No matter what you do, you’re stuck with Barnaby.

Last week in a debate in Goldstein, independent candidate Zoe Daniel said “there is a hung parliament, and the country is being run by Barnaby Joyce”.

You wish.

Begin Rant: Lack of leadership in health is a threat to us all.

There’s a lot of chatter about Scott Morrison being the worst PM ever and Anthony Albanese being boring and uninspiring. But this is not the biggest leadership crisis in Australian politics right now. The lack of leadership in the health portfolio is far more concerning.

Begin Rant: The cheapest of votes

Some years ago I wrote a series of posts entitled ‘Cheap Votes’ mostly because I figured I’d never get around to writing the book I want to write about how the Australian electoral system devalues the Australian voter. These posts are from another time – Before Morrison – before the intelligence and capacity of the Australian voter was eroded to a f***ing sideshow of focus group tested stunts.

Dear Pru: You’re just wrong. The poor vote. (And other truths about Australian voting behaviour.)

Most of you have probably heard about the hatchet job of an opinion piece under the name of Pru Goward talking about the ‘Proles’. I did a bit of a vent on Twitter about one tiny line in it, and well, it got shared a bit and prompted a bunch more questions, so I’m expanding on that a bit and will try to answer some of the questions. Minus the typos you have all lovingly retweeted.

BeginRant: #FacebookFail – it’s time for Morrison to go. (And many others.)

Yesterday was ugly. It was ugly in politics, it was ugly in humanity, and it was a pretty ugly software update that obsessed the nation and will continue to have ramifications for days. But the ugliest of all the uglies was the belligerence of Scott Morrison and the many other politicians that allowed this thing to get to this point.