Showing posts with label Australian Politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Australian Politics. Show all posts

What did I miss? Australia's political week in fast-forward

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What is his Plan B? This has nothing to do with chepaer electricity or carbon emissions. 

Those who allow Labor press releases to act as their sole source of truth wouldn’t imagine that Australians are caught in the worst cost-of-living crisis in living memory.

The economy is … buggered. And the culture wars, that don’t exist, have the major parties bound and gagged as the captives of Populism. At least, that’s what we’re led to believe by the level of hysteria.

While this is going on, the average voter is watching ISIS fighters, enthusiasts, and brides return with surprisingly few consequences.

On that topic, and with battle-hardened ISIS Grooms discovered in Iraqi jails, One Nation’s Pauline Hanson wrote to Angus Taylor offering her party’s support for any legislation put forward to keep them out.

This was triggered by Australian doctor Tareq Kamleh, known as ‘Dr Jihad’, wishing to return. An action Angus Taylor wants to block over his alleged support for ISIS.

Deputy Liberal Leader Jane Hume wasn’t particularly interested in One Nation’s offer of support, insisting that the Coalition needs the support of Labor, not One Nation. Good luck with that.

My latest in The Spectator Australia co-authored with my editor, Alexandra Marshall @ellymelly, What did I miss? Australia's political week in fast-forward.

What if small businesses went on strike against Labor?

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Small businesses are hurting (and closing) under Labor’s federal and state policies

Labor’s wealth redistribution and bracket creep realities are one result of the federal stage 3 tax cuts adjustments and reversals and fiscal settings that have led to bracket creep.

These effects, amid persistent inflation, are squeezing small business owners and their ability to retain staff or invest in future capabilities. Small businesses face higher effective burdens without the scale of larger firms. Yet they are carrying a proportionately higher regulatory burden.

ASIC has reported record revenue of some $830 million in fines. The NSW government is riding high on the back of increased revenue from fines including small businesses. This is set to continue.

Terry Barnes wrote in the Morning Double Shot newsletter:

Michael de Percy is right. Small businesses can’t thrive under federal Labor’s anti-private enterprise and high-taxing regime, let alone state Labor’s payroll and other job-killing taxes. And that’s not including onerous government-mandated paperwork and compliance. But speaking as a self-employed small business type, the costs of going ‘on strike’ against Labor’s incessant demands on my bottom line is having the Australian Taxation Office out to crush both me, and my ability to put food on the table for my family and keep the lights on. How I’d love to tell the ATO to get knotted, but they know they have me, and hundreds of thousands like me, by the short and curlies.

 My latest in The Spectator Australia, What if small businesses went on strike against Labor?

One Nation polling proves ‘The Establishment’ can’t be trusted

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The Establishment presents itself as the calm, serious voice of reason in politics and society. But, nuh!

The Establishment presents itself as the calm, serious voice of reason in politics and society.

You hear it most clearly when the Prime Minister says Pauline Hanson should not ‘talk Australia down’ when overseas.

Life at Copacabana must be quite pleasant. Here in regional Australia, businesses are collapsing, people are struggling, and nobody is saying, ‘How great is Albo’s Australia!’

Yet the media’s focus is all on One Nation. It reminds me of most of the stuff coming out of universities these days.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

Michael de Percy looked at the polls and said … The Establishment can’t be trusted! That’s because after a solid week of wall-to-wall screeching, One Nation has emerged with barely a dent.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Michael de Percy heads in a similar direction to James Allan, except he’s concluded the battle of ideas is over already, and One Nation has won it. In his view, the Establishment is trying to bring Hanson and One Nation down because they can’t recover their dominance any other way. Ironically, Hanson herself has been around politics so long that it could be said that she, herself, is part of the Establishment, or at least the political class associated with it. She knows how the system works, and plays the game accordingly.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, One Nation polling proves ‘The Establishment’ can’t be trusted.

What did I miss? Australia’s political week in fast-forward

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They came after Pauline, they came after Barnaby, and now they are coming for Malcolm Roberts.

