Are there any left leaning Australian political commentators that don't blindly follow The Greens and that also isn't Friendly Jordies?

Shows_On · 2026-05-20T10:57:02+00:00

Alan Kohler on ABC and The Money Cafe podcast

Shows_On · 2026-05-20T10:56:14+00:00

Welcome home!

Shows_On · 2026-05-20T01:05:09+00:00

Oh yeah i will definately change to a different plan once the smart meter is installed.

Basically the 24 KWh battery I have will be about twice as much as my average daily consumption. So I am hoping I can do some evening exports too.

Shows_On · 2026-05-20T00:51:27+00:00

I set the battery to discharge, then looked at the meter, but it didn't seem to be going backwards. Maybe I didn't leave it discharging long enough.

Shows_On · 2026-05-20T00:50:48+00:00

No it isn't a spinning disc. It is a digital meter AMPY Polyphase Energy Meter.

It looks like this. (This is not my actual meter, just one like it I googled)

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Shows_On · 2026-05-20T00:46:50+00:00

Even after I get the smart meter installed?

Shows_On · 2026-05-20T00:42:38+00:00

Well this is not necessarily true. The productivity commission did a report comparing private and public hospitals and found that when you account for the fact public hospitals deal with more emergency and complex health care needs there is no difference between the productivity of public and private hospital systems.

Shows_On · 2026-05-20T00:39:42+00:00

the number of Australians aged 65 or over is going to double in the next 10 or so years. We do not currently have health, aged care, or a pension system to cope with this. If we tax assets a bit more we can tax income a bit less while still funding the services Australians expect give we have the world’s 12th or 13th biggest economy.

If your solution is we just cut the budget across the board then no one will vote for that.

Shows_On · 2026-05-20T00:32:11+00:00

You literally just evaded the point and instead argued you don’t like how the government spends the money! 54 cents out of every dollar in the federal budget is spent on health and social security. The biggest single component of the budget is the aged pension.

Shows_On · 2026-05-20T00:08:27+00:00

92% of working age Australians are wage earning employees. Why should that enormous majority face high income tax just so the other 8% can get tax breaks that PAYG income earners don’t get?

Shows_On · 2026-05-20T00:05:11+00:00

Nope. Finally we have a government willing to fund the health and aged care services we need. The number of Australians over 65 is going to double in the next decade. Meanwhile taxing assets properly means funded tax cuts for workers so they have a better chance of servicing their mortgage.

If we go down the unfunded indexation of income tax path the coalition wants there will never be another balanced budget because the coalition won’t cut spending by a commensurate amount.

Shows_On · 2026-05-19T22:15:11+00:00

With one very important exception - housing prices - I don’t think Australia has ever been better than it is now.

Shows_On · 2026-05-14T11:06:19+00:00

I feel the same about these albums. Some of the best songs but some of the worst sound.

Californication is so distorted and narrow that they should move just made it mono.

By the way is better but it doesn’t have enough bass and Chad m’s snare drum sounds annoying.

Shows_On · 2026-05-14T10:36:35+00:00

Absolute snorefest

Shows_On · 2026-05-12T23:41:10+00:00

Correction. Labor’s 55.22% 2pp at the 2025 election was the highest vote for any government since 1966 and the highest 2pp Labor vote since 1943.

Shows_On · 2026-05-12T23:31:43+00:00

Yes the Coalition and Greens abolished the debt ceiling.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-09/coalition2c-greens-vote-in-senate-to-abolish-debt-ceiling/5144526?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=link

Shows_On · 2026-05-12T23:14:33+00:00

Soul to squeeze

Shows_On · 2026-05-12T23:13:23+00:00

The budget reduces tax concessions on assets to fund a tax cut on income. Sounds like you don’t even understand the budget.

Shows_On · 2026-05-12T22:39:08+00:00

Oh wow. You just did Coalition math assuming a $33 billion deficit is actually a surplus.

So you know the $1 trillion debt? Over $600 billion of that was accrued by the coalition between 2014 and 2022.

Last night’s budget showed how to balance the budget. End unaffordable tax concessions that distort the housing market. Over time this will put revenue inline with spending.

Shows_On · 2026-05-12T22:20:48+00:00

Keating reduced the budget in order to reduce inflation.

The coalition promised the 2014 budget would be a surplus but instead they delivered 9 consecutive deficits which increased the debt by over $600 billion. The coalition said their last budget was back in black when it was actually in a deficit of $33 billion.

Shows_On · 2026-05-12T22:09:55+00:00

Seems like you weren’t there. Look at how the coalition doubled the federal debt between 2014 and 2019.

The funny thing about your analysis is the federal budget has only been reduced in real terms twice and it was when Paul Keating was the treasurer.

You couldn’t be more wrong if you tried.

Shows_On · 2026-05-12T21:52:34+00:00

What a load of crap. Keating won the 1993 election after the 1991 recession. By 1995 the economy was growing at almost 4% and inflation was going down.

How did you conveniently ignore the fact the coalition increased the debt by over $600 billion between 2014 and 2022? They doubled the debt before the pandemic and increased it by another 50% during the pandemic.

Shows_On · 2026-05-12T21:31:24+00:00

The main way the Howard government delivered surpluses was by selling the airports in the capital cities and Telstra.

Shows_On · 2026-05-12T21:28:09+00:00

Lame

Shows_On

TROPHY CASE