Angus Taylor: ‘The Labor government is f**kin’ sh*t…’

The optics of Pollie Pedal, despite being for a good cause, are out of touch with our lived reality.

Good intentions aside, Lycra-clad politicians riding their bicycles around being all fit and happy is at odds with how crappy life in Australia has become.

The rest of the country doesn’t have time to exercise, doesn’t have time for recreation, doesn’t have enough money left to take time off, and is looking for side-hustles just to make ends meet. And they’ve got nothing left for charity.

The annoying thing is that the Coalition isn’t hitting the mark against Labor while continuing to agree with them on legislation that does little to ease our economic pain.

All I want is for Angus Taylor to say what he really means.

On a hot mic the other day, maybe he did:

‘Alright, we’ve got to go and prep for this presser. We’re just going to say the Labor government is f**kin’ sh*t. You got your lines? Talking points? [inaudible dialogue] F**kin’ ABC will be.’

If only we’d continue to hear Gus talking straight. I don’t know anybody who is being all nice and polite about life under Labor.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Angus Taylor: ‘The Labor government is f**kin’ sh*t…’

Give us back our beer, smokes, and super

A schooner of Resch’s is now over $8 at my local (despite the publican absorbing the excise).

Australia has a habit of creating senior-age crunch times. Previously, it was working men (in particular) who were broken by age 63 but couldn’t get the pension until age 65. They had to gut it out for a few years.

Nowadays, Gen X are frequently being made redundant in their late 50s and are unable to access their superannuation until they are 60. It’s criminal.

When One Nation starts talking about giving us access to our super, Gen X are all ears.

With mortgage repayments the single biggest expense for many Gen Xers, accessing superannuation before the arbitrary age of 60 would be a no-brainer. But no. You have to die in a ditch because your super isn’t yours – it’s a ‘national asset’.

So, you can’t smoke, you can’t drink, and you have to give more of your money to the banks for absolutely nothing.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Pauline Hanson says it’s your money to do with as you wish, and Michael de Percy is certain the young are all ears to her message. But if the union-dominated super behemoth is to be cut down to size, we need a few policy ideas on how to do it, not just thought bubbles. Over to you, Pauline and Barnaby – not to mention Andrew Bragg and the leader he ignores cavalierly, Angus Taylor.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Give us back our beer, smokes, and super.

The Census is no place for politics

Unwelcome, personal, and political questions were in the Census this year... [Deposit Photos/@olly18]

Why am I not surprised the 2026 Census feels a bit … politicised?

The last time a national census was held under a Labor government was in 2011. What a coincidence that those are the only two occasions I have felt the process turned into a political exercise. That is my opinion, at least.

This year the battleground is obvious.

For the first time, Australians aged 16 and over were asked optional questions about sexual orientation and gender identity. At the same time, secular campaigners ran a coordinated push to mark ‘No Religion’. Religious groups counter-campaigned, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) was reduced to pleading with the public to ignore online crusades.

It is my opinion that the Census has become another front in the identity wars. And Labor, after initially baulking at the ‘divisive’ new questions, eventually waved them through.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Did you think more than a few Census questions were unduly personal and intrusive, and others designed to pander to the identity politics agenda? Your scribe did, and so did Michael de Percy. Michael also relates a disturbing first-hand experience of the Blob’s unquenched desire for all manner of personal information from all manner of people. The Census is now a political document, not a simple number-gathering exercise, and both sides of politics are to blame.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

For those in the Coalition upper-ranks who like to snoop on my nightly writings, I urge you to read this article from Michael de Percy in a sober and calm fashion. Political parties must try to understand the political reality of their voters before it is too late. As I said to Michael when he filed this submission, it seems as if the ‘party’ and the ‘people’ have different native languages. They understand the words – but the jokes never hit because the proper context is missing.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, The Census is no place for politics.

Identity politics is modern communism

Communism failed to smash the state, so identity politics tries to smash the society.

How progressive politics unpicked Western Enlightenment one dangerous idea at a time

Every aspect of post-pandemic policy has become dominated by identity politics. The question is where this leads.

Key to identity politics is the right of individuals to identify however they choose, even if that means grammatically incorrect pronouns or irreversible medical interventions on minors. What is missing is any serious concept of the common good.

Ordinarily, if A identifies in a way that B rejects, B can still accept A’s right to choose. But when refusal to affirm that identity becomes a social, professional, or criminal offence, the purpose is no longer liberty. It is the enforced subordination of shared reality to private will.

Identity politics does not merely expand freedom. It systematically dismantles the shared understandings that make a free society possible.

Identity politics represents the acceleration of contradiction and therefore the manifestation of modern communism. It is destroying our liberal democratic traditions, and it is undoing the very fabric of Enlightenment thinking. Not only is it destroying the West from within, but it is making excuses for otherwise abhorrent human rights abuses elsewhere. It is hypocrisy in the extreme.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Identity politics is modern communism.

The One Nation of our discontent

The major parties do not grasp how deeply they are hated.

