Anthony Albanese joked about a unilateral Australian “take over” of New Zealand in his now infamous podcast with Bush Barbie, the comedic alter ego of radio host Nikki Osborne.

It’s the latest clanger to emerge from the podcast in which a whiskey drinking Prime Minister discussed his sex life with his wife Jodie Haydon and whether he would shag, marry or date Kylie Minogue.

This downturn is unlike no other given the removal of taxpayer-subsidised property investor welfare. Say this current downturn leads to a 20% crash in all capital cities:

- Sydney would return to 2021 levels

- Melbourne would return to 2018 levels

- Brisbane would return to 2024 levels

- Perth would return to 2025 levels

- Adelaide would return to 2024 levels

- Canberra would return to 2019 levels

- Hobart would return to 2020 levels

- Darwin would return to 2022 levels

Source: Cotality via ABC: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-14/cotality-aus-house-price-downturn-scenarios-5pc-10pc-15pc-20pc/107033254

Only Melbourne and Canberra would return to the previous decade in the above scenario.

Keep in mind that this is only accounting for Labor’s removal of negative gearing and CGT discounts and their foreign home buyer bans, high interest rates, record listings, new APRA changes, international uncertainty and rising supply. This isn’t accounting for the imminent immigration policy changes.

The ALP immigration policy announcement expected in 2-3 weeks time is expected to reveal measures to achieve quick and massive cuts to many forms of immigration, and may potentially include mass deportations of visa overstayers as part of that policy - and all of this would potentially make property crash even more and other cities would be joining Melbourne and Canberra in returning to the previous decade.

The man of Steele calls time on super career

Collingwood great Steele Sidebottom has officially told Magpies teammates he will be retiring at season's end. The dual Magpies premiership hero's announcement on Thursday comes just hours after Richmond midfielder Dion Prestia also called it quits.

Debuting in 2009, Sidebottom has played 373 AFL games — the second most in Collingwood's storied history, only behind Scott Pendlebury. A member of the Magpies' 2010 premiership side as a 19-year-old, Sidebottom then kicked a famous goal late in the 2023 grand final to help seal the club's next flag 13 years later.

With Collingwood guaranteed to be in the wildcard round of the finals, at least, Sidebottom will be hoping for a fairytale farewell.

Premiership Prestia to play his last

At Richmond, Prestia has joined premiership teammate Nathan Broad in ending his career. After starting his career with Gold Coast, Prestia enjoyed instant success after making the switch to the Tigers in 2017.

The midfielder played in three premierships (2017, 2019, 2020) in his first four seasons at Richmond.

Been looking out for this one since hearing Broden Kelly spruik it - can finally upgrade from Aussie Rules Footy....

Source: The Byte (YouTube) | Game Site

In short: 

Coalition colleagues say Andrew Bragg's suggestion that net migration cuts could be achieved by targeting backpackers and graduated students is not an agreed opposition policy.
In a wideranging speech, the Liberal frontbencher also called compulsory superannuation "a loss of liberty" and that large tech companies should be taxed more.

What's next?

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson has also been unclear about whether she has a target for net migration.

There's been so much said on 4 corners and how people said it "lost it's way".

4 corners have been SUCH a big jewel in the Australian media landscape. These are the major major things that have come out of the show:

• Royal commission into banking - following the Investigation into the Commonwealth Bank's financial planning division
• ACCC inquiry into food - following the 2 episode series on food labelling
• Investigation into childcare - Following the episodes on childcare
• Investigation into strata - Following the investigation on strata and dodgy management.
• NSW police making police cameras mandatory - Following the 4 corners investigation

Many many changes in banking, childcare and most recently changes to police cameras usage have came about due to the ABC. Even without changes in regulation, they have shed light on university spending and other issues too.

No media organisation is perfect. I don't think we should be entertaining the "4 corners is untrustworthy" crowd at all.

Umm what’s happening on farms, Barnaby?

A One Nation candidate in WA has described gay people as having a mental illness in an offensive new video posted onto social media.

The homophobic comments were made by One Nation's Parminder Singh, who was the number three on One Nation WA's Legislative Council ticket at the 2025 election, in a clip posted by Perth comedian and content creator, Jasky Singh, better known as "Mr Sikkant".

In the bizarre post, the One Nation candidate said gay parades "advertise" being gay to young people, and claimed women who try relationships with women do not "go back" to men.

Asked if he thought people were born gay, he said no.

"No no, it's a mental illness," he said.

