Well articulated Mike. Perhaps most distressing for me is that Australians seems to have lost their sense of humour as well as their inbuilt “bullshit detector”. Why are so many dourly falling for the smoke and mirrors tricks we see from so-called leaders (whether sporting, academic or political)? The resignation and mindless complacency is hard to fathom.
The younger generation are educated (both in the workplace and higher education) to be "inclusive" and dare not risk offending people, rather than have a laugh and ridicule someone when they go too far. Then there's our useless mainstream media who mindlessly parrot Government press releases uncritically, so smoke and mirrors is reported as fact, even when every indicator points the opposite way. The good news on the second point is most people under 40 have stopped watching TV so their days are numbered.
Brilliant article Mike… and the line, ‘emboldened by their own misguided beliefs based on the socialist utopia that helped them lose their virginity when activists students on campus,’ pure gold!
And, talking about gold … the fact that we have had a ‘fiat’ money system as distinct from an honest money system (GOLD) has enabled the governments to institute all the ‘wrong doing’ you highlighted in your article via mounting debt. Bread and Circuses’ at the expense of long term prosperity.
But this can’t go on forever because
socialism can only ever work in a capitalist state. There is nothing to tax, take or steal in a communist state!
It took real talent to go from zero to debt to a trillion through a minerals boom. Morrison, Turnbull, Abbott, Albanese - they all have wanted to waste your money buying votes.
Your fine examples of hypocrisy illustrate precisely the ‘Lucky Country’ to which Sydney Uni academic Prof Donald Horne referred, in his satirical book of same name. Even in 1964, he was aware that Australia would have been a banana republic, if it wasn’t blessed with natural resources, & the British wit to develop them responsibly for the benefit of the nation.
Of course, now socialist leftist governments throughout the land, & Greens, their watermelon bedfellows, are confirming that Horne was correct.
Australia must wake up. China has its tentacles around us, 80% of Australian business is foreign-owned, & we are being asset-stripped into oblivion.
Just what our treacherous socialist government wants, whilst Xi laughs at us, all the way to the bank. We’re becoming a poor cousin of Asia. It’s almost too late to fix, but fix it we must. Jacinta Price & a few others understand.
Sad those that contributed & know a thing or two won’t be listened to by the current business, political leaders, celebs & msm who seem hell bent on looking after themselves first & pushing the propaganda to the masses as we watch our sports & receive gov handouts, NDIS care or employment in bs jobs with benefits like work from home we can ill afford !
An entertaining jab at the sleepwalkers in Australia’s governing classes. The problems are embedded deeply - 2PP results from recent polls suggest most Australians are sticking with Labor. The Coalition is in obvious disarray. A major crisis might dislodge the apathy. The degradation of the national power grid as intermittent ‘renewables’ are forced in and 24/7 generators forced out may be the trigger when the inevitable power outage occurs on a hot summer’s night. In the meantime, Labor is busy shoring up its majority by importing hundred of thousands of migrants from unfamiliar cultures. Presumably the ALP is following the same strategy as Blair’s Labour in the UK a generation ago. That turned out well. The Australian people seem to have lost the independent spirit that characterised their way of life last century. Victorians keep voting in a government that obviously detests them. Maybe that culture is going national.
Mike and Gerry - what a combo - one verbal and the other brilliantly written. Donald Horne who wrote the Lucky Country told us we were lucky by default not by design. How prescient then, how sadly true today. Mike Newman keep up the tremendous work you are doing - Gerry and the rest of us need you.
Yep, if the entropy of your primary energy sources are too high, it permeates through society in ways that are hard to follow. Good but unfortunate read with all the hallmarks of entropy trending higher, thanks for posting.
