Dr Kevin Bonham has updated his aggregate 2pp averages including the most recent polls.

They indicate that things have tightened for the ALP, and that ONP is doing a bit better than LNP.

no

I can honestly say that my concerns about a potential PM Hanson do not relate to her age or any decline in faculties. She’ll be 74, or well nigh, at the time of the next election.

It’s kind of remarkable how consistently young Australian PMs have been, though.
The oldest PM when first sworn in was McEwen, who was 67 but he was only briefly in the position following the disappearance of Holt while the Libs chose a leader. Excluding temps, the oldest was McMahon, who was 63.

The oldest someone has been while in office was Menzies, who was 71 at the end of his final term.

Of our 31 PMs, 7 were in their 40s when first taking the office.

2 where in their 30s.

The median age on entering the office is 53. Mere babes.

dv said:

I can honestly say that my concerns about a potential PM Hanson do not relate to her age or any decline in faculties. She’ll be 74, or well nigh, at the time of the next election.

It’s kind of remarkable how consistently young Australian PMs have been, though.
The oldest PM when first sworn in was McEwen, who was 67 but he was only briefly in the position following the disappearance of Holt while the Libs chose a leader. Excluding temps, the oldest was McMahon, who was 63.

The oldest someone has been while in office was Menzies, who was 71 at the end of his final term.

Of our 31 PMs, 7 were in their 40s when first taking the office.

2 where in their 30s.

The median age on entering the office is 53. Mere babes.

Old or not, lead? um nah.

roughbarked said:

dv said:

I can honestly say that my concerns about a potential PM Hanson do not relate to her age or any decline in faculties. She’ll be 74, or well nigh, at the time of the next election.

It’s kind of remarkable how consistently young Australian PMs have been, though.
The oldest PM when first sworn in was McEwen, who was 67 but he was only briefly in the position following the disappearance of Holt while the Libs chose a leader. Excluding temps, the oldest was McMahon, who was 63.

The oldest someone has been while in office was Menzies, who was 71 at the end of his final term.

Of our 31 PMs, 7 were in their 40s when first taking the office.

2 where in their 30s.

The median age on entering the office is 53. Mere babes.

Old or not, lead? um nah.

Her Svengali James Ashby is possibly now one of the most consequential individuals in Australian politics. I wonder how much sway he has over Barnaby.

dv said:

I can honestly say that my concerns about a potential PM Hanson do not relate to her age or any decline in faculties. She’ll be 74, or well nigh, at the time of the next election.

It’s kind of remarkable how consistently young Australian PMs have been, though.
The oldest PM when first sworn in was McEwen, who was 67 but he was only briefly in the position following the disappearance of Holt while the Libs chose a leader. Excluding temps, the oldest was McMahon, who was 63.

The oldest someone has been while in office was Menzies, who was 71 at the end of his final term.

Of our 31 PMs, 7 were in their 40s when first taking the office.

2 where in their 30s.

The median age on entering the office is 53. Mere babes.

it’s distraction

SCIENCE said:

dv said:

I can honestly say that my concerns about a potential PM Hanson do not relate to her age or any decline in faculties. She’ll be 74, or well nigh, at the time of the next election.

It’s kind of remarkable how consistently young Australian PMs have been, though.
The oldest PM when first sworn in was McEwen, who was 67 but he was only briefly in the position following the disappearance of Holt while the Libs chose a leader. Excluding temps, the oldest was McMahon, who was 63.

The oldest someone has been while in office was Menzies, who was 71 at the end of his final term.

Of our 31 PMs, 7 were in their 40s when first taking the office.

2 where in their 30s.

The median age on entering the office is 53. Mere babes.

it’s distraction

She’ll become PM and form her own version of ICE

Witty Rejoinder said:

roughbarked said:

dv said:

I can honestly say that my concerns about a potential PM Hanson do not relate to her age or any decline in faculties. She’ll be 74, or well nigh, at the time of the next election.

It’s kind of remarkable how consistently young Australian PMs have been, though.
The oldest PM when first sworn in was McEwen, who was 67 but he was only briefly in the position following the disappearance of Holt while the Libs chose a leader. Excluding temps, the oldest was McMahon, who was 63.

The oldest someone has been while in office was Menzies, who was 71 at the end of his final term.

Of our 31 PMs, 7 were in their 40s when first taking the office.

2 where in their 30s.

The median age on entering the office is 53. Mere babes.

Old or not, lead? um nah.

Her Svengali James Ashby is possibly now one of the most consequential individuals in Australian politics. I wonder how much sway he has over Barnaby.

I’m pretty sure Trilby will never be PM

dv said:

I can honestly say that my concerns about a potential PM Hanson do not relate to her age or any decline in faculties. She’ll be 74, or well nigh, at the time of the next election.

It’s kind of remarkable how consistently young Australian PMs have been, though.
The oldest PM when first sworn in was McEwen, who was 67 but he was only briefly in the position following the disappearance of Holt while the Libs chose a leader. Excluding temps, the oldest was McMahon, who was 63.

The oldest someone has been while in office was Menzies, who was 71 at the end of his final term.

Of our 31 PMs, 7 were in their 40s when first taking the office.

2 where in their 30s.

The median age on entering the office is 53. Mere babes.

But, can she be PM whilst in the Senate?

while the fascists are getting air time

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-02/minimum-wage-increase-june-2026-australia/106746542

nobody will thank the workers’ parties

LOL

Peak Warming Man said:

LOL

I did feel bad for him after Rudd threw him under the bus.

Michael V said:

dv said:

I can honestly say that my concerns about a potential PM Hanson do not relate to her age or any decline in faculties. She’ll be 74, or well nigh, at the time of the next election.

It’s kind of remarkable how consistently young Australian PMs have been, though.
The oldest PM when first sworn in was McEwen, who was 67 but he was only briefly in the position following the disappearance of Holt while the Libs chose a leader. Excluding temps, the oldest was McMahon, who was 63.

The oldest someone has been while in office was Menzies, who was 71 at the end of his final term.

Of our 31 PMs, 7 were in their 40s when first taking the office.

2 where in their 30s.

The median age on entering the office is 53. Mere babes.

But, can she be PM whilst in the Senate?

She can become PM while in the Senate, as Gorton did, but she would have a limited time to secure a House seat. A resignation and by election would need to be held.

dv said:

Peak Warming Man said:

LOL

I did feel bad for him after Rudd threw him under the bus.

What a mess the AUKUS pact is
Seems Australia loses out no matter what
Should demand the US pays us the payment for compensation we sent France.

dv said:

Michael V said:

dv said:

I can honestly say that my concerns about a potential PM Hanson do not relate to her age or any decline in faculties. She’ll be 74, or well nigh, at the time of the next election.

It’s kind of remarkable how consistently young Australian PMs have been, though.
The oldest PM when first sworn in was McEwen, who was 67 but he was only briefly in the position following the disappearance of Holt while the Libs chose a leader. Excluding temps, the oldest was McMahon, who was 63.

The oldest someone has been while in office was Menzies, who was 71 at the end of his final term.

Of our 31 PMs, 7 were in their 40s when first taking the office.

2 where in their 30s.

The median age on entering the office is 53. Mere babes.

But, can she be PM whilst in the Senate?

She can become PM while in the Senate, as Gorton did, but she would have a limited time to secure a House seat. A resignation and by election would need to be held.

Would she don a Kylo Ren type mask I wonder

dv said:

Michael V said:

dv said:

I can honestly say that my concerns about a potential PM Hanson do not relate to her age or any decline in faculties. She’ll be 74, or well nigh, at the time of the next election.

It’s kind of remarkable how consistently young Australian PMs have been, though.
The oldest PM when first sworn in was McEwen, who was 67 but he was only briefly in the position following the disappearance of Holt while the Libs chose a leader. Excluding temps, the oldest was McMahon, who was 63.

The oldest someone has been while in office was Menzies, who was 71 at the end of his final term.

Of our 31 PMs, 7 were in their 40s when first taking the office.

2 where in their 30s.

The median age on entering the office is 53. Mere babes.

But, can she be PM whilst in the Senate?

She can become PM while in the Senate, as Gorton did, but she would have a limited time to secure a House seat. A resignation and by election would need to be held.

That could escalate to party infighting quickly. Asking a brand new shiny HOR MP to go away could be fraught.

Michael V said:

dv said:

Michael V said:

But, can she be PM whilst in the Senate?

She can become PM while in the Senate, as Gorton did, but she would have a limited time to secure a House seat. A resignation and by election would need to be held.

That could escalate to party infighting quickly. Asking a brand new shiny HOR MP to go away could be fraught.

They could arrange a straight swap. The displaced person can be PH’s replacement in the Senate.

dv said:

Michael V said:

dv said:

She can become PM while in the Senate, as Gorton did, but she would have a limited time to secure a House seat. A resignation and by election would need to be held.

That could escalate to party infighting quickly. Asking a brand new shiny HOR MP to go away could be fraught.

They could arrange a straight swap. The displaced person can be PH’s replacement in the Senate.

Let’s hope this nightmare never comes to pass, regardless of the details.

Bubblecar said:

dv said:

Michael V said:

That could escalate to party infighting quickly. Asking a brand new shiny HOR MP to go away could be fraught.

They could arrange a straight swap. The displaced person can be PH’s replacement in the Senate.

Let’s hope this nightmare never comes to pass, regardless of the details.

Life just needs to become harder and more difficult regardless of why and it could easily happen.
People will repeat history and blame the marginalised for the hardships and a politician who promotes fascism could easily become a leader.

Bubblecar said:

dv said:

Michael V said:

That could escalate to party infighting quickly. Asking a brand new shiny HOR MP to go away could be fraught.

They could arrange a straight swap. The displaced person can be PH’s replacement in the Senate.

Let’s hope this nightmare never comes to pass, regardless of the details.

Quite.

dv said:

Michael V said:

dv said:

She can become PM while in the Senate, as Gorton did, but she would have a limited time to secure a House seat. A resignation and by election would need to be held.

That could escalate to party infighting quickly. Asking a brand new shiny HOR MP to go away could be fraught.

They could arrange a straight swap. The displaced person can be PH’s replacement in the Senate.

I thought that that might be possible.

I’m not sure I could cope with the notion of PH running the country.

Pauline Hanson is coming for abortions

I have been watching the language creep from the US.

Most concerning.

Cymek said:

SCIENCE said:

dv said:

I can honestly say that my concerns about a potential PM Hanson do not relate to her age or any decline in faculties. She’ll be 74, or well nigh, at the time of the next election.

It’s kind of remarkable how consistently young Australian PMs have been, though.
The oldest PM when first sworn in was McEwen, who was 67 but he was only briefly in the position following the disappearance of Holt while the Libs chose a leader. Excluding temps, the oldest was McMahon, who was 63.

The oldest someone has been while in office was Menzies, who was 71 at the end of his final term.

Of our 31 PMs, 7 were in their 40s when first taking the office.

2 where in their 30s.

The median age on entering the office is 53. Mere babes.

it’s distraction

She’ll become PM and form her own version of ICE

I think when you read the “Royal Commission on Aboriginal Deaths in Custody,” we have an ICE. We always have had an ICE operating in Australia.

ms spock said:

Cymek said:

SCIENCE said:

it’s distraction

She’ll become PM and form her own version of ICE

I think when you read the “Royal Commission on Aboriginal Deaths in Custody,” we have an ICE. We always have had an ICE operating in Australia.

What’s really scary is you have every day citizens who would willingly join our version of ICE just to have immunity from murdering people deemed unworthy of living here.

dv said:

Michael V said:

dv said:

She can become PM while in the Senate, as Gorton did, but she would have a limited time to secure a House seat. A resignation and by election would need to be held.

That could escalate to party infighting quickly. Asking a brand new shiny HOR MP to go away could be fraught.

They could arrange a straight swap. The displaced person can be PH’s replacement in the Senate.

Can that be done though?

Cymek said:

ms spock said:

Cymek said:

She’ll become PM and form her own version of ICE

I think when you read the “Royal Commission on Aboriginal Deaths in Custody,” we have an ICE. We always have had an ICE operating in Australia.

What’s really scary is you have every day citizens who would willingly join our version of ICE just to have immunity from murdering people deemed unworthy of living here.

That is scary Cymek.

Every day citizens who have their amygdalas hijacked by algorithms are scary indeed.

buffy said:

dv said:

Michael V said:

That could escalate to party infighting quickly. Asking a brand new shiny HOR MP to go away could be fraught.

They could arrange a straight swap. The displaced person can be PH’s replacement in the Senate.

Can that be done though?

Sort of. PH resigns senate. New MP resigns HOR. By-election held. PH wins. Appoints former HOR MP to Senate, to replace the PHON resignation (PH).

Michael V said:

dv said:

Michael V said:

That could escalate to party infighting quickly. Asking a brand new shiny HOR MP to go away could be fraught.

They could arrange a straight swap. The displaced person can be PH’s replacement in the Senate.

I thought that that might be possible.

I’m not sure I could cope with the notion of PH running the country.

Hand on heart I don’t think that’s going to happen.

dv said:

Michael V said:

dv said:

They could arrange a straight swap. The displaced person can be PH’s replacement in the Senate.

I thought that that might be possible.

I’m not sure I could cope with the notion of PH running the country.

Hand on heart I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Mrs rb doesn’t want to know about Pauline Hanson.

The Hormuz crisis is bigger than fuel prices — here’s what’s actually coming for Australian households in the next six months.

Most coverage of the Strait of Hormuz crisis has focused on petrol prices. That’s understandable — it’s visible, immediate, and hits every household directly. But the fuel story is actually the easiest part of what’s coming. The harder parts are slower, less visible, and will hit Australian households harder and for longer.

Here’s what the research and mainstream reporting actually shows, broken down by category.

Fuel — already here, partially managed and visible

Australia has tapped its strategic reserves and halved the fuel excise for three months. The government has confirmed some shipments were cancelled or deferred — Energy Minister Chris Bowen confirmed six ships carrying fuel bound for Australia were affected by late March. The government position is that supplies remain adequate for now. The three-month excise cut expires at the end of June.

Sources: NRMA fuel tracker (updated regularly) — mynrma.com.au | ABC ministerial interview — ministers.dfat.gov.au

Fertiliser — the crisis most people haven’t noticed yet

This is where it gets interesting. Australia is entirely reliant on overseas supply for urea, one of the most critical inputs for cropping. Around two-thirds of our nitrogen fertiliser imports come from the Middle East. Even alternative supplies from Asia partially depend on Middle Eastern ammonia and gas.

Commonwealth Bank’s agribusiness team published an analysis on April 29 that is worth reading in full. The key line: urea prices have effectively doubled since the start of the conflict, and availability is now becoming as much of an issue as price. Farmers gearing up for winter planting are being forced to ration fertiliser applications. CBA economists estimate that in severe scenarios, 2026-27 agricultural output could fall by 25-30%.

50% of Australian vegetable growers are already reporting looming fertiliser shortages. AUSVEG’s chief executive warned: “Access to reliable fertiliser supply is crucial to ensuring Australian vegetable growers can continue supplying Australian families with food.”

The government has secured a major fertiliser delivery and says supplies are adequate for the coming months. But winter crop planting decisions are being made right now, under uncertainty, with reduced inputs. Those decisions will determine what’s on supermarket shelves by spring.

Sources: Commonwealth Bank Newsroom, April 2026 — commbank.com.au | SBS News, April 2026 — sbs.com.au | ASPI Strategist, March 2026 — aspistrategist.org.au

More – https://www.reddit.com/r/OZPreppers/comments/1tuddr8/the_hormuz_crisis_is_bigger_than_fuel_prices/

Spiny Norman said:

The Hormuz crisis is bigger than fuel prices — here’s what’s actually coming for Australian households in the next six months.

Most coverage of the Strait of Hormuz crisis has focused on petrol prices. That’s understandable — it’s visible, immediate, and hits every household directly. But the fuel story is actually the easiest part of what’s coming. The harder parts are slower, less visible, and will hit Australian households harder and for longer.

Here’s what the research and mainstream reporting actually shows, broken down by category.

Fuel — already here, partially managed and visible

Australia has tapped its strategic reserves and halved the fuel excise for three months. The government has confirmed some shipments were cancelled or deferred — Energy Minister Chris Bowen confirmed six ships carrying fuel bound for Australia were affected by late March. The government position is that supplies remain adequate for now. The three-month excise cut expires at the end of June.

Sources: NRMA fuel tracker (updated regularly) — mynrma.com.au | ABC ministerial interview — ministers.dfat.gov.au

Fertiliser — the crisis most people haven’t noticed yet

This is where it gets interesting. Australia is entirely reliant on overseas supply for urea, one of the most critical inputs for cropping. Around two-thirds of our nitrogen fertiliser imports come from the Middle East. Even alternative supplies from Asia partially depend on Middle Eastern ammonia and gas.

Commonwealth Bank’s agribusiness team published an analysis on April 29 that is worth reading in full. The key line: urea prices have effectively doubled since the start of the conflict, and availability is now becoming as much of an issue as price. Farmers gearing up for winter planting are being forced to ration fertiliser applications. CBA economists estimate that in severe scenarios, 2026-27 agricultural output could fall by 25-30%.

50% of Australian vegetable growers are already reporting looming fertiliser shortages. AUSVEG’s chief executive warned: “Access to reliable fertiliser supply is crucial to ensuring Australian vegetable growers can continue supplying Australian families with food.”

The government has secured a major fertiliser delivery and says supplies are adequate for the coming months. But winter crop planting decisions are being made right now, under uncertainty, with reduced inputs. Those decisions will determine what’s on supermarket shelves by spring.

Sources: Commonwealth Bank Newsroom, April 2026 — commbank.com.au | SBS News, April 2026 — sbs.com.au | ASPI Strategist, March 2026 — aspistrategist.org.au

More – https://www.reddit.com/r/OZPreppers/comments/1tuddr8/the_hormuz_crisis_is_bigger_than_fuel_prices/

We could try making our own urea.

An attempt by state MP Robbie Katter to dodge a parliamentary ban on abortion debate has been defeated by 85 votes to 2, with the two votes coming from two KAP MPs. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-02/katters-australian-party-abortion-drug-debate-crisafulli/106750096

roughbarked said:

Spiny Norman said:

The Hormuz crisis is bigger than fuel prices — here’s what’s actually coming for Australian households in the next six months.

Most coverage of the Strait of Hormuz crisis has focused on petrol prices. That’s understandable — it’s visible, immediate, and hits every household directly. But the fuel story is actually the easiest part of what’s coming. The harder parts are slower, less visible, and will hit Australian households harder and for longer.

Here’s what the research and mainstream reporting actually shows, broken down by category.

Fuel — already here, partially managed and visible

Australia has tapped its strategic reserves and halved the fuel excise for three months. The government has confirmed some shipments were cancelled or deferred — Energy Minister Chris Bowen confirmed six ships carrying fuel bound for Australia were affected by late March. The government position is that supplies remain adequate for now. The three-month excise cut expires at the end of June.

Sources: NRMA fuel tracker (updated regularly) — mynrma.com.au | ABC ministerial interview — ministers.dfat.gov.au

Fertiliser — the crisis most people haven’t noticed yet

This is where it gets interesting. Australia is entirely reliant on overseas supply for urea, one of the most critical inputs for cropping. Around two-thirds of our nitrogen fertiliser imports come from the Middle East. Even alternative supplies from Asia partially depend on Middle Eastern ammonia and gas.

Commonwealth Bank’s agribusiness team published an analysis on April 29 that is worth reading in full. The key line: urea prices have effectively doubled since the start of the conflict, and availability is now becoming as much of an issue as price. Farmers gearing up for winter planting are being forced to ration fertiliser applications. CBA economists estimate that in severe scenarios, 2026-27 agricultural output could fall by 25-30%.

50% of Australian vegetable growers are already reporting looming fertiliser shortages. AUSVEG’s chief executive warned: “Access to reliable fertiliser supply is crucial to ensuring Australian vegetable growers can continue supplying Australian families with food.”

The government has secured a major fertiliser delivery and says supplies are adequate for the coming months. But winter crop planting decisions are being made right now, under uncertainty, with reduced inputs. Those decisions will determine what’s on supermarket shelves by spring.

Sources: Commonwealth Bank Newsroom, April 2026 — commbank.com.au | SBS News, April 2026 — sbs.com.au | ASPI Strategist, March 2026 — aspistrategist.org.au

More – https://www.reddit.com/r/OZPreppers/comments/1tuddr8/the_hormuz_crisis_is_bigger_than_fuel_prices/

We could try making our own urea.

There is such as plant under construction in the Burrup in WA. Due for completion in early 2027 and hopefully full production by the middle of the the year.

It’s on the way.

ah well we remember when virtually all chemical shortage problems can be solved as energy problems so if we’d gone overcapacity renewable earlier this wouldn’t even be an issue worth mentioning

Read this a week or so ago. What is “utility scale quantum computing project” code for?

“City of Moreton Bay will become home to PsiQuantum’s Australian utility-scale quantum computing project, positioning the city at the forefront of advanced technology, research and future industries.

PsiQuantum will establish its Asia-Pacific headquarters, and build its utility-scale quantum computer, at Moreton Bay Central in Petrie, anchoring the company at one of Queensland’s emerging hubs for advanced manufacturing, technology, and education.”

https://www.moretonbay.qld.gov.au/News/Media/City-of-Moreton-Bay-welcomes-utility-scale-quantum-computing-project

Divine Angel said:

Read this a week or so ago. What is “utility scale quantum computing project” code for?

“City of Moreton Bay will become home to PsiQuantum’s Australian utility-scale quantum computing project, positioning the city at the forefront of advanced technology, research and future industries.

PsiQuantum will establish its Asia-Pacific headquarters, and build its utility-scale quantum computer, at Moreton Bay Central in Petrie, anchoring the company at one of Queensland’s emerging hubs for advanced manufacturing, technology, and education.”

https://www.moretonbay.qld.gov.au/News/Media/City-of-Moreton-Bay-welcomes-utility-scale-quantum-computing-project

$$$

roughbarked said:

Spiny Norman said:

The Hormuz crisis is bigger than fuel prices — here’s what’s actually coming for Australian households in the next six months.

Most coverage of the Strait of Hormuz crisis has focused on petrol prices. That’s understandable — it’s visible, immediate, and hits every household directly. But the fuel story is actually the easiest part of what’s coming. The harder parts are slower, less visible, and will hit Australian households harder and for longer.

Here’s what the research and mainstream reporting actually shows, broken down by category.

Fuel — already here, partially managed and visible

Australia has tapped its strategic reserves and halved the fuel excise for three months. The government has confirmed some shipments were cancelled or deferred — Energy Minister Chris Bowen confirmed six ships carrying fuel bound for Australia were affected by late March. The government position is that supplies remain adequate for now. The three-month excise cut expires at the end of June.

Sources: NRMA fuel tracker (updated regularly) — mynrma.com.au | ABC ministerial interview — ministers.dfat.gov.au

Fertiliser — the crisis most people haven’t noticed yet

This is where it gets interesting. Australia is entirely reliant on overseas supply for urea, one of the most critical inputs for cropping. Around two-thirds of our nitrogen fertiliser imports come from the Middle East. Even alternative supplies from Asia partially depend on Middle Eastern ammonia and gas.

Commonwealth Bank’s agribusiness team published an analysis on April 29 that is worth reading in full. The key line: urea prices have effectively doubled since the start of the conflict, and availability is now becoming as much of an issue as price. Farmers gearing up for winter planting are being forced to ration fertiliser applications. CBA economists estimate that in severe scenarios, 2026-27 agricultural output could fall by 25-30%.

50% of Australian vegetable growers are already reporting looming fertiliser shortages. AUSVEG’s chief executive warned: “Access to reliable fertiliser supply is crucial to ensuring Australian vegetable growers can continue supplying Australian families with food.”

