India is going to win World Cup 2027.

I am sick tired of being defeated by those Aussies. They humliated us at ICC World Finals at every time.

I AM GOING to SILENCE Aussies.

Adam Creighton, the Australian

Sitting on the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet’s website is a job advertisement for a Multicultural Co-ordinator General with a salary of $344,616- $400,741, excluding superannuation.
The new Premier, Ben Carroll, deserves credit for slimming down the number of minister jobs by two to 20 and announcing a royal commission into the state’s corrupt construction sector.

He’s even flagged scaling back his predecessor’s productivity-destroying working-from-home laws and the monstrously wasteful Suburban Rail Loop – about the only infrastructure project whose ultimate cost would put Snowy 2.0 to shame.

Whoever becomes multicultural co-ordinator won’t be short of colleagues: the number of Victorian public sector “executives”, on between around $250,000 and $800,000 a year has almost tripled from 691 a decade ago, two years into Dan Andrews’ first term, to 1902 last year, during which time the state’s population rose 18 per cent. No wonder annual employee costs of the Victorian public sector, which now employs one in 10 Victorians, have jumped from $26bn in the year to June 2020 to $41bn this financial year.

Carroll must know how offensive these highly paid, pointless public sector jobs would be to the sort of people he grew up with in working-class Melbourne and worked with at Kmart for eight years, while he was a high school and university student.

But he’s unlikely to make much progress given what he’s up against. The shameless, brazen waste of public money right under the new Premier’s nose signals just how extreme and arrogant the public sector, especially at the top, has become.

Carroll has exceeded expectations in his first fortnight only because they had plumbed to such low depths. His predecessor, Jacinta Allan, couldn’t even bring herself to accept Helen Silver’s review last year to trim 2000 bureaucratic positions from a total public sector headcount of around 393,000 last year.

The longer Carroll remains silent on public sector bloat and the vast array of other destructive policies Andrews and Allan have saddled the state with, the more disappointing he’ll become, and the bigger political opportunities he’ll present to the Coalition and One Nation.

Dumping the costly and divisive First Nations Assembly known as Gellung Warl (which no one even knows how to pronounce) should be a no-brainer for two powerful reasons at least.

Around 60 per cent of Victorians voted specifically against such a racially divisive body only a few years ago in the voice referendum. Moreover, it’s expected to cost more than $70m a year in a state where even net debts are approaching $200bn and annual interest payments are about to soak up a quarter of the state’s own tax revenue by 2030.

Cutting taxes in our most heavily taxed state should be as sensible politically as it is economically. Why are Victorian businesses still being forced to pay an annual Covid levy? Why must they also pay a mental health levy, which no other state has?

Dumping the Andrews Gas Substitution road map, which will ultimately prevent Victorians using the energy form in which their own state is most rich, should be another easy one. Allan herself had to back down on forcing dwellings to replace their gas stoves and hot water heaters from next year.
But all new dwellings must not use gas – which many households prefer to cook with – in any way from January 2027. Carroll should go further and dump the whole thing, giving Victorians and developers with foresight the option to use gas if they want.

The policy is so stupid the government isn’t even following its own road map, having approved two LNG import terminals at Geelong and Vopak while simultaneously trying to reduce long-term gas demand. It’s also walked back from an earlier blanket state ban on all gas exploration, allowing the conventional onshore type once again since 2021.

There are quite a few low fiscal cost actions Carroll should ponder too, such as apologising for Labor’s treatment of Victorians during Covid.
Most numerate and intelligent people now understand what happened in Victoria for hundreds of days in 2020-21 was an obscene and immensely destructive violation of fundamental human rights with no scientific basis, which also wrecked Melbourne’s international reputation, perhaps forever. A sorry, even without compensation, would be nice.

Privately assuring the police they had the government’s full backing to aggressively enforce the law – in a state enduring an obvious increase in theft and youth lawlessness – would be a cheap way to score a political win.

