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Purple member embraced by the ginger minger. Will he last?* 'Come over to my place, Barny' Yeah, yeah - juvenile, but it's the priapic Barnaby so the smutty tone is appropriate What does it say about a political party when its popularity is improved by recruiting Barnaby Joyce? One Nation is the junk drawer of politics - it's an embarrassment of wretches. Dwarf tosser "Malcolm-Ieuan: Roberts., the living soul" (sic) is a climate science-denying homunculus and a rarity for One Nation - he's stuck around. Person of girth and conspiracy nutter Cray-Cray Kelly, once a Liberal thence the UAP's prime minister-in-waiting, later a wouldabeen independent and now Libertarian was campaign director of the One Nation bouncy castle for much of 2024. Mark "Biff" Latham, coprophiliac, national embarrassment and Labor Party rat washed up on One Nation shores like the detritus he'd become. Then there's Trump fan boy and Liberal turncoat Cory Bernardi who is now a ON upper house man in SA after failing at his own RWNJ foray, the Australian Conservatives movement: 10 years a Liberal Party senator and never promoted he walked out on the government just seven months after being elected near the top of the South Australian Liberal ticket at the 2016 election. Sinead Bernardi on her husband - they have the perfect marriage because they’re “both in love with the same man”. “Cory obviously has this huge belief in himself … If you didn’t love a guy who was so in love with himself you’d have a lot of trouble living with Cory. Life – I don’t think he’d mind me saying this – it’s all about Cory. I am all about Cory, and he is all about Cory, so it makes it easy.” One Nation candidate vetting was undertaken by a convicted rapist, in news that should surprise no one given the calibre of their aspirants: "A One Nation candidate at last year’s election in Western Australia had been convicted of 15 breaches of family violence restraining orders. A One Nation candidate in the South Australian elections had been charged with breaching family protection orders. Another candidate was dumped after it was revealed there was a warrant for his arrest in the UK after failing to attend court to face a sexual offences charge. A candidate in the 2022 federal election withdrew after his comments downplaying the prevalence of women being murdered and other misogynistic comments emerged." Bernard Keane, Crikey. 13 April 2026 Then, inevitability, Barnaby stepped in. Drunk even by naval standards, Barking Barmy Joyce was a lay down misère for Pauline when video of his mimicry of a chalk outline on a Braddon footpath came to her attention - 'there's my boy!' she proclaimed. Barnaby is her stand out - a VB survivor and champion of the bush who extends One Nation's appeal beyond the racists and cookers to take in designated drivers, DIY dentists, staff humpers, bumpkins, rugged self-reliant agrarian socialists and people who crowd the luggage carousel at airports. He's the icing on the One Nation cake, the crust on Pauline's pie. Unlike Pauline, Barnaby is not totally without self-awareness. He has no shortage of self-regard but he knows his name has the same appeal as genital warts in metropolitan Australia and with women generally. Ladies' change rooms aside (if 2014 WA Rural Woman of the Year Catherine Marriott is to be believed), his happy hunting grounds are where gormless rustics congregate to bitch and moan in accordance with the their standard schedule of grievances - "inner-city elites", the generic "woke", "lefties", "greenies" et al. He plays well to a limited audience. Joyce and Hanson are both media darlings. And media whores. Controversy invites attention, circuses draw crowds. A symbiotic relationship has grown between the media and Joyce/Hanson. The puerile blathering, the cartoonish temperaments - it captures eyeballs and gives the deranged ranga and mulga dill wide exposure. Which is a two-edged sword. Shining light on the One Nation toadstool shelter will burst their balloon not too far into the future. Even many ON supporters recognise that Hanson has a yawning credibility gap when it comes to more than tremulous whining. BJ supposedly lends authority via his stints as deputy PM, yet ol' Drunkerby thinks gravitas is what he pours over his lamb chops, and that his frothy testiculating passes for serious discourse. BJ's a poster boy for any campaign warning women not to leave their drinks unattended, he has fewer brains than Kurt Cobain, teeth like lepers toes and the sartorial style of a burst laundry bag chucked under a hedge. The melanophobic Hanson has a face that would drive rats from a barn and all the credibility of a rent boy's receipt and is so narrow minded her eyebrows meet at the back. You'd think television wouldn't do either of them any favours and you'd be right. More exposure will start to see a slide in their recent upswing in popularity. Installing solar power on her Queensland home yet bagging clean energy, she voted for targeting foreign interference in Australia while her consiglieres James Ashby and Steve Dickson solicited millions of dollars from America's National Rifle Association (NRA) in return for working to overturn Australia's gun laws. “Let me make it very clear to the Australian people,” Hanson said, “I have never sought donations, or political guidance, from the NRMA (sic).” “They want someone who is going to be upfront and honest with them and I have always been that.” To Andrew Bolt on Sky News, 2025 Jetting about on Big Vag's private Gulfstream, partying at Mar-a-Lago and staying in Rinehart’s Palm Beach mansion whilst masquerading as an outsider who supports ordinary Australians she loves "absolutely everything about Donald Trump” and thinks “all of his policies are fantastic”. The egregious Mein Trumpf is anathema to Australians. One Nation will unravel naturally. While the Libs and the Nats will delay that by jumping into the 'tough on immigration' auction and committing self-harm by preferencing One Nation ("Pumping up One Nation's tyres only gives them credibility & makes them a more compelling alternative to. . .the Libs¹ ") there is no way that a functional relationship is sustainable between two delusionists with vast, misplaced self-esteem who both think they're the big dog. The Australian says its latest Newspoll shows the primary vote for Pauline Hanson’s party has dropped from 27% to 24%. The News Corp paper reckons the dip has come amid “greater scrutiny” as well as “increased pressure from a more assertive Coalition”. Crikey, 20 April 2026 The Great Unravelling. That's when the Joyce/Hanson honeymoon hits the skids. There will be a Lathamesque falling out - it's only a matter of time. It will be fun. Image: Alex Ellinghausen *Betteridge’s Law of Headlines: any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered with “no.” ¹Peter FitzSimons on Xitter Pauline Hanson keeps forgetting to declare gifts from Gina Rinehart. Please explain. Sarah Martin, The Guardian. 24 March 2026 So much talk, so little change: Joyce revels in victimhood while women are denied justice. Bernard Keane, Crikey. 25 June 2021 Who is Pauline Hanson? For decades, Pauline Hanson has built her reputation as someone who stands with everyday Australians. If that's how she sees herself - what does her record show? Like a cockroach that can’t be killed, Mark Latham has crawled around public life for too long. He must go. SMH editorial. 17 July 2025

Angus sprinkles some ginger on his orange "...the best qualified idiot they've ever met." Malcolm Turnbull MAGA and One Nation - the current go-tos for Tory inspiration "Viktor, you're a very unattractive man." A record voter turn out of Hungarians has repudiated their Trumpian oligarch cum Putin lackey after his corruption became too orange to tolerate. Angus 'Squizzy' Taylor with his signature exquisite timing concurrently announced his Orbánesque One Nation-inspired 'me too' migrant bashing, one-upping the Ginger Minger by adding some Orangutanned plans to conduct social media vetting at the Australian border and empower a dedicated multi-agency taskforce to round up visa overstayers. The invocation of images of ICE kidnapping wrongly tinged people off the streets in the U.S. may give the slack jawed handrail lickers a boner but they are the same people who are in thrall of the red-haired moron anyway and they won't be changing loyalties. Under Orbán, Hungary was ranked the most corrupt nation in Europe and Budapest "acted as laboratory and HQ for the global far-right*". Kiss O'Death Tony Abbott is an enthusiastic Orbán fan boy - Hungary’s “greatest modern leader” making Budapest “something of a haven for conservative intellectuals”. Orbán's rigid anti-immigrant stance was a primary stimulant for Tones' arousal. (*Megan Clement. Crikey) 'Conservative intellectuals' is not necessarily an oxymoron. People like Tones put a lot of thought into their immigrant bashing arseholery: "Jesus knew that there was a place for everything and it's not necessarily everyone's place to come to Australia." Abbott, ABC's Q&A. April, 2010 and his selective Christian values The thing to know about Kiss O'Death here is that he's also an enthusiastic Taylor booster as is Ol' Camphor Balls, the cryogenic John Winston Howard, who with his instinctive rat cunning exploited Tampa and 9/11 to dial up fear of brownish foreigners. During a Captain Queeg interregnum in the Libs the embaldened tinpotato Spuddly Too-right as Immigration Minister had dark-uniformed ABF goons patrol Melbourne streets to challenge the bona fides of passing swarthy-toned pedestrians (Operation Fortitude). As candidate for PM he targeted an immediate cut of 100,000 to migration numbers. Spud had an open door policy for French au-pairs and white South African farmers and enjoyed nothing so much as poking refugee kiddies through the wire mesh with a stick so this was an obvious dog whistle. Jane Hume, a woman of practiced sincerity, alienated Australia's Chinese diaspora by alleging that Labor was employing Chinese spies to work on polling booths. She later doubled down and then attacked Labor for mentioning it: Let’s be clear what the issue there was — there was a suspicion by the Australian electoral integrity taskforce of foreign interference in our electoral system. Hume, May 2025 Hume was co-author of the Liberal Party's own 2022 internal review which explicitly stated that party representatives needed to be more sensitive to the concerns of the Chinese community. Jacinta Name Ya Price, champion of Qantas Chairman's Lounge patrons everywhere, took on the Musk-inspired insult to immigrant communities by claiming the Labor government was prioritizing Indian migrants because they are "Labor leaning". She, of course, refused to apologise. The trend has become well and truly set. Now Angus has applied his intellect to the problem of disappearing Liberal voters and decided that gazumping One Nation's more overt racism to recapture the drifting bigot vote is the way to go. "Australians are fed up with politically correct preaching on immigration" claims Angus. "We're not talking about copying America in any way. That is not where we're going." Opposition immigration spokesperson Jonathon Duniam thereby confirming in a very Trumpian way that that is exactly what they're doing. Being seen as Trumpy doesn’t work well overseas. Just ask Viktor Orbán. Or Spud Dutton. They'll continue to lean into MAGA world for tips and techniques - the pumpkin headed loon is a natural ally but the gormless ranga is an immediate threat - hence the updated game plan from the idiot in residence. The divisive politics, resentment and hatred and petty vindictiveness of immigrant bashing will continue, supplemented by the Tories standard ideas-free, constant, narky negativity. Cathy Wilcox‬ @smh Hey Angus - "Shaddap You Face". Taylor has only ‘vibes and fumes’, no answers on migration. Amy Remeikis, The New Daily. 14 April 2026. Why Australia's conservatives are finding friends in Hungary. Michael Koziol, SMH. 6 October 6, 2019 Angus Taylor can’t free himself from Dutton’s ghost on immigration. Bernard Keane, Crikey. 14 April 2026 Australia’s immigration powers are already godlike. So why does Angus Taylor want them to be Trump-like too? Abul Rizvi, The Guardian. 14 April 2026

A nostalgic random selection of great popular music from the 60s and 70s mostly; an era that is a treasure trove of styles from pop, rock, blues, psychedelia, reggae, ska, folk, funk, metal, R&B, Motown, surf rock, punk, new wave and including jazz, country and big band elements. Musical tapas you could say from the most influential, diverse decades in musical history. Countdown of 100 favourites: Bonus. Billy Field - You Weren't In Love With Me Gravely-voiced Aussie funkiness from 2 hit wonder Billy Field. This is the better of his two hit songs, the other being Bad Habits. #100. Mason Williams - Classical Gas Love the acoustic guitar. The orchestration is a tad over-blown though. #99. Alive 'n' Kicking - Tighter, Tighter 70s soft rock written by Tommy James of The Shondells who covered Crystal Blue Persuasion but also came up with shite like Mony Mony and Crimson & Clover. A mixed bag was Tommy. #98. Tommy James & The Shondells - Crystal Blue Persuasion A quasi-religious tune inspired by the Book Of Revelation but mistakenly believed to be a drug reference. Tommy James & the Shondells were invited to perform at Woodstock but turned it down to sit around a pool and drink margaritas in Hawaii instead. I guess they had to do what the Lord inspired them to do. #97. Lovin' Spoonful - Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind A poppy, upbeat number that I wasn't sure should be included. But the song title won me over. #96. Men at Work - Who Can It Be Now Love the sax, love the lyrics, love Men At Work, love the fact that Colin Hay wrote this in a tree house at beautiful Bermagui. #95. Five Man Electrical Band - Signs Funky guitar intro and lyrics: And the sign said "Long-haired freaky people need not apply" So I tucked my hair up under my hat and I went in to ask him why He said "You look like a fine upstanding young man, I think you'll do" So I took off my hat, I said "Imagine that. Huh! Me workin' for you!"A A perfect song for its time. #94. Percy Faith - Theme From A Summer Place This is the sort of music favoured for elevators and doctor's waiting rooms. If you're waiting on a prostate check then this is what you'd like to listen to. #93. Scott McKenzie - San Francisco I went to San Francisco once; but well after the Summer Of Love. Haight-Ashbury had become drug pusher central and the city had a beggar on every corner. Bubble burst. But this song still evokes hippydom, Janis Joplin, psychedelic rock and flowers in