The government has secured a major fertiliser delivery and says supplies are adequate for the coming months. But winter crop planting decisions are being made right now, under uncertainty, with reduced inputs. Those decisions will determine what’s on supermarket shelves by spring.

Sources: Commonwealth Bank Newsroom, April 2026 — commbank.com.au | SBS News, April 2026 — sbs.com.au | ASPI Strategist, March 2026 — aspistrategist.org.au

More – https://www.reddit.com/r/OZPreppers/comments/1tuddr8/the_hormuz_crisis_is_bigger_than_fuel_prices/

We could try making our own urea.

Under the ‘orse pisses

SCIENCE said:

ah well we remember when virtually all chemical shortage problems can be solved as energy problems so if we’d gone overcapacity renewable earlier this wouldn’t even be an issue worth mentioning

all true.

dv said:

roughbarked said:

Spiny Norman said:

The Hormuz crisis is bigger than fuel prices — here’s what’s actually coming for Australian households in the next six months.

Most coverage of the Strait of Hormuz crisis has focused on petrol prices. That’s understandable — it’s visible, immediate, and hits every household directly. But the fuel story is actually the easiest part of what’s coming. The harder parts are slower, less visible, and will hit Australian households harder and for longer.

Here’s what the research and mainstream reporting actually shows, broken down by category.

Fuel — already here, partially managed and visible

Australia has tapped its strategic reserves and halved the fuel excise for three months. The government has confirmed some shipments were cancelled or deferred — Energy Minister Chris Bowen confirmed six ships carrying fuel bound for Australia were affected by late March. The government position is that supplies remain adequate for now. The three-month excise cut expires at the end of June.

Sources: NRMA fuel tracker (updated regularly) — mynrma.com.au | ABC ministerial interview — ministers.dfat.gov.au

Fertiliser — the crisis most people haven’t noticed yet

This is where it gets interesting. Australia is entirely reliant on overseas supply for urea, one of the most critical inputs for cropping. Around two-thirds of our nitrogen fertiliser imports come from the Middle East. Even alternative supplies from Asia partially depend on Middle Eastern ammonia and gas.

Commonwealth Bank’s agribusiness team published an analysis on April 29 that is worth reading in full. The key line: urea prices have effectively doubled since the start of the conflict, and availability is now becoming as much of an issue as price. Farmers gearing up for winter planting are being forced to ration fertiliser applications. CBA economists estimate that in severe scenarios, 2026-27 agricultural output could fall by 25-30%.

50% of Australian vegetable growers are already reporting looming fertiliser shortages. AUSVEG’s chief executive warned: “Access to reliable fertiliser supply is crucial to ensuring Australian vegetable growers can continue supplying Australian families with food.”

The government has secured a major fertiliser delivery and says supplies are adequate for the coming months. But winter crop planting decisions are being made right now, under uncertainty, with reduced inputs. Those decisions will determine what’s on supermarket shelves by spring.

Sources: Commonwealth Bank Newsroom, April 2026 — commbank.com.au | SBS News, April 2026 — sbs.com.au | ASPI Strategist, March 2026 — aspistrategist.org.au

More – https://www.reddit.com/r/OZPreppers/comments/1tuddr8/the_hormuz_crisis_is_bigger_than_fuel_prices/

We could try making our own urea.

Under the ‘orse pisses

Well we have a lot of cows and they piss a lot.

Nine months out from the New South Wales state election campaign, One Nation recruit Barnaby Joyce has appeared in Sydney, declaring politicians are fearful of losing their jobs.

The New England MP was the headline act at a demonstration in front of state parliament on Tuesday evening, which demanded tighter controls on abortion.

“I don’t know much about lots, but I know lots about politics,” Mr Joyce said.

“And the one thing politicians fear is losing their job.

“What I see before me here is about 1,500 people who can hand out how-to-vote cards.”“https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-03/one-nation-barnaby-joyce-sydney-abortion-demonstration/106752420

Not really politics but im sure the no-brain parties will have something to say about it.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-04/ahmed-al-ahmed-bondi-hero-assault-charge/106761238

Bondi Beach terror attack hero Ahmed Al Ahmed has been charged with assault.
Mr Ahmed was charged with domestic violence common assault and stalking and intimidating after an incident in Bankstown in March.
What’s next?
Mr Ahmed is due to appear in Bankstown Local Court on June 29.

It appears he attacked his father.

Divine Angel said:

Not really politics but im sure the no-brain parties will have something to say about it.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-04/ahmed-al-ahmed-bondi-hero-assault-charge/106761238

Bondi Beach terror attack hero Ahmed Al Ahmed has been charged with assault.
Mr Ahmed was charged with domestic violence common assault and stalking and intimidating after an incident in Bankstown in March.
What’s next?
Mr Ahmed is due to appear in Bankstown Local Court on June 29.

It appears he attacked his father.

Did he creep up on him?

Michael West and Australian journalis+

should have poisoned it with one of those tracking devices then eh

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-05/nsw-historian-pleas-for-camden-valley-way-milestone-return/106734730

SCIENCE said:

should have poisoned it with one of those tracking devices then eh

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-05/nsw-historian-pleas-for-camden-valley-way-milestone-return/106734730

Cripes, haven’t seen those things for years! I remember that Penrith – Sydney one.

Divine Angel said:

SCIENCE said:

should have poisoned it with one of those tracking devices then eh

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-05/nsw-historian-pleas-for-camden-valley-way-milestone-return/106734730

Cripes, haven’t seen those things for years! I remember that Penrith – Sydney one.

Heck. It was a concrete one. The real old ones were wood.

roughbarked said:

Divine Angel said:

SCIENCE said:

should have poisoned it with one of those tracking devices then eh

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-05/nsw-historian-pleas-for-camden-valley-way-milestone-return/106734730

Cripes, haven’t seen those things for years! I remember that Penrith – Sydney one.

Heck. It was a concrete one. The real old ones were wood.

luxury, back when we had to mark roads before the origin of life we only had primordial soup to work with

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

Divine Angel said:

Cripes, haven’t seen those things for years! I remember that Penrith – Sydney one.

Heck. It was a concrete one. The real old ones were wood.

luxury, back when we had to mark roads before the origin of life we only had primordial soup to work with

We didn’t even have roads.

roughbarked said:

Divine Angel said:

SCIENCE said:

should have poisoned it with one of those tracking devices then eh

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-05/nsw-historian-pleas-for-camden-valley-way-milestone-return/106734730

Cripes, haven’t seen those things for years! I remember that Penrith – Sydney one.

Heck. It was a concrete one. The real old ones were wood.

There was one in Western Sydney that was sandstone, with Roman Numerals on it IIRC.

Michael V said:

roughbarked said:

Divine Angel said:

Cripes, haven’t seen those things for years! I remember that Penrith – Sydney one.

Heck. It was a concrete one. The real old ones were wood.

There was one in Western Sydney that was sandstone, with Roman Numerals on it IIRC.

what have the romans ever done for us?

JudgeMental said:

Michael V said:

roughbarked said:

Heck. It was a concrete one. The real old ones were wood.

There was one in Western Sydney that was sandstone, with Roman Numerals on it IIRC.

what have the romans ever done for us?

Allowed some people to have salaries.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jun/05/barnaby-joyce-sky-news-interview-one-nation-housing-policy-backflip

dv said:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jun/05/barnaby-joyce-sky-news-interview-one-nation-housing-policy-backflip

One Nation moving into disaster mode sounds very watchable to me.

The Rev Dodgson said:

dv said:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jun/05/barnaby-joyce-sky-news-interview-one-nation-housing-policy-backflip

One Nation moving into disaster mode sounds very watchable to me.

isn’t that how all these populists make policies though, just flop around saying random shit and see what the pollster response is, hence the fucking manipulation media and all their a-b testing

Rich mates, secret mansions: Australia’s millionaire Nazi-backers revealed
Wealthy backers are helping Australia’s neo-Nazis plot their next move into politics from a secret multimillion-dollar compound. We tracked it down – along with Thomas Sewell’s rich mates.

Sherryn Groch
June 3, 2026

You can’t see the mansion – or its pool – from the road. But locals in this leafy corner of Melbourne’s north-east have seen the man who lives here in town.

Some will yell at him; a few want to shake his hand. The face of the bald, mustachioed leader of Australia’s largest neo-Nazi group is known not just here but around the world, after all.

What locals don’t know is that, since being released on bail last year on assault charges, neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell has been secretly living among them at this sprawling $2.5 million estate.

Sewell’s name doesn’t appear on the official paperwork – it was bought using a shell company by the heir of a Melbourne trucking empire.

It’s just one in a web of assets this masthead has discovered held by rich associates and less prominent members of Sewell’s now-outlawed neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Network (NSN).

For the first time, an investigation by this masthead can unmask the wealthy backers behind Australia’s neo-Nazis as they mount a costly High Court challenge to new hate speech laws – and plot their next move into politics.

Among Sewell’s rich associates are a race-car driver turned failed political candidate who owns a fleet of planes; the son of a gun dealer and inventor in regional Victoria; a jet-setting “manfluencer” friend of Andrew Tate who sells penis supplements to teenagers; a property development heir turned provocateur, and a stockbroker mixing with MAGA influencers overseas.

Sewell has recently bragged to followers on livestreams of his plans to build a function centre on the property he said “an investor” had “gifted” his group last year – which this masthead has now tracked down through open-source intelligence and property records.

International extremism expert Matt Kriner, who recently assessed the NSN for the Albanese government, says the assets and connections uncovered by this masthead suggest Australia’s neo-Nazis have entered a dangerous new phase. “Historically, when fascist movements start to sequester themselves in compounds, particularly those that have already shown a fascination with violence, terrorists and weapons like the NSN, that makes them very dangerous,” Kriner said.

He and other far-right researchers say authorities should now target the group the same way they had organised crime syndicates: “By following the money.”

Sewell’s new home – described by one gushing realtor as a mountain chalet – boasts more than 10 bedrooms, as well as a gym and pool on a 19-acre block. Up a long snaking drive, the main house is screened from the road by thick bush and security fences, but enjoys soaring hilltop views of Melbourne.

The NSN has long been trying to acquire land to build “white homestead” compounds from which to grow a racist ethno-state. Two sources close to the group, speaking anonymously for safety reasons, said other neo-Nazis were living at the estate with Sewell and his family. This masthead separately connected several men associated with the NSN to the address.

While on bail, Sewell is barred from associating with about a dozen neo-Nazis charged over a violent attack that Sewell allegedly led on an Indigenous camp last year. But his living arrangements with others in the group do not appear to have drawn scrutiny from authorities.

In outlawing the NSN as a hate group on May 15, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke noted that they had continued to operate in the shadows, “phoenixing” under new names and forms rather than disbanding as they claimed.

Documents recently filed in the High Court by Sewell in his fight to overturn the new laws confirm that the NSN never dissolved its political party wing, “White Australia”, of which Sewell remains president. And records filed by White Australia list the mansion – Sewell’s home – as their new headquarters.

The mansion and the mystery investor
In late January, when Sewell told the public his NSN was disbanding, more than 100 of his followers descended on a Melbourne oval for their last official training session.

Among the sea of swastika tattoos and mullets gathered around Sewell that afternoon, this masthead identified a scattering of millionaires.

One of them, photographed wearing the distinctive white wristband denoting long-term membership of the NSN, was Sewell’s mystery “investor”: Martin Featherstone.

Featherstone, 45, has inherited his family’s trucking company wealth and owns millions of dollars in property in the state’s north-east, including another $3.5 million mansion just minutes down the road from the compound where Sewell is living.

The private school-educated Featherstone describes himself as a “white nationalist” and “racist” online, and has been pictured marching alongside neo-Nazis at recent rallies.

For more than a decade he helped manage his family’s multimillion-dollar logistics company. But Featherstone no longer appears to be working. “I’m in a privileged position,” he wrote in April on X of his decision to continue “speaking out” for the NSN when other neo-Nazis had lost their jobs after being unmasked. “I can’t be fired or ‘cancelled’. I choose not to be anonymous to (hopefully) lend some weight of authenticity.”

The hunt for Sewell’s compound began late last year, when NSN leadership announced to the group that “someone has bought us a place in Victoria”, according to two sources familiar with the discussion. “It’s a momentous moment for the org,” neo-Nazis Joel Davis and Jack Eltis told recruits.

Soon after, Sewell spoke on a livestream about a property “the org had been gifted” where he was now living, about 40 minutes from the city, as well as his plans to acquire a pub through another cleanskin “investor”.

Real estate sales, and a recent tip-off, pointed to a mansion acquired by a shell company in 2025. That company is jointly owned by Featherstone and his elderly mother. Sewell and his associates have since been spotted in the neighbourhood. Some left a digital trail too, even reviewing nearby restaurants. Documents obtained last month confirmed the address as White Australia’s HQ.

This masthead does not suggest Featherstone’s mother is aware of how the property is being used or holds neo-Nazi views herself. Featherstone did not respond to questions before deadline.

The mansion, with its separate living quarters, is intended to operate as a central hub for the neo-Nazi group, according to insiders, with fight training and education. It will be modelled on American “white homestead” enclaves, including those run by the fascist group Patriot Front, whose members the NSN have hosted in Australia.

Priority boarding has been given to men with families, as younger recruits are placed in sharehouses rented by the group elsewhere through “friends of the org”. One member has even been allowed to bring his dog to the compound “for security”, though Sewell dislikes pets.

“Our first investment has been housing,” Sewell said in December of the NSN and the “significant money” from “big investors” he claimed it had begun to attract, laughing at media theories that he had “been living out of a caravan”. “We’re being looked after,” he said. “I’m sure there’ll be a different type of smear coming out in the next couple months years about where I’m living now.”

Soon, Sewell promised, the group would have even more “protected rentals” like this, owned by members and associates, to house its “warriors”.

Featherstone is certainly a sympathetic landlord. He frequently espouses extreme views online – from nuking Israel and “stomping out” people of colour to executing “traitors” and “putting parliaments to the sword”. In secret NSN chats leaked to this masthead, Featherstone also joined in the neo-Nazi group’s violent discussions, including about running over Indian people with cars.

When asked for a response to this story, Sewell did not deny his plans for the compound but reiterated claims that the media and government were behaving “immorally” ahead of his High Court showdown.

“It is obvious your network of traitors are nervous about the potential fallout from a High Court decision to challenge the hate speech legislation and are therefore engaging in a smear campaign to cover your tracks.”

Former AFP counter-terrorism detective John Coyne, who once infiltrated white supremacist compounds himself, says that Sewell’s new headquarters calls to mind the strongholds of American neo-Nazis. That includes terror cell The Order as well as the Ku Klux Klan at its height – two groups openly lionised by the NSN.

“Of course, one man’s secret military compound is another’s house in the ’burbs,” Coyne said. But the possibility of guns on the Melbourne property was particularly worthy of investigation, he added.

Sewell has previously spoken online of needing to put guns “in other people’s names” and the difficulties of being unable to own many assets, given he is blacklisted by most banks for his neo-Nazi activity.

The government’s crackdown on the NSN was designed to “choke the fire of oxygen”, Coyne said. But instead, beneath all that smoke, the group has been revealed to have “a far bigger ecosystem than we’d have expected”. “What you’ve found shows there’s a network of people with dirty secrets.”

Wealthy associates
Indeed, Featherstone is not the only wealthy figure this masthead has identified in the orbit of the country’s most notorious neo-Nazi.

In August, when Sewell led the March for Australia anti-immigration rally in Melbourne and addressed a crowd of thousands from the steps of Parliament House, many of his rich friends were there with him.

To one side, in an oversized peacoat and sunglasses, was Hugo Lennon, the Scotch College graduate and scion of one of Australia’s wealthiest property development families turned far-right influencer. Lennon had helped Sewell organise the rallies around the country, playing the “concerned centrist” publicly while taking part in secret NSN chats and planning online, as revealed last year.

Beside him was another key March organiser, who can now be unmasked as wealthy race car driver and pilot Yassin Albarri.

The 26-year-old owns a cargo airline which claims to have its own fleet of planes, and in 2022 ran as a Victorian candidate for Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party (UAP).

Corporate records reveal Albarri has now started a company with one of the NSN’s most ardent members, Jake Crockett. Crockett is himself facing charges for the NSN attack on an Indigenous camp that followed that August march, as the rally descended into violence across Melbourne.

Albarri has been frequently identified and photographed mixing with neo-Nazis at rallies the NSN has helped organise since, including a former member of the terrorist group Combat 18. He has served as the rallies’ police liaison and, behind the scenes, pictures place him at meetings hosted by senior NSN figures.

During Albarri’s federal election campaign he worked with neo-Nazi associates such as Stu von Moger, who were then helping run security for the UAP.

But he’s also close with members of the Liberal Party, frequently pictured with party organisers and volunteers on social media, dining in members’ rooms and VIP boxes.

Albarri started a company called Rosetta Entertainment in September last year with the NSN’s Crockett as a co-founder and part-owner. Albarri did not respond to questions about the nature of the business or his dealings with the NSN before deadline. But it is not suggested he was a member of the group himself.

Then there is the man in the white hat.

Introducing Sewell to the rally crowd that day in August, from a podium built by the neo-Nazis especially for the occasion, was a red-haired figure with a striking hat – and moustache.

The same man, who was later filmed helping Sewell coordinate the March, also appeared in pictures released by the neo-Nazi group months earlier of its hiking trips, and would be seen with march organisers such as Albarri at other NSN-organised rallies. In footage of a neo-Nazi protest on Australia Day 2025 the same man appears, in the same white hat, shaking hands with white supremacists such as Blair Cottrell. A year on, he was also photographed at the NSN’s final training – only this time he was clad all in black.

This masthead, along with researchers at the anti-fascist White Rose Society, have now identified him as David Roberts, the son of a gun dealer, pilot and inventor. His family hold considerable property and wealth in regional Victoria, including their own airplanes and a 300-acre estate, and have obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal government grants in recent years as they expand their aviation business. It is not suggested his family hold neo-Nazi views themselves.

Neo-Nazis, such as the former dentist Ian Lomax, have also appeared alongside Roberts in recent pictures from the axe-throwing association where he serves as secretary. Roberts has been contacted for comment.

Ferraris for the Fuhrer
Sewell’s rich associates bring more than just money. Among his entourage at the marches in August were an array of far-right influencers – all streaming to their hundreds of thousands of followers.

Concealed behind racing sunglasses was “Sir Doug” as he is known online – Lennon’s long-time collaborator – who has now been identified as Melbourne stockbroker Mitchell Hobbs.

Hobbs was also photographed at the neo-Nazis’ training session in January.

He and Lennon recently toured the US together for the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas, mixing with everyone from Trump MAGA acolytes to a former leader of extremist group The Proud Boys.

Instagram reels show the young Australians driving flash cars, partying on rooftops and holding guns. Pictured alongside them is North American “looksmaxxer” Jack Gordon, who runs his own neo-Nazi bookstore advocating “accelerationism” – the neo-Nazi goal of speeding up societal collapse to start a race war.

This masthead recently revealed the extent of the NSN’s entanglement with terrorists and accelerationist groups overseas, some of whom have trained its members and given it money. The investigation also uncovered a secret chatroom run by neo-Nazis and March for Australia organisers – including Lennon – where an alleged $10,000 plot to kidnap Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had led to multiple police raids.

Lennon has always said he does not advocate violence nor take part in threats online but has refused to distance himself from the NSN. Hobbs has been contacted for comment.

In Lennon’s recent travels across the US, the 20-something influencer has been spruiking Sewell to America’s conservative establishment, speaking at conferences of the NSN leader as “a household name … at the forefront” of Australian politics.

International far-right groups, in part, helped Sewell raise a war chest of more than $150,000 in just a few days this year to fund his High Court challenge to Australia’s extremism crackdown. They also contributed to earlier fundraisers set up by Sewell for his “community land project” to “create a home for white people in Australia”.

But Sewell has been drawing on the connections of another wealthy recruit too: the “manfluencer” – and former porn star – Stirling Cooper.

Cooper, an Australian pharmacy graduate turned sex coach and penis supplement salesman, is a close associate of misogynist provocateur and accused sex trafficker Andrew Tate. You can find Cooper splashed across the internet on Tate’s private jets and at his parties around the world, or else driving his Ferraris through Marbella, Miami or Melbourne.

But within the secretive ranks of the NSN, Cooper is known as “Nige” – for his real name Nigel Clifford – regularly spotted at neo-Nazi training in his home of Perth as well as at key national events, including the group’s “final training” in Melbourne this year.

Records obtained by this masthead reveal Cooper is also the owner of website domains set up by the NSN. Cooper registered the group’s original White Australia political site in 2025 using his real name, through one of two companies he owns that are associated with the NSN called “Antipodes Associates”. Two sources within the neo-Nazi group say Cooper has gifted significant sums of money to its members and has helped it set up apparent shell companies like Antipodes.

Cooper ignored repeated requests for comment.

Last year, this masthead revealed how he was helping the NSN artificially inflate its reach online using a Tate-style legion of unbranded accounts to post propaganda. While the NSN has since disbanded officially, those “hype edits” continue to circulate on social media, drawing in young men.

And, as Sewell’s own star power in the “manosphere” rises, the neo-Nazi leader has been appearing on the podcasts of other influencer friends of Cooper’s such as Elijah Schaffer and Jake Shields.

For Kriner, it’s a familiar collision. “The early influencers of the manosphere also created their own white supremacist compounds, like Wolves Of Vinland, and its feeder org Operation Werewolf,” he says.

Several Australians associated with the NSN were themselves part of international militant group Operation Werewolf, leaked chat logs reveal.

On their CPAC pilgrimage in March, Lennon and Hobbs heard from former Trump strategist Steve Bannon – who has been trying to set up white training compounds across Europe himself, including a “gladiator school” in an 800-year-old Italian monastery.

“Sewell is positioning himself on the global stage to be such a critical linchpin for rage against the Left that the moment any setback happens to him, he can use that to ignite a global audience – for fundraising, for access, maybe even egress out of Australia,” says Kriner.

“The people they’ve been trying to reach in the US even be in the ear of this Trump administration convincing them that Sewell’s being persecuted unfairly.”

White enclaves, politics – and welfare
Of course, unlike his jet-setting mates, Sewell insists that he “doesn’t care about money”. He encourages his followers to claim welfare support from the government – as his own family does. Last year, while arguing in court to be bailed to a “sharehouse”, he claimed that he collected only about $1000 a month from the membership dues of his 300-odd neo-Nazi recruits.

Yet, there was already enough cash flowing through the NSN in 2024 that nearly $50,000 stolen over the course of that year went unnoticed for many months (before the member accused of skimming was discovered and excommunicated).

Of late, Sewell has begun boasting of those with serious wealth and connections joining his group – including “sleeper agents” he claims are also members of the Liberal Party attending its meetings. On livestreams, Sewell has said a well-connected barrister is giving him cheap legal advice, and that a political powerbroker is advising his continued efforts to form a neo-Nazi party. He says he is “constantly networking”, including in his new neighbourhood, and speaks of a contact book of sympathetic bosses and businesses offering his neo-Nazis jobs.

Sewell is now being represented by former federal Liberal MP Peter King in his High Court fight, though it is understood King was obliged to accept the case under a rule that stops barristers from refusing a brief they are in a position to take up.

In a livestream on X in May, a former Victorian state Liberal Party organiser openly bragged of getting “jobs for those boys” in the NSN, as she joined in discussion with neo-Nazis about how best to achieve their “accelerationist” and “revolutionary” goals and run their “parallel societies”.

Experts like Coyne call the collection of influential people now quietly helping Sewell, both at home and overseas, “alarming”.

