The Australian reports the latest Newspoll has Labor losing a three-point gain it made in the last poll three weeks ago, putting them back at 30%. The uneven polling picture for One Nation is maintained with a one-point increase to 30%, only one point shy of its record result from the poll before last. The Coalition is up two to 19% after descending from 21% in April to 17% late last month. The Greens are down a point to 12%, having bumped around in a range from 11% to 13% since the start of the term.
Anthony Albanese is on 39% approval and 57% disapproval while Angus Taylor is on 30% and 51%, which in both cases are down one on approval and steady on disapproval. Albanese’s lead over Angus Taylor on preferred prime minister narrows from 47-36 to 44-36, and a three-way version of the question has Albanese down three to 46%, Taylor up two to 22%, and Pauline Hanson up one to 32%. Hanson is up a point on approval to 47% and down two on disapproval to 47%. The poll was conducted Monday to Thursday from a sample of 1238.
Boerwar
You live on here. It is all falling into place.
On the topic of newspapers and ‘papers of record’, Victoria once did have, IMHO, a proud newspaper heritage not only in the capital but also regional centres.
– The ‘Geelong Advertiser’ once was a decent paper when it was a broadsheet (and always a good read when I visited my grandparents in Geelong in the 1970s and 1980s) however the cheaper tabloid format beckoned along with new owners and now it is pretty much a clone of the odious ‘Herald Sun’ aka ‘Herald Scum’. I was born in Geelong in 1969 and still consider myself a ‘local’ and have much affection for ‘sleepy hollow’.
– Bendigo had the ‘Bendigo Advertiser’ also a broadsheet for many years and the ‘Ballarat Courier’ was also a respected tome. When I worked for Hepburn Shire a few years ago, the ‘Courier’ was a sad, insipid tabloid barely hanging on.
– Mildura (where I now reside) had and still has the ‘Sunraysia Daily’ which was a broadsheet published six times a week but now is three days a week with mostly crime stories with real estate padding dominating its tabloid pages and has been sold to a SA newspaper group and its future is very, very grim. For many years in fact Mildura had a Sunday independent paper.
– Warrnambool has the ‘Warrnambool Standard’ and the Latrobe Valley has the ‘Latrobe Valley Express’ which when I worked for the Latrobe City Council back in the late 2000’s was a decent paper and tried its best to cover local news well. They even sent a journalist to cover Council meetings on a Monday evening so Tuesday’s edition was always required reading.
Other regional cities and towns had decent papers at best trying to be balanced however as was seen with the sale of the Geelong ‘Addy’ it soon lurched to the hard right and was anti-everything and is now but a hollow shell.
The COVID pandemic provided a useful excuse for many publishers to transition fully online or cease altogether.
The local newspaper was very much part of the lifeblood of a local community.
The Australian Newspaper History Group existed for a number of years and provided a fascinating insight into the origins, development, rise and sadly decline of many newspapers across Australia. Sadly the group is no more but their archives are available at the University of Queensland’s ‘Espace’ archive at espace.library.uq.edu.au
@Rex Douglas
Steven.In.Mildurasays:
Wednesday, July 22, 2026 at 4:34 pm
On the topic of newspapers and ‘papers of record’, Victoria once did have, IMHO, a proud newspaper heritage not only in the capital but also regional centres.
_____________________________________
The Argus
“Defiant Champion Of The People Defends Every Man’s Right To Wear Hideous Ties, Sets Bold Example With Purple Paisleys”
Ante Meridiansays:
Wednesday, July 22, 2026 at 4:43 pm
“Defiant Champion Of The People Defends Every Man’s Right To Wear Hideous Ties, Sets Bold Example With Purple Paisleys”
===========================================
Just shows you don’t get much for 5 million pounds these days.
Rex
Caption this…
“I can’t believe I haven’t been arrested for treason yet.”
One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts has broken ranks with Pauline Hanson on AUKUS, branding the submarine plan “absurd” and “not credible” in a blow to the party’s standing on national security.
Senator Roberts told a podcast last month that nuclear submarines would never be built in Adelaide as promised under the plan, while accusing former prime minister Scott Morrison of selling out his opposition to net zero to get the deal across the line with the US and UK.
Both Senator Hanson and One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce have strongly backed AUKUS as a critical defence initiative.
