Open Thread – Tues 29 Aug 2023


The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum. John Martin, 1822

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Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
August 31, 2023 8:34 pm

Robert Sewell
Aug 31, 2023 8:25 PM
Thank God I haven’t watched TV for over 30 years.

Your mother warned you’d go blind.

Muddy
Muddy
August 31, 2023 8:38 pm

Yes, Jeff! Thanks, Pogria. He was awesome. I didn’t like his replacement Oliver quite as much.

Only half a fourth series? I had it on DVD (no longer), but I hadn’t realised it was only half the number of episodes. I couldn’t stand the blonde (far too manipulative), and thought her boyfriend was utterly pathetic.

My favourite female was the ‘Israeli’ guest in one of the first two series, where she and Jeff couldn’t understand each other. ‘Breasts’ was the name of the episode, I think.

Hats off to the I.T. Crowd too, plus Father Ted. (I still aim to emulate Father Jack in retirement).

Dot
Dot
August 31, 2023 8:41 pm

The verdict on Friends is that Ross was a SIMP.

She wasted 10 years of your life bro.

Diogenes
Diogenes
August 31, 2023 8:41 pm

Seinfeld was a very clever and funny

Never got the “humour” and can’t understand the love for the show.

Razey
Razey
August 31, 2023 8:44 pm

Indolent
Aug 31, 2023 7:25 PM
Alex Berenson

VERY URGENT: The mRNA Covid jabs damage immune responses to other viruses in children, a new study finds

I read the paper. LOL. They did not create a control group of un-jabbed kids to test because it’s ‘unethical’. No, they just don’t want to know what the answer will be!

PS: Funded by Rio Tinto —- And why would a mining company be interested in this research? hmmmm

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 31, 2023 8:45 pm

Still wonder how our poor bottoms survived the sixties.

Or the forties and fifties, what with mum’s whacks in our childhood and dad’s occasional ‘I’ll tan ya bum if you do that again’, which we did, and the Italian migrant men’s pinches and the elastic corsetry we used to use to foil the pinchers in the later fifties, while we also tried to wiggle it like Marilyn, what hope was there for us? It’s good we can recall it all here before it goes into the great cultural forgettery of modern times.

Ah well, the G & T was very nice, I tend to indulge in the evenings lately while Hairy cooks, and now I am called to the ritual mashing of the spuds to go with the air-fried lamb pieces (gotta love that air fryer) plus broccoli and carrots. We eat plainly but well. Old habits die hard. Ex-hubbie has trained himself to be an Asian-style cook, and I do regret that he didn’t do that when we were together. I love Asian food, but Hairy is truly his mother’s boy. What we eat is what he always ate, including the Sunday roast. The only difference is we don’t make the roast last for three more nights.

JC
JC
August 31, 2023 8:45 pm

I thought another show based on reality was very funny. All New Yorkers living on the East Side would’ve recognized it quickly. Itv was when Jerry and the gang wanted to rush out of the City on Puerto Rican Day Parade. It was disgusting in the 90s. Not sure now. It’s around mid-June and everyone on the East Side wanted to bolt out of the city.

Roger
Roger
August 31, 2023 8:47 pm

Seinfeld was a very clever and funny

Never got the “humour” and can’t understand the love for the show.

I for one won’t hold that against you, Dio.

As Sly and the Family Stone sang, “diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks.”

You like Sly, right?

😀

Over and out.

Cassie of Sydney
August 31, 2023 8:58 pm

Another favourite Seinfeld…

The Fire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYcySgjWGIw

Black Ball
Black Ball
August 31, 2023 8:59 pm

Seinfeld and Frasier are my favourite shows.
Frasier when dealing with Patrick Stewart. Many, many chortles.

Black Ball
Black Ball
August 31, 2023 9:00 pm

Yes to the untrained eye Cassie. Seemingly. Just brilliant

Black Ball
Black Ball
August 31, 2023 9:02 pm

I may even convert to Latvian Orthodox. Because of the hats…

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 31, 2023 9:02 pm

“The Quest for the Red Prince” tells the story of one Al – Kabassi – an Iraqi, who was George Habash’s of”Black September’ infamy, most trusted lieutenant.

Al- Kabassi ate a leisurely dinner in a Paris restraint, returned on foot to his hotel, was propositioned by an attractive hooker in a car, and driven away.

Twenty minutes later, the car returned to the same location, Al- Kabassi disembarked, and was riddled with bullets by an Israeli Mossad team, who were waiting for him.

The commander had spent many years in France, and decided the hooker would return the client to the same spot where she had picked him up……I hope he died happy….

Wally Dali
Wally Dali
August 31, 2023 9:07 pm

Peak US comedy was 30 Rock. Amazing amount of quality eps over many… many seasons.
Extras, ricky gervais is underrated in my opinion too

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
August 31, 2023 9:14 pm

I never used to watch tv, the first I saw of Seinfeld was the race rerun. Cracked me up.

Dot
Dot
August 31, 2023 9:17 pm

My vote is for the AIDS walk episode (The Sponge).

Yes, I really am like Kramer in some ways.

Jorge
Jorge
August 31, 2023 9:24 pm

How about when Kramer and George’s dad came up with the idea of a brassiere for men with man boobs.

Last Saturday a horse went round at Moonee Valley called Mansiere.

None of the commentators caught the reference.

Cassie of Sydney
August 31, 2023 9:29 pm

I also love the proctology fusilli episode…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9YMQrGnp8k

Still cracks me up.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
August 31, 2023 9:31 pm

You’re Frank Costanza.

The Airing of Grievances.

Followed by the Feats of Strength.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
August 31, 2023 9:33 pm

Inquiry head Walter Sofronoff KC has demanded ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr retract suggestions he had breached his duties and acted unethically in releasing his report into the prosecution of Bruce Lehrmann.

Bwah ha ha ha.
Break out the popcorn.
It wasn’t just accusations of ethics.
He claimed the law had been broken.
This is going to be good.

Black Ball
Black Ball
August 31, 2023 9:34 pm

The Airing of Grievances.

Followed by the Feats of Strength.

Aye Knuckle Dragger.
I have a shirt, pink tis. The various stages of Festivus emblazoned. Meatloaf was the Festivus dish of choice

Black Ball
Black Ball
August 31, 2023 9:36 pm

And Melbourne Storm are the most professional club in Australia. Yes both Storm and Broncos are playing second tier players,but never ceases to amaze me the sustained excellence of the Storm.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
August 31, 2023 9:41 pm

I seriously do not know how this is going to go (the Hun):

Seventeen male police

But are they?

have been interviewed over allegations officers falsely registered as non-binary to claim higher clothing allowances.

Victoria Police professional standards command detectives are expected to quiz more as part of a criminal investigation into the alleged rort, revealed by the Herald Sun in June.

There are 81 officers still identifying as non-binary, compared to the 32 in last year’s force annual report.

I was of the understanding that if one identified as whatever, then that’s what you were, according to all the relevant interest groups.

All this will take to fall flat on its arse will be the jacks in question going ‘How dare you!’ in the interview, and they’ll skate.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
August 31, 2023 9:42 pm

Serenity now!

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
August 31, 2023 9:45 pm

THE Knomes of Dulwich was a classic with “weed”.

And the plastic gnomes made in Japan next door.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
August 31, 2023 10:03 pm

JC

Aug 31, 2023 8:02 PM

Sometimes when reading this blog I’m reminded of Seinfeld.

Cronkite has to be Nooman , you’re Elaine, Dot is Kramer, Bear is George. That leaves Jerry.

JC

Aug 31, 2023 8:03 PM

Sanchez is Jerry.

That’s actionable!
How dare you!

Black Ball
Black Ball
August 31, 2023 10:06 pm
Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
August 31, 2023 10:07 pm

Reports are coming in from our Kyoto correspondent that there is sfa tax on alcohol in Japan and you can get quite hammered on good quality gin for less than $30.
We await confirmation.

Johnny Rotten
August 31, 2023 10:12 pm

Farmer Gez
Aug 31, 2023 8:31 PM
I remember ‘Coupling’ now.
Total weedy knob Pommy shite.

More Pommy bashing. How inventive of you and others here.. Get back on that tractor and stop watching TV. Although, maybe ‘Prisoner’ is more to your liking. Now that is shite Telly.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
August 31, 2023 10:16 pm

Diggers can’t stomach it as ration packs go gender neutral

By Harry Brill
7:28PM August 31, 2023

An army decision to adopt gender-neutral terminology for ration packs has been criticised by veterans and serving soldiers as an ­example of a defence force ­immersed in political correctness.

The Army News – the organisation’s official newspaper – reported that standard ration packs, traditionally referred to as “combat-ration-one-man” will be ­referred to as “combat-ration-one-person” from July next year.

The news drew the ire and ­humour of veterans and servicemen alike, with one member ­sarcastically declaring “retention solved”.
Read Next

The ration pack name joins an ADF suite of changes in terminology, dress and job prerequisites.

The Pineapple Express, a veterans’ community group, said the issue went beyond the ration pack.

“Making these seemingly small changes play to a much larger issue at hand,” the group said in a statement. “In our opinion, it opens the ADF up to divisiveness and ridicule – all of which are deleterious to (the army’s) identity, cohesiveness and morale.”

The Pineapple Express said the ration pack issue raised important questions relating to tradition, identity and effective resourcing.

“From the very start of our ­careers, and all throughout, we are taught that we are the custodians of military history – terms like ­‘infantryman’ have historical context and hold deep-rooted significance, so it shouldn’t be surprising that there was resistance to this change,” the statement read.

“Revising policy, training ­materials and administrative documents to reflect any new ­terminology requires resources that could be better directed ­towards essential needs.”

A Defence spokesman said the organisation intended to create a fighting force that accurately represented the nation. “Defence is committed to building a capable and diverse workforce that reflects the Australian community,” the spokesman said.

“Defence capability is reliant on our ability to attract and retain the best possible talent regardless of background, gender, age, culture, religion, ability or sexual orientation.”

Words fail me, they honestly do. It was in my time that female soldiers had their packs carried for them, on long marches.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
August 31, 2023 10:20 pm

Joe Rogan has just done an interview with Peter Berg who directed Painkillers. The first part surprisingly is about Purdue pharma. Then goes onto other interesting stuff.

Razey
Razey
August 31, 2023 10:22 pm

LOL

“Defence capability is reliant on our ability to attract and retain the best possible talent regardless of………………………………….., ability……………………………………..”

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
August 31, 2023 10:22 pm

Talk of the inhospitable soup Nazi upthread.
Not all New Yorkers are like that.
We visited there probably seven years ago.
First morning we found a really busy hole-in-the-wall coffee place.
Next morning we came back.
The guy says, in his thick Noo York accent, “da usual?”, like we had been going there for years.
I say, “Yeah” (thinking there is no f-cking way he will remember).
Out they come, same as yesterday.
(Hat-tip).
And regular tip.

JC
JC
August 31, 2023 10:28 pm

It’s the accent, not that you’re Brad Pitt.

JC
JC
August 31, 2023 10:33 pm

On a serious note, if he wins Trump should hire Vivek as the Swamp czar with the task of dismantling everything he advocates.

I suspect Trump has his eye on Kristi Noam for VP.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
August 31, 2023 10:37 pm

Methinks if the Yes Voice campaign don’t pivot very very soon- importantly, find a poster child who is young, needy, and grateful, in contrast to the established, powerful and spiteful likes of Pearson, Turnbull and Langton- it’ll be unsalvageable.
The AI generated “Yes To Voice” personage has soft skin, cosplay paint over their union sleeve tatts, and a black t-shirt over their YSL threads.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
August 31, 2023 10:37 pm

A tiny example of clever design and ingenuity.
Our Tennant Creek* correspondent reports that she was looking at warrior arrows in a museum earlier today.
The fletching on the back end of the arrows was finely crafted from local bird feathers, but they were painstakingly attached such that the arrow would rotate in flight to achieve faster speeds and more accuracy.