But he expects it will be difficult for Australian authorities to seize the NSN’s assets, even under the new hate speech regime. “They’d just say it’s theirs personally,” Coyne says. “It’s another grey zone, awful but lawful. And, in all this, we still have to protect freedom of thought.”

At the compound, White Rose fear Sewell will now be able to exert even more control over his followers and their families under the NSN’s cult-like model.

Sewell advocates for men to rule “large, white families”, homeschooling their kids and strictly managing their women – down to their makeup and clothes. (“Incidences of female infidelity, we’ve dealt with it in house,” he said on a recent stream. “Just 100 per cent cull, excommunicated. If we were in the wild, you’d starve to death.” )

The neo-Nazi leader now has plans to expand his property portfolio in the east.

“It’s not unfathomable to me that Sewell might be setting up his own Waco in Australia,” says Kriner. “Particularly if he feels protected by rich benefactors.”

https://www.theage.com.au/national/rich-mates-secret-mansions-australia-s-millionaire-nazis-revealed-20260428-p5zrm6.html

Witty Rejoinder said:

Rich mates, secret mansions: Australia’s millionaire Nazi-backers revealed
Wealthy backers are helping Australia’s neo-Nazis plot their next move into politics from a secret multimillion-dollar compound. We tracked it down – along with Thomas Sewell’s rich mates.

Sherryn Groch
June 3, 2026

You can’t see the mansion – or its pool – from the road. But locals in this leafy corner of Melbourne’s north-east have seen the man who lives here in town.

Some will yell at him; a few want to shake his hand. The face of the bald, mustachioed leader of Australia’s largest neo-Nazi group is known not just here but around the world, after all.

What locals don’t know is that, since being released on bail last year on assault charges, neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell has been secretly living among them at this sprawling $2.5 million estate.

Sewell’s name doesn’t appear on the official paperwork – it was bought using a shell company by the heir of a Melbourne trucking empire.

It’s just one in a web of assets this masthead has discovered held by rich associates and less prominent members of Sewell’s now-outlawed neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Network (NSN).

For the first time, an investigation by this masthead can unmask the wealthy backers behind Australia’s neo-Nazis as they mount a costly High Court challenge to new hate speech laws – and plot their next move into politics.

Among Sewell’s rich associates are a race-car driver turned failed political candidate who owns a fleet of planes; the son of a gun dealer and inventor in regional Victoria; a jet-setting “manfluencer” friend of Andrew Tate who sells penis supplements to teenagers; a property development heir turned provocateur, and a stockbroker mixing with MAGA influencers overseas.

Sewell has recently bragged to followers on livestreams of his plans to build a function centre on the property he said “an investor” had “gifted” his group last year – which this masthead has now tracked down through open-source intelligence and property records.

International extremism expert Matt Kriner, who recently assessed the NSN for the Albanese government, says the assets and connections uncovered by this masthead suggest Australia’s neo-Nazis have entered a dangerous new phase. “Historically, when fascist movements start to sequester themselves in compounds, particularly those that have already shown a fascination with violence, terrorists and weapons like the NSN, that makes them very dangerous,” Kriner said.

He and other far-right researchers say authorities should now target the group the same way they had organised crime syndicates: “By following the money.”

Sewell’s new home – described by one gushing realtor as a mountain chalet – boasts more than 10 bedrooms, as well as a gym and pool on a 19-acre block. Up a long snaking drive, the main house is screened from the road by thick bush and security fences, but enjoys soaring hilltop views of Melbourne.

The NSN has long been trying to acquire land to build “white homestead” compounds from which to grow a racist ethno-state. Two sources close to the group, speaking anonymously for safety reasons, said other neo-Nazis were living at the estate with Sewell and his family. This masthead separately connected several men associated with the NSN to the address.

While on bail, Sewell is barred from associating with about a dozen neo-Nazis charged over a violent attack that Sewell allegedly led on an Indigenous camp last year. But his living arrangements with others in the group do not appear to have drawn scrutiny from authorities.

In outlawing the NSN as a hate group on May 15, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke noted that they had continued to operate in the shadows, “phoenixing” under new names and forms rather than disbanding as they claimed.

Documents recently filed in the High Court by Sewell in his fight to overturn the new laws confirm that the NSN never dissolved its political party wing, “White Australia”, of which Sewell remains president. And records filed by White Australia list the mansion – Sewell’s home – as their new headquarters.

The mansion and the mystery investor
In late January, when Sewell told the public his NSN was disbanding, more than 100 of his followers descended on a Melbourne oval for their last official training session.

Among the sea of swastika tattoos and mullets gathered around Sewell that afternoon, this masthead identified a scattering of millionaires.

One of them, photographed wearing the distinctive white wristband denoting long-term membership of the NSN, was Sewell’s mystery “investor”: Martin Featherstone.

Featherstone, 45, has inherited his family’s trucking company wealth and owns millions of dollars in property in the state’s north-east, including another $3.5 million mansion just minutes down the road from the compound where Sewell is living.

The private school-educated Featherstone describes himself as a “white nationalist” and “racist” online, and has been pictured marching alongside neo-Nazis at recent rallies.

For more than a decade he helped manage his family’s multimillion-dollar logistics company. But Featherstone no longer appears to be working. “I’m in a privileged position,” he wrote in April on X of his decision to continue “speaking out” for the NSN when other neo-Nazis had lost their jobs after being unmasked. “I can’t be fired or ‘cancelled’. I choose not to be anonymous to (hopefully) lend some weight of authenticity.”

The hunt for Sewell’s compound began late last year, when NSN leadership announced to the group that “someone has bought us a place in Victoria”, according to two sources familiar with the discussion. “It’s a momentous moment for the org,” neo-Nazis Joel Davis and Jack Eltis told recruits.

Soon after, Sewell spoke on a livestream about a property “the org had been gifted” where he was now living, about 40 minutes from the city, as well as his plans to acquire a pub through another cleanskin “investor”.

Real estate sales, and a recent tip-off, pointed to a mansion acquired by a shell company in 2025. That company is jointly owned by Featherstone and his elderly mother. Sewell and his associates have since been spotted in the neighbourhood. Some left a digital trail too, even reviewing nearby restaurants. Documents obtained last month confirmed the address as White Australia’s HQ.

This masthead does not suggest Featherstone’s mother is aware of how the property is being used or holds neo-Nazi views herself. Featherstone did not respond to questions before deadline.

The mansion, with its separate living quarters, is intended to operate as a central hub for the neo-Nazi group, according to insiders, with fight training and education. It will be modelled on American “white homestead” enclaves, including those run by the fascist group Patriot Front, whose members the NSN have hosted in Australia.

Priority boarding has been given to men with families, as younger recruits are placed in sharehouses rented by the group elsewhere through “friends of the org”. One member has even been allowed to bring his dog to the compound “for security”, though Sewell dislikes pets.

“Our first investment has been housing,” Sewell said in December of the NSN and the “significant money” from “big investors” he claimed it had begun to attract, laughing at media theories that he had “been living out of a caravan”. “We’re being looked after,” he said. “I’m sure there’ll be a different type of smear coming out in the next couple months years about where I’m living now.”

Soon, Sewell promised, the group would have even more “protected rentals” like this, owned by members and associates, to house its “warriors”.

Featherstone is certainly a sympathetic landlord. He frequently espouses extreme views online – from nuking Israel and “stomping out” people of colour to executing “traitors” and “putting parliaments to the sword”. In secret NSN chats leaked to this masthead, Featherstone also joined in the neo-Nazi group’s violent discussions, including about running over Indian people with cars.

When asked for a response to this story, Sewell did not deny his plans for the compound but reiterated claims that the media and government were behaving “immorally” ahead of his High Court showdown.

“It is obvious your network of traitors are nervous about the potential fallout from a High Court decision to challenge the hate speech legislation and are therefore engaging in a smear campaign to cover your tracks.”

Former AFP counter-terrorism detective John Coyne, who once infiltrated white supremacist compounds himself, says that Sewell’s new headquarters calls to mind the strongholds of American neo-Nazis. That includes terror cell The Order as well as the Ku Klux Klan at its height – two groups openly lionised by the NSN.

“Of course, one man’s secret military compound is another’s house in the ’burbs,” Coyne said. But the possibility of guns on the Melbourne property was particularly worthy of investigation, he added.

Sewell has previously spoken online of needing to put guns “in other people’s names” and the difficulties of being unable to own many assets, given he is blacklisted by most banks for his neo-Nazi activity.

The government’s crackdown on the NSN was designed to “choke the fire of oxygen”, Coyne said. But instead, beneath all that smoke, the group has been revealed to have “a far bigger ecosystem than we’d have expected”. “What you’ve found shows there’s a network of people with dirty secrets.”

Wealthy associates
Indeed, Featherstone is not the only wealthy figure this masthead has identified in the orbit of the country’s most notorious neo-Nazi.

In August, when Sewell led the March for Australia anti-immigration rally in Melbourne and addressed a crowd of thousands from the steps of Parliament House, many of his rich friends were there with him.

To one side, in an oversized peacoat and sunglasses, was Hugo Lennon, the Scotch College graduate and scion of one of Australia’s wealthiest property development families turned far-right influencer. Lennon had helped Sewell organise the rallies around the country, playing the “concerned centrist” publicly while taking part in secret NSN chats and planning online, as revealed last year.

Beside him was another key March organiser, who can now be unmasked as wealthy race car driver and pilot Yassin Albarri.

The 26-year-old owns a cargo airline which claims to have its own fleet of planes, and in 2022 ran as a Victorian candidate for Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party (UAP).

Corporate records reveal Albarri has now started a company with one of the NSN’s most ardent members, Jake Crockett. Crockett is himself facing charges for the NSN attack on an Indigenous camp that followed that August march, as the rally descended into violence across Melbourne.

Albarri has been frequently identified and photographed mixing with neo-Nazis at rallies the NSN has helped organise since, including a former member of the terrorist group Combat 18. He has served as the rallies’ police liaison and, behind the scenes, pictures place him at meetings hosted by senior NSN figures.

During Albarri’s federal election campaign he worked with neo-Nazi associates such as Stu von Moger, who were then helping run security for the UAP.

But he’s also close with members of the Liberal Party, frequently pictured with party organisers and volunteers on social media, dining in members’ rooms and VIP boxes.

Albarri started a company called Rosetta Entertainment in September last year with the NSN’s Crockett as a co-founder and part-owner. Albarri did not respond to questions about the nature of the business or his dealings with the NSN before deadline. But it is not suggested he was a member of the group himself.

Then there is the man in the white hat.

Introducing Sewell to the rally crowd that day in August, from a podium built by the neo-Nazis especially for the occasion, was a red-haired figure with a striking hat – and moustache.

The same man, who was later filmed helping Sewell coordinate the March, also appeared in pictures released by the neo-Nazi group months earlier of its hiking trips, and would be seen with march organisers such as Albarri at other NSN-organised rallies. In footage of a neo-Nazi protest on Australia Day 2025 the same man appears, in the same white hat, shaking hands with white supremacists such as Blair Cottrell. A year on, he was also photographed at the NSN’s final training – only this time he was clad all in black.

This masthead, along with researchers at the anti-fascist White Rose Society, have now identified him as David Roberts, the son of a gun dealer, pilot and inventor. His family hold considerable property and wealth in regional Victoria, including their own airplanes and a 300-acre estate, and have obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal government grants in recent years as they expand their aviation business. It is not suggested his family hold neo-Nazi views themselves.

Neo-Nazis, such as the former dentist Ian Lomax, have also appeared alongside Roberts in recent pictures from the axe-throwing association where he serves as secretary. Roberts has been contacted for comment.

Ferraris for the Fuhrer
Sewell’s rich associates bring more than just money. Among his entourage at the marches in August were an array of far-right influencers – all streaming to their hundreds of thousands of followers.

Concealed behind racing sunglasses was “Sir Doug” as he is known online – Lennon’s long-time collaborator – who has now been identified as Melbourne stockbroker Mitchell Hobbs.

Hobbs was also photographed at the neo-Nazis’ training session in January.

He and Lennon recently toured the US together for the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas, mixing with everyone from Trump MAGA acolytes to a former leader of extremist group The Proud Boys.

Instagram reels show the young Australians driving flash cars, partying on rooftops and holding guns. Pictured alongside them is North American “looksmaxxer” Jack Gordon, who runs his own neo-Nazi bookstore advocating “accelerationism” – the neo-Nazi goal of speeding up societal collapse to start a race war.

This masthead recently revealed the extent of the NSN’s entanglement with terrorists and accelerationist groups overseas, some of whom have trained its members and given it money. The investigation also uncovered a secret chatroom run by neo-Nazis and March for Australia organisers – including Lennon – where an alleged $10,000 plot to kidnap Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had led to multiple police raids.

Lennon has always said he does not advocate violence nor take part in threats online but has refused to distance himself from the NSN. Hobbs has been contacted for comment.

In Lennon’s recent travels across the US, the 20-something influencer has been spruiking Sewell to America’s conservative establishment, speaking at conferences of the NSN leader as “a household name … at the forefront” of Australian politics.

International far-right groups, in part, helped Sewell raise a war chest of more than $150,000 in just a few days this year to fund his High Court challenge to Australia’s extremism crackdown. They also contributed to earlier fundraisers set up by Sewell for his “community land project” to “create a home for white people in Australia”.

But Sewell has been drawing on the connections of another wealthy recruit too: the “manfluencer” – and former porn star – Stirling Cooper.

Cooper, an Australian pharmacy graduate turned sex coach and penis supplement salesman, is a close associate of misogynist provocateur and accused sex trafficker Andrew Tate. You can find Cooper splashed across the internet on Tate’s private jets and at his parties around the world, or else driving his Ferraris through Marbella, Miami or Melbourne.

But within the secretive ranks of the NSN, Cooper is known as “Nige” – for his real name Nigel Clifford – regularly spotted at neo-Nazi training in his home of Perth as well as at key national events, including the group’s “final training” in Melbourne this year.

Records obtained by this masthead reveal Cooper is also the owner of website domains set up by the NSN. Cooper registered the group’s original White Australia political site in 2025 using his real name, through one of two companies he owns that are associated with the NSN called “Antipodes Associates”. Two sources within the neo-Nazi group say Cooper has gifted significant sums of money to its members and has helped it set up apparent shell companies like Antipodes.

Cooper ignored repeated requests for comment.

Last year, this masthead revealed how he was helping the NSN artificially inflate its reach online using a Tate-style legion of unbranded accounts to post propaganda. While the NSN has since disbanded officially, those “hype edits” continue to circulate on social media, drawing in young men.

And, as Sewell’s own star power in the “manosphere” rises, the neo-Nazi leader has been appearing on the podcasts of other influencer friends of Cooper’s such as Elijah Schaffer and Jake Shields.

For Kriner, it’s a familiar collision. “The early influencers of the manosphere also created their own white supremacist compounds, like Wolves Of Vinland, and its feeder org Operation Werewolf,” he says.

Several Australians associated with the NSN were themselves part of international militant group Operation Werewolf, leaked chat logs reveal.

On their CPAC pilgrimage in March, Lennon and Hobbs heard from former Trump strategist Steve Bannon – who has been trying to set up white training compounds across Europe himself, including a “gladiator school” in an 800-year-old Italian monastery.

“Sewell is positioning himself on the global stage to be such a critical linchpin for rage against the Left that the moment any setback happens to him, he can use that to ignite a global audience – for fundraising, for access, maybe even egress out of Australia,” says Kriner.

“The people they’ve been trying to reach in the US even be in the ear of this Trump administration convincing them that Sewell’s being persecuted unfairly.”

White enclaves, politics – and welfare
Of course, unlike his jet-setting mates, Sewell insists that he “doesn’t care about money”. He encourages his followers to claim welfare support from the government – as his own family does. Last year, while arguing in court to be bailed to a “sharehouse”, he claimed that he collected only about $1000 a month from the membership dues of his 300-odd neo-Nazi recruits.

Yet, there was already enough cash flowing through the NSN in 2024 that nearly $50,000 stolen over the course of that year went unnoticed for many months (before the member accused of skimming was discovered and excommunicated).

Of late, Sewell has begun boasting of those with serious wealth and connections joining his group – including “sleeper agents” he claims are also members of the Liberal Party attending its meetings. On livestreams, Sewell has said a well-connected barrister is giving him cheap legal advice, and that a political powerbroker is advising his continued efforts to form a neo-Nazi party. He says he is “constantly networking”, including in his new neighbourhood, and speaks of a contact book of sympathetic bosses and businesses offering his neo-Nazis jobs.

Sewell is now being represented by former federal Liberal MP Peter King in his High Court fight, though it is understood King was obliged to accept the case under a rule that stops barristers from refusing a brief they are in a position to take up.

In a livestream on X in May, a former Victorian state Liberal Party organiser openly bragged of getting “jobs for those boys” in the NSN, as she joined in discussion with neo-Nazis about how best to achieve their “accelerationist” and “revolutionary” goals and run their “parallel societies”.

Experts like Coyne call the collection of influential people now quietly helping Sewell, both at home and overseas, “alarming”.

But he expects it will be difficult for Australian authorities to seize the NSN’s assets, even under the new hate speech regime. “They’d just say it’s theirs personally,” Coyne says. “It’s another grey zone, awful but lawful. And, in all this, we still have to protect freedom of thought.”

At the compound, White Rose fear Sewell will now be able to exert even more control over his followers and their families under the NSN’s cult-like model.

Sewell advocates for men to rule “large, white families”, homeschooling their kids and strictly managing their women – down to their makeup and clothes. (“Incidences of female infidelity, we’ve dealt with it in house,” he said on a recent stream. “Just 100 per cent cull, excommunicated. If we were in the wild, you’d starve to death.” )

The neo-Nazi leader now has plans to expand his property portfolio in the east.

“It’s not unfathomable to me that Sewell might be setting up his own Waco in Australia,” says Kriner. “Particularly if he feels protected by rich benefactors.”

https://www.theage.com.au/national/rich-mates-secret-mansions-australia-s-millionaire-nazis-revealed-20260428-p5zrm6.html

$2.5M for a 10 bedroom house on 19 acres within view of Melbourne sounds very cheap to me.

buffy said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Rich mates, secret mansions: Australia’s millionaire Nazi-backers revealed
Wealthy backers are helping Australia’s neo-Nazis plot their next move into politics from a secret multimillion-dollar compound. We tracked it down – along with Thomas Sewell’s rich mates.

Sherryn Groch
June 3, 2026

You can’t see the mansion – or its pool – from the road. But locals in this leafy corner of Melbourne’s north-east have seen the man who lives here in town.

Some will yell at him; a few want to shake his hand. The face of the bald, mustachioed leader of Australia’s largest neo-Nazi group is known not just here but around the world, after all.

What locals don’t know is that, since being released on bail last year on assault charges, neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell has been secretly living among them at this sprawling $2.5 million estate.

Sewell’s name doesn’t appear on the official paperwork – it was bought using a shell company by the heir of a Melbourne trucking empire.

It’s just one in a web of assets this masthead has discovered held by rich associates and less prominent members of Sewell’s now-outlawed neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Network (NSN).

For the first time, an investigation by this masthead can unmask the wealthy backers behind Australia’s neo-Nazis as they mount a costly High Court challenge to new hate speech laws – and plot their next move into politics.

Among Sewell’s rich associates are a race-car driver turned failed political candidate who owns a fleet of planes; the son of a gun dealer and inventor in regional Victoria; a jet-setting “manfluencer” friend of Andrew Tate who sells penis supplements to teenagers; a property development heir turned provocateur, and a stockbroker mixing with MAGA influencers overseas.

Sewell has recently bragged to followers on livestreams of his plans to build a function centre on the property he said “an investor” had “gifted” his group last year – which this masthead has now tracked down through open-source intelligence and property records.

International extremism expert Matt Kriner, who recently assessed the NSN for the Albanese government, says the assets and connections uncovered by this masthead suggest Australia’s neo-Nazis have entered a dangerous new phase. “Historically, when fascist movements start to sequester themselves in compounds, particularly those that have already shown a fascination with violence, terrorists and weapons like the NSN, that makes them very dangerous,” Kriner said.

He and other far-right researchers say authorities should now target the group the same way they had organised crime syndicates: “By following the money.”

Sewell’s new home – described by one gushing realtor as a mountain chalet – boasts more than 10 bedrooms, as well as a gym and pool on a 19-acre block. Up a long snaking drive, the main house is screened from the road by thick bush and security fences, but enjoys soaring hilltop views of Melbourne.

The NSN has long been trying to acquire land to build “white homestead” compounds from which to grow a racist ethno-state. Two sources close to the group, speaking anonymously for safety reasons, said other neo-Nazis were living at the estate with Sewell and his family. This masthead separately connected several men associated with the NSN to the address.

While on bail, Sewell is barred from associating with about a dozen neo-Nazis charged over a violent attack that Sewell allegedly led on an Indigenous camp last year. But his living arrangements with others in the group do not appear to have drawn scrutiny from authorities.

In outlawing the NSN as a hate group on May 15, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke noted that they had continued to operate in the shadows, “phoenixing” under new names and forms rather than disbanding as they claimed.

Documents recently filed in the High Court by Sewell in his fight to overturn the new laws confirm that the NSN never dissolved its political party wing, “White Australia”, of which Sewell remains president. And records filed by White Australia list the mansion – Sewell’s home – as their new headquarters.

The mansion and the mystery investor
In late January, when Sewell told the public his NSN was disbanding, more than 100 of his followers descended on a Melbourne oval for their last official training session.

Among the sea of swastika tattoos and mullets gathered around Sewell that afternoon, this masthead identified a scattering of millionaires.

One of them, photographed wearing the distinctive white wristband denoting long-term membership of the NSN, was Sewell’s mystery “investor”: Martin Featherstone.

Featherstone, 45, has inherited his family’s trucking company wealth and owns millions of dollars in property in the state’s north-east, including another $3.5 million mansion just minutes down the road from the compound where Sewell is living.

The private school-educated Featherstone describes himself as a “white nationalist” and “racist” online, and has been pictured marching alongside neo-Nazis at recent rallies.

For more than a decade he helped manage his family’s multimillion-dollar logistics company. But Featherstone no longer appears to be working. “I’m in a privileged position,” he wrote in April on X of his decision to continue “speaking out” for the NSN when other neo-Nazis had lost their jobs after being unmasked. “I can’t be fired or ‘cancelled’. I choose not to be anonymous to (hopefully) lend some weight of authenticity.”

The hunt for Sewell’s compound began late last year, when NSN leadership announced to the group that “someone has bought us a place in Victoria”, according to two sources familiar with the discussion. “It’s a momentous moment for the org,” neo-Nazis Joel Davis and Jack Eltis told recruits.

Soon after, Sewell spoke on a livestream about a property “the org had been gifted” where he was now living, about 40 minutes from the city, as well as his plans to acquire a pub through another cleanskin “investor”.

Real estate sales, and a recent tip-off, pointed to a mansion acquired by a shell company in 2025. That company is jointly owned by Featherstone and his elderly mother. Sewell and his associates have since been spotted in the neighbourhood. Some left a digital trail too, even reviewing nearby restaurants. Documents obtained last month confirmed the address as White Australia’s HQ.

This masthead does not suggest Featherstone’s mother is aware of how the property is being used or holds neo-Nazi views herself. Featherstone did not respond to questions before deadline.

The mansion, with its separate living quarters, is intended to operate as a central hub for the neo-Nazi group, according to insiders, with fight training and education. It will be modelled on American “white homestead” enclaves, including those run by the fascist group Patriot Front, whose members the NSN have hosted in Australia.

Priority boarding has been given to men with families, as younger recruits are placed in sharehouses rented by the group elsewhere through “friends of the org”. One member has even been allowed to bring his dog to the compound “for security”, though Sewell dislikes pets.

