65 Comments

I remember Albo frothing at the mouth when Scott Morrison dared to try and have a holiday with his family in Hawaii during the bushfires a few years back. Apparently the firefighters were one bloke short on the hose which would have necessitated Morrison having to return. How many points is Albo clocking up with his air miles?

Expand full comment

Couldnt agree more she had the guts to stand up to everyone!!! And was made Australias first political prisoner , along with David Etteridge were gaoled for 3 years for their trouble. This political stunt was overturned by the court and the conviction was quashed. This was supposed to shut her up for good . Good luck with that (expletives many deleted.More power Pauline.

Expand full comment

I was in commercial aviation for over 25 years and flew with both women and men as crew members. The fact they were there told me that they were qualified and knew what they were doing . I honestly couldnt give a rats arse about their gender , only that they know WTF They are talking about The same ,unfortunately cant be said about a lot of the old tarts(of both sexes) we have in parliament today.

Expand full comment

Am I allowed to mention Governor General John Kerr? There was a precedence back then which took out the Prime Minister. Could we not invoke that idea again? Mumm! If Albanese was always home and handling domestic affairs, pumping his ministers, and visiting the places in Australia of significance such as "A Town like Alice", we might be happy with his leadership! But he is so far away that his transparency is opaque, and his ministers have to bow every day to the cardboard cutout of their illustrious leader and take SMS messages about what they should. The bumbling cabinet and ministerial team have turned their allegiance to acting PM Dutton. Time for a restructure of Government and decrease in pay as they who are acting in the government benches, have lost sight of their goals and their leader!

Expand full comment

Aha, our globe-trotting Prime Minister is in San Francisco. Is he attending a very important conference there with Scott McKenzie while wearing a flower in his hair?

Expand full comment

When and if he gets to distancing us from the UN, WEF, WHO etc that will mean he is fair dinkum.

Expand full comment

Great read and great to see Peter Dutton finally fired up. The lefties are having a hissy fit over how he’s dis-respecting the PM (not that Albo engenders much respect), but also how O’Neil “owned” Dutton and put him in his place! Must’ve been on the ABC as I missed it 🙄

Expand full comment

Just a quick comment off subject- you had a news item about council amalgamation in Tasmania and Liz S railed against it- did you know Tasmania has 29 local councils and 6 city councils. So amalgamation sounds good to me. All these councils have great expectations and not a lot of people.

Expand full comment

Wow. I didn't know they had THAT many local councils! That's ridiculous.

Expand full comment

Ms Stirling's comment [below] is apposite. Home Affairs was Dutton's strength. His leadership so far has been uninspiring. He was, essentially, a follower in the Voice debate. I have been urging his office to think outside the square and develop a cogent vision and policy direction for this country that does more than target the next election cycle. Australia needs to think beyond the next fifty years in terms of culture, immigration, regional development, economics and infrastructure. Australians want and badly need strong national leadership. They need to have confidence in their country and a blueprint for the future. I see no evidence of this to date.

Expand full comment

I have been slow to warm to Dutton. I couldn't work out why he didn't come out against the Voice earlier, and his mooted referendum for constitutional recognition was a silly idea that, thankfully, he has now walked away from.

But with 18 months still to go before another election, I think he's starting to build momentum. I dare to hope!

As for a 50 year blueprint ... oh that any of our politicians (conservative or otherwise) were able to think beyond the next news conference!

Expand full comment

I grant you that he would seem to be gathering momentum - Indeed, let us dare to hope. I also accept he has to mould and fire a beautiful pot out of poor clay. To start at the beginning would be a sound start - have you looked at the Liberal Party's national and various state websites recently? I looked last year before I sent my paper to Dutton. They are nothing but vacuous verbiage. I do like your point about the next news conference!

Expand full comment

Another thing that was up was Albanese,up up and away,flying as only a lame duck can!

Expand full comment

Thanks James. It’s been a long wait for Dutton to take control and when he came out with his on ‘voice’ proposal, I was horrified.

It’s good to see him stand up finally but with so many lefties in the party, it’s difficult to see it coming to anything. The QLD LNP are a mess and it doesn’t look like improving. If the rest of the states are the same and they look like it, what are we to do??

Expand full comment

Your LNP man is on track to be the next Qld Premier isn't he?

Expand full comment

We hope so but he doesn’t inspire us as an LNP should. It’s more because everyone’s actually had enough of Anastasia.

Expand full comment

Totally - we sure have!!!

Expand full comment

Home Affairs is Pete Dutton’s area and he ran the department well. Clare O’Neill couldn’t run a chook raffle. She and Giles are so far out of their depths they are drowning. Giles reminds me of Alec (can’t remember his name- so forgettable) , Scott Morrison’s mate who wouldn’t let Novak Djokovic play in the Open because he was sensibly rejecting a dangerous injection. So not a big change there.

