What a crock. Treasurer’s talkfest forgets to cut spending

Treasurer Jim Chalmers claimed this gabfest would forge consensus on bold reforms.

Productivity isn’t some esoteric puzzle requiring endless panels and PowerPoints. It’s the driver of our standard of living, but it’s been stalled by Labor’s bureaucratic bloat and fiscal profligacy. Chalmers’ roundtable, with its leaked Treasury advice hinting at timid outcomes like freezing certain expenditures, reeks of the same old Labor playbook: consult, delay, and deflect.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

Anyone else suspect ‘productivity’ might be Jim Chalmers’ code word for ‘raising taxes’? We’re hearing a lot of whispers leaking out of the roundtable about grave robbing (inheritance tax), raising the GST, a 2 per cent wealth tax, and other hikes. Tax is a punishment. Tax is meant to deter us naughty citizens from a bad activity. That’s the reason the government gives us for taxes on alcohol, cigarettes, and petrol. How does taxing productivity encourage productivity? What sort of magical money trees is the Treasurer planting in Canberra?

My latest in The Spectator Australia, What a crock. Treasurer’s talkfest forgets to cut spending.

‘Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidise it.’

Australia is living this nightmare.https://t.co/IQ8piqmzym

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) August 21, 2025

Albo breaches social contract with Palestinian recognition

Albanese’s recognition of Palestine smacks of Burkean folly.

Australia’s longstanding alliance with Israel, rooted in shared democratic values and strategic interests, has been a pillar of our foreign policy. Recognising Palestine prematurely, amid ongoing conflicts and without ironclad commitments to peace, will strain ties with key partners like the United States, which has historically opposed such moves without bilateral agreements.

The US is the only other ally in history who spilt blood defending us against an eternal aggressor. Anyone who doesn’t understand this is an ungrateful recipient of history.

Writing in the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall had this to say:

Michael de Percy adds that Albanese has breached his social contract with the Australian people be doing so, saying that the move by the Prime Minister ‘reeks of ideological posturing over prudent statecraft to ensure our national security’. He also adds that it ‘smacks of Burkean folly’.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Albo breaches social contract with Palestinian recognition.

Recognising Palestine prematurely, amid ongoing conflicts and without ironclad commitments to peace, will strain ties with key partners like the United States, which has historically opposed such moves without bilateral agreements.https://t.co/98Qr4MnMc5

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) August 15, 2025

Speakman silent while renewables wreck regions

Wendy Tuckerman has actively engaged with regional Australians impacted by reckless renewables.  

Blindsided by the resignation of frontbencher Wendy Tuckerman over the party’s limp support for Labor’s controversial renewable energy laws, NSW Liberals leader Mark Speakman has presided over a fiasco that exposes the deep fissures within the Liberals.

The crisis erupted when Tuckerman, the MP for Goulburn, sensationally quit the opposition frontbench in protest over her party’s handling of Labor’s rushed electricity bill. This legislation, aimed at accelerating the transition to renewables, has been slated for its lack of consultation and its blatant disregard for the impacts on rural landowners.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Speakman silent while renewables wreck regions.

MICHAEL DE PERCY | "Blindsided by the resignation of frontbencher Wendy Tuckerman over the party’s limp support for Labor’s controversial renewable energy laws, Speakman has presided over a fiasco that exposes the deep fissures within the Liberals."https://t.co/MNv17yQEol

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) August 10, 2025

Is it time we elected judges in Australia?

Ordinary Australians are being held to ransom by activist groups that do not represent the mainstream.

The Palestinian Action Group’s win in the Supreme Court of NSW is not a victory for freedom of speech. It demonstrates that unelected judges are able to stymy the ability of NSW Police to put a stop to a protest that endangers peace and public order.

It begs the question: Who holds judges to account?

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Is it time we elected judges in Australia?

Today’s decision to allow the Palestine Action Group, the same group that organised the October 9, 2023, rally that got out of hand at the Sydney Opera House, to march across the Harbour Bridge tomorrow makes no sense at all.https://t.co/qxvREhc9A1

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) August 2, 2025

Albo’s TikTok dilemma

Imagine if Albo has to overturn the social media ban because of his communist masters

Chinese social media giant TikTok is set to launch a constitutional challenge to Australia’s controversial social media ban for under 16-year-olds. This comes amid calls to decrease the voting age to 16, an exercise that I recently demonstrated will force children to become adults too soon.