 The results of Labor’s economic meddling are in. Rents are going up, housing prices are coming down, mortgage repayments are going up, and Labor also briefly considered tinkering with the idea of charging capital gains tax on the sale of the classic car you’ve worked on forever. (They backed out of that last one pretty quick!) Your labour counts for nought of course.

(Unless you are at BHP, Australia’s biggest company, where 63 union members walked off the job in a strike that was meant to cripple the Pilbara. Quite the union hit job…? The final numbers are being debated and the unions are insisting it was a success.)

In other news, people are hearing about a tax on the sale of assets when one’s partner dies. Is this for real? Isn’t that called a death tax?

There are so many questions.

My latest weekly round-up in The Spectator Australia, What did I miss?


How will the Liberal Party atone for their ‘failings’?

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The Liberal Party once stood for the individual, the family and free enterprise.

During the pandemic, I recall John Howard’s advice to Josh Frydenberg, then Treasurer, words to the effect of ‘now is not the time for ideology’. It has all gone pear-shaped for the Liberal Party from that time on. Many of the Party’s actions, even Tony Abbott’s, were not in the spirit of the individual, the family, or free enterprise.

Rather than return to the Party’s creed, Peter Dutton attempted to show his soft side. The man who took on Australia’s national security agencies and forced them to do their jobs suddenly went limp. It was a disastrous result and, in my opinion, one where his advisors are largely to blame.

Sussan Ley then went full Labor-lite. It was as if she had listened to Scott Morrison in the 2022 election debate where he agreed with Albanese that the Labor Party made all the great innovations in Australian politics, but the Coalition ended up having to pay for them. Talk about a non-policy. It had me cringing worse than Fawlty Towers.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Michael de Percy concludes the Liberal party has made some huge mistakes over the last 15 years, and is paying the price in the current polls. The crux of his argument is that the Liberals have to break away from the Establishment and identify with the people – which effectively is what the Hanson party has done, as they see it. But as Michael also contends, the Liberals have strayed too far from their spiritual roots – smaller and less intrusive government, lower taxes and greater personal responsibility. As a party, the need to rediscover those roots urgently, and frame their electoral alternative to both Labor and ON around them. Angus Taylor is not as eloquent as his wife, perhaps, but his policy thinking certainly is heading in that direction.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, How will the Liberal Party atone for their ‘failings’?

 


Can One Nation break through the glass ceiling to the majors?

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One Nation has struck a chord with Australians who are sick and tired of the same old Uniparty.

Pauline Hanson is like the Rocky Balboa doll: ‘You can kick it, you can beat it, it does everything. That’s right, takes a terrific beating.’

In my opinion she was Australia’s first political prisoner. Of course, Hanson was exonerated. But you can’t get much more underdog than that.

Hanson has also been consistent. She doesn’t need to say she is a conviction politician (like Albo used to tell us before gaslighting became the new normal). Nothing says conviction more than living by conviction.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

One Nation’s polling may or may not have peaked, but in terms of voter share it is up equal to, or ahead of, the two major parties. Will it stay there? Will it crack the ‘glass ceiling’ in actual elections? Michael de Percy thinks so, as One Nation rides the wave of voter dissatisfaction with their major party choices. But with ascension to major party Olympus comes what Pauline Hanson seems to hate – scrutiny. Of ideas, policies and, yes, people. That even includes One Nation people scrutinising other One Nation people, as we’ve seen this week with Barnaby Joyce dissociating himself from certain views of Malcom Roberts. Arguably, One Nation has some political growing-up to do if it aspires to electoral greatness. Being prepared to offer costed policies would be a great start.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

There is a lot of talk about the survival chances of One Nation as a potential major party. Michael de Percy runs through the essential things that Pauline Hanson and her colleagues will have to get right if One Nation is to survive this trial by fire. Are these unfair standards? Probably. But at the moment, all of their political competitors are out to get them.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Can One Nation break through the glass ceiling to the majors?

Albo’s cold fart warmed up, or Gus’ genuine cool?