Before we get too excited about the Liberals- last night a group of them voted against Alec Antic’s attempt to get his bill against transgender treatment of children to a committee for discussion.

I want to see some action on that issue and a few others before I get excited about Peter Dutton.

The safeguard bill was a no brainer and Richard Marles to his credit recognised that. It’s just that O’Neill and Giles have no brains.

Expand full comment

Alec Hawke is the former minister that I was thinking of.

Expand full comment

He probably belongs in the Greens.

Expand full comment

I spent some time Friday with Alex Antic. He is such a great Senator. The Libs need to promote him.

Expand full comment

Antic for PM I say!!

Expand full comment

Absolutely. AA is a good Christian man. Rita P talked to him last night about the setback.

Expand full comment

I was beginning to have doubts about Dutton because he wasn’t showing the strength as opposition leader that I believed he had, but after this I believe he has just stepped up and shown us just what we needed in a good leader.

He has been playing a waiting game, saving his ammunition until he needs it and while Albo keeps shooting himself in the foot every other day Dutton doesn’t need to do too much to look better than our leader missing in action.

As for our PM meeting with Fisk from Blackrock, I wonder if we will be privileged to see the minutes of that meeting unlike his meeting with Gates?

Expand full comment

I agree with you that Dutton has been playing a waiting game. In hindsight, he did that with the Voice.

Rather than oppose it immediately on principle, he hinted at support if only the details were forthcoming. This put the focus back on Albanese to provide details which, of course, he couldn't. That ended up being a major reason for the 'No' vote's victory.

You could argue that had Dutton opposed the Voice on principle right from the start, the focus would have been on Dutton as a racist rather than on Albanese as a PM not across detail.

And finally, he managed to move Jacinta Price into the Indigenous Affair job which meant he had an Aboriginal to argue the principle case, thus shielding him from the racism card.

Maybe I'm giving him too much credit. I don't know. But in hindsight, they managed opposition to the Voice smartly.

Expand full comment

I was always of the belief that Dutton was the man that should have been PM instead of Morrison. Wasn’t his time then but it’s coming and as time goes on ‘Albo the Absent’ probably doesn’t realise that he is actually helping Dutton get there.

Expand full comment

Dutton needs to deal with his Lino’s first before I get excited.

Expand full comment

It’s the constituents who vote for candidates, which is what democracy is. Yes the leader can move MPs in and out of portfolios / front bench, however they walk a tightrope in regard to appointing conservative, moderates and many other combinations of economic, social, cultural, judicial, immigration positions.

Expand full comment

It's a real worry that Labor have another year to destroy the country. It is going to take a long time to fix the mess created by "on the nosey" Albanese and his hapless crew.

I don't give a damn about charisma, it means nothing when there is serious work to be done. Peter Dutton is finding his wings. He has been incredibly busy talking to regular Australians and it is starting to show. He is most certainly looking more like a leader than Airbus. I hope Albanese stays away, it means he has less time to ruin the country. Plibersek, Watts and Bowen are destroying our agricultural industry with their ridiculous, delusional climate agenda. Wong is displaying anti semetic behaviour. Gallagher wants to control us with digital money ( but if the Treasurer keeps on the same couse, we won't have any money). Communication is under threat. Immigration....well we know how that's turning out. I don't think anyone in Labor is doing a good job.

Expand full comment

I read this morning that Chris Bowen considers himself a future leadership contender. I'm almost choked on my Fruit Loops

Expand full comment

Who but Kellogg's would say Bowen was a good leader? I don't like Fruit Loops anyway!

Expand full comment

Good one - fruit loops 🤣 I see what u did there 😜

Expand full comment

And the Coalition need to change their stance on all these issues. Their platform is net zero, and they like CBDC and more. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Expand full comment

Baby steps

Expand full comment

That's a great photo of Dutton in action, James! While Airbus Albo runs away from responsibility, Dutton steps up and takes the reins!! What a man! How refreshing! I don't like the fact that the next election is not due until 2025 though. At this rate, our country will be in complete ruins by the time 2025 comes round!

Expand full comment

The country will be run by China and the islamists by 2025 at this rate

Expand full comment

My bet is on China.

Expand full comment

Yes but Dutton has a huge job dealing with his LINO’s and changing their platform of net zero and more. The mis/disinformation bill and the Voice was their idea in the first place.

Expand full comment

I mean that's true about your first sentence. Not sure about your second sentence.

Expand full comment

Yeah, that's true. The so-called 'progressive' Libs have to go. They do far more harm than good. Dutton will certainly have his work cut out weeding his garden.

Expand full comment

Oh James! You keep on getting better and better!

Now how to get this far and wide,!

Expand full comment