everybody's hair. #92. The Shadows - Apache If the Brits can borrow from blues and reggae then i guess they can have a shot at instrumental surf music as well. The Shadows did a good job with this. #91. Norman Greenbaum - Spirit In The Sky If Norman Greenbaum, as an observant Jew, can write this overtly happy clapper number then i guess, as an avowed atheist, i can enjoy it without subscribing to the sentiment. Same goes with George Harrison's My Sweet Lord and gospel music - I can listen without feeling any urge to shake a tambourine, speak in tongues or upgrade to a new BMW SUV ala the Jesus-shopping, god-wants-me-to-be-rich hypocrites. #90. Sir Douglas Quintet - Mendocino It was a coin toss whether this went into Funky But Forgotten or So Crap They Were Good . Heads won. #89. Split Enz - Message To My Girl Australia likes to nick things from New Zealand and claim them as our own but we couldn't get away with it with Split Enz. We had to wait, post-Enz, for when the outrageously talented Neil Finn formed Crowded House with a couple of Aussie members before we could do it. Dear New Zealand - you can have Russell Crowe back but we'd like to keep Neil. Regards, Australia. #88. Seals & Crofts - Summer Breeze You can feel the warm breeze and smell the jasmine. This song doesn't need to do any more than that to qualify as funky. #87. Leon Russell - Roll Away The Stone Can an inductee of the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame and the Songwriter's Hall of Fame be forgotten? I haven't heard any Leon Russell played for decades so perhaps so. #86. Manfred Mann - Pretty Flamingo There's a lot of Manfred Mann stuff i don't like that much - but this is pretty good. #85. George Benson - Breezin' The instrumental signature tune for Benson's Breezin' album that included other jazzy, bluesy soul such as On Broadway and The Masquerade. However you want to label them they are all funky. #84. Zager & Evans - In The Year 2525 This dystopian view of our future was released in the same year than man first set foot on the moon, Planet Of The Apes and 2001: A Space Odyssey were released and David Bowie's Space Oddity hit #1. Given subsequent dark developments in ubiquitous technology, the alarming lurch to the right in politics and accelerated environmental destruction it's time this was re-released. #83. Midnight Oil - Wedding Cake Island Midnight Oil is front of mind when it comes to politically-edged Aussie rock but many forget, or never knew of their instrumental surf rock number Wedding Cake Island. This could be 1960s Altantics if you didn't know better (see #27). #82. Harry Nilsson - Everybody's Talkin'. It took this cover version of a Fred Neil song when featured in Midnight Cowboy to get Nilsson noticed. Not a fan of performing he was befriended by the Beatles who recognised his talent. Taking part in a performance of Monty Python's Lumberjack Song he fell off stage and disappeared, to be found 2 days later in hospital. #81. 10cc - Dreadlock Holiday A peppy tune about being mugged by rastas. The lyrics "don't you walk through my words" came from a bloke who was challenged when he walked through a group of black guys talking together. #80. Roxy Music - Avalon Avalon, More Than This, Jealous Guy, Don't Stop The Dance - magic. Roxy Music's Avalon album reached number 1 in Australia, NZ, Canada, UK, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands. It reached number 53 in the US. A country that elected Donald Trump as President. Case closed. #79. Otis Redding - Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay A posthumous #1 hit that Redding predicted but never got to see, dying in a plane crash only days after recording it. Co-written by Steve Cropper of Stax Records' house band Booker T & the MGs and a member of the Blues Brothers. #78. Freddy Fender - Wasted Days & Wasted Nights Freddy was a co-founder of the Texas Tornados, branded the "Tex-Mex equivalent of the Traveling Wilburys and Grateful Dead". Freddy had a bit of a tough gig - 3 years of porridge for possessing ganja, a drug and alcohol problem, with diabetes and hepatitis C he underwent kidney and liver transplants and a son died in a traffic accident. Funky song though Freddy. #77. Lou Christie - Lightnin' Strikes 1966 - the hippie and anti-Vietnam movements ramped up as Frank Sinatra and The Sound of Music were the big award winners at the Grammy and Academy Awards. Lightnin' Strikes was a suitable segue into a new era when four of the most iconic albums in rock 'n' roll made their debuts - The Beatles' Revolver, The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde and The Doors' self-titled LP. #76. Smashmouth - Walking On The Sun Can an American band with a song inspired by a particularly American event sound more British? Inspired by the 1992 police bashing of Rodney King i reckon this sounds more like The Clash than does Booker T's Time Is Tight (#75). The first line is "It ain't no joke I'd like to buy the world a toke", a reference to a famous 1971 Coca-Cola commercial with "I'd like to buy the world a Coke." When the song took off, Smash Mouth heard from Coke's lawyers, but nothing came of it. Songfacts #75. Booker T & the MGs - Time Is Tight Mid-60s soul instrumental from 4 session musos that was covered by The Clash as a warm up number. Most un-Clashlike i would've thought, but funky is funky. #74. Bob Seger - Roll Me Away Whenever Bob Seger gets airplay it's always Old Time Rock And Roll while his other hits were far better - Night Moves, Against The Wind, Still The Same and Roll Me Away. When i listen to Roll Me Away i can forgive Americans their jingoistic, parochial exceptionalism, their oxymoronic belief that freedom equates to an armed-to-the-teeth religiosity and their materialism. This belter of a song is pure old school Americana that i don't just enjoy, i freaking love it! #73. Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear The Reaper Funky cowbell and guitar riff - I want to play this really loud on my deathbed. But the management of the old folks' home probably won't be too happy about that. #72. Skyhooks - Toorak Cowboy A great complement to Australian Crawl's Beautiful People in pricking the pretensions of Melbourne's wankerati. Skyhooks' Toorak Cowboy, Balwyn Calling and Lygon St Limbo together with Paul Kelly's songs helped kill off the cultural cringe with unashamed Aussie references and not a single kangaroo in sight. #71. Boz Scaggs - Low Down All of Silk Degrees is funky - all of it. Only Bryan Ferry can compete with this for urbane cool. Trivia: Boz's backing band went on to form Toto. #70. Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing I will always remember when i first heard this - 1978 in a mate's car transiting Tom Ugly's Bridge in Sydney and exclaiming " Ferque! What was that? " So, not forgotten but well funky as the world moved on from disco - and it was guitar-riffed creativity like this that helped drive a stake through the cheesy heart of disco's dreadfulness. Trivia: The "Guitar George" and "Harry" in the lyrics are our very own George Young and Harry Vander of Easybeats and Flash & The Pan fame (see #43). #69. Carol Bayer Sager - You're Moving Out Today A simplistic tune with funky lyrics that will resonate with anyone who's ever had a deadbeat roomie. When i Googled this for some background the most prominent search results were for the meaning of the lyrics. If you need those lyrics explained to you then you are the type who is not likely to take hints; you will need to be forcibly evicted. Trivia: This song was co-written by Bette Midler. #68. Louis Armstrong - Wonderful World Cheer up - play this. Louis Armstrong's father left when he was young, his mother worked in a brothel and by his teens, young Louis was in trouble with the law after firing a pistol on New Year’s Eve 1912. He was arrested and sent to the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs. The Waif’s Home gave him music lessons and the rest is history. So, all you critics of discharging firearms in public places should think again. #67. Steppenwolf - Born To Be Wild It's 1968; fuck the rules, give The Man the finger, jump aboard the big Harley and head off over the horizon for bad women, good weed and poor behaviour. I am listening to this with a warm blankie over my knees and a mug of hot cocoa at my elbow. Maybe i was born to be wild and just never realised my potential. #66. Roberta Flack - Killing Me Softly & The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face I couldn't decide between these two songs so I'll post them both, deserved Grammy winners in consecutive years 1973 - 74. As a curmudgeonly geezer i no longer need to cover up a lack of cool and can willingly confess that i love both of these schmaltzy songs. #65. UB40 - Kingston Town Cultural appropriation? None of these guys is Jamaican, they're all from Birmingham. Who cares? Brits have long co-opted African-American blues to the betterment of popular music and they did it again with reggae. UB40 captures the reggae vibe without any ludicrous cultural affectations ala freckled suburban gingers pathetically imitating the pretensions of hip-hop "gangstas". #64. Mental As Anything - The Nips Are Getting Bigger Satirical, good humoured and inventive the group's art school background saw them as pioneers of the music video. Their piss-take approach is reflected in Martin Plaza's and Reg Mombassa's stage names and another fun song - If You Leave Me Now Can I Come Too. Terrific Aussie/Kiwi pop-rock that will put a smile on ya dial. #63. Canned Heat - Going Up The Country Authentic hippydom, Canned Heat debuted this at Woodstock. It is an anthem for the festival, you can almost smell the weed but Canned Heat was edited out of the movie. The band's Alan Wilson who wrote this was an early member of the 27 Club, dying of a drug overdose in 1970. The song is complemented by the laid-back style of their On The Road Again, not to be confused with Willie Nelson's song of the same name. #62. Merrilee Rush - Angel Of The Morning A song about a one night stand, while considered risque by the 'uptight' of the time it still received plenty of airplay in the 1966 hippy era of free love and reached number 1 in Oz, NZ and Canada. If you think the tune sounds much like a slowed down version of the Trogg's hit Wild Thing that's because it does. Both were written by the same bloke - Chip Taylor, brother of Jon Voight and the uncle of Angelina Jolie. #61. Summer In The City - The Lovin' Spoonful You can feel the heat and imagine the traffic, grit and grime when listening to this. The inclusion of sound effects like the car horns and a jackhammer was innovative at the time (1966). This being the '60s many thought the band's name was a drug reference but according to the Spoonful's John Sebastian it's actually a reference to cunnilingus, creating some awkward moments when the question came up during live interviews. Did You Ever Have to Make up Your Mind? was another of their hits that deserves a re-listen. #60. Lemon Pipers - Green Tambourine The Lemon Pipers preference was psychedelic music, a style they never had the chance to develop as they were pressured by their record label to record material like Green Tambourine. This song has been described as bubblegum. Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep and Sugar Sugar are bubblegum. This is far better than that tripe. #59. Albert Hammond - It Never Rains In Southern California Albert Hammond wrote this song on a miserable, rainy day in Fulham, London. He'd never even been to the US. I wish I didn't know that because this song can otherwise conjure up iconic images of cruising Route 66 in a convertible Mustang through the Californian deserts and old ghost towns. It's just as evocative of that as America's Horse With No Name. Well done Albert! #58. The Pretenders - Back On The Chain Gang Chrissie Hynde formed The Pretenders at 27 - a better alternative than co-membership of the 27 Club of Jimmi Hendrix, Janice Joplin, and Jim Morrison. Before that she worked as a shopgirl for Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, almost married Sid Vicious, cleaned rooms with Johnny Rotten, played in an early version of The Clash and had a daughter with Ray Davies of The Kinks. "I was learning that people didn’t care if you were a total quack. If you were more famous than they were, they were impressed. But that didn’t feel OK to me. ” Inspiration for the band's name perhaps but there's no pretending with their music. All good stuff! #57. Doobie Brothers - Long Train Running Initially a throw-away song that was unrecorded for years. Tom Johnston wrote the words while astride the can but I reckon it's their best song followed closely by Listen To The Music and Black Water. The band's name alone sells it to me. They had a high turn over of personnel, one of whom, Michael McDonald, often provided the vocals for Steeley Dan - another enduring icon of cool. Trivia: Bananarama scored a #30 hit in the UK with their cover version but we won't mention that. #56. Jimmy Cliff - I Can See Clearly Now There’s been a lot of covers of this Johnny Nash number but Jimmy Cliff’s has to be the best. Upbeat, cheerful reggae mon. #55. Jimmy And The Boys - They Won't Let My Girlfriend Talk to Me Their first studio album was Not Like Everybody Else. A truer statement has never been made. Iggy Jones (Juan Ignacio Trapaga) and transvestite Joylene Thornbird Hairmouth (William O'Riordan) were friends from exclusive private Sydney schools. There’s hope for exclusive private school boys after all - I’d rather mix with a transvestite than with a merchant banker. #54. Iggy Pop – Candy The song is a duet with Kate Pierson of The B-52s. It’s pretty good, but FFS Iggy, put a fkn shirt on. #53. Dionne Warwick - I'll Never Fall In Love Again It’s 1968, my pubes have kicked in, my voice has dropped an octave and my interest in girls is awakening and then this gets released. Eeeew – germs! Burt Bacharach’s and Dionne Warwick’s warning on the dangers of STDs put my development back 12 months. It’s to my credit as a burgeoning sophisticate that it was only 12 months. What about you? #52. Manfred Man - Pretty Flamingo Fans of jazz and blues Manfred Man didn't like this song when it was brought to them. Thankfully they chnaged their minds - "I didn't like it much as it didn't have a black flavour, but I see now that it could have been done by The Drifters. Ben E King could have done a great job on it." #51. Las Bravos - Black Is Black The distinctive guitar riff is from Pinball Wizard, and the very first line has a mispronunciation. Listen carefully and you’ll clearly hear “goddess” being sung as “godness”. Their “Never Marry A Railroad Man”, which not too many people will have heard of, is not bad either. #50. Sam Brown – Horse To The Water Horse To The Water was George Harrison's last performance on a record; he was too weak from battling cancer to play guitar and he died just over eight weeks later. Sam Brown does George’s song total justice in the way she belts this number out at the Concert For George. Goose bumps all over. She has performed the famous vocals on Pink Floyd’s Great Gig in the Sky, although it was Clare Torry’s powerful voice on the recorded version on Dark Side Of The Moon. #49. Joe Jackson – Steppin’ Out The simplicity of this snappy number does not detract from its funkiness. Jackson’s “Is She Really Going Out with Him”, as likeable as it is, is more humorous than funky so "Steppin’ Out" gets the nomination. #48. Gheorghe Zamfir & James Last - The Lonely Shepherd Pan flute music can be funky? Yes it can – here’s your proof. #47. Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons – Hit And Run Pre-Black Sorrows, Joe Camilleri R&B with a hint of reggae and loads of funk. Also loved “Shape I’m In” and what Camilleri did with Burt Bacharach’s “Walk On By”. Cool as! #46. Nicolette Larson – Lotta Love This has been described as “blue-eyed soul LA-style”. What? It’s just a great rendition of a Neil Young song. Such a shame she died at only 45. #45. GANGgajang - Sounds Of Then We need a new national anthem. This is it. #44. Concrete Blonde – Joey It’s only relatively recent - from the 90s, but I’d forgotten all about it. But when it came onto the radio the other day I remembered just how funky it is. #43. Flash And The Pan - And The Band Played On Harry Vanda and George Young; significant funky credentials being members of the Easybeats, originators of Friday On My Mind and George is the older brother of Accer Daccer’s Malcolm and Angus Young. They produced much of AC/DC V1’s albums. Brush with Fame: I had a brief chat with Harry and George (first name terms – nyah!) over a beer at a Sydney pub in the early 80s. #42. Russell Morris – Wings Of An Eagle Russell Morris rightfully claimed iconic status with The Real Thing – a psychedelic 60s classic written by Johnny Young and produced by Molly Meldrum, two other icons of Oz music. It’s a bit gimmicky but it’s been rightfully included in the National Film and Sound Archives. As much as I love The Real Thing - Wings Of An Eagle is a much better song and one that he wrote himself. Sweet, Sweet Love and Rachel are further funky examples of Morris’s talents. #41. The Troggs - With A Girl Like You I’ll bet you’re thinking “ I haven’t forgotten The Troggs ”. I’ll bet you’re remembering Wild Thing. Don’t forget With A Girl Like You. Or for that matter, Love Is All Around. #40. JJCale - They Call Me The Breeze Country-blues style and attitude, with a touch of folk and jazz thrown in. And a fair bit of funkiness. #38 and #39. The Stranglers – Always The Sun and Golden Brown A double dose of funkiness! You’d never guess from these two songs that these guys were some “of the instigators of the UK punk rock scene”. I love their original name – the Guildford Stranglers, while I also acknowledge the tragic loss of all those with dear ones who were strangled in Guildford. #37. Traci Chapman – Baby Can I Hold You A sublime song, a beautiful voice and thoughtful lyrics. I am a big, big fan of this. #36. John Fred & his Playboys-Judy In Disguise These guys were taking the michael out of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds when they produced this number with its obtuse lyrics. It’s bubblegum, but somehow it’s also funky. #35. 4 Non Blondes – What’s Up? 90's lesbian grunge. What I like about this, apart from the significant funkiness that is so scarce in post-70s music, is the Non Blondes’ attention to good punctuation. And this from within a generation whose adherence to such common sense practice is not typical. The Huffington Post rated this as "without question, the worst song of the 1990s". Fekk off...the Huffington Post needs to replay the 90's Achy Breaky Heart to reset their perspective. I like What's Up?....it's ballsy :O. #34. Zombies – She’s Not There The Zombies recorded this in one take after they won a talent contest at their college. They had a follow-up hit after they broke up – Time Of The Season, which didn’t have the funky factor like this has with its early use of the electric piano as the lead instrument. It was written by Ron Argent the organist after his girlfriend broke off their wedding just weeks before. She did us a favour there Ron. #33. Joan Armatrading – Call Me Names Joan Armatrading BA(Hons), MBE, singer, guitarist, keyboardist and writer of this funky song. Joan can call me any names she wants. #32. Sandpipers – Guantanamera This doesn’t pass the cool test but it is funky. Funky is different from cool. Hipsterism is based on this principle. Speaking of Hipsterism, how can almost an entire generation subsist as baristas? Although that does explain their second-hand, horn-rimmed, lens-free specs and their fixation with fixed-wheel bicycles - you can’t afford lenses or a properly geared bike if your income is derived from making deconstructed, sustainably-sourced latte macchiatos. Mondegreen: We heard this song as “One ton Monaro, I’ve got a one ton Monaaaaro”. #31. Burt Bacharach - This Guy's in Love with You OK, it’s not forgotten but it always stirs memories of otherwise long forgotten young lovelies. And as always with Burt Bacharach songs it’s funky. #30. Robert Palmer - Addicted To Love The song’s a bit forgettable, but not that video clip. One of the best ever. I feel like I wanna be naughty and chastised for it by a severe looking black-clad woman in heavy make-up. Phwoooaaar! #29. Masters Apprentices – Hot Gully Wind Hot Gully Wind was the Masters’ second single and it may have been the first record I ever bought (it was either that or Deep Purple’s Black Night). They had a string of funky numbers such as Buried And Dead, Turn Up Your Radio, Undecided and Living In A Child’s Dream. This Aussie outfit were as good as anyone else from anywhere else but went largely unnoticed outside of Oz. My oldies threw out my collection of singles and EPs when I left home and I’ve never been able to find Hot Gully Wind in “hard copy” since. My oldies did not have the funky factor. #28. Dave Edmunds - I Hear You Knocking Great sax and piano on Fats Domino’s version but it was Dave Edmunds who made the charts with it. What’s that? You’d love to hear a psychedelic version of the Sabre Dance? You’re in luck – look up Dave Edmunds’ band of 1969, Love Sculpture/Sabre Dance on YouTube. No-one has ever heard of it so it can’t be forgotten. But it's funky. #27. Atlantics – Bombora Despite the band name these guys were Aussies. This is early 60s pre-Beach Boys instrumental guitar riffed surf music from a time when surfers were well groomed; unlike our late 1960s to 70s era when credibility at a surf break required shabbiness – threadbare jeans, faded t-shirt (a couple of holes was a common accessory), tangled, salt-encrusted hair - the longer the better, scuffed desert boots. Pre-Grunge homelessness chic you could say. Good times. #26. Jeff St John – Teach Me How To Fly Jeff St John used a wheel chair due to spina bifida pulling wheel stands and skids during performances, and what a voice. What a song! #25. Boyce & Hart - I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight We blokes all know that the subtle meaning is “I wonder who she is doing tonight”. "All right, Bobby, let's go" - a particularly funky inclusion into this old funky favourite. #24. Sniff 'n' the Tears - Driver's Seat A one hit wonder, but it’s worthy nostalgia from 1978 when they were accused of ripping off Dire Straits - true or not i love this song! #23. Manhattan Transfer - Boy From New York City Finger clickin’ good. I have an urge to buy a white tuxedo, top hat and cane. Their rendition of Chanson D'Amour is outstanding. #22. The Equals – Baby Come Back The unkind amongst you could accuse this of being typical 60s bubblegum pop – contrived and aimed at the pre-teen/early teen crowd ala Sugar Sugar, Yummy Yummy Yummy, Chirpy Chirpy Cheap Cheap and similar mulch. That would be unfair; the Equals weren’t manufactured and I challenge you to play this without bopping along. I can't see why Baby wouldn't go back upon hearing this. #21. Kinks – Lola Not as challenging to a naïve young man’s binary view of gender as was Lou Reed’s darker, concurrent Take A Walk On The Wild Side. It was intriguing to find out that there were ambiguous people out there. Each to their own after all and they are both funky numbers. Trivia: If you hear “cherry cola” it’s the Brit version. If you hear “Coca Cola” it’s the American version. #20. Thunderclap Newman – Something In The Air Thunderclap Newman was a band cobbled together by a pre-Who Pete Townsend. One of the founding members, Andy “Thunderclap” Newman, was a telecoms techie who performed in a trilby, spectacles, braces and bow tie. Who knew that telecoms techies could be dapper or talented? Trivia: Guitarist Jimmy McCulloch later spent 3 years with Wings. We can forgive him that because of Something In The Air. #19. Fats Domino - Ain't That a Shame Significant funk from the 50s. Despite the melancholy lyrics this is an upbeat toe-tapper. Love it! Fats’ Blueberry Hill is also a pearler. #18. Box Tops – The Letter "No American group since the Righteous Brothers had looked whiter and sung blacker than the Box Tops on that sensational first single in 1967.” #17. Janice Joplin – Cry Baby Janice Joplin’s been gone since 1970 and while she is far from forgotten maybe Cry Baby is not as well remembered as it should be. Joplin’s style and voice at their best; better even than on Me And Bobby McGee. Full on funky; it gives me shivers. #16. Mr. Bojangles - The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Written about an old drunk and a dead dog - credible inspiration for funkiness. Covered by the likes of Sammy Davis Jnr, Elton John and Bob Dylan but never bettered. #15. Barry Ryan - Eloise A tad melodramatic and heavy on the orchestration, but funky nevertheless. Trivia: It was written by Paul Ryan and sung by his twin brother Barry, whose one-time father-in-law was a filthy-rich Malaysian sultan. #14. Dr John - Such A Night Don’t confuse this with the vacuous salvage-yard reject of the same name from Racey. Dr John’s song is racier than Racey’s. And far funkier #13. Verdelle Smith – Tar and Cement A one hit wonder – and even then, only in Australia. This rightfully reached #1 in Oz but only #38 in the US where it was made. What’s wrong with those Seppos? – this is a very good song. #12. Small Faces - Itchycoo Park Terrific 60s psychedelic pop. At the time I had not the slightest inkling about the drug references (“ What did you do there? I got high ”… “ I feel inclined to blow my mind ”). To me it was, and still is, a very funky number. Lazy Sunday Afternoon and Tin Soldier are also crackers but Itchycoo Park is far out. Man. #11. Cowsills – I Love The Flower Girl An inspiration for TV's Partridge Family, the Cowsills was 6 brothers, a sister and “mom”. Definitively cheesy and unhip – but they put out some cheerful, enjoyable hits such as Indian Lake and Hair. They looked like Mormons; you would've turned the hose on them if they'd turned up at your front door with their wholesome toothy American-ness. But hip or not, their stuff is likable. #10 Rodriguez - I Wonder If you have to put any effort into being cool then by definition you aint cool. Sixto Rodriguez is cool. #9. Hurricane Smith - Oh Babe What Would You Say Smith was an engineer on all the Beatles' sessions between 1962 and 1965; the last Beatles album he recorded was Rubber Soul. In the late '60s Smith produced Pink Floyd's early albums. Oh Babe was a demo of a song that he had written with the hope that John Lennon would record it. It's a doofus song but given Hurricane's work with the Beatles and Pink Floyd I'll class it as funky. I think I liked it better before I saw what a geezer he looked like. #8. Iron Butterfly - Inna Gadda Da Vida “Inna gadda da vida” arose from a pissed slurring of the intended lyric "in the garden of Eden," by the band’s Doug Ingle. 17 minutes of psychodelia/prototype heavy metal. It took dedication (or a spliff) to listen all the way through. #7. Whistling Jack Smith - I Was Kaiser Bill’s Batman It just does not get any better than this. #6. The Vapors – Turning Japanese Rude, crude and lewd? The Vapors’ David Fenton has denied that Turning Japanese is a euphemism along the lines of working on upper body strength/playing hands solo/being home alone and so forth. Who cares if you want to play with a sword, samurai or pork, this peppy number will get people bopping along. #5. Jona Lewie – In The Kitchen At Parties Not as tragic as it seems from a casual first listen. Perhaps it’s a call for more open plan living. Trivia: Some say one of the backing singers in the video clip is Kirsty MacColl, known for one of the best ever Awful Song Titles: “There's A Guy Works Down The Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis”. #4. Squeeze - Cool For Cats What’s not to love, from the Cockney-accented delivery to the witty lyrics to the TV show references to cowboys & indians and The Sweeney. It’s terrific fun and it’s cool. For cats. Trivia: The prolific Jools Holland was an original member so no shortage of talent with Squeeze. #3. Linda Ronstadt and the Stone Poneys – Different Drum Blue Bayou, When Will I be Loved, You’re No Good – Linda Ronstadt had some popular funky folky, country-ish numbers but none better than this early hit with the Stone Poneys. It didn’t hurt that Ms Ronstadt was also a hornbag. Trivia: Different Drum was written by Mike Nesmith of Monkees fame, whose mother made a fortune by inventing liquid paper, while Linda Ronstadt’s father made a fortune by inventing the rubber ice cube tray. #2. Arlo Guthrie – Alice’s Restaurant Perhaps not so much a song as a satirical anti-war, anti-The Man, hippy-ish monologue put to music. At 18 minutes Alice’s Restaurant didn’t get much airplay in full but it was popular anyway. Maybe it was the place and time (recently post-Vietnam war) but I loved Alice’s Restaurant – if not the cheapo movie that was made as a follow-up. Trivia: Guthrie's dad Woody was a folk music hero of, and significant influence on Bob Dylan. #1. Melanie Safka - Lay Down Turn the volume up and let Lay Down belt out from your speakers; Melanie's voice is brilliant. It makes my testicles re-ascend; no small achievement given my vintage. Ruby Tuesday is another cracker rendition of hers. Favourite songs. Nifty Fifty Part 1 Nifty Fifty Part 2 Shit List. The worst songs ever Kitsch List. Songs so crap that they're good

