McLean

Answering this as a quote because it’s something I think a lot of people would like to know: Deloitte et al sell credible blame for governments. Their role is not to provide solutions. It is to give the government something to point to when a decision is unpopular. ‘The report said we had to’.

As someone who covered Robodebt in part, it's clear nothing has really changed. Worse: the politics of federal Labor on social security are baffling. We keep hearing about how people have "lost trust in institutions". Wiping these debts seem a simple answer to help. Instead, they rewrote the rules.

Rather than recalculate these, Labor passed new legislation to retrospectively validate debts they had already conceded were illegal. Now people are having to go back decades to find evidence with which to defend themselves. This is beyond indefensible. Spitting in the faces of Robodebt victims.

It's really important to pay attention to the fact that Lula beat the fascist candidate not by compromising and trying to meet fascist voters in the middle, but by sticking to his guns, promising prosecutions for election interference, and mobilising his own voters to turn out in greater numbers.

I keep seeing Tesla criticisms like "you have to admit the roadster doing a flip was cool, but..." I don't accept it! the same act can be cool or corny depending on context. it was corny. "a car doing a flip is ALWAYS cool" is dork energy I'm sorry

Department of Finance extended its temporary pause on new KPMG contracts to February 2027. This isn't dealing with the issue. When will Labor show some backbone & call these marauding cowboys to account? When will Labor acknowledge the evidence & ban KPMG? tinyurl.com/mrpp9473

Opinion | Why is there no debate in Australia about the risks of our alliance with the US, even as Trump attacks allies? www.crikey.com.au/2026/10/14/d...

Little more personal today x www.thenewdaily.com.au/opinion/2026...

Yes, 20% of suicide deaths are people on JobSeeker. Yes, 60% of working age adults who die are on a Centrelink payment. So what did Tanya Plibersek do in Anti-Poverty Week? Give $5 million to charities. FULL STATEMENT:

they can't act on their own, they cannot go rogue. they are computer programs that do what they are programmed to do. they're as responsible for their actions as a grenade is for exploding after somebody pulls the pin

Labor's spend on KPMG has nearly doubled from $32 mil in 2024-25 to $59 mil in 2025-26. Labor has been watching a repeat of scandals & still hasn’t delivered meaningful reform. The temporary month-to-month freeze on KPMG is nothing but a pathetic, tokenistic punishment.

At some point we need to conclude that the waste, fraud and poor / bad outcomes for people is a feature, not a bug of voucher-based delivery of social services. It flows directly from the mode of economic organisation of the programs in their current forms. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10...

None of the recommendations of the disability royal commission have been fully implemented, an independent progress report has found. www.crikey.com.au/2026/10/05/d...

Funny how he's always downplaying the chance of cost-of-living relief when I thought we were supposed to understand it's their number one focus, and always has been.

nice to see prime minister is putting his foot down and making it clear that if you hack the Australian government, he will say it is ‘concerning’ then roll over and continue with his plans to change the law so you can steal from Aussie artists

Punching a barely conscious man strapped to a hospital guerney: NOT a sackable offence for NSW Police. Chris Minns and Labor have set this standard.

i believe our problems are fixable. we did manage to create a period of time when people could work a job, buy a house, and retire. i don't think this is some crazy unattainable thing, and i do believe essentially all of our big economic problems are fundamentally due to runaway wealth inequality

Abolish private education, shut down all the schools. Give these kids back to their parents. They all now go to their local schools. Prahran High might need a few more campuses. The good news is I’ve got a few suitable sites that have just come onto the market.

The Coalition made social security recipients exempt from the ordinary statutes of limitation on debt that apply to everyone else, it was a cornerstone of Robodebt. The Royal Commission recommended theses changes to the law be repealed, which would be simple. Labor have ignored this for >3 years.

Scott Morrison was referred to the NACC over Robodebt and the Govt paid his $461K legal fees. I won an #AUKUS nuclear waste #FOI challenge and the Govt is threatening I’ll have to pay their $150K legal fees. @albomp.bsky.social thinks that’s fair play! #auspol

I don’t trust that these people are going to helped when I see phrases like “offered opportunities to connect with support services.” We do provide “opportunities to connect” in this country—usually it means providing a phone number. Whether there’s anything at the other end is another matter.

YOU IN 7D?

Really wild story here. I had no idea about any of this - Tim's research is amazing and this absolutely mad fake climate policy cannot persist in its current form

<looking at fascists working hard to bring about fascism> wheew they have NO idea what they're doing. embarrassing. we're going to end up with fascism if these dummies don't change course

PH dogwhistled her way through the speech and most of the people in the room were dogs and enjoyed the whistling

pardon earnestposting but yeah the prayer would boil down to something like "dear lord, we believe you're a god of conquest and dominion who rewards the powerful, witness us work to eliminate rabble in your name." Not every Christian worships a god of compassion and charity!

The journos giving fawning coverage to Hanson are competent actors, working in line with their values, to bring about a future that they want to live in. They can see Hanson's fascism perfectly well. Time to decide if we can see theirs.

At some point we’ve got to stop seeing this as a series of oopsies moments and recognise that we are in institutional collapse. This system never “worked” the way we pretend it did. But at least there was some semblance of responsibility, of learning from mistakes It’s over. Time to build new ones

In my brief and ill-advised stint as an ABC journo, Rebel News was among a group that mobbed me and other staff and taunted us at a 2021 anti-vaxxer rally. It was treated as a safety incident and IIRC we adopted new policies in response. Five years later, a star radio host is giving them comment.

Here's me. "Australia is manufacturing explosives for Israel’s atrocities"

In the process of demolishing every single public housing tower, Homes Victoria evicted a family, offered them a home that was boarded up, and another home that was infested with mice and cockroaches, then said oh you’re no longer public housing tenants now coz u said no so fuck you I guess

Guy who has called two royal commissions and is required to lead the response:

My latest free newsletter is about one of The New York Times's specialties: publishing the opinions of wealthy elites as if they are news.

It does not feel right to present data centre caused power sector friction as an 'undersupply' squeeze. The guy who walks into the all-you-can-eat buffet with a bucket and just starts pouring trays of food into it to take home for himself -> also not a restaurant food supply problem

This is a truly eye opening read. And I’ve been following this stuff pretty closely, so I mean that!

The entire issue with the NDIS is that a generation of Australians (including almost everyone working in the political media) have become indoctrinated to believe the private sector is more efficient than the private sector. Privatize disability care? What *could* go wrong???

We didn't deserve this day.

A 1.4% levy on the gambling industry could compensate the media for ALL revenue lost from a potential gambling advertising ban. Australians lose more money gambling than any other country. It's time for our government to act. @amyremeikis.bsky.social #auspol

Has Penny Wong expressed her concern yet? Has Marles talked about our shared values? Every time they get asked about AUKUS they talk about the alliance. Well this is the alliance.

people simply love it when you storm out of the gates to support an illegal war, then lecture them about personal responsibility after it makes their lives worse

It’s crazy how likely it is that the cops just straight up executed Desi Freeman