Queenslanders voted for the LNP and now they’re seeing what comes with it. Jarrod Bleijie is reportedly considering laws to restrict strike action by nurses, teachers, police and other public servants. These are the people who keep essential services running, yet their bargaining rights could be weakened. Protecting essential services matters, but so does protecting workers’ rights.

AEMO has confirmed what critics of renewable energy keep denying. Batteries are fundamentally changing Australia’s electricity grid and helping drive down wholesale power prices. Grid batteries are reducing evening peak prices, while household batteries are cutting peak grid demand by up to 75% compared with solar only homes. More than 700,000 household batteries are now installed, reducing pressure on the grid and the need for additional generation. Wholesale electricity prices fell across every region of the National Electricity Market in the September quarter. The evidence is becoming increasingly clear. Renewables backed by battery storage are delivering results, not just promises.

Pauline Hanson wants Australia to build three new coal-fired power stations. There's just one rather enormous problem. Australia's biggest electricity generator has effectively told the country the economics don't stack up. Yesterday, AGL boss Damien Nicks said building another coal-fired power station doesn't make economic sense. And this isn't some environmental activist talking. It's the CEO of a company that actually operates coal-fired power stations. AGL says the market doesn't support building new ones. It's putting its money into renewables and batteries instead. Meanwhile, One Nation wants three new coal plants, which it estimates would cost $5.1 billion. So here's a question Pauline Hanson needs to answer. If the companies that actually generate Australia's electricity don't believe new coal power stations are commercially viable, who's going to pay for yours? Because promising cheap electricity is easy. Explaining who pays billions to build the power stations is apparently the difficult part. And Australian taxpayers deserve that answer before anyone starts digging.

Small business owners need to ask themselves who is really making their businesses unviable. It isn’t the worker asking for a fair wage or the union fighting for decent conditions. It’s the growing concentration of corporate power, major retailers squeezing suppliers, large contractors shifting financial risks onto subcontractors and a system that increasingly favours big business. Bunnings dominates hardware retail. Major corporations hold enormous power over farmers, suppliers and independent operators. Small subcontractors often carry the financial burden when large construction companies fail. Meanwhile, small business owners work longer hours, sacrifice their own wages and struggle to survive. Yet somehow workers and unions get blamed for wanting fair pay. For decades, the Coalition has marketed itself as the champion of small business. But where is the evidence that its economic policies have delivered a fairer marketplace for independent operators? A business owner shouldn’t have to work for less than minimum wage just to compete with corporations making enormous profits. The real fight isn’t small business against workers. It’s small business and workers against a system that allows concentrated corporate power to undermine both. Before the next election, stop listening to slogans about being the party of small business. Look at who benefits from the policies, who funds the political campaigns and who is actually standing up for independent businesses. Workers aren’t your enemy. Unions aren’t your enemy. Corporate power and political decisions that protect it deserve far more scrutiny.

RT @20thCenturyDan: Saying you’re rather vote One Nation to punish Labor is like saying you’d rather eat dog shit because someone served yo…

Barnaby Joyce has been spotted using a CPAP machine at CPAC, prompting speculation he’d mistaken the conservative gathering for a sleep apnoea convention. His wife, Vikki Campion, dismissed the suggestion. “Look, I knew exactly where we were going. I just knew Barnacles would start snoring as soon as the ranga started talking.”

After two decades in the major coalition and 3 years as Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce now claims the major parties have failed Australians. funny how the bloke who was right there in the thick of it for 23 years suddenly wants to point the finger at everyone else. if the major parties let Australians down, you were holding the door open for them the whole time. Spare us the crocodile tears, Barnaby #auspol

Apparently Australia has fallen to the communists. At least that is what parts of social media would have you believe. Anthony Albanese is no longer simply a Labor Prime Minister people can disagree with. Apparently he is now Stalin, Marx and the Devil rolled into one. It is becoming ridiculous. You can oppose Labor on immigration, energy, tax, industrial relations, spending or anything else. That is democracy. But policies you dislike do not suddenly become communism. Australia still has private property, private businesses, private banks, private farms, corporations, share markets, private investment and free elections. That is not communism. What we are really seeing is American culture war politics being copied and pasted into Australia. In the US, communist accusations carry decades of political baggage from the Cold War and McCarthy era. Some MAGA supporters now throw the word communist at virtually any Democrat or progressive policy they dislike. But Australia is not America. Calling Medicare, renewable energy, welfare, workplace protections or government regulation communism does not make it so. And younger Australians in particular are increasingly likely to laugh when every government policy they dislike is described as Marxism, Stalinism or communism. Australia remains a liberal democracy with a mixed market economy, private property, elections, Parliament and an independent judiciary. If you dislike Albanese, vote him out. That is democracy. Perhaps it is time to put Stalin back in the history books and come up with political arguments that belong in Australia in 2026 rather than importing slogans from America.