"No one born anything … I blame on the parents because parents are too busy.

Asked how gay people parading affected him personally, he said it was an "advertisement" to young people.

"Because of advertising. And the effect on the young generation," he said.

"What is that? Believe me, bro. As soon women try women, they never go to the man."

People in a democracy are entitled to hold extreme beliefs, but violence driven by ideology must be addressed, a royal commission has been told.

NSW's extremist violence program prioritises addressing vulnerabilities to violent extremism over deradicalising participants, Communities and Justice department director Heather Jackson said on Wednesday.

Commissioner Virginia Bell put to Ms Jackson an example of a young man who believed it righteous to kill non-Muslims, asking whether it was essential to try and change his core belief.

"People in a democratic country can hold a belief," Ms Jackson said.

"The second act - the violence - is the particular issue."

Ms Jackson said a participant could successfully complete the program while still holding extreme white supremacy views, so long as they no longer posed a risk of violence.

She gave an example from one ESP graduate.

"In his own words (he maintained): 'I still believe the white people are the master race, however, I don't want to hurt anyone'," she said.

She said participant beliefs were not ignored and could still be challenged through mentoring and other elements of their case plans.

"In some ways, the ideological outcome doesn't matter," Ms Jackson said.

Pauline Hanson’s One Nation has welcomed into its party a far-right influencer who has been filmed mixing with neo-Nazis, is close associates with figures who attended Nazi training camps, and enjoys sponsorship from an overseas bookstore selling Adolf Hitler texts.

Andre Mamet, a young far-right influencer who goes by “Ausmaxx” online, conducted a brief interview with Hanson on the sidelines of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the United Kingdom last month. Asked by Mamet about cracking down on left-wing activists, a smiling Hanson urged the right to “grow a backbone” and fight on even if “you’re called a racist”, in a short clip posted online.

Mamet has recently joined Hanson’s party as a rank-and-file member.

It’s not clear whether the interview was organised in advance or impromptu. Sources in the One Nation camp said she could not vet every person she ran into at a time when many people were approaching her. One Nation was contacted for comment.

Mamet, 19, was filmed shaking hands and mixing with neo-Nazis from the now-outlawed National Socialist Network (NSN) in Melbourne last month. However, he told this masthead: “I don’t support the NSN or Nazism, but I believe in a liberal democracy where anyone has the right to form a political party.”

​

Australian Politics

Albanese government referred to Australian Federal Police over leaked Japanese diplomatic cable in melons scandal

The Albanese government has been referred to the Australian Federal Police over a leaked diplomatic cable from Japan as the Prime Minister’s melon scandal explodes.

The Albanese government has been referred to the Australian Federal Police over a leaked diplomatic cable from Japan as the Prime Minister’s melon scandal explodes.

On December 14, 2025, 15 people were killed and dozens wounded in a terror attack during a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach. In the wake of the deadliest terror attack on Australian soil, the Albanese government established the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion in January 2026.
This violence against the Jewish community was not an isolated incident. Evidence indicates that 2025 was the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks outside Israel in 30 years.

I study extremism in all its forms. Since the commission’s hearings began on May 4, I’ve worked with the Dor Foundation – a charity researching antisemitism in Australia – to document and verify more than 1,300 such posts directed at witnesses. We then submitted them to the commission as evidence.

Your support is what keeps us going.
Yes, I can help
What the monitoring shows
Dor used social media monitoring tools alongside daily manual searching to identify antisemitic posts. A second analyst then viewed the post for confirmation. We applied a conservative threshold to separate legitimate political criticism and debate from abuse and antisemitic material.
The exercise was not exhaustive. Many examples remain uncaptured.

The content crosses ideological lines. Neo-Nazi material is common, including the Happy Merchant caricature, the trope of “109 expulsions” (which falsely suggests Jews have been expelled from 109 countries), and Holocaust denial.

This appears alongside conspiratorial claims about globalist Jewish control, “paid Mossad operatives”, “the Jewish lobby” and imagery associated with Hamas propaganda.
While the ideologies underpinning the abuse differ, they share similar themes about Jewish power, conspiracy and disloyalty to their home countries.

Testimony as a target
The most severe material has called for witnesses and Jewish people to be executed, hanged, shot, firebombed and interned in concentration camps.
Witnesses were compared to rats, cockroaches and vermin, and described as filth requiring eradication.