* Kyoto, actually.
Here endeth today’s travelogue.
Our Kyoto correspondent is getting quite incoherent.

Black Ball
Black Ball
August 31, 2023 10:44 pm

Um, Liberal premier of Tasmania voting yes for the poxy referendum. After a visit from Albo.
And Tony Burqa on the National Press Club. Yeah. Just what the country needs.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
August 31, 2023 10:44 pm

I’ve gone a bit cool on Noem… I don’t think she’d translate on the wider international stage. Kari Lake would be a good solid headkicker, I’m sure Team Trump will keep a line open for her.
Viv comes across very good, he’s very quick on the pivot as seen at the candidates’ debate-… but, here’s a Cat Nostradamus prediction- I think he’ll come undone when a few of his spontaneous interactions get unmasked as set-ups for social media.

John H.
John H.
August 31, 2023 10:49 pm

Wally Dali
Aug 31, 2023 9:07 PM
Peak US comedy was 30 Rock. Amazing amount of quality eps over many… many seasons.
Extras, ricky gervais is underrated in my opinion too

Gervais is full pelt after the woke agenda.
30 Rock was great.
The Australian version of No Activity is one of the best police satires I’ve seen.

Indolent
Indolent
August 31, 2023 10:52 pm
Bruce in WA
August 31, 2023 10:53 pm

On TV shows … been binging on “Death in Paradise” … old and new episodes.

Don’t think I’ve seen a bad one yet, and the cast mesh together while still retaining their individuality.

Mind you, I think I am in lust with Joséphine Jobert … in a purely avuncular sort of way!

Of course.

Johnny Rotten
August 31, 2023 10:56 pm

Tennis Elbow and those coming Blackouts in SA and Sictoria – Apparently the YES and the ‘InVoice’ are far more important. Blackout Bowen – Where are you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDcDD_SyPwI

Bruce in WA
August 31, 2023 11:25 pm

From a different time and a different Australia … sorely missed.

Nelson_Kidd-Players
August 31, 2023 11:26 pm

Ouch!

JC
JC
September 1, 2023 1:19 am

She’s really good looking and talks well.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
September 1, 2023 1:58 am

Had some fun yesterday with my mate and his Mississippi.
She’s rabid in-voice, he’s soft on it but leaning left.
I found the 2 most persuasive arguments were. “ old references to race were a historical mistake, new references to race would also be a mistake” and “ it would be an unflushable ATSIC”, though the claim was “ the government could just cut funding”. ( I don’t know where that talking point came from).
The wife also showed me her “ indigenous grandkids”.
Picture the cast from Trainspotting they were of the same pallor.
Her side is all Anglo and the indigie side is Scot/ Irish/Abbo. The grandies are at best about 1/32 Abbo.
They are proud members of the blisterinthesun tribe.

Top Ender
Top Ender
September 1, 2023 3:13 am

What if the ‘out of Africa’ theory is wrong?

Alexandra Marshall
The Spectator

Those who have lived through the last two decades will be well acquainted with the increasing rigidity applied to scientific theories that also hold political value.

We have returned to an age where the truth of a theory comes second to its significance as scaffolding maintaining the validity of lucrative ideological and economic causes. This is what happens when the proverb ‘knowledge is power’ becomes corrupted by the idea of ‘divine knowledge used by the powerful’ – the latter being little more than a cynical dogma protected by a mixture of censorship and propaganda.

The narrative of catastrophic climate change, for example, carries with it trillions of dollars, thousands of political careers, and the reputation of extraordinarily dangerous bureaucracies. To challenge ‘climate change’ is to blow on the house of cards supporting these creatures. This is why you must believe in climate change, otherwise you are a denier instead of a sceptic.

This situation parallels the problem faced by Charles Darwin upon his discovery – made against his religious faith – that life exists in a constant state of evolution. In his case, as with most major shifts in knowledge, it was the scientific institutions themselves that fought to hold back progress, fearing the wrath of their benefactors, the moral outrage of a society, and the personal insult of people’s life’s work being proven wrong.

The scientific establishment has long been an unhelpful gatekeeper, which makes its current pretence of being the ‘sole source of truth’ even more laughable.

Thomas Huxley, Darwin’s famed bulldog, stepped into the public gaze in 1860 to rattle the insides of the Radcliffe Library during ‘The Great Debate’. Truth needs a fearless champion and in the end, undeniable scientific truth usually wins out, but we should always remember that it does so in defiance of the established experts, not with their support.

The catch-cry ‘trust the science’ harks back to those dusty, power-hungry, archaic establishment scientists. ‘Trust’ is a measure of faith, not fact. If someone is asking you to ‘trust the science’, they are probably nervous practitioners of an unsteady cult. Or idiots.

One of modern science’s cornerstones is the ‘out of Africa’ theory that posits the birth of humanity in the cradle of Africa. It plays into the preferred mythology of Africa’s Eden-esque beginning destroyed by the greed of European nations. Africa is the innocent victim of history and the tarnished creation around which global bureaucracies circle.

To question the ‘out of Africa’ narrative is a sin against evolutionary science.

And yet for some time there has been a suspicion that ‘out of Africa’ may be wrong. It has been a cascade of little things. A fossil here. A clash of migratory patterns there… A gradual accumulation of facts that chip away at the grand theory.

Recently, one of those chips has become a crack.

As reported in various scientific journals after being published in Communications Biology, an 8.7 million-year-old fossil from Anadoluvius turkae has been found in Central Anatolia in Turkey.

The journal states:

‘Fossil apes from the Eastern Mediterranean are central to the debate on African ape and human (hominine) origins. […] Here we show, based on our analysis of a newly identified genus, Anadoluvius, from the 8.7 million-year-old site of Çorakyerler in Central Anatolia, that Mediterranean fossil apes are diverse, and are part of the first known radiation of early members of hominines.’

The fossil is part of a group known as the Late Miocene apes that have been found across this region and in Europe, with more than one sub-species discovered. They are a common ancestor sitting above gorillas, humans, chimpanzees, and bonobos in the Tree of Life. Those researching the find believe this species moved from the Mediterranean into Africa around 8 million years ago.

‘These findings contrast with the long-held view that African apes and humans evolved exclusively in Africa. While the remains of early hominines are abundant in Europe and Anatolia, they are completely absent from Africa until the first hominin appeared there about 7 million years ago,’ said Professor David Begun, according to Sci-News.

He noted that at this particular time, South-Eastern Europe contained the ancestors of rhinos, giraffes, and other animals more commonly associated with Africa. His point being that if these animals could get into Africa over 7 million years ago, why not the apes?

‘This new evidence supports the hypothesis that hominines originated in Europe and dispersed into Africa along with many other mammals between 9 and 7 million years ago, though it does not definitely prove it. For that, we need to find more fossils from Europe and Africa between 8 and 7 million years old to establish a definitive connection between the two groups.’

The original report concludes:

‘Hominines may have originated in Eurasia during the late Miocene, or they may have dispersed into Eurasia from an unknown African ancestor. The diversity of hominines in Eurasia suggests an in situ origin but does not exclude a dispersal hypothesis.’

If this theory eventually distils into an undeniable fact – that humans are of European origin, not African – what happens to the social structure of our society?

It was always believed that African-born humans colonised Europe, but there remain glaring inconsistencies between migration patterns and the diversity of finds.

There are lots of inconsistencies in the story of humanity. Given how little information we have of our ancient ancestors, let us switch to an example found in modern humans. Despite excellent preservation conditions, the oldest human remains in Australia (the Lake Mungo remains) are dated to 42,000 years. Modern humans are thought to have reached Southeast Asia no more than 55,000 years ago (with Indonesian and Chinese fossils dating to 25,000 years old). This is a long way from the 65,000+ years we hear cited as the arrival date for Aboriginal Australians.

As one government website states, ‘Aboriginal people are known to have occupied mainland Australia for at least 65,000 years. It is widely accepted that this predates the modern human settlement of Europe and the Americas.’ Geographically speaking, at least part of that statement seems to represent a blurring between mythology and science.

This lineage of human migration must have a consistent and sequential timeline across Europe, through Asia, into Indonesia, and finally into Australia because no one was swimming or flying to the Great Southern Land. Sea levels and their corresponding land bridges are the best mechanism we have to date migration along with the odd catastrophic event, such as major volcanic eruptions, that give us accurate dates.

The divergence between fossil dating and artefact dating (which has a wider margin for error) may be to blame for some of these figures. The source of the 60,000+ date is a site in the Northern Territory – a rock shelter originally dated to no more than 50,000 years (although it is likely younger). 65,000 years is a date that remains highly contested and heavily doubted, yet it has been latched onto and repeated as fact to the point most Australians have no idea where it comes from. For whatever reason, dating Aboriginal settlement has become part of the political activist narrative, which is not a good sign for science or the direction of politics.

Returning to our pre-human ancestors… Fragmented history is always tricky, but while people have been hunting for fossils in Africa for a long time, the careful excavation of Europe is new and the more people look – the more they find. Any change of story here could upset the global story of humanity and its political power structures.

Will the truth be ignored, buried, censored, banned, and marked with a little ‘offensive’ tag by social media?

Will we end up in a situation similar to the gender debate in biological science where ‘experts’ are compelled by law to lie about the sex of individuals to suit the current ideological narrative and the institutions that depend on the fiction?

The point of this article is not to prove one way or another where humans first arose. In a sensible, ideologically modern world, ‘origin’ does not matter either way aside from establishing an accurate picture of our history. And frankly, we do not know the answer yet.

Instead, it is a situation that gives us the opportunity to examine what sort of world we live in and where science, as a concept, is headed.

The rise of neo-Marxist identity politics has dangerously placed weight on what we call ‘first peoples’ which is ultimately predicated on patterns of human migration. While most will realise that it is impossible to divvy up the world based on ‘original ancestral ownership’, that is what we are being asked to do by activist movements endorsed by major political parties. From here, Australia risks creating an ethno-state and fresh era of race-based discrimination where the tally of ancestral ghosts equals political power. If you have been here for 200-years, your rights are diminished compared to those who have been here for 40,000 years. 60,000 sounds better. Or do we go with the creation narrative that Aboriginal people have been here since the time of creation therefore giving them eternal privilege over other Australians… The communist regime in China plays this game too, using fossil remains and migration patterns to justify racial discrimination and the supremacy of the Han over other groups. It is not something Australia should tolerate if we want to remain a unified and peaceful nation.

Given all of this, how enraged do you think your average ‘Yes’ activist would be upon discovering that we are all ‘ancient Europeans’ after we have endured their offensive and hateful demands that we should ‘go back to England’?

While the story of our ancient birth is fascinating, one wonders if this will be the next hunting ground for ‘compelled speech’ and social media censorship.

If the scientific establishment can be conned into lying about biological sex, there’s nothing stopping it from deleting our birth.

Alexandra Marshall is an independent writer. If you would like to support her work, shout her a coffee over at donor-box.

Tom
Tom
September 1, 2023 4:00 am

Johannes Leak. Brilliant.

Tom
Tom
September 1, 2023 4:01 am
Tom
Tom
September 1, 2023 4:02 am
Tom
Tom
September 1, 2023 4:03 am
Black Ball
Black Ball
September 1, 2023 4:04 am

Have a look at this shit. Herald Sun:

Indigenous people could be exempt from a statewide ducking shooting ban if parliament adopts the recommendations in a new controversial report, however, First Nations advocates warn that having separate rules would fuel racial tensions.

A Labor government-led parliamentary inquiry handed down its long-awaited native duck shooting report on Thursday, which has called on the Andrews government to outlaw native duck hunting in Victoria as early as next year.

