ALL HUFF, ALL PUFF, NO ACTION

Today

I feel

Like going away

Into a corner

There to

Die.

Donald Trump.

Donald Trump.

One Nation on the upswing – and building on a strong foundaton

The reckoning is over, calculations done.
Without any doubt, the Liberals have gone,
Jumped with conclusion and without hesitation,
Voters give second place in their preference, to the rising One Nation

Donald Trump

Across the top of Scotland from John-o-Groats to the west coast. That was in 1996. The road was a very narrow bitumen strip with passing places every few hundred metres so cars going in opposite directions could pass without collision. The most picturesque road I’ve ever navigated.

DONALD TRUMP

The countenance of DONALD TRUMP

The TRUMP STONE

Donald Trump.

Donald Trump.

It happens year after year after year.

Donald Trump in a phone call with the Norwegian Prime Minister.

Donald Trump

• Dementia reduces living to existing.

• Process and procedure stifle common-sense outcomes.

• Spoken  words are often false, betraying thinking on issues.

• Alas, the dementia mind wanders aimlessly in time and space.

• Asking for ‘sorry’ apologies is farcical, almost a gimmick!

Australian Government. – approved then not approved

The Australian government’s humanity, empathy, and support for those from the Middle East is wonderful. How lucky we are to be governed by an impartial and focused group of outstanding politicians who shun any notion of favouritism toward one group over another.

Will Trump take Greenland?

YES

MORE LIKELY THAN NOT

FOR HE IS NOT A MAN

TO STOP UNTIL HE’S GOT

EVERYTHING HE WANTS

AND NEEDS AND SO I SAY 

THIS BRILLIANT MAN WILL PERSIOST

UNTIL HE GETS HIS WAY.

Closing titles

A great game

The tree tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden.

She sinned

Adam sinned

Evil came into the world

Without the tree

How much different the world would have been.

It could only happen with Donald Trump.

As people age, they become physical caricatures of their younger selves.

I am Henry
I am a man
But from now on
I will change – and I can
Just go to a bureau
And confirm my sex change.
There could be nothing
More easily to arrange.

Memories haunt her

Stability evades her

Satisfaction eludes her

She is here but nowhere

Now here in 2025,

Than there in 1954,

Now with me in the car

Then with her Father in his truck

Home by ourselves today

Then back in sad childhood years,

In Leanyer with our family grown,

Now in their young years in bed

The car

Our Camry 

Where is it, who has borrowed it

Without asking 

No one – it’s in the driveway 

“I have had breakfast

Have I had breakfast

I have put the clothes on the line

Have you brought the washing up yet?”

“Who are you

No you are not Henry

Where is he Dad

I know your voice; you are Henry.”

Uncertainty dominates each day

How will that be as time strips even further

At the soul  case

And the brain-box

Of my beloved. 

Dementia is so f…..g cruel!

My name is Henry
It all counts for naught
Where I was born
Was in the Land of Trespass
A place
Where my parents and theirs
Had no right to impose themselves
Or the generations that follow.

I am guilty by my birth
And guilty of contributing to the birth
Of children.
And they in turn have transgressed
By having children of their own.

What right have we
Those who have gone before
Us
And those who follow
To have any purchase to title in this place?

A place where those who came later,
Wish was back in the hands
Of Aborigines
With their own footprint
Being despised
As bringing shame
Because we interposed ourselves
Into this place of traditional sacredness.

How can we redress the grievous interference
The arrival of our forebears imposed
On the unhurried peace and tranquillity
Of this place
Before the trespass
Of 1788

Paying tax is good, and I am sad,
So many see it as something bad,
Tax is what makes Australia good,
With pollies spending it wisely as they should,
With our contributions safe to their hand,
Our leaders keep this as a promised land,
I am so glad to part with tax money,
To ensure Australia’s milk and honey,
Spreading hope and care to one and all,
This always is our government’s call

Russia don’t mind, Russia don’t care,
About war’s destruction, And people’s despair, 
Wrecking of cities, Pockmarking the land,
Confirms that Russia, Has a hard, hurting hand.

Slaughter don’t matter, Their point to make,
It matters not, that their claims are fake,
Little by little, They’ll claw back the past,
‘Till Russia becomes, ‘United’ at last.
The countries that fled, Their future has gone,
Back to what was, When Russia has won.

This comment was not approved for publication.

I predict that in times to come – and before 2050 – Australia will have a Muslim Prime Minister and that there will be suburbs and areas in which Sharia Law is enforced.

That will happen because state and territory governments will be increasingly made up of those of the Muslim faith who have been voted into office.

And that has a starting point based on acquiescence

IT WAS A STORY AS HORRIBLE AS IT WAS – TO ME – INCOMPREHENSIBLE

What a sad and poignant story was depicted on the front page of Monday’s “Australian” (‘Kumanjayi bashed me, but I loved him’). It is incredible to think that a young girl, a maturing teenager, should feel that her partner had the right to bash her brutally and for long periods. 

How can it be possible, in the way the majority of people view things, for Walker to forgive his partner Rickisha Robertson for the fact that her presence motivated him to abuse and beat her so savagely? 

Robertson’s forgiveness toward Walker, albeit misplaced, is understandable, but his forgiveness of her for being the person she was is beyond comprehension. 

The story reminds me of the fact that in traditional times and before the arrival of Europeans in Australia, Indigenous women were deemed to be the property of men. They were objects men could do with as they saw fit. During my time working in remote areas of WA during the 1970s, the entitlement and possessiveness of girls and women by men was still very much a part of life. 

The worm is turning, but to this day, far too many men regard women and girls as goods and ‘possessions’ to be dealt with as they like. This story confirms just how far we have to go in shedding and hopefully eliminating this thinking and subsequent actions from indigenous and, indeed, from all cultural mores. 

This was not approved for publication

An academic appproved for a major research grant for a questionable project

For this supposed ‘academic’ to be granted $250,000 for curious ‘research’ and after what she has claimed and written (for which Sydney University admonished her) is more than a travesty – it is a squandering of money in a rash and poorly considered manner.

Not Approved

For this academic to be granted $250,000 for research after what she has claimed and written (for which Sydney University admonished her) is more than a travesty – it is a squandering of money in a rash and poorly considered manner.

