Paul J. Berating

Today's Top Stories

⚡ Top Story

National Socialist Network proscribed under post-Bondi hate laws

The Albanese government has listed the neo-Nazi National Socialist Network as a prohibited hate group, criminalising membership and support with penalties up to 15 years.

Burke's banned the brownshirts and the lawyers are already sharpening pencils on the definition of 'support'. The Bondi attack was a lone bloke with a knife and a head full of nothing in particular — and out of it we've built a proscription regime that'll outlive every minister who voted for it. Menzies tried to ban the Communist Party. The High Court remembered what country it was in.

Michael West Media · Judith Treanor

Never again. Worst antisemitism comes from Zionists says Australian Jew

I am Jewish, and the antisemitism I experience comes from Zionists and far-right supporters of Zionism because of my outspoken opposition to the actions of the Israeli state.

Treanor's saying the quiet bit aloud — that opposing a state's conduct and being Jewish are not the same conversation, and conflating them serves the conflators, not the Jews. The loudest voices weaponise the word until it can't do the work it was built for. Call everything antisemitism and eventually nothing is.

SMH · Matthew Knott

Wale wins, Canberra exhales — but Beijing's still got the lease

Matthew Wale's surprise victory in Solomon Islands gives Canberra a moment of relief, but the structural shift in Pacific power doesn't reverse with a single ballot.

Wale wins and Canberra exhales like a bloke who's just heard the smoke alarm was the toaster. One election in Honiara doesn't reverse a security pact, doesn't unbuild a wharf, doesn't unsign a cheque. Beijing plays the long game in decades; we play it in news cycles and relief bulletins.

Guardian Australia · Alan Gamlen

Taylor reaches for the migration dog whistle while the actual system rots

Angus Taylor's tough talk on migration ducks the real question — what to do with the temporary migrants already here, stuck in limbo, propping up the economy nobody wants to admit they're propping up.

Taylor's discovered migrants make a handy piñata when the polling's flat. The system's broken because we've built a permanent underclass on temporary visas and called it a labour market. Menzies ran a migration program that built a country. This mob can't tell the difference between a policy and a press release from the shadow cabinet's WhatsApp group.

SMH · James Massola

If Angus Taylor can't thread this political needle, his fate might be all sewn up

Angus Taylor must claw votes back from Labor and One Nation simultaneously — a contradiction the Liberal leadership hasn't resolved since Howard left the building.

Taylor's threading a needle with one hand tied to the mining lobby and the other tied to Hanson. Menzies built a broad church wide enough for Deakin liberals and Country Party graziers. Taylor's running a tent revival where the preacher's checking the focus group between hymns.