Opposition to Labor’s social media ban for under 16-year-olds, an abhorrent exercise in government overreach led by eKaren, has had little practical effect. God knows Australia’s Uniparty isn’t interested in defending liberal democracy.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

The problem deepens with TikTok considering legal action against Albanese’s government – Google too. Albanese is snapping back, attempting to throw his weight around against Silicon Valley without realising that Australia does not own the digital realm. It did not create it. And it has no replacement. What happens if Google and Bing blacklist Australia? What happens to the business world if social media is shut off? Labor likes to talk about existential threats – I assure you, Silicon Valley shutting Australia off is the end of the economy. Labor does not have the ability to pull rank, especially not when Silicon Valley sits inside America – our major defence ally. What’s Albanese’s plan, asking China to run our search engines and social media? Seriously. Labor’s desire to censor free speech is overshadowing all rational thought.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Albo’s TikTok dilemma.

MICHAEL DE PERCY | Chinese social media giant TikTok is set to launch a constitutional challenge to Australia’s controversial social media ban for under 16-year-olds.

This comes amid calls to decrease the voting age to 16.https://t.co/dI5h4fR7EF

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 28, 2025

Two Against One with Rowan Dean and Michael Danby

On The World ccording to Rowan Dean, 25 July 2025 

Discussing the demise of green hydrogen in Australia and French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to recognise a Palestinian state on "The World According to Rowan Dean" tonight.

I'm on from 41:23 minutes in: Two Against One with Rowan Dean and Michael Danby.

It’s time to give 16-year-olds the vote

It's what the Greens want so it must be a good thing said nobody ever except the Brits

While the left has a history of lowering the voting age, the change from 21 to 18 years of age as the arbitrary signifier of legal adulthood attributed the relevant rights and responsibilities to those now deemed adults. The change to 16 years of age might as well be to 1 or 100 years of age. It really depends on society’s view as to what age a human is deemed to be responsible for their own existence and capable of participating in society

As Alexandra Marshall wrote in the Unfiltered newsletter:

Sure, give 16-year-olds the vote, argues Michael de Percy, but if the government is going to treat them as fully-fledged adults at the ballot box, then they must extend this to all aspects of their lives. If they are not prepared to do this, then it will prove, without question, that this action is a political stunt to boost numbers rather than a genuine acknowledgement that the age of responsibility has dropped.

Terry Barnes wrote in the Morning Double Shot newsletter:

Last week, Michael de Percy made a courageous (in the Sir Humphrey sense) conservative case for lowering the voting age to 16. This week, Colleen Harkin counters with a case against. She makes the point that most teenagers barely know or care about the workings of the civil society that would compel their vote, not least because civics education in Australia is a farce. We would add that it is also hopelessly biased towards the left, and calibrated to turn out lifelong Green-Left voters by the thousand.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, It’s time to give 16-year-olds the vote.

'OLD ENOUGH TO VOTE, OLD ENOUGH TO FIGHT' - giving 16-year-olds the vote signifies the government sees them as fully functioning adults with the same rights & responsibilities.

In which case - there are a lot of other things that need to be amended.🤔https://t.co/f4aC4i7mqG

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 24, 2025

The Greens are engrossed in their own irrelevance

The Greens are more interested in trans extremism than protecting the enivironment.

Plurality of thought and action in Korea is part of the political landscape. Last time I was here the protests were about labour union and pro-Palestine issues. Politics in Korea is as diverse as the natural environment.

In Australia, however, free speech is no longer a given in politics. Over the weekend, the Queensland Greens gave co-founder Drew Hutton the boot. Despite support from co-founder Bob Brown and former leader Christine Milne, Hutton’s appeal to the Queensland Greens was rejected, with 75 votes opposing and 23 votes supporting.

The expulsion resulted from Hutton’s Facebook posts back in 2022 that referred to Greens officials in Victoria and New South Wales as ‘authoritarian and antidemocratic’. This was in response to official Greens’ actions to remove members with transgender views the party didn’t like.