But, one key recommendation has called for allowing “traditional owner hunting rights to be retained”, meaning local Indigenous people would be exempt and could continue to shoot, and hunt ducks using traditional methods, with impunity

Traditional elder Ian Hunter warned the move would most certainly “cause friction” between recreational duck hunting enthusiasts and Indigenous groups.

“If we are allowed to do it then everybody should be allowed to do it. Otherwise it will cause friction between the different groups”, Mr Hunter told the Herald Sun.

Dja Dja Warrung group CEO and First Peoples’ Assembly member Rodney Carter said he also had concerns.

“The problem is (if we were) allowed to do something that other Victorians can’t do, and that’s no fault of ours if the state takes away someone else’s enjoyment. But this is really glaring that we can hunt and gather but other Victorians can’t, and there probably will be people in these types of activities that will be a bit disgruntled,” he said.

Victorian Traditional Land Owner Justice Group executive member and First Peoples’ Assembly member Gary Murray said no person – regardless of their heritage – should be able to hunt ducks.

“Traditional owners shouldn’t be shooting ducks – whether they use guns or not. I don’t believe in guns because they present a danger not only to the ducks but also to the people who use them and also the people in that environment,” he said.

Earlier this month, the Herald Sun exclusively revealed that more than 85,000 Victorian workers would be urged to down tools and walk off major government construction sites in Victoria if the Andrews Government brought in a ban.

Four key building unions – including the powerful CFMEU, ETU and unions representing plumbers and metal workers – have slammed a ban being considered by parliament and would “encourage our members to walk off government jobs, to attend political protests to defend their rights to outdoor recreation”.

A $2m war chest has also been established to fund a campaign against any move to curtail recreational activities – a clear warning shot to government to not infringe on the pastimes of blue-collar workers.

After the report was released yesterday, Electrical Trades Union state secretary Troy Gray said: “With this farce of an inquiry over, it is now on the government leadership to decide if it will stand with working-class communities and work in good faith to improve and maintain this important recreation or side with fringe animal rights activists”.

If the highly emotive practice is banned, it will bring Victoria into line with other states – including New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, which made the sport illegal in 1990.

Over 10,000 public submissions were made to the inquiry, the most ever received by a Victorian parliamentary committee.

Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell, who has been rescuing ducks for more than 10 years, said it was impossible to have an “ethical or sustainable” season.

“Our only option is to ban it. I’ve seen the cruelty, the death and the destruction that goes on out there and I hope to never have to see it again,” she said.

RSPCA Victoria CEO Liz Walker said it marked a “crucial step” in protecting ducks.

Committee chair and Labor MP Ryan Batchelor said the ultimate decision to recommend a ban was due to environmental factors, population numbers and animal welfare concerns.

Fellow Labor colleague and committee member Sheena Watt, who ultimately voted with the government, released her own minority report to fulfil her “cultural obligations” by calling for the continuation of hunting for Victorians, particularly First Nations.

The committee has been slammed with allegations it was “biased” and “stacked” with an anti-duck hunting group of MPs from Labor, the Greens and Animal Justice Party.

Morons with no idea whatsoever. Words cannot really express my hatred of Andrews.

Tom
Tom
September 1, 2023 4:04 am
Tom
Tom
September 1, 2023 4:05 am
Tom
Tom
September 1, 2023 4:06 am
Tom
Tom
September 1, 2023 4:07 am
Tom
Tom
September 1, 2023 4:08 am
miltonf
miltonf
September 1, 2023 4:34 am

Words cannot really express my hatred of Andrews.

me neither- brought to us by Monash ‘university’ aptly named ‘the sewer’ in the 60s. These rubbish institutions incubate and cosset people like Andrews and D’Ambrosio.

miltonf
miltonf
September 1, 2023 4:35 am

At least we were able to vote Meddick out last election- the main reason I turned up to vote.

Black Ball
Black Ball
September 1, 2023 4:47 am

Tim Blair reports on a rather amusing turn of events.
Andrew Marlton, Jon Kudelka, Sophie McNeill, Glen Le Leivre, David Rowe, Matt Golding and Olivia Rousset are boycotting the Walkley Awards.
Why, I hear you ask kind reader. Well because the award was started by Ampol founder William Walkley. So these Left dickheads are not happy that his name is attached to the award because of fossil fuels etc.
If anyone with a sub to Daily Telegraph can access Blair’s musings, feel free to do so. He has a link to each of the aforementioned people and their thoughts.

Johnny Rotten
September 1, 2023 4:47 am
feelthebern
feelthebern
September 1, 2023 5:02 am

Another fantastic Leak Jr today.
Thanks Tom.

feelthebern
feelthebern
September 1, 2023 5:05 am

Bronwyn Bishop. One chopper ride. Wall to wall media, deafening.
Marles. 18 months of VIP flights. Crickets.

What’s insidious about the Marles situation is the new layer of secrecy over the use of VIP flights.
Unless you’re going to a place like Afghanistan, it should all be released.
Passenger lists, who, where, when.
Ex the Oz, the coverage is buried.

Johnny Rotten
September 1, 2023 5:15 am

If the highly emotive practice is banned, it will bring Victoria into line with other states – including New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, which made the sport illegal in 1990.

So, why haven’t the Victorian ducks already flown to NSW, QLD and WA.?

rugbyskier
rugbyskier
September 1, 2023 6:05 am

JMH
Aug 31, 2023 5:21 PM

Apropos of nothing important, I decided to check whether Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing” had fallen victim to Fag censorship. I am glad to report, it hasn’t. The original version is still available.

Just catching up and came across the comment on “Money for Nothing”. Prissy Australian radio stations all censor the second verse JMH referred to but I’m pleased to note that the German radio stations I stream through my benchtop radio play the full original version. They play uncensored versions of songs in English, so I’ve discovered that a lot of current British and American singers have potty mouths.

Dot
Dot
September 1, 2023 6:19 am

Victorian anti hunting politicians are LYING about the situation in NSW.

Are you surprised? Duck hunting is NOT illegal in NSW!

They are lying, gaslighting and propagandising to you.

This is from the NSW DPI:

https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/hunting/game-and-pests/native-game-birds

Can I hunt ducks anywhere in NSW?

No.

You can only hunt ducks on properties that are covered by a Native Game Bird Management (Owner/Occupier) Licence.

Also

https://www.fieldandgame.com.au/page/australian-game-birds/

While New South Wales does not currently have a declared duck season, hunters should still be aware of the recognised species if participating in the Native Game Bird Management Program. The species which can be legally hunted as part of this program are as follows:

Mountain Duck
Wood Duck
Black Duck
Blue-winged Shoveler
Chestnut Teal
Grass (or Plumed) Whistling Duck
Grey Teal
Hardhead
Pink-eared Duck
Water Whistling Duck (also known as Wandering Whistling Duck or Wandering Tree Duck)
Brown Quail
Stubble Quail
Common Bronzewing Pigeon
Crested Pigeon
In addition, the following introduced species are legal game with the correct licence and permits:

Bobwhite Quail
California Quail
Guinea Fowl
Partridge
Peafowl
Pheasant
Spotted Dove
Turkey

Quite frankly it is ridiculous you need a management programme for introduced species and pigeons. Also it’s not as if wood ducks are going extinct either.

calli
calli
September 1, 2023 6:58 am

Spring is Sprung!

Could we have scrub turkeys on the list of “huntables”? Mongrel things.

They can take the place of the whistling ducks, which are rather nice.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
September 1, 2023 7:00 am

I’m thinking I should contact the CFMEU and ask if they’d like to join farmers in stopping the construction of transmission lines. These blokes come to the bush to shoot ducks and quail on farmers land. We generally get along well, with some of these blokes returning for many years.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
September 1, 2023 7:06 am

Mountain Ducks are only on the list because they bugger up rice crops.
Nobody eats these buggers.

Cassie of Sydney
September 1, 2023 7:24 am

“Johannes Leak”

Brilliant.

By the way, I note the diseased little cockroach, Adam Bandt, yesterday urged Australians to “embrace civil disobedience” by joining in “climate protests”.

Wow, a politician calling for civil disobedience. Now, just imagine, for one sweet fleeting moment, if a Nationals or One Nation leader said the same, calling for people to “embrace civil disobedience”. Can you imagine the screeching, screaming accusations from the left of “far-right violence”?

You see, when our very own cockroach turns up here and scoffs and sneers about “punching a Nazi” (code for punching you and me), I take it seriously. Like Cockroach Bandt, he means it.

Adam Bandt should be censored. Bettina Arndt said less yet was censored in the senate for her words, a censure motion supported by weasel Liberals and Nationals.
Of course Bandt won’t be censored because as we all know there’s an incessant double standard in play here, a double standard aided and abated by cowardly Liberals and Nationals who’ve sat back and done nothing for years to confront the left.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
September 1, 2023 7:26 am

Looked out the kitchen window just before and spotted a feral tomcat sitting in the trees across the drive.
Unlucky cat.

Johnny Rotten
September 1, 2023 7:29 am

Wot’ a load of old Bull……………………

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0ghSa-_TvY

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
September 1, 2023 7:31 am

Inevitably (the Tele):

Canada is set to field the first transgender cricketer in an official international match after Danielle McGahey was named in the squad for a qualifying tournament for the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup.

Australian-born opening batter McGahey, moved to Canada in February 2020 and began transitioning medically in May, 2021.

Danny McGahey has some thinking to do.

If he becomes a success, then he’s the best bloke in a girls’ team. If he fails, then he can’t beat a bunch of girls.

It’s lose-lose.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
September 1, 2023 7:33 am

Unlucky cat.

Kinetically euthanised, I trust.

feelthebern
feelthebern
September 1, 2023 7:38 am

The Gates foundation ProPublica has another story on Clarence Thomas today.
My view is that SCOTUS should be scrutinised.
The thing is that ProPublica (and the mainstream media that follows) only is looking at the “conservative” judges.
All judges, past & present, should be put through the wringer.
RBG & Breyer participated in similar gifts & holidays.

Cassie of Sydney
September 1, 2023 7:39 am

“Bronwyn Bishop. One chopper ride. Wall to wall media, deafening.
Marles. 18 months of VIP flights. Crickets.

What’s insidious about the Marles situation is the new layer of secrecy over the use of VIP flights.
Unless you’re going to a place like Afghanistan, it should all be released.
Passenger lists, who, where, when.
Ex the Oz, the coverage is buried.”

Why is anyone surprised at this? We have a highly partisan media that doesn’t even try to hide its bias. Imagine if this was a Liberal or National? I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again and again and again, no democracy can survive when a media is so ideologically compromised. The media, minus a few exceptions, are no different to Pravda and Izvestia. I recall the howls over Bishop, howls that were deafening. Oh and imagine the howls if a daughter of Abbott had been given a Qantas Club lounge membership?

Marles, Sleazy and others on the left, including the little cockroach Bandt, are laughing at us, they know they don’t have to answer for their actions.

As an aside, I note that the Victorian Liberals are imploding. From the Oz…

The decision follows a difficult few months for Dr Bach, who had been regarded by some as a potential future leader of the party, after he was forced to reach a financial settlement and publicly apologise to Brisbane lawyer, think-tank director and senior LNP member Dan Ryan over an allegedly defamatory ­article in The Age newspaper.

On Monday Dr Bach found himself facing a second defamation suit, alongside Mr ­Pesutto, deputy leader David Southwick and upper house ­leader Georgie Crozier, UK women’s rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen issued a concerns notice over claims made about her in a dossier distributed by Mr ­Pesutto’s office in March to justify the expulsion of MP Moira Deeming.

In a statement issued shortly before 8pm on Thursday, after state parliament rose for the September break, Dr Bach said he had that afternoon notified Mr Pesutto of his intention to resign “to accept a senior teaching position in the UK”.

