JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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And still the MSM pretend that PHON is just “a populist party”.
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Shh. Let them pretend. Children also play pretend games. Some never grow up until reality kicks their bums good & hard!!
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They should consider the history;
1996 Pauline Hanson elected as a Liberal MP in Queensland, she was disendorsed for “controversial comments about First Nations people Australia and in 1997 she established One Nation in Queensland.
She later after running foul of the Queensland Electoral Commission based on alleged party membership exaggeration and QEC funding applied for. Later she became a Senator in Federal Parliament.
One Nation had a short maybe two terms Queensland State Parliament success with several MPs elected, and then faded into minor status again.
Recently former Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce left the Nationals and became the first Federal House of Representatives MP for One Nation. And former Liberal Federal Senator Cory Bernardi is now a SA Upper House MP for One Nation.
The point being that the roots of One Nation are deeply rooted in centre/centre right Liberal-National-LNP history.
And three people who left their original parties for various reasons, in the later period two because they were no longer prepared to deal with the new left faction influence and policies adopted that are not traditional Liberal-National positions.
However, there has been a tendency for bickering from both sides, sniping and trying to score political points.
If the woke socialism prevailing can be overcome they all need to get together, I don’t mean like One Nation part of the Coalition but all rowing the same policy boat in the same direction with teamwork
139
Nope. LNP is wedded to the UN Climate Change™ hoax and all the other UN dictates. LNP will not govern for the benefit of Australian voters. They are UN stooges.
Australia needs a government for the voters, not the woke UN bureaucrats in New York.
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The Coalition parties have publicly declared net zero now dumped, Nationals first to declare and Liberals after Sussan Ley left.
From 2018 to 2022 as I have posted in recent days here Morrison Government has not signed up to Glasgow 2021 net zero, I won’t repeat my posts and links provided here.
And together with Energy Minister Taylor they saved two of six oil refineries from closing and planned for a new third. PM Morrison and President Trump did a deal in the USA for US oil supply as ordered by Australia and a first order stored there until more storage could be built here. Albanese Labor did not proceed after May 2022 and sold the oil reserve.
Unfortunately the relentless negativity has stuck like glue in many minds, as it did when PM Abbott was in Government 2013-2015.
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LNP have refused to withdraw from the Paris agreement. Until they get off the fence, they remain UN stooges complying with their globalist agenda.
A vote for LNP is for more of the same:
NetZero by another name not coal fired power.
More windmills. More solar panels. More batteries.
More apartheid.
More importing of terrorists.
All good little stooges toeing the UN line.
I have not heard one LNP spokesperson come out in support of POTUS Trump’s calling out the UN Climate Change˜ hoax.
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Saw an interview with David Littleproud on Sky News. I now understand why the Nationals only scored 2% in a recent poll! I’ve never heard such waffle &drivel from a politician in my life.
20
Rick,
Re Libs and the United Nations.
Yes, I agree wholeheartedly with you that we should remove ourselves from the bad influences of the United Nations.
The UN seems to regard Mission Creep as a major part of its obligations, while regarding its Foundational Purpose, to prevent wars, as the silly type of task that the politically ignorant regard as useful.
I recall President Trump on a YouTube video about a year ago, noting that he had stopped 6 or 7 wars, while the UN did not even bother to contact him during this process.
Too many people regard Donald trump as simple, while I regard him more as a Chess master playing a game 7 moves ahead.
His game includes back-up plans that work, like securing oil backup from Venezuela and Cuba before starting certain moves involving Iran.
My Stated Conflict of Interest: My chess game is only medium class, so I am not fully qualified to regard The President as a Chess Master. Geoff S
40
In 2003 Pauline Hanson was an Enemy of the State. A threat to all political parties. A populist, not an elitist.
Pauline Hanson was jailed in 2003 for electoral fraud. She served 11 weeks in prison after being sentenced to three years for falsely registering her political party, One Nation, and misappropriating electoral funds. Her conviction was overturned on appeal, and she was released and acquitted.
Pauline served 11 weeks (approximately 2 months and 17 days) in the Brisbane Women’s Prison.
Detail:
In August 2003, a Brisbane jury found Hanson and co-founder David Ettridge guilty of fraud regarding the registration of One Nation, claiming 500 members were supporters rather than members, and dishonestly obtaining electoral funds. She was immediately taken to prison on August 20, 2003, following the sentencing. The Queensland Court of Appeal quashed the convictions on November 6, 2003, with the court finding the conviction unsafe.
Even this weekend, the Liberal Uniparty in South Australia was swapping preferences with the Labor party to try to shut out Hanson.
How many other politicians have been jailed, even criminals immediately jailed over $500,000?
The political establishment hates Pauline Hanson.
The people who made Grace Tame Australian of the Year despite having done absolutely nothing for anyone else.
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Even Paul Kelly in the Australian is calling it ‘Hansonism’, as if it is idol worship, a personality cult and not a real party with policies. He is as dismissive of Donald Trump. The word most politicians use is populist, a sort of redneck amateur politician who dares disagree with the professionals and ignores the press clubs. Especially people who say Climate Change is Crap or a Hoax. Or that Iran could drop a nuclear warhead on Paris or London or Moscow. They are ignorant people not worthy of respect.
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Isn’t “populism” how parties get elected?
Parties proffer policies to the electorate which are either liked, (popular) with the voters, or not.
Labor and Labor-lite policies/agendas are not popular with the voters. I think a significant percentage of voters are very angry with the agendas and current policy outcomes produced by the uniparty.
Why is this so hard for some journalists to understand?
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‘Why is this so hard for some journalists to understand?’
Journalism schools have produced a left wing bias and they definitely believe CO2 causes global warming.
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Again you would have to be a pollie to understand ‘populism’ isn’t just popularity, popular policies and popular people you can trust, people who have had another life.