Not Approved

It is terrific that this academic and researcher, admonished for an earlier indiscretion, has not been thwarted in her pursuance of insights and new knowledge that her grant of $240,000 will support.

Approved

Online newspaper correspondence

On the shooting down of the Azerbaijan  Commercial plane – From a contributor

They were shot down by Russia, who then denied them landing at Grozny, who also degraded the GPS, and then sent them out over the Caspian. There is no troublesome evidence of shrapnel damage if it crashes in the water.

My response was not approved

If that is how it happened, then it was an act of sheer bastardry. Like the shooting down of the Malaysian Airlines plane several years ago – with Russia home free in terms of consequence.

My response approved

This would have been a sad, unintended and tragic accident. I am sure that civil aviation authorities, with empathy and support from Russia, will try to find the cause and alleviate the suffering of those who have lost loved ones. Russia may well offer support to those hospitalised with injuries, for there is a quality of humanitarianism and care for those suffering from accident or injury within the regime.

From online comments made to a newspaper

Pornography

Porn is demeaning to the creators and the viewers.
Porn creates situations leading to debased behaviour.
Porn stimulates acts of violence and inappropriate treatment of others.
Porn lowers the regard held for women.
Porn is a violation of the moral temple.
Porn is about lust, not about love.
Porn promotes evil thoughts and inappropriate physical and sexual habits

Not approved then approved later

Premier of Victoria

I think that Jacinta Allen is a leader who is a danger to the people of the state she leads. Surely these extreme opinions being expressed on gender should be challenged in court. Common sense suggests she is right out of line. Not approved

Premier Allen is to be congratulated on her guardianship of the ‘new morality’age in Victoria. Her vision and farsightedness must be the envy of many without such commitment to making momentous social and economic decisions for the age in which we live. APPROVED

A newspaper response.

I understand the capacity issue. But why can’t I as a person with capacity make a judgment call on my own situation? Why can’t I specify in my Personal Action Plan that if in some future time I decline physically or mentally to an acute non 

-functioning, non-cognitive state, that VAD be entitled under my carer arrangements.  

Of course here in the NT we have a tardy government that sees no reason to be in any hurry to reinstate the entitlement we lost close to three decades ago. 

I have read that in Victoria where VAD is one of the very few pieces of sensible legislation passed in recent years, well over 2,000 people have opted for VAD under legislated entitlement. I’d be willing to bet pounds to peanut shells, that some of those choosing to pass, did so for reasons of cognitive incapacity and not just physical incapability.

I don’t like that my only option is suicide.

Political issues

• There is a possibility but very little probability that Anthony Albanese will invite President Putin on a state visit to Australia.

• There is a possibility and a quite strong probability that Toto Albanese will win the Champion Canine Award at the 2026 Sydney Royal Show.

• There is a possibility and a growing probability that all federal, state and territory coalition leaders will soon be women

Donald Trump

My wife and I have been married for one week less than 57 years. I gave loved and have been moved for each and every day of our journey.

Use the bin.

Do not be a bower bird.

Use a shredder.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump

We are blessed by good government.,
From near and afar
People applaud and clap us,
Say how lucky we are

Albo is my hero,
I’m sure you’ll agree,
We should salute,
And to him bend knee.

I am an old man,
He may well be the last,
Australian PM.
Before I breathe my last.

Old cars are good.
New cars are not.
I love my old car,
The car that I got,
Decades ago and it runs so well,
New ones cost heaps
And are like empty shells.
New fangled ideas,
Leave me stone cold,
That’s why I love,
My car oh also old.

Ribbons of Green

During the 1980s and into the early 1990s, many Darwin schools and some community organisations contributed to the construction of tree belts in the city and suburbs through the Ribbons of Green Program. 

Trees were given to these groups, who undertook to plant and maintain them. The program gave schools and other groups ownership of the greening and beautification of significant areas in both Darwin and Palmerston. Signage acknowledging each school and group was placed in the greening areas under their management. Planting, care and maintenance were the assigned responsibilities. 

With the passage of time, the program was discontinued, signs removed, and the planted trees and other species left to run the gauntlet with nature’s aid. That took away the sense of belonging that schools and sponsoring groups felt about the landscape.  

Nowadays, trees are planted, given a little start with watering, and left to grow in an unrestrained, untended manner. Come cyclones. We reap the consequences, but management plans are never modified or upgraded to prevent future catastrophes.  Surely, change is necessary.

 Classroom teachers, the most vital of all educators when it comes to interfacing with students, feel the weight of expectation because it all comes down to them.

In 2024, the teaching profession was under more pressure than ever to deliver for students.Expectations have been building for years but have never been more pronounced than now. Classroom teachers, the most vital of all educators when it comes to interfacing with students, feel the weight of expectation because it all comes down to them. They carry the prime responsibility (outside the home) for teaching and developing children.

Appreciation is well-hidden

Double-edged expectations are held for teachers and classroom support staff. The system and school leaders anticipate that those working with students will do an outstanding job, reflected in NAPLAN outcomes, PISA results, TER scores, TAFE/VET achievement and a host of other measurable objectives for primary children and secondary students. 

On the other hand, parents and the community expect that teachers will teach in a way th

at results in students achieving quality outcomes, regardless of social and environmental pressures. The constant observation and scrutiny under which educators are placed adds to their burden of accountability. The expectation is front and centre, with appreciation for their actions rarely expressed.

While teachers are celebrated on World Teachers Day each year, this positive recognition is a brief pause in the heavy load of accountability placed squarely on their shoulders. The profession is heavily weighted with expectations, and bouquets are few.

There are many things about teaching as a profession that are misunderstood by the public at large. Neither are these elements considered by the Departments of Education and those within systems that set teacher expectations. The long term confirms this, and the current differentiation of ‘them’ and ‘us’ describes the connection between school-based staff and system administrators. The hardly respectful term ‘carpet-land’ is used by many teachers to express the lack of proximity they feel to those developing curriculum priorities and setting teaching agendas. Departments set school curriculum agendas to meet government whim and societal pressures without considering how this will impact teachers and students.