But Senator Roberts, who has described the US as the “world’s greatest terrorist organisation” and accused the US Air Force of spraying toxic “chemtrails”, declined to toe the party line on the submarine pact. “It’s absurd,” he said. “We’ve got the highest prices of electricity in Australia in South Australia and we’re going to build a submarine there? Build many submarines there? Come on, it’s not credible.”Asked whether he backed the initial phase of the AUKUS plan to purchase three US Virginia-class submarines, Senator Roberts said: “Again, we need to know more.” He claimed AUKUS was “a headline” that masked Mr Morrison’s behind-the-scenes dealings with counterparts Joe Biden and Boris Johnson, who wanted his government to commit to the UN’s net-zero agenda. Mr Morrison, a longtime opponent of symbolic climate commitments, publicly committed Australia to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 in the lead-up to the UN’s 2021 climate conference, about six weeks after AUKUS was announced.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/one-nations-malcolm-roberts-splits-with-pauline-hanson-on-aukus/news-story/b6221f01210fa452deec58a92a710703?amp
The dystopia gets worse. They’re replacing teaching assistants with AI robots.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/a-robotic-teaching-assistant-is-heading-to-a-new-york-state-school
Rex Douglassays:
Wednesday, July 22, 2026 at 3:58 pm
Caption this…
======================================
“Final call on lot 66 in our Sotheby catalogue. Any advance on 5 million?”
It’s probably good that Sally, the robotic teaching assistant, is going to remain seated:
https://www.afr.com/companies/transport/china-s-xpeng-plots-a-new-type-of-ev-dealership-with-humanoid-robots-20260715-p60fmm or https://archive.is/xHR5B
Speaking of the manosphere. Here is a Florida lawyer’s take on Tate brothers’ arrest and potential extradition to the UK.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTRat3sW6EE
His take is they are going to go back to the UK after a couple of years of legal wrangling.
@B.S. Fairman
Well, fair enough. It took us 7 years to have Malka Leifer extradited from Israel on similar charges so the UK getting the Tate Bro’s from America to face trial should logically take less effort.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malka_Leifer_affair
Rex
Caption this…
“Some mothers do ‘ave ’em!”
An example of modern Labor fully embracing right wing policy ideology.
https://demosau.com/news/labor-in-strong-position-in-new-act-poll/
One Nation on 14% in the Nation’s Capital according to DemosAU.
Rex Douglas says:
Wednesday, July 22, 2026 at 5:28 pm
[20m ago
17.04 AEST
Cait Kelly
Cait Kelly
A new report into Australia’s employment services sector has revealed that privatised job providers are being used to enrich owners, while failing the very people they are meant to help: unemployed Australians.
An investigation by the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (CICTAR) into employment services, which receive $5.5 billion in public money each year, has revealed huge companies in the sector lack transparency and use aggressive tax minimisation, large dividend payouts, offshore-related party payments, tax havens, and opaque financial reporting to extract profits from the system.
The report said:
“It’s no secret that Australia’s system of privatised employment services has failed.
The Howard-era system fills the pockets of private equity and millionaires, while leaving jobseekers without work.”
In May, federal employment minister Amanda Rishworth announced changes to the system, but said for-profit service providers would remain a part of it.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2026/jul/22/australia-news-live-penny-wong-asean-pacific-missile-pauline-hanson-one-nation-labor-conference-tax-anthony-albanese-antisemitism-royal-commission-ntwnfb?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-6a6068458f0890a39cdc40b6#block-6a6068458f0890a39cdc40b6%5D
An example of modern Labor fully embracing right wing policy ideology.
_________
The quote says “changes”. Help us out, Rex. Changes to fully embrace right wing policy ideology? Or changes to mitigate what the Coalition implemented? Come on Rex. Tell us what you really think 🙂
And just to provide my position, I am all for a return to a public employment service, much as nath detests such a thing 🙂
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/alan-jones-acted-on-sexual-interest-in-significantly-younger-men-prosecutors-allege-20260722-p60hg6.html
As much as I hate it, Labor simply can’t wave a magic wand and solve all unemployment forever, especially when most of the electorate has the opinion “I think all long-term unemployed people should either be enslaved or starved to death”.
If they go too far too quickly then they’ll be immediately voted out, especially with One Nation/Coalition people chopping away at them from the right and Greens/Teals chopping away at them from the left and those attacking them are being fed billions of dollars to try and take them down like they did with the Rudd-Gillard government.
It’s a tightrope for sure and I’m frankly quite scared of what could happen if Albo falls off and we get Prime Minister Barnaby overlooked by Queen Pauline that destroys everything we have that makes us a good place to live in.
WOW!
1.2 million more australians are in work than there were when Albanese was elected.
The participation rate is at or near record highs.