“Our first investment has been housing,” Sewell said in December of the NSN and the “significant money” from “big investors” he claimed it had begun to attract, laughing at media theories that he had “been living out of a caravan”. “We’re being looked after,” he said. “I’m sure there’ll be a different type of smear coming out in the next couple months years about where I’m living now.”

Soon, Sewell promised, the group would have even more “protected rentals” like this, owned by members and associates, to house its “warriors”.

Featherstone is certainly a sympathetic landlord. He frequently espouses extreme views online – from nuking Israel and “stomping out” people of colour to executing “traitors” and “putting parliaments to the sword”. In secret NSN chats leaked to this masthead, Featherstone also joined in the neo-Nazi group’s violent discussions, including about running over Indian people with cars.

When asked for a response to this story, Sewell did not deny his plans for the compound but reiterated claims that the media and government were behaving “immorally” ahead of his High Court showdown.

“It is obvious your network of traitors are nervous about the potential fallout from a High Court decision to challenge the hate speech legislation and are therefore engaging in a smear campaign to cover your tracks.”

Former AFP counter-terrorism detective John Coyne, who once infiltrated white supremacist compounds himself, says that Sewell’s new headquarters calls to mind the strongholds of American neo-Nazis. That includes terror cell The Order as well as the Ku Klux Klan at its height – two groups openly lionised by the NSN.

“Of course, one man’s secret military compound is another’s house in the ’burbs,” Coyne said. But the possibility of guns on the Melbourne property was particularly worthy of investigation, he added.

Sewell has previously spoken online of needing to put guns “in other people’s names” and the difficulties of being unable to own many assets, given he is blacklisted by most banks for his neo-Nazi activity.

The government’s crackdown on the NSN was designed to “choke the fire of oxygen”, Coyne said. But instead, beneath all that smoke, the group has been revealed to have “a far bigger ecosystem than we’d have expected”. “What you’ve found shows there’s a network of people with dirty secrets.”

Wealthy associates
Indeed, Featherstone is not the only wealthy figure this masthead has identified in the orbit of the country’s most notorious neo-Nazi.

In August, when Sewell led the March for Australia anti-immigration rally in Melbourne and addressed a crowd of thousands from the steps of Parliament House, many of his rich friends were there with him.

To one side, in an oversized peacoat and sunglasses, was Hugo Lennon, the Scotch College graduate and scion of one of Australia’s wealthiest property development families turned far-right influencer. Lennon had helped Sewell organise the rallies around the country, playing the “concerned centrist” publicly while taking part in secret NSN chats and planning online, as revealed last year.

Beside him was another key March organiser, who can now be unmasked as wealthy race car driver and pilot Yassin Albarri.

The 26-year-old owns a cargo airline which claims to have its own fleet of planes, and in 2022 ran as a Victorian candidate for Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party (UAP).

Corporate records reveal Albarri has now started a company with one of the NSN’s most ardent members, Jake Crockett. Crockett is himself facing charges for the NSN attack on an Indigenous camp that followed that August march, as the rally descended into violence across Melbourne.

Albarri has been frequently identified and photographed mixing with neo-Nazis at rallies the NSN has helped organise since, including a former member of the terrorist group Combat 18. He has served as the rallies’ police liaison and, behind the scenes, pictures place him at meetings hosted by senior NSN figures.

During Albarri’s federal election campaign he worked with neo-Nazi associates such as Stu von Moger, who were then helping run security for the UAP.

But he’s also close with members of the Liberal Party, frequently pictured with party organisers and volunteers on social media, dining in members’ rooms and VIP boxes.

Albarri started a company called Rosetta Entertainment in September last year with the NSN’s Crockett as a co-founder and part-owner. Albarri did not respond to questions about the nature of the business or his dealings with the NSN before deadline. But it is not suggested he was a member of the group himself.

Then there is the man in the white hat.

Introducing Sewell to the rally crowd that day in August, from a podium built by the neo-Nazis especially for the occasion, was a red-haired figure with a striking hat – and moustache.

The same man, who was later filmed helping Sewell coordinate the March, also appeared in pictures released by the neo-Nazi group months earlier of its hiking trips, and would be seen with march organisers such as Albarri at other NSN-organised rallies. In footage of a neo-Nazi protest on Australia Day 2025 the same man appears, in the same white hat, shaking hands with white supremacists such as Blair Cottrell. A year on, he was also photographed at the NSN’s final training – only this time he was clad all in black.

This masthead, along with researchers at the anti-fascist White Rose Society, have now identified him as David Roberts, the son of a gun dealer, pilot and inventor. His family hold considerable property and wealth in regional Victoria, including their own airplanes and a 300-acre estate, and have obtained hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal government grants in recent years as they expand their aviation business. It is not suggested his family hold neo-Nazi views themselves.

Neo-Nazis, such as the former dentist Ian Lomax, have also appeared alongside Roberts in recent pictures from the axe-throwing association where he serves as secretary. Roberts has been contacted for comment.

Ferraris for the Fuhrer
Sewell’s rich associates bring more than just money. Among his entourage at the marches in August were an array of far-right influencers – all streaming to their hundreds of thousands of followers.

Concealed behind racing sunglasses was “Sir Doug” as he is known online – Lennon’s long-time collaborator – who has now been identified as Melbourne stockbroker Mitchell Hobbs.

Hobbs was also photographed at the neo-Nazis’ training session in January.

He and Lennon recently toured the US together for the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas, mixing with everyone from Trump MAGA acolytes to a former leader of extremist group The Proud Boys.

Instagram reels show the young Australians driving flash cars, partying on rooftops and holding guns. Pictured alongside them is North American “looksmaxxer” Jack Gordon, who runs his own neo-Nazi bookstore advocating “accelerationism” – the neo-Nazi goal of speeding up societal collapse to start a race war.

This masthead recently revealed the extent of the NSN’s entanglement with terrorists and accelerationist groups overseas, some of whom have trained its members and given it money. The investigation also uncovered a secret chatroom run by neo-Nazis and March for Australia organisers – including Lennon – where an alleged $10,000 plot to kidnap Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had led to multiple police raids.

Lennon has always said he does not advocate violence nor take part in threats online but has refused to distance himself from the NSN. Hobbs has been contacted for comment.

In Lennon’s recent travels across the US, the 20-something influencer has been spruiking Sewell to America’s conservative establishment, speaking at conferences of the NSN leader as “a household name … at the forefront” of Australian politics.

International far-right groups, in part, helped Sewell raise a war chest of more than $150,000 in just a few days this year to fund his High Court challenge to Australia’s extremism crackdown. They also contributed to earlier fundraisers set up by Sewell for his “community land project” to “create a home for white people in Australia”.

But Sewell has been drawing on the connections of another wealthy recruit too: the “manfluencer” – and former porn star – Stirling Cooper.

Cooper, an Australian pharmacy graduate turned sex coach and penis supplement salesman, is a close associate of misogynist provocateur and accused sex trafficker Andrew Tate. You can find Cooper splashed across the internet on Tate’s private jets and at his parties around the world, or else driving his Ferraris through Marbella, Miami or Melbourne.

But within the secretive ranks of the NSN, Cooper is known as “Nige” – for his real name Nigel Clifford – regularly spotted at neo-Nazi training in his home of Perth as well as at key national events, including the group’s “final training” in Melbourne this year.

Records obtained by this masthead reveal Cooper is also the owner of website domains set up by the NSN. Cooper registered the group’s original White Australia political site in 2025 using his real name, through one of two companies he owns that are associated with the NSN called “Antipodes Associates”. Two sources within the neo-Nazi group say Cooper has gifted significant sums of money to its members and has helped it set up apparent shell companies like Antipodes.

Cooper ignored repeated requests for comment.

Last year, this masthead revealed how he was helping the NSN artificially inflate its reach online using a Tate-style legion of unbranded accounts to post propaganda. While the NSN has since disbanded officially, those “hype edits” continue to circulate on social media, drawing in young men.

And, as Sewell’s own star power in the “manosphere” rises, the neo-Nazi leader has been appearing on the podcasts of other influencer friends of Cooper’s such as Elijah Schaffer and Jake Shields.

For Kriner, it’s a familiar collision. “The early influencers of the manosphere also created their own white supremacist compounds, like Wolves Of Vinland, and its feeder org Operation Werewolf,” he says.

Several Australians associated with the NSN were themselves part of international militant group Operation Werewolf, leaked chat logs reveal.

On their CPAC pilgrimage in March, Lennon and Hobbs heard from former Trump strategist Steve Bannon – who has been trying to set up white training compounds across Europe himself, including a “gladiator school” in an 800-year-old Italian monastery.

“Sewell is positioning himself on the global stage to be such a critical linchpin for rage against the Left that the moment any setback happens to him, he can use that to ignite a global audience – for fundraising, for access, maybe even egress out of Australia,” says Kriner.

“The people they’ve been trying to reach in the US even be in the ear of this Trump administration convincing them that Sewell’s being persecuted unfairly.”

White enclaves, politics – and welfare
Of course, unlike his jet-setting mates, Sewell insists that he “doesn’t care about money”. He encourages his followers to claim welfare support from the government – as his own family does. Last year, while arguing in court to be bailed to a “sharehouse”, he claimed that he collected only about $1000 a month from the membership dues of his 300-odd neo-Nazi recruits.

Yet, there was already enough cash flowing through the NSN in 2024 that nearly $50,000 stolen over the course of that year went unnoticed for many months (before the member accused of skimming was discovered and excommunicated).

Of late, Sewell has begun boasting of those with serious wealth and connections joining his group – including “sleeper agents” he claims are also members of the Liberal Party attending its meetings. On livestreams, Sewell has said a well-connected barrister is giving him cheap legal advice, and that a political powerbroker is advising his continued efforts to form a neo-Nazi party. He says he is “constantly networking”, including in his new neighbourhood, and speaks of a contact book of sympathetic bosses and businesses offering his neo-Nazis jobs.

Sewell is now being represented by former federal Liberal MP Peter King in his High Court fight, though it is understood King was obliged to accept the case under a rule that stops barristers from refusing a brief they are in a position to take up.

In a livestream on X in May, a former Victorian state Liberal Party organiser openly bragged of getting “jobs for those boys” in the NSN, as she joined in discussion with neo-Nazis about how best to achieve their “accelerationist” and “revolutionary” goals and run their “parallel societies”.

Experts like Coyne call the collection of influential people now quietly helping Sewell, both at home and overseas, “alarming”.

But he expects it will be difficult for Australian authorities to seize the NSN’s assets, even under the new hate speech regime. “They’d just say it’s theirs personally,” Coyne says. “It’s another grey zone, awful but lawful. And, in all this, we still have to protect freedom of thought.”

At the compound, White Rose fear Sewell will now be able to exert even more control over his followers and their families under the NSN’s cult-like model.

Sewell advocates for men to rule “large, white families”, homeschooling their kids and strictly managing their women – down to their makeup and clothes. (“Incidences of female infidelity, we’ve dealt with it in house,” he said on a recent stream. “Just 100 per cent cull, excommunicated. If we were in the wild, you’d starve to death.” )

The neo-Nazi leader now has plans to expand his property portfolio in the east.

“It’s not unfathomable to me that Sewell might be setting up his own Waco in Australia,” says Kriner. “Particularly if he feels protected by rich benefactors.”

https://www.theage.com.au/national/rich-mates-secret-mansions-australia-s-millionaire-nazis-revealed-20260428-p5zrm6.html

$2.5M for a 10 bedroom house on 19 acres within view of Melbourne sounds very cheap to me.

The land may have restrictions on subdivision so it’s worth less than usual.

yeah we wouldn’t want to pay through the nose to live near fascists either

5 months out from the Victorian election, various anonymous Labor members are saying that a leadership spill is imminent.

The polling is just about 50 – 50 on aggregate. This would probably be the last chance to depose Allen as premier, as any further attempts would be imprudently close to the election. Personally I doubt that a leadership change would fix anything.

so australia will be one nation under god finally

SCIENCE said:

so australia will be one nation under god finally

Hopefully not. We are more like a federation of city-states.

SCIENCE said:

so australia will be one nation under god finally

Praise the Lord.

SCIENCE said:

so australia will be one nation under god finally

More Australians arrested by Israel.

Link

2 minutes.

Michael V said:

roughbarked said:

Divine Angel said:

Cripes, haven’t seen those things for years! I remember that Penrith – Sydney one.

Heck. It was a concrete one. The real old ones were wood.

There was one in Western Sydney that was sandstone, with Roman Numerals on it IIRC.

They had plenty of sandstone in Sydney.

The Rev Dodgson said:

dv said:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jun/05/barnaby-joyce-sky-news-interview-one-nation-housing-policy-backflip

One Nation moving into disaster mode sounds very watchable to me.

Bring it on.

Cheesus. We all knew he was a colossal f’wit but he just has to keep on ramping it up more and more as time goes by.

I can’t read Jarrod Bleijie without thinking of Joe Bjelke.

dv said:

I can’t read Jarrod Bleijie without thinking of Joe Bjelke.

I knew his grandfather and father quite well before they moved to Qld.

My modest proposal is that they scrap the stadium and buy some chinooks to airlift quadparkers into the Derwent.

dv said:

My modest proposal is that they scrap the stadium and buy some chinooks to airlift quadparkers into the Derwent.

When your 15-year-old car is still worth at least a quarter of a million dollars, you might feel a little entitled.

Michael V said:

dv said:

My modest proposal is that they scrap the stadium and buy some chinooks to airlift quadparkers into the Derwent.

When your 15-year-old car is still worth at least a quarter of a million dollars, you might feel a little entitled.

Clearly doesn’t want anyone parking too close to his car.

Have all ALDI shops stopped automatically giving people receipts?

My dad asked for a receipt and noticed two items swiped but he had only one, he pointed this out and then got a refund.

But it appears that some cashiers are abusing it by sizing people up and seeing if they notice, and if successful they pocket money on the side. This could add up to a sizable amount over a week. If store managers are in on it then more cashiers could be involved then it could add up to thousands being fleeced in this manner.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Have all ALDI shops stopped automatically giving people receipts?

My dad asked for a receipt and noticed two items swiped but he had only one, he pointed this out and then got a refund.

But it appears that some cashiers are abusing it by sizing people up and seeing if they notice, and if successful they pocket money on the side. This could add up to a sizable amount over a week. If store managers are in on it then more cashiers could be involved then it could add up to thousands being fleeced in this manner.

Nah, I can’t see how that would work. if it scans twice it scans twice, and the ALDI computer systems track the payments. I can’t see how a cashier can deliberately miss-scan things and then pocket the money without it throwing the till receipts out of balance.

Most people pay electronically rather than cash these days too, so that adds another layer of complexity to the alleged fraud. How does a checkout operator pocket any money from an electronic transaction? I can’t see it.

party_pants said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Have all ALDI shops stopped automatically giving people receipts?

My dad asked for a receipt and noticed two items swiped but he had only one, he pointed this out and then got a refund.

But it appears that some cashiers are abusing it by sizing people up and seeing if they notice, and if successful they pocket money on the side. This could add up to a sizable amount over a week. If store managers are in on it then more cashiers could be involved then it could add up to thousands being fleeced in this manner.

Nah, I can’t see how that would work. if it scans twice it scans twice, and the ALDI computer systems track the payments. I can’t see how a cashier can deliberately miss-scan things and then pocket the money without it throwing the till receipts out of balance.

Most people pay electronically rather than cash these days too, so that adds another layer of complexity to the alleged fraud. How does a checkout operator pocket any money from an electronic transaction? I can’t see it.

don’t they have self check outs

SCIENCE said:

party_pants said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Have all ALDI shops stopped automatically giving people receipts?

My dad asked for a receipt and noticed two items swiped but he had only one, he pointed this out and then got a refund.

But it appears that some cashiers are abusing it by sizing people up and seeing if they notice, and if successful they pocket money on the side. This could add up to a sizable amount over a week. If store managers are in on it then more cashiers could be involved then it could add up to thousands being fleeced in this manner.

Nah, I can’t see how that would work. if it scans twice it scans twice, and the ALDI computer systems track the payments. I can’t see how a cashier can deliberately miss-scan things and then pocket the money without it throwing the till receipts out of balance.

Most people pay electronically rather than cash these days too, so that adds another layer of complexity to the alleged fraud. How does a checkout operator pocket any money from an electronic transaction? I can’t see it.

don’t they have self check outs

My local ALDI does not. They are all human checkouts.

party_pants said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Have all ALDI shops stopped automatically giving people receipts?

My dad asked for a receipt and noticed two items swiped but he had only one, he pointed this out and then got a refund.

But it appears that some cashiers are abusing it by sizing people up and seeing if they notice, and if successful they pocket money on the side. This could add up to a sizable amount over a week. If store managers are in on it then more cashiers could be involved then it could add up to thousands being fleeced in this manner.

Nah, I can’t see how that would work. if it scans twice it scans twice, and the ALDI computer systems track the payments. I can’t see how a cashier can deliberately miss-scan things and then pocket the money without it throwing the till receipts out of balance.

Most people pay electronically rather than cash these days too, so that adds another layer of complexity to the alleged fraud. How does a checkout operator pocket any money from an electronic transaction? I can’t see it.

Might have been a machine error, but they are usually reliable, dunno.

Tau.Neutrino said:

party_pants said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Have all ALDI shops stopped automatically giving people receipts?

My dad asked for a receipt and noticed two items swiped but he had only one, he pointed this out and then got a refund.

But it appears that some cashiers are abusing it by sizing people up and seeing if they notice, and if successful they pocket money on the side. This could add up to a sizable amount over a week. If store managers are in on it then more cashiers could be involved then it could add up to thousands being fleeced in this manner.

Nah, I can’t see how that would work. if it scans twice it scans twice, and the ALDI computer systems track the payments. I can’t see how a cashier can deliberately miss-scan things and then pocket the money without it throwing the till receipts out of balance.

Most people pay electronically rather than cash these days too, so that adds another layer of complexity to the alleged fraud. How does a checkout operator pocket any money from an electronic transaction? I can’t see it.

Might have been a machine error, but they are usually reliable, dunno.

I think it was probably just human error in the scanning. Passed the barcode over the scanner twice, probably by accident.

It got noticed, and then resolved.

party_pants said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

party_pants said:

Nah, I can’t see how that would work. if it scans twice it scans twice, and the ALDI computer systems track the payments. I can’t see how a cashier can deliberately miss-scan things and then pocket the money without it throwing the till receipts out of balance.

Most people pay electronically rather than cash these days too, so that adds another layer of complexity to the alleged fraud. How does a checkout operator pocket any money from an electronic transaction? I can’t see it.

Might have been a machine error, but they are usually reliable, dunno.

I think it was probably just human error in the scanning. Passed the barcode over the scanner twice, probably by accident.

It got noticed, and then resolved.

Sometimes you win sometimes you lose. I had an item yesterday scan for $12 when the price tag was $25.
I noticed. I had an idea in my head how much it should have cost. I checked the receipt when I got back in the car.

Tau.Neutrino said:

party_pants said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Have all ALDI shops stopped automatically giving people receipts?

My dad asked for a receipt and noticed two items swiped but he had only one, he pointed this out and then got a refund.

But it appears that some cashiers are abusing it by sizing people up and seeing if they notice, and if successful they pocket money on the side. This could add up to a sizable amount over a week. If store managers are in on it then more cashiers could be involved then it could add up to thousands being fleeced in this manner.

Nah, I can’t see how that would work. if it scans twice it scans twice, and the ALDI computer systems track the payments. I can’t see how a cashier can deliberately miss-scan things and then pocket the money without it throwing the till receipts out of balance.

Most people pay electronically rather than cash these days too, so that adds another layer of complexity to the alleged fraud. How does a checkout operator pocket any money from an electronic transaction? I can’t see it.

Might have been a machine error, but they are usually reliable, dunno.

I hope it’s only individuals doing it somethings going on.

Two recorded scans for one $4 item that’s $8, with $4 going somewhere else.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

party_pants said:

Nah, I can’t see how that would work. if it scans twice it scans twice, and the ALDI computer systems track the payments. I can’t see how a cashier can deliberately miss-scan things and then pocket the money without it throwing the till receipts out of balance.

Most people pay electronically rather than cash these days too, so that adds another layer of complexity to the alleged fraud. How does a checkout operator pocket any money from an electronic transaction? I can’t see it.

Might have been a machine error, but they are usually reliable, dunno.

I hope it’s only individuals doing it somethings going on.

Two recorded scans for one $4 item that’s $8, with $4 going somewhere else.

I’ll keep tabs on it.

Hopefully it’s nothing.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

party_pants said:

Nah, I can’t see how that would work. if it scans twice it scans twice, and the ALDI computer systems track the payments. I can’t see how a cashier can deliberately miss-scan things and then pocket the money without it throwing the till receipts out of balance.

Most people pay electronically rather than cash these days too, so that adds another layer of complexity to the alleged fraud. How does a checkout operator pocket any money from an electronic transaction? I can’t see it.

Might have been a machine error, but they are usually reliable, dunno.

I hope it’s only individuals doing it somethings going on.

Two recorded scans for one $4 item that’s $8, with $4 going somewhere else.

It ends up with ALDI. Two items sold as per the till receipt, one extra item on the shelf at the next stocktake count. These might be weeks or months apart. It will be a stock adjustment on their books somewhere.

party_pants said:

party_pants said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Might have been a machine error, but they are usually reliable, dunno.

I think it was probably just human error in the scanning. Passed the barcode over the scanner twice, probably by accident.

It got noticed, and then resolved.

Sometimes you win sometimes you lose. I had an item yesterday scan for $12 when the price tag was $25.
I noticed. I had an idea in my head how much it should have cost. I checked the receipt when I got back in the car.

All human-operated checkouts are prone to errors. I always ask for, and check, receipts. Sometimes I find mistakes (both ways: I’ve been charged twice for something or haven’t been charged for something.) Most places are happy to correct the error.

The worst for overcharging (IME) is Chemist Warehouse. Five out of the last seven times I’ve been there they’ve overcharged me. To be fair, they have reimbursed me when I’ve gone back with the receipt.

party_pants said:

party_pants said:

Tau.Neutrino said:

Might have been a machine error, but they are usually reliable, dunno.

I think it was probably just human error in the scanning. Passed the barcode over the scanner twice, probably by accident.

It got noticed, and then resolved.

Sometimes you win sometimes you lose. I had an item yesterday scan for $12 when the price tag was $25.
I noticed. I had an idea in my head how much it should have cost. I checked the receipt when I got back in the car.

I got a six inch sub today in Busso, asked for extra bacon, saw it included, but by the time it had been assembled by 4 different people, they forgot it was there and I got charged the standard price.

btm said:

party_pants said:

party_pants said:

I think it was probably just human error in the scanning. Passed the barcode over the scanner twice, probably by accident.

It got noticed, and then resolved.

Sometimes you win sometimes you lose. I had an item yesterday scan for $12 when the price tag was $25.
I noticed. I had an idea in my head how much it should have cost. I checked the receipt when I got back in the car.

All human-operated checkouts are prone to errors. I always ask for, and check, receipts. Sometimes I find mistakes (both ways: I’ve been charged twice for something or haven’t been charged for something.) Most places are happy to correct the error.

The worst for overcharging (IME) is Chemist Warehouse. Five out of the last seven times I’ve been there they’ve overcharged me. To be fair, they have reimbursed me when I’ve gone back with the receipt.

That’s a bit worrying.

party_pants said:

SCIENCE said:

party_pants said:

Nah, I can’t see how that would work. if it scans twice it scans twice, and the ALDI computer systems track the payments. I can’t see how a cashier can deliberately miss-scan things and then pocket the money without it throwing the till receipts out of balance.