What they see is the iceberg tip

The work of teachers (and school leaders) reminds me of an iceberg. Only 10% of an iceberg’s mass is visible. The other 90% is hidden beneath the ocean, seen only by marine creatures. In the same way, the work done by teachers and support staff is 10% observable and 90% unseen.

Many believe that classroom teachers work six hours daily, five days a week. This 30-hour working week, reduced by public holidays, is complemented by 12 weeks ‘holiday’ each year. Regarding occupational comparison, our teachers are considered people on ‘Easy Street’. Letters to newspapers and callers to radio talkback programs frequently slate teachers for lack of commitment and care for students. How wrong they are.

A criticism heaped on teachers, support staff, and school leadership teams is that teaching is an easy job, generating far too many rewards. I have heard people say that teachers should go and get themselves a ‘real job’. Letters to newspapers regularly decry teachers as being too well rewarded for the tasks they undertake.

There are some, of course, who appreciate the in-depth nature of teaching and education: sadly, the view that teaching is superficial appears to be held by many people.

Many students and parents appreciate ‘their’ teacher. However, in media releases and public statements about schools and teachers, there are far more brickbats than bouquets. Criticism is often harsh and strident, with acclamation of teaching positives being restricted to acknowledgement on World Teachers’ Day.

What is entailed

Teaching is far more than what is visible to the public. In fact, ‘teaching’ is a small part of the educational equation. Detailed planning, preparation and programming, taking many hours, precede classroom teaching and direct engagement with students.

Beyond teaching, there is the recording of outcomes (testing, measurement and assessment), review and then the considerations of revision and extension. These educational elements go well beyond teacher and pupil interaction in the classroom.

After-hours commitment

weekends and during holidays, will reveal a growing number of parked teachers’ cars. Staff members are inside working on many tasks that embrace the teaching profession. Salary recognises teachers for around 37 hours per week. In real terms, many work upwards of 60 hours during the same period.

Teachers are among the few professional groups not eligible for overtime payments to recognise extra hours at work. Police, firefighters, and nursing staff work to fixed rosters and are reimbursed if extra hours or shifts are worked. This does not happen for teachers in schools. The only person entitled to compensation for extra work may be the school janitor, and only if a pre-agreement has been arranged.

These days, there are more and more meetings in which teachers and staff members are required to participate. Staff and unit meetings, moderation meetings, performance management meetings and many other gatherings have proliferated. Most are held outside the scope of the typical working day and week. 

Teachers organise extended excursions. They coach and manage teams and groups involved in sporting and cultural exchanges of several days’ duration. Preparation for their regular classes before going is part of the deal. They are part of fundraising activities, school council committees and school improvement planning groups. The list goes on.

N Unlike many professionals, educators do not always feel 

they an leave school at work. Program- ming and preparation, marking and updating data onto electronic files, which transfer back to school records, are tasks that move classrooms to lounge rooms at home.

A ‘giving’ profession

Teachers and school staff members should not be knocked. They are selfless, giving and caring. Most teachers are there for others, and without the work they do, our society would be poorer. I believe teaching is the most vital of all professions. It is one of society’s linchpin professions, and those who work within it deserve to be valued and appreciated.

A Rejoicing Profession

I hope that school-based educators will come to feel good about themselves. A distinct worry is that our teachers under-sell and under-appreciate themselves. It is almost as if they expect to be put upon and criticised, accepting this as normative behaviour. That should not be the case. There needs to be a place for joy and rejoicing in the hearts of our teachers, who contribute so much to so many.

At the end of each day, teachers should reflect on their successes and plan for what lies ahead. Reflective, ‘feel good’ times are essential and help build confidence. That can help alleviate the stresses and anxieties that too often build up within the mindset of teachers who feel they have no right to rejoice.

I hope that teachers become more valued and appreciated by the community, by their employment systems and by politicians who set educational agendas. Equally, I hope that educators working in our schools feel professional joy from within.

  One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is a vital element for the growing plant and the child’s soul.

Carl Jung

Appreciation is the highest form of prayer, for it acknowledges the presence of good wherever you shine the light.

Donald Trump.

Donald Trump

• Optimism about 2026 is like a wafer thin cloud  on a hot day.

• Dementia now Australia’s number one destroyer of human life.

• Is government frightened to call out the scourge of dementia?

• Time to look after your rural community Premier Allen.

• Dementia’s status as Australia’s No 1 killer is kept quiet.

Too late!   

The day you begin,   

Can be the day too late,   

To stop.   

Drugs offer    

A slippery slide,   

A roller coaster ride.   

Up, up, uppers,    

Exhilaration,   

Down, down, downers,    

Plunging despair,   

The crest crashes.     

A yawning trough,   

The pits,   

The only way is up,  

Inject,   

Ingest,     

Force the mortal flesh,   

Reach the mountain top.   

Savour brief sunshine,   

Before you slide,   

Into the abyss of soulless despair.   

That fix,   

That fleeting rise,   

Artificial joy.   

Again the fall,   

That sinking hopelessness.      

Pump your veins,    

Full of shit,   

Rise, rise, rise,   

Between the falls.   

Day,   

Slips into night,   

Until one day,   

You rise no more.   

Forever cast,   

Into nether silence,   

Beyond the grave.   

DOD.   

We’ve come from near and afar,  

Tragic horror where we were,  

Now we are here,  

Across the oceans and the plains,  

Our home regimes were major pains.  

We pawned our jewels,  

Shelled out much money,  

For passage to a land,  

Of milk and honey.  

A land of promise   

We were told,  

Awaits those who cross   

From countries  

Whose birthrights are sold  

On sad regimes  

Which make no sense,  

Anathema to those  

With pounds and pence  

Who oppose autocracy,  

And dream democracy.  

Challenged, spurned, cast adrift,  

We left behind a major rift,    

An ideological chasm so wide,  

It casts us on the other side,  

Of a yawning gulf  

We will never bridge.    

So we arrived  

Down under,  

Was our trip a massive blunder!?  

Herded into compounds like cows,

Men typed as pigs, 

Women as sows!!  

In camps,  

Contained within razor wire.  

We yell,  

“Is Australia ANOTHER living hell??”  

“Justice please,  

Justice” we call,  

Hear us …  

Our despair quells.  

Our plea a prayer,  

Will it fall on deaf ears,  

Raising within,  

Internal fears,  

That we will be moved. 

