Our top civil servants are being paid exceptionally well by international standards and much more than our Prime Minister, let alone the ministers to whom they are answerable. Time for change, Rex Patrick says.

When I first tweeted about departmental secretaries’ salaries back in late 2023, the tweet had 450,000 views, and it prompted News Corp to run a piece right around the country entitled “Million dollar club”.

by Rex Patrick

In October 2012, Prime Minister Julia Gillard released a white paper titled Australia in the Asian Century.

The paper offered a lightweight commentary about a coming Asian Century and provided a few thought bubbles on how Australia might respond to such a development. What it failed to understand was that the Asian Century had been well and truly under way for at least 50 years prior to 2012.

Allan Patience

Coming Soon! The Real Politick, my own show, returns for Substack patrons only. Here is a preview of the new intro. 

MARK SLEBODA
MAY 11, 2025

https://marksleboda.substack.com/p/coming-soon-the-real-politick-my

---------------------------

SEE ALSO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zDwzQaCMpQ

Mark Sleboda: Why Putin's Istanbul Direct Talks Demand w/Kiev Is A Game-Changer That Outmaneuvers Starmer Macron and Zelensky

-----------------

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

A single, small, low-quality do-it-yourself poster recently displayed in the center of Germany’s capital Berlin has caused a minor scandal that has gone against the grain of the country’s usually unshakable support for Israel while the latter is committing genocide.

Friends of genocide: Has Germany learned nothing from the Holocaust?
A prominent Jewish restaurant in Berlin chose to celebrate Israel Day with a joke about the slaughter of Palestinians

Chosen on Tuesday as the first woman to lead the federal parliamentary Liberal Party, Sussan Ley is assured of a place in history as breaker of the party's "glass ceiling".

But politics has its own traditions, so another phrase may fit better: the "glass casing".

When her portrait is hung on the party room wall, framed in glass, it will stand out at the end of a long line of distinguished Liberal men, stretching from Menzies to Dutton.

Inside Sussan Ley's historic rise to Liberal Party leader
BY Tom Crowley

The Élysée Palace has derided as “disinformation” claims being promoted by Kremlin figures that Emmanuel Macron took cocaine with Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, and Keir Starmer while on a train travelling to Kyiv.

The false claims, which emerged on pro-Russian social media channels before being taken up by a Kremlin spokesperson and another official, come amid a recent surge in Kremlin efforts to marginalise European efforts to support Ukraine.

Dumped cabinet minister Ed Husic believes speaking out on the conflict in Gaza may have contributed to his demotion as he fired shots at factional bosses behind the decision. 

The former industry and science minister lashed Richard Marles, with the move to ditch him thought to have been signed off by the Victorian right faction leader and deputy prime minister.

Speaking frankly after his ousting, Mr Husic said Mr Marles had chosen to “wield the factional club to reshape the ministry”.

“When people look at a deputy prime minister, they expect to see a statesman, not a factional assassin,” he told ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.

Asked if Mr Marles put his ambition to boost his numbers ahead of the good of the Labor Party and government, Mr Husic said “a lot of people would draw that conclusion”.

Russia is determined to find a long-term solution to the Ukraine conflict but will not allow itself to be spoken to in the “language of ultimatums,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Monday.

On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to restart direct negotiations with Ukraine without any preconditions. Kiev, however, has insisted on establishing a 30-day ceasefire before any talks are held. Ukraine’s European backers have supported this demand. Berlin is threatening to impose additional sanctions on Moscow if it does not agree to a truce by the end of May 12.

Peskov responded to Germany’s threat by stressing that “the language of ultimatums is unacceptable for Russia.”

Four years ago, a fresh-faced Max Chandler-Mather spoke passionately about his '18-year plan for a Greens government'. 

The former union organiser and Greens firebrand said his ambitious plot relied on a simple equation: you get one vote for every three meaningful conversations you have with Australian voters. 

If, he argued with hopelessly naïve logic, Greens volunteers just had 1,866,216 meaningful conversations with Australian voters, they could seize power by 2040.

His equation would deliver them a total 45 seats, making them the senior party in a Coalition with Labor on just 44. 

A climate scientist from a leading Australian university has warned the unseasonably warm May weather in Western Australia and across the nation is a sign of things to come, because of the damage caused by climate change.

Perth has had maximum temperatures in the low 30s and high 20s for much of May, and the forecast is for maximums above 25 degrees Celsius to continue over the next seven days.

A number of regional areas have had unseasonably warm weather, with some experiencing dry spells as well.

"In places in WA we've seen max temps around eight to 10 degrees above normal in the last few days with this more recent spell of heat," said Dr Andrew King from the University of Melbourne.

UK news sources on Monday reported that Westminster lobby journalists were handed a guidebook aimed at addressing their failure to adequately cover the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The handbook, distributed by the Independent Alliance group of MPs, seeks to confront mainstream media's failure to hold the UK government accountable for its role in "Israel's" assault on Palestine.

The Independent Alliance, whose members include former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn alongside MPs Shockat Adam, Ayoub Khan, Adnan Hussain, and Iqbal Mohamed, distributed around 100 copies of the manual to journalists at Westminster. The guide offers a detailed critique of the media's coverage, particularly in relation to the UK's complicity in "Israel's" military actions.

Sixty years ago, on May 12, 1965, Germany and Israel established diplomatic relations after a long period of preparation. It was anything but a matter of course at the time: World War II had ended just two decades earlier, and the memory of Nazi Germany's genocide of the European Jews was present in both countries. Even now, 80 years after the end of the war, relations with Israel remain extremely important, but also difficult.

The British military is supplying Ukraine with flat-pack decoys designed to mimic real military hardware, The Times reported on Saturday, citing sources. The effort is aimed at deceiving Russian forces and exaggerating the amount of modern equipment on the front line.

At the heart of the effort are so-called “Ikea-style” kits resembling British-supplied tanks, artillery, and air defense systems that are designed to stretch Russia’s surveillance and strike capacity. “We haven’t gifted a huge amount of these, so anything we can do to make the quantities look greater on the front line is advantageous to us,” RAF Squadron Leader Lowri Simner told the paper.

French President Emmanuel Macron, saying goodbye to the head of the Kiev regime Vladimir Zelensky in In Kyiv, where he took part in a meeting of the "coalition of the willing", kissed him on the cheek.

The corresponding video was published by the telegram channel of the publication "Strana".

John Mearsheimer: Coalition of the Willing Have NO ANSWERS / Ukraine Paying the Price

The speaker criticizes ongoing Western military support for Ukraine, arguing that it prolongs the war without clear strategic goals or realistic assessments. Key points include:

The U.S. and Europe are providing large aid packages (e.g., $350 million for F-16s, $50 million in military aid), but this is seen as "feeding the monster" rather than solving the conflict.

Ursula von der Leyen promotes a "porcupine strategy" to strengthen Ukraine long-term and integrate defense industries under "Readiness 2030," suggesting the war may continue for years.

The speaker questions the feasibility of Ukraine holding out that long, citing Russia's superior troop recruitment and weapon production.