Most people pay electronically rather than cash these days too, so that adds another layer of complexity to the alleged fraud. How does a checkout operator pocket any money from an electronic transaction? I can’t see it.

don’t they have self check outs

My local ALDI does not. They are all human checkouts.

sorry we mean the human customer does the checking themselves, we’ve used those

Carrick Ryan

Put aside One Nation’s policies for a moment… I don’t think Australians are asking the right questions. This is a long read, but I feel like its important to lay out exactly what answers we need before Australians vote in another Federal election.

To be clear, I think it’s totally reasonable for Australians to care about our immigration intake. There is a completely fair and unprejudiced argument that any nation should only take in as many as it can actually absorb without making life worse for everyone. I’ve argued why Australia’s skilled migrant intake actually makes us all wealthier and our nation stronger, but that is a discussion for another time.

As someone who spent a decade investigating islamic terror networks in Sydney, I absolutely also understand the social implications of allowing someone into the country who fundamentally disagrees with the principles of secular democracy. How we control that is a question I’m yet to find a satisfactory answer to.

I am happy to have those policy discussions with anyone. But there is something about One Nation’s sudden rise that just doesn’t sit right with me.

In the 2025 election, One Nation’s primary vote was only 6.4%, which was actually it’s best result in decades. It’s 2019 primary vote was less than half that.

Barely a year later, the party is now polling at somewhere between 25% and 35%. This is a ridiculously unprecedented surge in support for a party that has existed on the fringes for decades. So what happened?

To start with, we need to pay closer attention to how the billionaire class buy political influence. It is something that is so endemic within the US political system that even billionaire Presidents rely on even wealthier billionaires to fund their campaigns. Because, as Congressman Thomas Massie just found out, if the billionaires want to invest in your downfall, there is no price they can’t afford.

But it goes well beyond campaign donations, it’s about the influence that powerful oligarchs have in shaping public opinion. The 2016 elections demonstrated how foreign intelligence agencies could weaponise social media to dictate the outcomes of elections… do you really think the most power hungry oligarchs in the world weren’t paying attention?
Why do you think Musk spent twice the market value to buy Twitter and runs it at a loss? He’s not a free speech absolutist, several studies have revealed how he manipulates the algorithms to indoctrinate users towards his far right ideology.

The platform’s own researchers found that its recommendation algorithm amplified content from mainstream right-wing politicians and news outlets more than equivalent left-wing sources.

A 2026 paper published in Nature followed nearly 5,000 users and found that exposure to X’s algorithmic feed shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump, and views on the war in Ukraine

It’s why Trump quickly moved to ensure the owners of both Facebook and YouTube were offered sufficient incentives to fall obediently behind his administration, and to play by his rules. We do not know how these massive media organisations interfere to persuade the masses how to think… but we know for a fact they have that ability.

We know because Musk openly bragged about it. Remember when Trump and Musk were having their juvenile tiff? Musk posted: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”

So what does this have to do with One Nation?

Well, just as the US has its powerful right wing billionaire oligarchs, so do we.

Gina Rinehart is Australia’s richest person. She attained her wealth through birth right, inheriting her empire from a guy who quite literally advocated for the genocide of Indigenous Australians. A position that Gina has never condemned by the way.

Rinehart is MAGA through and through, a Mar-a-Lago insider, and an unashamed advocate for bringing Trump’s policies to Australia. Rinehart wanted Peter Dutton to be the man that did this, but in the wake of Trump’s abrasive start to his 2nd term, Australia’s voters were understandably… wary.

In response to that disastrous election, the Liberal Party attempted to work its way back to the political centre with the election of a more moderate leader. Rinehart was livid, and even released a press statement complaining that “The left media did a very successful effort, frightening many in the Liberal Party from anything Trump, and away from any Trump-like policies,” and added that the Liberal Party had become the “Me Too” party after electing its first female leader.

Rinehart made no secret of her view that this was the opposite direction of where she wanted the party to go… so she began directing her resources toward One Nation.

In November 2025, Rinehart flew Hanson and her Chief of Staff, James Ashby, to Florida in her private jet, where they stayed at Rinehart’s mansion, before attending several events over the course of a week at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.

This included Hanson featuring as a guest speaker at a CPAC conference where she, unsurprisingly, gave a growing endorsement of Trump’s policies, and spoke of her desire to replicate them within Australia. Rinehart, meanwhile, was spotted in the background of another guest’s social media photos reading through documents with Trump.

Since that meeting, One Nation’s primary vote has more than tripled.

This is despite Trump’s popularity being in free fall in both Australia and the US. Other than the Bondi Terror attacks, there has been no real fundamental societal shifts that would explain a sudden surge in anti-immigration sentiment in Australia, especially as net migration had already fallen by more than 40% from its post-COVID peak by the time this surge in popularity began. Housing is, of course, a real concern for many Australians, but the available polling does not suggest One Nation’s rise is being driven by aspiring first-home buyers

Here is what I can’t get out of my head…

The Trump administration’s 2025 National Security Strategy outlined how it believed Europe was facing “the real and stark prospect of civilisational erasure” due to its immigration policies, before ominously declaring its intent to “cultivate resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations”.

Most experts understood this to indicate that the US State Department, and the CIA, would be providing material support to right wing nationalist movements in Europe…

Within that context, it’s pretty reasonable to ask the question… is the US government providing any support to One Nation?

One in four Australians now get most of their news from social media, for younger Australians that figure climbs to 40%. I know for a fact that the algorithms routinely amplify or suppress my content depending on what topic I’m discussing (I’m pretty sure I know how this post will go).

Noting that Musk, Zuckerberg, and the CEO of Google (the owners of YouTube) all attended Trump’s inauguration, it’s also reasonable to ask if they are complicit in executing the stated foreign policy objectives of the US government. The more we understand about how Trump works, it would almost be courageous of them to refuse.

Pete Hegseth threatened to invoke the Defense Production Act against Anthropic when they initially refused to let their AI model, Claude, be used for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons by the US military. What kind of pressure is being applied to Meta as the FTC continues to pursue major antitrust action against them that could force Zuckerberg to break up his corporate empire?

…we don’t know

But considering Pauline Hanson already got busted by Al Jazeera in 2019 attempting to gain financial support from the NRA in return for weakening Australia’s gun laws, do you really think they’d say “no” to whatever support Trump was offering? Which does pose the obvious question… what would he get in return?

In the end, everyone has the right to vote for whoever they want, but I would hope that all voters would want to know if a foreign government was attempting to influence our democracy in any way.

Correlation isn’t causation, and all I can do is speculate, but One Nation’s popularity more than tripled after meeting with Trump, just as the US State Department published a strategy paper outlining how it will support right wing nationalist parties in Europe… it’s worth asking the question…

We need to know if the US government, or any US owned company, is offering material support to One Nation. An obvious place to start would be asking Hanson herself if any support has been offered… and ask her who won the 2020 US Presidential election while you’re at it.

But someone needs to start asking the questions.

JudgeMental said:

Carrick Ryan

Put aside One Nation’s policies for a moment… I don’t think Australians are asking the right questions. This is a long read, but I feel like its important to lay out exactly what answers we need before Australians vote in another Federal election.

To be clear, I think it’s totally reasonable for Australians to care about our immigration intake. There is a completely fair and unprejudiced argument that any nation should only take in as many as it can actually absorb without making life worse for everyone. I’ve argued why Australia’s skilled migrant intake actually makes us all wealthier and our nation stronger, but that is a discussion for another time.

As someone who spent a decade investigating islamic terror networks in Sydney, I absolutely also understand the social implications of allowing someone into the country who fundamentally disagrees with the principles of secular democracy. How we control that is a question I’m yet to find a satisfactory answer to.

I am happy to have those policy discussions with anyone. But there is something about One Nation’s sudden rise that just doesn’t sit right with me.

In the 2025 election, One Nation’s primary vote was only 6.4%, which was actually it’s best result in decades. It’s 2019 primary vote was less than half that.

Barely a year later, the party is now polling at somewhere between 25% and 35%. This is a ridiculously unprecedented surge in support for a party that has existed on the fringes for decades. So what happened?

To start with, we need to pay closer attention to how the billionaire class buy political influence. It is something that is so endemic within the US political system that even billionaire Presidents rely on even wealthier billionaires to fund their campaigns. Because, as Congressman Thomas Massie just found out, if the billionaires want to invest in your downfall, there is no price they can’t afford.

But it goes well beyond campaign donations, it’s about the influence that powerful oligarchs have in shaping public opinion. The 2016 elections demonstrated how foreign intelligence agencies could weaponise social media to dictate the outcomes of elections… do you really think the most power hungry oligarchs in the world weren’t paying attention?
Why do you think Musk spent twice the market value to buy Twitter and runs it at a loss? He’s not a free speech absolutist, several studies have revealed how he manipulates the algorithms to indoctrinate users towards his far right ideology.

The platform’s own researchers found that its recommendation algorithm amplified content from mainstream right-wing politicians and news outlets more than equivalent left-wing sources.

A 2026 paper published in Nature followed nearly 5,000 users and found that exposure to X’s algorithmic feed shifted political opinion towards more conservative positions, particularly regarding policy priorities, perceptions of criminal investigations into Donald Trump, and views on the war in Ukraine

It’s why Trump quickly moved to ensure the owners of both Facebook and YouTube were offered sufficient incentives to fall obediently behind his administration, and to play by his rules. We do not know how these massive media organisations interfere to persuade the masses how to think… but we know for a fact they have that ability.

We know because Musk openly bragged about it. Remember when Trump and Musk were having their juvenile tiff? Musk posted: “Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”

So what does this have to do with One Nation?

Well, just as the US has its powerful right wing billionaire oligarchs, so do we.

Gina Rinehart is Australia’s richest person. She attained her wealth through birth right, inheriting her empire from a guy who quite literally advocated for the genocide of Indigenous Australians. A position that Gina has never condemned by the way.

Rinehart is MAGA through and through, a Mar-a-Lago insider, and an unashamed advocate for bringing Trump’s policies to Australia. Rinehart wanted Peter Dutton to be the man that did this, but in the wake of Trump’s abrasive start to his 2nd term, Australia’s voters were understandably… wary.

In response to that disastrous election, the Liberal Party attempted to work its way back to the political centre with the election of a more moderate leader. Rinehart was livid, and even released a press statement complaining that “The left media did a very successful effort, frightening many in the Liberal Party from anything Trump, and away from any Trump-like policies,” and added that the Liberal Party had become the “Me Too” party after electing its first female leader.

Rinehart made no secret of her view that this was the opposite direction of where she wanted the party to go… so she began directing her resources toward One Nation.

In November 2025, Rinehart flew Hanson and her Chief of Staff, James Ashby, to Florida in her private jet, where they stayed at Rinehart’s mansion, before attending several events over the course of a week at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.

This included Hanson featuring as a guest speaker at a CPAC conference where she, unsurprisingly, gave a growing endorsement of Trump’s policies, and spoke of her desire to replicate them within Australia. Rinehart, meanwhile, was spotted in the background of another guest’s social media photos reading through documents with Trump.

Since that meeting, One Nation’s primary vote has more than tripled.

This is despite Trump’s popularity being in free fall in both Australia and the US. Other than the Bondi Terror attacks, there has been no real fundamental societal shifts that would explain a sudden surge in anti-immigration sentiment in Australia, especially as net migration had already fallen by more than 40% from its post-COVID peak by the time this surge in popularity began. Housing is, of course, a real concern for many Australians, but the available polling does not suggest One Nation’s rise is being driven by aspiring first-home buyers

Here is what I can’t get out of my head…

The Trump administration’s 2025 National Security Strategy outlined how it believed Europe was facing “the real and stark prospect of civilisational erasure” due to its immigration policies, before ominously declaring its intent to “cultivate resistance to Europe’s current trajectory within European nations”.

Most experts understood this to indicate that the US State Department, and the CIA, would be providing material support to right wing nationalist movements in Europe…

Within that context, it’s pretty reasonable to ask the question… is the US government providing any support to One Nation?

One in four Australians now get most of their news from social media, for younger Australians that figure climbs to 40%. I know for a fact that the algorithms routinely amplify or suppress my content depending on what topic I’m discussing (I’m pretty sure I know how this post will go).

Noting that Musk, Zuckerberg, and the CEO of Google (the owners of YouTube) all attended Trump’s inauguration, it’s also reasonable to ask if they are complicit in executing the stated foreign policy objectives of the US government. The more we understand about how Trump works, it would almost be courageous of them to refuse.

Pete Hegseth threatened to invoke the Defense Production Act against Anthropic when they initially refused to let their AI model, Claude, be used for mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons by the US military. What kind of pressure is being applied to Meta as the FTC continues to pursue major antitrust action against them that could force Zuckerberg to break up his corporate empire?

…we don’t know

But considering Pauline Hanson already got busted by Al Jazeera in 2019 attempting to gain financial support from the NRA in return for weakening Australia’s gun laws, do you really think they’d say “no” to whatever support Trump was offering? Which does pose the obvious question… what would he get in return?

In the end, everyone has the right to vote for whoever they want, but I would hope that all voters would want to know if a foreign government was attempting to influence our democracy in any way.

Correlation isn’t causation, and all I can do is speculate, but One Nation’s popularity more than tripled after meeting with Trump, just as the US State Department published a strategy paper outlining how it will support right wing nationalist parties in Europe… it’s worth asking the question…

We need to know if the US government, or any US owned company, is offering material support to One Nation. An obvious place to start would be asking Hanson herself if any support has been offered… and ask her who won the 2020 US Presidential election while you’re at it.

But someone needs to start asking the questions.

An interesting, and disturbing, read.

The Rev Dodgson said:

JudgeMental said:

Carrick Ryan

Put aside One Nation’s policies for a moment… I don’t think Australians are asking the right questions. This is a long read, but I feel like its important to lay out exactly what answers we need before Australians vote in another Federal election.

…

An interesting, and disturbing, read.

About Carrick Ryan

The Rev Dodgson said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

JudgeMental said:

Carrick Ryan

Put aside One Nation’s policies for a moment… I don’t think Australians are asking the right questions. This is a long read, but I feel like its important to lay out exactly what answers we need before Australians vote in another Federal election.

…

An interesting, and disturbing, read.

About Carrick Ryan

we mean this is not a new revelation

SCIENCE said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

An interesting, and disturbing, read.

About Carrick Ryan

we mean this is not a new revelation

Suppose not.

It doesn’t really answer why One Notion has the sudden surge in popularity either.

Still, worth ponderation.

The Rev Dodgson said:

SCIENCE said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

About Carrick Ryan

we mean this is not a new revelation

Suppose not.

It doesn’t really answer why One Notion has the sudden surge in popularity either.

Still, worth ponderation.

what

media manipulate public opinion

so they were successful

The Rev Dodgson said:

SCIENCE said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

About Carrick Ryan

we mean this is not a new revelation

Suppose not.

It doesn’t really answer why One Notion has the sudden surge in popularity either.

Still, worth ponderation.

Looking at Troll Farms around the world, along with automated AI Data Troll Farms l, both of which potentially can hack or control algorithms might be of interest.

The Rev Dodgson said:

SCIENCE said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

About Carrick Ryan

we mean this is not a new revelation

Suppose not.

It doesn’t really answer why One Notion has the sudden surge in popularity either.

Still, worth ponderation.

PH has clearly aligned herself with Trump, and too many Australians are caught up in the vile web he has spun.

Pauline Hanson says she has “walked in the shoes” of accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith but it wouldn’t be “fair” to ask him to stand for One Nation ahead of his trial.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-07/pauline-hanson-says-she-knows-how-ben-roberts-smith-feels/106769724

Goes to jail for electoral fraud, thinks she knows what it’s like to be a war criminal 😢 won’t someone think of Poorline??

Divine Angel said:

Pauline Hanson says she has “walked in the shoes” of accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith but it wouldn’t be “fair” to ask him to stand for One Nation ahead of his trial.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-07/pauline-hanson-says-she-knows-how-ben-roberts-smith-feels/106769724

Goes to jail for electoral fraud, thinks she knows what it’s like to be a war criminal 😢 won’t someone think of Poorline??

fuck

Divine Angel said:

Pauline Hanson says she has “walked in the shoes” of accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith but it wouldn’t be “fair” to ask him to stand for One Nation ahead of his trial.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-07/pauline-hanson-says-she-knows-how-ben-roberts-smith-feels/106769724

Goes to jail for electoral fraud, thinks she knows what it’s like to be a war criminal 😢 won’t someone think of Poorline??

I don’t see what the obsession is with BR-S and people thinking he should not have been charged, or that he should be pardoned. As if this is some kind of witch-hunt.

party_pants said:

Divine Angel said:

Pauline Hanson says she has “walked in the shoes” of accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith but it wouldn’t be “fair” to ask him to stand for One Nation ahead of his trial.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-07/pauline-hanson-says-she-knows-how-ben-roberts-smith-feels/106769724

Goes to jail for electoral fraud, thinks she knows what it’s like to be a war criminal 😢 won’t someone think of Poorline??

I don’t see what the obsession is with BR-S and people thinking he should not have been charged, or that he should be pardoned. As if this is some kind of witch-hunt.

I demand a Royal Commission into the whole matter.

Divine Angel said:

Pauline Hanson says she has “walked in the shoes” of accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith but it wouldn’t be “fair” to ask him to stand for One Nation ahead of his trial.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-07/pauline-hanson-says-she-knows-how-ben-roberts-smith-feels/106769724

Goes to jail for electoral fraud, thinks she knows what it’s like to be a war criminal 😢 won’t someone think of Poorline??

She misses 88% of votes. If she can’t turn up to vote…

party_pants said:

Divine Angel said:

Pauline Hanson says she has “walked in the shoes” of accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith but it wouldn’t be “fair” to ask him to stand for One Nation ahead of his trial.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-07/pauline-hanson-says-she-knows-how-ben-roberts-smith-feels/106769724

Goes to jail for electoral fraud, thinks she knows what it’s like to be a war criminal 😢 won’t someone think of Poorline??

I don’t see what the obsession is with BR-S and people thinking he should not have been charged, or that he should be pardoned. As if this is some kind of witch-hunt.

I see it as that challenge to the idea of white men not being able to do what they want to, without consequences.

party_pants said:

Divine Angel said:

Pauline Hanson says she has “walked in the shoes” of accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith but it wouldn’t be “fair” to ask him to stand for One Nation ahead of his trial.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-07/pauline-hanson-says-she-knows-how-ben-roberts-smith-feels/106769724

Goes to jail for electoral fraud, thinks she knows what it’s like to be a war criminal 😢 won’t someone think of Poorline??

I don’t see what the obsession is with BR-S and people thinking he should not have been charged, or that he should be pardoned. As if this is some kind of witch-hunt.

I caught the end of ‘MediaWatch’ doing a story about it and the suggestion by some journo(can’t recall who) that Andrew Hastie was one of his first accusers.

ms spock said:

Divine Angel said:

Pauline Hanson says she has “walked in the shoes” of accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith but it wouldn’t be “fair” to ask him to stand for One Nation ahead of his trial.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-07/pauline-hanson-says-she-knows-how-ben-roberts-smith-feels/106769724

Goes to jail for electoral fraud, thinks she knows what it’s like to be a war criminal 😢 won’t someone think of Poorline??

She misses 88% of votes. If she can’t turn up to vote…

wait do we think these fascists are going to make future governance about votes

SCIENCE said:

ms spock said:

Divine Angel said:

Pauline Hanson says she has “walked in the shoes” of accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith but it wouldn’t be “fair” to ask him to stand for One Nation ahead of his trial.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-07/pauline-hanson-says-she-knows-how-ben-roberts-smith-feels/106769724

Goes to jail for electoral fraud, thinks she knows what it’s like to be a war criminal 😢 won’t someone think of Poorline??

She misses 88% of votes. If she can’t turn up to vote…

wait do we think these fascists are going to make future governance about votes

Oh, so all those elections where she didn’t win were rigged?

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

ms spock said:

She misses 88% of votes. If she can’t turn up to vote…

wait do we think these fascists are going to make future governance about votes

Oh, so all those elections where she didn’t win were rigged?

that’sn’t what we meant

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

wait do we think these fascists are going to make future governance about votes

Oh, so all those elections where she didn’t win were rigged?

that’sn’t what we meant

So she’s not walking in Trumps shoes?

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

Oh, so all those elections where she didn’t win were rigged?

that’sn’t what we meant

So she’s not walking in Trumps shoes?

clown

Another good Newspoll for ONP, showing them slightly ahead of ALP on primaries, though slightly behind on 2pp.

2pps
ALP 53.5 v LNP 46.5
ALP 50.5 v ONP 49.5

dv said:

Another good Newspoll for ONP, showing them slightly ahead of ALP on primaries, though slightly behind on 2pp.

2pps
ALP 53.5 v LNP 46.5
ALP 50.5 v ONP 49.5

Oh, let’s do a 2024 thing at the next election, and put ONP in government, just for shits and giggles.

dv said:

Another good Newspoll for ONP, showing them slightly ahead of ALP on primaries, though slightly behind on 2pp.

2pps
ALP 53.5 v LNP 46.5
ALP 50.5 v ONP 49.5

What I don’t get is that not so long ago a large proportion of LNP voters would put ALP ahead of ONP, but now virtually all of them are switching to ONP.

So what have ALP done to drive middle of the road people away from voting for them?

The Rev Dodgson said:

dv said:

Another good Newspoll for ONP, showing them slightly ahead of ALP on primaries, though slightly behind on 2pp.

2pps
ALP 53.5 v LNP 46.5
ALP 50.5 v ONP 49.5

What I don’t get is that not so long ago a large proportion of LNP voters would put ALP ahead of ONP, but now virtually all of them are switching to ONP.

So what have ALP done to drive middle of the road people away from voting for them?

I do not know, but they’d better find out soon.

Divine Angel said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

dv said:

Another good Newspoll for ONP, showing them slightly ahead of ALP on primaries, though slightly behind on 2pp.

2pps
ALP 53.5 v LNP 46.5
ALP 50.5 v ONP 49.5

What I don’t get is that not so long ago a large proportion of LNP voters would put ALP ahead of ONP, but now virtually all of them are switching to ONP.

So what have ALP done to drive middle of the road people away from voting for them?

I do not know, but they’d better find out soon.

I’m not still not at panic stations. The election is 2 years away.

dv said:

Divine Angel said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

What I don’t get is that not so long ago a large proportion of LNP voters would put ALP ahead of ONP, but now virtually all of them are switching to ONP.

So what have ALP done to drive middle of the road people away from voting for them?

I do not know, but they’d better find out soon.

I’m not still not at panic stations. The election is 2 years away.

Exactly, there is ample time for the LNP to recover.

Peak Warming Man said:

dv said:

Divine Angel said:

I do not know, but they’d better find out soon.

I’m not still not at panic stations. The election is 2 years away.

Exactly, there is ample time for the LNP to recover.

Unlit suplands all the way

Gambling odds on the next Aust Fed Election from sportsbet

ALP 1.78
LNP 3.30
Annie Other 5.00

Public inquiry into AUKUS is a landmark moment in Australia’s politics
Considering the government seems keen to avoid public debate about AUKUS, this inquiry could test the existence of any remaining appetite for the embattled project.

https://www.crikey.com.au/2026/06/09/aukus-public-inquiry-submarine-pact-viability/

dv said:

Public inquiry into AUKUS is a landmark moment in Australia’s politics
Considering the government seems keen to avoid public debate about AUKUS, this inquiry could test the existence of any remaining appetite for the embattled project.

https://www.crikey.com.au/2026/06/09/aukus-public-inquiry-submarine-pact-viability/

I was disappointed that Albo was too timid to go his first election without proposing a review of this stinker of a deal.