Firstly, I hope Dr Bach doesn’t use Wikipedia as a source when he starts his teaching position, he might run into some trouble there. As for the quaint description “difficult few months for Dr Bach“, not nearly as difficult as what Moira Deeming, or Kellie-Jay Keen, or Angie Jones have had, after being smeared as “Nazis” and “Nazi adjacent”. All I can say to Mr Bach is good riddance. KJK has claimed her first scalp! Next to go, little Johnny Pesutto, followed by David Southwick, followed by Georgie Crozier. I have zero sympathy for any of them.

Secondly, I suppose if you didn’t laugh, you’d cry at the Victorian Liberals. The tragedy is that Victorians deserve an effective Liberal opposition. Yet all they have had for years is a crop of motley far-left Liberal in name only morons.

Vicki
September 1, 2023 7:42 am

Re the wild ducks: the migratory ducks on our dams are more at risk of the local foxes as they attempt to raise their chicks. We rather like to see them. The same pair arrive every year and graze on the lawns of our garden. It is one of the welcome signs of the changing season.

Cassie of Sydney
September 1, 2023 7:44 am

I like eating duck.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
September 1, 2023 7:44 am

Cats are fast but not as fast as a .17 HMR.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
September 1, 2023 7:50 am

As we know Cassie if the SFL and the Socialist Agrarian Nationals didn’t have double standards they’d have no standards at all

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
September 1, 2023 7:53 am

Why is anyone surprised at this? We have a highly partisan media that doesn’t even try to hide its bias.

+1000

Mate tells me Marles is up there with Whitlam type arrogance too. He’s heard through the army old boys network Marles isn’t particularly liked by the rank & file.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
September 1, 2023 7:54 am

All this chat about duck hunting when everyone knows its wabbit hunting season.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
September 1, 2023 7:56 am

Keeping your head down GreyRanga?

calli
calli
September 1, 2023 7:59 am

I demand you shoot GreyRanga now!

Gez, did you measure the ex-tomcat? How big was it?

Roger
Roger
September 1, 2023 8:06 am

ACCC chair on Brisbane ABC: QANTAS the most complained about organisation in 2023.

Pogria
Pogria
September 1, 2023 8:08 am

Tucker Carlson: It Was Clear Before 2008 That Barack Obama Enjoyed Crack of Both the Powdered and Male Keister Varieties, but the Media Suppressed This Information

Tucker has a great way with words. Almost as good as Tim Blair. 😀

flyingduk
flyingduk
September 1, 2023 8:11 am

In todays Oz:

US ‘speeding to assassination of Trump’: Carlson – Tucker Carlson suggested intelligence agencies would orchestrate Trump’s murder if his indictments failed to stem the former president’s comeback.

psssh, that would be like them assassinating JFK or RFK (or RFKJ) at the behest of the deep state – preposterous!

johanna
johanna
September 1, 2023 8:14 am

Just reading TheirABC’s account of Sofranoff’s lawyers’ polite but deadly letter to the ACT gubbmint after he was accused of unethical and illegal acts.

They refer to him as ‘a former Queensland judge.’ Completely unbiased, of course.

From his chambers bio:

AREAS OF PRACTICE

Banking
Bankruptcy & Insolvency
Civil & Human Rights Discrimination
Commercial
Constitutional
Contract
Criminal
Equity
Inquests, Commissions of Inquiry & Statutory Tribunals
Professional Disciplinary
Professional Negligence
Regulatory Prosecution
Tort
CONTACT

Walter Sofronoff KC
Murray Gleeson Chambers
Level 31, Hitachi Building
239 George Street
Brisbane, 4000

Phone: +61 7 3175 4600
Personal Assistant email: [email protected]

Download CV here

Walter Sofronoff was a practising barrister for 39 years, Solicitor-General of Queensland for 9 years and President of the Queensland Court of Appeal for 5 years.

He is a qualified mediator and a Grade 1 Arbitrator of the Resolution Institute. He has conducted and also participated in public inquiries and has conducted government reviews. He has experience in a broad range of commercial, governmental and criminal cases.

No doubt they would describe Black Caviar as ‘a retired Victorian racehorse’ if it suited their agenda.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
September 1, 2023 8:17 am

Well me and the new dog spent half the night trying to find a fox who was going yowp yowp in the misty moonlight.
Yeah nah, nothing.

calli
calli
September 1, 2023 8:19 am

Duk, I saw this and thought of you. 🙂

calli
calli
September 1, 2023 8:21 am

Also I made a fleeting Marles meme.

It’ll probably only exist for an hour or so.

Roger
Roger
September 1, 2023 8:25 am

Hello…

China’s new official map absorbs an entire Indian state, the South China Sea, Taiwan and Russian territory.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
September 1, 2023 8:28 am

Gez, did you measure the ex-tomcat? How big was it?

I didn’t measure the cat Calli.
His reproductive capacity wasn’t my primary interest.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
September 1, 2023 8:34 am

Icebergs are holy.

Martha Stewart Exposes the Ignorance of Climate Alarmists (31 Aug)

Martha Stewart, the American home-and-hospitality retail businesswoman, television personality and writer, has been on a cruise around Greenland, where she had a chunk of ice (presumably calved from the Greenland ice sheet) brought aboard to provide ice for adult beverages.

Cue the climate alarmists, who considered such an action to be tone deaf regarding the seriousness of the climate crisis.

Not allowed to fish a lump of ice out of the sea and use it to cool your drink. It’s an insult to Gaia.

Peter Greagg
Peter Greagg
September 1, 2023 8:34 am

Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said it was “irresponsible” to suggest there would be an inevitable wave of blackouts in Australian homes this summer.

Mr Bowen said while the recent findings from the AEMO report were a reminder to everyone where the “gaps exist”, but there was no need to rush to “blackout language” when the figures told a different story.

“It’s not, as some people have said today, a stark warning that blackouts are inevitable,” he told the ABC’s 7.30.
“It’s just not true, it’s irresponsible.”

Mr Bowen said while hot weather was on its way this summer, it is not his expectation there will be extensive energy blackouts across the country as the government works to ensure the energy grid is “strong and secure”.

“This summer will be very hot, no question about it. We know El Nino is coming,” he said.

Mr Bowen said the government was working hard to “turn around” the energy imbalance currently affecting the Australian energy system.

When asked why only one gigawatt of power had entered the system in the past decade, Mr Bowen said the government had been fixing previous policy shortfalls.

“We’re turning around that problem that has existed in a policy failure of 10 years,” he said.

The suggestion that Australians may have to ration out their electricity use was something Mr Bowen believes has always been a recommendation and will continue under the current government.

“There are existing schemes with very large industrial users where AEMO asks them to moderate their use over certain times,” he said.

“That’s always been the case, under the previous government and under us it will continue.

“But the key is to turn around the 10 years of policy dysfunction where four gigawatts left and only one gigawatt came on.”

From the OZ

Just as the PM will own the result of the inVoice, Bowen will own the blackouts when they arrive, and it appears he doesn’t like the sound of it.

Stock up on poopcorn Cats.

Makka
Makka
September 1, 2023 8:35 am

that would be like them assassinating JFK or RFK (or RFKJ) at the behest of the deep state – preposterous!

Given the blatant levels of horrid open corruption and deviancy we have witnessed these last few years from the Demons as well as the monstrous vendetta being perpetrated on Trump by US State organs and the MSM, I feel quite certain that this is a very real possibility.

There are Trillions at stake with extremely powerful actors to suffer enormous loss , power, influence if Trump is successful. And we know certain 3 letter Agencies are not on the side of the angels. This possibility is very very real IMO.

JC
JC
September 1, 2023 8:38 am

He was off centre and completely inappropriate even in his younger days.

You can understand the grief, but talking about sex and the bikini body, to a journalist?
Something is wrong with this idiot.

He felt such rage he stalked seedy streets looking for trouble. Senator John McClellan from Arkansas had had a wife and a son die of spinal meningitis and another son die in a car accident and yet another in a plane crash, and he tersely counseled Biden to “bury” himself in work. “Work,” he said. “Work. Work. Work.” But Biden didn’t want to work. He wanted to be with his boys. He took the train every day from Delaware to D.C. and back. He felt like he could barely breathe. He thought about moving to Vermont. The six months became a year. The second year was worse than the first.

“Neilia was my very best friend, my greatest ally, my sensuous lover,” he told Kitty Kelley in 1974 for a profile in the Washingtonian. “The longer we lived together the more we enjoyed everything from sex to sports. Most guys don’t really know what I lost because they never knew what I had. … When you lose something like that, you lose a part of yourself that you never get back again.” Kelley counted 35 pictures of her in his office. “Let me show you my favorite picture of her,” Biden offered. His wife in a bikini. “She had the best body of any woman I ever saw,” he said.

Roger
Roger
September 1, 2023 8:41 am

Mr Bowen said while hot weather was on its way this summer, it is not his expectation there will be extensive energy blackouts across the country as the government works to ensure the energy grid is “strong and secure”.

In government we trust.

Indolent
Indolent
September 1, 2023 8:41 am

One billion people WILL most likely die if the climate cult has their way.

One BILLION people will die from climate change by 2100, study claims

Cassie of Sydney
September 1, 2023 8:41 am

Oh and Matthew Bach, the Victorian Liberal fleeing the always sinking ship that is the Victorian Liberal Party (when will it hit the bottom?), is the same “Liberal” who, only a few months ago, penned a libellous piece for The Age (which led to defamation proceedings by Dan Ryan) where he loudly and boldly proclaimed that “Menzies was dead” and that the “Liberals needed to forge a new path ahead”.

LOL.

Well, clearly Mr Bach was forging his own path ahead, away from the terminal Victorian Liberals, and who could blame him. But apart from the indisputable fact that whilst Menzies might be physically dead (and there’s no argument from me about that fact), Menzies’ ideas as outlined in 1942 are most certainly not “dead”, those ideas are alive and well, and they remain as pertinent and relevant as ever. You know those things Menzies talked and wrote about, which resonated across Australia….such ideas as free speech, individual liberty, small and medium sized business, fiscal responsibility, working middle class Australia, religious freedom, representing the “lifters” in society, not the leaners. Ho hum, but this malevolent creature called Matthew Bach, fleeing the the ship sinking in the deep blue lagoon of Sicktoria, does provide us with a unique insight into just who is joining the Liberal Party, and who is climbing the party’s greasy poles. It isn’t ordinary Australians.

But it’s comforting to know that Matthew Bach’s political career is dead, and I can assure Mr Bach that in twenty, thirty, forty or fifty years time people will still remember and recognise the name Robert Gordon Menzies and will speak about his ideas, but when the same are asked about a mediocrity called Matthew Bach, the answer will be “who is Matthew Bach”?

By the way Matthew Bach, transwomen are not women and saying so does not make me far-right or a Nazi. And before you head off to the UK, you need to apologise to Kellie-Jay Keen, to Moira Deeming, and to Angie Jones. You need to clear the deck ready for your “new path”. Kellie-Jay Keen has a saying, that you should listen to, and that saying is…..

“we never lose”.

Peter Greagg
Peter Greagg
September 1, 2023 8:42 am

Opposition Indigenous Australian spokesperson Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has said that the voice to parliament will do little to change the lives of indigenous people in rural communities, such as addressing issues of domestic violence.

A coronial inquest into domestic violence in the Northern Territory recently revealed that since 2000, 76 of at least 81 women who were killed by their partners were Aboriginal.
“I haven’t heard a single one of the advocates of the voice speak on behalf of these people,” she said. “The most vulnerable within our communities. I’ve heard them talk about the fact that they want reparations, compensation, treaty, makarrata, but I’ve not heard them once talk specifically to an issue of concern in a remote community.”

Yes 2023 Campaign Director Dean Parkin said their campaign has been looking into rural concerns, highlighting the need for access to safe drinking water.

“We’re talking about the most very basic, fundamental issues,” he said. “Everybody else expects that when they turn their tap on, they get fresh clean drinking water. But for far too many indigenous people in this country that’s not actually what’s happening.”

Jacinta telling us how it is in the NT, from the OZ.