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As we used to say when we were kids, Albo think's he's hot shit, but he's only cold fart warmed up.

Anthony Albanese stepped off his RAAF jet last October in his jeans with a Joy Division T-shirt stretched across his chest, grinning like he’d just pulled off the greatest larrikin stunt in Australian political cool. The press gallery cooed. Cool statement, they said. The Prime Minister enjoying his ascension, showing he’s still one of the boys.

As we used to say when we were kids, Albo thought he was hot shit. But he was only cold fart warmed up.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Albo’s cold fart warmed up, or Gus’ genuine cool?

Pauline Hanson came, saw, and conquered Canberra

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Pauline kept on as if nothing had happened. One Nation later joked they wish they’d thought of it!

The National Press Club this week attempted to show its liberal democratic credentials by giving the One Nation leader a national platform.

I was hoping it would be a win-win situation for Pauline Hanson.

If the journos got the best of her, more sympathisers would be on her side. If she won over the journos, she would have shifted the party into new territory. But nobody could predict that she would win, and win, and then win big in Canberra.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Our Press Gallery correspondent, Michael de Percy, was at the Press Club on Wednesday, and asked Pauline Hanson a question as one of her media interrogators. As an accredited Gallery journo, Michael had a box seat to the proceedings, and he’s shared his impressions of the lunch, Hanson and her performance. It’s probably fair to say he’s had a Pauline conversion. And, as Rowan said on Sky, Michael’s question was excellent.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Pauline Hanson came, saw, and conquered Canberra.

Labor failed their political IQ test

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Bozo! The Stop Sign!! And the week Albanese almost certainly regrets...

This week, Labor failed a political IQ test.

The best way to fight your political opponent is to Labor what pouring petrol on a fire is to the Rural Fire Service. Not only did Labor raise barely a trickle of financial support to stop One Nation, they helped Pauline win big. After three days and counting, One Nation’s war chest has surpassed $3.6 million.

Albo reckons it’s all a bit dubious. Pauline posted proof of truth.

Independent tech auditors say the amount is legit. Apparently, they’ve checked with the SQuirreLs and the SQuirreLs say the funds are not just promised but already delivered. That means there could be even more money on the way.

Just to remind Albo about his integrity, trucks are now driving around his electorate of Grayndler with the words ‘Fire the Liar’ emblazoned on the sides of the trucks.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Meanwhile, the Fire the Liar fundraising campaign goes from strength to strength, with Oner Nation’s banked total now well over $4 million. Damien Costas explores the politics behind the visceral public reaction to Fire the Liar – and indeed to the Liar, and his and his government’s lies, that inspired it. Michael de Percy also adds his ringing endorsement to the cheeky One Nation campaign inspired by a comment made on a Sky News television programme just a week ago.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Labor failed their political IQ test.

What did I miss? Australia’s political week in fast-forward

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Angus Taylor openly referred to Albo’s government policies as socialist. It’s about time.

Recent interviews suggest Paul Kelly isn’t a fan of One Nation. The veteran editor-at-large at The Australian reckoned ‘Pauline Hanson is not fit to be Prime Minister of Australia’. Our editor-in-chief begged to differ.

Meanwhile, One Nation will ban The Guardian from attending party events after the masthead allegedly admitted it used photographs that deliberately made Pauline Hanson look more sinister. The only thing sinister about Pauline is that she is putting the wind up the establishment that doesn’t give a toss about ordinary Australians.

While we’re on the topic of not being fit to be Prime Minister of Australia, Angus Taylor openly referred to Albo’s government policies as socialist. It’s about time somebody in high office stated the bleeding obvious. It seems the battle lines have been drawn.

It’s a good thing too because those ‘other people’ who have the money that socialists use are now mere mythical creatures. Unless of course you read the comments from all the leftie bots that ride on Albo’s gravy train.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, What did I miss? Australia’s political week in fast-forward.

Albanese’s regional Australia is being subsidised by $5 coffees

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This week, I became a barista. It's more like Mugatu's bloated foamy latte fart than art, but it's a start! 