Ian said:

dv said:

Public inquiry into AUKUS is a landmark moment in Australia’s politics
Considering the government seems keen to avoid public debate about AUKUS, this inquiry could test the existence of any remaining appetite for the embattled project.

https://www.crikey.com.au/2026/06/09/aukus-public-inquiry-submarine-pact-viability/

I was disappointed that Albo was too timid to go his first election without proposing a review of this stinker of a deal.

The USA should be offering us compensation for the money we paid to the French for the cancelled deal

Ian said:

dv said:

Public inquiry into AUKUS is a landmark moment in Australia’s politics
Considering the government seems keen to avoid public debate about AUKUS, this inquiry could test the existence of any remaining appetite for the embattled project.

https://www.crikey.com.au/2026/06/09/aukus-public-inquiry-submarine-pact-viability/

I was disappointed that Albo was too timid to go his first election without proposing a review of this stinker of a deal.

The USA should be offering us compensation for the money we paid to the French for the cancelled deal

Cymek said:

Ian said:

dv said:

Public inquiry into AUKUS is a landmark moment in Australia’s politics
Considering the government seems keen to avoid public debate about AUKUS, this inquiry could test the existence of any remaining appetite for the embattled project.

https://www.crikey.com.au/2026/06/09/aukus-public-inquiry-submarine-pact-viability/

I was disappointed that Albo was too timid to go his first election without proposing a review of this stinker of a deal.

The USA should be offering us compensation for the money we paid to the French for the cancelled deal

Say it again. War!…

Cymek said:

Ian said:

dv said:

Public inquiry into AUKUS is a landmark moment in Australia’s politics
Considering the government seems keen to avoid public debate about AUKUS, this inquiry could test the existence of any remaining appetite for the embattled project.

https://www.crikey.com.au/2026/06/09/aukus-public-inquiry-submarine-pact-viability/

I was disappointed that Albo was too timid to go his first election without proposing a review of this stinker of a deal.

The USA should be offering us compensation for the money we paid to the French for the cancelled deal

I think we should just ask for a refund of our deposit and start from scratch with a supplier who can supply.

buffy said:

Cymek said:

Ian said:

I was disappointed that Albo was too timid to go his first election without proposing a review of this stinker of a deal.

The USA should be offering us compensation for the money we paid to the French for the cancelled deal

I think we should just ask for a refund of our deposit and start from scratch with a supplier who can supply.

Yes

pretty sure there is a more local manufacturing powerhouse that could help build ships that sink for Australia just saying

SCIENCE said:

pretty sure there is a more local manufacturing powerhouse that could help build ships that sink for Australia just saying

Could find submarines become obsolete in this new era of drones
I mean no reason you couldn’t just build hundreds of drone submarines that are basically a bomb.
Being small would be harder to detect and use kamikaze attacks

Cymek said:

SCIENCE said:

pretty sure there is a more local manufacturing powerhouse that could help build ships that sink for Australia just saying

Could find submarines become obsolete in this new era of drones
I mean no reason you couldn’t just build hundreds of drone submarines that are basically a bomb.
Being small would be harder to detect and use kamikaze attacks

yes

but you know, you have governments that can barely plan past the end of the week let alone the next election cycle, then suddenly they’re able to commit $368000000000 for 30 years into a future when the very technology that probably won’t even get delivered will be obsolete anyway, you can be pretty sure something sus’ is up

Ah well at least there’s something.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-10/nsw-alex-greenwich-mark-latham-appeal-outcome/106779476

dv said:

Leeser is the Fed. MP for my area.

He can be bloody annoying, but at least he has the guts to say stuff that goes against what the party leadership might like him to say.

Like Iranian immigrants make a valuable contribution to Australia.
Or vote yes in the “Voice Referendum”.

Australia’s hate speech laws? Child’s play. ASIO is about to get permanent powers to drag your family into questioning: no warrant, no charges, no right to silence.

These aren’t emergency powers. They’re permanent. Here’s what that actually means for you.

In this video:

Why hate speech laws are the least of your worries
What “promotion of communal violence” really means and how vague it is
How ASIO can compel your family members to testify against you
The criminal penalties for staying silent
Why there’s no judicial warrant between you and a questioning notice
How these powers went from mass-casualty terrorism to community tensions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzG82R-2eNc

Spiny Norman said:

Australia’s hate speech laws? Child’s play. ASIO is about to get permanent powers to drag your family into questioning: no warrant, no charges, no right to silence.

These aren’t emergency powers. They’re permanent. Here’s what that actually means for you.

In this video:

Why hate speech laws are the least of your worries
What “promotion of communal violence” really means and how vague it is
How ASIO can compel your family members to testify against you
The criminal penalties for staying silent
Why there’s no judicial warrant between you and a questioning notice
How these powers went from mass-casualty terrorism to community tensions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzG82R-2eNc

Government always want its population to be afraid of something so it can maintain power.
Realistically violent protest may be required to change anything important
The status quo as we see are willing to do anything to hold onto it.
Societal collapse is inevitable anyway

Cymek said:

Spiny Norman said:

Australia’s hate speech laws? Child’s play. ASIO is about to get permanent powers to drag your family into questioning: no warrant, no charges, no right to silence.

These aren’t emergency powers. They’re permanent. Here’s what that actually means for you.

In this video:

Why hate speech laws are the least of your worries
What “promotion of communal violence” really means and how vague it is
How ASIO can compel your family members to testify against you
The criminal penalties for staying silent
Why there’s no judicial warrant between you and a questioning notice
How these powers went from mass-casualty terrorism to community tensions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzG82R-2eNc

Government always want its population to be afraid of something so it can maintain power.
Realistically violent protest may be required to change anything important
The status quo as we see are willing to do anything to hold onto it.
Societal collapse is inevitable anyway

OK let’s do it where do we meet

We used to be journos

ETTE

Jan and Antoinette react to news that Charlie Pickering’s swipe at Grace Tame didn’t breach ABC’s code of conduct, which leaves them very confused about who gets to have opinions at the national broadcaster and who doesn’t.

Plus, they take stock of the weekend articles that compared Pauline Hanson to various important historical figures and they dissect an A.I-related quandary involving two academics and the Sydney Morning Herald.

Jan gives a shout out to the former MAGA influencer Ashleigh St Clair blowing the whistle on MAGA’s media manipulation, while Antoinette praises fellow indie media outlet’s persistent coverage on Lebanon.

SUPPORT INDEPENDENT MEDIA www.ettemedia.com
You can donate to us by leaving a Super Thanks! It’ll appear as a little heart icon to the left of your screen when you go to leave a comment.

comment.

1:42​ What’s on the show today?
4:22​ Did the ABC’s new social media rules ever apply equally?
7:05​ Why was Charlie Pickering cleared while others faced consequences?
10:25​ Why are major newspapers comparing Pauline Hanson to historical giants?
17:15​ What happened to Chris Ulhmann?
19:40​ Can the major parties stop One Nation’s surge?
24:02​ Why did the Sydney Morning Herald pull an AI-generated opinion piece?
31:55​ Did the Pope use AI for his speech and cyclical?
36:40​ People wrongly accused of using AI: neurodiverse and English as second language
39:33​ Why did Ashleigh St Clair walk away from MAGA and expose its secrets?
46:58​ Who is keeping the Lebanon story alive in Australian media?

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jun/10/hanson-one-nation-senator-tyron-whitten-alleged-breach-of-constitution-section-44-hydro-ntwnfb

oh c’m‘on it’s not like those nuclear submarines are being built by some other country, we can

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-11/spacex-risk-elon-musk-starlink-satellite-regulation/106779898

trust these allies and their backers of shared values implicitly

The 8% of Greens who direct preferences to ONP must be interesting to talk to.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-10/nsw-acknowledges-protester-hannah-thomas-was-punched-by-officer/106782156

Lawyers for the state government have admitted a police officer battered former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Sydney last year.

Ms Thomas brought a civil claim against the state after she was hospitalised needing surgery and had charges against her dropped.

What’s next?
An officer involved in the incident has been charged with occasioning bodily harm and is due to face court again later this year.

dv said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-10/nsw-acknowledges-protester-hannah-thomas-was-punched-by-officer/106782156

Lawyers for the state government have admitted a police officer battered former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Sydney last year.

Ms Thomas brought a civil claim against the state after she was hospitalised needing surgery and had charges against her dropped.

What’s next?
An officer involved in the incident has been charged with occasioning bodily harm and is due to face court again later this year.

NSW police are in a bit of trouble about their behaviour,

roughbarked said:

dv said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-10/nsw-acknowledges-protester-hannah-thomas-was-punched-by-officer/106782156

Lawyers for the state government have admitted a police officer battered former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Sydney last year.

Ms Thomas brought a civil claim against the state after she was hospitalised needing surgery and had charges against her dropped.

What’s next?
An officer involved in the incident has been charged with occasioning bodily harm and is due to face court again later this year.

NSW police are in a bit of trouble about their behaviour,

autonomous robotic humanoid enforcers would solve this problem

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

dv said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-10/nsw-acknowledges-protester-hannah-thomas-was-punched-by-officer/106782156

Lawyers for the state government have admitted a police officer battered former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Sydney last year.

Ms Thomas brought a civil claim against the state after she was hospitalised needing surgery and had charges against her dropped.

What’s next?
An officer involved in the incident has been charged with occasioning bodily harm and is due to face court again later this year.

NSW police are in a bit of trouble about their behaviour,

autonomous robotic humanoid enforcers would solve this problem

Have you read the Judge Dredd comics?

Was meant to get to 21 degrees today but so far the max is 15˚.

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

NSW police are in a bit of trouble about their behaviour,

autonomous robotic humanoid enforcers would solve this problem

Have you read the Judge Dredd comics?

we ran out of time to but we have a bunch, which do you recommend beginning with, maybe in the new year who knows

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

autonomous robotic humanoid enforcers would solve this problem

Have you read the Judge Dredd comics?

we ran out of time to but we have a bunch, which do you recommend beginning with, maybe in the new year who knows

They aren’t fucking flowers.
https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/1bgmpcu/what_is_a_group_of_connected_comics_called/

dv said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-10/nsw-acknowledges-protester-hannah-thomas-was-punched-by-officer/106782156

Lawyers for the state government have admitted a police officer battered former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Sydney last year.

Ms Thomas brought a civil claim against the state after she was hospitalised needing surgery and had charges against her dropped.

What’s next?
An officer involved in the incident has been charged with occasioning bodily harm and is due to face court again later this year.

Why isn’t the police officer’s name published?

dv said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-10/nsw-acknowledges-protester-hannah-thomas-was-punched-by-officer/106782156

Lawyers for the state government have admitted a police officer battered former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Sydney last year.

Ms Thomas brought a civil claim against the state after she was hospitalised needing surgery and had charges against her dropped.

What’s next?
An officer involved in the incident has been charged with occasioning bodily harm and is due to face court again later this year.

Why isn’t the police officer’s name published?

dv said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-10/nsw-acknowledges-protester-hannah-thomas-was-punched-by-officer/106782156

Lawyers for the state government have admitted a police officer battered former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Sydney last year.

Ms Thomas brought a civil claim against the state after she was hospitalised needing surgery and had charges against her dropped.

What’s next?
An officer involved in the incident has been charged with occasioning bodily harm and is due to face court again later this year.

Why isn’t the police officer’s name published?

dv said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-10/nsw-acknowledges-protester-hannah-thomas-was-punched-by-officer/106782156

Lawyers for the state government have admitted a police officer battered former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Sydney last year.

Ms Thomas brought a civil claim against the state after she was hospitalised needing surgery and had charges against her dropped.

What’s next?
An officer involved in the incident has been charged with occasioning bodily harm and is due to face court again later this year.

Why isn’t the police officer’s name published?

roughbarked said:

dv said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-10/nsw-acknowledges-protester-hannah-thomas-was-punched-by-officer/106782156

Lawyers for the state government have admitted a police officer battered former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Sydney last year.

Ms Thomas brought a civil claim against the state after she was hospitalised needing surgery and had charges against her dropped.

What’s next?
An officer involved in the incident has been charged with occasioning bodily harm and is due to face court again later this year.

NSW police are in a bit of trouble about their behaviour,

He is not named.

It’s like the wealthy rapists who are being convicted but their names being withheld to “protect their mental health”.

ms spock said:

dv said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-10/nsw-acknowledges-protester-hannah-thomas-was-punched-by-officer/106782156

Lawyers for the state government have admitted a police officer battered former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Sydney last year.

Ms Thomas brought a civil claim against the state after she was hospitalised needing surgery and had charges against her dropped.

What’s next?
An officer involved in the incident has been charged with occasioning bodily harm and is due to face court again later this year.

Why isn’t the police officer’s name published?

Because no-one charged with a serious offence should be named until the trial is finished, including all appeals.

The Rev Dodgson said:

ms spock said:

dv said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-10/nsw-acknowledges-protester-hannah-thomas-was-punched-by-officer/106782156

Lawyers for the state government have admitted a police officer battered former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Sydney last year.

Ms Thomas brought a civil claim against the state after she was hospitalised needing surgery and had charges against her dropped.

What’s next?
An officer involved in the incident has been charged with occasioning bodily harm and is due to face court again later this year.

Why isn’t the police officer’s name published?

Because no-one charged with a serious offence should be named until the trial is finished, including all appeals.

But that doesn’t happen to the protesters?

ms spock said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

ms spock said:

Why isn’t the police officer’s name published?

Because no-one charged with a serious offence should be named until the trial is finished, including all appeals.

But that doesn’t happen to the protesters?

Then protest about it not happening to protestors.

ms spock said:

dv said:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-10/nsw-acknowledges-protester-hannah-thomas-was-punched-by-officer/106782156

Lawyers for the state government have admitted a police officer battered former Greens candidate Hannah Thomas at a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Sydney last year.

Ms Thomas brought a civil claim against the state after she was hospitalised needing surgery and had charges against her dropped.

What’s next?
An officer involved in the incident has been charged with occasioning bodily harm and is due to face court again later this year.

Why isn’t the police officer’s name published?

Likely will be if he is convicted.

roughbarked said:

SCIENCE said:

roughbarked said:

Have you read the Judge Dredd comics?

we ran out of time to but we have a bunch, which do you recommend beginning with, maybe in the new year who knows

They aren’t fucking flowers.
https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/1bgmpcu/what_is_a_group_of_connected_comics_called/

when flowers fuck you get fruits, and we’re pretty sure our collection is discontinuous items grabbed all together, which is a bunch

JudgeMental said:

She forgot to mention defence spending going through the roof.

JudgeMental said:

Gosh, where have I heard those things before…? 🤔

I’d like to know more about their plan to reform NDIS.

Divine Angel said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

JudgeMental said:

She forgot to mention defence spending going through the roof.

Gosh, where have I heard those things before…? 🤔

I’d like to know more about their plan to reform NDIS.

so in summary popularity team sports democracy achieves the worst governance and decision making except for all the alternatives

The Rev Dodgson said:

JudgeMental said:

She forgot to mention defence spending going through the roof.

But but but….. what about the subareens?

JudgeMental said:

Outstanding! I’d like to see the maths, their workings.

The Rev Dodgson said:

JudgeMental said:

She forgot to mention defence spending going through the roof.

She’ll no doubt promise to keep defending against everyone not Australian.

JudgeMental said:

Hmm. I wonder where they’ll get the money to do the first one…

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jun/11/one-nation-party-financial-reports-returns-fair-trading-ntwnfb

Link

Michael V said:

JudgeMental said:

Hmm. I wonder where they’ll get the money to do the first one…

That’s why I want to see their workings.

JudgeMental said:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jun/11/one-nation-party-financial-reports-returns-fair-trading-ntwnfb

Link

This wasn’t published before the recent elections?

Michael V said:

JudgeMental said:

Hmm. I wonder where they’ll get the money to do the first one…

when they scrap anything to do with net zero there’ll be oodles for coal fired power.

JudgeMental said:

Michael V said:

JudgeMental said:

Hmm. I wonder where they’ll get the money to do the first one…

when they scrap anything to do with net zero there’ll be oodles for coal fired power.

So why wasn’t that first on their list?

JudgeMental said:

Michael V said:

JudgeMental said:

Hmm. I wonder where they’ll get the money to do the first one…

when they scrap anything to do with net zero there’ll be oodles for coal fired power.

I wouldn’t give One Notion anything, let alone the billions of dollars it costs to build a coal-fired power plant.

Michael V said:

JudgeMental said:

Michael V said:

Hmm. I wonder where they’ll get the money to do the first one…

when they scrap anything to do with net zero there’ll be oodles for coal fired power.

I wouldn’t give One Notion anything, let alone the billions of dollars it costs to build a coal-fired power plant.

My guess is that One Notion would not actually build the coal-fired power stations, but pass legislation allowing and encouraging others to do so. To encourage others to do so might require significant subsidies.

Michael V said:

Michael V said:

JudgeMental said:

when they scrap anything to do with net zero there’ll be oodles for coal fired power.

I wouldn’t give One Notion anything, let alone the billions of dollars it costs to build a coal-fired power plant.

My guess is that One Notion would not actually build the coal-fired power stations, but pass legislation allowing and encouraging others to do so. To encourage others to do so might require significant subsidies.

FWIW a mate of mine used to be one of the managers at the coal power station near Kingaroy. He said it was a Japanese unit, we just paid $800,000,000 for it at the time and assembled the parts here onsite.

The Rev Dodgson said:

JudgeMental said:

She forgot to mention defence spending going through the roof.

And the flaming price of flaming hair dye.

Spiny Norman said:

Michael V said:

Michael V said:

I wouldn’t give One Notion anything, let alone the billions of dollars it costs to build a coal-fired power plant.

My guess is that One Notion would not actually build the coal-fired power stations, but pass legislation allowing and encouraging others to do so. To encourage others to do so might require significant subsidies.

FWIW a mate of mine used to be one of the managers at the coal power station near Kingaroy. He said it was a Japanese unit, we just paid $800,000,000 for it at the time and assembled the parts here onsite.

Possibly Hitachi.

I’d hazard a guess that overall it’d be cheaper to invest in batteries (including water: pumped hydro) than to replace all the coal-fired power plants that are reaching the end of their lives. I doubt a private consortium would build new plants without significant subsidies.

But hey, if One Notion wants us to pay large corporate entities to build replacement power plants, whilst allowing them to charge us for the privilege, they should tell us that that’s their real plan.

Michael V said:

Possibly Hitachi.

That does ring a bell.

Michael V said:

Spiny Norman said:

Michael V said:

My guess is that One Notion would not actually build the coal-fired power stations, but pass legislation allowing and encouraging others to do so. To encourage others to do so might require significant subsidies.

FWIW a mate of mine used to be one of the managers at the coal power station near Kingaroy. He said it was a Japanese unit, we just paid $800,000,000 for it at the time and assembled the parts here onsite.

Possibly Hitachi.

I’d hazard a guess that overall it’d be cheaper to invest in batteries (including water: pumped hydro) than to replace all the coal-fired power plants that are reaching the end of their lives. I doubt a private consortium would build new plants without significant subsidies.

But hey, if One Notion wants us to pay large corporate entities to build replacement power plants, whilst allowing them to charge us for the privilege, they should tell us that that’s their real plan.

I had a Hitashi double cassette deck.. brilliant bit of gear.. and a washing machine.. likewise.
I can’t vouch for their coal-fired power plants but…

Divine Angel said:

JudgeMental said:

Gosh, where have I heard those things before…? 🤔

I’d like to know more about their plan to reform NDIS.

Make it a government department with accountability that can be enforced. I wrote up a brief for a woman who is 25 years old physically and 18 months developmentally. She requires 24/7 care. Their provider cut their package in half, no reason given. I went begging and got a legal firm to do pro bono. The case won in court but they still didn’t receive the funding. It was so demoralising. I will never write up like that again. Her mother kept meticulous records. I though it could set a precedent for the NDIS.

what a legend

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-11/one-nation-pauline-hanson-gina-rinehart/106787540
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-11/australians-face-a-binary-choice-as-one-nation-soars-chalmers/106787392

what a legend

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-11/one-nation-pauline-hanson-gina-rinehart/106787540
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-11/australians-face-a-binary-choice-as-one-nation-soars-chalmers/106787392

“Australians face a binary choice”

🤔

Divine Angel said:

“Australians face a binary choice”

🤔

It’s certainly not a Barnaby Choice.

Woodie said:

Divine Angel said:

“Australians face a binary choice”

🤔

It’s certainly not a Barnaby Choice.

I actually did LOL at that.

Woodie said:

Divine Angel said:

“Australians face a binary choice”

🤔

It’s certainly not a Barnaby Choice.

ha

https://donate.onenation.org.au/fire-the-liar

alleged

genius

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-11/richard-marles-blindsided-after-uk-counterpart-john-healey-qiuts/106788486

SCIENCE said:

what a legend

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-11/one-nation-pauline-hanson-gina-rinehart/106787540
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-11/australians-face-a-binary-choice-as-one-nation-soars-chalmers/106787392

If more people want to destroy Australia than want to save pur unique wildlife and people, what will we do?
We should be more than just a hole in the ground gor Gina.

Ian said:

Michael V said:

Spiny Norman said:

FWIW a mate of mine used to be one of the managers at the coal power station near Kingaroy. He said it was a Japanese unit, we just paid $800,000,000 for it at the time and assembled the parts here onsite.

Possibly Hitachi.

I’d hazard a guess that overall it’d be cheaper to invest in batteries (including water: pumped hydro) than to replace all the coal-fired power plants that are reaching the end of their lives. I doubt a private consortium would build new plants without significant subsidies.

But hey, if One Notion wants us to pay large corporate entities to build replacement power plants, whilst allowing them to charge us for the privilege, they should tell us that that’s their real plan.

I had a Hitashi double cassette deck.. brilliant bit of gear.. and a washing machine.. likewise.
I can’t vouch for their coal-fired power plants but…

They make excellent jackhammers.

Today’s Morgan poll:

Primaries
ONP 29.5
ALP 26%
LNP 17.5%
Greens 15.5%
Other 11.5%

Reckon if you were to parse out the LNP into its constituents, the Libs would not be in the top three in this poll.

2pps

ALP vs LNP 56-44
ALP vs ONP 53.5-46.5

Seems perhaps that much of the Other are Tealish, and maybe half of the LNP voter direct prefs to ALP over ONP. ALP is now very much in a position where only a minority of its 2PP is from those who give them the primary vote.

If an election were held today, on these numbers the ALP would retain majority government and ONP would be the opposition party, and the LNP would be reduced to single digits in seats.

dv said:

Today’s Morgan poll:

Primaries
ONP 29.5
ALP 26%
LNP 17.5%
Greens 15.5%
Other 11.5%

Reckon if you were to parse out the LNP into its constituents, the Libs would not be in the top three in this poll.

2pps

ALP vs LNP 56-44
ALP vs ONP 53.5-46.5

Seems perhaps that much of the Other are Tealish, and maybe half of the LNP voter direct prefs to ALP over ONP. ALP is now very much in a position where only a minority of its 2PP is from those who give them the primary vote.

If an election were held today, on these numbers the ALP would retain majority government and ONP would be the opposition party, and the LNP would be reduced to single digits in seats.

Much as I dislike Anxious Taylor, I’m struggling to see how so many Libs see ON as better.

SCIENCE said:

genius

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-11/richard-marles-blindsided-after-uk-counterpart-john-healey-qiuts/106788486

“The Iran war is changing the Middle East. It’s hitting our people at home. Putin’s aggression is increasing. And the US is demanding nations, whether they’re in the Indo-Pacific or in the Euro-Atlantic, that we step up. This demands us to respond purchase more weapons from the American Military Complex.”

Fixed it for you.

ms spock said:

SCIENCE said:

genius

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-11/richard-marles-blindsided-after-uk-counterpart-john-healey-qiuts/106788486

“The Iran war is changing the Middle East. It’s hitting our people at home. Putin’s aggression is increasing. And the US is demanding nations, whether they’re in the Indo-Pacific or in the Euro-Atlantic, that we step up. This demands us to respond purchase more weapons from the American Military Complex.”

