons(Min. order)
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Premium-Kiln-Dried-Firewood-Oak-fire_10000009208021.html
I detest Scott Morrison, I think his tenure as PM, along with the Turd’s, was disastrous for the country and particularly the Liberal Party. However, when I read and hear that those two Liberals in name only, Andrew Bragg and Bridget Archer, are calling for him to go, the contrarian in me says he should stay, for the time being.
Having said that, I suspect he’ll resign within weeks, and perhaps that might finally give Dutton a clean slate.
No. 1 son has been deployed on Talisman Sabre for the first time.
Noice, hope he has a little time off to get out. Recommend the Strand for a feed & look for the youngsters. Few restaurants & cafes of various quality. Pricy though but the view is good.
I tell visitors to avoid Flinders st even the new Lancini developed areas of the defunct mall modelled on the inner city eateries of Melbourne but a poor copy of, same the urban quarter on the old rail yards up Flinders st which is already a dump.
Australian Hotel in the dilapidated Palmer st is a good place too. Pity about the rest of the eateries that once were quite good.
I really don’t know how robodebt got off the ground in the first place.
Every single person in part time work was required to ring up with their earnings every fortnight, or woe betide.
Not to mention when they went into full time work, or even for their part time work, the ATO would have had a start and end date on all their payments summaries.
In other words, between them Centrelink and the ATO had all the information they needed to sort the wheat from the chaff.
Instead they treated every single ‘client’ no matter how scrupulously they had complied with their reporting obligations as a debtor.
Then sometimes several years after the payments were received people got please explain or else.
My daughter who was on Austudy, , fortunately for her, had kept every single payslip and was able to prove she had received her payments correctly, my son also a student hadn’t but got sorted when Robodebt ran off the rails.
It’s so sloppy someone had to know, from the very start it should never have flown.
He even personally intervened to scotch a natural gas operation in order to save a colleague’s seat prior to the last election.
I bet that failed.
“He even personally intervened to scotch a natural gas operation in order to save a colleague’s seat prior to the last election.
I bet that failed.”
Yep, it failed in those very electorate where it was was supposed to win over voters, Warringah, Mackellar, Wentworth, and North Sydney.
What’s that saying……if you stand for nothing, you fail. I think that sums up the political career of Scott Morrison, he stood for nothing, absolutely nothing.
Alexandra Tolstoy says FIVE MILLION people at risk of bank account closure | ‘Orwellian nightmare!’
BBC sex pic scandal ‘threatens the very future of our national broadcaster altogether’ | Mark Dolan
Nor mine. Not watching nor recording for later. Stoker has committed the worst political crime in my book by jumping on the Labor/Greens bandwagon, validating their claims and saving Kathy Gallagher’s bacon. A very shallow person.
Major building society admits it IS closing accounts of people who are ‘discriminate’ | Headliners
The Politicization of Banking and the End of Freedom
This is the c..t teela reid who along with the other commies behind the screech are going to support rub and tug’s demolition of Australia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48NgHSBKW-U
Vladimir Putin Debuts Deadly ‘Thermobaric Drone Ammo’ Designed to Obliterate People and Objects: ‘No Way of Protecting Yourself From It’
An excellent time to start. If they are looking for someone to cast the first stone I’m available.
It was prior to one of the Kangaroo exercises, featuring an invasion by the dreaded “Kamirians” , that the Greens announced that they had negotiated a peace treaty with the “Kamirians” and therefore the exercise was unnecessary…
The Supreme Court Should Strike a Blow Against Wealth Taxes
Scott Morrison, he stood for nothing, absolutely nothing.
Hang on a flash!
Scotty stood for treating female staffers shabbily.
Yeah, female voters went cold on him after that, but you can’t win ’em all.
Dutton and Littleproud have to learn that or they will be next. Let’s see if their self-preservation instinct is working.
FBI Agents Thought Swalwell Had ‘Sexual Relationship’ with Fang Fang, But Dem Senators Halted Probe: Report
They are right, Marxism is no longer lodged in Russia but has moved to Western Europe.
If he is smart he will remain in Europe.
Just saw tits Shorten on 7.30. Please don’t hold it against me, it was by accident. The first time ever I have heard tits talk without jabbering or jabbering. Having to look good for another tilt at the Lodge when Luigi falls over. There did not appear to be anything particularly polititical about what he said concerning the Robotdebt debacle. He was right on point. I would be interested if other Cats saw it and there opinions or have I had too much beer champagne and malt. Morrison and Co will not be getting much sleep. My wife was shouted down at an inter department SES meeting for suggesting they were outside there remit when this all happened. No more promotions for you.
For Labor and the Greens, putting Scott Morrison to death (figuratively) is an ideological duty.
Crap.
Labor is making Scotty the scapegoat for Bill Shorten, master criminal and the Architect of Robodebt.
In other words, they still fighting the 2019 Election, and fiddling while Mortgagees burn in 2023.
Said nobody ever in human history, with the possible exception of Peter FitzSimons in a book.
Andrew Peacock used to say Hang on a Flash in pressers all the time, Joffa.
The Colosseum in Rome, Fyodor Matveyev ,1816, eh.