‘Populism’ is a smear used and understood only by arrogant career politicians who belive they are the only ‘professional’ politicians and have sophisticated philosopies and policies and skills. Not just cash hungry Marxists.
To them ‘populists’ are scum who run down institutions like the ABC, SBS, CSIRO, BoM, Taxation department, Climate Change departments, because they are ignorant rednecks. Like farmers, agricultural workers, factory workers, minerse, taxi drivers, shop workers, sandwich makers, laborers. This is also the view of the Teals and the millions of University employees and cash dependents, a massive industry itself just churning out graduates for cash, lot of cash. Even the Vice Chancellors are on $1-$2 million a year and will destroy the careers of anyone who doubts their power, like Prof Peter Ridd. Or the late and great Prof Murry Selby.
Reform and One Nation are the populist revolutinaries. We saw it in the VOICE referendum, a total rejection of Canberra. And the embedded politicians have set about implementing it all anyway because the constitituion is never referenced. All the Green taxes are theft anyway under the Constitution but no one dares complain or they are silenced. As Pauline Hanson was silenced with two 1/2 months in jail.
The High Court did not negate Terra Nullus. But Paul Keating just declared the 3,000 people of the Torres Strait as a country and aboriginals as also a country, each with their own flag and ownership now of 52% of Australia. All illegal under our Constitution and legal precedent stretching back to Magna Carta.
Give me a populist politician any day. How many people know Pauline Hanson was A single mother and now grandmother who brought up her four children while running a fish and chip shop. A far better choice than Grace Tame. Far better than the overpaid underworking self congratulating stoats and weasels infesting Labor, Liberals, Greens and Teals.
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Henry Ergas wrote an article saying Terra Nullius was not the basis on which Australia was colonised. Back when the Voice debates were happening and the Victorian Bar sided with the “Yes” campaign, Ergas wrote to correct them.
.
His article in The Australian 19 May 2023 https://archive.md/2srkl
.
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I agree that Terra Nullus was not a law, simply a blindly obvious principle. Even the word ‘colonized’ carryies enormous prejudice of cultural change, theft of land, theft of housing, goods, enslavement of people. In Australia there was nothing to steal, no crops, no food stores, no buildings and a people who had no culture of work or education or writing or heiroglyphs or even a language in which anyhone could count to ten and a language so primitive it was not enough for 18th century settlers let alone a modern world. All that had to be invented including a dream time, rainbow serpents, boomerangs, didgeridoos, fish traps, grass weaving which were not at all common across a huge country and zero transport. Even most indigeous art had to be invented, unless you consider a handprint art and not grafitti. And it has also been commercialized so that now you need to be an accredited Aboriginal artist. How much of aboriginal story was invented by settlers and anthropologists is unknown after 250 years.
Settlement is the better word, as John Howard used it. And settlement did not mean displacement in a huge country with only small bands of nomadic people in some places. There were no ‘nations’ and there was no sovereign, more families than tribess. All the ideas and language of ‘colonization’ relates to the Americas, Africa, SE Asia, not Australia. There was no ‘colonization’ and despite made up aboriginal histories up to and including Black Emu, its all make believe. A fantasy of the people who really receive the $42Billion a year in guilt handouts. Almost none of that reaches aborigines.
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Colonising is the appropriate word because it relates to the land that is being settled as being placed under the control of another country. It applies whether the land was vacant or not.
Australia didn’t just become a place of foreign settlement. The Brits claimed it and colonised it. Gradually it has formed it’s own identity and independence.
It may be a dirty word to some, and coloniser has become a pejorative word in some uses. But I don’t think that means we have to shy away from it or apologise for it. It’s just what happened 250 years ago and here we are.
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“Colonising is the appropriate word because it relates to the land that is being settled as being placed under the control of another country. ”
Really? Which country controlled Australia before settlement?
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It’s like that absurd chant, ‘Sovereignty has not been ceded’. Who had sovereignty? Who was the sovereign of Australia? What were its borders? What were the rules? Religion? Who represented the country? Who was in charge of a continent? Was Tasmania part of Australia? Norfolk Island? Antarctica?
This is make believe. No one owns a country. It’s not a case of finders keepers. Speaking as someone descended from so many quite different peoples across Europe with different languages and religions. Celts, Angles, Saxons, Scots, Picts, Welsh, Flemish, Norwegians,… Who owns these areas now has little to do with any of these quite distinct peoples. Borders were not even drawn for most until the mid 19th century and some are still fluid. And the UK is becoming Arabic/Indian muslim because so many people have adopted the cult of shame as ‘colonialists’ and will set countries back a millenium to the medieval where women and children had zero rights.
This ‘international law’ espoused by Keir Starmer is a fantasy. Who enforces it? The UN? In fact you control only what you can defend. We were close to speaking Japanese. You own nothing.
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None. I’m saying the Brits colonised Australia. Put it under their own control. Whether there was zero people here or 100,000,000 people here before that doesn’t matter. The settlement of Brits here was making Australia a colony under British control.
As for sovereignty never ceded. It’s a phrase I’ve never understood. They’re failing to acknowledge that ceding sovereignty over land or self doesn’t have to be voluntary for the ceding to be effected.
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That’s treating colonization as just settlement. The Romans did that across Europe where no ‘countries’ existed. Their fortress towns were called colonies. Cologne was originally Colonia Agrippina and abbreciated to Cologne. The original Roman walls were rediscovered in a car park in the late 20th century. And the Romans absorbed the locals as much as possible, especially religions. (The city was named Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, which translates to “Claudius’ Colony near the Altar of the Agrippinians, honoring a local tribe)
But the process of colonization you define seems only to be that of declaring a place as a ‘colony’. Fine. I agree. But it is not the extremely divisive current journalists definition as an agressive enslavement and conversion and robbery of existing peoples. It is a rewriting of history by modern historians to make the British out as villains and slavers. I object strenously to this being applied in Australia. There was no invasion and Australia became a number of quite distinct colonies which graduated to States in a Federation only in 1901.
