"Ley used the so-called charter letters – normally a practice carried out by governments rather than oppositions – to set out KPIs and emphasise solidarity and discipline."

The Australian: Andrew Hastie quits Sussan Ley’s frontbench over refusal to give him a role in migration policy work archive.is/LzgNy #auspol

IT’S HAPPENING

A highly motivated and well networked informed elite can absolutely steamroll a largely disinterested and thus passive democratic majority. Right now that's basically what's happening, the transphobes are getting their way and there's not enough will to stop them.

It's genuinely probably the largest such I have witnessed in my life. In some ways it portends well for trans life in the UK (random people are not all frothing at the mouth haters in the way the press would have you think) but in other ways it is very pessimism inducing.

This is one of the most remarkable things about the present situation in the UK which can be hard for outsiders to realise, since after all one learns from the media. There's a *massive* disconnect between the huge focus and energy it generates in the media and the disinterest of the broader public.

Just saying.

AEC launches action over unauthorised Wentworth fliers - because they were unauthorised, not because of specific content.

We really need to deal with Federation reform. Merge the NT with Qld, and Tasmania with Victoria, abolish local government and replace localised gov focus with dedicated local government units umbrellaed under their respective State govt Depts of Local Gov of no less than 500,000 residents a unit.

This is a totally normal headline in America now.

In the battle over the prize for Australia's Worst Company, certain industries stand out — those with awfulness in-depth across their operations.

I believe Mamdani is taking a page from Trump’s playbook, promising his supporters he’ll do something outrageous that he cannot achieve. He knows that if he fails to keep the promise, they won’t blame him.

This is being overplayed in the press. As politics it is low risk, high reward. Anyone who cares that much about Netanyahu is never going to vote for him anyway, and the wind is harder against Netanyahu all the time. In any case Mamdani has virtually no power to enforce it.

Pardon me, it’s the front page of one of the sections, either was it’s very cool and if you’re an Australian fan of mine please let me know if you’d be able to pick up a few copies

My Financial Times interview got reprinted on the front page of the newspaper The Australian Financial Review with an incredible illustration of the contents of my mind and the big handle I turn when I blog www.afr.com/technology/t...

PM of Albania having a good laugh with President of Azerbaijan and Macron about Trump repeatedly claiming that he ended the war between their two countries which were not at war with each other.

The Coalition has always struggled to understand the difference between baseload power & firming. Dan Tehan has just returned from a "fact-finding" tour of the US & he's none the wiser. He holds Wannon on a 3.8% margin & is still pushing nuclear. #auspol reneweconomy.com.au?p=237347

Other posters (who claim to be progressive i might add) are suggesting we go back to the bad days of public housing blocks. Putting aside my own lived experience with poverty segregation, there are countless studies explaining why putting all the poor people together is bad for everyone.

In an attempt to justify blocking the development one poster labels livable apartments as luxury apartments. In the same thread they then go on to label affordable apartments as flea boxes, with no self awareness. All apartments should be luxury apartment. every single fucking one.

The comments on this thread are wild. I dont know much about the LGA discussed but having lived in the city if Yarra for over a decade so im familiar with left wing nimby types. www.reddit.com/r/Australian...

Today is Duodi the 12th of Vendémiaire in the year 234. Vendémiaire is the month of vintage. Today we celebrate strawflower.#JacobinDay More information on strawflower

Me on One Nation’s recent poll surge, overseas counterparts, and the big fat potential disinformation weakness in our electoral system. insidestory.org.au/one-nations-...

Tinted, double-hinged spectacles, c.1790. Many opticians believed green or blue glass was easier on the eyes and would reduce glare; while clear glass was too soft and would distort images. This extraordinary example is from the Wellcome Collection in London.

Reminder that the Democrats radical unreasonable demands for voting for funding were 'please Mister Trump don't cut all of the healthcare subsidies out of spite' and the coordinated media response is to attack them for not having even more milquetoast demands and rolling over even easier

So if you're wondering why Democrats were so timid about a government shutdown it's because every single media outlet is now pushing out headlines blaming Democrats for a government shutdown that happened under Republican control over all three branches of government.