Back. From whence we came,   

Or worse,   

Oh SHIT!!!  

RETURNED,  

From where we left,

We will face torture,  

Trial,  

And DEATH.  

A couple  

With hungry child,  

Approach the checkout.  

In their trolley,  

Are basic necessities.  

Nothing elaborate,  

Every item one of need.  

They consult the plastic,  

Enter digits,  

Hoping to God   

For the green numbers.  

STRIKE ONE   

“Please re-enter”   

Demands that soulless terminal screen.  

Embarrassing the couple,  

Exposing their shame,  

To fellows winking,  

Thinking,  

“We’re better than them”.  

“Sometimes the card sticks …   

Have another go   

OK?”

Transaction re-entered.  

STRIKE TWO   

Declined again! … then again.

STRIKE THREE!!    

You are out.

Derision haunts the couple,   

Shoppers laugh behind their hands.   

The sad pair,   

Buy meagre items,    

With a handful of coins,    

Loose, forlorn in a bag.  

Biscuits, milk.    

The forlorn child   

Hurriedly tears the packet,  

Gnawing the nourishment,    

Like a hungry rat.   

Whither now?   

God only knows   

Toward what end     

Their forlorn destiny will lead.    

They wander from the precinct,    

Into the nether regions,   

Of near distance.   

Rain falls,   

Lightly from the sky,   

How they wish   

It was manna from Heaven

Ribbons of Green

During the 1980s and into the early 1990s, many Darwin schools and some community organisations contributed to the construction of tree belts in the city and suburbs through the Ribbons of Green Program. 

Trees were given to these groups, who undertook to plant and maintain them. The program gave schools and other groups ownership of the greening and beautification of significant areas in both Darwin and Palmerston. Signage acknowledging each school and group was placed in the greening areas under their management. Planting, care and maintenance were the assigned responsibilities. 

With the passage of time, the program was discontinued, signs removed, and the planted trees and other species left to run the gauntlet with nature’s aid. That took away the sense of belonging that schools and sponsoring groups felt about the landscape.  

Nowadays, trees are planted, given a little start with watering, and left to grow in an unrestrained, untended manner. Come cyclones. We reap the consequences, but management plans are never modified or upgraded to prevent future catastrophes.  Surely, change is necessary.

For many years, I have resisted the idea of becoming a Facebook member.

That had largely to do with the fact that so many people connected to social media accounts had endured a great deal of stress related to bullying and snide, awful comments on social media. As a school principal, I became aware of just how damaging social media can be and how it can be manipulated and used to cause great upset to others.

I have not changed my mind about the damaging and deleterious impacts of social media. Still, my decision now to use this platform has been influenced by the need to access information about a key medical issue that can only be accessed by creating a Facebook account.

I look forward to reacquainting myself with people I know from our time in education and through community involvement over the years.

This is a letter of inquiry, not a complaint. It may be that I am simply behind the eight ball when it comes to modern communication methods.

That said, I can but wonder why, for the past ten years – and possibly longer – I have never been contacted by a councillor who represents the Richardson Ward.

There were several pamphlets left in our mailbox as the election approached, but no follow-up. There have been no visits, phone calls, councillor newsletters, or ward ratepayers meetings called before or after the August 2025 local government election. Apart from the Lord Mayor’s posts, I am unaware of any Facebook communication.

Are our councillors and the council largely non-communicative, or am I not looking in the right places for information?

I know it is wrong

To wish I was dead

Because I have my wife

The love of my life

Afflicted with dementia

For whom I care.

If this was not so,

I would love to bid the world adieu,

And depart

From my depression

And foreclosure

Which is pressing upon me.

I am semi-alive,

But a dim flicker of my former self,

Alive

Only because I am a carer.

The best east snack foods in the world to eat. And so beautifully and symmetrically packaged to eat. Pringles are fit for the Royal snack table. They have a class and a quality of their own.

There are Pringles

Then the rest.

This is a statement included in a Facebook Post. It is plaintive and sincere. As a carer, I can identify with its sentiments.

WHAT IS KNOWN BUT ONLY TALKED ABOUT IN QUIET, ALMOST UNDERCURRENT TERMS, IS THAT DEMENTIA IN THE NUMBER ONE PEOPLE KILLER IN AUSTRALIA. IT PROGRESSIVELY GNAWS AWAY AT SUFFERERS, REDUCING THEM IN HUMAN STATUS TERMS TO SHADOWS OF THE PEOPLE THEY USED TO BE.

Nobody ever asks the carers what we think. We’re the ones in the homes, the hospitals, the waiting rooms, the hospice meetings. We’re the ones watching the decline in real time, not on a chart or in a report. And yet, somehow, we’re the quietest people in the whole dementia conversation. We don’t want sympathy or likes or empty words we want things to change. We want things to be spoken about properly. We want the truth that happens behind closed doors to be acknowledged instead of brushed off like it’s just “old age.”

We want someone somewhere to take dementia seriously, the same way they take other diseases seriously. We want research
We want medicine. We want options. We want answers. We want hope. We’re tired of being told “there’s nothing we can do.” That line breaks a family in half. Carers hear it and feel a part of their heart fall to the floor every single time. Because what do you mean there’s nothing? What do you mean just “manage it”? Why aren’t we fighting for treatments? Why aren’t we talking about prevention? Why aren’t we pushing for better care and more support for the ones who carry this alone?

People act like dementia is just something that “happens when you get old.” No. Dementia is a disease that tears families apart. It steals parents from their children, partners from each other, grandparents from grandkids who will never know who they used to be It destroys independence, personality, dignity It takes everything except the body that’s left behind. And carers are expected to watch that happen quietly to get on with it to not complain, to not break down

But we’re done being quiet.

We want dementia spoken about openly, loudly, honestly. We want carers represented in conversations and decisions. We want funding for research, not just leaflets about “memory loss.” We want medication that slows it down, stops it, helps with the fear, the confusion, the aggression, the shutdown, the decline. We want science to care about this like it cares about everything else we want governments to see the carers who have given up their jobs their sleep their mental health their freedom to keep their loved ones safe

And until that happens, we will keep talking. We will keep telling the truth. We will keep posting, sharing, writing, and shouting because dementia is not rare it’s everywhere behind millions of front doors chewing through families in silence.