In India for example, the government was not even involved in the relationship with British companies. Utterly divided Indian princedoms really wanted the peace and trading and technology offered by the British and worked with them voluntarily. The East India Company ended up with an army of 250,000 Indians and it was run by 20 accountants in the Strand. It was only a hundred years later that the British Government became involved and decided that they had an Empire and were rulers of India under Queen Elizabeth. Which was overreach by a specific government, not again colonization.
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It’s become a term of disdain, rightly or wrongly. A bit like “academic”
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Barry Jones the well informed Labor politician and former teacher and quiz master rightly said Australia was the one country where calling someone an ‘academic’ was an insult.
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Populism is bad because it represents what the population actually want.
Politicians aren’t interested in that, what they are interested in is what they can get out of the system, and they usually do that by using other peoples’ money, ie ours, as bribes for low information voters and special interest groups, like the massively expanded public service.
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My reply to
wal1957
March 25, 2026 at 9:16 am
Isn’t “populism” how parties get elected?
…..
No, wal1957, populism does not rank high.
More than half of our Aussie elected politicians made themselves available, not because they knew what people wanted and that was a populist action, but because they has personal visions that they had one or more visions of what they thought they should convey to the voter, largely ignoring what the voter really wanted.
This topic has become more recognised in recent years, sat since 2020 Covid times, by lots of voters discovering and airing that we were not getting what we wanted from political parties, but that pollies were giving us their ideas of what they thought was good for the public. The disconnect has become quite obvious.
….
You might be correct because a small number of electoral candidates succeed because they promote “populism”, but a bit of that line depends on how tightly you define populism. Of course they will claim they are giving populism, but in the test in the real world, they are not providing populism as shown by what they do after election.
….
Politics is a cynical task. That is why there are so many repeats of “They are lying when you see their lips move” and many other popular jokes describing politicians.
In later parts of my career in Science, I almost left Science out of the daily workload to concentrate on the task of combatting ignorance and hurt and damage from politicians and bureaucrats. I changed my title to Manager, Government Relations of one of Australia’s largest and richest resource companies that had become larger and richer because colleagues had conducted top class Science that discovered more than 10 new mines in Australia, whose gross value of sales to date, expressed in dollars of the day with high gold prices, by rough estimate has now passed $100 billion and climbing. That is, a tenth of a trillion. That has a huge impact for many years on the standard of living of every Australian, rather more than most political policies can claim as successes. It was worth fighting for, but the fight is not over yet.
Geoff S
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Paul Kelly has a very long track record and memory of political history
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That does set him apart and he trades on his age. But it does not mean he is right in predicting the future. I don’t mind anyone having an opinion on the past, but lecturing world leaders on the right direction is past presumptuous. And he is often wrong in my opinion. Like all those millions of economists who did not predict the GFC or those writers who assured the world Iran did not have a missile which could hit London, simply because the Ayatollah said so.
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He is working “by the book”.
This job is to rewrite “the book”.
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And he persistently misrepresents it.
I was in my early 30’s when Whitlam was dismissed by Kerr. My friends, colleagues and my self followed every twist and turn as it unfolded over most of 1975. We met for Friday night convivial beers and discussed the exact changes that had occurred, as well as trying to predict what would happen in the next week. In short, we knew where the bodies were buried. It was fun, as well.
And now, every time Kelly refers to that saga, he deliberately misrepresents or omits some critical detail to bolster the ALP version of events. He genuinely thinks there are so few of our age still alive that how he twists things will go unnoticed.
I have only disrespect for him.
40
I have no problem putting Pauline ahead of the two major parties, for no other reason than I know it annoys them. That said, I already put the two majors last and second last so pretty much nothing for PeaHON to worry about there.
But … ultimately Pauline is a protest vote and although she is good at articulating the problems, I doubt she has much in the way of real solutions. If she ever did win she would be bad, but probably no worse than the others.
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Barnaby can count!
Well enough!
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Pauline Hanson will be Australian of the year 2026.
And again in 2028!
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I wonder if David Ettridge may change his mind today.
He was, if I am correct, the number 1 organiser.
Also, for my own interest – at that time did P. Hanson knowingly – sorry, I can not find the verb.., is it like the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion ?
40
To register a political party in Queensland you needed to be a member of the parliament or submit the names of at least 500 members. Hanson submitted the names of 1,000 members to register. The Queensland Electoral Commissioner verified that a significant proportion of those on the list believed themselves to be members and registered the party without any objections in 1997.
The party had a good amount of success at the state election (23% of the primary vote) and received $500,000 in electoral funding. The status of the party was then scrutinised and the accusation was that the party did not have all those members. Was therefore allegedly not validly registered, and was therefore allegedly not entitled to the funding. Hanson was charged with fraud as a result.
But it was established on appeal that the party registration was legit. Also, the money didn’t go to her. She had no personal gain. The charges were simply an attempt to get rid of her because One Nation was a threat to the Liberal Party support base.
A good run through is here.
https://www5.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AltLawJl/2003/83.html
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And how many politicians have bounced back from being jailed on what was a matter of interpretation of rules from which they did not personally benefit? There are criminals who stole $500,000 or worse and walked away free. I still want an accounting for the very real $444,000,000 in cash Malcolm Turnbull gave his wife and her friends with no application or actual proposal to ‘fix’ the Great Barrier Reef. And now no explanation for the random $1,000,000,000 cash Albanese ‘invested’ in a failing Quantum Computer company in California. Where is the cash? Who received it? But Pauline Hanson had to appeal from a jail cell as a convicted thief even though she receieved no money.