Woman’s safety vs drinking water.

Indolent
Indolent
September 1, 2023 8:46 am
feelthebern
feelthebern
September 1, 2023 8:47 am

If it wasn’t for Joe Aston I think Qantas would have gotten away with the “travel credit expiry” on 31st December.
Many have raised this over the past few months.
Only when Aston used his megaphone did anything happen.
Even the ACCC head said she was “unhappy” but hadn’t done anything for months on it.

Peter Greagg
Peter Greagg
September 1, 2023 8:50 am

Claire returning fire to Bowen on the cost of renewables.

Australians deserve honesty and transpare

On August 7, Australia’s Energy Market Operator issued a peculiar press release. There was no byline, so we don’t know who wrote it, but it made several bold claims inviting scrutiny.

The first claim was that recent media commentary about its Integrated System Plan was “wrong”. The second claim was that the ISP “was a whole-of-system plan” that modelled everything to do with Australia’s energy transition – including transmission, new generation and storage. And the third claim was that its plan demonstrated “new renewables” were the “lowest-cost” form of energy.

That third claim is now foundational to the political career of the Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen. In echoing this mantra repeatedly on social media and in newspaper articles, Bowen is handcuffing himself to an empirical claim that can easily be falsified.

The context here is important. Earlier in August, data scientist Aidan Morrison, who on X/Twitter goes by the name @QuixoticQuant, raised a red flag regarding a report that feeds into the ISP.

After examining the CSIRO’s GenCost report, Morrison found it rested upon what could be described as “phantom costings”. By excluding all infrastructure costs between now and 2030 from its calculations – by treating them as “sunk costs” – the report is able to claim renewables are the “cheapest” form of energy from 2030 onwards.

After I highlighted Morrison’s concerns in an article in these pages, Paul Graham, the author of GenCost, confirmed the use of this accounting method in a letter published by The Australian. He justified this accounting creativity by stating the cumulative costs up to 2030 would be covered in a separate project, the AEMO’s Integrated System Plan.

However, upon closer investigation, it turns out the ISP is not as comprehensive as Graham suggested. After making inquiries this week with AEMO about what is actually included in its “whole-of-system plan”, I discovered that it omits distribution-network upgrades, and transmission projects that are already under way. Rather than being a “whole-of-system plan”, the ISP is more like a “part-of-the-system plan”.

In failing to cost distribution network upgrades, the ISP fails to account for one of the most important components of our energy transition. Imagine big transmission lines such as highways: they carry a lot of power over long distances from power plants to cities. Distribution lines are like local roads: they take the electricity from the end of the “highway” to individual homes and businesses.

Upgrading the distribution network means improving local roads. Maybe they need to be widened, or perhaps they need better signals to manage traffic. In the case of electricity, this could mean installing new wires that can carry more power, or adding “smart” technology that helps control how electricity moves, so it can flow both ways. Why both ways? Because now homes can also generate power, with solar panels on roofs, and send it back into the grid.

The ISP assumes significant distribution network upgrades will be made, while assuming these upgrades will essentially happen for free.

While the lack of accounting for distribution network upgrades is a glaring oversight in the ISP, it’s not the only one. We learned this week that the cost of the Snowy Hydro 2.0 project has skyrocketed from $2bn to $12bn. This is a project designed to support the variable nature of wind and solar energy. Yet when I asked the AEMO if the ISP accounts for Snowy 2.0, it told me “Snowy 2.0 was committed in 2017 and construction is well under way. AEMO does not model the cost of projects that are under construction”.

It’s becoming increasingly hard to come to any conclusion other than that Bowen’s central claim – that renewables are the cheapest form of energy – is a hollow one. It depends on a report that ignores real costs and a plan that leaves out significant expenses.

Alex Coram, emeritus professor from the University of Western Australia, noted in these pages on Thursday that neither the AEMO nor CSIRO are able to provide substantiation for the claims being made in their name. These agencies are not giving us a road map to the best energy policy for Australia, they are instead providing fuel for false narratives to take hold.

But why should we care? This is not just an academic debate or a political game. These phantom costings and incomplete models will lead to bad decisions that affect all Australians. When our energy grid can’t meet demand, causing blackouts or soaring prices, that’s when the bill for these errors will come due.

Australians deserve honesty and transparency when it comes to energy policy decisions. Regardless of what our energy future ultimately looks like, it needs to be built on a solid foundation of empirical rigour. What we are currently being offered, however, are the hollow bricks of a public relations campaign.

Roger
Roger
September 1, 2023 8:51 am

Yes 2023 Campaign Director Dean Parkin said their campaign has been looking into rural concerns, highlighting the need for access to safe drinking water.

“rural” = remote communities

“Everybody else expects that when they turn their tap on, they get fresh clean drinking water. But for far too many indigenous people in this country that’s not actually what’s happening.”

Most Australians don’t choose to live in the middle of nowhere, but if they do they take it upon themselves to ensure a supply of potable water.

Indolent
Indolent
September 1, 2023 8:52 am
Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
September 1, 2023 8:53 am

Renewable energy news.

Germany begins dismantling wind farm for coal (31 Aug)

German energy giant RWE has begun dismantling a wind farm to make way for a further expansion of an open-pit lignite coal mine in the western region of North Rhine Westphalia.

One wind turbine has already been dismantled, with a further seven scheduled for removal to excavate an additional 15m to 20m tonnes of so-called ‘brown’ coal, the most polluting energy source.

Perhaps a journalist could ask Minister Bowen about Germany doing this? Surely would make an excellent news article.

Meanwhile ordinary Germans would rather their government to fix potholes in roads rather than fight climate change. Weird.

German People Would Rather The Government Fixed the Roads Than Try to Solve Climate Change, Poll Finds (31 Aug)

Indolent
Indolent
September 1, 2023 8:53 am
johanna
johanna
September 1, 2023 8:59 am

Mr Bowen said while hot weather was on its way this summer, it is not his expectation there will be extensive energy blackouts across the country

Note the weasel words.

According to him, there might be extensive blackouts that are not ‘across the country.’ Since WA is not on the national grid, that is hardly reassuring.

Meanwhile, punters’ massive energy bills from winter keep rolling in, the cost of living goes up and up, people are living in their cars, and the PM is touring the country spruiking Da Invoice.

What a shambles.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
September 1, 2023 9:06 am

Turtlehead Bowen knows there’s an El Nino coming? Was this from the BOM, whose last 3 predictions of this weather event failed to appear due to not enough gaia worship?

Roger
Roger
September 1, 2023 9:09 am

Turtlehead Bowen knows there’s an El Nino coming?

He’s the Minister for Climate Change, dontcha know?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
September 1, 2023 9:10 am

Potable water for remote communities? $39 Billion allows you to shower in Champagne when you’re not a pisswreck or petrol sniffing.

Gabor
Gabor
September 1, 2023 9:14 am

Peter Greagg
Sep 1, 2023 8:42 AM

Opposition Indigenous Australian spokesperson Jacinta Nampijinpa Price has said that the voice to parliament will do little to change the lives of indigenous people in rural communities, such as addressing issues of domestic violence.

How could it?
And as Roger said, if you live in the bush you can’t expect the same service as in the cities.

I’m amazed at the naivety, or ignorance of our politicians, who have great faith that the Voice will somehow cure all that is wrong.

Live in an isolated community, with no prospect of meaningful work, if the children go to school at all, concentrate on a tribal language no one else speaks, instead of English.

What hope is there?
I cannot understand this at all.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
September 1, 2023 9:16 am

Diggers not the target of Vietnam War animosity
michael sexton michael sexton

12:00AM September 1, 2023
51 Comments

One of the most persistent myths about Australia’s role in the Vietnam War is that the soldiers returning in the second half of the 1960s and early 1970s were publicly abused and reviled for taking part in the conflict.

This story has resurfaced in recent weeks in the context of ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of the end of Australia’s involvement in the war. Actually, for all intents and purposes, that involvement had finished by late 1971 when the final ground troops were withdrawn and not replaced. The notion of 2023 as the 50th anniversary of disengagement is based on a proclamation issued by the new Whitlam government in January 1973, and refers to the withdrawal of a handful of Australian army instructors who apparently still remained in South Vietnam.

The myth of public hostility to returning soldiers was effectively demolished by Mark Dapin in his 2019 book, Australia’s Vietnam, where he did research into these allegations and concluded that apart from a handful of isolated incidents this was indeed a myth.

In many ways this is hardly surprising, given even the most vociferous opponents of the war in this country did not blame the soldiers who went to Vietnam but the government that sent them there.

This is not to say that on their return to Australia the veterans received a hero’s welcome – and this may be the real subject of their complaint. But that was never going to happen in the case of this war, which was very different from all of the country’s earlier involvements in foreign conflicts. This war never had bipartisan support, Labor being opposed from the outset, and, according to the polls at the time, approximately a third of the electorate were opposed to Australia’s participation.

As a result, it was reasonably clear, even from the initial commitment of Australian forces in April 1965, that service in Vietnam was not going to be the same as in earlier wars. And that third of the electorate continued to grow over the second half of the 1960s as it became obvious the war could not be won.

There was, however, little that most of those sent to Vietnam, particularly, of course, those conscripted into the army, could do about this disenchantment in the Australian community.

One of the early myths about Australia’s role, now almost completely discarded, is that it was pressured by the US to send troops.

The fact is the Australian government, through its embassy in Washington, pleaded with the Johnson administration for an invitation to make a military commitment. There were members of that administration who argued at the time that the war was unwinnable, but they were ultimately overruled. They certainly received no support from the Australian government, whose only concern was that this pessimistic opinion might prevail. The much-desired invitation from Washington was finally received in Canberra in early 1965.

This was a deeply cynical exercise on the part of the Australian government because it did not really care whether the war was won or lost, or what damage it did to America’s international reputation and domestic politics, both very considerable in the longer term. Its priority was to build up an insurance policy with the US in case of hostilities between Australia and Indonesia.

Australia’s involvement in the war has cast something of a shadow over the reputation of Sir Robert Menzies, who presided as prime minister over the decision to request an invitation from the US. In its current electoral plight of opposition in every Australian jurisdiction except Tasmania, the spirit of Menzies has been invoked by many prominent Liberals.

There is no doubt Menzies was a highly skilled politician and his record tenure as PM from 1949 to 1966 is one that will almost certainly never be broken. But some, at least, of this success was due to the Labor split in 1955 and the fact that, in HV Evatt and Arthur Caldwell, he faced opposition leaders who, whatever their personal qualities, were relatively unattractive from an electoral point of view.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, few of those Liberals who have harked back to the Menzies years in recent times have referred to his responsibility for Australia’s participation in one of the most futile conflicts of modern times.

Rosie
Rosie
September 1, 2023 9:22 am

First impressions.
Air travel is simply something to endure.
Whichever way you slice it it is still sitting in a seat for 6 7 8 12 hours.
Anyhow we got here.
Bought metro passes and train tickets without incident other that the pass machine not liking Australian credit cards.
Tokyo even after sundown was very hot, we had a bit of a walk to the metro line we needed, walked around the perimeter of a park with a temple up the back, couple of street people camped out next to the hedging, one was shirtless, not surprising in the heat. I saw a man standing over a vent in the road outside the main station which seemed weird until I figured there must have been cool air coming up.
The metro was pretty empty and thankfully air-conditioned, not as many lifts as one might like but a kind gentleman carried my sister’s bag down the stairs for her. I think the trip cost $2. We are staying in Asaka and at night it is very pretty with lots of coloured lights, during the day, not so much. There is a Harry Potter Cafe which we might visit today.
My son declared that we would have a quick McDonald’s dinner so we did. Garlic shrimp burger and it was pretty good. Next door, in the middle of of the high rise is an ancient wooden house. I’ll have a better look in the day time.
There is a buffet breakfast in the hotel so tried a couple of random Japanese things.
Most of the people around in the street , on the train etc were young workers, a few older male workers, all wearing long trousers and business shirts, no business shorts and walk socks.
If I can aclimatise it should be fun.

cohenite
September 1, 2023 9:24 am

Peter Greagg
Sep 1, 2023 8:50 AM
Claire returning fire to Bowen on the cost of renewables.