You don’t have to tell me that most politicians and policymakers are out of touch with small businesses in regional Australia.

I know it for a fact.

This week, Labor’s policies created a Catch-22 for the people who hold regional communities together. For me, this time it’s personal.

Small business cafés in the regions are being forced to choose between two bad options. They can absorb the rising costs of running a business and keep providing the social glue that governments never fund. Or they can pass those costs on to customers who are already stretched, watch their trade collapse, and lose the very community role that makes the business viable in the first place.

Either way, the social fabric frays and the business is weakened. That is the bind Labor’s cost-of-living settings have created for regional Australia.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Albanese’s regional Australia is being subsidised by $5 coffees.

What did I miss? Australia’s political week in fast-forward

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My editor: Where is the interview? All you filed with me were photos of yourself in an infinity pool.

From Port Havannah, Vanuatu: What have you missed? If you’ve had a gutful of trending politics like me, probably all of it. Every day brings another story about how the Albanese government is driving the cost of living through the roof. Labor has become the proverbial ‘passion fingers’.

Exhausted by press releases and nauseated watching Labor’s pitiful social media campaign (designed to bombard taxpayers with so much Budget propaganda that they eventually fall in love it), we went off to Port Havannah in Vanuatu for a week. It is the first time I have had an actual holiday in nearly 40 years of adult life. I turned my phone off and drank Piña Coladas like they were going out of fashion (if that’s possible).

There’s no point saving money while Labor is in power. I figured they’ll take it off me somehow. So off we went.

The trouble is, we ran straight into a microcosm of Labor’s bullshit in Vanuatu.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, What did I miss? Australia’s political week in fast-forward.

Standing on the shoulders of leftists

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Labor deserves a Darwin Award. They’re standing on the shoulders of Lilliputians.

The Albanese government is unoriginal. They are supported by the bolshie petty bourgeoisie.

The bolshie petty bourgeoisie are those who survive on government funds. In other words, they are leaners and not lifters. With so many people now living on government funds, that is, taxpayers’ money, these grifters are not the owners of the means of production. But they are communist in intent and dead set on milking the government teat dry. All while claiming they are productive.

It’s like the old joke about capitalism and communism. In capitalism, you have two cows. You buy a bull and create a herd. You sell your natural increase which produces protein. Everybody is happy – they have meat, you have money – and there is much rejoicing.

In communism, you have two cows. A public servant decides that veganism is great. You know they’re a vegan because they tell you straight away. Next thing you know the public servant takes your cows and shoots them because they are creating too much methane and causing climate change. You shake your head. But that is a microaggression and next minute you are forced to undertake retraining to become vegan.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Standing on the shoulders of leftists.




 


What did I miss? Australia’s political week in fast-forward

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Labor's circus declares war on small businesses with a covert death tax thrown in for good measure. 

Small businesses copped Labor’s socialist king-hit. These days they’re called a ‘coward punch’ which is fitting, because what the Treasurer penned in his Budget certainly constitutes a cowardly act.

On display since last Tuesday’s Budget are Labor’s double standards. These are supported by their network of supporters I would call the bolshie petty bourgeoisie.

They’re bolshie as in communists, but they are actually the petty bourgeoisie.

They aren’t the owners of the means of production, but they’re public servants, union officials, dole bludgers, and immigrants all living off the government.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, What did I miss? Australia’s political week in fast-forward.

Budget 2026 losers and biggest losers

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The budget byline is ‘Reform and Resilience’, but it is all plagiarised from Paul Keating.

The Treasurer’s opening statement in the budget overview places the blame for our current economic woes on the war in the Middle East. Energy, technology, intergenerational equity, and home ownership are the key words used to justify emptying your wallet. Out of the six opening paragraphs, five mention the Middle East and the global oil shock.

The budget byline is ‘Reform and Resilience’. Clayton’s reform, with none of the resilience home-grown. A Fuel and Fertiliser Security Facility costing $7.5 billion will secure overseas fuel instead of Australia producing its own. It’s like using our money for a beggar’s stash rather than developing our productive capabilities.

