Auction on stupidity: Uniparty vows to double down on Medicare spending spree

No Medicare Choice from the Uniparty: $8.5 billion on the left, $9 billion on the right

In a bid to ensure Labor remains in power at the next election, the Coalition has doubled down on Labor’s Medicare spending spree. The Uniparty is in full swing and nobody can tell the difference between the major parties. While the Greens will help Labor get over the line, the plethora of conservative parties that are reacting to the Coalition’s apparent willingness to join the Uniparty is undoing Menzies’ legacy before our eyes. The recent non-debate over Medicare reform is a case in point.

Writing in the Morning Double Shot newsletter, Terry Barnes had this to say:

Sunday saw $17.5 billion, all-up, put on the table by Labor and the Coalition to ‘save’ the mirage of universal Medicare bulk-billing by GPs, something that should be taken out and quietly put of its misery instead of being made the eye-watering, hideously expensive centrepiece of Labor’s election policy, answered by an immediate ‘me too’ but the Coalition. Your scribe quibbles with elements of Michael de Percy’s conception of a Labor-Coalition ‘Uniparty’, but he is spot-on in his analysis of yesterday’s announcements, both unnecessary and frankly foolish wasting of your money and mine.

Flat White has added her voice to your scribe’s, Michael de Percy’s, and others of this parish denouncing both Labor’s plan to trade votes for more GP bulk-billing, and the Coalition’s indecent rush to trump it. This is going to be a race to the fiscal bottom election, and already it’s not pretty for those who value fiscal responsibility and sensible, considered policy.

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

Speaking of the election, Michael de Percy was dismayed to see the ‘auction of stupidity’ where Albanese and Dutton went head-to-head, coughing up billions of dollars in public money on Medicare policies. That said, Dutton did have one success – the most popular thing he has ever said was floating the idea of stripping citizenship from those who hate Australia and act against its interests. 

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Auction on Stupidity: The Uniparty vows to double down on Medicare spending spree.

"In a bid to ensure Labor remains in power at the next election, the Coalition has doubled down on Labor’s Medicare spending spree." - @FlaneurPolitiq https://t.co/95dlDge3jl

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

Green steel? Go woke, go broke

Green steel is proving to be a fairy tale - only nuclear energy will save our heavy industries

After the Premier of South Australia put Whyalla Steelworks into administration, Mr Albanese found another $2.4 billion of taxpayers’ money to bail out the failed company. The Albanese government has since appeared ready to double-down on the production of ‘green steel’ at the plant. This has all the hallmarks of a bottomless pit. Without nuclear, green steel is another Labor unicorn that will reinforce what is now well-known wisdom: Go woke, go broke.

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

Another day, another critical industry falls – broken – into the arms of the government. This time it is the Whyalla steelworks. As Michael de Percy writes, ‘Mr Albanese found another $2.4 billion of taxpayers’ money to bail out the failed company. The Albanese government has since appeared ready to double-down on the production of ‘green steel’ at the plant.’

My latest in The Spectator Australia, Green steel? Go woke, go broke.

After the Premier of South Australia put Whyalla Steelworks into administration, Mr Albanese found another $2.4 billion of taxpayers’ money to bail out the failed company.

The Albanese government has since appeared ready to double-down on the production of ‘green steel’ at the… pic.twitter.com/XOGfGpR7SC

— The Spectator Australia (@SpectatorOz) February 20, 2025

Australia’s Weak Response to Antisemitic Hate Crime

The Western Wall, Jerusalem

On Feb. 6, Australia’s parliament passed a bill to amend the current crime legislation to include “hate crimes.” Widely criticized as an attack on freedom of speech by conservatives, the legislation, which will become law once it is signed by the Governor-General, was meant to be a demonstration of the government’s response to ongoing antisemitism. Rather than represent action against antisemitism, however, the bill is more talk that does little to address the inaction of authorities at both the state and federal level to prosecute those who have terrorized and continue to terrorize Australia’s Jewish community.

My latest in the Jewish Journal, Australia’s Weak Response to Antisemitic Hate Crime.

Once again, the term antisemitism cannot be uttered by itself, it must be surrounded by a diversity word salad or, in the same breath, included with Islamophobia. https://t.co/fzEtVAPS1q

— Dr Michael de Percy (@FlaneurPolitiq) February 21, 2025