If anyone is still online at this hour... shoutout to @theshot.net.au for starting The Sunday Shot, a big and very cool swing. www.crikey.com.au/2025/12/23/m...

We're only a 46 away from 1k subscribers for our little organic site. We have plans to expand things a little next year, perhaps add more voices and mix-up our media offerings. Please consider subscribing & if you can afford it may gift yourself or a loved one a membership. Only $5 a month. x

Great thanks to @christinemilne.bsky.social, @paulbongiorno.bsky.social and Carlo di Falco for speaking to me with candour for this piece. The grief of Port Arthur still hangs heavy over Tas, and I shudder to think how much worse that would be if leaders acted then how they are now. #auspol #taspol

obsessed with channel 9 not noticing that their ai slop got their own logo wrong

I'm home in Perth for the Christmas break and I've had some stomach churning conversations about... everything. Progressive, empathetic and just voices need to be SO MUCH LOUDER right now. This is my last 'news' newsletter for the year.

Incredibly craven stuff by the AFR in their editorial. Happy to crackdown on all speech except don’t take away our right to be anti-immigration.

I can see many of you in despair at the state of Aust journalism in MSM/ABC - as highlighted during weeks like this Please don't despair We have excellent journalists & commentators who have excelled this week They can be found here 👇& here #auspol 👉 truenorthnews.substack.com

Sharri Markson from Sky News Australia directly blamed Senator Mehreen Faruqi for the mass murder at Bondi - at a memorial Faruqi was visiting to pay respects to **one of her family friends who was killed** The same news station that hosted a neo-nazi for an interview youtu.be/GlY7UYavX2Q?...

2016 theconversation.com/ministers-se...

Every time I open Instagram I get another one of those extreme close up Vanity Fair Trump Admin shots it's such a jump scareee

Josh Frydenberg's speech now in Sydney is terrifying. Riddled with misinformation, scapegoating and partisan politicisation that is making everything much, much worse.

Mark Dreyfus, a Jewish Labor MP, seemed flabbergasted when asked on Radio National whether immigration is more of an issue than gun control in relation to the Bondi attack, writes Crystal Andrews.

Wrote about the almost immediate blaming of "immigrants" for the Bondi attack, by bad faith actors who admit they did not know anything about the shooters *while* pushing this take. The line was then dutifully taken up by the media by Monday AM. www.crikey.com.au/2025/12/16/b...

And especially to the whistleblowers who’ve sacrificed so much for the greater good

Shoutout to Lamestream, We Used to be Journos, @antoinettelattouf.bsky.social, @theklaxon.bsky.social, Declassified Australia, @roycerk2.bsky.social, @thepointau.bsky.social, @michaelwestbiz.bsky.social, @ketanjoshi.co, @crikey.com.au, @rachelwithers.bsky.social + more for their work in this space.

Really important to stress that 36 Months accused academics and experts critical of the ban of being 'paid' by big tech. When asked for evidence of this, the MD said "I haven't looked into it." Meanwhile 36 Months itself was directly funded by a business helping promote the gambling industry.

Scoop: the pro-teen social media ban lobby group 36 Months was funded & co-staffed by its co-founder's ad production firm that was simultaneously making gambling ads The federal government has ignored calls for a gambling ad ban while pursuing the social media ban. www.crikey.com.au/20...

Breaking: Property developers will again be allowed to make political donations in Qld state elections under proposed electoral law changes by the Crisafulli LNP govt, also reducing prison voting rights from those serving up to 3y sentences to those serving less than 1.

critical mistake starting an NGO or think tank to influence social policy in this country. you should've started a breakfast radio team called Droggo & The FuckWeasel

Incredible. Pro-teen social media ban group 36 Months was selling sponsorship to a United Nations event run by the Australian government with the promise of “influence” and “access” to heads of states, according to a leaked document. www.crikey.com.au/2025/12/11/3...

The genuinely think a social media ban will magically make kids start playing the street, reading the Bible and going to church again.

This is *the* story of the teen social media ban. The eagerness of 36 Months to involve corporate brands in re-designing what life looks like for kids was the most cynical detail UNTIL... I got to their plans to develop an AI tool to monitor, track and "manage" children's mental health in school.

Denied pregnancy care and threatened with prosecution: in the wake of widespread abortion bans, across the United States prosecutors have launched more than 400 cases charging people with crimes related to their pregnancy, miscarriage, stillbirth or birth.

This week our Cut Through podcast tackles the government’s National AI plan. @crystaljane.bsky.social unpacks this mind melting policy challenge in a really compelling conversation with ANU’s Kimberlee Weatherall and asks whether this plan is up to the task. www.crikey.com.au/2025/12/05/c...

