They're Destroying the Country

The outbreak of Trump Derangement Syndrome after the US tariffs were announced revealed a blinkered analysis of the real cause of why Australian products might be priced out of the US market. On 11 March the Australian reported that 49 per cent of the costs of building a new house, including the cost of land, are made up of taxes, regulatory costs, fees and infrastructure charges. Many of these costs, fees and charges by federal, state and local governments have doubled in the last five years. Yet almost all the focus by both Labor and the Coalition is on Band-Aid measures to help young people climb the first rung on the ladder of property ownership while ignoring the big-ticket governance reforms to reverse the policies that have turned Australia into a highly taxed and over-regulated country with crippling red tape, green tape, DEI tape and the like.

Ramesh Thakur.

It was the tempo of things. Thousands of years ago. The life that was. The lifeforms that preceded this one. The ancients. Walk the Earth so it will remember you. We give you the gift of eternal life. All of that. It wasn't deception so much as a different way of seeing things. 

Meanwhile Australia, well Australia was a basket case these days. One terrible government had followed another. The squandering of vast amounts of resources, of taxing everyone into servitude, of one ridiculous law after another nobbling free speech, all natural immunity killed by one raft of vaccination after another, spiritual, physical, the brutal dissemination of propaganda and the crushing of free thought. They did it all.

This basket case at the end of the known world. 

We emerged victorious. 

Really?

Perhaps your aristocratic leanings, all those whispering hallways and privileged power plays, were deceiving you.

They had always been interested in power.

And now the most powerful man in the world was bombing the Houthis.

We were crushed, but we weren't being blown to pieces.

The old makes way for the new. 

There was no heart in any of it.

We went quietly about our business. And others commented now, just how quiet everything was, for everyone had been bled of money, and it was safer, certainly more affordable, to just stay home. 

Party town, a partying country, that, too, was just a distant memory.

AUSTRALIA'S LEGACY MEDIA

SKY NEWS

Sky News host Danica De Giorgio has weighed in on the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission's (ACCC) 12-month inquiry into the supermarket giants, stating that the results are a "fizzer" for the Labor government.

The long-awaited ACCC inquiry has recommend reforms to improve customers' experiences but failed to identify exorbitant profit margins for Australia’s two major grocers, finding profits were largely in line with the cost of doing business.

The report concluded there were growing opportunities for competition, refraining from labelling the supermarket giants as a duopoly.

“This was meant to be the smoking gun Anthony Albanese had hoped for, a chance for him to again blame supermarkets for the cost-of-living crisis and take the heat off himself. But it bombed out,” Ms De Giorgio said.

GUARDIAN AUSTRALIA

Big pharma is taking aim at Australia’s PBS. Could Trump force us to pay more for medicines?

Big pharma US wants to sell more drugs in Australia for more and its demands are now entangled with the ongoing trade tariff war

ABC

Long-awaited spy agency review released after fears it would be buried

The government has boosted funding for the Office of National Intelligence after releasing a major review of Australia's spy agencies.

SBS

Australian doctor's message to Anthony Albanese as bombs fall around him in Gaza

In an interview with SBS News, Dr Mohammed Mustafa described "catastrophic" scenes working at a Gaza hospital in the aftermath of the recent Israeli airstrikes.

THE NEW DAILY

‘Flaccid’ crackdown lashed, after govt rejects supermarkets break-up

MACRO BUSINESS

At MacroBusiness also The Australian, I’ve portrayed Election 2025 as a winning romp for the top 20% regardless of who becomes prime minister.

Meaning, little improvement across crucial indicators such as inequality, immigration and housing, energy and environment, education, and taxation.

Nor is it any secret; our tax system panders to corporations and resources. The system leverages real estate speculation, leaving wage earners marooned by post-1970s bracket-creep.

SPECTATOR AUSTRALIA

Upon the election of the Albanese government in May 2022, Commonwealth gross debt stood at $888 billion. Today, it has ballooned to $951 billion, an increase of $63 billion in less than three years.

This increase comes despite the Albanese government benefiting from record tax revenues, driven by bracket creep, historically low unemployment, and external events fuelling commodity export revenues. Treasurer Jim Chalmers has even boasted of delivering two budget surpluses, a rare feat in recent Australian fiscal history. So how, in the face of such budget surpluses and unprecedented revenue windfalls, has the nation’s debt continued to soar?

The answer lies in the government’s deceptive accounting tactics, which obscure record levels of spending both on-budget and off-budget. This financial sleight of hand conceals the true extent of Australia’s deteriorating fiscal position and allows the government to continue its reckless expenditure while claiming fiscal responsibility.

CRIKEY

US tech companies file White House complaint on ‘coercive and discriminatory’ Australian media laws

Apple, Meta and Google have complained to the White House about Australia’s proposed News Bargaining Incentive, and the ACCC’s report into Coles and Woolworths’ domination has found not much can be done.