Rome was shabbier than Sydney back in 1816.
What happened?
Oh, that’s right, 20 years of Fascism, 1922-43.
This in the present climate makes my blood boil. Apparently what’s good for the goose isn’t for the gander.
Nothing short of the sacking of the PT NSW officials who gave it the go ahead and Paramatta Council types as well. Secondly in the spirit of Juakin Gorge the civil prosecution of all involved, their life savings/Super should be confiscated rebuild the building to its former glory:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12281045/Site-former-convict-built-Royal-Oak-Hotel-Parramatta-no-longer-use-Transport-NSW.html#comments
Dutton cannot make ScoMo quit Parliament, he can only kick him out of the party. Even if he quits can they risk another by-election? It may be an opportunity for Craig Kelly for another try.
Stone the flamin’ crows. Move over Alf Stewart Granpappy Groogs is in town.
Many thanks, Googleory. The Cat needs an apprentice troll and, while you’re struggling with the concept, you’re gradually getting the hang of it — if you can resist the temptation to always be the clueless loudmouth knowall.
IIRC, the ATO is banned from sharing data with other Commonwealth agencies. I have a suspicion that the same applies to Centrelink.
Because “Muh privacy!”
Two points:
1. Was that while “Scotty” was playing the Liars “like a Stradivarius”?
2. You really must try to get over your obsession with Mizzzzz Knickerless, it is becoming both unseemly and unhealthy.
Cassie earlier bemoaned the lack of spine in the Liberal Party in Victoriastan. Shannon Deery opinion piece:
As they say in the classics, stick a fork in, we’re done.
How stupid would he have to be not to have planned his post-political career? Did he think he was going to be in parliament the rest of his life? I think he burnt all his bridges with private enterprise when he acted like Pontius Pilate, washing his hands of the covid restrictions while making corporations and organisations do his dirty work for him.
The clincher were the revelations of his multiple ministries during the lockdowns which showed him as exceptionally untrustworthy. No organisation can afford to employ someone like him, they would never know what he was up to.
Don’t think either Albo or Dutton would be too keen on a byelection at the moment. Too much like one of those “1800 How’s my driving?” bumper stickers. Albo’s clock is ticking on the Voice, when he transforms into a lame duck like Cinderella’s pumpkin and the Liars must decide if they go to the next election with this albatross around their neck.
That is possibly the worst faux-example you could have used.
By the way, you misspelled ‘Peacock’. It’s properly constructed as ‘Bjelke-Petersen’.
And you’d still be wrong.
I tell visitors to avoid Flinders st even the new Lancini developed areas of the defunct mall modelled on the inner city eateries of Melbourne but a poor copy of, same the urban quarter on the old rail yards up Flinders st which is already a dump.
Avoid Melbourne like the plague. The end.
I remember getting into trouble here for calling Morrison an evangelical dummy with rubbish theology here, when some were hailing him as PM material during the magnificent Tony Abbott ‘Stop the Boats’ era because Tony put Scotty in charge and people assumed he wasnt just implementing something very carefully planned by ‘that man’ .
He wasn’t (PM material), after all.
There’s a byelection on this Saturday, Faddem, between Beenleigh and the Gold Coast.
Stuart Robert got 60% of the 2PP last year, is Labor even wasting it’s time running some gormless drone this time?
Never forget that, because government is a monopoly that has none of the cost discipline of private industry, every dollar of government expenditure can be achieved by a half to two-thirds of private expenditure.
In other words, the current $600 billion+ in Australian government annual expenditure could be achieved with $300 billion to $450 billion of disciplined private spending.
Crossie
Jul 10, 2023 8:37 PM
Crossie all politicians know they are next to useless in the real world. Hence they seek positions like ambassadorships and government agencies at board level.
See Cormann and Stick Insect, although she thinks she is an ‘influencer’, whatever the phuck they do. Beasley and of course the most interminable of arsehats, one Kevin Rudd.
Simple, Turnbull and Morrison. Everything those two touched turned to dust. I know Morrison was supposed to have stopped the boats up that because he did as he was told by Abbott, whenever he was let loose he went astray.
Let’s travel back in time regarding Krudd
FMD
Says someone who supported Pesutto for treating Moira Deeming extremely shabbily and falsely accused her of being a “Nazi.”
You even wanted Deeming kicked out of the party.
I try to Black Ball but family are still in Victoria. Was in Melbourne CBD a few times last year from Aug-Oct and it’s still a dump. Bendigo was much better IMO.
BTW I wonder how many of the Melbourne eateries still exist after COVID, especially that our local developers like Lancini are busy trying to emulate here in north Queensland.
Not completely banned, but very difficult and ATO doesn’t have a high degree of trust in the security or tech competence of other depts. So data gets shared to but not from ATO.
Rosie, Morrison used to appear regularly on Ray Hadley’s 2GB show during the stop the boats era and built a cult following by adopting Tony Abbott’s policies as his own. I expect Tony let him do it as he simply wanted the job done but it did bite him in the bum in the end.
Ms Ronan said her great-great-grandfather had a shared market garden at the site in in the mid-1900s.