FauxMo's cult of personalities Does the absence of a personality of itself define a personality? This is the FauxMo Conundrum, or Schrödinger's Twat as I like to call it. The paradox being that if FauxMo does have a personality it is characterised by the apparent absence of a definitive personality; a void that he fills by projecting one of his focus grouped, duly accessorised caricatures onto the audience du jour, all franchised under the ScoMo ® homebrand. Contrived personalities disguise his true character and temperament. His ever-present, self-satisfied, know-all smirk is as obvious as a cock&balls tatooed on his forehead; it's the nudge, nudge, wink, wink to his cohort of shonks and duds who think they're getting away with it all. This human embodiment of the gag reflex would not be successful at the great con if more people paid attention. FauxMo, the patron saint of hyprocrites and the incontinent, has finally outed himself. Swathed in all his exerable humbug St.'Unt di la Shire (canonisation formalities pending) is at once professing both humility and God's personal endorsement. Unaccessorised with baseball cap, hi-viz or virgin tool-belt he has now succumbed to the urge of the self-righteous to proclaim his specialness and his virtue, overcoming any reservations about revealing his true self if his recent rambling sermon to his fellow Australian Christian Churches ' rapturists is any guide. Bro Faux has put out the word that Hughie is on-side by explicitly proclaiming that the invisible hand of his fantastical, imaginary friend has personally intervened, his divine mission being " called to do Gods' work ". The Messiah from The Shire in " the great south land of the Holy Spirit " FFS! Quite the presumption for other than the Pope, The Donald or televangelical hucksters who are, ironically, all aware that such takes are marketing flimflam. Vapid, calculating, thin-skinned - the catalyst for FauxMo's smarmy, uncompromising hubris in the face of his habitual incompetence and his avoidance of any accountability can now be explained. He really believes he's been chosen via an evident miracle to steer secular Oz onto the path of his version of righteous cronyism while the hard yards of floods, droughts, fires and stranded Aussies are all in the hands of The Big Guy in the sky - “ ...I can’t fix the world, I can’t save the world We both believe in someone who can... ” Image: Facebook FauxMo's sermon, should you have the fortitude to listen to it, is a masterclass in hypocrisy and contradiction - useful tools for religious hustlers and political spivs. Faux is both but will deny he's either. The whole godliness persona could just be another manifestation of Faux's transactional marketing sophistry. Is this whole Christian schtick contrived? His brand of holiness may be just another of his many fake routines confected for specific consumption. A Christian of convenience amplifying Medieval dogma for the Old Testament Armgeddonist fan fringe but also dog-whistling to the more rational church goers - harvesting their sympathy by framing all Christians as victims of the ungodly woke progressives' sneering disdain? God-botherer or grifter? Prophets or profits? Jim Jones or Tony Blair? Saving souls or sandbagging marginal seats? Does he see Jesus's face in cheese toasties or does he see useful idiots to help sell his big neo-liberal con? This guy has a Stepford wife and a 24x7 personal photographer; he covers all bases - a touch-up artist by both meanings - The annointed one has apparently adopted the hands-on style with surreptitious feels of distraught souls - " I've been in evacuation centres where people thought I was just giving someone a hug. And I was praying. And putting my hands on people & various places, laying hands on them and praying, in various situations. " Is God's fondler groping disaster victims as furtive conversion therapy - saving the souls that his deity made homeless? Mysterious ways indeed! Losing your house to facilitate a coming-to-Jesus has a biblical precedent - and Bro FauxMo has a literal belief in such. 'Never mind, dear, I'll just touch you. Tithe 10% of your token disaster relief and smile for the camera over there ... now remember to vote for ScoMo.' The gist is that this beligerent bully, this speaker-in-tongues, fluent in marketing piffle and gibberish, his contempt, smarm, arrogance and pettiness shaped by the prosperity doctrine of hard right evangelical hypocrites is so convinced by mis-placed self-belief he no longer even pretends to govern for those who won't vote for him, pray with him or donate to him. He's ramping up the performances as the fuck ups cluster, subliminally morphing his kakocracy into a 7 Mountains Mandate theocracy that will ignore or persecute anyone not adhering to its end-times Old Testament values or participating in it's Randesque prosperity doctrine. As he and his cronies power full smirk ahead with a manifesto of blatant graft and favouritism that would embarrass Saudi royalty the traditional Tory practices of incompetence and bastardry continue in the background. Image : courtesy of my proctologist's waiting room Faux's comms team has to weave the Jesusing into the PMO media stratgey and PR war gaming - A symbiotic relationship with the Murdoch manure machine. FauxMo quotes “ We believe in the everlasting punishment of the wicked (in the sense of eternal torment) who wilfully reject and despise the love of God " “ Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith .” “ Freedom has never worked without deeply ingrained moral beliefs. ” Translation: If you're without his faith you're without morals and are bound for hell, so why should Bro Faux have any fucks to give about you? * * * * * " When the government puts its imprimatur on a particular religion, it conveys a message of exclusion to all those who do not adhere to the favored beliefs. A government cannot be premised on the belief that all persons are created equal when it asserts that God prefers some. " Harry Blackmun, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States 1970 -1994. Jim Jone s bio Tony Blair's religious beliefs New PM Scott Morrison – A Genuine Christian & Won’t Backstab 7 Mountains Mandate - Crikey Tories are wrong to think that they will never face a day of reckoning for sleaze - The Guardian Scott Morrison tells Christian conference he was called to do God’s work as prime minister - The Guardian Scott Morrison wants Australians to know he’s a Pentecostal Christian, but questions about it make him uneasy. Katharine Murphy, The Guardian Progressives fail to grasp the political and PR power of the gospel according to Brother Scotty . Crikey Climb every mountain. Scott Morrison's speech to the ACC . Gladly The Cross-eyed Bear.

The ticking bomb that is the L/NP Now that we're safe from Labor's retiree and death tax grabs, their planned theft of our hard-earned franking credits, their promotion of gender-fluid lifestyles in our kindergartens, their confiscation of our utes and their freeing of hoards of Muzzy murderers and rapists to roam our streets we can relax and hit the complacency button. That was a close call. Now we'll have three more years of stability and better economic management with the adults still in charge ©. ©News Corpse "I don't like irony and sarcasm very much. But I do like it when you think someone is telling you a joke, and then you discover it's serious." Jens Lekman, Swedish musician, possibly picking up on the vibe from Menzies House. Karma. It could be a thing. Nature seeks balance in all things so for the sake of my blood pressure I'm going to suspend my innate scepticism of things metaphysical and trust that this abhorrent aberration trading as the L/NP government is going to cop their comeuppance in the near future. The idea of karmic retribution has its appeal as a sign that there is some natural, noble force that will intervene to restore decency, honesty and integrity. It's not too far removed from Newton's third law after all. The L/NP's inherent nastiness will bring them undone - according to the theory of karma what happens to people happens because they caused it with their own actions. The L/NP is a mob of bickering shonks and imbeciles who've spent the last six years setting fire to their own hair. The less loony among them saw the forced departure of their chief pyromaniac as a blessing - Tony Abbott, the self-immolating arsonist-in-residence, can now spend some time putting out fires in the bush instead of starting them on his head. But although Abbott is gone his destructive legacy lives on in the internal hatreds and vendettas. A forgetful and complacent electorate will be reminded of just how poisonous this cluster-fuck of Yorricks can be. All aboard the blunder bus The electorate, so damning of Labor's Rudd/Gillard/Rudd idiocy that they opted for a known imbecile as an alternative, was for some incomprehensible reason forgiving of the Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison fratricide. Perhaps the voters thought sticking with the latest guy would put it all in the past. Cue one mendacious megalomaniac - the head-polishing appetite suppressant Peter Spud-Dutton, wanna-be PM. Potato blight A tuberous Bond villain of cadaverous countenance who has pushed the Peter Principle well beyond its design limits Spud has, ala Abbott, a delusional belief that it's his destiny to be PM. The shank he'd prepared for Turnbull is ready at hand, waiting for Morrison to turn his back. Spud-Dutton was contacted to confirm his timing but no response has been received to date. Spud-Dutton's program to entrench his tuber-topian surveillance state, so dear to his cold, dead heart, will continue to be spoon-fed to the credulous and timorous on the presumption that the rest of us are too busy with property portfolios and frankng credits to care. Being unburdened with IQ, subtlty or nuance our potato-headed punisher's over-reach baldly (eh! eh!) repudiates the Lib's own foundational ideology of individual freedom. We can expect increasing blow-back when his sadism, such as denying a birthday cake to a 2 year old held in immigration detention, starts to turn more stomachs. Creeping totalitarianism has had a long fuse but it's gonna blow. Tormenting toddlers is too much for all but the most psychotic of Spud's fans. Cartoon used with the permission of Alan Moir. Subscribe to Moir here . Black Angus If the Libs ever manage to devise a scheme for privatising the sun, wind and waves we'll see a Road to Damascus conversion to renewable energy in the Tory ranks. Until such time they'll continue to monetise the environment via their coal gods. Bloody-minded contrariness, bastardry, denialism, greed and chronic stupidity are the congregants' merit badges in the Lib's broad church of loons, mammon-worshippers, medieval dogmatists and "exit through the gift shop" Jesus-merchandisers. Nothing makes this plainer than Scooter Morison's appointment of Well Done Angus Taylor as Minisiter for Energy (the "Coal" in his title is silent). Well Done Angus has the required vandal cred - diverting our water resources into the Cayman's cash- registers of opaque foreign profiteers while the rivers run dry, fish die in their millions and country towns wither. The climate is a ticking time-bomb with the world watching the count down. Angus has gone full-Abbott and is priming the detonators. Barmy Juice The IED of Oz politics, a bloviating blatherskite and objet d'ridicule, an Alfred E Neuman look-alike in a boutique Akubra whose peurile gibberings have become a mainstay of six years of political farce, the Beetrooter can be relied upon to drop a log or two into the L/NP's handbag. Michaelia Carcrash A helmet-haired harridan with a voice like fingernails down a blackboard Carcrash should be an incentive for the Lib's to re-introduce the scold's bridle as part of their dress code. With all the charm of a rusted cheese grater and an aversion to accountability this duplicitous bog wallah's determination to undermine the rights of every-day workers will see her as a constant reminder of the feculence at the core of the Nasties. The reserve benches There are any number of other finger sniffers whose best work was left in cubicle 3. While not allowed the unsupervised use of scissors they have been given matches and they have petrol. Just two examples: Susssan Ley's biggest contribution to politics was to add an extra consonant to her name upon advice from a numerologist. A professed environmentalist who plans on slashing "green tape", denies rampant land clearing is contributing to extinctions and wants environmental flows in our distressed rivers to be diverted to agriculture, and Michelle Landry, a window licker from Capricornia who thinks coral bleaching is the lady who made the scones at her last fund raiser. Windows Landry will have some explaining to do when the promised jobs at the fully automated Adani mine don't materialise. * * * * * In addition to the personalities there are big issues fizzing away. Putting aside the tanking economy and a Treasurer on L plates, the hysteria to accompany the straw man of religious freedoms will be used to animate the bigots and homophobes. Demanding tolerance of their intolerance they seek revenge for their faiure to manipulate the marriage equality plebisite. Screeching from the front pages of newspapers, TV screens, pulpits and parliament that their freedom of speech has been taken away they will simply be megaphoning their spite and meanness to a mostly secular and fair-minded audience and they will re-ignite fires within their own party ranks. Government by thought bubble has been in operation for six years. With no ideas and no vision, no foresight and no aspiration the crises will build, blindsiding a rag-tag assembly of colandar-hatted science deniers and nose pickers whose only recourse will be to blame Labor while fellating the Senate to allow for the shovelling of more largesse to their chums. The demands from the Ginger Whinger and her feral homunculus Malcolm Roberts should provide some comedic relief. Anyone thinking we'll have three years of calm, considered and competent governance is in for a rude shock. What chance it will all blow up in their faces and we get an early opportunity to correct the mass madness of just last month? Footnotes UXB: Unexploded bomb IED: Improvised Explosive Device. Newton's third law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction This post also appears in the Australian Independent Media Network Related posts It's a horror movie . LNP III - The Movie No time for wusses . In response to the electorate's recent vote to continue drinking from the toilet the Tories have smugly rolled out the clichés Feline Metathesiophobia . Congratulations Australia! You cowering clowder of fraidy cats have capitulated in the face of a blatant fear campaign .