Australians deserve honesty and transparency

The infrastructure on the stupid things is horrendous and will send Australia broke. Look at turdball’s great gift to Australia, Snowy 11; already on its way to $20 bill with no end in sight. And Snowy11 demonstrates the REAL cost of ruinables: they are energy negative which means they use MORE energy to run than they produce so you use more energy running the damn things then they return and they need back up. Wind and solar only have capacity factors of about 20% which means you need backup for the other 80% of the time they are not working. That is never factored in.

The funny and by funny I mean funny like cancer, thing about Snowy 11 is it duplicates Tumut 3 which was built as part of the original Snowy as a pumped hydro; it has hardly been used since pumping the water up hill uses more energy than is produced when the water is released down hill.

Turtle is the most dangerous and stupid man in Australia.

Roger
Roger
September 1, 2023 9:33 am

What hope is there?
I cannot understand this at all.

It provides a good living for those employed in the aboriginal industry, Gabor.

johanna
johanna
September 1, 2023 9:36 am

Do they count the energy used to build Snowy II in the calculations?

johanna
johanna
September 1, 2023 9:38 am

OK, reading back, I find that the modelers describe that as ‘sunk cost,’

Try that for a public company and you’d be in jail.

johanna
johanna
September 1, 2023 9:47 am

Modelers, where would lying politicians be without them?

Which made me think of the great Kraftwerk’s tribute to models. When you think about it, they are remarkably similar.

‘It only takes a camera to change her mind.’

Yup.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
September 1, 2023 9:54 am

feelthebern

Sep 1, 2023 8:47 AM

If it wasn’t for Joe Aston I think Qantas would have gotten away with the “travel credit expiry” on 31st December.

Simple solution on this one.
Qantas to offer firm booked flights but with the option of cash refunds to be calculated at the highest flexible fare offered on that route for that class of travel in the last twelve months.
In many cases that would be double.
Plus interest on funds at credit card rates.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
September 1, 2023 10:01 am

Are you really in Tokyo Rosie?
I mean, a lot of people say they are going there, but don’t actually do it.

Dot
Dot
September 1, 2023 10:09 am

Snowy 2.0 seems rather lame.

How many new power stations and tunnels for 24 bn + AUD?

Like I said before, even the laughable anti-nuclear spruiker’s cost estimates for nuclear show it would have been cheaper than Snowy 2.0.

(PS – new hydroelectric dams would have been cheaper than Snowy 2.0 and the associated wind and solar crap).

Dot
Dot
September 1, 2023 10:15 am

…it really seems like…two tunnels and 1 – 2 sets of generators for ….at least 24 bn.

What happened to Devil Grip Gorge Dam and Murray Gorge Dam?

Unlike the proposed dam at Jingellic, they would have been for more than irrigation/mitigation.

No new dams means it’s bullshit to me.

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
September 1, 2023 10:15 am

johanna
Sep 1, 2023 9:47 AM

‘It only takes a camera to change her mind.’

She’s playing her game and you can hear them say
She is looking good, for beauty we will pay

Still waiting for some plot twist or cynical message in the song, but no, apparently it’s just an honest description of conventional heterosexual experience. Heh, howabout that.

To complete the pollie analogy, what do voters pay for and what is the cost?

Possibly they pay for false hope. I was going to say they pay for charisma but that would not explain about 120 of 150 MPs.

johanna
johanna
September 1, 2023 10:18 am

Read it and weep. Millions of taxpayer dollars to fund the delusion:

“We are looking together with our strategic investors, Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), to [see] how we can further scale that module manufacturing and to deploy to a growing pipeline, not only in Australia, but also international opportunities.”

The 441 modules sit atop large towers and each tower is capable of producing one megawatt of electricity and two megawatts of heat.

The Carwarp project is expected to provide enough renewable electricity to power about 1,700 average Victorian homes.
Stable energy for farmers

Federal Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy Jenny McAllister said the technology was a “real innovation story” and new energy projects like RayGen’s offered opportunities for new jobs in regional communities and an energy network that would benefit farmers.

“Renewable energy in regional areas presents really significant opportunities for economic development,” Ms McAllister said.

“Over time the capacity to improve the energy performance of agricultural activity and farming activity does present real opportunities for our agricultural sector.

“One of the things our government is interested in is making sure that as we move through this transition, and this transformation of our energy system that we do collaborate with regional communities to ensure that there are benefits seen and felt here in communities like this.”

Blah, blah, blah.

The figure that is always missing is the unit cost of energy produced, including everything, like construction, and maintenance costs of transmission lines and the box thingies along the way. I’m not an electrical engineer, but even I can smell a rat this big and stinky.

One of the worst consequences of ‘journalists’ nowadays being totes ignorant about everything but fashion and memes, is that they haven’t got the faintest idea about anything else, so just regurgitate excerpts from the voluminous Press Releases when asked to write about something.

Unit cost, unit cost. Any decent journalist would be asking.

Roger
Roger
September 1, 2023 10:27 am

“Renewable energy in regional areas presents really significant opportunities for economic development,” Ms McAllister said.

Might want to ask the residents what they think first, Jenny.

Roger
Roger
September 1, 2023 10:32 am

‘Queensland’s leading [Labor] political powerbroker, Gary Bullock, has refused to declare his support for Annastacia Palaszczuk as the trade union movement falls silent on whether the Premier should lead Labor to next year’s election.’

– The Australian

Bullock’s nickname is reportedly “Blocker.” Block her, Gary.

Peter Greagg
Peter Greagg
September 1, 2023 10:34 am

Chris Merritt in the Oz on another ALP brain fart designed to bring us plebs to heel.

With the benefit of hindsight, ­future generations might be best equipped to nominate the most fundamental change to the ­nation in modern times.

The voice referendum is clearly a contender. But there is another horse in this race – the resurrection of the once-abandoned plan for a national charter of rights, based in part on the Victorian charter that proved to be such a disappointment during the pandemic.

Both issues have the potential to fundamentally change Australia – not just how we are governed but how we relate to each other and to our institutions of state.
Whatever the outcome on October 14, the lasting legacy of the voice proposal is already clear: the nation is divided and might stay that way for some time.

National unity is just a memory. There is no longer consensus about the most fundamental ­aspect of our democracy: the Constitution.

Instead of uniting the nation, the voice proposal has alienated friends, divided families and on polling day is certain to leave about half the country embittered and distrustful.
But while the voice has dominated public discourse, insufficient attention has been given to a federal inquiry that is considering whether parliament should enact a Human Rights Act, which would be the formal title for a federal charter of rights.

This is regrettable because the model under consideration would affect us all and would impose a new and dangerous role upon the judiciary. It deserves a great deal more scrutiny.

This inquiry was commissioned by the Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, who has asked the parliamentary joint committee on human rights to undertake a broad review of the nation’s human rights framework.

On March 15, he asked the committee to consider not just whether parliament should enact a Human Rights Act, but to consider a model drawn up by the Australian Human Rights Commission.

One of the most startling aspects of this model is that it would be accompanied by a mechanism that would enable everyone to sue whenever our newly bestowed rights are infringed.

And the remedies for breaches of the proposed charter would include money – something that is not available in those jurisdictions that already have charters of rights: Victoria, Queensland and the ACT.

According to the submission to this inquiry by the Law Council of Australia: “Where a violation of a guaranteed right is established, an effective remedy should be available that affords appropriate and adequate reparation for the wrong suffered.

“This might include compensation in an appropriate case, declaratory or injunctive relief, as well as other remedies.”

This could help mollify those who might otherwise argue that statutory charters of rights, just like their constitutional counterparts, amount to a transfer of ­policymaking power to the ­judiciary.

Even if that is initially put to one side, this inquiry will need to come to terms with a more fundamental question: is the model proposed by the Human Rights Commission worth supporting?

Compared to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, it would deliver weaker protection for some of the most important rights set down in that treaty.

The most obvious weakness is the way it treats freedom to manifest religious belief.

There are also problems with the way it treats freedom of expression – which could be convenient for the government given its proposal to crack down on what it considers to be misinformation and disinformation.

Under the ICCPR, the right to manifest religious belief can only be limited if this is necessary to protect public safety, order, health, morals or the rights of ­others.

But under the commission’s judicially enforceable model, those limited grounds for restricting freedom of religion have been expanded.

It would permit this freedom to be restricted whenever a judge considers a restriction is “reasonable” and “justified in a free and democratic society”.

To help judges reach that ­decision, the commission wants them to use the same technique of structured proportionality that has been used by the High Court – and has been criticised by some as opening the door to subjectivity.

In 2021, when Amanda Stoker was assistant minister to the ­attorney-general, she criticised his technique because she said it “takes judges perilously close the role of the legislator” by allowing them “to pick and choose policy prescriptions”.

The bottom line is that if the commission’s model is enacted, freedom to manifest religious ­belief could be wound back for reasons that extend far beyond the limited grounds outlined in the ICCPR.

The same problem is apparent with freedom of expression.

Article 19 of the ICCPR protects this freedom and says it can only be restricted if this is necessary in order to respect the rights and reputations of others or to protect national security, public order or public heath.

But the commission’s model expands these tight requirements.

It would permit freedom of expression to be restricted on the same broad grounds and using the same contentious mechanism with which it wants judges to set the limits on freedom of religion.

This might appeal to some members of parliament because it would permit them to avoid taking responsibility for difficult public policy issues.

But while those decisions would move from parliament to the judiciary, they would remain, in essence, political. That would inevitably erode the public standing of the judiciary as impartial decision-makers.

If these were the only problems with the commission’s model, it would be worth reconsidering.

But the model proposed by the commission would require judges to use structured proportionality when setting the limits on most of the rights listed for its proposed federal charter of rights.

Chris Merritt is vice-president of the Rule of Law Institute of Australia

Rabz
September 1, 2023 10:35 am

Blackout Bowen said while hot weather was on its way this summer, it is not his expectation there will be extensive energy blackouts across the country as the government works to ensure the energy grid is “strong and secure”

Right. Hot weather in summer, who’da thunk it. It’s more likely this will be another La Niña summer, meaning it will be mild. So no “extensive” gerbil worming* induced conflagrations for ghouls like him to bleat about incessantly.

As for government working to ensure the energy grid is “strong and secure”, they are clearly doing the exact opposite. Otherwise, there’d be no need for that rat faced quisling imbecile to have made the ridiculous observations above in the first place. Because, it’s not like he’s ever been utterly wrong about anything before, except when he has, which is all the time, about everything.

Best of hands, top men, etc.

*Aka Arsonists

Johnny Rotten
September 1, 2023 10:37 am

Indolent
Sep 1, 2023 8:41 AM
One billion people WILL most likely die if the climate cult has their way.

One BILLION people will die from climate change by 2100, study claims

And more than 2 billion will be born irrespective of what the climate does. Bar a Nuclear War of course.

P
P
September 1, 2023 10:39 am

Powerball makes 10 people from the tiny country town of Wentworth instant multi-millionaires as $40 million jackpot goes off

‘We’re only a small town and it’s crazy to think there’s now 10 multi-millionaires here.’

Wentworth is home to 1,500 residents, according to the 2021 census.

H B Bear
H B Bear
September 1, 2023 10:42 am

Victoriastan Charter of Rights

Does it include not being baton charged inside your own home?

Rabz
September 1, 2023 10:44 am

permit this freedom to be restricted whenever a judge considers a restriction is “reasonable” and “justified in a free and democratic society”

What a grate idea. Just hand over more power to pompous unelected unaccountable waffling windbags with rather unusual peccadilloes.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
September 1, 2023 10:45 am

We are staying over the other side of Tokyo.