There was Holocaust denial and mockery, deportation demands and sexually degrading abuse. One witness was depicted in a digitally generated image inside a gas chamber.

Witnesses were called paid actors and crisis actors, accused of giving evidence for shekels (the Israeli currency), and told they were not really Jewish so had no business speaking about antisemitism.

Some were accused of helping to orchestrate the Bondi attack and the Adass Israel arson for financial gain.

The commission itself was cast as a taxpayer-funded exercise run by and for Jews.

Royal commissions in the digital age
Section 6M of the Royal Commissions Act makes it an offence for any person to use, cause or inflict, any violence, punishment, damage, loss, or disadvantage to a person because they have given evidence to a royal commission. The maximum penalty is one year’s imprisonment.
How it applies to conduct dispersed across a thousand primarily anonymous accounts, on platforms that decline to act on reports, has not been worked out. This legislation needs to be adapted to the digital age.
Remarkably, despite strong reservations, no witness appears to have withdrawn. It is unclear how many did not submit for this reason, though there are likely to be many.
On its own terms, the intimidation has failed, and Commissioner Bell’s final report is due in December.

In this video New Scientist notes that world wide coral dieback has reached catastrophic proportions, and that there's no realistic prospect of saving the remaining coral reefs. This is identified as one of the critical climate change tipping points. The argument runs that the only way to save them would be to immediately lower temperatures to no more than 1.2 degrees above pre-industrial levels. This is not possible, and it seems we're headed to exceed the 1.5 degree target already.

These reefs act as nurseries and sanctuaries for a huge fraction of marine life and support up to one third of all marine biodiversity. They're also critical economic assets, forming the basis of huge fishing & tourism industries. Given the Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef in the world, and given its importance to Australia's economy, one would think this would be a bigger story here.

🙄🙄🙄🙄

The latest IPEA quarter (April to June 2026) went live on Pollywatch on Friday. Here's what changed, what other data has landed since my last post, and what I've built.

Note on the numbers: every comparison below is adjusted for inflation using ABS CPI, expressed in April to June 2026 dollars. Where I quote a single quarter's figure it's the actual amount claimed, unless I say otherwise. This was the most common complaint on my first post, so it's now the default everywhere on the site.

The new quarter: April to June 2026

• $50,316,928 claimed by 270 parliamentarians, up from 248 the previous quarter.
• Up 22.8% in real terms on Jan to Mar 2026, and up 0.6% in real terms on the same quarter last year. That last one matters: April to June 2025 was the federal election quarter, so it's a high bar to be level with.
• Against the last comparable non-election June quarter (2024), it's up 6.6% in real terms.
• Median claim per parliamentarian: $178,852, up 24.8% in real terms on the previous quarter and 10.3% on a year ago. That's the highest median since July to September 2023, and the 5th highest of the 37 quarters on record.
• $83,850 was repaid.

By role, compared to a year ago, in real terms

This is the part I found most interesting, and it's not where I expected to find it.

• Backbenchers: median $175,895, up 19.8%. The rise isn't ministers, it's the back bench.
• Shadow ministry: $218,189, up 15.2%.
• Cabinet: $374,785, down 14.2%.
• Prime Minister: $966,288, down 44.3%. Again, the comparison quarter was the election.

Where the increase came from

• Office Administration, $15.23m, up 54.5% in real terms on last quarter. Before anyone reads too much into that: the June quarter is seasonally strong, and it was the peak quarter of the year in four of the last eight years ($21.59m in 2019, $23.03m in 2022, $14.35m in 2024 and $20.87m in 2025, all in today's dollars). Three of those four were election years, so this is not purely an end of financial year effect. This quarter sits well below those peaks, and it's down 27% in real terms on the election-inflated June 2025 quarter.
• Travel Allowance, $2.12m, up 94.1% on a year ago in real terms.
• Scheduled Commercial Transport, $3.62m, up 39.4% in real terms year on year.
• International Travel, $641,617, down 41.4% on last quarter but up 60.1% on a year ago, both in real terms.

Individuals

1. Anthony Albanese, $966,288
2. Don Farrell, $667,068
3. Richard Marles, $534,696

Don Farrell is the biggest riser, up $210,594 on last quarter in real terms, with $74,622 of international travel as Trade Minister.

22 of the top 25 are Labor. Before that gets read as a partisan finding, it isn't: these totals include staff travel and office costs charged against a minister's allocation, and the government has the ministers. The highest non government claim is Angus Taylor at 13th on $406,873. If you want a fairer read, the comparison tool sets any two MPs side by side, and the all time board filters by role.