Coolness is a subjective quality. Claiming to be an arbiter of what is cool is a fraught exercise, being open to accusations of complete wankerdom. Well, starting a blog is pretty self-indulgent, so "guilty your honour". BTW, if you get the cryptic meaning of the photo above then well done! Tip: you likely need to be Aussie to understand it. * * * * * Let me set out the parameters I have applied in selecting these musical numbers for cool status: They don't follow a trend . Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but it's no indicator of coolness. Popularity is no test of coolness . Smash world-wide hits or obscure gems - it doesn't matter. Also, there is one nomination per artist here because some were so prolific they'd dominate any list. Enhanced perceptions . If you need weed to get through it, it ain't cool. If it inspires indulgence in some weed then it is. My taste rules . The bias here is to music from my favourite era, the 60s and 70s. And there are some genres I just don't get (rap/hip-hop, country & western). Their merits are totally lost on me. Whiney, mono-tone slop is what I hear when I am accidentally exposed to contemporary popular music . Maybe I have missed some worthwhile candidates. I suspect not. I found this description of disco at popmatters.com: " At one time it seemed disco would live forever. It still does, of course, at wedding receptions for some people's third marriages ." LOL! Classical music can be pretty cool. But it's a whole separate subject. In no particular order, 10 of my 50 favourites - being a work-in-progress with updates on an irregular basis til i get to #50. Steely Dan - Do It Again It ain't rock and roll but I like it. The first track on Can't Buy A Thrill, their debut album, Do It Again lays the foundations for a stream of immaculate, sophisticated craftsmanship. From the first few bars this is a cracker of a number from which they went on to produce smooth fusions of soft rock, jazz-inspired pop experimentalism and Latin rhythms with obtuse lyrics that provided a ready excuse to re-listen. Walter Becker and Donald Fagan - two self-taught, taut perfectionists; they took two and a half years to make Aja for example but it was worth the wait. In memory of Walter Becker. INXS - Don't Change From the last album written by this Sydney band for an Australian audience Don't Change was INXS's first single to be released internationally and we lost a great pub band to an international audience, Bob Geldorf's ex-missus and other tragedies. In memory of Michael Hutchence. ZZ Top - La Grange Long beards, dark sunglasses, driving rock rhythms, good-humoured, innuendo-laden lyrics and a song about a Texan whore house. If that doesn't pass the cool test nothing will. The guy without the beard's name is Beard. That just makes me love 'em that little bit more. Skyhooks - Balwyn Calling From cheeky through to outright Smut , the 'Hooks irreverence was a key part of their appeal and also to the blacklisting of several of their songs by the more staid radio stations of the 70s. Melbourne-themed lyrics did no harm to their broader popularity with those many of us non-Victorians who wouldn't know Balwyn from Lygon Street; and they smashed the last of the cultural cringe with unabashed Aussie 'kulcha'. In memory of Shirley Strachan. AC/DC - It's A Long Way To The Top Accer Daccer - Aussie rock royalty made up of immigrants from Glasgow, small town Forfar in Scotland and Essex supplemented with one native born Australian. 'It's A Long Way To The Shop If You Want A Sausage Roll' is definitive, formative Oz rock albeit with Bon Scott's inspirational inclusion of bag pipes. We'll let the Scots claim credit for most of AC/DC's DNA, but we'll insist on credit for their realisation of their long way to the top. Thunderstruck is certainly one of the coolest rock video clips ever . In memory of Bon Scott. Angels - Am I Ever Going To See Your Face Again Audience participation is an indispensable part of this, having provided the default chorus in response to the title refrain " am I ever going to see your face again? " It edges out Take A Long Line in my list because of that. Sophisticated ? Nah. Crude? Yup. R-rated, mullet headed good fun. In memory of Doc Neeson. Midnight Oil - Blue Sky Mine Hard edged political messages set to a solid rock beat the Oils' music pissed off the grifters, bag-snatchers and flat-earthers of the right in parliaments around the country and their corporate masters. This alone qualifies them as cool. In line with my own rules I haven't listed Beds Are Burning or their other many arse-kickers - all worthy inclusions otherwise. Carlos Santana - Samba Pa Ti No justification required. Santana's signature guitar virtuosity at its funky best. Killing Heidi - Mascara Young Ms Hooper can belt out a song and she's awfully cute, ergo cool. The Hooper siblings Elle and Jesse from tiny Violet Town in country Victoria started out as a folky duet, something to which they have apparently returned. In the interim they produced this and 'Weir' as two rocky belters. Paul Kelly - To Her Door "' To Her Door' was a song that was lying around on a tape for seven years before I got words to it. I had forgotten about it and then I played an old tape and there it was. And I thought 'Oh, that's pretty good* '." Damn right. *from Double J, ABC David Fricke from Rolling Stone called Kelly " one of the finest songwriters I have ever heard, Australian or otherwise ." Kelly is a stand out Australian songwriter, chronicling the country's society and identity through songs with a social conscience such as the masterpieces From St Kilda to Kings Cross, From Little Things Big Things Grow, Before Too Long, Leaps and Bounds and How To Make Gravy. Nifty Fifty Part 2 Shit List. The worst songs ever Kitsch List. 21 songs so crap they were good Old Favourites. Funky but forgotten

a gutted L/NP steps on rakes and shouts at clouds " We’re not moderates, we’re Liberals . " Suss to SMH's Peter FitzSimons, 12/6/22.   We shouldn't kick a political party while it's down. Let them do it to themselves. The 48th Parliament has now commenced with just a smear of 34 Lib/LNP MPs. The smoking ruins of the "natural party of government". In numerology " 34 embodies self-knowledge and spiritual wisdom while staying grounded in practical matters ". That should give some comfort to consonant enthusiast (and scourge of spell-checkers everywhere) Sussan Ley and her co- remnants from the self-avowed meritocracy as they come to terms with just how little merit the voting public was prepared to credit them. The Coalition is at its lowest ebb in 40 years. Pretending they matter will help the surviving Tories to numb the pain of bruised egos and thwarted ambitions. It will be performative snark and nit-picking that fills the void of inconsequence - being out of office, they will not now be distracted by their habitual cultivation of a corrupted polity. Whiney grievance and resentment will be used to keep the moribund irrelevancies' names in the news. In this they will be assisted by the pamphleteers and S-benders from the Murdochracy and the obsequious limpdicks at the ABC who have happily gargled the rancid old scumbag's ball sack at every opportunity. Whatever packaging the Libs choose to disguise their fuckery with will be ineffective - they have already forgotten why the electorate deployed the air freshener so liberally (unintended ironic pun) - bullying, the "women problem", climate denial, fear mongering and The Grift ™ . Their party is defined by what they're against. You may recall the rabid Abbott who before becoming 2IC in the Credlin government was deified by Tories as the best ever Opposition leader due to his lust for power through relentless aggression. "People Skills" Abbott now haunts the fringes of domestic and even global paleoconservatism via retrogressive circle jerk "think tanks" touting anti-woke banalities and science denial; a constant reminder to the sentient voters of the northern beaches as to why they threw the prick out in the first place. But Tories never learn. The signature negativity of the embaldened and belligerent Nasty Brutale was as marketable as a Jimmy Saville child care franchise. This was acknowledged by Suss who promised not to be obstructionist whilst simultaneously opposing changes to tax lurks for wealthy $3 million+ superannuants because “ they’re doing it tough...they can’t pay their electricity bills ”. Culture wars complement their Randesque belief system being another divide & conquer tool with which to secure office from whence to realise their raison d'être - homogeneous clunges of privately schooled Barclay McGains nodding and winking to their friends-with-$benefits, being the shovelling of public monies into the voracious maw of their corporate cronies. An illustrative example of their weaponisation of bigotry for political gain is the embrace of a weird conviction that some of you chaps have been surrendering your Hairy Potter & the Bagmen to the surgeon's scalpel simply to gain an advantage in women's sports (thus forever forgoing the future satisfaction of the morning ball scratch). The obsessions of the genitalia police contributed to the abandonment of the Libs by the many voters for whom the reconfiguration of other peoples' pink bits is a non-issue. Having promised to abstain from the performative outrage, and claiming to have learned lessons, the carping continue s. By inferring dubious motives for Albo's meeting with Xi they have shown that the next time they're in government the recently restored relationship with China will once again be sabotaged. But Australian Chinese voters don’t appreciate Australian politicians gratuitously attacking their ancestral homeland, and it's the hypocrisy gene of Tory DNA that stands out. " William McMahon, after bagging Whitlam as having been played like a trout, later inquired whether he could accompany Richard Nixon to China. " Whitlam and China, SMH February 16, 2013 on Gough's 1971 visit to China. Figuratively flashing his frightener, Abbott, the abominable 'No' man, has lately been prominent with hairy-chested, narky effusions on Albo, Xi and malignant Chinese ambitions whereas during his own brief tenure he was far less bumptious. Some would say coquettish. “China is a very good friend of Australia and it’s a friendship which is getting stronger all the time”. Tony Abbott's gushing embrace of Xi and China, June 2015  Tony Abbott 2014 As PM he bigged up his delegation to China. " Australia is not in China to do a deal, but to be a friend. We don’t just visit because we need to, but because we want to. " Tony Abbott, February 2024 “ There is an immediate need to position more ships and planes into East Asia, urgently excise China from critical supply chains, swiftly rebuild our defence industrial infrastructure, be ready to mobilise armed forces that adversaries would shrink to take on.. ” The Libs' opportunistic attacks on China have been underscored by their Trump Appeasement Syndrome and oleaginous fawning in the general direction of a con man. A gelatinous excretion of narcissistic insecurity and shameless criminality the orange tainted one's accumulation of character failings leaves no room for any compensating virtues. Their stuccoed exemplar is a tacky vulgarian driven by grift and grievance. Trump shames the country that spawned him yet, regardless, the U.S. claims to lead the world in righteousness and democratic standards all while their SCOTUS and DoJ conspire on ways to protect a dissolute pervert who once said he'd like to "date" his own daughter. The Tories leaned orange in the lead up to the election and it blew up in their faces as Umber One threatened Canada, Greenland and Panama with annexation, NATO with withdrawal during Russia's murderous aggression and Australia with punitive tariffs despite our trade deficit. And yet the Libs maintain the “shared values” synecdoche as a rationale for bending the knee to Trump and surrendering to unquestioning servitude as a vassal state - where US interests will always, always eclipse our own. They sledge Albanese for not swearing fealty to the cult of a tangerine sexual predator as the US slides into fascism. Really? A failing nation that has surrendered its critical faculties. A country, after 4 years of open grift and sleaze topped by an attempted coup, that then decided "yes please, more of that" is not a source of shared values. Climate science denial and a Cro-Magnon  take on the place of women were prominent causes of disillusion with the party that's purpose seems to be to provide solace to cookers, Christo-fascists, upskirters, pet abandoners, man-spreaders, roadside dumpers, dullards, onanists, pimps, boondogglers, wowsers, shout absconders, leg humpers and people who crowd airport luggage carousels. At first they denied climate change, then they said the obvious reality of more frequent and more severe weather events wasn't due to human activities, they then dodged to claiming mitigation is too expensive, they weaved to the trite "the sun doesn't always shine, the wind doesn't always blow", they ducked to nuclear, they discovered a 'til now dormant concern for the well-being of whales. The only ecosystem that would thrive on planet RWFW is this infestation of fossil-fuelled morons who believe climate change is merely a manifestation of woke leftism like almond milk lattes and batik wall hangings . Rhubarbic leg-over enthusiast and asphalt inspector Barking Barmy Joyce is championing the cause of killing off net zero and a habitable planet because...er...um... looks like he's moved on from saving the whales - his latest incoherent rant links net zero somehow to AI. Not sure of any reasoning here - half-way through I did a Barnaby face-first into my keyboard with blood coming out my ears. Barking is supported in his crusade by such worthies as Micky Mac McCormack, a man who can be hypnotised by chooks, look-at-me Matt King Coal Canavan and crank-at-large Alex Antic. "For Antic, Trump is more than a political idol. He’s a blueprint for how to dominate a party from the inside, humiliate opponents and control the narrative...