Just finished reading “Flinders” by Grantlee Kie. Incredibly only 225 years since this brilliant man accomplished what he did. Medical science could not save him at that time from kidney disease & his dying at 40. What Australians built up in such a relatively short time from then is nothing but incredible & I include in the building period the last 50 years of the previous century & the first 10 years of this one. In that last period of prosperity & no major wars all Australians could thrive through their work & contribute to the national good. The rapid decline since then in overall prosperity, taking up of opportunities, educational standards, real community care as opposed to wroughted NDIS, following a Socialist lie is mind boggling. Only really 15 years to all but tear down such a wonderful society.
I'm possibly not as articulate nor educated as some commentators on here but at 61 yrs of age I believe I've lived through enough decades in the once lucky country to have a lived experience perspective.
I was born in the 1960's and grew up through the 70's and 80's. I remember my grandparents lamenting the changes that societal evolution and relative prosperity brought, how they could no longer walk across the road and shoot a rabbit for dinner because there were too many houses around. But at the same time they were thankful they could now afford to run an electric heater rather than having to smell up the house with the old kero burner and no longer needed to chop wood to have a hot bath.
I'm from the Newcastle area btw, Labour heartland.
I'm the grandparent now, lamenting the changes but those changes are somewhat more significant than the inability to shoot rabbits across the road.
We've been systematically and insidiously hypnotised over the last 3 decades by government, local, state and federal, into believing that we the people are beholden to them. They've flipped the narrative on us. Local councils no longer work for us, they dictate terms and fine us for every ludicrous discretion of their ever burgeoning rules and regulations. State and federal govts are destroying our economy, our freedom of speech and taxing us into slavery. Surveillance is everywhere, sold to us as a necessity for our safety and the push for a cashless society and mandatory digital ID will be the last step before total digital imprisonment in their 15 min cities. Biometric facial recognition, once the theme of dystopian sci fi movies, is now a reality with access to most European countries as of April 2026 requiring it.
How the hell did we get here?
Chris Uhlmann and numerous others with a voice have pointed out the blind stupidity and utter folly of pursuing this unsustainable renewables agenda, ironically labelled as sustainable, at the cost of everyday working class Aussies.
I was one of those curious, callous little bastards that learnt first hand the power of the sun when I was a wee lad by burning ants into oblivion with a magnifying glass on a sunny day. However, if the ants could mobilise with intent, come night time they could reap revenge with impunity as my magnifying glass dangled from my hand haplessly.
I believe one day we will have the technology to efficiently harness that power for use around the clock but it sure as hell isn't anywhere near reality in 2025.
We're teetering on the precipice of ruin thanks to every government since Comrade Krudd in '07 but Albanese is on another level again, by far the most treacherous leader this country has ever seen.
Mike's piece is one of the most poignant and articulate representations of our current predicament and the low rumblings of discontent starting to roil amongst the masses of Australians who remember how good this country once was.
Now if only I could find some rabbits amongst the snakes!
What ignorant rubbish. Australia is booming. Through super we now own more outside Australia than foreigners own of us and the difference is rapidly growing. We have the highest median individual wealth in the world outside of Luxembourg type tax havens. We have very low crime, very good health outcomes, very low unemployment. This rant and the comments is just whinging by those who don’t understand the economy or energy transition and feel challenged by change. Australia is not perfect and there are definitely many areas that can be called out to be improved (housing, immigration, the tax code, the NDIS) but the author of this article sees doom everywhere he looks and has completely missed the bleeding obvious that almost anyway you measure it, Australia is a standout nation compared to others in the world and is far more prosperous and successful than it was 10, 20, 30 or 50 years ago.
If you want something different to read but from someone who like you is worried about our country… try some of my essays… We may not agree but conversation helps build civilisation… Have a great day..
Well articulated Mike. Perhaps most distressing for me is that Australians seems to have lost their sense of humour as well as their inbuilt “bullshit detector”. Why are so many dourly falling for the smoke and mirrors tricks we see from so-called leaders (whether sporting, academic or political)? The resignation and mindless complacency is hard to fathom.