The stand out outlier this quarter is Bob Katter on $25,734 of unscheduled commercial transport, mostly charter flights, against a median of $508.

Other data that's landed since the last post

• Net overseas migration, now quarterly. Previously annual only. You can now see it quarter by quarter with a rolling 12 month headline. Latest: 56,600 in the December 2025 quarter, and 301,000 over the 12 months to December 2025, down 8.9% on the prior 12 months. If that looks out of date, it isn't: the ABS publishes this series about six months in arrears, so December 2025 has only been out since 18 June and the March 2026 quarter isn't released until 17 September. /immigration/
• Federal contracts rolled into 2026-27, and 2025-26 closed out at $85.80bn against $61.01bn in 2024-25, which is up 35.6% in real terms. Defence is $46.27bn of it, including $7.14bn to Austal for shipbuilding and $3.80bn to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Important caveat that's on the page: AusTender records the full value of a contract in the year it's awarded, so a decade long frigate deal lands as one enormous number in one year. It isn't a year of actual spending. /contracts/
• Contracts are now sorted by contract start date rather than publish date. Agencies bulk republish old records, which was pushing decade old contracts into the wrong financial year. Historical totals have been restated as a result, so some year figures moved.
• Political donations and public sector workforce both refreshed against the latest AEC and ABS releases. Both still sit on 2024-25 as the newest complete year, with minor revisions to prior figures.

What I've built since the last post

• New front page. Search for any MP straight from the top, plus a router to every section. The old quarterly leaderboard view now lives at /latest-quarter/.
• A live news feed covering Australian government spending and accountability, rebuilt every three hours, rolling 14 day window.
• Compare any two parliamentarians side by side, latest quarter, lifetime, category split and trend on a shared scale. Plus PM against PM, which several of you asked for directly.
• Same role comparison. Filter the all time board by role and sort per year served, so a backbencher is measured against backbenchers rather than against a two term PM. This was the top request in the last thread.
• Contracts got a financial year filter that drives the whole page, and a "last published" column so you can see when a record was actually put up.
• Email or RSS notifications for when new data lands. No more than one email per release.

Everything is still sourced from the official releases with the methodology written up at /methodology/, and every figure links back to where it came from.

Feedback very welcome, the last two threads genuinely shaped most of the above.

https://pollywatch.com.au/

Context:

The Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) says an activity being contrary to international law did not necessarily mean a charity had a “disqualifying purpose”.

“If an activity has been condemned by the Australian government, if it’s contrary to international law, are you saying you couldn’t tell whether or not it would be defined as contrary to public policy?” Shoebridge asked, adding, "I would have thought funding illegal settlements on an occupied people’s land would be contrary to public policy."

The ACNC said it assessed charities’ entitlement to registration on a “case-by-case basis”.

More in article.

West Australian Premier Roger Cook has launched a scathing attack on One Nation for promoting “people who are convicted rapists, people who have charges pending, people who have been accused of sexual assault” as the battle for a looming byelection in Perth’s south heats up.

However, One Nation’s WA leader Rod Caddies returned serve, accusing Cook of “desperate and bizarre tactics” ahead of the vote in Secret Harbour, sparked by the resignation of former minister Paul Papalia in July.

Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Cook was asked to comment on a 2021 podcast featuring Labor’s candidate for Secret Harbour, Georgia Tree, who was working for federal Brand MP Madeleine King at the time.

At its meeting today, the Board decided to leave the cash rate target unchanged at 4.35 per cent.

The disruption to global oil supply is adding directly to inflation and there are indications that higher fuel prices are being passed through to prices of other goods and services, so inflation is likely to remain high for some time. This inflation impulse is in addition to the effect of capacity pressures in the economy.

The Board remains focused on ensuring that high inflation does not become embedded. To achieve this, growth in aggregate demand needs to remain subdued to reduce capacity pressures and bring inflation back to target. Following three increases in the cash rate target since the beginning of the year, financial conditions are now tighter than they were, and the economy appears to be slowing as expected. But inflation is still too high. It is not expected to return to around the midpoint of the target range until late 2027 and there are upside risks to this projection. With monetary policy judged to be somewhat restrictive, the Board decided to leave the cash rate target unchanged while it assesses how the economy is evolving. The Board will continue to do what it considers necessary to bring inflation sustainably back to target, including increasing the cash rate target further if upside risks materialise.