Carers are tired not just physically tired emotionally tired, world-tired, tired of waiting for someone to care enough to make a difference. We don’t want to just “manage dementia,” we want to understand it, treat it, slow it down, prevent it, and one day stop it completely.

our loved ones deserve more than just “comfort,” they deserve a future and we as carers deserve to see that future too💜💜

Planning for and construction of schools in the newer Darwin and Palmerston suburbs is long overdue.

When suburbs for Darwin and Palmerston were being planned in the 1970s and early 1980s, the provision of schooling was one of the first priorities taken into account.

In Darwin, schools were built in Karama and Leanyer as soon as suburbs were gazetted. The residential areas developed around their new schools. The same applied in Palmerston. Gray and Driver had Neighbourhood Centres which included schools and childcare facilities available as residents purchased blocks and built their nearby homes.

This policy reassured residents that schooling would be available for children.

Guaranteed local schooling encouraged people to buy property and settle in these new suburbs.

Over time, this policy has changed. Rather than schools (and other necessary community facilities) being among the first constructions, provision is left until all residential blocks are purchased and homes built. Lyons and Muirhead in Darwin are overdue for schools. Hundreds of families have to transport their children to schools at distance from where they live.

This has resulted in Nakara, Wanguri and Leanyer primary schools being oversupplied with students who are living outside their catchment areas.

This policy change has also impacted upon Palmerston. People living in Johnson, Zuccoli and other developing residential areas have to take their children to distant schools. In Palmerston , this has resulted in huge numbers being enrolled at Bakewell and Roseberry Primary Schools. Many of the students are being enrolled from out of these schools catchment areas.

Undoubtably, economics have driven this change. Developers are in a hurry to sell land and construct housing. However it leaves people with limited options for their children.

When families have children being enrolled in schools out of area, their attention and focus is elsewhere. They are not able to contribute to the development of their suburb’s character.

The present policy is leading to our suburban schools, particularly primary schools, becoming larger and larger. Historically, school planning was done with the expectation that schools would grow to a population of 300 to possibly 350. In the schools mentioned, these numbers are being substantially exceeded.

It would be in the interests of community for government and developers to revisit the benefits of making schools one of the first facilities constructed in new residential subdivisions. Leaving schools until the absolute last socially and culturally deprives those living in our newest suburbs.

DEMENTIA:

A MULTIFACED CURSE,
AN INTELLECTUAL AND COGNITIVE DESRROYER,
A PARASITE OF THE BRAIN.

• Dementia washes waves of hesitation that break over the top of confidence.
• Dementia turns a tranquil conscience into a troubled mind.
• Dementia destroys confidence and assurance, substituting doubt and hesitation.

Most children – in fact all children – are well and truly down the miles of Adulthood Road

Their hearts entwine in love so pure,

Rock solid, their love will endure,

From downers, to heady times so high,

Now, always, until they die.

The Lodge is now a nest of love,

O’seen by olive bearing dove,

Peace within, each day serene,

The Lady of the Lodge his Queen.

Everlasting times they’ll share 

Toto will be their Humphrey Bear,

One and one and one make three

Albo, Toto and Jodie.

Thank you, Nigella Lawson, for imbuing within me a capacity to appreciate simple foods.

THE McGRATH FOUNDATION DAY RAISING MONEY FOR CANCER TREATMENT. THIS IS THE 18TH YEAR THE PINK TEST HAS BEEN PART OF THIS FIXTURE.

Anthony Albanese.

One of the biggest drawbacks to education in Australia and one of the biggest challenges faced by schools has to do with teacher training. In a recent column in ‘The Weekend Australian’ (25&26/2) education writer Natasha Bita wrote that universities must learn to lift the quality of teacher training. She wrote that low expectations for teacher training were established decades ago. She was alluding to training of the 1960’s and 1970’s being replaced by degree courses at universities, which concentrated on the degree rather than content instilling teaching methods and teacher readiness for the school classroom.

Bita indicated that  “teacher training is set for a shake up as the federal government prepares to weed out students with poor literacy and lure top ranked school leavers … into classroom teaching.”  

After reading Bita’s column I recalled advice offered Year 11 students at my son’s school toward the end of 1988. Officers from the (then) Commonwealth Department of Education were visiting to advise students on how much application and effort Year 12 would require in order to satisfy tertiary entrance requirements.

The group talked metaphorically, creating an ‘expectational ladder’ for students to contemplate. Top rung students with exceptional TER scores could consider dentistry and medicine. The advisers talked of ‘down the ladder’ scores in the 80 and 70 percentile range. A score of 60 was described as an absolute cut-off, allowing students to consider basic accountancy.

A group member then added, “but if you get less than a score of 60, there is always teaching!”.

This advocacy foisted on Australia far too many graduate teachers who were mediocre at best. The contributions  of good teachers have been diluted by the teaching efforts of mediocre colleagues. Sadly, far too many students have suffered at the hands of inept teachers.  

I am really hoping that universities accept the advice on lifting and strengthening teacher training contained in the review reported upon by Bita.  Heaven knows this cannot happen soon enough.

.With the imposition of an increasing number of barriers to free speech, fewer and fewer people have the confidence to comment freely on issues. Cartoonists have been an exception to this rule. They defy the odds by region, state, country and the world for plying their trade and calling those out who act wrongfully or make shortsighted and crass decisions. 

Good cartoonists honestly and unswervingly highlight the pros and cons of issues. While they may invoke people and personalities into cartoons, they do this to magnify matters about which we should be concerned.

All cartoonists have specific drawing styles, which add to their stamp of communication by caricature. A key ingredient of cartooning is conveying a message so the reader is not left wondering what the cartoon is really about. The cartoonist’s style and relevance make his or her messages meaningful. They take on contentious matters and stimulate debate on issues.

Any law or its interpretation that would stifle the free expression of cartoonists would be a retrograde step. Cartoonists’ freedom to express deep-seated community opinions must be preserved. That right should be as sacrosanct as parliamentary privilege.

But if restriction laws were to be introduced, I am sure cartoonists would defy them and continue their trade of offering us all deep-seated awareness and understanding.