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Thanks, 23% proves that such party was needed, so it came to existence – even if the voters quickly get disappointed.
Otherwise what is the sense of that number 500? Why not 5 or 5000 ?
I always felt that Howard and Abbott (especially – Howard) before too late should express their remorse.
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Note that the Queensland Electoral Commission, Police, Director of Public Prosecutions and Queensland Courts of Law were the processing bodies and a Queensland Labor Government in office
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By the way, the record also shows that the involvement of the Howard Federal Government and Cabinet Minister Abbott appointed was legal support for the whistleblower in Queensland. And in later years Tony Abbott did publicly apologise to Pauline Hanson for what had taken place and she accepted his apology personally, face to face. Obviously Abbott and Howard were not involved in Queensland Government jurisdiction legal proceedings.
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Abbott stopped the boats and axed the tax, things he was elected to do.
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I am not a member of any political party and I have not been since early twenties years of age.
After retiring I lived in Queensland with a One Nation state MP my local member and followed the history of One Nation out of interest in politics and current affairs. I admire Pauline for having a go and risking her own time and money to establish a small business and it angered me when opponents used the “fish shop lady” tag, most unfair and unreasonable.
And I do not disagree with the opinions posted here about the One Nation legal electoral law history and note that on appeal the matter was overturned.
However, please don’t be naive about the politics and the disendorsement as Liberal elected with Liberal Party backing 1996 and resentment, rightly or wrongly held. Fact is Pauline has used that resentment as a political attack tool ever since, and from a sales and marketing perspective, fair enough. But also do not allow a victim status to be claimed, she attacks and for political reasons and purposes uses responses to try and gain sympathy votes.
Consider Barnaby Joyce, former National MP, Cabinet Minister, Leader and Deputy Prime Minister recently left the Nationals, why? Again a person not satisfied with his lack of support from the Nationals in more recent times. Then consider SA and Cory Bernardi, a former Liberal Senator Federal and another axe to grind – I make no claim to understand any of their motives, I assume that office politics are at play?
What is important for me is getting rid of woke socialism including the new left that infiltrated the Liberal Party, the ghost squad and head ghost now retired from serving in Parliament. And the remaining miserable ghosts fading away, Angus Taylor elected by two thirds of Liberal MPs and the biggest Marin I can recall since 2007 when Dr Brendan Nelson became Opposition Leader and Liberals Leader.
Accordingly the centre/centre right must bury their hatchets somewhere and get aboard the same boat and learn to row together to victory.
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It seems to me that the Liberals (& Nations under the coalition) at all levels are happy to play opposition on comfortable wages, while allowing Labor to destroy the country, as soon as One Nation became a threat to their pay packets and they were put under the spot light for not actually doing opposition things, they began lashing out at ON and Pauline for upsetting their Status Quo.
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Ted1 , I see Canavan is still attacking One Nation .
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This is a long standing exchange since Pauline Hanson Liberal MP Queensland 1996 was disendorsed for “contentious comments regarding Australians of indigenous ancestry”.
And Pauline has ever since attacked Liberal and National (LNP QLD) from time to time for publicity purposes and when they respond plays victim
23
As I posted at Tuesday last night the latest woke socialism event is the trade agreement between EU Government (and member countries) and Australian Government, and the terms and conditions Bolt Report covered last night on Sky that provide UN-style interference into the affairs of our sovereign nation, notably climate change related, use of land, etc., Paris Agreement 2015 and Glasgow 2021 net zero emissions enforced by order EU Government in return for trade concessions that Australian business people are rejecting as inadequate and no better than we had before the agreement.
Note:
The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of 27 member states primarily located in Europe. It operates through several key institutions, including the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the Council of the European Union, which collectively propose and implement policies, laws, and the EU budget. The EU aims to promote economic and political cooperation, ensure the free movement of people, goods, services, and capital, and address common challenges such as security, climate change, and human rights.
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Didn’t Abbot also sign a similar agreement Dennis ?
13
Tony Abbott’s Efforts for an EU Trade Agreement
Background
During his tenure as Prime Minister, Tony Abbott prioritized securing a free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union. He believed that enhancing trade relationships was crucial for creating jobs and fostering economic prosperity in Australia. Abbott’s discussions with European leaders, including French President François Hollande, highlighted his commitment to this goal.
Recent Developments
After eight years of negotiations, Australia has successfully concluded a landmark FTA with the European Union. This agreement is significant as it aims to lower trade and investment barriers between Australia and the EU, which is the world’s second-largest economy.
Note: The Coalition never concluded an EU Trade Agreement because they could not negotiate satisfactory terms and conditions
30
A comment at Sky News today for your information
If you read details published by the EU – not Albo’s pr team – you see there are several significant issues one of them being Australian exports will have to comply with EU standards and prioritisation. Having previously exported to the EU I can tell you the EU regulations are very difficult to deal with and there is always small print that creates barriers. The EU charter prohibits the dilution of these standards. The EUs objective is to sell more BMW’s in Australia, not buy more meat from Australia, they have plenty of that!!! For instance taken directly from the EU commissions website … “the agreement will allow imports from Australia at zero or reduced tariffs only in limited amounts and subject to certain conditions.” And “safeguard mechanism will allow the EU to act quickly if a surge in Australian imports causes difficulties for EU farmers.” So one or two Italian farmers can stop all this. Very different from what Albo is saying.
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Yes Dennis, when the full agreement document is released, we will learn that our signing of this “free” Trade Agreement will mean the signing away of our sovereignty to a foreign power on the other side of the world for no Net advantage for our Nation.
What has Albanese really done for us? It seems he has shackled us to the Woke, Socialist, NWO, Davos, open border Brigade, with no thought as to us controlling our own destiny.