“He’s the most cold-hearted, vindictive person I’ve encountered in politics,” says one South Australian Liberal." ' A very dangerous man’: How Alex Antic is shaping the Liberals. The Saturday Paper, 21-27 June 2025. Women? The Tories treated them as an afterthought or, at best, an accoutrement. They insulted 51% of the voting public through condescension and neglect. Who can forget the badly shaved yowie and self-appointed Minister For Women whose most notable contribution to feminism was pontificating on reducing electricity costs to help housewives * with the ironing? Or God's own emissary Smirko McFuckface who expected accolades on the basis that March 4 Justice protesters were not shot and who was perpetually puzzled by the notion that women were equal. * An archaic term deployed in the pre-enlightenment years of John Howard There are more women on Labor’s front bench than the entire Liberal party . Just six Liberal women are in the lower house. Ley as the first female leader of the boys' tree house club is in a holding pattern. Has she the shelf-life of a Liz Truss lettuce or several Scaramuccis? She's got longer than that but the boyz are already circling. In opposition it seems that they'll spend much of their time opposing themselves. The meritocracy has thrown up/regurgitated a gaggle of male (surprise!) ̶a̶d̶v̶e̶r̶s̶a̶r̶i̶e̶s̶ options before Suss could even adjust the chair height in the LOTO's office. Fidel D'Figueres Man Of The Year 2019 and purveyor of dehydrated water Fingers Taylor has numeracy skills at idiot savant level - provided you leave out the savant bit. He believes he has the numbers. IPA plant (the hairy palm) James Patterson is the half-sucked gobstopper on the barbershop floor. No-one takes him seriously. Andrew Hastie has God on his side ala Brother Scotty and is awaiting the word. Autofellatist Tim Wilson is his own biggest admirer as is Dan Tehan, founding member of the exclusive Dan Tehan Fan Club. Both think they are leaders of men (sic). Tim Wilson, FIGJAM Suss's deputy, Morrison Minor Ted O'Brien, has amongst other things, an unfortunate resemblance to that unlamented smirking jetsam from The Shire which, apart from his own bespoke lack of appeal, is a disqualifier. Despite such jostling Suss started out well enough...appearing in front of the pack at the National Press Club: "In a move later described as brave, she began her address with an acknowledgment to country. She expressed her faith in the work of public servants. None of these things should be remarkable, but in Liberal land 2025 they are." thepolitics.com.au . Will she survive? I give her until next June. Tony Abbott and News Corp wanted to hand our sovereignty to China — so spare us the warmongering . Bernard Keane, Crikey ($). " Tony Abbott, News Corp and the Coalition attack Anthony Albanese for visiting China. But they happily surrendered Australian sovereignty to Beijing a decade ago. "

My Top 21 songs from the 60s and 70s that I liked at the time that upon later reflection are pretty dreadful. That doesn't mean I can't harbour some fondness for them given they are evocative of a time when music was generally far better than the whiny monotone slop of recent times. #1. Nena - 99 Luftballons Nena's contribution to airborne pollution; littering the German countryside with discarded party decorations. This poppy, peppy number made it to number 1 in Oz in the original German. I reckon it was more number 2 material. #2. Mungo Jerry - In The Summertime The mutton-chopped, gap-toothed Ray Dorset was the composer, guitarist, blues harp, kazoo player, frontman and singer who assumed the name and persona of Mungo Jerry after 2 band members tried to fire him and who were then both fired instead. The Bicycle Song and Lady Rose were equally crap enough to qualify as good. #3. Richard Harris - MacArthur Park Esoteric, abstruse, cryptic? Fucking annoying, pretentious twaddle? Perhaps. Sung in such a serious tone that conversely makes it hard to take seriously. It has some hard to identify appeal however. #4. Starland Vocal Band - Afternoon Delight Those lyrics....surely not. The cheerfulness of the way a bit of post-lunch rumpy pumpy was sung about made this crap song a secret favourite of many of us. Including you.....admit it. #5. Gilbert O'Sullivan - Alone Again A parody of self-pity, with whining lyrics and a turgid tune that could drive the maudlin to self harm. This song preceded the emo phenomenon; otherwise it would’ve made a great theme tune for that demographic. Truly crap - but I love it regardless. #6. Plastique Bertrand - Ca Plane Pour Moi Effete precursor to Culture Club, no self-respecting straight male would be caught dead listening to this. Very very crap. But catchy. #7. Dr Hook - Sylvia's Mother Dr Hook was basically 2 guys - Ray Sawyer and Dennis Locorriere, who came across as a couple of likable larrikins. But Sylvia's Mother was supposed to be a serious song about a real event. If I was Sylvia's mother and I heard this, I'd ship my daughter off somewhere for sure. This song was kept out of the #1 spot in the UK by Donny Osmond's Puppy Love. WTF does this say about the Pom's taste in music at that time? Sylvia's Mother is sludge. It's truly awful and I love it! #8. The 5th Dimension - Up Up And Away The unrelenting cheerfulness of Up Up And Away is an ideal antidote to Gilbert O'Sullivan's musical suicide note (see #5 - Alone Again) - or vice versa. This upbeat pap could make anyone's day. #9 Rod Stewart - Do Ya Think I'm Sexy? Rod Stewart can be forgiven almost anything after the wonderful Every Picture Tells A Story with Maggie May, Mandolin Wind and Reason To Believe. Even the egregious disco dross of Do Ya Think I'm Sexy can be excused, being so far off the crap-o-meter as to be considered good. But only in a piss-take kinda way. #10. Renée & Renato - Save Your Love Because it is so outrageously kitsch Save Your Love could raise a smile whenever it came onto the radio. It would otherwise be just preposterous bilge. #11. Peter Sarstedt - Where Do You Go To My Lovely The chic chick who’s the subject of this dreadful ditty is waaaay out of my league, though I think this song just shows Peter Sarstedt was a pretentious wanker. Where Do You Go To My Lovely is replete with hum-along dreadfulness. Sarstedt's Frozen Orange Juice was even worse; so awful that it cannot in any way qualify as good. #12. The Turtles - Elenore " Gee, I think you're swell, And you really do me well, You're my pride and joy, etcetera... " Etcetera? WTF? Lyrics just do not get crappier than that. This crap was topped off by the crappy tremulous, trembling tremelo. FFS! This is more than crap - it is complete shite. So what makes this crap good then? It's good because the Turtles made Elenore to take the mickey out of their previous hit 'Happy Together'. Neither the record company nor the public got the joke and Elenore became a hit in its own right. #13. LuLu - To Sir With Love There’s Chick Flicks and there’s Chick Lit – the sappy, romantic bollocks that appeals to females but appalls males. And in the music realm we have Chick-Musick with stuff like To Sir With Love - the sort of syrupy sludge that requires two X chromosomes to appreciate. If the theme is female students harbouring carnal thoughts about their teachers then the blokes will much prefer The Police’s Don’t Stand So Close To Me. It’s got a reggae beat and more suggestive lyrics (hurr hurr snerk snerk). To Sir With Love is just wretched dreck. But LuLu did have a good voice. #14. Eric Carmen - All By Myself The title says all that needs to be said about this song. With ‘All By Myself’ Eric has been exercising his right to privacy (so to speak). “ When I was young I never needed anyone And makin' love was just for fun Those days are gone ” I think what Eric is saying is that he has outgrown his “hobby”. Thank goodness. #15. Oliver - Good Morning Starshine From the musical Hair. Gliddy glub gloopy Nibby nabby noopy La la la lo lo Sabba sibby sabba Nooby abba nabba Le le lo lo Tooby ooby walla Nooby abba naba So, you can write song lyrics by simply face-planting into your keyboard? Hang on, this song is from the 60s – it predates the personal computer. But there were plenty of drugs. Pass me a spliff, man. #16. George McCrae -- Rock Your Baby As a general rule, the crappier a song is the longer it will stick in your head. I dare you to click on the You Tube link. Go on – I dare you. #17. The Marmalade - Reflections Of My Life On a casual listen you may be tempted to think that this song is perfectly fine. Not sophisticated lyrically or musically but catchy and harmless enough. Really? Then play it and listen carefully to the words. FFS.....you may feel an urge to stick your tongue into a live power outlet. This dreadful dirge makes Gilbert O'Sullivan (see #5) sound like an ideal candidate for the job as your new life coach. So, so crap that it qualifies as good. #18. Tina Charles - I Love To Love This crap is just complete and utter feculent barrel scrapings. This rubbish has no redeeming features whatsoever. None. So why have I included it? I had a dose of codgerliness. Bah! #19. Minnie Riperton - Loving You A sappy, saccharine, soppy squeal. I used to like it when this song came onto the car radio because the high-pitched squeaking hid the noise of my slipping fan belt. #20. Bob Lind - Elusive Butterfly No words can do this song justice. Soppy flummery. Insufferable twattering. Viscous sludge. Execrable, deplorable treacle. But for some reason, I like it. #21. Smokie - Living Next Door To Alice Oh, I don't know why she's leaving, or where she's gonna go I guess she's got her reasons but I just don't want to know 'cause for twenty four years I've been living next door to Alice Corny, mawkish slop. The big question is why it took Alice so long to decide to move. Still, it is sorta catchy. Favourite songs. Nifty Fifty Part 1 Nifty Fifty Part 2 Shit List. The worst songs ever Old Favourites. Funky but forgotten