Education has become a ‘too much froth and not enough substance’ plaything. Tinkering excesses by researchers and educators provide novel approaches to learning that are often trite and meaningless.

They then try to fix problems with creative approaches that make matters worse, not better. They can’t leave well alone. 

Get back to what education should be -teaching and learning. For decades, too much ‘froth and bubble’ has been inserted into a rubbery, hopelessly focused curriculum that is now a total mess. 

An agenda that promotes fanciful notions over substance has distorted education’s prime function. Structures and organisations that too often focus on ‘providers’ rather than the intended recipients—children and 

students—have subverted the function of education. 

For the last 30 years, education has become a platform promoting educational gurus, often at the expense of students who become guinea pigs sacrificed at the altar of poorly researched innovations.

Stop tinkering and get back to providing decent, worthwhile education.

I read recently that one should never hold a grudge. This is excellent advice, but for me, there are two exceptions. They were, or are, all politicians who thwarted the Marshall Perron Right to Die Legislation passed by the NT Assembly in 1996.

One of them, Kevin Andrews, has passed away. He was the mover of the private members’ bill, which was passed in the Federal Par”0liament to rescind and void the Marshall Perron legislation.

The second unforgivable is the then Prime Minister John Howard who persuaded the recission bill through the agency of the Andrew’s bill, overruling the NT because we were only a territory.

Fast forward three decades, and appreciate the dreadful situation in which these two ‘visionaries’ have landed us—still no VAD in the NT.

For me, they can never be forgiven

It is stunning beyond belief that Attorney-General Boothby can calmly declare that the introduction of VAD Legislation (Sunday Territorian Jan.3), already delayed by lengthy dual inquiries, will be further delayed until at least mid-year. 

The CLP Government is treating this significant issue, important to many Territorians, as a life-defining decision in a casual, almost cavalier fashion. 

“We will get to it – sometime” is just not a good answer. This delay is made worse by the fact that it is 29 years since the Perron Legislation was federally rescinded.

As the CLP Chief Minister said back then, “the right  to die will eventually come to all states and territories” (Paraphrased).

The one and only true guide and encouraging yet persuasive leader who shares his panoramic vista with all who look and listen –

The Hon. Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese.

Anthony Albanese.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump

Don’t drive to work in Cas no more workers,

Walk to work instead folk,

Save rubber on your tyres friend,

Keep hard-earned in you wallet,

By walking into town.

Populate or perish

Fridge and pantry clean outs never go to waste when birds are allowed to join the food chain as consumers.

• Bondi Royal Conmission is an ABSOLUTE MUST. Keep pressure on.

• Clear speech, eye contact are no longer conversational keys.

• Intergenerational trauma sharper for each new generation.

• So many aspects of NT health care are broken down completely.

• 26/1/2026   – Australia or Invasion Day? The former for me!

Be good

Sin not

Always obey every authority and accept all suggestions.

Respect organised religion

Obey every government edict with subservient compliance.

Learn to think ‘red carpet’ for all very important people.

Dementia is a merciless scourge sowing weeds in the brain.

Dementia clouds once clear minds with kaleidoscopic confusion.

 Dementia strangles laughter, sucks oxygen from merriment.

Dementia is akin to brain cancer. But is not curable.

Dementia – one of Revelation’s seven last incurable plagues?

A colleague of mine, Janice Low, has published this sad but realistic description of the diminishment that comes from this savage disease that kills the brain, on Facebook.

It is sad, poignant and true.

I know. My wife has dementia.

Thank you Nigella Lawson for building my culinary confidence.

Anthony Albanese and Donald Trump.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump.

Donald Trump on his 80th birthday.

Donald Trump.

Donald Trump.

Australia has been quite pedestrian in bowling England out on day two for 384.

Joe Root England’s best with 160 runs.

2026

2025

To be continued

DONALD TRUMP

THE ROYAL COMMISSION MUST HAPPEN, AND OUR PRIME MINISTER MUST FACE UP TO ALL HE AND HIS CABINET HAVE DONE WRONG ON THE ISSUE OF ALLOWING ANTISEMETISM TO BE FOSTERED.

AS ALBANESE SAID, “HATE STARTS WITH SPEECH, AND HE LET IT ALL HAPPEN.

MAKE NO BONES ABOUT IT! HE OWNES WHAT HAPPENED AT BONDI.

A charity in its 18th year I always support.

Having transformed the environment with their expansion and commitment, age is starting to erode the environment and physicality of this toadstool town.

Organisations, similarly, transform ideologies and thinking before they start to fade in the face of a restless public and society looking for new, different, and exciting ideas.

Spreading water as it fell. Leanyer School’s lawn got a good soaking.

Donald Trump.

Donald Trump.

He will be a very busy man for the remainder of his four-year term.

Age creeps up upon us all and engulfes us before our time. Birth, childhood, youth and adulthood are are consumed within its voracious jaws. We are sucked dry as an insect caught in a Venus flytray or victim to the brain-draining voracity of a Preying Mantis and left exposed to rot on the edge of the receding tide of life.

That England comes out of the fifth cricket test in Sydney with its second win in the series. With only three wickets down and the score north of 200, the English team had Australian bowlers looking quite pedestrian.

Donald Trump.

If Venezuela is anything to go by –

Donald Trump.

The community establishes. It’s organisation brainstorms and establishes societal norms.

A colony, is born. An organisation is formed.

And continue until time is given back to the clock.

And continue

The fireworks continue to a harbourside audience of a million people.

The fireworks begin

On the march to midnight./

Once

But not

Now I am

Old, weary and a

Carer for the one who

Is the love of my life

The lady who did me the honour

Of becoming my wife all the way back

57 years ago on January 22nd 1969 to make

Me the happiest man in the state of Western Australia.

Years

Have past

And my love

Has blossomed and grown

Although I am old and

Now fill a new and uncharted

Role in life I will be there

For her as she has always been for

Me our children and grandchildren bit there is little

Time to play the light-hearted and frivolous role of old.

As she has lived for me

I live my life for her.

Back page of the paper

Below is the front page of the paper.

Move the back page to the rear of the front page to see the whole sequenvce. I suggest ‘cut and paste’.

Donald Trump.

May every day bring blessings and success as we surmount challenges and turn them into celebrations.

One day,m indeed, one step at a time.