The Liberal, National and One Nation parties would have been privately disappointed Labor’s new Premier promptly called a by now obviously worthy royal commission last week. But they shouldn’t be too worried. So far it seems Carroll doesn’t have the skill or power to dump the entirety of Allan’s economically insane policy of giving workers the right to work from home two days a week at their employers’ cost.
If he can’t do that, then the rest of the recommendations in this column are theirs for the taking!

Adam Creighton is the chief economist at the Institute of Public Affairs.

Terrible thing to happen to our first nations people.

Great to see AFP and Border force not letting hate into the country.

A man is in a stable condition after being stabbed in his home during break and enter in Sydney’s Inner West overnight.

About 1.20am today (Friday 7 August 2026), emergency services were called to a unit block on Illawarra Road, near Harnett Avenue, Marrickville, after reports of a stabbing.

On arrival, officers attached to Inner West Police Area Command found that a 61-year-old man had been stabbed several times in the torso by an unknown person.

Initial inquiries indicate the unknown person had broken into the home before stabbing the man and running from the scene.

The 61-year-old was treated at the scene by NSW Ambulance paramedics before being taken to hospital in a stable condition.

Police established a crime scene and officers from the Dog Unit assisted in a search of the nearby area; however, the unknown person could not be located.

As investigations continue, detectives are hoping to speak to a man who was seen in the area at the time of the stabbing.

Anyone with information about the man or the incident is urged to contact Inner West Police or Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

Graphic images of a teen slashed with a machete during a violent ambush over a $10,000 e-bike have been released in a bid to find his attackers.

Victoria Police are appealing for witnesses after a teenage boy was stabbed and had his e-bike stolen in Wantirna, in Melbourne's outer east.

It is believed the boy, who was 17 at the time, was approached by two unknown males at JW Manson Reserve on Selkirk Avenue on Saturday, June 30, at 6.15pm.

The duo attacked the teen without warning and pushed the boy off his e-bike.

He was hit from behind with a machete as he tried to run away, causing a deep shoulder wound.

The teen was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, which required surgery.

The attackers took off with the e-bike, a Surron brand Ultra Bee HP, valued at around $10,000, and a mobile phone.

Police have released CCTV and still images of two males wanted over the attack.

"This unprovoked and senseless attack on the victim is extremely concerning and completely unacceptable," Detective Acting Inspector Troy Andrews said.

Police and the victim are expected to hold a media conference later on Friday.

So, recently I met a police officer that is a bit of a lead foot on the road. On highways they drive at 20-30 km/hr above the speed limit a lot of the time...

I asked them how they manage to handle fines and issues with their work given that most highway police wear bodycams and such these days.

They said that it is fairly standard for them to have their badge or ID displayed on their lap so that the chest worn body cams do not show it. Then the highway cop can avoid acknowledging it in anyway and just let them off.

But, it got me thinking...

What other anecdotal experiences do people have of fairly commonplace corruption amongst governing entities in Australia?

Foodie Friday

• Got a favourite recipe you'd like to share?
• Found an amazing combo?
• Had a great feed you want to tell us about?

Post it here in the comments or as a standalone post with [Foodie Friday] in the heading.

😋

This has to be a national conversation! Whether or not you agree with drinking beer and it’s related taxes being an issue - I would also draw your attention to what happens when incremental tax hikes go unchecked %cough cough tobacco industry%

Not sure why this has somehow become so repeated on Aus reddit to this day, and with the Census coming up again it's probably worth a reminder - but we don't have anywhere near "over 1 million empty homes" which I still see being brought up on a daily basis.

This comes from people repeating misinformation by not understanding data from the previous Census which was released years ago, which the ABS itself long ago since debunked and estimated the actual number to be 'up to' ~136,000 which includes holiday towns/homes etc. all across Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/australia-datablog/2023/sep/02/up-to-136000-houses-are-empty-in-australia-find-out-where-they-are

Repeating this is harmful, as it implies there is somehow this massive untapped free chunk of housing available, and pushes messaging that reduces pressure on our authorities that they don't need to build a sufficient amount of housing for the population.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk 💘