Tokyo even after sundown was very hot, we had a bit of a walk to the metro line we needed, walked around the perimeter of a park with a temple up the back, couple of street people camped out next to the hedging

Almost identical scene in Ueno (pr “Wayne-Oh”) park yesterday. It seems that is where the down and out go, although there doesn’t seem to be big numbers of them.
And yes, even manual workers in the streets and parks are immaculately dressed in usually dark blue work clothes.
We even saw one guy near a temple in a three piece suit and tie in the heat. Some sort of penance? Or a redundant salary-man still going through the motions. Even some taxi drivers wore suits.
Went to National Museum yesterday.
Aircon not working. They said they had a God Emperor coming to fix it. Still reasonably cool in the old stone building
The parks around there are magnificent.
The one single thing we noticed?
Not a scrap of graffiti anywhere.

cohenite
September 1, 2023 10:46 am

johanna
Sep 1, 2023 10:18 AM
Read it and weep. Millions of taxpayer dollars to fund the delusion:

From the article:

We have to invest in researchers like John Lasich, who started this technology back in 2010.”

Actually Archimedes developed the idea of concentrating solar as a weapon in 212 BC.

Roger
Roger
September 1, 2023 10:51 am

Victoriastan Charter of Rights

Does it include not being baton charged inside your own home?

Best keep your expectations modest to avoid disappointment.

Old School Conservative
Old School Conservative
September 1, 2023 10:57 am

Zulu
“The myth of public hostility to returning soldiers was effectively demolished by Mark Dapin in his 2019 book, Australia’s Vietnam, where he did research into these allegations and concluded that apart from a handful of isolated incidents this was indeed a myth”.

Yet the NSW RSL acknowledges that some sub-branches initially rejected soldiers who fought in the conflict due to the belief they didn’t fight in “a real war”.
“….a lot of my fellow Vietnam veterans were refused entry to join the RSL movement”; President Ray James.

It looks like Dapain and Sexton are underplaying the animosity towards Vietnam veterans.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
September 1, 2023 10:58 am

Right. Hot weather in summer, who’da thunk it.

I can’t recall a real heatwave for ages. Must be at least a decade ago. Last summer at the Cafe it only got over 30 C twice, which was amazing. If this is global warming I’d hate to find out what global cooling is.

In high school I won a place in a national maths summer camp at ANU over the hols. Late seventies. It was fun, I learned not much in the way of maths since we spent most of the time playing card games. After the camp flew to Melbourne to link up with dad and my brother, then we drove all the way up the Princess Hwy. It was over 110 F for a week. We were melting in the car which was an old Dodge ute, 5 L of engine awesomeness, coloured sickly yellow-green. Fine couple of days, but it was a real serious Vicco heatwave. If you read Time magazine back then you’d think we were about to enter a new ice age.

H B Bear
H B Bear
September 1, 2023 10:59 am

Best keep your expectations modest to avoid disappointment.

So no.

johanna
johanna
September 1, 2023 10:59 am

More than half of the lottery winners will leave town. Quite rightly.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
September 1, 2023 11:02 am

First day of spring so far at the Cafe is 15.3 C at 9am, now down to 14.3 C at 10.30 am according to the nearest BoM weather station. Heater is on.

We’re all going to fry…

Johnny Rotten
September 1, 2023 11:03 am

Unit cost, unit cost. Any decent journalist would be asking.

And of course, Perfesserer ‘Sun Tan’ Grant will be teaching such inciteful Journalism very soon. Academia and Ivory Towers will save us………./sarc

H B Bear
H B Bear
September 1, 2023 11:05 am

If you read Time magazine back then …

Much like this Blog, Time magazine has been off the pace for some time.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
September 1, 2023 11:08 am

“Renewable energy in regional areas presents really significant opportunities for economic development,” Ms McAllister said.

“Over time the capacity to improve the energy performance of agricultural activity and farming activity does present real opportunities for our agricultural sector.

Any crap will do as a talking point.

They’re simply replacing the source of the energy and not availability. Delivering three phase power as a standard throughout the bush would be a huge benefit but they have no intention of doing this.

To improve power supply you need to rebuild the existing network to handle the power. The big projects are hooked to the main grid and energy is transported out of the region they use to generate the power.
They’re scavenging agricultural land for energy foreign nationals to make a guaranteed buck.

Your rooftop solar is the same as it’s badly limited by the old grid, hence the in-feed returns are now petty. The big build makes your investment basically worthless to the grid. What they find own they don’t value.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
September 1, 2023 11:09 am

What they don’t own

Zatara
Zatara
September 1, 2023 11:12 am

Democrats are “speeding towards assassination”

An incredibly poorly thought out option on their parts if so.

johanna
johanna
September 1, 2023 11:12 am

Bruce, I lived In Melbourne in January 1973. It was so hot, I would drench myself fully clothed under a cold shower periodically. No aircon in terrace houses in Drummond Street.

Life went on in Melbourne. It was just another hot summer, of which there had been plenty, and would be plenty.

Fast forward, and suddenly the hot summer of 1973 is a sign of a ‘boiling planet.’ Idiots.

Top Ender
Top Ender
September 1, 2023 11:20 am

The one single thing we noticed?
Not a scrap of graffiti anywhere.

Sadly Athens has plenty of it.

The business owners we spoke to said the Greek government is still hopeless. Corruption and a lack-lustre performance in bureaucracy – eg: getting things done everywhere.

Roger
Roger
September 1, 2023 11:20 am

An incredibly poorly thought out option on their parts if so.

Yes…well, that’s what astute commentators have said about the various indictments.

Peter Greagg
Peter Greagg
September 1, 2023 11:20 am

johanna
Sep 1, 2023 11:12 AM
Bruce, I lived In Melbourne in January 1973. It was so hot, I would drench myself fully clothed under a cold shower periodically. No aircon in terrace houses in Drummond Street.

Life went on in Melbourne. It was just another hot summer, of which there had been plenty, and would be plenty.

Fast forward, and suddenly the hot summer of 1973 is a sign of a ‘boiling planet.’ Idiots.

Oh yes. I lived in Melbourne from 1963 until 1986. And yes it was hot plenty of times.

But I moved to Melbourne from Perth, where it really was very hot in the 1950s and early 1960s. No one had aircon. It was often still in the 90s F late at night.
In primary school each class had a themometer, and when it reached 100 degrees F, we could walk home in the heat. I remember leaving footprints in the tar on the road on the way home.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
September 1, 2023 11:20 am

Actually Archimedes developed the idea of concentrating solar as a weapon in 212 BC.

Concentrating solar is another one of those technologies that seems reasonable on paper but doesn’t work in practice. The woes of the concentrating solar plants in the US are legendary, especially the ones trying to use molten salt as a heat store for overnight electricity generation.

It’s interesting these techs that don’t work in practice, even though on the surface they look ok. Tidal energy, wave energy and hot rocks geothermal are another three rabbit holes that just don’t seem to have a bottom. I suspect orbital solar PV will be the same, except maybe as a strategic weapon. Microwave beams cooking the plebs from orbit, yum!

Buccaneer
Buccaneer
September 1, 2023 11:23 am

Sofronoff’s legal team released correspondence between him and the ACT government on Thursday, revealing their exchanges concerning the premature release of his findings into the conduct of prosecutors and police during the trial of Bruce Lehrmann.

I think it’s great when someone appointed by the left values the truth over the narrative and is willing to defend themselves in public even after the marxists have publicly given the mark of never to engage again.

amortiser
amortiser
September 1, 2023 11:23 am

No widespread blackouts according to Bowen. They will pursue what has been done in the past. Bowen admits that when necessary to preserve the stability of the grid, they will pay businesses to shut down their operations.

I think Bowen needs to come clean about what this amounts to. We don’t know how often this happens and how much it actually costs. They will be paying businesses NOT to operate. This needs to be disclosed on an ongoing basis.

Remember that renewable generators cannot guarantee the supply of any power at all. It’s only fossil fuel or nuclear generators that can do that. So as more and more fossil fuel generators are pushed out the more unreliable the grid becomes.

Batteries and pumped hydro do not add any generating capacity to the grid. In fact they are net users of power rather than generators.

When their wet dream of 80% renewables is achieved what’s going to happen when they have overcast conditions with little wind for a couple of days.

Renewables operate at an average of 30% efficiency of the nameplate capacity. Just have 4 times maximum demand capacity and all is hunky dory.

A persistent high pressure system over south eastern Australia will give a real life lesson in what averages really mean.

By its latest announcement AEMO is trying to get out from under. It doesn’t matter how much generating capacity renewables have. 100 gigawatts of capacity times 0% is still Zero.

The reality clue bat is coming.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
September 1, 2023 11:23 am

Avi in NZ:

I’ve just wrapped up a whirlwind book tour in Auckland, Wellington, and my hometown, Melbourne, and the support has been overwhelming

Thank you for all the love

Lysander
Lysander
September 1, 2023 11:24 am

Since WA is not on the national grid, that is hardly reassuring.

Meanwhile, punters’ massive energy bills from winter keep rolling in

Premier Crook was on the radio the other day saying WA power bills have not gone up (they have). It wasn’t till 6PR had let him free from the building when the calls started coming in, noting that the WA govt is subsidising bills so nobody is noticing that they’re going up… if and when that subsidy drops off, people are truly going to get a power shock. (We might have hundreds of years worth of gas in WA but the greenies are coming after that too).

Roger
Roger
September 1, 2023 11:27 am

When their wet dream of 80% renewables is achieved what’s going to happen when they have overcast conditions with little wind for a couple of days.

I just hope I live long enough to see the day when fed up Australians go full Sri Lankan on their inept and corrupt political class.

Lysander
Lysander
September 1, 2023 11:28 am

Simon Michaux is a guy you wanna look up on YouTube around how many mining years it would take to make every vehicle in the world electric (not mentioning everything else).

From memory, he said 42 years mining to get the lithium. 1200 years mining to get cobalt. And the list goes on… (notwithstanding it takes ~20 years of approval to mine in the first place..).. we’re totally screwed…

Johnny Rotten
September 1, 2023 11:31 am

Blackout Bowen said while hot weather was on its way this summer, it is not his expectation there will be extensive energy blackouts across the country as the government works to ensure the energy grid is “strong and secure”

This sounds just like ‘safe and effective’. The Jabs and all that BS.

Anyway, the Pipe Dreams are now meeting up with Reality and Reality will win.

Cassie of Sydney
September 1, 2023 11:34 am

“No one had aircon. It was often still in the 90s F late at night.”

Correct. Growing up I don’t recall anyone having air-conditioning anywhere. We didn’t have it when we lived in Sydney. I remember how every Saturday we’d go down to my grandparents (who lived in Cronulla) for lunch and we’d all eat a heavy lunch, and then grandparents, children, grandchildren and dogs would sit under the carport for some heat respite.

When we moved to Perth in the late 1970s, we most certainly did not have an air-con. I didn’t know anyone who did. We did have one fan in the house, in the television room, plonked on the box television set, right in front of where my father would sit every night to watch the ABC news. His wife and children were not the main beneficiary of the fan (it was one of those old mistral fans, which made a hell of a noise and so the volume of the television set was always turned up).

There was no air-con in our school. None. After school, and before we’d head home, we girls would walk to to Cottesloe Shopping Centre to partake in the air-con there and eat a paddle pop. I remember it being freezing because you’d walk in from the stifling Perth heat into the effing freezing air-con. We teenage girls loved it, it was like walking into a freezer!

When I tell my nieces and nephews about these times, no mobiles, no air-con, they look at me as though I’m from another planet. And perhaps they’re right, that Australia, long gone, is another planet. Perhaps a better planet? I think it was.

Johnny Rotten
September 1, 2023 11:36 am

I just hope I live long enough to see the day when fed up Australians go full Sri Lankan on their inept and corrupt political class.