From brilliance to fade out

All seeing, all hearing, all knowing

DONALD TRUMP

The ‘angle of incidence’ equals the ‘angle of reflection’ unless you’ve are an Archer Fish?

A cake of soap is now called a ‘sensitive skin cream bar’?

Donald Trump.

Donald Trump.

Donald Trump.

Donald Trump.

I hope the year will be one of positivity, fulfilment, blessing and joy.

May challenges be surmounted and bring celebration in their mastery.

May blessings be inclusive of family, work and recreation.

Sitting on the big hill behind our farmhouse and looking down of the panoramic landscape when I was a little boy on our farm in the mid 1950’s – and wondering in my childish way what might lay ahead.

At the age of 79, it seems a distant memory to the time of my looking forward.

Thank you Nigella Lawson for encouraging me to explore the recesses of my mind as I seek to embrace the promises of boundless culinary possibilities.

• Once there was Eden. Now Earth is like a dried up cactus.

• Dare I hope for a better more together Australia in 2026?

• Now back to arson in Melbourne. More talkfest – what else?

• 100 over games will soon outlast an Aust/Eng cricket test.

• Dementia – one of Revelation’s seven last incurable plagues?
• 20

Where to from here I wonder.

The areas of conflict in the world are ever widening.

Peace and prosperity are in ever-shortening supply.

Synergy is dying.

Individualism is growing.

Care for others is lessening.

Poverty is engulfing a world that is evermore populated especially in the third world.

Will 2026 be a resurrection year?

LEADERS HAVE AMBITION. SUBJECTS AND SUBORDINATES ARE JUST COLLATERAL

1922 Creation of the USSR is formally proclaimed in Moscow at the Bolshoi Theatre, organized as a union (U) of the Russian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian and Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist Republics (SSR)

PUTIN DID NOT LIKE THE DISMANTLING OF WHAT WAS. HE WANTS IT BACK AGAIN – BUT BIGGER – AND UKRAINE IS JUST THE START!

This is it:

Prepared by POH who is forever inspired in his creations and variations by Nigella Lawson.

Thank you Nigella Lawson for your mentorship

I  saw a great picture of green ants industriously constructing a nest in a picture belonging to an article in ‘The Conversation’ yesterday. The picture reminded me of the fact that this species, once prolific around Darwin’s suburbs, has all but gone. They were excellent fertilisers of plants. Their nest were visible in many trees in Darwin’s suburbs.  Now you have to go bush to find them nd they are becoming scarcer and scarcer. I haven’t seen green ants in trees in yards, in trees along roadsides and in any other place where they were once so prolific for at least five years. Green ants are being harvested to go into Green Ant Gin, exotic cheeses and other foods.  Green ants are fodder for this industry that is drawing accolades because of its niche market appeal.  People go out, knock nest out of trees, gather up the nest and ants into bags and take them away for processing. Hunnbdreds and thousands of any colonies are being decimated for the sake of human taste buds. But unless there is a breeding and replacement program put in place, the food and beverage industry they support, may well decimate this species of insect. And that will be the end of an industry more intent on consuming rather than replacing its primary source of ingredient.

Playing with warships

• There is a possibility and 50% probability that Russian warships are circling Taiwan to:
• Let off fireworks to celebrate the New Year in a way that embraces the Island.
• Execute a fugurative maypole dance. 
• Pretend Taiwan is a castle in the middle of a moat.
• To pretend that they are playing ring-a-rosy.
• To enable the development of a close-up and personal relationship to develop between members of the Chinese navy and the coastal dwellers of Taiwan.

I often wonder about these past students and have recently made contact with people connected with Warburton these days.

There once was a farmer named Bill,

He ate and drank his stomach to fill,

He would heap loads on his plate,

His endless hunger to satiate,

Ever filling the shop owner’s till.

My head.

That is where it all begins

That is from where it all happens.

From genuine human contact to artificially generated messages.

From genuine human owned research papers to those berated with and by artifical intelligence.

From a smile and a wave to looking the other way when passing people in the street.

From happy workplace atmosphere to strained, stifled and humourless environmentd

Question to AI

Do politicans in parliament have the characteristics or behaviours of chooks in a chook yard or fowl house?

Response:

The comparison of politicians in parliament to chickens in a chook yard or fowl house can be quite an interesting metaphor. Here are some characteristics and behaviors that one might draw parallels between:

Characteristics and Behaviors

1. Pecking Order:

• Just like chickens establish a social hierarchy, politicians often engage in power dynamics and pecking orders, where senior members exert influence over junior ones.

1. Crowding and Competition:

• In a chook yard, chickens often compete for food, space, and attention; similarly, politicians may compete for media coverage, votes, and public approval.

1. Gossip and Clucking:

• Chickens often communicate through clucks and sounds. Politicians engage in discussions, gossip, and strategizing, often leading to public debates and speeches that can resemble clucking.

1. Group Behavior:

• Chickens often move in flocks, and politicians may align themselves with parties or groups, often following the collective decision rather than individual thought.

1. Sparring:

• Just as chickens can peck and spar with each other to assert dominance, politicians often engage in debates, criticisms, and conflicts to establish their stance and gain the upper hand.

1. Nesting and Protecting Interests:

• Chickens tend to protect their nests; likewise, politicians often defend their constituencies and vested interests.

1. Instinctual Reactions:

• Chickens may react instinctively to threats or changes in their environment; politicians may exhibit similar responses to public opinion shifts or crises.

Conclusion

While it’s a whimsical analogy, it highlights certain behaviors that can be observed in both settings. However, it is essential to recognize that politicians also possess more complex motivations and responsibilities compared to chickens!

This comparison can serve as a light-hearted way to discuss the dynamics of political behavior and governance.

Very enlightening indeed

While the moon sails across the sky amidst the slightly flamed clouds of sunset.

So much for transparent government

All you need is a tin opener and spoon.

Protesting in ignorance of the facts

It would be good if some of these leading lights who march and protest to remain relevant – or at least prominent – were to go and live in some of the places where they protest for six months. The ‘leadership’ they experience might well change their thinking.

B

How often do we hear from politicians and others that Australia is a peaceful, harmonious, multicultural community where we all live together in oneness and unity – regardless of race, colour and creed.  Maybe once it was batter but in these modern times such statements are absurd and untrue. 