This is further madness from this Government, piled on the Renewables Stupidity, and what would have been the divisive Voice. The Australian people did not vote for this.
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Peta Credlin on Sky has tonight exposed the Minister for Energy as a deceiver, he denied during an interview today that the EU Government and Australian Government trade agreement includes climate based and Paris/Glasgow emissions/net zero requirements and penalties for non compliance but Peta revealed EU media release and Australian Government media release admitting it is a major requirement for Australia to be compliant.
She also revealed that the Government is quietly following a plan dated 2019 to deal with fuel supply crisis – Albanese Labor was elected May 2022, PM Morrison and Minister for Energy Taylor from late 2018 !!!
10
Please advise when Al Pinocchio ever spoke the truth, the whole truth & nothing but the truth, so help me etc,etc,etc. in fact that goes for the whole lot of the Pinocchio Party!
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The EU is a bureaucratic, over regulated and fading organisation who has lost much ground against the US, China and India.
Best to keep them at arms length else they will tell you when to wipe your nose and clean your shoes. Can not see what is in it for Oz, unless you want lots of electric BMW’s
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FWIW – an alternative handling of the EU
Today’s Coffee and Covid newsletter
“EU drags itself to $750B energy bar after sandbagging. ”
“Remember how I told you that Trump was using the Iran War to achieve other major geopolitical objectives? Yesterday, the Financial Times ran a story headlined, “US warns EU to pass trade deal or risk losing ‘favourable’ access to LNG.” Last July, EU leaders made a trade deal with President Trump, and promised to buy $750 billion in natural gas and oil. The deal required ratification by EU member states, which was to happen ‘promptly.’ But they slow-walked it. Till now.”
More at
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/whipsawed-tuesday-march-24-2026-c?
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Trump should tell the EU to go buy their gas from that Baltic Sea pipeline that brings gas from Russia. So Who’s Smilin’ Now. Morons!!!
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You’re not wrong. Australia can put things like cheese on supermarket shelves in Europe cheaper than Europeans can.
A French “dairy farmer” with 3 cows gets about USD50k in subsidies just to get out of bed. The same thing applies right across the agricultural sector.
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Many French “farmers” have tiny landholdings and only survive on taxpayer-government subsidies
50
Yep, about an acre can happily run 3 dairy cows in most of France.
My great grandfather ran 3 cows on an acre here in north east Victoria.
And 3 cows is enough to get the tens of thousands in subsidies.
00
They value local agriculture much more the we do. A reasonable approach would be somewhere in the middle.
30
Kicking off a push to stop wind in Wyoming.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/03/24/wyoming-wind-power-needs-a-programmatic-environmental-impact-assessment/
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Video.
The UK conservative (not “Conservative” Party) Jeff Taylor talks about the situation in the UK of the new genuine conservative parties vs the legacy fake conservative and other parties.
It’s a situation remarkably similar to One Nation in Australia vs the fake conservative Liberals and other legacy parties.
Well worth watching.
https://youtu.be/4QJ5SatXGM8
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Pixar studios is going anti-woke!
They are sick of losing millions of dollars to cater to extreme minorities and acting as therapy for people who don’t know what they are.
Woke staff have been fired.
They are now catering for stories that regular people can relate to, not identity-driven agendas.
https://youtu.be/NHvo9U4xOHU
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Eh what?
This has happened before!
It didn’t end well for either country.
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“Do not impute the sins of the fathers to the sons.”
20
Back in the 90s I was having dinner with a Japanese colleague. During the meal we noted that our Grandads probably tried to kill each other and yet here we were.
20
Heard a non-ABC Australian reporter on the radio this morning say it was coming up 6 years to the day since your Penal Prison Plandemic doors were slammed shut and Operation Covert-1984 Re-set kicked off.
He also mentioned the ABC were on strike today: peace & quiet on the airwaves or radio silence due to that woman’s visit from the EU?
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Ahhhh…the serenity.
Personally. I hope “their ABC” comrades stay on strike for a long, long, long time.
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New thoughts about origins of Neanderthals.
https://youtu.be/bT-gtaUIS1M
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Worldwide, many Neanderthals have not evolved or progressed any further!
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And here was me thinking the Neandertal rose out of the Arts / Law Faculty due to unrestrained growth of free tertiary funding. The evidence of the spread of my Neandertals was the presence of their primitive tools and practices such as, yelling slogans through loud hailers, branch stacking and ballot harvesting which they later spread in use to the wider community eventually bringing the Neandertals into positions of power.
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Is what’s happening now OUR Grubbnmnts back door into 15 minute cities?
Via a self-restricting reduced “want” to travel?
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More likely the usual incompetence of our politicians and bureaucrats isolated in Canberra.
Not likely unless someone suggests it.
40
A fairly balanced view of Trump’s flip-flopping this week-
“Iran has received confirmation of something it had suspected but couldn’t be certain about – its ability to control the Strait of Hormuz is the true centre of gravity of this conflict. ..What US President Donald Trump has learnt remains unclear, but it is no accident that he issued his 48-hour deadline for bombing Iran’s electricity infrastructure on a Saturday morning. Doing so gave him – not the Iranians – a decision point by Monday morning US time, when the financial markets opened.”
So he had to dive in, make the threats, then retreat not so much to save face as to save the economy!
“Trump’s backdown saw the price of Brent crude oil drop 11 per cent immediately, down to $US100 ($141) a barrel…The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were each up more than 1 per cent on Monday afternoon US time. ”
The author reckons Iran knew this and gave Trump no room to wriggle by saying the announcements of peace talks was a pack of lies! We will probably see more of this brinkmanship until people all admit the state of the oil market and realise America is sacrificing its ‘allies’ in a war to control the world’s oil, in a situation where they don’t feel the pain.
https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/there-s-a-reason-trump-set-his-48-hour-deadline-on-a-saturday-it-had-nothing-to-do-with-iran-20260324-p5uio7.html
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The SMH isn’t my go-to source for honest, balanced reporting on Donald Trump.