Hyperbole, cant, cliché, buzz words, geek-speak, legalese, obscurantism, gibberish, gobbledygook, jargon, twaddle, waffle. The English language is a wonderful thing - it has so many alternative terms for its own misuse. For several years I had the good fortune to be a default translator - proofing contributions from the various tribes of corporate sales people, marketers, tech heads, lawyers and accountants and turning dense, unintelligible jabber into something resembling clear communications. For a smart-arsed pedant it was heaven. The offer to a potential customer in a draft executive summary of "superior excellence" was the point of peak bilge and the inspiration for a regular award to ungrateful recipients. Good times! There was also of course the widespread embrace of the mundane corporate clichés - moving forward. Every generic component of a service was a solution, usually leading edge & out of the box ( an oxymoron that still delights me ) and best-of-breed ( FFS - this is not Crufts ). There were deltas, synergies, paradigm shifts, win-wins, end-to-end customer experiences, ecosystems and key stakeholders to reach out to with a call to action. Throats to choke and panes of glass were always in the singular - a value add to resonate with the customer's journey. All of these terms were adopted as a part of the framework of the bespoke construct. There was the egregious nouning of verbs and verbing of nouns. The obligatory "thinking outside the box" did not extend to the use of language. The re-writing of such gobbledygook was a fulfilling but secondary function of my job. It suited a smug prick like me but it was a losing battle. The disease that is corporatese has spread so far and so wide and is so ingrained it manifests itself in every interaction - conversations, emails and the mandatory PowerPoint packs of dot-pointed flim flam. It should be recognised that clear and concise communication is not the purpose of corporatese. Corporatese serves other purposes, and those purposes are why the battle against the phenomenon is lost. Let's have a look at that by considering its users. Management . It's a constant challenge for management to fool others into believing that those in charge know what they're doing. Management sources its baloney from consultants. Management doesn't really understand that baloney but, hey, if they're paying $2,000 per hour for it then they're gonna use it. The consultants fully understand that to justify (sic) their huge fees then they need to sound insightful and wise. Simple English will expose them as the frauds that they are. Buzzwords and meaningless jargon are the "core competencies" of the consultant. Wanna-bes and apple polishers . Sycophants and yes men - the first through the door at management's Leaders To All quarterly cadence panel presentations ( yes, that is a thing ), sitting up front and centre, taking notes - these are the spreaders of the plague that is corporatese. The horrendous "share of wallet" and "stickiness of wallet" were spread like syphilis at a sailors' bawdy house by these types upon the use of those terms by the Big Man at one snore-fest. Cliques . Various clans mark their territories with arcane language that is intended to baffle outsiders and demonstrate the specialness of the user. The communication here is not one of conveying information, it is intended as exactly the opposite - to impress yet exclude the uninitiated; opacity as a virtue. Tech heads . A specific clique that is particularly enamoured of initialisations and acronyms - the BOM for the CPE HA ASR FWs inc DDOS, IDS/IPS and VNF with 2Gig EoIP VPN to the DC Co-Lo POP for the MAN. FMD! Obsessed with circuit boards and the naming conventions for ports on routers the tech head is not as a consequence all that familiar with social graces and inter-actions with the opposite sex ( 99.999% of tech heads are male - an appropriate value given "five nines" is tech head nirvana. They'll know what that means ) . They are hence naive and impressionable and therefore vulnerable to the BS of the more worldly marketers to whom they feed their geek-speak for enclosing in the prosaic genericisms that are the forte of those marketers. Marketers . The masters of brochureware - pages of incomprehensible generalisations that say and mean nothing. Marketers are obsessed with the company brand - there is nothing more important than a font and a colour scheme that complies with the company style guide; the true believers in "company values" whateverthefuck that means. Marketers have a peripheral understanding at best of a company's products and services - hence their output(!) is a collection of buzzwords, with "ROI" from the finance department, "scalability" from engineering, "virtual" from the geeks. A service description from marketing will convey absolutely nothing about what the service actually does. But it will be a rich source of corporatese. Sales people. No one is more impressed by a salesman that the salesman himself. Big egos with no validity - these door openers, with the latest brochureware under their arms and a tech head in tow can babble interminably in corporatese, spouting every cliché in the book until the customer eventually surrenders or passes out. When they put their thoughts to paper you have a source of huge amusement. Just be sure it never goes to the customer unedited. There are any number of collections of bullshit bingo on the interwebs - with the expected content of moving forward, reaching out, taking it off line, thought showers, deep dives and helicopter views of the low-hanging fruit.....so there's no value add in repeating it here. What is worthwhile are some neologisms that have the potential to creep their way into the corporate lexicon of bullshit blather. Some are horrendous while others are clever and not yet in wide use and therefore still quite amusing. The Bad and the Ugly The inventors of these phrases need to be dragged outside behind the wheelie bins and severely jostled. Can I stir fry an idea in your think-wok? If ever there was a case for instant dismissal this is it. Deferred success. Failure. Negative growth. Highly paid people say this with a straight face. Agreeance. Egregiousance. Bake-off. Fuck off! Banner year. Please, never expose management to this term. Battle rhythm. That rhythm is from the chair leg I am beating you about the head with. Blue-ocean opportunity. This should be taken out to sea and sunk. Bricks-to-clicks. Every bell end in a suit will look for a reason to throw this into the conversation. Calendar tickler. Liverpool kiss for you if you ever use that term again. Craft, construct, build. It's a fucking spreadsheet you twat - just fill in the cells. Populate. The problem here is that your parents decided to do this. Createalytics. Bullshit describing bullshit. Dial and smile. Cold calling. Dialogue marketing. Interactive bullshitting of a customer. Directionally accurate. Missed by a mile. Ideas sherpa. Scaling execrable new heights of wankerdom. The Good These terms fall under office banter more than corporatese. They show a level of inventiveness and humour that is missing in the trite jabber of corporatese. Anecgloat. A story designed to make the teller look good. Bangalored. Your job has been outsourced to India. Blamestorming. A search for a scapegoat. Checked Eskimo. When a clearly unqualified individual lands a job or promotion they should have had no chance at getting, that person must have "checked eskimo" on the application . Chinese fire drill. A project that is characterised by frantic confusion. Compliment sandwich. A pointed criticism delivered between two compliments to dull the blow. Build them up, tear them down, then leave on a positive note. Cubicle vultures. Those who gather office supplies from the desk of a fired co-worker. Dead Tree Edition. Printed version of a document. Deceptionist. I'm sorry, the boss is very busy right now. Decision sniper. The person who sits quietly in a meeting until just before a decision is reached, then raises a question that forces the group to reconvene later Deja moo. The nagging feeling that you've heard this BS before. Dopeler effect. The principle that stupid ideas sound better when they come at you quickly. Entremanure. A self-employed risk taker that can't catch a break. Everything he touches turns to shit. Gerbil tubes. The covered walkways that connect buildings on a large campus. Ignoranus. Someone who is both stupid and an arsehole. Meanderthal. A person who has difficulty expressing themselves succinctly. Mucus trooper. Your colleague who always gets the worst colds, yet still makes it in to work to cough it all over you. Muppet shuffle. The shifting of under-performing or troublesome employees to other unsuspecting departments. Promoted to customer. Fired. Rectal DataBase. Where stupid ideas originate. Sunshine enema. After massive layoffs, this is the spin campaign given to the remaining shell-shocked and fear-crippled employees. Testiculate. To wave one's arms while at the same time, talking bollocks . A highly recommended read from the Australian Financial Review: Complicate and obfuscate, the key to writing corporate BS

Ever since the welcome and suitably humiliating demise of the egregious ecclesiastic from Manly, Friar Fuck'd, I've been pondering who'd be the most suitably iconic secretion to take his place as a figurehead for the awfulness of the wretched regime that is the L/NP. The Liberal/National coagulation is awash with talent: talent for greed, corruption, deceit, nastiness, book burning, malice and incompetence, from the lowliest grifter-in-training on the backbench through to that fatuous, smug twat who believes his subscriptions to Jesus-R-Us have purchased the big guy in the sky's approval to lead the country towards the rapture. With their tag-team bastardry how to pick just one of them as the symbol for the farce that is this "government"? Someone whose personna says "if it wasn't so serious it'd be funny", someone of sustained fuckwittery, someone who can replace the rabid Abbott in that role? Of course ScumMo has the required profile and exhibits all of the symptoms for him to be the de-facto standard bearer, but as always in the L/NP there are challengers lurking. Frank Bainimarama, PM of Fiji on ScumMo: " Insulting... condescending... nothing can be worse than him. ” Michael Bobblehead McCormack: " Hold my beer. " Bobblehead leapt to his feet to gazump ScumMo's insults and condescention by suggesting inundated Pacific Islanders can fall back on fruit picking in Oz once their own countries have disappeared beneath the waves. This rustic non-entity has more nasty ideas than an Al Qaeda suggestion box1 - from disparaging Pacific Islanders, gays and women's sport to championing corporal and capital punishment. He's so narrow minded his eyebrows meet at the back of his head. He's lowered the IQ of every room he's ever entered, including the empty ones. He would be more suited to a career as Wagga Wagga's town scarecrow if he had the required intellect or personality; hence he's a strong candidate to assume the mantle of Tory exemplar. However, let's not forget my personal favourite flag carrier of comical idiocy for whom no humiliation can undermine an opinionated self-regard - Bobblehead's archfoe Alvin Purplehead from New England. The barmy, smarmy fornicator wants his old job back and he's embarked on an image refresh in pursuit of that cause. There's now no topic that's safe from Barmaby's ill-informed opinions as he struggles to keep his puce mug in front of the cameras; the problem being that his logic always has more holes than Oscar Pistorius's bathroom door. If Barmaby resumes jogging as part of his re-imaging crusade we can expect car park boomgates all over Canberra to go beserk when Barmaby's gelatinous white thighs thunder past as he sweats off another bender. I'd like to accelerate his fitness regime by tying a bacon butty to his fat arse and having a rotweiller chase him home. Then there's Peter Spud-Dutton, a graduate of the Myra Hindley Charm School who couldn't get $5 for his autograph if it was on a $50 note yet, convinced of his own appeal he skulks, shiv to hand, waiting and plotting . His cadaverous, dead-eyed presence would suck the joy from a puppy frolic. He's a malevolent hairless Hitler whose own dog would bite him. When his dishwasher stopped working he had her immediately deported. But Spud is a poster boy for the autocrats and the thought police who, if he ever realises his ambition, would no doubt qualify as Australia's worst PM on his first day in the job. But it's not just the pollies who contribute to the gene pool of rancid nastiness that is so characteristic of the Tories. The self-aggrandising mavens of rabid right-wing propaganda and disinformation in the media have valid claims to being symbolic of the feculence of the L/NP. They are many - Kenny, Albrechtsen, Devine, Bolt, Dean et al but two stand out as the essence of putrescence. For an over-stayer in public facilities and author of love letters to school boys2 Alan Gloria Jones has a warped sense of proprieties with his trademark, misplaced indignations. A cranky, poisonous, sad old soap dropper, defamer and outdoor Opera House horse race projectionist who vilifies women from behind his bully pulpit Jones wields an authority far beyond his audience of taxi drivers and querulous septuagenarians. Politicians of both sides line up to feed his ego, tugging their forelocks and polishing his apples thereby making the pathetic old fart far more dangerous than is warranted. Peta Credlin was Tony Abbott's groom of the stool during his short-lived glory days as the country's most prominant vandal. Multi-tasking as the ringmaster of the circus that was Abbottism she maintains the same rabid right-wing mindset that saw the whole farce come crashing down around her boss's flappy ears. That level of chutzpah and her Cruella De Vil persona make her a stand-out. * * * * * While Bobblehead McCormack has risen briefly above obscurity to pull the headlines it's only a temporary reprieve for a man who will disappear himself back beneath the waves of his own vapidity. McCormack will resume his old role as ScumMo's chief noddy and then perhaps publish his memoirs as a colouring-in book with a free set of grey crayons. Despite the rigorous competition my favourite Abbott replacement and therefore hate figure is still the smirking happy clapper from The Shire. But it's only a matter of time. This carefully considered commentary is also published on the AIMN. Acknowldgements 1 Bill Bailey 2 Jonestown: The Power and The Myth of Alan Jones – Chris Masters.