Fixed it for you.

Trump messed everything up and spent hundreds of billions for little achievement
Why would anyone else foot the bill
I imagine most world leaders are gloating at his cluster fuck and perhaps even spite themselves to not help

Cymek said:

ms spock said:

SCIENCE said:

genius

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-11/richard-marles-blindsided-after-uk-counterpart-john-healey-qiuts/106788486

“The Iran war is changing the Middle East. It’s hitting our people at home. Putin’s aggression is increasing. And the US is demanding nations, whether they’re in the Indo-Pacific or in the Euro-Atlantic, that we step up. This demands us to respond purchase more weapons from the American Military Complex.”

Fixed it for you.

Trump messed everything up and spent hundreds of billions for little achievement
Why would anyone else foot the bill
I imagine most world leaders are gloating at his cluster fuck and perhaps even spite themselves to not help

I hope that they don’t bail him out

Then I feel tremendously sad for the millions of people who will steer.

ms spock said:

Cymek said:

ms spock said:

“The Iran war is changing the Middle East. It’s hitting our people at home. Putin’s aggression is increasing. And the US is demanding nations, whether they’re in the Indo-Pacific or in the Euro-Atlantic, that we step up. This demands us to respond purchase more weapons from the American Military Complex.”

Fixed it for you.

Trump messed everything up and spent hundreds of billions for little achievement
Why would anyone else foot the bill
I imagine most world leaders are gloating at his cluster fuck and perhaps even spite themselves to not help

I hope that they don’t bail him out

Then I feel tremendously sad for the millions of people who will steer.

Suffer not steer

ms spock said:

ms spock said:

Cymek said:

Trump messed everything up and spent hundreds of billions for little achievement
Why would anyone else foot the bill
I imagine most world leaders are gloating at his cluster fuck and perhaps even spite themselves to not help

I hope that they don’t bail him out

Then I feel tremendously sad for the millions of people who will steer.

Suffer not steer

suffer the bum steer

DemosAU polling for the Vic state election, LNP ahead of ALP 55-45.

Annabel Crabbe on Tony Abbott

ABC item well worth it for a laugh.

From Getup:

“Avi Yemini – the former Israeli soldier and far-right YouTuber – is one step closer to registering a fake party called “Free Palestine” ahead of Victoria’s November election. In his own words, the party exists to “capture votes and redistribute them” to One Nation and the far right.

Three other fake progressive parties – “Refugees Are Welcome Here”, “Muslim Votes Matter”, and “Save the Environment” – are built on identical server infrastructure, run by the same network. “

Shouldn’t that sort of stuff be against the rules?

buffy said:

Annabel Crabbe on Tony Abbott

ABC item well worth it for a laugh.

I was just wondering why no-one was posting Australian politics here recently :)

The Rev Dodgson said:

From Getup:

“Avi Yemini – the former Israeli soldier and far-right YouTuber – is one step closer to registering a fake party called “Free Palestine” ahead of Victoria’s November election. In his own words, the party exists to “capture votes and redistribute them” to One Nation and the far right.

Three other fake progressive parties – “Refugees Are Welcome Here”, “Muslim Votes Matter”, and “Save the Environment” – are built on identical server infrastructure, run by the same network. “

Shouldn’t that sort of stuff be against the rules?

I thought you needed 500 members or something like that.

Also, if he is still an Israeli citizen he would be ineligible to run for election, so any votes he gets would be disqualified anyway.

Queensland deputy premier says he has no sympathy for ‘juvenile grubs’ in youth detention lockdown

Queensland’s deputy premier says he has no sympathy for “juvenile grubs” in youth detention centres after concerns were raised about their welfare during lockdowns.

Jarrod Bleijie suggested it was often the children’s fault they had been placed in lockdown, pointing to reports of frequent attacks against staff.

“A lockdown is for the safety of not only the offenders but the workers, and it is because some juvenile grub has caused the lockdown in the first place, whether they have started a physical altercation or whatever the case may be,” he said.

“So, if you’re thinking you are going to find sympathy from me for a youth offender in our youth justice system, you ain’t gonna get it from me.”

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-12/qld-deputy-no-sympathy-for-youth-locked-down-in-detention/106790180

I cannot state strongly enough as to what a total f’wit he is.

Spiny Norman said:

Queensland deputy premier says he has no sympathy for ‘juvenile grubs’ in youth detention lockdown

Queensland’s deputy premier says he has no sympathy for “juvenile grubs” in youth detention centres after concerns were raised about their welfare during lockdowns.

Jarrod Bleijie suggested it was often the children’s fault they had been placed in lockdown, pointing to reports of frequent attacks against staff.

“A lockdown is for the safety of not only the offenders but the workers, and it is because some juvenile grub has caused the lockdown in the first place, whether they have started a physical altercation or whatever the case may be,” he said.

“So, if you’re thinking you are going to find sympathy from me for a youth offender in our youth justice system, you ain’t gonna get it from me.”

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-12/qld-deputy-no-sympathy-for-youth-locked-down-in-detention/106790180

I cannot state strongly enough as to what a total f’wit he is.

Politicians are conditioned into thinking that being “tough on crime” or “tough on criminals” is popular with the electorate. And since they are the ones who makes the laws in the first place, they have an added sense of despising those who don’t obey their laws.

party_pants said:

Spiny Norman said:

Queensland deputy premier says he has no sympathy for ‘juvenile grubs’ in youth detention lockdown

Queensland’s deputy premier says he has no sympathy for “juvenile grubs” in youth detention centres after concerns were raised about their welfare during lockdowns.

Jarrod Bleijie suggested it was often the children’s fault they had been placed in lockdown, pointing to reports of frequent attacks against staff.

“A lockdown is for the safety of not only the offenders but the workers, and it is because some juvenile grub has caused the lockdown in the first place, whether they have started a physical altercation or whatever the case may be,” he said.

“So, if you’re thinking you are going to find sympathy from me for a youth offender in our youth justice system, you ain’t gonna get it from me.”

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-12/qld-deputy-no-sympathy-for-youth-locked-down-in-detention/106790180

I cannot state strongly enough as to what a total f’wit he is.

Politicians are conditioned into thinking that being “tough on crime” or “tough on criminals” is popular with the electorate. And since they are the ones who makes the laws in the first place, they have an added sense of despising those who don’t obey their laws.

I’ll tell you what though, the Qld govt is certainly spending shitloads of money on advertising how good they are at doing their job.

party_pants said:

Spiny Norman said:

Queensland deputy premier says he has no sympathy for ‘juvenile grubs’ in youth detention lockdown

Queensland’s deputy premier says he has no sympathy for “juvenile grubs” in youth detention centres after concerns were raised about their welfare during lockdowns.

Jarrod Bleijie suggested it was often the children’s fault they had been placed in lockdown, pointing to reports of frequent attacks against staff.

“A lockdown is for the safety of not only the offenders but the workers, and it is because some juvenile grub has caused the lockdown in the first place, whether they have started a physical altercation or whatever the case may be,” he said.

“So, if you’re thinking you are going to find sympathy from me for a youth offender in our youth justice system, you ain’t gonna get it from me.”

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-12/qld-deputy-no-sympathy-for-youth-locked-down-in-detention/106790180

I cannot state strongly enough as to what a total f’wit he is.

Politicians are conditioned into thinking that being “tough on crime” or “tough on criminals” is popular with the electorate. And since they are the ones who makes the laws in the first place, they have an added sense of despising those who don’t obey their laws.

The Queensland LNP, like the federal LNP, use the childish practice of making things that are already illegal even more illegal to try to deter people.
Not the slightest effort to combat the root causes of …. anything.

Divine Angel said:

party_pants said:

Spiny Norman said:

Queensland deputy premier says he has no sympathy for ‘juvenile grubs’ in youth detention lockdown

Queensland’s deputy premier says he has no sympathy for “juvenile grubs” in youth detention centres after concerns were raised about their welfare during lockdowns.

Jarrod Bleijie suggested it was often the children’s fault they had been placed in lockdown, pointing to reports of frequent attacks against staff.

“A lockdown is for the safety of not only the offenders but the workers, and it is because some juvenile grub has caused the lockdown in the first place, whether they have started a physical altercation or whatever the case may be,” he said.

“So, if you’re thinking you are going to find sympathy from me for a youth offender in our youth justice system, you ain’t gonna get it from me.”

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-12/qld-deputy-no-sympathy-for-youth-locked-down-in-detention/106790180

I cannot state strongly enough as to what a total f’wit he is.

Politicians are conditioned into thinking that being “tough on crime” or “tough on criminals” is popular with the electorate. And since they are the ones who makes the laws in the first place, they have an added sense of despising those who don’t obey their laws.

I’ll tell you what though, the Qld govt is certainly spending shitloads of money on advertising how good they are at doing their job.

I’ll say. And it is annoying that it’s our money, not the conservatives’ money that is being spent.

Spiny Norman said:

party_pants said:

Spiny Norman said:

Queensland deputy premier says he has no sympathy for ‘juvenile grubs’ in youth detention lockdown

Queensland’s deputy premier says he has no sympathy for “juvenile grubs” in youth detention centres after concerns were raised about their welfare during lockdowns.

Jarrod Bleijie suggested it was often the children’s fault they had been placed in lockdown, pointing to reports of frequent attacks against staff.

“A lockdown is for the safety of not only the offenders but the workers, and it is because some juvenile grub has caused the lockdown in the first place, whether they have started a physical altercation or whatever the case may be,” he said.

“So, if you’re thinking you are going to find sympathy from me for a youth offender in our youth justice system, you ain’t gonna get it from me.”

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-12/qld-deputy-no-sympathy-for-youth-locked-down-in-detention/106790180

I cannot state strongly enough as to what a total f’wit he is.

Politicians are conditioned into thinking that being “tough on crime” or “tough on criminals” is popular with the electorate. And since they are the ones who makes the laws in the first place, they have an added sense of despising those who don’t obey their laws.

The Queensland LNP, like the federal LNP, use the childish practice of making things that are already illegal even more illegal to try to deter people.
Not the slightest effort to combat the root causes of …. anything.

It’s politics.

This is why I don’t follow the daily political news cycles. I try to look at the bigger picture and ignore that daily who said what stuff.

Michael V said:

Divine Angel said:

party_pants said:

Politicians are conditioned into thinking that being “tough on crime” or “tough on criminals” is popular with the electorate. And since they are the ones who makes the laws in the first place, they have an added sense of despising those who don’t obey their laws.

I’ll tell you what though, the Qld govt is certainly spending shitloads of money on advertising how good they are at doing their job.

I’ll say. And it is annoying that it’s our money, not the conservatives’ money that is being spent.

pftf, everyone knows that your money is actually their money

SCIENCE said:

Michael V said:

Divine Angel said:

I’ll tell you what though, the Qld govt is certainly spending shitloads of money on advertising how good they are at doing their job.

I’ll say. And it is annoying that it’s our money, not the conservatives’ money that is being spent.

pftf, everyone knows that your money is actually their money

I wouldn’t mind if the millions were spent on roads, hospitals and the like.

Michael V said:

SCIENCE said:

Michael V said:

I’ll say. And it is annoying that it’s our money, not the conservatives’ money that is being spent.

pftf, everyone knows that your money is actually their money

I wouldn’t mind if the millions were spent on roads, hospitals and the like.

yeah but who’s going to drive passengers around on those roads and staff those hospitals, we don’t want any of those dirty migrants stealing jobs

party_pants said:

Spiny Norman said:

party_pants said:

Politicians are conditioned into thinking that being “tough on crime” or “tough on criminals” is popular with the electorate. And since they are the ones who makes the laws in the first place, they have an added sense of despising those who don’t obey their laws.

The Queensland LNP, like the federal LNP, use the childish practice of making things that are already illegal even more illegal to try to deter people.
Not the slightest effort to combat the root causes of …. anything.

It’s politics.

This is why I don’t follow the daily political news cycles. I try to look at the bigger picture and ignore that daily who said what stuff.

In first year Law School you learn whilst ignoring billions of dollars of white collar crime, while they’re is a scapegoating blue collar crime. Strealing something from a shop goes before a court whilst stealing millions doesn’t. It makes law reform a nightmare. It is also important to look at the articles pushed off the front page by the “tough on crime” rhetoric. It’s a really depressing part of learning ning in first year.

Nature and hugs for one and all!

It is great to read you!

o

This is going into Aus politics because he’s running for Victoria state election in the Libertarian party.

Jim Penman, of Jim’s Mowing fame, believes less fun = more babies. Stop wanking, have less sex, don’t have caffeine or drugs or alcohol, and stop scrolling social media ensures your brain doesn’t get its dopamine fix so when you do have sex, you’re more likely to reproduce (or something).

It’s a theory put forward in his new self-published book. In the meantime, he’s pouring money into research on how to use CRISPR technology, saying epigenetics could induce the same effect as calorie restriction, and make marriage and children more appealing.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/14/how-to-reverse-declining-birth-rates-the-guy-from-jims-mowing-has-a-theory-and-its-unusual

Divine Angel said:

This is going into Aus politics because he’s running for Victoria state election in the Libertarian party.

Jim Penman, of Jim’s Mowing fame, believes less fun = more babies. Stop wanking, have less sex, don’t have caffeine or drugs or alcohol, and stop scrolling social media ensures your brain doesn’t get its dopamine fix so when you do have sex, you’re more likely to reproduce (or something).

It’s a theory put forward in his new self-published book. In the meantime, he’s pouring money into research on how to use CRISPR technology, saying epigenetics could induce the same effect as calorie restriction, and make marriage and children more appealing.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/14/how-to-reverse-declining-birth-rates-the-guy-from-jims-mowing-has-a-theory-and-its-unusual

I think some of these folks don’t quite have their heads around the matter. People are mainly having fewer babies because they want fewer babies. It’s not some problem to be overcome.

dv said:

Divine Angel said:

This is going into Aus politics because he’s running for Victoria state election in the Libertarian party.

Jim Penman, of Jim’s Mowing fame, believes less fun = more babies. Stop wanking, have less sex, don’t have caffeine or drugs or alcohol, and stop scrolling social media ensures your brain doesn’t get its dopamine fix so when you do have sex, you’re more likely to reproduce (or something).

It’s a theory put forward in his new self-published book. In the meantime, he’s pouring money into research on how to use CRISPR technology, saying epigenetics could induce the same effect as calorie restriction, and make marriage and children more appealing.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/14/how-to-reverse-declining-birth-rates-the-guy-from-jims-mowing-has-a-theory-and-its-unusual

I think some of these folks don’t quite have their heads around the matter. People are mainly having fewer babies because they want fewer babies. It’s not some problem to be overcome.

I don’t want any babies, so I suppose I should be punished with a dry Ryvita and tapwater diet.

dv said:

Divine Angel said:

This is going into Aus politics because he’s running for Victoria state election in the Libertarian party.

Jim Penman, of Jim’s Mowing fame, believes less fun = more babies. Stop wanking, have less sex, don’t have caffeine or drugs or alcohol, and stop scrolling social media ensures your brain doesn’t get its dopamine fix so when you do have sex, you’re more likely to reproduce (or something).

It’s a theory put forward in his new self-published book. In the meantime, he’s pouring money into research on how to use CRISPR technology, saying epigenetics could induce the same effect as calorie restriction, and make marriage and children more appealing.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/14/how-to-reverse-declining-birth-rates-the-guy-from-jims-mowing-has-a-theory-and-its-unusual

I think some of these folks don’t quite have their heads around the matter. People are mainly having fewer babies because they want fewer babies. It’s not some problem to be overcome.

The article stops short of saying he’s suggesting women are a major influence here, what with us womenfolk being educated with careers and all.

dv said:

Divine Angel said:

This is going into Aus politics because he’s running for Victoria state election in the Libertarian party.

Jim Penman, of Jim’s Mowing fame, believes less fun = more babies. Stop wanking, have less sex, don’t have caffeine or drugs or alcohol, and stop scrolling social media ensures your brain doesn’t get its dopamine fix so when you do have sex, you’re more likely to reproduce (or something).

It’s a theory put forward in his new self-published book. In the meantime, he’s pouring money into research on how to use CRISPR technology, saying epigenetics could induce the same effect as calorie restriction, and make marriage and children more appealing.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/14/how-to-reverse-declining-birth-rates-the-guy-from-jims-mowing-has-a-theory-and-its-unusual

I think some of these folks don’t quite have their heads around the matter. People are mainly having fewer babies because they want fewer babies. It’s not some problem to be overcome.

It is a problem at the macro level if birth rate drops below the replacement rate. A shrinking population, aging population, smaller workforce supporting a large population of retirees and all that. it is generally considered to be a problem, especially for a society that doesn’t accept or assimilate immigrants very well.

party_pants said:

dv said:

Divine Angel said:

This is going into Aus politics because he’s running for Victoria state election in the Libertarian party.

Jim Penman, of Jim’s Mowing fame, believes less fun = more babies. Stop wanking, have less sex, don’t have caffeine or drugs or alcohol, and stop scrolling social media ensures your brain doesn’t get its dopamine fix so when you do have sex, you’re more likely to reproduce (or something).

It’s a theory put forward in his new self-published book. In the meantime, he’s pouring money into research on how to use CRISPR technology, saying epigenetics could induce the same effect as calorie restriction, and make marriage and children more appealing.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/14/how-to-reverse-declining-birth-rates-the-guy-from-jims-mowing-has-a-theory-and-its-unusual

I think some of these folks don’t quite have their heads around the matter. People are mainly having fewer babies because they want fewer babies. It’s not some problem to be overcome.

It is a problem at the macro level if birth rate drops below the replacement rate. A shrinking population, aging population, smaller workforce supporting a large population of retirees and all that. it is generally considered to be a problem, especially for a society that doesn’t accept or assimilate immigrants very well.

we mean the baby bonus didn’t affect anyone’s calculus on having babies, they want or don’t want babies for reasons independent of their external environment

Bubblecar said:

dv said:

Divine Angel said:

This is going into Aus politics because he’s running for Victoria state election in the Libertarian party.

Jim Penman, of Jim’s Mowing fame, believes less fun = more babies. Stop wanking, have less sex, don’t have caffeine or drugs or alcohol, and stop scrolling social media ensures your brain doesn’t get its dopamine fix so when you do have sex, you’re more likely to reproduce (or something).

It’s a theory put forward in his new self-published book. In the meantime, he’s pouring money into research on how to use CRISPR technology, saying epigenetics could induce the same effect as calorie restriction, and make marriage and children more appealing.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/14/how-to-reverse-declining-birth-rates-the-guy-from-jims-mowing-has-a-theory-and-its-unusual

I think some of these folks don’t quite have their heads around the matter. People are mainly having fewer babies because they want fewer babies. It’s not some problem to be overcome.

I don’t want any babies, so I suppose I should be punished with a dry Ryvita and tapwater diet.

OK, if that’s how you want it.

More good polling for ONP, from Resolve.

2pp
ALP 52.4 – LNP 47.6
ALP 50.9 – ONP 49.1

Preferred PM
Hanson 33
Albanese 29
Taylor 16

dv said:

More good polling for ONP, from Resolve.

2pp
ALP 52.4 – LNP 47.6
ALP 50.9 – ONP 49.1

Preferred PM
Hanson 33
Albanese 29
Taylor 16

We need Xavier Herbert back to write Sick Puppy My Country.

And so it begins.
Never heard of Neil though.

Peak Warming Man said:

And so it begins.
Never heard of Neil though.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1BUK33taWF/

The media and Hanson

dv said:

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1BUK33taWF/

The media and Hanson

This page isn’t available at the moment

This may be because of a technical error that we’re working to fix. Please try reloading this page.

oh so another bad idea from the communists turns out to be a good idea

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he will ban social media access for children under 16. Britain is also planning on implementing restrictions on gaming and live streaming platforms for children.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-15/uk-keir-starmer-ban-social-media-under-16/106800694

Many parents and politicians back a ban, but some psychologists and researchers say there is no proof that it would work.

we mean hey that’s fair we’ve never tried to run an entire country purely on battery firmed renewable electricity before, there’s no proof that would work so we shouldn’t try to do it at all

SCIENCE said:

oh so another bad idea from the communists

see

what a bunch of idiots communists are, if Corruption or the Fascists had done this we’d be hearing about how the plan was a dramatic improvement even though it had a few flaws

These are two separate posts by real humans, not bots.

dv said:

These are two separate posts by real humans, not bots.

how do yous know

SCIENCE said:

dv said:

These are two separate posts by real humans, not bots.

how do yous know

Duh their names are different.

dv said:

SCIENCE said:

dv said:

These are two separate posts by real humans, not bots.

how do yous know

Duh their names are different.

well all right fine we suppose even humans are pretty much bots these days

SCIENCE said:

dv said:

SCIENCE said:

how do yous know

Duh their names are different.

well all right fine we suppose even humans are pretty much bots these days

‘specially when they post identical pics.

Adding your name ain’t gonna do shit but here it is anyway

https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/far-right-2026/stop-the-far-right/never-one-nation

Two big banks have slashed their house price forecasts. The numbers are hair-raising

Elizabeth Knight
Business columnist
June 15, 2026 — 3:50pm

There has been a break in the big four banks’ ranks over the future of property prices. ANZ and NAB have capitulated over the past couple of days and joined the legion of economists predicting national capital house prices are heading down precipitously.

The signs are difficult to ignore – an avalanche of sellers, increasing levels of stale stock sitting on property portal shelves, and auction clearance rates wallowing around 50 per cent.

While the proposed removal of favourable tax treatment on property investing was being robustly (but cosmetically) debated in Canberra on Monday, the real-time effects of the policy to remove the tax incentives, including negative gearing, are glaringly clear.

The head of Westpac’s consumer bank, Carolyn McCann, last week removed any doubt when she declared that applications for housing investor loans had fallen 20 per cent in just three weeks since the May budget.

It is reasonable to assume Westpac’s experience has been mirrored across other lenders. If so, this represents a massive and almost instantaneous change.

ANZ and NAB have offered some numbers around what this is doing to house values – and it’s hair-raising.

ANZ is expecting capital city prices to fall 2.1 per cent in calendar 2026, which is a significant revision to its most recent forecast that they would go up 2.8 per cent this year – a near 5-percentage-point swing. And it is now forecasting prices will fall even more next year.

NAB’s views are similar to those of ANZ, which is predicting capital city prices will fall by about 2 per cent in 2026, having previously expected values to rise by 2 per cent.

The proposed capital gains tax change isn’t the only culprit, but it is certainly the last straw.

And while a 2 or 3 per cent fall in property values across the nation may not seem like a big deal, those combined capital values disguise some ugly price falls across our largest markets: Sydney and Melbourne.

Since the start of 2026, there has been significant price weakness in both those cities, while other capitals have experienced price buoyancy. But the smaller capitals seem to be hitting their peak or starting to turn, which is exposing the nasty naked falls in the two major cities.

ANZ expects home prices in Australia’s two biggest cities to fall about 8 per cent this year. “But that weakness is spreading across the country, and we are forecasting price falls in all the capitals next year,” its economists warn.

NAB says the falls across the eight capital cities will be driven by 6-7 per cent drops in Sydney and Melbourne house prices, and a material slowing in the mid-sized capitals.

The pullback in investor activity will be enough to move from a recent projected yearly peak in investor credit growth of 10.4 per cent to a year-on-year fall of 0.8 per cent in the July quarter.

Loans to owner-occupiers won’t dive to the same degree, but overall credit growth is expected to be more than halved.

ANZ’s economists “still see total housing credit growth easing sharply to a low of 2.9 per cent year-on-year in early 2028 (from 7.1 per cent year-on-year in 2026).”