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Like the Guardian – reliably unreliable?
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There is not a single source – big-small, left-right which can be trusted in that respect.
Even I some days am Pro, other days Anti.
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If KP says “honest, balanced” I skip it as anti-American rubbish.
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Balanced? The SMH? OK, here’s another balanced view – from Grok.
Q. how do you assess the situation re Donald Trump’s threats over the Straits of Hormuz and what actually happened?
Grok A. My assessment
Trump’s move is classic maximum-pressure diplomacy: a blunt, public, high-stakes threat designed to exploit Iran’s economic vulnerability (they need oil revenue too) while the US holds overwhelming naval/air superiority in the Gulf. It fits his pattern—escalate rhetorically to create leverage, then pause for talks or better terms. The five-day extension shows he’s not locked into immediate bombing; it buys time, tests Iranian willingness to blink, and avoids the optics/political cost of hitting civilian power infrastructure right now.
Pros of his approach:
It puts the onus on Iran and highlights the global stakes (everyone who buys Persian Gulf oil has skin in the game).
Combined with ongoing US strikes on Iranian naval forces, it degrades Iran’s ability to enforce the blockade.
Claims of talks (even if Iran denies them) create a potential off-ramp to wind down the war without further escalation.
Risks and downsides:
Threatening power plants crosses into civilian infrastructure territory, which could be seen as escalatory or legally/ morally fraught.
Allies (Europe, Japan, South Korea, even some Gulf states) have been lukewarm or outright reluctant to join a naval coalition to police the strait—Trump has publicly vented about NATO “free-riding.”
Iran has asymmetric tools (mines, speedboats, missiles) and has already shown willingness to absorb pain and retaliate.
The economic blowback is real: higher fuel prices, supply-chain chaos, and pressure on global markets while the war is already in week four.
Bottom line: Nothing has been “resolved” yet—the strait is not open, no power plants have been hit, and the war continues. Trump’s threat forced a pause and spotlighted the issue, but whether it produces a real deal or just more brinkmanship remains to be seen in the coming days. It’s high-risk, high-reward Trump foreign policy in action: use leverage aggressively, keep the opponent guessing, and look for the exit ramp when it appears. The situation is still fluid and volatile.
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All the while POTUS and his mates are making a fortune as the oil price jumps about.
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How does a property developer make money out of oil? Trump Tower in NY would be depreciating.
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Insider Trading, he knows no bounds. The Alliance is on shaky ground.
‘Guardian Essential poll: only a quarter of Australians approve of US-Israel war on Iran.
‘Poll also finds Australians keener for government to forge closer ties with middle powers such as Canada and Japan.’
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Is that true outside your imagination? Evidence please. As for only 25% of Aussies approving of Trump’s attack on the Mullahs, I expect The Guardian carefully chose the ‘Australians’ they canvassed, to include a large contingent on their way into the mosque.
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Lots of opportunity for insiders to cash in on the market move this triggered.
And how dare you post something not gushingly glowing about our Donald!
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FWIW – more “crow” fed in the US airline chaos
“Call a Waahmbulance – Delta Torpedoes Congressional Airport Perks”
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2026/03/24/call-a-waahmbulance-delta-torpedoes-congressional-airport-perks-n3813196
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And
“Wile E. Democrat – Super Genius”
“38 days ago, or two pay cycles ago, Senate Democrats deployed a game plan to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement by holding the rest of the Department of Homeland Security, and ultimately, Americans, hostage until Democrats get what they want – hands off remaining illegal aliens in the country. What they’ve gotten instead is an undeniable and absolute public relations disaster. ”
More at
https://hotair.com/generalissimo/2026/03/24/wile-e-democrat-super-genius-n3813167
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AI data centre getting expanded in Footscray despite protests from local residents (the rights of local residents have been undermined by Victoriastan legislation to fast track projects). Compare the photo of the data centre at the top of the article with the photo at the bottom of the article to get an idea of the extent of this expansion.
https://removepaywalls.com/https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/west-footscray-data-centre-bids-to-double-in-size-amid-nightmare-construction-20260324-p5uags.html
We all know in addition to the massive amount of electricity required to run these data centres, they also require a huge amount of water. At the moment, Victoriastanis are being presented with adverts on various media warning of water restrictions and we are being encouraged to limit our showers to no more than 4 minutes. This water provider gives you some catchy tunes to time your shower…
https://www.yvw.com.au/news-room/shorter-showers-bigger-savings-yarra-valley-waters-4-minute-shower-challenge
You can’t have your AI and a long hot shower (and maybe not the air-conditioner either later in the year).
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“The first stages of the data centre, which replaced dozens of factories and warehouses on the site, opened in 2022.”
All those factories employed people and made goods for Australia.
People are unemployed on welfare, or employed as public “servants”.
And goods made in Australia replaced by imports.
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They’ll need to install a few windmills and solar panels to power the damn thing, and dust off the billion dollar desalination boondoggle.
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The Victorian government fast track these projects because there’s building jobs for all their CFMEU bosses. No more, no less. What I would also like to know is how much has the Victorian taxpayer contributed to this installation? But I agree, crazy to hear those water conservation ads on media, and see the water usage of the data centres.
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The General Secretary of my fishpond is complaining about last night rain promised by BOM.
He brought up the subject of Grey Water.
Listen, he said, why don’t you Melburnians collect your river run-off into walled off part of your Bay? You do not need to drink such water, I’ll happily swim there.
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30 tons of dog poo a day.