I would like to see some Middle Ages justice with ‘off with their heads’ and heads on pikes. As well as chopped off heads on Traitors Gate at the Tower of London. And every city in the world can have a ‘Tower of London’. You know it makes sense.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
September 1, 2023 11:36 am

I haven’t been following the sector but it sounds like the lithium bubble has popped.

Alita’s Bald Hill lithium mine ‘to be sold to secret party’ (Paywallian, 1 Sep)

Alita Resources, one of Australia’s few in-production lithium mines, will be placed in liquidation on Friday.

Any bets that the “secret party” is Chinese?

(Meanwhile on the Daily Tele website there were no less than three EV turd-polishing articles. Keep on with your social engineering Newscorpse peoples and soon you won’t have any subscribers left.)

Lysander
Lysander
September 1, 2023 11:44 am

Yes, I remember in the early 80’s watching test cricket at home in Perth with all the blinds closed all day long and a portable “air con” unit that blew warm air so we put a soaked towel in front of it to blow a little cooler… many a fight was had with the siblings on who got the prime-viewing and best-gusting spot on the beanbag in front of the tellie..

Roger
Roger
September 1, 2023 11:49 am

Pale stale male Rafael Epstein to replace Trioli on ABC Melbourne breakfast.

No pressure, Raf.

Cassie of Sydney
September 1, 2023 11:51 am

Yes, I remember in the early 80’s watching test cricket at home in Perth with all the blinds closed all day long and a portable “air con” unit that blew warm air so we put a soaked towel in front of it to blow a little cooler… many a fight was had with the siblings on who got the prime-viewing and best-gusting spot on the beanbag in front of the tellie..”

Yes, in summer Mum would keep the curtains closed all day and then open them up if and when the sea breeze arrived (aka the “Freo doctor”).

People lived with the heat, the world didn’t end.

Rabz
September 1, 2023 11:52 am

We haven’t had an El Nino summer in Sydney since the Goose Morristeen Hawaiian Holiday Gerbil Worming Continental Inferno Extravaganza of 2019-20.

So in other words, 2023-24 is likely to be the fourth mild summer in a row. Not exactly a convincing demonstration of the new “Gerbil Broiling” narrative.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
September 1, 2023 11:58 am

Not allowed to drive in a car with a long horn bull in the passenger seat.

US Police pull over car with giant bull riding shotgun (Sky News, 1 Sep)

The amazing thing is the amount of surgery done to the car to fit him in.

duncanm
duncanm
September 1, 2023 11:59 am

God eco warriors are stupid, but they’re fun to troll.

They’ve got a case of the vapours on twitter because of the Gregory Crinum coal mine extension in Qld.

It is a coking coal mine, retards.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
September 1, 2023 12:04 pm

Not a real animal BoN.
A great animatron though.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
September 1, 2023 12:22 pm

Aircon not working. They said they had a God Emperor coming to fix it.

Geez. They’re everywhere.

jupes
jupes
September 1, 2023 12:23 pm

Not exactly a convincing demonstration of the new “Gerbil Broiling” narrative.

Yes, but “hottest day EVER”, Canada, penguins!

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
September 1, 2023 12:30 pm

The travel updates of you wonderful bloggers is leaving me with a hunger to visit some of the places mentioned. Looks like its only going to be the 7th state to see my mate again. He’s already organised a helicopter to take me fishing while he goes deerstalking with his ex-SAS mate. His mate makes venison salami and sausages with the deer and wild pig. Hopefully later on off to Italy and The Hebrides. That really depends on my health. If its not one thing its another. I should have taken more care of my body. C’est la vie.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
September 1, 2023 12:37 pm

You’re right Cassie, it was a better place. I miss it.

Roger
Roger
September 1, 2023 12:40 pm

God eco warriors are stupid…

It is a coking coal mine, retards.

Doesn’t matter to them; the ACF and the like are against coking coal on principle.

The good news is there are 3-5 new mines in the pipeline in QLD regardless.

Mark from Melbourne
Mark from Melbourne
September 1, 2023 12:48 pm

It’s more likely this will be another La Niña summer, meaning it will be mild.

True, but that Tongan volcano throwing something like 60,000 megalitres of water into the atmosphere will certainly have a true “global warming” effect.

These events used to be described as great natural experiments, with scientists designing studies, measuring their heads off, and publishing interesting insights that may help further explain our complex climate system.

I’m sure that’s still true for some, at least up to the bit about “publishing”, if the interesting effects don’t line up with the narrative.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
September 1, 2023 12:52 pm

Courier Mail etc reporting that unvaccinated health workers will be able to go back to work on 25 September. Seems might be 3,000.

However one of the TV clips mentions that staff might face disciplinary action for not complying. Hopefully not.

They were the smart ones but have suffered for their decision.

Kneel
Kneel
September 1, 2023 1:02 pm

” I remember leaving footprints in the tar on the road on the way home.”

Me too – western Sydney in the 60s/70s.
Deciding whether to brave the bindii on the footpath for a cooler barefoot walk, or walk on oozing tar on the road.
Neighbours across the road had both air-con AND a pool – luxury, when you could scam it.
Other than that, it was waiting for a Southerly buster to come through with blessedly cool change and rain, or run around under the sprinkler on the front lawn.

Roger
Roger
September 1, 2023 1:03 pm

Courier Mail etc reporting that unvaccinated health workers will be able to go back to work on 25 September. Seems might be 3,000.

I’d suggest a majority of QLD Health workers are presently “unvaccinated” (i.e. not up to date with their “boosters”), haven’t been for some time and have no intention of getting another jab unless they are forced to on pain of losing their employment.

Just more lies, hypocrisy and bullying from the health bureaucrats on Charlotte Street.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
September 1, 2023 1:04 pm

Be relaxed not alarmed, Snowy Hydro Turnbull Memorial 2.0 is:

SECURING THE FUTURE OF CRITICAL ENERGY TRANSFORMATION RESETS [Snowy’s capitals]

Aside from the fact that TBM Florence is still parked where it was left back in December 2022, 150m into its 17,000m journey, stuck in soft ground at the entry to the main headrace tunnel, the costs of the project have increased to $12 billion – substantially because its main EPC contract had to be renegotiated.

The original beer coaster estimate was $2 billion. The spend to date has been $4.3 billion – which apparently is OK because “80% of these funds reinvested in the Australian economy“.
So, that’s OK. OK?

But it’s still a triumph, apparently, because when it’s finished it will have the capacity to generate an extra 200MW and a project life of 150 years. And despite the setbacks “Snowy 2.0 remains value accretive, with the Company currently projecting a NPV of approximately $3 billion (based on a $12 billion revised target total cost and December 2028 delivery).

Fortunately, the Snowy presser provides enough information to reverse engineer the economics and find out what “value accretive” means for the rest of us.

With some fairly heroic assumptions:

– Snowy 2.0 sends out for its maximum available time in the market = 45% (remember, when not generating, Snowy2.0 is running backwards to fill up the reservoir);

– Free power is always available for the backrun from the 100GW of windmills on Farmer Gez’s place, thrashing around competing to supply a 25GW NEM;

– A 7% WACC (as published) after “working closely with its Shareholder to develop an appropriate capital structure for the Company to support the increase in costs and to maintain the Company’s target credit rating of BBB+

– No Opex or replacement Capex;

– No tax consequences;

– Unescalated.

A simple Excel widget model* tells us that the average sent out power price must exceed $200/MWh to generate NPV7=$3 billion for Snowy. That’s wholesale, before transmission and ancillary costs.

Not instantly clear what ‘Transformation Resets’ that is going to provide to the NEM, which is currently in a sub $150/MWh trading range.

But you can be sure that Top Men are working the problem.

* In fact, the spooky way whole numbers drop out of my 10-line spreadsheet suggests that some Snowy analyst has probably used a very similar set of model assumptions to promise the $3 billion.

John Brumble
John Brumble
September 1, 2023 1:07 pm

Sanchez – more like an order of magnitude more. But it’s not something that’s easily enforceable. QANTAS just needs to change the class of ticket according to the price range and offer different classes of tickets at different times, depending on what the cost is. Sure, you can get the highest for that class of ticket, but that class of ticket is now defined as “all tickets sold between A$ and B$.”

Robert Sewell
September 1, 2023 1:08 pm

Roger

Sep 1, 2023 11:27 AM
When their wet dream of 80% renewables is achieved what’s going to happen when they have overcast conditions with little wind for a couple of days.
I just hope I live long enough to see the day when fed up Australians go full Sri Lankan on their inept and corrupt political class.

Not going to happen until a major city goes dark. Then it will be too late because I very much doubt there is a Disaster Plan for that eventuality – and if there is, it will just be a handful of A4 binders in a cupboard in a storage room with a sign warning “Beware of the Leopard”.
There will be no plant or equipment, no stocks of food, because all the perishables will be perished, and the mass exodus of the Compliant in the cities will not happen because their electric cars will be flat, and the servos will not be able to fill the ICE vehicle tanks because no power for the pumps.
We’ve spoken of this issue for several years now and nothing has been done except to dig deeper.

Lysander
Lysander
September 1, 2023 1:14 pm

Singer Paul Kelly has released a song supporting the “Yes” vote…

Hmmm… I thought he’d already addressed it in “From little things big things grow?”

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
September 1, 2023 1:15 pm
132andBush
132andBush
September 1, 2023 1:25 pm

johanna
Sep 1, 2023 8:59 AM

Mr Bowen said while hot weather was on its way this summer, it is not his expectation there will be extensive energy blackouts across the country

Note the weasel words.

According to him, there might be extensive blackouts that are not ‘across the country.’ Since WA is not on the national grid, that is hardly reassuring.

Meanwhile, punters’ massive energy bills from winter keep rolling in, the cost of living goes up and up, people are living in their cars, and the PM is touring the country spruiking Da Invoice.

What a shambles.

Also the “it is not his expectation…”

We are subject to the “expectations” of a dribbling moron.

Kneel
Kneel
September 1, 2023 1:28 pm

“…the servos will not be able to fill the ICE vehicle tanks because no power for the pumps.”

That reminds me – I need to get an adapter from a friendly plumber/gas fitter to allow me to “dump” a BBQ gas bottle’s content into my cars LPG tank. It’s an expensive way to buy LPG (compared to putting it straight in from the pump), but needs must, and having ICE transport when no-one else does sounds pretty handy… “I’ll Uber you to the shops and back for a full 8.5kg LPG bottle”.

132andBush
132andBush
September 1, 2023 1:40 pm

Rabz:

So in other words, 2023-24 is likely to be the fourth mild summer in a row. Not exactly a convincing demonstration of the new “Gerbil Broiling” narrative.

Not so. There’s an ElNino already established. The only question is if it concentrates to the Eastern Pacific or region 3.4, if eastern the correlation to dry in Australia is a lot less.
Either way this summer is going to be hotter than the last few.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
September 1, 2023 1:48 pm
GreyRanga
GreyRanga
September 1, 2023 1:48 pm

Haven’t had the window open at night in the bedroom for the last few years. Never slept with just a sheet on either.

Johnny rotten
September 1, 2023 1:51 pm

Don’t worry people.

Come 2025 and the next Feral Erection, the Guv’ment will be seen to have no clothes.

JC
JC
September 1, 2023 1:53 pm

Johnny Rotten
Sep 1, 2023 11:36 AM

I just hope I live long enough to see the day when fed up Australians go full Sri Lankan on their inept and corrupt political class.

I would like to see some Middle Ages justice with ‘off with their heads’ and heads on pikes. As well as chopped off heads on Traitors Gate at the Tower of London. And every city in the world can have a ‘Tower of London’. You know it makes sense.

Curious. Would that apply to financial fraud as well?

  1. This is the WSJ but not paywalled. Also not what you’d expect.Decline and Fall of America? Not Yet Trump appears…

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