People are livid. This is no longer tall-poppy syndrome or healthy scepticism. They want the whole system burnt to the ground. For many, Roberts-Smith was doing his duty while the political class looked after itself, as it always does.

Anecdotes of women in their seventies living in cars after losing their houses are everywhere. Meanwhile politicians tell us to tighten our belts, or worse, take the roof racks off. Labor MPs film TikTok-style videos while people are weed-spraying, driving trucks, rouseabouting, working in cafés and cleaning. I did an eight-hour barista shift in a regional café last Sunday. It nearly killed me. I did harder things in the Army, but in my late fifties that shift was hell. Imagine a pollie lasting the distance.

The divide between ordinary Australians and the political class could not be greater. Politicians lecture us about what they stand for and then do the opposite. They may not all have lived by the skin of their teeth, but few have ever scrounged for durrie butts while properly down and out.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

There’s been a worrying spread of ‘might as well burn it down’ among the frustrated and exhausted ‘quiet Australians’. Once the unshakeable electoral base of the conservatives, these voters are struggling to find hope – even with the rise of One Nation. The notion that political parties can be reformed, saved, or even join forces into a workable coalition, is slipping further out of sight. And that’s a terrible thing for our future.

For those in the Coalition upper-ranks who like to snoop on my nightly writings, I urge you to read this article from Michael de Percy in a sober and calm fashion. Political parties must try to understand the political reality of their voters before it is too late. As I said to Michael when he filed this submission, it seems as if the ‘party’ and the ‘people’ have different native languages. They understand the words – but the jokes never hit because the proper context is missing.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Michael de Percy makes a powerful point very succinctly. The major parties don’t realise, or understand, just how much voters hate them. Say no more.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, The One Nation of our discontent.

Identity politics is the root cause of Albo’s success

Albo is Karl Marx's executive chef. And it might just be the greatest challenge to our liberal democracy

In Australia, all aspects of our laws have been usurped by identity politics. Our courts, in my opinion, actively support it. This is not identity politics like Farmer’s Pride or the oldest bloke who feels like he’s losing his identity because he is no longer medically fit to hold a heavy licence. It’s the politics of grievance.

People can now declare themselves neurodiverse. It gives them an excuse for being an unreflective arsehole.

Albo can gaslight you because it’s the new normal, you bigot.

The reality is that identity politics helps the communist cause. Marx didn’t write recipes for tomorrow’s kitchens. But make no mistake, Albo is his executive chef in Australia.

Karl Marx popularised the idea that talent was a fluke of birth and therefore wealth should be distributed ‘from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs’.

Equality of outcome and a focus on society as a whole would replace Mill’s equality of opportunity… pic.twitter.com/bGydldVtkr

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) August 11, 2026

Labor is not building anything. They are tearing society apart…

Albanese’s Labor are not building anything. Their communism brings us full circle back to anarchy.

Labor governments in Australia arose from the union movement and the Fabian tradition, but there has always been tension between the reformers and the radicals of the left. The reformers see government as a means of putting a human face on capitalism, whereas the radicals, or more appropriately, the communists, see government as the very problem with human society.

From Hobbes and his conservatism that saves us from anarchy to Locke and Mill and their liberalism, and to the Fabians and their reformist zeal, communism brings us full circle back to anarchy.

That’s where Albanese’s Labor Party is taking us. They’re not building anything. They’re tearing us apart.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

And what of Labor? Are they nation builders, or nation destroyers? I think we know the answer to that one, don’t we folks? Michael de Percy certainly does!

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Labor is not building anything. They are tearing society apart…

Labor has been in power for a long time now - what have they actually BUILT?

They've taxed. They've spent. They've dug us into nearly a trillion dollars of debt. They've expanded the public service. They've polished their Net Zero vanity.

But have they done anything useful FOR… pic.twitter.com/0BAmv5q9S0

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) August 9, 2026

Cheaper electricity? Chris Bowen promises it’s on its way to you soon...

Lower retail electricity prices are in that land of the unicorns where your $275 saving lives.

Mr Bowen recently posted on Facebook that wholesale energy prices had decreased 47 per cent in the past 12 months.

At the National Press Club today, I asked him:

…in many cases retail supply charges have increased and time of use windows have changed, making any consumer price changes minimal, and less transparent. Minister, who is actually benefiting from the halving of wholesale electricity prices?

He confidently responded with a non-answer. It will flow through to the consumer so wholesale price reductions are a good thing.

The bottom line is that lower retail electricity prices are with your $2.75 saving Labor promised in 2022.

In the Flat White newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

Climate Change and Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, has turned ‘underwhelming’ into an art. His polished media appearances, including at the National Press Club last week, allow criticism to slide off his suit jacket. Ignoring those who point out the eye-watering costs of his COP-31 moonlighting, the Energy Minister has been pushing Labor’s Net Zero policies so hard that a future Coalition government will struggle to unpick the damage. Our Canberra correspondent was at the Press Club to ask the Minister questions.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

Our Michael de Percy attended energy minister Chris Bowen’s ideological diatribe at the National Press Club yesterday, so you don’t have to. His report from the Press Club trenches shows how Bowen is a master of the non-answer, talking about energy consumers yet caring not about them. One can only hope the Press Club’s rubber chicken made the motorcycle trip to hear Bowen worthwhile for Michael.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Cheaper electricity? Chris Bowen promises it’s on its way to you soon...