The Treasurer said in his briefing this afternoon:

‘This Budget is ambitious in the face of adversity … making sure that opportunity, aspiration, and ambition are central … it’s all about getting compliance costs down…’

If your ambition is to lean on the government, you’re a loser, and this budget’s for you. If you want opportunity and aspiration, you’re the biggest loser.

For Australia’s 840,000 family trusts, however, the headaches are only just beginning. Never mind the war in Iran. With this budget, the Treasurer has gone to war with Australian small businesses.

What did I miss? Australia’s political week in fast-forward

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I doubt you missed the demise of the Liberal Party, which happened in its birthplace over the weekend. But you might have missed the irony of Pauline Hanson and One Nation supporters singing John Farnham’s ‘You’re the Voice’ in Farrer.

The song was part of the infamous Voice to Parliament campaign while the One Nation victory is perhaps the least-Woke event possible. In my view, Pauline is now Sadie the Cleaning Lady. The room certainly loved it.

One Nation’s thumping win in Farrer wasn’t just a by-election, it was a political earthquake. David Farley stormed home with over 39 per cent of the primary vote and more than 57 per cent after preferences. The once-mighty Coalition scraped together barely 20 per cent.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, What did I miss? Australia’s political week in fast-forward. 

Here’s what Albo can do with his Medicare card

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I know exactly what Albo can do with Medicare card. I'll leave the rest to Hemingway’s ‘iceberg’.

When Albo flashes that card, he is taking the mickey. Whenever anything goes wrong, he pulls it out as if to say, ‘Look what we do for you!’ I’d rather keep my Medicare Levy in my own pocket and get a real benefit from my health insurance. Instead, we pay and pay and get nothing in return. If only I could fill out a form with my left hand and spell my name wrong.

Mind you, there’s plenty of anecdotal evidence of that happening on the NDIS. You could see that enormous rort a mile away.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Here’s what Albo can do with his Medicare card.

Labor’s spending left the RBA with no option

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In 2025, the Treasurer said rising private sector demand would see a reduction in public sector demand.

Since Labor took office in 2022, federal spending has grown faster than the economy. The 2025 budget projected a $42.1 billion deficit, with gross debt approaching $1 trillion and spending as a share of GDP heading toward 26.9 per cent. Both the Parliamentary Budget Office and Treasury have identified Labor’s policy decisions as the main driver of a significant deterioration in the medium-term budget position. When government pumps extra demand into the economy without corresponding supply-side gains, inflation becomes harder to tame.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:
It’s hard to imagine an election where a Treasurer like Jim Chalmers walks away with his seat, let alone his appointment, intact. Is he the worst Treasurer this country has ever seen? There’s a debate about that online. One thing is for sure, as Michael de Percy writes of the latest rate hike, he’ll be unable to side-step the criticism. Everyone is hurting. People are being tipped over the edge of financial ruin. This is not the Australia of people’s dreams.
My latest in The Spectator Australia, Labor’s spending left the RBA with no option.

What did I miss? Australia’s political week in fast forward

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Reality’s got a habit of punching you in the face. Only now it’s got a diesel price tag attached.

Ah, the lucky country… While we try to bring you the week in fast forward, Labor was hell-bent on putting their policy goals in reverse.

I get in trouble if I miss my mark backing the truck into a loading dock. Big trouble. When Labor dings the side of our country on a brick wall or knocks over a sacred cultural statue, there is zero accountability. Jim Chalmers should try using his mirrors once in a while before he hits something that tears the wheels off.

And it was a big week for damages.

Housing? Going backwards. Debt? $1 trillion next financial year. Immigration? Doors are open. Productivity? Stalled. Interest rates and inflation? About to take another bite. And while Trump puts in a support call for allies, we skulk away like cowards.

These failures are repackaged as positives instead of accidental damage accumulated by an L-driver.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, What did I miss? Australia’s political week in fast forward.

The Digger’s Code: Anzac Day and the Vernacular of Belonging

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Stand with your mates old and new. Reclaim the one nation the Anzacs fought to defend. 