As Alexandra Marshall wrote in the Unfiltered newsletter:

The Greens have started to cancel themselves after co-founder Drew Hutton was kicked out after saying the environmental party had turned into an activist cult, or words to that effect. He’s not wrong. You’re more likely to hear the Greens campaigning for trans rights or Palestine than koalas. This is not a problem limited to Australian green groups. All over the West, true environmentalists are walking away from green parties in disgust. There is a gap opening for an environmentally-minded political party – but what will fill it?

My latest in The Specttor Australia, The Greens are engrossed in their own irrelevance.

‘This is not the party people like Bob Brown and I set up.’

Many commentators have referred to the Greens’ increasingly radical trans 🏳️‍⚧️ and pro-Palestine 🇵🇸 positions as moving away from protecting the environment.https://t.co/Ar2NGa8bFK

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 22, 2025

Housing propaganda from your state-owned media

Jacinta Allan says she is 'helping deliver more options for renters'.

The housing debate has devolved into government overreach and ideological posturing, with policies mismatched to Australian values. Prioritising urban density and renewable energy projects that consume vast tracts of land is a green-left idea that dominates Labor-Greens governments in Australia.

Detached family homes have defined the nation’s way of life since the post-war boom.

When you have room to breathe, you have room to think, but when you are crammed into future slums, you vote Labor-Greens.

This mismatch in values and policy is evident and insidiously promoted in the state-owned media’s coverage.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall had this to say:

Okay enough of the ABC’s petty propaganda! For a billion dollars a year, you’d imagine the quality of our so-called ‘impartial’ public broadcaster would be better… Instead, we’ve got the ABC pitting ‘YIMBYs’ and NIMBYs’ against each other in the housing debate.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Housing propaganda from your state-owned media.

"The ABC’s latest article on the ‘YIMBY vs NIMBY battle’ exemplifies taxpayer-funded propaganda that distorts the conversation, favours big-government solutions, and undermines free-market principles essential to solving our housing woes."https://t.co/nfYKmApRT8

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 14, 2025

Hey Albo, cop this mate. With love, The Don

Albo picked a fight with The Don. It's not a smart move.

As Albo continues to ignore the only nation and ally that has spilt blood in the defence of our continent, the stakes have just been raised.

President Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on Australian-manufactured pharmaceuticals to 200 per cent and copper to 20 per cent. These two items were previously in a tariff-free zone. Not anymore.

While ‘Handsome Boy’ Albo is busy schmoozing up to his ideological mate in Beijing, ‘The Don’ has sent a clear message that ca no longer be ignored.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Hey Albo, cop this mate. With love, The Don.

"The tariffs have nothing to do with economics. They have everything to do with power."

While ‘Handsome Boy’ Albo is busy schmoozing up to his ideological mate in Beijing, ‘The Don’ has sent a clear message that ca no longer be ignored.https://t.co/IOqUzzfKWE

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 8, 2025

Disloyal far-left breakaways are coming for Labor

A new far-left party could disrupt Labor’s hold on key seats

Jeremy Corbyn’s new far-left party poses a significant threat to Starmer’s Labour government by risking a split in the left vote, a danger illustrated by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 1980s.

In Australia, Anthony Albanese’s Labor government, while currently dominant, faces similar vulnerabilities as left-wing criticism grows. Although Australia’s preferential system offers some protection, a new far-left party could disrupt Labor’s hold on key seats and influence policy through the Senate.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall had this to say:

There is a reason the ‘right’ is rising (and the left is splintering off into new movements). It is a desperate attempt to salvage a desperate situation.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Disloyal far-left breakaways are coming for Labor.

The good news is that the emergence of a new far-left party in either country could destabilise the governing left-wing parties. In Australia, this would be the reverse of what happened to conservatives at the 2025 election.https://t.co/mQMlIuwoyv

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 7, 2025

Albo ‘turned a corner’ and got us stuck on a roundabout

If you keep turning corner, you go round in circles.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s incessant claim that Australia has ‘turned a corner’ is wearing thin. Like a motorist stuck on a roundabout, his government seems to be going in circles, with no clear exit in sight.

In key policy areas, Albo’s turned the corner and run into a group of Pulp Fiction characters. The Gimp has been woken up from his election campaign slumber and has doubled down on Zed (aka green hydrogen).

But Zed’s dead, baby. Zed’s dead.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Albo ‘turned a corner’ and got us stuck on a roundabout.