Hanson says she is ready to lead the country, form government* *Hadda Gutfull speaking to journalists at Parliament House in Canberra. 19Jan2026 Is being untethered from reality a Trumpian marketing ploy, or is this simply another manifestation of the imbecility of a deluded simpleton who remains untroubled by the burdens of either wit or intelligence? Prior to Drunkerby's treachery One Nation was a triumvirate of Hanson, Hanson's carry-on luggage Malcolm "the living soul" Roberts, and chief of staff James Ashby as her Rasputin. Ashby may have had a word to the wise in her shell-like - Hanson recanted on her PM derangement, commenting to Sky News that she's now not interested in forming a government - "I don't want any ministerial positions, I want to remain completely independent & judge the legislation that's been put up". (The living soul was unavailable for comment being busy granting favours in exchange for first born children¹.) Perhaps someone had amped Pauline's Ladies Own selfie stick to 11, perhaps it was the rarefied air in Big Vag's Gulfstream or, more likely, her breathtaking hubris was aroused by the accumulation of support from disaffected Libs and ex-National voters at the cooker end of the nut job bell curve who are pumping her poll numbers. Can you imagine this poisonous, vacuous harpy, this pig ignorant and defiantly stupid purveyor of grievance and hate being in the big chair? Q: Well - Donald Trump? Nigel Farage? And both are worse than Hanson. A: Trump is a historical aberration. An orange-stuccoed Caligula, herr Schicklgruber without the fascist dress up aesthetic, an anomalous Il Douche. Farage is just a horse-faced chancer. Q: But Trump got elected. Twice. Farage's Reform UK holds a clear poll lead over Labour and Farage is seen as most likely to "have what it takes to be a good PM"². So what's to stop Pauline? A: Trump is poison in Oz. Spud's lean in to Trump blew up in his lugubrious face. Hanson on Trump: “I like Trump. I like his policies and I think we’re on the same page.” And at his Florida Despot el Rancho: "It's wonderful to be in America with a re-energised, strong, and patriotic leader who has the best interest of his people at heart." FFS! "...the actions of current U.S. President Donald Trump echo strongly with the principles and policies of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.” One Notion's web page. Farage exploits a John Bull nostalgia for a green and pleasant land of past glories, grandeur and achievement flavoured with the Poms' suspicion of foreigners. He's the beneficiary of disillusion with a corrupted and dysfunctional Tory party and a useless Labour government. Oh...and overt racism of course. He's a closer analogue for Hanson than is Trump and she lays on the hyperbolic, populist twaddle accordingly: “But now we have an Australian government which puts the interests of terrorist states, authoritarian regimes, foreign migrants, trans activists, environmental extremists, and corrupt union bosses before the interests of the Australian people." “We don’t want the socialist nightmare Albanese and Labor have planned for us.’’ Hanson, CPAC 2025 at Mar-a-Lago Pauline's also sweet on Trump's handler: "I think he (Putin) is a strong man and I think what I was reading is about 97 per cent of people in his country respect him as a leader for their nation..". "Even the people here in Australia were saying, 'I wish we had a leader like that here, I wish someone would stand up and fight for this country'. That's what the people expect." The lipsticked dipstick is now cheerleading for Australia's active participation in Trump's monumental Iran clusterfuck. Dust bunnies are smarter than this deeply, deeply stupid woman. She gives 'no-brainer' a whole new meaning. This fuckwit having any say in government is a Joh-for-Canberra cooker fantasy. Trying to pigeonhole One Notion supporters is like catching fog with a sock. There's major miner Big Vag, Murdoch's leg humpers, Trumpers, flag shagging "proud Aussie patriots", has beens, never weres, never will bes, neo-Nazi residue, upskirters and family values wife beaters. One Notion just rehired a convicted rapist to run their entire federal election campaign and their candidate for the seat of Adelaide is wanted in Britain after failing to attend court while charged with a sexual offence. All of this is reportedly the basis for a viable, major political party fronted by a cartoonish shrew with the face of a rat poison taste tester. The querulous, bleating grievances, the vapid, populist easy fixes and her out and proud racism do not deter the disenfranchised according to the polls and the pundits. But how are her drain-the-swamp MAGA redux conceits working out on planet Oz? "...they are taking votes from those who feel ill served, ignored or rejected by the major parties, and they’re voting for change, any change.” Resolve pollster Jim Reed. 16 March 26 One Notion has 1 seat in the 150 seat House Of Representatives courtesy of Drunkerby's defection. They've got a blowie in a microwave's chance of winning much in metro/urban seats and they face a fight with independents, Nats and a RWNJ burley bucket of Clive Palmer's re-animated UAP, Family First, Libertarians, Shooters Fishers and Farmers, KAP, and Gerard Rennick’s People First. Then too One Notion's durability is that of a marshmallow crash helmet: "More than two-thirds of all elected One Nation members have left the party before the end of their term." "In the last 27 years, two-thirds of the party's elected members have defected after election." ABC Election Analyst Antony Green "Since the party’s inception until 2023, out of 36 One Nation representatives at state and federal level, only seven have lasted long enough to face re-election." The Conversation. 16 One Notion candidates have been elected to the Queensland parliament - 12 of them resigned from the party in their first term. In NSW four were elected, one was expelled from the party and the other three resigned. Craig "cray cray" Kelly, Fraser "final solution" Anning, Brian Burston, "Biff" Latham, Bernie Fin, Cory Bernardi - a starter pack for party balloon animals and just some of the jetsam that has washed up on One Notion shores. She's been mimicking the orange man by recruiting window lickers. And now there's a Les Patterson absurdity in Driza-Bone as Hanson's prize acquisition. Teeth like croutons thrown at a bowl of borscht, verandah-brimmed hat, performative outrage, nonsensical proclamations from a fatuous ultracrepidarian - welcome aboard Drunkerby, the purveyor of rustic nostrums for all that ails us. Hanson's judgement captured in one beer-stained, shambolic, bloviating package. This polarising guy's mission is to broaden One Notion's appeal and to take over post-Hanson as the leader of an alternative government and hence possible prime minister? Pass the Kool-Aid - the Rupster's myrmidons are way ahead of it: Quality political analysis from the muck spreaders at the Murdoch stables The Nationals have abandoned the bush to big ag and the miners. The Libs are a discredited, dysfunctional rabble - determined to weaponise any issue without offering any solutions. Even Labor with a huge majority has, under Spineless Castrato, abandoned any ambitions for structural reforms and has moved decidedly rightwards. Laudable independents have stepped into the breach in metro electorates (and Helen Haines in regional Indi) leaving most regions to the carrion feeders. The test for a resurgent One Notion comes with the SA election results. How did the Coalition, particularly the Libs, get to a point where the clown car contents that is One Nation became a credible opposition? The reasons are many and varied but look at the Tories, state and federal, and identify more than a handful who are worth feeding. A former MP convicted of serious drug offences, another charged with domestic violence, and one jailed for theft and they say they’re tough on crime. No, not One Nation but the SA Libs. This explains why many SA Lib voters feel homeless, but why then default to an alternative where that same scenario would not be exceptional? The Lib's idiotic preferencing of One Nation simply gives the oiks credibility. Nevertheless One Nation is a protest vote that has a short shelf life. What we can look forward to is the inevitable implosion of the bouncy castle as punters wake up that whinging is no substitute for competent governance. ¹An oblique reference to the diminutive weirdo Rumpelstiltskin, not paedophilia ²Ipsos Political Monitor 5-11 March 2026.

The phony campaign is underway. How nasty will Spud go? Same again? Tasting notes: a terroir of earthy fear and loathing with less than subtle notes of racism, bottled in Abbottesque carping negativism and belligerence, exhibiting a faux indignation but with projection and genuine hypocrisy teasing the palate. The bovine dullard is still trying to work out the wrapping on his Rubik's Cube. His is a personality so uninspiring that undertakers do a stock take whenever he appears on the telly. He has the integrity of wet bog roll, the sincerity of a LinkedIn birthday greeting and a gangrenous level of empathy that would embarrass a mob enforcer. Yet Handsome Pete, the wannabe tinpotato, armed with wishful thinking, is measuring the curtains at The Lodge convinced his ultimate ambition is soon to be realised. He demonstrably craves the top job with the fervent yearning that is evident in all the malignant creeps and weirdos who sit atop the RWNJ totem pole. What is it about the nasty, the non-descript, the deluded, the befuddled, the belligerent, the purposefully ignorant that gets them to positions of power and influence in the Tory ecosphere? All Tories are greedy, egocentric fuckers but with Spud and co is it at a psychopathic level of dedication to self-interest? Self before party before country - " an evil man will burn his own nation to the ground to rule over the ashes ". Spud has form - putting national security at risk for personal political advantage. For him national security has always been first and foremost a partisan weapon. "It's perplexing how Peter Dutton continues to get kudos for being the go-to politician on the national security beat, when he has so clearly not just ignored the advice of ASIO but undermined the agency's credibility." Laura Tingle Spud is to truth what Uri Geller is to spoons. Lying is a tool of trade for most politicians but Brother Scotty and now Spud have elevated their craft to an art form - a genre, a movement even. Clunge? Pap? Baroquen? In thrall to the bloated grotesquerie occupying the White House the Tories have noted the success of the fabulisms so habitually dispensed therefrom so they've decided to embrace the post-truth Trumpian world. “They’ve got a like mind.” Empurpled member for New England Englebert Humpastaffer comparing the Spud to the pumpkin-coloured horror. No more standard pollie porkies and misleading statements - it's a blizzard of deceit bolstered by a compliant, often complicit corporate media that does not push back. From the teals being secret communist radicals to declaring that the Chinese Communist Party was backing Albanese and Labor in the election (" the statement so toxic that it provoked an unprecedented public warning from ASIO's chief, Mike Burgess ") there is no outrageous lie that will go unindulged by der fabrikator. https://www.patreon.com/glenlelievre A desire for the trappings of office and a mindset that treats wealth as virtue will get you through a Liberal Party job interview in the Barclay McGain room (no scissors please) at Young Lib HQ - so it's hardly unique to the lugubrious tuber. However, with Spud they are baked in attributes - his pie floater personality being in awe of the confit d'endangered species canapes and Pol Roger Reserve Brut at Justin Hemmes' Wage Theft Manor and major miner Big Vag's various sprawling mansions. Spud is wealthy beyond reasonable aspiration and true to the RW covetous style, too much is never enough, but a PM's paltry salary is not the motivator. It's the cachet, his embrace by the exploitative class with their private jets and emotional support yachts. He'll be accepted as one of them. His naked ambition and long held acquisitiveness are symptoms of overcompensation for low self-esteem. Performative machismo is also an offset to his insecurities - Spud's shtick being the tough guy, the uber dude, the hard man. "Thug" is a suitable label. Thank you Malcolm. There are though, things that touch his blackened soul, that stir his loins. The clang of a cell door closing on small, brown fingers, the smell of cordite in a Gazan refugee camp, turning off the life support at old folks' homes, the lapping of waves over headstones in an abandoned Tuvaluan churchyard.  The pitch and the packaging - Make Australia Afraid Again¹ promising to keep the worthy safe from the bogeyman du jour while honouring his commitment to demonising those who are guilty of subsisting while Black. He'll maintain the weaponising of cultural division and the manufacturing of outrage against the "woke" and the "inner-city elites" (the versatile pejoratives where his audience decides who that applies to in accordance with their own prejudices). The muscular bluster from the thin-skinned, glass-jawed tubermensch will no doubt continue as on brand. But the real Spud is a tremulous poltroon hiding from scrutiny and disappearing when under pressure. He'll turn up for tummy tickles from tame media but it's Jane "Marg" Hume (I can't believe she's not better) and Whiney-the-Poo and Eyesore (Suss Ley and Bridget McKenzie) who he deploys as human shields elsewise. When needs must he's even resorted to the innumerate Angus "Squizzy" Taylor, flight risk and Fidel deFigueres Man of the Year. To date the strategy has been to hope that things got worse...that our bad news would be their good news. Plus an occasional thought bubble (as Albo said " all bubble and no thought ") and a sampling of Trumpisms. They've even gone off the boil on nuclear power - a plaintive pitch from Scooter doppelganger Homely Ted O'Brien is all we've had of late. So what would Spud accomplish if, gods save us, he falls into the job? A nuance-free zone, a lumpen boob   of no discernable worthiness, tone-deaf with a robust stupidity that could be used as road base and with a track record of inanity, monumental fusterclucks and dodgy dealings - he'll move to hasten the shift to the hard right, milk the politics of grievance to cultivate an ascendant authoritarianism, cynically exploit antisemitism as a filtering mechanism to target the muzzies, prosecute the culture wars, persecute the powerless (particularly if of a darkish hue) and work to entrench the neoliberal agenda of shifting public money into corporate hands. The promise of Oz as a renewable energy powerhouse driving national wellbeing will be shot in the head (NBN anyone? Thank you again Malcolm). All of this will be championed by Sky News, Stokes' minions, 2GB, 3AW, Bolt, Murray, Credlin et al and the toadies from the Murdoch vomitorium such as the appalling Greg Sheridan. Covered in gravy stains and smelling of stale piss he puts a clothes peg on his foreskin to keep his nutsack off his slippers and the only reason he's got a chin is so that Rupert Murdoch has got somewhere to rest his balls when he is in town. That's the quality of the type that fervently champions our Baldrick. FFS! Sending us broke and backwards, how Trumpy would Spud go? Remembering Charles Shulz ¹ " John Howard has particularly influenced Dutton’s socially conservative culture-war focus on issues such as race and immigration. While Howard used a dog whistle, he writes, Dutton uses a foghorn. " Lech Blain ala Good cop, bad cop, Inside Story. " Escalation by escalation, embellishment by embellishment, the Liberal leader is inhabiting the zone of the political fabulist ." Peter Dutton is Australia’s figurehead of fear and fake news, like Trump but without charisma. Katharine Murphy, The Guardian. 14/10/23. Merivale agrees to no-admission payment of $19.25m to former employees who allege they were underpaid . news.com.au