As we pause this Anzac Day to remember the fallen and their mates, spare a thought for our native language that few outsiders ever fully master. It is not the formal speech of the silvertails with their airs and graces. It is the laconic ‘Diggerspeak’ that binds Australian servicemen and women tighter than any oath. It entered our military from regional and rural Australia, and it went back and forth from navvie to digger and continues to do so. It is an evolving language that reflects our deep-seated sense of nationhood.

The rhyming slang, the ironic understatement, the rural shorthand and the deadpan inversions turned ordinary blokes into a code. The enemy and even our closest allies struggled to crack it. In the jungles of New Guinea or the paddy fields of Vietnam, it was not just talk. It was a language of belonging.

The Yanks noticed early. By 1942 the US Department of War and the Navy were issuing pocket guides to Australia. These guides were crammed with glossaries of our slang. Their troops kept staring blankly when an Aussie said something was fair dinkum or that the situation was apples. She’ll be right. The guides were well-meaning. They missed the point.

The real test was not whether you could look it up. The real test was whether you got it without asking. Pause to ask for clarification in the heat of the moment, and you quietly announced yourself an outsider. Aussies are not unwelcoming. Far from it. True mateship assumes a shared frame of reference. You do not need to be born here. You just need to be willing to learn the code and live it.

Australian slang has always been a living thing. It evolves with each new trial. What began in the trenches of the Great War absorbed French, Arabic, Vietnamese, and Malaysian influences. (I don’t know how many times I had to diddly-bop off for some makan.)

The language keeps mutating. A bludger in one war became a walloper in the next. In my time it was a Jack-man. She’ll be right carried the same laconic optimism. (Politely put, a Jack-man says: ‘She’ll be right, Jack, I’m okay!) The language is derived from shared challenges, hardships, and best of all, shared glory. The code adapts. Its purpose never changes. It marks those who belong.

The evolutionary nature of the Australian vernacular goes something like this. I remember at Duntroon a particular word came to be used when something was excellently cool. As legend has it, later this word happened to be the surname of a fourthie who was regarded as a complete quamby. He kept getting bumphed ‘cause his work was NUTS. His mates ended up sharing his pineapples. So the word went from being excellently cool to something that was completely bished, if you get what I mean.

It’s not just in the military. In many of the store docks I deliver to, there exists a language of belonging. I learnt quickly not to say, ‘good morning’. What’s bloody good about it? Next time, Morning! At least you didn’t say good, this place is a loony bin. You’ll be lucky if you get out. Hey Chezza, did you tell him he lives here now? This place is awesome! (I wish I could provide the appropriate onomatopoeia for the quiet guttural groan accompanying the bewildered facial expressions.)

I doubt many of my academic and journalist mates could understand Australian like this. In many eyes, modern academics and journalists don’t belong in such places.

Even my good mate from Pakistan. He’s completing a degree in English. He’s working at a servo and a bloke walks in. ‘Packeta Winnie Blues Mate.’ He recalls fondly the process of becoming Aussie. It took him a while, but he got there. Loves his cricket and his snooker, too. And he’s a toiler.

And that’s the point. Australian slang is a language of belonging. A language forged out of our history through shared hardship and a sense of knowing what we’re all about. You can’t learn it. You have to live it.

That same code echoes every Anzac Day. At dawn services from Gallipoli to Kokoda to the local RSL. You hear it still. The wry asides. The understatement that masks profound respect. The easy familiarity turns strangers into cobbers for a day. If you can’t understand the lingo, you won’t get the stories, either.

The stories of the Owen gun’s legendary performance, or the corporal instructor who gives lessons on the Owen’s successor, the F1 submachine gun: ‘The F1 submachine gun can be fitted with a bayonet and used as a dart’ as he throws it into a nearby tree. The yippee shoots. The forced marches where some bloke pulls up from plantar fasciitis. Only it was a piece of wire gone through his GP and into his foot.