Over time, the value of Australian residential property will resume its upward trajectory, the experts say. But it may take a few years before shell-shocked investors re-enter the market.

To the extent economists see a recovery in prices in 2028, it is on the back of the expectation that interest rates will be falling and that Donald Trump won’t launch another sentiment-crushing conflict.

You can’t really bank on either of those conditions.

https://www.theage.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/two-big-banks-have-slashed-their-house-price-forecasts-the-numbers-are-hair-raising-20260615-p606u9.html

Witty Rejoinder said:

Two big banks have slashed their house price forecasts. The numbers are hair-raising

Elizabeth Knight
Business columnist
June 15, 2026 — 3:50pm

There has been a break in the big four banks’ ranks over the future of property prices. ANZ and NAB have capitulated over the past couple of days and joined the legion of economists predicting national capital house prices are heading down precipitously.

The signs are difficult to ignore – an avalanche of sellers, increasing levels of stale stock sitting on property portal shelves, and auction clearance rates wallowing around 50 per cent.

While the proposed removal of favourable tax treatment on property investing was being robustly (but cosmetically) debated in Canberra on Monday, the real-time effects of the policy to remove the tax incentives, including negative gearing, are glaringly clear.

The head of Westpac’s consumer bank, Carolyn McCann, last week removed any doubt when she declared that applications for housing investor loans had fallen 20 per cent in just three weeks since the May budget.

It is reasonable to assume Westpac’s experience has been mirrored across other lenders. If so, this represents a massive and almost instantaneous change.

ANZ and NAB have offered some numbers around what this is doing to house values – and it’s hair-raising.

ANZ is expecting capital city prices to fall 2.1 per cent in calendar 2026, which is a significant revision to its most recent forecast that they would go up 2.8 per cent this year – a near 5-percentage-point swing. And it is now forecasting prices will fall even more next year.

NAB’s views are similar to those of ANZ, which is predicting capital city prices will fall by about 2 per cent in 2026, having previously expected values to rise by 2 per cent.

The proposed capital gains tax change isn’t the only culprit, but it is certainly the last straw.

And while a 2 or 3 per cent fall in property values across the nation may not seem like a big deal, those combined capital values disguise some ugly price falls across our largest markets: Sydney and Melbourne.

Since the start of 2026, there has been significant price weakness in both those cities, while other capitals have experienced price buoyancy. But the smaller capitals seem to be hitting their peak or starting to turn, which is exposing the nasty naked falls in the two major cities.

ANZ expects home prices in Australia’s two biggest cities to fall about 8 per cent this year. “But that weakness is spreading across the country, and we are forecasting price falls in all the capitals next year,” its economists warn.

NAB says the falls across the eight capital cities will be driven by 6-7 per cent drops in Sydney and Melbourne house prices, and a material slowing in the mid-sized capitals.

The pullback in investor activity will be enough to move from a recent projected yearly peak in investor credit growth of 10.4 per cent to a year-on-year fall of 0.8 per cent in the July quarter.

Loans to owner-occupiers won’t dive to the same degree, but overall credit growth is expected to be more than halved.

ANZ’s economists “still see total housing credit growth easing sharply to a low of 2.9 per cent year-on-year in early 2028 (from 7.1 per cent year-on-year in 2026).”

Over time, the value of Australian residential property will resume its upward trajectory, the experts say. But it may take a few years before shell-shocked investors re-enter the market.

To the extent economists see a recovery in prices in 2028, it is on the back of the expectation that interest rates will be falling and that Donald Trump won’t launch another sentiment-crushing conflict.

You can’t really bank on either of those conditions.

https://www.theage.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/two-big-banks-have-slashed-their-house-price-forecasts-the-numbers-are-hair-raising-20260615-p606u9.html

Seems alarmist. Is it a good thing? I think it might be.

Michael V said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

Two big banks have slashed their house price forecasts. The numbers are hair-raising

Elizabeth Knight
Business columnist
June 15, 2026 — 3:50pm

There has been a break in the big four banks’ ranks over the future of property prices. ANZ and NAB have capitulated over the past couple of days and joined the legion of economists predicting national capital house prices are heading down precipitously.

The signs are difficult to ignore – an avalanche of sellers, increasing levels of stale stock sitting on property portal shelves, and auction clearance rates wallowing around 50 per cent.

While the proposed removal of favourable tax treatment on property investing was being robustly (but cosmetically) debated in Canberra on Monday, the real-time effects of the policy to remove the tax incentives, including negative gearing, are glaringly clear.

The head of Westpac’s consumer bank, Carolyn McCann, last week removed any doubt when she declared that applications for housing investor loans had fallen 20 per cent in just three weeks since the May budget.

It is reasonable to assume Westpac’s experience has been mirrored across other lenders. If so, this represents a massive and almost instantaneous change.

ANZ and NAB have offered some numbers around what this is doing to house values – and it’s hair-raising.

ANZ is expecting capital city prices to fall 2.1 per cent in calendar 2026, which is a significant revision to its most recent forecast that they would go up 2.8 per cent this year – a near 5-percentage-point swing. And it is now forecasting prices will fall even more next year.

NAB’s views are similar to those of ANZ, which is predicting capital city prices will fall by about 2 per cent in 2026, having previously expected values to rise by 2 per cent.

The proposed capital gains tax change isn’t the only culprit, but it is certainly the last straw.

And while a 2 or 3 per cent fall in property values across the nation may not seem like a big deal, those combined capital values disguise some ugly price falls across our largest markets: Sydney and Melbourne.

Since the start of 2026, there has been significant price weakness in both those cities, while other capitals have experienced price buoyancy. But the smaller capitals seem to be hitting their peak or starting to turn, which is exposing the nasty naked falls in the two major cities.

ANZ expects home prices in Australia’s two biggest cities to fall about 8 per cent this year. “But that weakness is spreading across the country, and we are forecasting price falls in all the capitals next year,” its economists warn.

NAB says the falls across the eight capital cities will be driven by 6-7 per cent drops in Sydney and Melbourne house prices, and a material slowing in the mid-sized capitals.

The pullback in investor activity will be enough to move from a recent projected yearly peak in investor credit growth of 10.4 per cent to a year-on-year fall of 0.8 per cent in the July quarter.

Loans to owner-occupiers won’t dive to the same degree, but overall credit growth is expected to be more than halved.

ANZ’s economists “still see total housing credit growth easing sharply to a low of 2.9 per cent year-on-year in early 2028 (from 7.1 per cent year-on-year in 2026).”

Over time, the value of Australian residential property will resume its upward trajectory, the experts say. But it may take a few years before shell-shocked investors re-enter the market.

To the extent economists see a recovery in prices in 2028, it is on the back of the expectation that interest rates will be falling and that Donald Trump won’t launch another sentiment-crushing conflict.

You can’t really bank on either of those conditions.

https://www.theage.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/two-big-banks-have-slashed-their-house-price-forecasts-the-numbers-are-hair-raising-20260615-p606u9.html

Seems alarmist. Is it a good thing? I think it might be.

Certainly a small short-term fall in house prices is not disastrous: in the long-term house prices that rise in line with inflation is the preferred outcome.

Mr Mutant attended an investment webinar on the weekend where they were talking about this very thing. One of the key takeaways is that the current rental market will only get worse (duh) and they’re also expecting the housing market to fall slightly in the short term, as this article says.

Not that I’m any sort of economist but surely there’s a point where the arse falls out of the rental market because rent prices become unaffordable?

Not long ago, we were looking at investment properties. At current market value, a particular house would rent for something like $880/w with an increase to over $1000/w within two years.

Divine Angel said:

Mr Mutant attended an investment webinar on the weekend where they were talking about this very thing. One of the key takeaways is that the current rental market will only get worse (duh) and they’re also expecting the housing market to fall slightly in the short term, as this article says.

Not that I’m any sort of economist but surely there’s a point where the arse falls out of the rental market because rent prices become unaffordable?

Not long ago, we were looking at investment properties. At current market value, a particular house would rent for something like $880/w with an increase to over $1000/w within two years.

The treasury modelling suggested only a small increase in rental prices. Personally I think they are underestimating how many new properties will be constructed and that these will be sufficient to bring down rental prices in a few years.

Divine Angel said:

Adding your name ain’t gonna do shit but here it is anyway

https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/far-right-2026/stop-the-far-right/never-one-nation

I added my name anyway. It’s better than doing nothing.

I wrote a comment :

We can’t become like America. Pauline Hanson only attended 12% of her votes in Parliament. 88% of the time she wasn’t there to vote on the business for Australia.

Divine Angel said:

Not long ago, we were looking at investment properties. At current market value, a particular house would rent for something like $880/w with an increase to over $1000/w within two years.

That sounds like a big jump, but that is essentially two increases of $60pw. We rent here in Adelaide, and we’ve not had a lease renewal that didn’t include an increase of at least $100pw.

ms spock said:

Divine Angel said:

Adding your name ain’t gonna do shit but here it is anyway

https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/far-right-2026/stop-the-far-right/never-one-nation

I added my name anyway. It’s better than doing nothing.

I wrote a comment :

We can’t become like America. Pauline Hanson only attended 12% of her votes in Parliament. 88% of the time she wasn’t there to vote on the business for Australia.

Pauline Hanson is Unfit to be Prime Minister.

She hasn’t got good insight, she lacks empathy and observation skills, has zero leadership qualities,
Is racist, doesn’t care about minority groups and is sucking up to a rich person. She doesn’t understand economics, progression, health, education, defence, industry or agriculture. Her stint in the Senate wearing an Islamic religious dress shows contempt and lack of respect.

ms spock said:

Divine Angel said:

Adding your name ain’t gonna do shit but here it is anyway

https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/far-right-2026/stop-the-far-right/never-one-nation

I added my name anyway. It’s better than doing nothing.

I wrote a comment :

We can’t become like America. Pauline Hanson only attended 12% of her votes in Parliament. 88% of the time she wasn’t there to vote on the business for Australia.

I’ve always thought people have an unrealistic view on a governments ability to control events and outcomes.
Especially middle tier powers
Its quite true it seems, and this would explain Pauline Hanson gaining followers as she exploits this to assign blame.
It seems it better to portray the illusion of control and cop blame then it is to say “hey we can’t actually do much at all”

Cymek said:

ms spock said:

Divine Angel said:

Adding your name ain’t gonna do shit but here it is anyway

https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/far-right-2026/stop-the-far-right/never-one-nation

I added my name anyway. It’s better than doing nothing.

I wrote a comment :

We can’t become like America. Pauline Hanson only attended 12% of her votes in Parliament. 88% of the time she wasn’t there to vote on the business for Australia.

I’ve always thought people have an unrealistic view on a governments ability to control events and outcomes.
Especially middle tier powers
Its quite true it seems, and this would explain Pauline Hanson gaining followers as she exploits this to assign blame.
It seems it better to portray the illusion of control and cop blame then it is to say “hey we can’t actually do much at all”

One Nation candidates are all mutants.

You cannot expect much from mutants.

Tau.Neutrino said:

Cymek said:

ms spock said:

I added my name anyway. It’s better than doing nothing.

I wrote a comment :

We can’t become like America. Pauline Hanson only attended 12% of her votes in Parliament. 88% of the time she wasn’t there to vote on the business for Australia.

I’ve always thought people have an unrealistic view on a governments ability to control events and outcomes.
Especially middle tier powers
Its quite true it seems, and this would explain Pauline Hanson gaining followers as she exploits this to assign blame.
It seems it better to portray the illusion of control and cop blame then it is to say “hey we can’t actually do much at all”

One Nation candidates are all mutants.

You cannot expect much from mutants.

Dont expect one Nation mps to vote or turn up to meetings.

They will follow Pauline’s behaviour and stay away from their job.

Tau.Neutrino said:

ms spock said:

Divine Angel said:

Adding your name ain’t gonna do shit but here it is anyway

https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/far-right-2026/stop-the-far-right/never-one-nation

I added my name anyway. It’s better than doing nothing.

I wrote a comment :

We can’t become like America. Pauline Hanson only attended 12% of her votes in Parliament. 88% of the time she wasn’t there to vote on the business for Australia.

Pauline Hanson is Unfit to be Prime Minister.

She hasn’t got good insight, she lacks empathy and observation skills, has zero leadership qualities,
Is racist, doesn’t care about minority groups and is sucking up to a rich person. She doesn’t understand economics, progression, health, education, defence, industry or agriculture. Her stint in the Senate wearing an Islamic religious dress shows contempt and lack of respect.

Comprehensive

Did you sign it and enter your comment?

Cymek said:

ms spock said:

Divine Angel said:

Adding your name ain’t gonna do shit but here it is anyway

https://www.getup.org.au/campaigns/far-right-2026/stop-the-far-right/never-one-nation

I added my name anyway. It’s better than doing nothing.

I wrote a comment :

We can’t become like America. Pauline Hanson only attended 12% of her votes in Parliament. 88% of the time she wasn’t there to vote on the business for Australia.

I’ve always thought people have an unrealistic view on a governments ability to control events and outcomes.
Especially middle tier powers
Its quite true it seems, and this would explain Pauline Hanson gaining followers as she exploits this to assign blame.
It seems it better to portray the illusion of control and cop blame then it is to say “hey we can’t actually do much at all”

Indeed Cymek

Am I going crazy or is that Chairman Mao?

dv said:

Am I going crazy or is that Chairman Mao?

Looks like it.

Could have been worse, could have been Jesus.

Divine Angel said:

:)

dv said:

Am I going crazy or is that Chairman Mao?

Or…John Howard?

fkn wokists

A teenager accused of planning to carry out a terror attack at a Queensland Labour Day event changed his target to the Liberal National Party after researching its nuclear power policy, a jury has heard.

I don’t think we discussed Dave Hughes’ turn to the dark-side over the CGT and negative gearing changes. Stoopid cnut probably has 10 investment properties.

Witty Rejoinder said:

I don’t think we discussed Dave Hughes’ turn to the dark-side over the CGT and negative gearing changes. Stoopid cnut probably has 10 investment properties.

do a search on his worth. he ain’t skink.

JudgeMental said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

I don’t think we discussed Dave Hughes’ turn to the dark-side over the CGT and negative gearing changes. Stoopid cnut probably has 10 investment properties.

do a search on his worth. he ain’t skink.

I have often heard it said by other comedians that he’s the hardest working guy in comedy so he’s certainly not hard-up. Those net-worth estimates you find on Google are generally bullshit IME.

Witty Rejoinder said:

JudgeMental said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

I don’t think we discussed Dave Hughes’ turn to the dark-side over the CGT and negative gearing changes. Stoopid cnut probably has 10 investment properties.

do a search on his worth. he ain’t skink.

I have often heard it said by other comedians that he’s the hardest working guy in comedy so he’s certainly not hard-up. Those net-worth estimates you find on Google are generally bullshit IME.

they do vary a great deal.

Witty Rejoinder said:

I don’t think we discussed Dave Hughes’ turn to the dark-side over the CGT and negative gearing changes. Stoopid cnut probably has 10 investment properties.

I was already very unimpressed by his “comedy”.

It was just shouting stupid shit very loud.

He’s a fuckwit, and his recent behavior proves that.

dv said:

Am I going crazy or is that Chairman Mao?

I can’t tell. PH is in the picture though. And in the picture in the picture.

I wonder whether the conservatives intend to mass-advertise this on TV, like they do with their other projects.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-17/aboriginal-leaders-accuse-government-of-project-invisibility/106803276

Queensland just re-legalised property developer donations — the exact thing its own corruption watchdog banned — and within weeks developers handed over $170,000, including one bloke who paid $50,000 for lunch with the Deputy Premier in charge of $7 billion in Olympic contracts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JvKU-abtwY

The LNP corrupt?!?!? Imagine my surprise.

Spiny Norman said:

Queensland just re-legalised property developer donations — the exact thing its own corruption watchdog banned — and within weeks developers handed over $170,000, including one bloke who paid $50,000 for lunch with the Deputy Premier in charge of $7 billion in Olympic contracts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JvKU-abtwY

The LNP corrupt?!?!? Imagine my surprise.

They can’t help themselves

dv said:

Spiny Norman said:

Queensland just re-legalised property developer donations — the exact thing its own corruption watchdog banned — and within weeks developers handed over $170,000, including one bloke who paid $50,000 for lunch with the Deputy Premier in charge of $7 billion in Olympic contracts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JvKU-abtwY

The LNP corrupt?!?!? Imagine my surprise.

They can’t help themselves

How else are they going to raise money for the constant barrage of adverts about what a fantastic job they are doing?

Wait. Sorry. We, the public pay for them out of our taxes.

Pauline is having a National Press Conference.
Wonder how she will fare under questioning?

Michael V said:

dv said:

Spiny Norman said:

Queensland just re-legalised property developer donations — the exact thing its own corruption watchdog banned — and within weeks developers handed over $170,000, including one bloke who paid $50,000 for lunch with the Deputy Premier in charge of $7 billion in Olympic contracts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JvKU-abtwY

The LNP corrupt?!?!? Imagine my surprise.

They can’t help themselves

How else are they going to raise money for the constant barrage of adverts about what a fantastic job they are doing?

Wait. Sorry. We, the public pay for them out of our taxes.

we mean sure they can, they’re helping themselves to it plenty

roughbarked said:

Pauline is having a National Press Conference.
Wonder how she will fare under questioning?

Does the press have to attend?

roughbarked said:

Pauline is having a National Press Conference.
Wonder how she will fare under questioning?

She’s got the spirit of Chairman Mao behind her

Pauline is going well in the conference.

VIDEO: Pauline Hanson’s Press Club address interrupted by protest banner

Pauline Hanson’s Press Club address has been interrupted after a banner appeared to unfurl behind the One Nation leader reading, “I opposed a pay rise for workers, while I took a $100,000 pay rise for myself”.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-17/pauline-hanson-s-press-club-address-interrupted/106808514

Yougov federal polling

2pp
ALP 52 ONP 48
ALP 52 LNP 48

Primaries
ALP 26
L-NP 21
ON 28
Green 13
Ind/other 12

Witty Rejoinder said:

I don’t think we discussed Dave Hughes’ turn to the dark-side over the CGT and negative gearing changes. Stoopid cnut probably has 10 investment properties.

Hate Dave Hughes

ms spock said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

I don’t think we discussed Dave Hughes’ turn to the dark-side over the CGT and negative gearing changes. Stoopid cnut probably has 10 investment properties.

Hate Dave Hughes

Most people will sell out if money is involved

Cymek said:

ms spock said:

Witty Rejoinder said:

I don’t think we discussed Dave Hughes’ turn to the dark-side over the CGT and negative gearing changes. Stoopid cnut probably has 10 investment properties.

Hate Dave Hughes

Most people will sell out if money is involved

He really undermined Covid best practices. Total jerk.

Michael V said:

I wonder whether the conservatives intend to mass-advertise this on TV, like they do with their other projects.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-17/aboriginal-leaders-accuse-government-of-project-invisibility/106803276

The long term impacts will be so damaging.

😡😡😡

There doesn’t appear to have been any discussion about P. Hanson’s Press Club speech here. It’s all over the ABC radio.

Pretty good speech by PH

“Only still allow to the Chinese to come in there the belting road projects the ports that they’re building and that’s like they’ve said to us up you we’re actually going to just take the Chinese and have them here.”

dv said:

Pretty good speech by PH

“Only still allow to the Chinese to come in there the belting road projects the ports that they’re building and that’s like they’ve said to us up you we’re actually going to just take the Chinese and have them here.”

he base will understand.

buffy said:

There doesn’t appear to have been any discussion about P. Hanson’s Press Club speech here. It’s all over the ABC radio.

dv said:

Pretty good speech by PH

“Only still allow to the Chinese to come in there the belting road projects the ports that they’re building and that’s like they’ve said to us up you we’re actually going to just take the Chinese and have them here.”

From Auntie: “The senator said One Nation opposed people coming to Australia and “bringing with them the troubles they have left behind”.”

Very logical.

Only glanced at the news, didn’t bother to watch or listen. The gist I got is that PH wants us to become a mini-USA.

I don’t want to be like the USA. I’m happy being a secular, atheist, suspicious and cynical person. I have sole Australian citizenship, I can’t move anywhere else, so I want the basic set-up of this country to stay the same. I do have sympathy for some heretical economic theories, but I am not expecting any radical reform to happen in that area.

I think what she wants is unconstitutional anyway, so undeliverable unless there is a referendum to seriously restrict our freedom of religion, and I can’t see that getting a double-majority.

Short summary: she don’t get my vote.

The danger is that the Labs do what the LibNats have done and fundamentally ignore (or dismiss) the concerns of people who have turned away from the major parties in support of ON.

Hi, writing to let you know we’ve just published the Jewish Council’s submission to the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion.

It reflects the voices of over 2,500 Jews in Australia and their allies who see the fight against antisemitism as interconnected to the fight against all forms of racism and oppression. After weighing hundreds of personal accounts, deep policy and legal analysis, and academic antisemitism expertise, some of our recommendations for the Commission include:

Recognise the diversity of the Jewish community, including on Israel and Zionism;

Find that far-right extremism is a primary driver of antisemitism in Australia;

Find that the conflation of Jewish identity with Israel and its violence – a conflation pushed by Israel and its advocates – is actually a driver of antisemitism;

Recommend the rejection of the IHRA working definition and Universities Australia definitions of antisemitism in favour of other definitions or an overlapping consensus approach;

Endorse and fund the Australian Human Rights Commission’s National Anti-Racism Framework; and
Recommend against measures that criminalise Palestinian or pro-Palestinian political expression.

Antisemitism is real, it is rising, and it demands a serious response. But the evidence is clear: the dominant policy response adopted in Australia of punitive laws, the curtailment of civil liberties, and definitions that treat criticism of Israel as antisemitic don’t make Jews safer, they actually make things worse. Our safety and dignity is inseparable from the safety and dignity of others.

This submission is a distillation of so much of the Council’s work since its founding, two and a half short years ago. I’m extremely proud of it, and I wanted to write to offer my thanks for your support for all of the Council’s engagement with the Commission to date. Together, we have been able to provide a consistent, unequivocal progressive Jewish voice for human rights, civil liberties, and Palestinian liberation. In hearings, we’re represented by an incredible team of Counsel. We’ve been able to meet massive new reactive media demands, and even employed our first full-time staff member to lead this project.

It’s difficult to overstate how transformative these resources have been for an organisation that was until very recently entirely volunteer run. It’s already making a difference. The Commission has referred to submissions received from Jewish people disputing the IHRA definition and has specifically requested evidence from our members. (It’s also noteworthy that, after our legal team challenged the IHRA in Court, the ABC and SBS both informed the federal government that they would not be adopting it.)

This work is only becoming more salient. The resurgent Australian far-right is a hotbed of antisemitism even as it weaponises Jewish grief to legitimise attacks on migrant communities and religious minorities. Netanyahu has committed over USD $730 million to international propaganda in his March budget. And as the Royal Commission continues, groups in Australia are escalating attempts to misrepresent the Jewish community as monolithically pro-Israel.

There is so much to do! We’re currently developing a strategy to scale up and effectively counter these converging threats. But for now, we remain focused on the Commission. The next round of hearings kick off in just over a week and will focus on the online environment and the media. We know pro-Israel groups will argue that the media is bias against Israel, and for the media to stop reporting on Israel’s atrocities. We’ll be doing all we can to protect robust political discourse and honest reporting of Israel’s atrocities (especially by our public broadcasters) against antisemitism smears. We’ll keep you updated.

At 80 pages I don’t expect you to read it in full (although I know many of you definitely will), but if you want to check out the submission you can do so on our website.

In solidarity,
Sarah

Link

Michael V said:

people coming to Australia and “bringing with them the troubles they have left behind

mmm we love a people that doesn’t learn their own history