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Generous Western countries are being ripped off in a big way by some of our happy new arrivals. The US taxpayer has been robbed of billions and it looks as if we are being used in a similar way here. They seem to be treating us with utter contempt. Why do we keep importing these people who wish us harm. It is the same demographic that feels sorrow and grief at the death of the murdering psycho ayatollah that wished us all dead. https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/andrew-bolt/we-have-a-massive-problem-andrew-bolts-take-on-the-fraud-of-the-50-ndis-scheme/video/0482587bea04de957f90e40f5afeec2e
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A question to the people that understand physics.
There are calls to reduce the speed limits to conserve fuel.
My very limited understanding of things suggests that to do an amount of work X energy is required, so the longer it takes to do the work doesn’t save “energy” it just means that the energy consumption it spread over a longer period.
If this is true, why is pushing lower limits news worthy, surely some one in power must know?
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I drive an Isuzu 4WD SUV 3 litre turbo diesel engine vehicle purchased new late 2017 and serviced every time on time. First service at home, first full service in Darwin NT.
It was recently serviced at 190,000 kms, before COVID-19 2020 I had averaged 50,000 kms a year in previous diesel 4WDs since retiring.
The usual around country town fuel consumption aircon on is 8-8.5 kms/llitre.
Since fuel crisis began I have left the aircon off and drive to the speedometer and legal speed limit in town 40-50-60 kmh as appropriate. The speedo at 100 kmh reading is actually 93 kmh so the 40-50-60 is also slower than speedo indicates. I do not normally stick to speedo reading.
I am now achieving according to on board computer 11.9 kms/litre driving daily and usual route 10-15 kms depending on destination.
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11.9 Kilometers per Liter =
8.40 Liters per 100 km
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Lower speeds DO reduce consumption. The converse is that high speeds increase consumption hence there is no competition to increase airliner speeds. It would be easy enough to go from Mach 0.8 to Mach 0.9 if there were a point in doing so.
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When much younger I participated in club car rally events including time trials and economy trials, obviously I assume well tuned well maintained engines and other mechanicals are important. And back then some extra work on the head, carburettors, exhaust system and distributor-spark plugs provided advantages.
However driving technique is important being careful light pressure acceleration and when hill climbing minimal and just enough. Coast in gear when possible. Corner using the best line of entry and exit. Anticipate stopping and brake when slow and for final stop (typically I obtain 100,00 kms from front brake pads and often towing up to 2 tonnes. Not always possible of course when cut off or other emergency. And air conditioning is a factor on and off
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You obviously don’t drive in South Australia.
Those methods are alien to much of the population.
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I won several economy runs back in the 70s and early 80s in my trusty Vauxhall Chevette. Coasting was verboten. Marshals would be concealed at strategic points along the route and competitors were warned that a single transgression meant disqualification. The marshals were ‘judges of fact’, which meant we had no right to appeal or question the decision.
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I did not mean coasting in neutral, coasting in gear meaning foot off accelerator downhill
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The power required to move a road vehicle is very closely related to the speed cubed.
The time to get to a location is the inverse of speed.
Accordingly, going slower is more economic in terms of fuel use to the point of the engine becoming inefficient at low power levels.
My turbo diesel is most economic in flat terrain at 80kph. At that speed, a tank gest me almost to Coffs Harbour from Melbourne.
It gets complicated if you are paying someone to sit behind the wheel because their costs then come into the equation.
When you come across an EV doing around 80kph in a 110kph zone, they are conserving range by working more economically.
USA implemented speed conservation limits in the 1970s that are slower than present limits.
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And EV at 80 kmh on highway 100kmh/110kmh are heavy transport hazards
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Meet the real Your John AG. This chap’s image and voice have been stolen and, sadly, the AI copy has had some play here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-5_A4FBvJ8
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Meanwhile in South Korea
South Korea just announced mandatory fuel rationing. Government vehicles at public institutions barred from operating one day each week on a five-day licence plate rotation.
The world’s 10th largest economy, a G20 member, a semiconductor superpower, home to Samsung and SK Hynix, the country that fabricates a quarter of the world’s memory chips, is rationing fuel like Sri Lanka.
The rationing is no longer a developing-world phenomenon. It is migrating up the GDP ladder. The 10th largest economy. The 12th largest military budget. A US treaty ally hosting 28,500 American troops. Rationing.
https://x.com/shanaka86/status/2036298016232247727
And NZ (SK supplies their fuel) is still better off for now than Oz…
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$3.29 litre diesel at most servos today. Thought I might top-up but not at that price: van’s still 3/4-full from when I purchased pre-Iran at $1.80 (obviously no big roadies for me this month, waiting for winter to go north). Daily commuters must be hurting, and the transport industry, and the ad infinitum etc. Still, mustn’t grumble, ooh aah, could be worse, boom!
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Filled up with LPG for 78.9c per litre. LPG pricing has been relatively calm during this version of the Gulf storm.
78.9c is stupid cheap though so I had to stop at one of them. Normally mre like 98.9c to $1.09c
I thought they would ride the market up but the have played nicely till now at least. Hard for thec regular punter to panic buy LPG.
30
I filled up yesterday, about my usual amount but at $A0.70 extra per litre ($1.795 about 2 weeks ago).
While in the queue the woman in front filled up her very large car, then filled a 4L plastic can and a 10 L one.
I hope she knows what she was doing.
10
I felt guilty topping up the car and filling 2 x 10 litre fuel cans but one was for the sons mower and he gets us a load or 2 of wood , the other is for our ride on mower and hand mower .
When I filled up the Ranger with diesel a woman was filling up 4 x 20 litre containers of diesel plus filling up but she was obviously a farmer and it’s a bit hard to drive an old unregistered Fergie into town to fill up .
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Maybe they are just actively managing their situation instead of blundering along like us.
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Their ABC on strike:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A9EekoHdd8
Add a comment so they know they are not doing useful work.