Angus Taylor’s migration policy raises more questions than it answers. The Coalition wants net overseas migration cut to 100,000 a year for two years while actually increasing skilled visas and prioritising higher skilled workers. But where is the modelling showing exactly which occupations need these workers, how many vacancies will exist and where they will be needed? Australia cannot simply import 100,000 professionals and assume they immediately fill shortages. Doctors, nurses, engineers, lawyers and many other regulated professions may require Australian registration, skills assessment, accreditation or additional training before they can work here. Australia also has an ageing population. Workers retire every day from health, aged care, construction, engineering, education and other essential industries. Migration policy has to consider who replaces them, not simply chase an arbitrary headline number. And the Coalition has not released modelling of the broader economic impact of its plan. Its detailed costings are not promised until closer to the 2028 election. Migration contributes to housing demand, but pretending it is the entire housing problem ignores construction capacity, planning, infrastructure, interest rates, building costs, productivity and decades of inadequate supply. A serious migration policy needs workforce modelling, housing modelling and economic modelling. A round number and a slogan are not a plan.

Pauline wants to send repeat drug offenders and addicts to do farm work for rehabilitation. Turns out repeat sex offenders just get offered a job in her party, as One Nation campaign director….

STOP SOCIALISM! Unless, of course, the government money is coming to me. Some people scream about welfare, handouts, taxes and big government. Everyone should stand on their own two feet, apparently. Then there is a drought, flood, bushfire, struggling industry or business downturn and suddenly it is: Where is the government assistance? Farmers need support. Save Australian jobs. Business needs help. Funny how government assistance is socialism when someone else receives it, but sensible economic policy when they receive it. Businesses rely on taxpayer funded roads, ports, police, courts, infrastructure, educated workers and public services. Many industries also benefit from grants, concessions and government assistance. And I assume all these warriors against socialism will be handing back their Medicare cards? No Medicare rebates. No public hospitals. Pay the full cost yourself. Of course they won’t. There is nothing wrong with government helping people, farmers or businesses when circumstances justify it. That is part of what governments exist to do. The hypocrisy is attacking struggling Australians for receiving assistance while demanding government support when you need it. You don’t get capitalism when the profits are private and socialism when the losses arrive. If government support is acceptable for you, stop demonising everyone else for receiving it. Socialism for me, capitalism for you isn’t a political philosophy. It is hypocrisy.

Santos has now paid ZERO company tax for 11 years straight. Inpex’s Ichthys LNG project reportedly generated $52.9 billion in sales over seven years while paying zero company tax and zero PRRT. AGL reported $13.1 billion in total income and paid zero company tax. Adani Mining reported $1.3 billion in total income and paid zero company tax. Yet ordinary Australians are constantly lectured about government revenue, spending and everyone needing to pay their fair share. Australia’s natural resources belong to Australians. Companies should be able to make a profit from developing them, but Australians deserve a fair return as well. Something is seriously wrong when billions flow through these companies while the company tax column says $0.

This needs to be said more often: “domestic pressures” does NOT automatically mean “government spending”. Domestic demand includes household consumption, private investment AND public spending. Yet every time “domestic inflationary pressures” gets mentioned, sections of the media immediately translate it into “the government is spending too much”. Private spending is a huge part of the economy and matters enormously for demand and inflation. In the latest ABS figures, private demand, particularly household consumption, was the main driver of growth in domestic final demand. Government spending can absolutely contribute to inflationary pressure. But “domestic pressures = government spending” is economically illiterate. #auspol

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Supply chains are still an absolute mess. I’ve seen it firsthand through my work. Bearings that cost around $2,500 have jumped to $8,000 in just three months because supply is so tight. But I suppose that’s Labor’s fault too? Australia doesn’t operate in a bubble. Global supply shortages, the war in Ukraine, trade disruptions and Trump’s tariffs and trade policies affect prices here just as they affect countries around the world. And when much of the inflation is being driven by supply constraints, repeatedly raising interest rates is a very blunt instrument. Making mortgage holders hand over hundreds more every month doesn’t manufacture bearings, unclog supply chains or produce more oil. It just squeezes household budgets harder.