Two Against One with Rowan Dean and Michael Danby

The World According to Rowan Dean, Sky News Australia, 4 July 2025.

Discussing a potential Aussie Farage and a Reform Australia Party and how Albo's first meeting with President Trump will go on "The World According to Rowan Dean" tonight.

I'm on from 41:34 minutes in: Two Against One with Rowan Dean and Michael Danby.

It’s time for a Reform Australia Party

While Reform UK has shown the way, the Liberal Party has gone astray.

Populism has been defined as an approach to politics that pits a champion of the commonfolk against elites. Right-wing populism has often been regarded as anti-expert, anti-intellectual, and anti-globalisation. A major challenge for populist leaders has been a lack of vision. In the short term, populist leaders can be against things, but this it makes it harder to be for something in the long run.

While Reform UK has shown the way, the Liberal Party has gone astray. It’s time for a Reform Australia Party.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

Michael de Percy asks when and if Australia can muster the forces of conservative politics and create its own ‘Reform’ movement. Elon Musk spent the day demanding a ‘third party’ for American politics after renewing his scuffle with US President Donald Trump. Musk isn’t happy about the savage cuts to renewable energy and EVs, but Michael makes a larger point about the need for a genuine opposition party – not for rich businessmen or politicians – but for the people.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Michael de Percy makes the case for a Nigel Farage spin-off party in Australia. In terms of Reform UK and its agenda, that is a consummation devoutly to be wished, whether in a – pardon the pun – reformed Liberal party or not. But Farage, for all his media stunting and blokey braggadocio, has the brains and political nous to be a prime minister: there is nobody on the Australian centre-right, whether in the Liberals or populist minor parties, who has the intelligence, common touch, charisma, appealing beliefs and hunger to win that Farage has. Until an Australian Farage eventually emerges (if he does at all), de Percy will have to keep dreaming, alas.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, It’s time for a Reform Australia Party.

While Reform UK has shown the way, the Liberal Party has gone astray. It’s time for a Reform Australia Party.

What would a Reform Australia Party look like, and who might lead it?

Matt Canavan, Alex Antic, Pauline Hanson???https://t.co/aUR0pZ09K5

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 1, 2025

Climate change strikes Canberra

Cold winters in the Canberra region? Quelle surprise!

Like a GBU-57 bunker buster, global warming turned into global boiling and then suddenly turned into weather so cold it burst pipes in Canberra schools. Using the expression that has now been put into text by our esteemed Editor-in-Chief, it must be CLIIIIIIMATE CHAAAAAAAANGE!!!

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

Are you cold? Apparently burst icy pipes in Canberra are a sign of the global warming apocalypse. Don’t question it.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Lastly, Michael de Percy has an annoyance du jour. Canberra and its surrounding regions lately have been experiencing their severest cold weather for a while (but has it reached the regular minus 9s of my early 80s uni days at the ANU?), But no, the official explanation in the Stalinist Republic of the Molonglo is man-made climate change, and that rightly annoys Dr de Percy.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Climate change strikes Canberra.

Suddenly the weather is so cold it burst pipes in Canberra schools.

Using the expression that has now been put into text by our esteemed Editor-in-Chief, it must be CLIIIIIIMATE CHAAAAAAAANGE!!!https://t.co/NjXAJSaeTL

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) June 29, 2025

Tony Burke’s detention inaction

Tony Burke surrounded by supporters on the night of the 2025 Federal Election.

The Albanese government’s refusal to detain dangerous criminals, citing legal barriers, is a shameful abdication of responsibility.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s claim that the NZYQ cohort – former immigration detainees with alleged serious criminal convictions – cannot be held under preventative detention laws is not just weak, it is my view that it also endangers Australian citizens.

In a new low, this decision prioritises legal technicalities over public safety, exposing a government unfit to protect its citizens.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

Speaking of trouble, Michael de Percy took aim at Tony Burke for his apparent weakness regarding foreign criminals released into the Australian community. 

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Tony Burke’s detention inaction.

The Albanese government’s refusal to detain dangerous criminals, citing legal barriers, is a shameful abdication of responsibility.

Burke’s excuse that legal thresholds are too high is unacceptable. If the law is inadequate, they must amend it.https://t.co/0bmtG38ZmO

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) June 29, 2025

Trump's US Army parade, strikes on Iran, and Labor's weak response

Back on Spectator TV Australia with Alexandra Marshall, 27 June 2025.

