Vile, Nasty, Short

 


On a ticket to nowhere. 

I hate you, declared one of the Watchers on the Watch in what was nothing short of a deranged and mismanaged psyop.

Or that's how it felt, some days.

Meanwhile, the watchers behind the watchers, the ancients, appeared unperturbed, eagles picking over the corpses of his enemies, their eyes gleaming with a certain delight.

It was good to eat your enemies.

The Australian election was beyond tedious. Doomed. Well the so-called conservatives were doomed in what had been an extraordinarily badly managed campaign. Nothing cut through. And it wasn't as if they hadn't known it was coming.

The Tweedle Dee Tweedle Dum of Australian politics; as it rushed headlong into a communist state, the least democratic of all the democracies, a failure from top to bottom.

No one expected competence, or even decency, from the Australian government. But here they were, battling it out on broken ground, two aging political warhorses, arguing over virtually nothing as they shepherded the country towards its own demise.

MAINSTREAM HEADLINES

SKY NEWS

Dutton claps back after multiple journalists hound him at press conference

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s plan to bolster federal defence spending by $21 billion was ruthlessly interrogated by multiple journalists at an intense press conference in Western Australia. 


Speaking at a defence manufacturing business in the Perth seat of Swan, Mr Dutton was grilled by the press pack in a back-and-forth exchange as to how the Coalition would fund its plan to increase federal defence spending by $21 billion over five years.

Mr Dutton, flanked by shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie, refused to explicitly specify where the defence funding would come from and said that unlike Labor’s permanent tax cuts the Coalition was not “baking in” spending.

GUARDIAN AUSTRALIA

‘Sick of being ignored’: galvanised by Gaza, Australian Muslims aim to exert new political power at the election

Campaigns that have sprung up to energise Australia’s 650,000 voting-age Muslims say the ramifications will extend well beyond 3 May

But the conflict is far from the only issue affecting the diverse community. Healthcare, housing and cost of living are all flashpoints – when Fahmi travels to other parts of Sydney, Watson’s inequalities sharpen, she says.

“Gaza was the catalyst, but the sentiment was always there: we had been marginalised and silenced politically on major issues,” says Ghaith KrayemKL;.

ABC

Liberals would scrap Labor plan to slash student debt by 20 per cent, plus EV subsidies, under Dutton government

A Peter Dutton government would not go ahead with Labor's promise to cut 20 per cent off student loans, labelling the policy "elitist".

The Liberal campaign also refuted Mr Dutton's claim that he would not change electric vehicle subsidies — confirming the Liberals would in fact scrap that policy.

SBS

A Liberal MP who once suggested women shouldn't serve on the frontlines has said combat roles are open to all Australians.

Andrew Hastie, a former Captain in the Australian Army, said he felt "the fighting DNA of a close combat unit is best preserved when it’s exclusively male" in 2018.

The member for Canning in WA and Opposition defence spokesperson was questioned about his views on Wednesday as the Coalition announced it would 
increase defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP
.

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Hastie said he did not deny his previous views but added the Coalition had a "long-standing position" that combat roles are open to women.

NEWS

Anthony Albanese’s $1.2bn pledge amid Donald Trump’s tariff threat

The Albanese government will invest $1.2bn into Australia’s critical minerals supply, which will likely play a major role in negotiating a tariff carveout from the Trump administration.

Anthony Albanese will on Thursday announce plans to create a Critical Minerals Strategic Reserve to secure quantities of the select minerals that will be made available for domestic projects and select international partners.

THE NEW DAILY

Dutton reveals tax hike plan to fund defence splurge

The increase in defence funding would be in line with Trump's demands. Photo: TND/AAP

Peter Dutton has revealed the Coalition would use higher income taxes to help pay for its pledge to dramatically boost defence spending.

The Opposition Leader on Wednesday unveiled a long-awaited plan to increase spending on national security, pledging an extra $21 billion over the coming five years.
He did not deny the three per cent defence spending figure came from the Trump administration when pressed, but he said the coalition was guided by budget figures on how much could be reasonably spent on defence.

MACRO BUSINESS

Dutton faces electoral annihilation

The Dutton-led Coalition is staring down a massive election defeat, with the latest polling from Roy Morgan showing Labor’s two-party preferred vote widening to 55.5% (up 1%) against the Coalition’s 44.5%.

Primary support for Labor also increased by 2.5% to 34.5%, and it is now ahead of the Coalition at 34%, up 0.5%.


SPECTATOR AUSTRALIA

The interview began with the Prime Minister’s condescending comments during the ABC debate. In response to a question from David Speers about government overriding community concerns about renewable energy, he said:

‘Proper community consultation and environmental approvals… Some of the concern is not real. Whales being unable to steer their way around in the vast Pacific Ocean around a wind tower is not right…’

CRIKEY


Peter Dutton’s run of terrible, horrible, no good, very bad luck

There’s a whole lot of excuses for Peter Dutton’s historically bad polling figures as early voting opens. We rounded up as many as we could.


Whatever happened to Peter Dutton’s would-be workers’ party?

By April 2024, having helped defeat the Voice referendum, Dutton told a small business forum that the Liberal Party was now ‘the party of the worker’. But was he right?


THE NIGHTLY


Election campaign without bold vision, passion, or anything new to say has voters switching off


There are still ten days of hard campaigning left before the Federal election, but in the absence of bold vision, passion or anything new to say, fatigued voters are already switching off.

With no clear narrative and little to differentiate their electoral offering both major parties are now resorting to insults and fearmongering, making the choice all the more confusing.

There have been three debates in the last 24 hours, between the treasurers’, health ministers’ and major party leaders. But you’d be forgiven if the tsunami of spin doctoring and cherry-picking of facts and context had washed over your head.

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