It looks like the vote on the stadium will be 9-5 in favour #politas

The man who inspired Australia's teen social media ban literally did this:

In a statement, a TikTok representative said bad weather forced them to move the red carpet experience inside the venue, which "halved the overall capacity of the space, [and] had an impact on some of the attendees' red carpet experience."

There have been multiple allegations of racist microgressions against Black creators at this year's TikTok Awards – including one recorded on video and shared publicly. So far, no mainstream news outlet has reported on this. I did for my tiny indie publication: zeefeed.beehiiv.com/p/racism-all...

On the pod @rachelwithers.bsky.social & @keanebernard.bsky.social give me their reviews of the year in parliament – incl the passing of the EPBC Act, Labor's centrism, the sidelining of senate voices and why... Tim Wilson won the year? #auspol Watch on YouTube. Listen on Spotify, Apple, web.

I could have written this at any point in the past 30 years and it would still hold up. (I wrote it in November). "Hanson’s jarring hatefulness has a softening effect on the others, like a subtle beauty filter. They can point to her and remind us, 'it could always be worse!'"

Sorry whose posts aged poorly?

What I like most about Ricky Ponting as a commentator is you get terrific insight & preparation, but not the blokey bullshit that so often accompanies former champions turned media people. The focus is the game, not him, and he talks to, not down to the audience. #ashes

Joel Davis, a senior leader of pro-rape neo-Nazi organisation the National Socialist Network, has been denied bail after inciting hateful and violent messages towards federal MP Allegra Spender. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Wanning Sun of @acri-uts.bsky.social & I had an in-depth discussion about the public and political popularity of AUKUS on the Crikey podcast today — one commenter has described it as "ebullient" which is a serious achievement ‼️ Watch on YouTube. Listen on all the podcast apps #auspol

It feels disingenuous to talk about "Donald Trump’s decisive victory among working-class people" without acknowledging other factors that drew those people to Trump; if it truly were just about class then Black working class voters would have voted for him in overwhelming numbers, and they didn't.

focusing on class undoubtedly allows politicians to appeal to a broader range of people but i don't think the takeaway from zohran's campaign should be that leftists should go back to zeroing in on class to the exclusion of everything else - that isn't even the strategy he used

Tricky analysis and I'm not sure I agree. It's simply not true that race, gender and climate are "post-material" issues. And even by that logic, the Greens were strongest on material cause of rent in the 2025 election... so really it's about *perceived* elitism, and trying to shake off thr label.

And a portion of that post views quota should go to me

Everyone under thirty googling mark sanford then googling Appalachian trail

Dozens of men have now tied their faces and futures to neo-Nazism. There’s no easy path back from that, writes Scobie McKay.

Was bloody lovely to talk with @crystaljane.bsky.social at @crikey.com.au about what it means that Australia's opposition party dropped "net zero" - and why I think we need better climate-bullshit detectors Go listen / watch here --->>> www.crikey.com.au/2025/11/14/c...

"What is the point of a prison? The inconsistency in how Victoria wants to treat kids vs how it treats violent adult Nazis makes it clear that they don’t know the answer either. Children shouldn’t be the experiment used to figure it out."

This is such a good insight into the mind of the conservative woman. Senator Leah Blyth says: "I say this to people – which sort of stops them in their tracks – ‘Who taught you to masturbate?’ And they’ll sort of go, ‘Oh, no one.’ It’s like, ‘Yeah!’ So, why do we need to teach kids that now?"

@ketanjoshi.co on today's podcast cracked my brain open re: the Coalition ditching net zero: "They are flat out saying that 'we just don't feel like it's worth protecting our citizens from this particular type of harm'." Political reporting misses that this is *material* harm. Watch the ep here.

Minns:

Seeing some commentary around this graph Gen Z "swinging right" etc etc. Someone tell me if I'm wrong but... Isn't it just that a small portion of Gen Zs were eligible to vote in 2019? And 2025 is less a 'shift' but a more accurate representation of the whole as way more can vote now? #auspol

"Besides electoral politics, one topic Teen Vogue covered a lot that Vogue never touches: unions and labor organising. Remember the rumour Jeff Bezos wanted to buy Condé Nast as a wedding gift for Lauren Sanchez? Teen Vogue has given plenty of positive coverage to the Amazon workers' union..."

New ep of Cut Through 🎙️ @theshufflediary.bsky.social and I discuss what Zohran Mamdani's win means for a) the fight against Trump, and b) #auspol. I spoke to a bunch of people across the Australian left and share their takes in this ep. Watch on YouTube. Listen on Apple, Spotify or in browser.

ALEXA CHUNG ON FASHION NEUROSIS huge day for millennial women

The editorial takeover of Teen Vogue now looking even *more* sinister.