 Discussing President Trump's 250th Anniversary Parade for the US Army, the US strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, and the weak response from PM Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

SPECTATOR TV AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺 | MICHAEL DE PERCY
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How does multiculturalism impact home defence?🧐

It used to be the case that the people of a nation had shared interests, shared history, shared futures, and shared enemies...

Now the Prime… pic.twitter.com/TfG1Kadl1M

— Alexandra Marshall (@ellymelly) June 27, 2025

Sussan Ley respects, reflects, and represents… others

The address began with an acknowledgement of country, and it all went downhill from there.

From the National Press Club: It’s difficult not to like Sussan Ley. I discovered she was in front of me as we entered the Press Club and I felt her presence before I noticed who she was. I remember attending a Parliamentary Friends of Nuclear Energy event at Parliament House when the air was sucked out of the room and I turned around to see Peter Dutton. Ms Ley has similar impact, and she certainly lit up the room. She clearly has the ticker to be the leader of a federal parliamentary party. She spoke about her personal journey as a woman in Australian politics, and it’s hard not to want her to do well. But the Australians Ms Ley ‘respects, reflects, and represents’ (as she says) are not my people.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Yesterday, Liberal leader Sussan Ley addressed the National Press Club. Simply by doing so, she declared she is the anti-Peter Dutton, given Dutton never appeared there as leader. But in truth, Ley was not appearing as Liberal leader: she was appearing as leader of the Liberals’ moderate faction, the intellectual milksops and namby-pambies who want to regain political credibility by catering to the cross-dressers, people who think Edmund Burke is a berk and Mill is a millstone, and people who idolise Greta Thunberg as a great moral thinker of our time. From the moment Ley started her speech with the chattering classes’ required obeisance to our spiritual overlords, any sensible conservative – and less sensible ones too – now know Ley has contempt for then, what they believe in, and timeless ideals they cherish which matter in a civil society. Yet, dear readers, she is still the best the pathetic federal Liberals can offer. It’s awful. Michael de Percy was there, and filed his report. His last paragraph says it all.

My latest article in The Spectator Australia, Sussan Ley respects, reflects, and represents… others.

MICHAEL DE PERCY | "While Ms Ley may be likeable and competent, and undoubtedly an effective leader, she ‘respects, reflects, and represents’ everyone except those of us who once upon a time would have sweated blood for Menzies’ Liberal Party."https://t.co/olPo4n2fxS

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) June 25, 2025

Digital nanny deep state

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant appears to be both policy-maker and regulator.

A majority of politicians support the role of the eSafety Commissioner. It is couched in terms of protecting children but is dripping with unintended consequences that echo the excesses of government control during the pandemic. The pandemic is even used as an excuse for the importance of the social media ban, because apparently forcing kids to stay at home for months on end isn’t healthy and it drove them to social media.

Rather than encourage sports and healthy lifestyles, our government turns to a ban on social media.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Digital nanny deep state.

A majority of politicians support the role of the eSafety Commissioner. 🫤

It is couched in terms of protecting children but is dripping with unintended consequences that echo the excesses of government control during the pandemic.https://t.co/edbclfleGp

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) June 24, 2025

Albo disconnects from Trump’s defining moment

Albo exercised his right to disconnect during a generation-defining moment in geopolitics.

While Albo was ‘disconnected’, President Trump saved the world from the ‘Axis of Resistance’ and ensured world peace for at least the next three years. There will be no nuclear weapons for terrorists any time soon.

Like the first Gulf War was to Gen X, President Trump’s strike against Iran is a defining moment of a new era in global politics. Only Australia’s Gen Whatever wouldn’t know it if it punched them in the face. That’s because Australia’s state-owned media, like our Prime Minister, is disconnected from reality.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

Michael de Percy has criticised the slowness with which our political class has approached the entire situation. Weekends do not apply to world-changing events. As he wrote, ‘Like the first Gulf War was to Gen X, President Trump’s strike against Iran is a defining moment of a new era in global politics.’ And defining moments demand attention. Why Penny Wong has decided to use her social media accounts as a travel advisory board is anyone’s guess.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Albo disconnects from Trump’s defining moment.