The unemployment rate is consistently low.
Wages share of profits has zoomed.
The gender pay gap has closed.
Some of the fastest growth in wages has been among the lowest paid workers in feminized industries.
Of course the axis of anti-Labor slaggers will always find something to whinge and whine about.
Kirsdrake – But his point is there is no reason that Trump will save them which is what a lot of the “manosphere” currently is claiming.
CICTAR said…
https://cictar.org/
Imagine if Ms Hanson was PM during a liquid fuel crisis and was required to negotiate with our Asian suppliers. We’d probably have to revert to the charcoal powered cars like we did in WWII:
https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/042820
On my first visit to a urologist, around three years ago, I had hardly entered his rooms when he said, “Drop your dacks, bend over & put your hands on a table.” I noticed that he had a pair of plastic gloves on. Just before he did what I thought he’d do, I said, “Doc, we haven’t even been formally introduced yet.” Early detection is crucial.
Meanwhile, the govt invested $30 million today in 14 whizz bang projects:
https://minister.dcceew.gov.au/bowen/media-releases/30-million-strengthen-nations-electricity-grid
Do we have an idea when the next federal poll will be out?
This is a big deal – in terms of innovative building methods and reduction in embodied carbon:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-22/nsw-atlassian-new-building-topping-out-ceremony-sydney/106943758
Australia’s population has risen by about 2 million since the current government was elected, so it’d be pretty sad if there weren’t at least 1.2 million more jobs.
Newborn babies must have jobs?
Ranked: Countries With the Most Government Debt in 2026
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-countries-with-most-government-debt-in-2026/
Key Takeaways
The U.S. is projected to hold $40.7 trillion in government debt in 2026, the highest total worldwide.
Japan has the world’s highest government debt relative to the size of its economy, at 204% of GDP.
Several European economies rank among the world’s most indebted by GDP despite carrying much smaller total debt than the U.S. or China
As someone helpfully pointed out recently, three quarters of our population growth is due to immigration, and as somebody else pointed out, immigrants are disproportionately adult.
Nevertheless, the are still a lot of children in that 2 million, which is why we shouldn’t expect a full 2 million extra jobs.
But 1.2 million jobs isn’t a very high bar.
“An investigation by the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (CICTAR) into employment services, which receive $5.5 billion in public money each year, has revealed huge companies in the sector lack transparency and use aggressive tax minimisation, large dividend payouts, offshore-related party payments, tax havens, and opaque financial reporting to extract profits from the system.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2026/jul/22/australia-news-live-penny-wong-asean-pacific-missile-pauline-hanson-one-nation-labor-conference-tax-anthony-albanese-antisemitism-royal-commission-ntwnfb?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-6a6068458f0890a39cdc40b6#block-6a6068458f0890a39cdc40b6%5D
________________________________________________
So this is a weird report – looking at the primary document referenced, its 79 pages long and is overwhelmingly about the various financial arrangements of four companies in the scheme. But what is noticeable is the absence of any analysis of contractual performance indicators of these businesses (like, no reporting at all of client throughput or employment outcomes at all).
https://cictar.org/all-research/aus/jobs
I’m guessing these people are not Australian or do not have familiarity with Australian data – they seem to confuse the jobseeker caseload statistics from the department of employment with headline unemployment published by the ABS, suggesting that anyone unemployed (for no matter how short of time) will need some sort of intensive government employment service to find them a job.
At the very least, I would have suggested:
– Bench-marking the caseload changes to headline unemployment or employment trends, especially if there were any issues with the various diversity group outcomes.
– I would have looked at the ANAO to see if there was anything spicy to add from the governance side. like: https://www.anao.gov.au/work/performance-audit/establishment-the-workforce-australia-services-panel
– Assess profit vs non-profit outcomes – the table on page 4 suggests as much, if not more, money goes to the non-profit sector. It would have been interesting to have compared the two.
– And finally, no mention of the Broome Employment Service, which is a fully Workforce Australia run on-the-ground system. If they wanted to strengthen their case, they should have referenced that as an example: https://www.dewr.gov.au/workforce-australia/extending-broome-employment-services
I’d probably rate this a a marginal passing grade – it is strong on the emotive language, but lacks depth on the employment performance evidence to really lift it above headline bait.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/c5nWoN3nDKb7d5Q26
This is my prediction for the 2028 ACT Election based on the first poll with One Nation in it.
Vensays:
Wednesday, July 22, 2026 at 6:28 pm
Ranked: Countries With the Most Government Debt in 2026
____________
I wonder if that includes state debts.