The younger generation are educated (both in the workplace and higher education) to be "inclusive" and dare not risk offending people, rather than have a laugh and ridicule someone when they go too far. Then there's our useless mainstream media who mindlessly parrot Government press releases uncritically, so smoke and mirrors is reported as fact, even when every indicator points the opposite way. The good news on the second point is most people under 40 have stopped watching TV so their days are numbered.
Good article, Mike. I hope Australia pulls its head out of you know where and votes these zealots out of office before they destroy the country.
Brilliant article Mike… and the line, ‘emboldened by their own misguided beliefs based on the socialist utopia that helped them lose their virginity when activists students on campus,’ pure gold!
And, talking about gold … the fact that we have had a ‘fiat’ money system as distinct from an honest money system (GOLD) has enabled the governments to institute all the ‘wrong doing’ you highlighted in your article via mounting debt. Bread and Circuses’ at the expense of long term prosperity.
But this can’t go on forever because
socialism can only ever work in a capitalist state. There is nothing to tax, take or steal in a communist state!
Keep up the good work.
NC
It took real talent to go from zero to debt to a trillion through a minerals boom. Morrison, Turnbull, Abbott, Albanese - they all have wanted to waste your money buying votes.
Your fine examples of hypocrisy illustrate precisely the ‘Lucky Country’ to which Sydney Uni academic Prof Donald Horne referred, in his satirical book of same name. Even in 1964, he was aware that Australia would have been a banana republic, if it wasn’t blessed with natural resources, & the British wit to develop them responsibly for the benefit of the nation.
Of course, now socialist leftist governments throughout the land, & Greens, their watermelon bedfellows, are confirming that Horne was correct.
Australia must wake up. China has its tentacles around us, 80% of Australian business is foreign-owned, & we are being asset-stripped into oblivion.
Just what our treacherous socialist government wants, whilst Xi laughs at us, all the way to the bank. We’re becoming a poor cousin of Asia. It’s almost too late to fix, but fix it we must. Jacinta Price & a few others understand.
To my bones I believe Australia’s prosperity is on borrowed time (and money).
Sad those that contributed & know a thing or two won’t be listened to by the current business, political leaders, celebs & msm who seem hell bent on looking after themselves first & pushing the propaganda to the masses as we watch our sports & receive gov handouts, NDIS care or employment in bs jobs with benefits like work from home we can ill afford !
The level of apathy by so many as to reality beyond six monthly horizons.
When the world population are so determined to follow “We’ll worry about that later, there’s a sale on today and tomorrow at …!”
Yes we know - “Houston we have a Problem or six.”
Thinking broadly is no longer a life necessity.
It’s an optional extra that might require effort and interrupt the trash music on my iPhone earbuds.
An entertaining jab at the sleepwalkers in Australia’s governing classes. The problems are embedded deeply - 2PP results from recent polls suggest most Australians are sticking with Labor. The Coalition is in obvious disarray. A major crisis might dislodge the apathy. The degradation of the national power grid as intermittent ‘renewables’ are forced in and 24/7 generators forced out may be the trigger when the inevitable power outage occurs on a hot summer’s night. In the meantime, Labor is busy shoring up its majority by importing hundred of thousands of migrants from unfamiliar cultures. Presumably the ALP is following the same strategy as Blair’s Labour in the UK a generation ago. That turned out well. The Australian people seem to have lost the independent spirit that characterised their way of life last century. Victorians keep voting in a government that obviously detests them. Maybe that culture is going national.
Mike and Gerry - what a combo - one verbal and the other brilliantly written. Donald Horne who wrote the Lucky Country told us we were lucky by default not by design. How prescient then, how sadly true today. Mike Newman keep up the tremendous work you are doing - Gerry and the rest of us need you.
Yep, if the entropy of your primary energy sources are too high, it permeates through society in ways that are hard to follow. Good but unfortunate read with all the hallmarks of entropy trending higher, thanks for posting.