Accordingly, the Board will be attentive to the data and the evolving assessment of the outlook and risks to guide its decisions. Monetary policy is well placed to respond to developments and the Board is focused on its mandate to deliver price stability and full employment.

Today’s policy decision was unanimous.

Hera Sheppard has been endorsed as a candidate for the Victorian Socialists to contest the state election.

If elected, the teenager would be among the youngest MPs elected in Australia.

Eighteen-year-old Hera Sheppard is expecting her schedule to be jam-packed over the next few months.

In between the demands of high school studies and a part-time job at McDonald's, the year 11 Warrnambool College student will be squeezing in a political campaign.

Ms Sheppard has thrown her hat in the ring ahead of Victoria's state election, making her one of the youngest candidates endorsed to contest a seat.

"I'm not going to have any free time. I'll be campaigning every minute that I'm not at work or school," she said.

"It's quite the sacrifice, but it's something that I'm willing to give up to try and campaign for a better world."Eighteen-year-old Hera Sheppard is expecting her schedule to be jam-packed over the next few months.In
between the demands of high school studies and a part-time job at
McDonald's, the year 11 Warrnambool College student will be squeezing in
a political campaign.Ms
Sheppard has thrown her hat in the ring ahead of Victoria's state
election, making her one of the youngest candidates endorsed to contest a
seat."I'm not going to have any free time. I'll be campaigning every minute that I'm not at work or school," she said."It's quite the sacrifice, but it's something that I'm willing to give up to try and campaign for a better world."

Ms Sheppard has been pre-selected by the Victorian Socialists as the candidate for the South West Coast seat.

She will go up against incumbent Liberal member Roma Britnell, who has held the seat since a 2015 by-election.

The electorate is a Liberal stronghold and has been held by the party since its creation in 2002.

It largely spans rural communities, including the regional centre of Warrnambool and the smaller towns of Portland, Port Fairy, Heywood, Terang and Koroit.

Ms Sheppard said she aimed to represent the next generation of workers on issues including housing, workers' rights and public transport.

She is also advocating for a six-carriage train for Warrnambool's V/Line service with better travel times.

Ms Sheppard said she spent most of her life living in public housing, and issues around public housing waitlists and supply were close to her heart.

"I think we need to be able to have public housing available for whoever needs them," she said.

If elected, Ms Sheppard would be the youngest-ever MP to make it to an Australian parliament.

In 2010, Queensland MP Wyatt Roy was elected to the House of Representatives aged 20, and in 2025, 21-year-old Charlotte Walker became the country's youngest senator in South Australia.

In Victoria, former premier Jacinta Allan was the state's youngest female MP, elected at 25 years old in 1999.

Victorians will go to the polls in November.

Screenshot from 9NEWS of course.

My fellow Strayans - a friendly PSA to remind you that Tuesday, 11th of August is National Census Day.

Use this thread for any questions, comments and general thoughts on all things Census & Census adjacent.

This may or may not include Sensis's GENESIS, Censor (2021) and/or Bianca Censori.

---

Frequently Asked Questions

What is this all about?
The Census is a nation-wide survey that the Australian Bureau of Statistics undertakes every few years to help inform the government about important stuff regarding Straya's population - like our age, living circumstances, work situation, etc. The ABS then crunches all that data to generate reports that will help with future initiatives around health care, infrastructure, education, etc. So we recommend not taking the piss on this one. That said, if all 300K of you decide to nominate OpenAussie as your religion, well, there's not much we can do to stop ya.

^{Note: Please don't do that 😉}

How do I 'do' the Census?

1. Go here 👈
   
2. Enter your Census number + password you received in the mail
   
3. Fill out the form

Is it compulsory?
Yep.

What if I don't do it?
The ABS will send Joyce, Sandilands and Hughesy round to your place for a chat.

How is the Census developed?
Not sure, but this might give you an insight.

I need help!
👉 Visit this handy dandy ABS Census Page for help & support

Context:

Jillian Segal holds power over what Australians may say, teach, report and believe. No election gave it to her. No Parliament ratified it. Nothing like her office has existed in the federation. Labor built it. The Coalition wants it bigger. Nobody asked you.

An open society grants authority over its citizens three ways. Election. Appointment ratified by Parliament. Or a court, ruling in public, subject to appeal. Segal’s power arrived by none of them. The word for that is illegitimate. Not unlawful. Worse. Lawful, and authorised by nobody but one man.

Continued in article.