The legendary free grog at the boozer then woken at 3am for a forced march. The bloke who did it in his Reg Grundies while smoking a dart. The dargon leading the run who lights up his own darb under the cover of the palm of his hand. He breathes in deeply. Ah, that’s bet-ter! He says in his clipped, guttural, side-of-the-mouth enunciation.

Or the day our Colonel Commandant turns up on the gun position. I’ve taken over the gun position mid-ex from one of my fourthies who was NUTS. And Davo’s left his cam net back at the last position, and he can’t use his platform ‘cause he’s busted the legs on it. The Colonel asks me, ‘where is that gun’s cam net?’ A UD goes off in the CP just as my OPCP SGT starts shooting. I groan. Test-firing, Sir. Johnno’s Bravo crew is up cause Davo’s doin’ his ‘nana at the Alpha boys who have to go back and get the cam net. Karrumpah! Johnno’s gun sends down the first bomb. The dry grass lights up and the entire gun position is on fire. Who’s got the rakes and beaters? I groan again. I look over at my OPCP SGT and he smirks wryly and shrugs. FUBAR. What can ya do, boss? ‘Ere are, I’ve rolled ya a darb, and the lads grabbed a goffer and a gumpy for ya. God bless him.

It is the vernacular of belonging. It says we have been through the fire together. We know the score. We stand shoulder to shoulder anyway. Anzac Day does not demand uniformity of background. It demands unity of spirit. That spirit has always been more powerful than any official policy or government-sanctioned school curriculum.

Which makes the present moment feel particularly sharp. Decades of mass immigration without a corresponding insistence on cultural integration have left too many newcomers unwilling or unable to learn the code. Their cheer squads in the academy and the media make the problem worse. Some arrive in a nation that offers them every material advantage. They then treat its founding myths, its institutions and its very language of mateship as relics to be deconstructed rather than embraced. Decolonised, if you will.

The result is not the vibrant mosaic we were promised. It is parallel societies, simmering resentments, and a fracturing of the very sense of us that Anzac Day once renewed so effortlessly.

Worse. Those divisions have been actively cultivated. Outsiders to our national story and the domestic elites who amplify their grievances have worked systematically to undermine the institutions that once transmitted the Anzac ethos. The schools once taught pride in our military history. The media once celebrated it. The public square once honoured it without apology. The campaign has relentlessly targeted our shared identity. That identity transcends class, ethnicity, or postcode. When that identity frays, social cohesion frays with it.

No wonder Australians are looking outside the major parties. In the latest Sky News Pulse survey, Pauline Hanson’s One Nation has surged to level pegging with Labor on the primary vote at 27 per cent. This is a remarkable shift. It reflects deep disillusionment with the major parties’ failure to defend the things that make Australia work.

Even Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has reached for the language of one nation in his rhetoric. His government’s approach has too often amplified the very divisions that erode it. One Nation’s appeal is not narrow ethnic nationalism as its critics sneer. It is precisely the opposite. It is the insistence on one nation. Belonging is available to anyone prepared to adopt the values. It includes the work ethic, the fair go egalitarianism, and even the lingo that has defined us since before the trenches of the Great War. It is the Anzac spirit translated into contemporary politics.

That is why a return to the Anzac ethos is not nostalgia. It is remedy. It is not about excluding newcomers. Many Diggers were sons of immigrants. It is by insisting that those who come here join the code rather than rewrite it. The willingness to belong is what separates the citizen from the passenger. Anzac Day reminds us that belonging is earned in the quiet moments. It is the shared joke no outsider quite catches. It is the understatement that carries the weight of history. It is the instinctive understanding that she’ll be right only works when everyone is pulling in the same direction.

So today, as the last post sounds and the crowd murmurs Lest We Forget, listen for the deeper message beneath the words. It is an invitation. Learn the code. Embrace the spirit. Stand with your mates old and new. Reclaim the one nation the Anzacs fought to defend. The alternative is not diversity. It is division. And Australia has had quite enough of that.

 This article first appeared in The Spectator Australia on Anzac Day 2026 as The Digger’s Code: Anzac Day and the Vernacular of Belonging.

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