Just finished reading “Flinders” by Grantlee Kie. Incredibly only 225 years since this brilliant man accomplished what he did. Medical science could not save him at that time from kidney disease & his dying at 40. What Australians built up in such a relatively short time from then is nothing but incredible & I include in the building period the last 50 years of the previous century & the first 10 years of this one. In that last period of prosperity & no major wars all Australians could thrive through their work & contribute to the national good. The rapid decline since then in overall prosperity, taking up of opportunities, educational standards, real community care as opposed to wroughted NDIS, following a Socialist lie is mind boggling. Only really 15 years to all but tear down such a wonderful society.
You need to calculate national debt as a percentage of GDP to give it context
I'm possibly not as articulate nor educated as some commentators on here but at 61 yrs of age I believe I've lived through enough decades in the once lucky country to have a lived experience perspective.
I was born in the 1960's and grew up through the 70's and 80's. I remember my grandparents lamenting the changes that societal evolution and relative prosperity brought, how they could no longer walk across the road and shoot a rabbit for dinner because there were too many houses around. But at the same time they were thankful they could now afford to run an electric heater rather than having to smell up the house with the old kero burner and no longer needed to chop wood to have a hot bath.
I'm from the Newcastle area btw, Labour heartland.
I'm the grandparent now, lamenting the changes but those changes are somewhat more significant than the inability to shoot rabbits across the road.
We've been systematically and insidiously hypnotised over the last 3 decades by government, local, state and federal, into believing that we the people are beholden to them. They've flipped the narrative on us. Local councils no longer work for us, they dictate terms and fine us for every ludicrous discretion of their ever burgeoning rules and regulations. State and federal govts are destroying our economy, our freedom of speech and taxing us into slavery. Surveillance is everywhere, sold to us as a necessity for our safety and the push for a cashless society and mandatory digital ID will be the last step before total digital imprisonment in their 15 min cities. Biometric facial recognition, once the theme of dystopian sci fi movies, is now a reality with access to most European countries as of April 2026 requiring it.
How the hell did we get here?
Chris Uhlmann and numerous others with a voice have pointed out the blind stupidity and utter folly of pursuing this unsustainable renewables agenda, ironically labelled as sustainable, at the cost of everyday working class Aussies.
I was one of those curious, callous little bastards that learnt first hand the power of the sun when I was a wee lad by burning ants into oblivion with a magnifying glass on a sunny day. However, if the ants could mobilise with intent, come night time they could reap revenge with impunity as my magnifying glass dangled from my hand haplessly.
I believe one day we will have the technology to efficiently harness that power for use around the clock but it sure as hell isn't anywhere near reality in 2025.
We're teetering on the precipice of ruin thanks to every government since Comrade Krudd in '07 but Albanese is on another level again, by far the most treacherous leader this country has ever seen.
Mike's piece is one of the most poignant and articulate representations of our current predicament and the low rumblings of discontent starting to roil amongst the masses of Australians who remember how good this country once was.
Now if only I could find some rabbits amongst the snakes!
What ignorant rubbish. Australia is booming. Through super we now own more outside Australia than foreigners own of us and the difference is rapidly growing. We have the highest median individual wealth in the world outside of Luxembourg type tax havens. We have very low crime, very good health outcomes, very low unemployment. This rant and the comments is just whinging by those who don’t understand the economy or energy transition and feel challenged by change. Australia is not perfect and there are definitely many areas that can be called out to be improved (housing, immigration, the tax code, the NDIS) but the author of this article sees doom everywhere he looks and has completely missed the bleeding obvious that almost anyway you measure it, Australia is a standout nation compared to others in the world and is far more prosperous and successful than it was 10, 20, 30 or 50 years ago.
If you want something different to read but from someone who like you is worried about our country… try some of my essays… We may not agree but conversation helps build civilisation… Have a great day..
https://quentonrad.substack.com/p/from-good-to-exceptional?r=6tr1a7