So a thing quietly happening in the background for awhile now is rich parents dosing their kids with growth hormone. I think it's hilarious we're gonna have a generation of seven foot three ogres who claim a working class background and get mad when you ask how they paid for that trip to Europe.

Here's Farage saying that he would 'pick up a rifle' - www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

*cough* www.techdirt.com/2025/07/08/w...

Every few months now I re-read this "Who Goes Nazi?" piece from 1941 and am blown away by how it captures the people we are dealing with 80 years later. harpers.org/archive/1941...

At the turn of the 20th century, one American became obsessed with the idea of life on Mars, and carried his obsessions into a public movement that may have sparked actual space exploration and scientific advancement. www.abc.net.au/listen/progr... 26m audio interview with @dhbaron.bsky.social 📻

I've been avoiding Qld politics for over 3 years, but what's happening here is that the Premier and his accurate public service brains-trust knows that coal power is retiring quickly. His party's dinosaurs complained & the gov said dumb things, Rio Tinto slapped them, now the gov looks like dills.

Fertility treatments in NSW will be able to continue even in cases where the family donor limit has been breached after the state government issued a temporary exemption.

My latest column www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The right to repair should be a fundamental consumer right. We know devices can be repaired but tech players make it just too onerous. Right to repair can help mitigate environmental degradation #auspol www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Papua New Guinea's cabinet approves 'Pukpuk' defence treaty with Australia www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10... #auspol #ausdef

I interviewed Dylan Riley about Trump, fascism, and civil society for @dissentmag.bsky.social www.dissentmagazine.org/online_artic...

So, it’s the 57th anniversary of the first showing of Night of the Living Dead, in Pittsburgh, when a movie made for a little over $100,000 created (according to Jason Paul Collum, author of ‘Assault of the Killer B’s’) “a permanent shift in modern horror cinema”

Lets be even more brutally honest - a 'libertarian' government whose policies were as competent as the judgement the leader exhibited when getting crypto-scammed, being bailed out by a country best described as state capitalism with "American characteristics"

Heads up #Melbourne... Westgate Freeway is borked and will be for some time. INCIDENT - West Gate Freeway collision Two of three outbound lanes of the of the West Gate Freeway are blocked near Montague Street, due to a collision, and rollover.

“I Have No Choice; The Poison is Near": The State of Forced Marriage in Australia honisoit.com/2025/09/i-ha... #auslaw

Bin-go

I've read a couple of history books and I can tell you for sure that rounding up your generals, having a drunk yell at them and call them fat, and then stopping paying them that same day is absolutely how you institute durable personalist rule

It's Brisbane City Council's 100th birthday today so to celebrate I looked at its elected constitution. And in that time, the number of Councillors has barely changed. Brisbane's population has grown by 575% since 1924 but the number of elected representatives have only grown by 77%.

From the SMH's CBD section today, on Liberal party staffer movements www.smh.com.au/cbd/sue-chef... #auspol

SMH: ‘A pivotal moment’: In Sydney, Inner West Council, led by Labor Mayor Darcy Byrne, backs plans for up to 30,000 new homes web.archive.org/web/20250930... #nswpol

What is happening in the last-election-preferences 2PP race lately: nothing. ALP still dominant at 56.2 with very little movement since polling resumed (the bump up into the 57s in early-mid July was basically one poll)

Essential's "2PP+" method also persistently produces weird preference flows (this one implausibly weak for Labor). Overall Essential has ranked poorly compared to other polls in recent years.

In theory Essential's primaries should on average all be a bit lower than other polls because they leave undecided in. But what tends to happen in practice is they have IND/other way too low and the rest look more like other polls.

#Essential primaries in theory not on same scale as other polls because undecided left in. ALP 35 L-NP 27 Green 11 ON 13 TOP 2 IND/other 6 undecided 6 Their "2PP+" by respondent prefs ALP leads 51-44 (=53.7) My 2025 prefs estimate 56.2 to ALP

I suggest that the 2020s version of this Right Wing comedian phenomenon is the Riyadh festival. There is also something akin to the failed or declining mainstream politician or personality hooking themselves into the populist right grifting machine about it. www.theguardian.com/culture/2025...