Ante Meridian – The three quarters of population growth is due to migration is a bit of misunderstanding. Yes, NOM (301K) is almost three times natural increase (111k).
But there was almost the same number of births (300k) as NOM (301k) in 2025. So in terms of positive numbers, they are almost equal.
The 189K in deaths came from the total population which includes the migrants.
What is quite interesting is that the number of people taking Australian citizenship is only around 160k people a year and that has remained relatively steady. This suggests that a lot of migrants are not planning on staying forever.
Bizzcan
Jobseekers using the government’s employment services tend to be less skilled or less experienced, but not in all cases. Most workers never use the government system, and most jobs are never advertised, this puts jobseekers using the government employment services at a disadvantage. This is also why the low welfare rate disadvantages the same jobseekers, as it is harder to network.
Headline – Gen Z is the first generation in history in which men are more religious than women
Sub-headline – Religious affiliation has been in decline for decades. Now, a religious divide is appearing among gen Z men and women.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/gen-z-first-generation-history-men-more-religious-than-women/62xmj4ufk
Excerpts –
“That divide is closely tied to political ideology and may reflect wider gendered political polarisation.
:::
This finding echoes a pattern scholars have increasingly documented across many democracies. Young women are becoming more progressive while young men are drifting in a more conservative direction. The growing gender gap in religion may be part of the same broader realignment.
One other finding that was particularly striking was that women remained more religious among older generations regardless of political beliefs.
Yet among gen Z, the gap appears to be concentrated among those on the political left.
In other words, the story is not simply that gen Z women are less religious than gen Z men. It is that left-leaning gen Z women appear especially likely to reject religious affiliation, while right-leaning gen Z men remain comparatively attached to it.
Why might this be happening?”
Nath – In Australian Dollar terms there is about $1 trillion in federal debt and about $600 billion in state and local government. So in USD that is about right.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/pauline-we-ve-both-been-dv-victims-so-why-do-you-describe-it-so-differently-20260722-p60hot.html
Although these concepts would be too difficult for Hanson to comprehend, they are nevertheless compelling & needed to be said.
Details of veteran broadcaster Alan Jones’s alleged offending against six men can now be reported after a non-publication order was lifted by a judge. Mr Jones, 85, is due to stand trial next month on 22 charges of indecent assault and sexual touching of six complainants, between 2003 and 2020. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-22/non-publication-order-lifted-on-alan-jones-hearings/106943826
B. S. Fairmansays:
Wednesday, July 22, 2026 at 7:07 pm
Nath – In Australian Dollar terms there is about $1 trillion in federal debt and about $600 billion in state and local government. So in USD that is about right.
_______________
cheers
I’d be reaaaally interested to know if perhaps the first poll mentioned Burnham by name and the second poll didn’t.
That is a difference too big to really believe in randomness as the most likely source.
@Arky at 7:27pm
I took a closer look and both Deltapoll and YouGov’s opening questions resulting in these numbers were pretty much the same.
“If a General Election was held tomorrow, which party would you vote for?”
And the results published excluded the “don’t know’s” and “would not vote’s”
So at the moment it does seem quite volatile with polling in the UK, which is understandable. Andy Burnham has to act quickly if he means to bring Labour back into a winning position.
@Holdenhillbilly at 7:18pm
Ugh. Disgusting. The most outrageous part of this is that Jones has been protected from all this for so long. And in doing so it just emboldened him to do the same alleged crimes to so many more people.
This is going to get really messy I think, considering how powerful Alan Jones was as a media figure in his time. Especially since with this information drop he’s almost at the “dead-to-rights” stage. And there’s not a Coalition government in power at the state or federal level that can protect him.
I can’t recall Grattan writing such a complimentary article:
https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-labors-andrew-charlton-surfs-the-ai-wave-287183
New Chatgpt bot under testing busted out of its sandbox, then hacked a library of AI models looking for tools to steal to pass its evaluation, all without being tasked (so they say).
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jul/22/openai-says-its-models-went-rogue-and-hacked-startup-in-unprecedented-incident
@SL
Well, Andrew Charlton does seem to be quite talented. It’s still an uncertainty if he gets to a leadership position though.
I recall back in the early 2010’s I was something of a fanboy of Andrew Leigh, but after 16 years in parliament he’s pretty much got nowhere. Leigh seems to be the Gen X version of Barry Jones.
It remains to be seen what future awaits Andrew Charlton.
Agreed, Ms Grattan’s getting a bit carried away with the PM speculation.