I feelz for her, I does! .. way back in my alcoholic years I frequented many a “watering hole” denizens of intoxicating beverages worshipped by many yet nowadayz most have gone .. dun away with for profit & progress .. sad, just sad ……..!
Tales from the Bottle …….!
Ah yes Peacock. There was a lad. I was doing a short stint in Washington when his term as Ambo concluded.
The Embassy was rather brazen in the very public way that they organised their celebration.
Even vaguely associated Aussies like me were invited.
But when I arrived at the staff club nothing was happening.
About 30 minutes later the place shook with cheers and monumental quantities of booze flowed.
One of Peacock’s minders for his departure had been nominated as ‘wheels up officer’.
No celebration was permitted until she reported him to be airborne and unlikely to turn back.
I imagine that they are already for Rudd’s departure.
A rare night of no sport, so I’m indulging in a night of Sky After Dark.
I must admit I like Paul Murray — in my book, the best hour of Australian TV after 9pm when I’m normally asleep.
The ATO has shared data with ‘Services Australia’ for years and the other way round.
no
Thorpie interviewed by some fat jowled cuck on nein; a real puff piece; but no matter how much butter you put on thorpie she still looks like a Komodo dragon.
Then on PML a comparison between how our cate blanchitt was interviewed on the abc about the screech and how Abbott was; the usual: blanschitt let loose to gesticulate and ramble through the classics like biden at an interview with the teleprompter buggered; while tone was interrupted every 6 seconds according to PML. The only issue is will the conservatives ever learn. At the first interruption tone should have called the lying skank a lying skank, bearing in mind this was the bitch who had the 3 episode bullshit on the wussian dossier being real and has never retracted.
Every single person in part time work was required to ring up with their earnings every fortnight, or woe betide.
I’m one of the lucky ones, I’m guessing cos my experience with CentreLink & working occurred back in 2007, long before ROBODEBT .. after years of single parenting I ended up on unemployment cos the youngest had turned16 & Little Johnnymove dthe goalposts on single parenting .. never forgive, never forget! ..
anywayz, after about 3 months I managed to land a casual job (casual in it was only supposed to last 3 weeks, CL was subsidizing 75% of the wage!) .. the three weeks turned into 6 months fulltime & every fortnight I attached a copy my payslip(s) to my dole form .. every fortnight for the entire 6 months I got my full dole money into my account .. never a query or a question from CL and when the job ended I just stopped attaching slips .. never ever had any questions of any sort asked about the job/money afterwards just went back to lodging not-working forms ……
” while tone was interrupted every 6 seconds according to PML.”
Well why did Tone go on? By appearing on the ABC, Tone is simply legitimising its anti-conservative bias. There’s no excuse for him, he’s not in parliament, he had no reason to appear on the station.
But Tone’s always been a simpering appeaser. I like Tony but really, he has no business being on their ABC.
” while tone was interrupted every 6 seconds according to PML.”
Well why did Tone go on? By appearing on the ABC, Tone is simply legitimising its anti-conservative bias. There’s no excuse for him, he’s not in parliament, he had no reason to appear on the station.
But Tone’s always been a simpering appeaser. I like Tony but really, he has no business being on their ABC.
The clincher were the revelations of his multiple ministries during the lockdowns which showed him as exceptionally untrustworthy. No organisation can afford to employ someone like him, they would never know what he was up to.
Gladys had no trouble getting a super top up with Optus ……!
The correct spelling is Ann Droopy-Cock.
It was on that show I believe he lied. The host of the show was also well out of line in asking Morrison to swear on the Bible. So from thereon I never listed again.
I only listened to AJ early in the mornings until he was no more on 2GB.
Come August 25, 2018
Professor Gigi Foster, an economist at UNSW, is a Covid hero. From day one she spoke up against the Covid hysteria, from day one she spoke up against vaccine mandates, from day one she spoke up against lockdowns. from day one she spoke up about the economic devastation caused by this Covid hysteria.
She should be AOTY.
Any way, “Slainte” to all on the Cat. The current reading is Sydney Jary’s “18 Platoon” – a military classic. At a time when the average infantry subaltan, in a rifle company in North West Europe was lucky to survive a few weeks, Jary survived ten months, from July 1944, till the war ended, in May 1945.
He’s critical of the trend of younger military authors to extol the fighting ability of the Wehrmacht, while running down British armor and infantry. He makes the point that his platoon, rifle company and battalion were better soldiers then any they ever fought. Interesting reading, check it out.
The British Army brought out the first printing to issue each cadet at Sandhurst with an individual copy.
Random headlines:
Geller: Corroborating Evidence of Pedophilia on Hunter’s Laptop, His Depravity Beggars Belief
Nigeria: Muslims slaughter 2,500 Christians in the first six months of 2023
Professor Gigi Foster, an economist at UNSW, is a Covid hero. From day one she spoke up against the Covid hysteria, from day one she spoke up against vaccine mandates, from day one she spoke up against lockdowns. from day one she spoke up about the economic devastation caused by this Covid hysteria.
She should be AOTY.
Aye, as should a number of others, like Graham Hood in my opinion. But of course gongs like this are handed out to flogs like Brett Sutton.