Energy prices are getting cheaper - didn't you hear?

Energy Minister Chris Bowen said so on his Facebook.

Today, I asked him at the National Press Club: Who is benefitting from lower wholesale electricity prices?

Not you and me...

Article | https://t.co/5MLSWaslTp pic.twitter.com/oLOBxoOS5d

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) August 5, 2026

You need to decolonise your mind

It’s not spring, so it wasn’t spring cleaning. It was pure catharsis.

Some might say the real colonial occupation in Western liberal democracies is not the one the textbooks denounce, but the ideological one they themselves carried. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o coined the phrase in a very different context. The irony is that the phrase now travels more easily in the opposite direction.

From the late 1970s and 1980s, imported theoretical apparatuses such as postcolonial theory, applied postmodernism, and critical approaches to identity, established themselves inside Australian universities and then cascaded into teacher training, curricula, and public discourse.

Much of it arrived via French high theory in the late 1970s and 1980s. Thatcher was alert to the broader cultural and educational dangers of the time. Australian universities largely were not.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, You need to decolonise your mind.

THE WOKE COLONY OF THE MIND RADICALISES KNOWLEDGE

When the idea of colonisation is transplanted into Western liberal democracies, it demands a purge of the Enlightenment inheritance itself.

Universalism, evidence, the possibility of knowledge independent of the knower’s… pic.twitter.com/3xxCSFRABJ

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 30, 2026

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

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.

How bad is the economy?

While Energy Minister Chris Bowen reserves $4.2 million for swanky hotel rooms in Fiji, my energy provider has stopped notifying me of bill increases.

It prefers to tell me that it's 'changed its position'. Just like Albo.

Article |… pic.twitter.com/qRmml7nLp1

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 26, 2026

Vikki Campion’s warning: Mess with Barnaby and meet your match

You can’t have two people in politics who have kids. Who looks after my children?

Why has Vikki Campion suddenly reappeared in public life in support of her husband? She has launched her own Substack this week in addition to her writing for the Daily Telegraph and occasional media appearances.

She tells me she was previously unable to use social media before as a Coalition staffer.

They did the interview deliberately. Vikki tells me:

Barnaby’s doing you a favour by finding some power, getting the internet access, it’s freezing cold. It’s the first time we’ve managed to connect the shed to the internet successfully. We have no dedicated office, no epic studio. This is the best we can do. There’s no shirking, he shows up.

Vikki is not asking for special treatment. She is asking for the most basic recognition that a farm is not a studio, a working dog is not a prop, and rural Australia does not run on the same clock or the same assumptions as the inner city.

In the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes wrote:

One Nation’s heroine of the week is not Hanson, but Barnaby Joyce’s dog, Stella. That canine disciplining, in the middle of a 7.30 interview with the humourless Sarah Ferguson became a talking point for days, completely distracting attention from the controversial aspects of Hanson’s fortnight in the UK and Sicily. The haters hate it, and even question whether Stella was even there. But Michael de Percy got the real truth from Barnaby’s missus, Vicki Campion, and you can read it here.

In the Unfiltered newsletter, Alexandra Marshall wrote:

Following the Stella!!! dog incident with Barnaby Joyce, One Nation has released merchandise – for your dog – I shit you not. Anyway… Hyper-commercialisation is the real infiltration of American politics into Australia. Anyway, our Canberra Correspondent Michael de Percy interviewed Vikki Campion about what she thought of the whole saga.

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Vikki Campion’s warning: Mess with Barnaby and meet your match.

Vikki Campion is not asking for special treatment.

She is asking for the most basic recognition that a farm is not a studio, a working dog is not a prop, and rural Australia does not run on the same clock or the same assumptions as the inner city.

Article |… pic.twitter.com/pZg3pmh8aP

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 22, 2026

What if small businesses went on strike against Labor?

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?

The Left are always on strike when they want something from Labor.

But what about Australia's small businesses?

The forgotten community, with no bargaining power, that employ nearly half the private workforce?

The small businesses that are suffering the worst financial burden… pic.twitter.com/G2CiLGqFZs

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 21, 2026

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

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.

The attacks against One Nation keep coming ... but polling suggests it's having little impact on public opinion.

There are still many dimensions where One Nation needs to mature in its preparation for government, but I think most people have had enough of the present state of… pic.twitter.com/8zcp66jXCJ

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 20, 2026

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

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?

All we’ve heard this week is One Nation didn’t do this, and One Nation didn’t do that.

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

Not one of these One Nation politicians has sent mortgages through the roof, put the cost of… pic.twitter.com/B11075Tpg2

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) July 18, 2026

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

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’?