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I went there to read the comments.
I wasn’t disappointed.
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Hooray!
Now we will find out how much we really need them.
I think they should extend their strike indefinitely.
00
I can not say that the BBC news broadcast substitute for the nightly 7 pm ABC Perth news was an improvement.
But then normally the most interesting part of the regular ABC broadcast is the graphics accompanying the weather reports.
00
FWIW – from NZ
“I am operating an older (20 yrs ) PC 200 Komatsu excavator…today it stopped …briefly, and the owner had to spend $1000.00 on it….
We put 300 litres of diesel in the fuel tank……… $3.30 NZ D per litre
(75 US Gallons……)
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Perhaps rent a solar panel? Or call Dial a Windmill? It is laughable how this tiny disruption has exposed the utter fraud of cheap, reliable, adequate solar and wind power.
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On Sky tonight Question Time in Parliament and again a Minister lecturing on Electric Vehicle the answer to fossil fuels !!!
Completely out of touch with reality.
No understanding of the diesel fuelled economy and prosperity resulting from fossil fuels.
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Transition away from from fossil fuels, Comrades!
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I took delivery of 5000 litres of diesel yesterday. I had ordered it ten days ago, but obviously the fuel company was waiting for the price to reach a satisfactory level.
With luck more will arrive today from another company , so I can fill the generators and tanks.
At this rate coal is going to be back on the menu for the hot water boilers, along with what wood the farm can supply.
Fortunately we get all our nitrogen for free from the air, so farm input costs should not change as long as the tractors stay in the shed.
30
Please consider;
* Strategic Asia Pacific and Indo Pacific Australia, US using ADF Bases here, Pine Gap an important US-ADF surveillance and communications asset
* ANZAC Treaty
* Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance
* QUAD defence alliance – India, Japan, Australia, United States
* US the major and biggest source of foreign investment in Australia, UK second source
* Trump-Morrison 2019 private weekend discussions on oil-fuel security for Australia that Albanese Labor have pretended to ignore.
* Sky News Credlin report tonight that the Albanese Government is quietly using a 2019 fuel security plan (May 2022 Albanese elected).
https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/us-ships-coming-to-our-rescue-in-fuel-crisis/news-story/4a9ec75339ccdfac09585c2408ab7566
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The US appears to be “coming to our rescue” in Australia’s fuel crisis, with three massive shipments of petrol and diesel on their way to our shores from stateside.
There were 26 fuel cargoes due to arrive in the country next month, down from 97 cargoes in March after the Iran war threw the global oil supply into chaos, according to data from London Stock Exchange Group on Wednesday.
The final three cargoes scheduled to reach Australian shores, on April 14, 18 and 22, were all large diesel and petrol shipments from the US, which Macquarie University senior lecturer Lurion De Mello described as “highly unusual”.
The ships are already under way in the Pacific and carrying more than 343,000 barrels of petrol, and almost 600,000 barrels of diesel. The two diesel shipments are bound for Newcastle and Melbourne, while the petrol is headed for Sydney.
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I suppose Albanese and Wong will ungraciously accept help from the enemy.
30
Obviously not from the “reserves” we once had in the US, but which were apparently sold in 2022. I guess this is fuel produced in the US.
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Must have been “purchased” as I thought we sold our reserves in the US in 2022.
00
“Australia
United
States
United Kingdom
AUKUS”
My God we’re in terrible company!
“Must have been “purchased” as I thought we sold our reserves in the US in 2022.”
Bought with the blood of the young Australians who be sent to help the Yanks in some unrealistic war or two..
“I guess this is fuel produced in the US.”… or Venezuela, now they control that. ..or Iraq, or Syria, or Libya, all those oilfields controlled by America now.
00
“almost 600,000 barrels of diesel. ”
=96million liters, lasts ONE DAY!
“Based on the figures provided, Australia consumes approximately 92 million litres of diesel every 24 hours.”
00
Perennial pastures are looking good.
Annual cropping not so much.
00
Australia
United
States
United Kingdom
AUKUS
00
Don’t forget us ‘junior’ partners 😃 though sending one of our ships to the Persian Gulf is probably not a good idea: auto-pilot & coral reefs always in tears – no need for mines, just send in the NZ Navy!
20
Maybe Maori war canoes Greg?
Treaty of Waitangi must include defence?
00
I wonder what happened to the diesel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSqjMXCNXv4
00
Ten days to
flatten the curveflatten the economy.10 days go-juice left, NZ has 30.
https://youtu.be/hTm1OkxsL3s?si=bVhtFrTP1EbNnoNc
Remember Ice Age Farmer? ( Unshadowed now)
Europe’s fuel crisis, engineered shortages:
https://youtu.be/KaSq7nzFK88?si=7AHV3FvCfnkadrPr
https://youtu.be/BsOU-ZS3WyI?si=f7V9-a8a1VbziQIb
Covid was the test, now no-one but the dumbest of sheep believe it, climate change produces yawns, so plan 3 – destroy the energy system for the masses, leaving intermittent remotely controlled ruinables, using the same methodology tried and proven with Covid.
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That would be AUSUK.
Which might be the right order.
10
It pays to read before hitting post
😉
10
I realise fans here will red thumb me again but I was smiling when the One Nation group stood before media and cameras broadcast tonight on fuel security and apparently unaware of the 2019 DEAL now being actioned.
01
Labor today continued to claim there is no fuel shortage and fuel availability in line with before Iran situation???
So it’s a logistics distribution problem obviously, and could that be Labor taking advantage for transition away from fossil fuels? Example now pushing for EV sales? No mention of diesel the economy and business fuel.
And One Nation is out in force talking fuel rationing?
Barnaby Joyce knows about the Morrison-Trump and Taylor fuel deal and plans 2019-2020
00