Iran’s sinister plots revealed

Why am I not surprised by these findings?  But congratulations to ASIO and the AFP for the dedication devoted to uncovering this evil against our Jewish Community and indeed Australia.

Dr Forrest, you took it, you reneged on the deal – now give it back!

Good on you, Queensland Government. I am appalled that Dr Forrest would not refund the money, and I wonder how viable he felt green energy to be. He has undoubtedly done a 180-degree 180 on the concept—and at the cost of how many tens of millions of dollars. 40

Our PM. is a man without peer

Anthony Albanese always does the right thing. His empathy, sincerity and integrity in dealing with all global matters are beyond question.

The guidance of Albo

Anthony Albanese is a very wise man. I am old, but if I were just a boy today, I would love to have someone of his care and calibre as my uncle, helping guide me through adult life’s pathways.

Israel and the Houthies of Yemen

Good for Israel. The takedown of hateful and vengeful groups hell bent on exterminating Jews and destroying Israel is an essential undertaking.  The way in which the Israeli Government approaches the horrendous task of terror elimination is an excellent example of consistency, fortitude and diligence. 

The Allan Government

Would it be okay for me to write a letter to Premier Allan from the perspective of an old NT man who has been an observer and student of Australian Governments for many decades?  Significant reverse parallels exist between the fable “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse” and how Victoria’s government is acting.

Carr and Andrews off to the Tiananmen Square

 Bob Carr’s wisdom and Daniel Andrews’s leadership experience will bless, enrich, and significantly enhance this auspicious gathering of world leaders. They will be de facto Australian Representatives, and for this, they deserve some recognition.

Perish the thought

The thought or suggestion that our PM would ever have a go at the RBA over interest levels is preposterous. Our PM accepts accountability – he does not deflect it onto others. He offered others bouquets of appreciation, never brickbats of negative appreciation. He is a hero to 99% of young voters.

Payback from Netanyahu

The responses from PM Netanyahu – not untrue in my opinion – are understandable, given the length of time and the frequency of retorts against Israel that our government has perpetrated. It is no wonder the Australian Jewish Community feels abandoned and alone.

Premier Chrisafulli to charge audience fees

What a load of garbage. Premier Chrisafulli, you have gone down 80% in my estimation. You are supposed to be a leader who is accessible to all. You are not a god, and this move on your part is the height of arrogance.

Child care all regulation and no fun

As a school principal, my first  – and best – experience with children was in 1988/89.  Our school had a general-purpose room. After school, the children gathered in that room for activities with the program leader and one or two other ladies. The program ran like clockwork; there were no worries, limited regulations, and there was lots of homework done, some excursions, physical and sporting activities, and arts and crafts. The program was so good. Come 1990, and the beginning of regulations. From then on, the program entered a different era – as was the case all around Australia. The goodness of childcare has eroded over time and will never again reflect the honest simplicity and the parental trust it once enjoyed.

Denying what happened – Australian Government Trait

Thank you for this insightful and well-researched paper. Can a copy please be sent to Anthony Albanese, Penny Wong, and Tony Burke? The three copies should be sent by registered mail, requiring the recipients to sign on delivery, so the awarenesses offered are not shrugged aside as irrelevant.

Leadership – master and apprentice

This story and its revelations confirm that Donald Trump is really nervous about deeply offending Vladimir Putin. Putin is the master of demonstrating leadership determination, and Trump is still on a learning curve.

• Once there was Eden. Now Earth is like a dried up cactus.

• Dare I hope for a better more together Australia in 2026?

• Now back to arson in Melbourne. More talkfest – what else?

• 100 over games will soon outlast an Aust/Eng cricket test.

• Dementia – one of Revelation’s seven last incurable plagues?

The organiser got cross with me about this.

Could I establish a ‘go-fund-me’ page to help support the travel needs of politican’s family members? Would that be tax-deductible as a donation?

AI RESPONSE

Creating a GoFundMe page for political family members is feasible, but the tax implications can be complex. Here are some points to consider:

Establishing a GoFundMe Page

1. Purpose: Ensure that the campaign clearly states the purpose of the fundraiser (e.g., travel expenses for family members) and adheres to GoFundMe’s guidelines.
2. Transparency: Provide detailed information to potential donors about how funds will be used.

Tax-Deductibility

1. Personal Fundraisers: Donations made to personal campaigns (like a family’s travel needs) are generally not considered tax-deductible for the donor. GoFundMe pages for individuals typically do not qualify as charitable contributions under IRS rules.
2. 501(c)(3) Organizations: If the fundraiser were associated with a registered charity (a non-profit organization), donations could be tax-deductible if the organization is recognized by the IRS.
3. Consult a Tax Professional: It’s advised to consult with a tax professional to understand specific implications and ensure compliance with laws.

Conclusion

While you can set up the campaign, donors likely won’t receive tax deductions for contributions unless the funds are part of a qualified charity. Always check local laws and regulations before proceeding.

It will be hard but I will persevere

• The callous brutality and indifference of Vladimir Putin.
• The awful Jewish massacre inflicted by the perpetrators at Bondi Beach.
• The studied indifference to the Jewish plight by the Australian Government and several state governments.
• The alacrity with which government ministers were keen to rush and defend actions by pro-Palestinian groups.
• The embrace by our older universities of the pro-Palestinian cause, to the point of allowing these groups to camp on campuses and assume control of various campus facilities.
• Looking for every way to excuse and condone hostility toward Jews.
• NO WONDER THE BONDI BEACH MASSACRE HAPPENED.

Thank you as ever Nigella Lawson for seeding my inspiration and dedication about food.

Cricket Shenanigans 

• 100 over games will soon outlast an Aust/Eng cricket test.
• The McGrath Foundation day is day three at the Sydney test. I think it should be brought forward to day one and certainly no later than day two; otherwise, it will be a fizzer!

• The similarity between an Australia/ England test and a small town?  Blink and you’ll miss it! 

England have scythed through the tip order of the Australian batting lineup on day one of the Boxing Day test in Melbourne

6/103 at the moment

I hope everyone has had a great Christmas Day. Including the tens of thousands around Australia who were fed Christmas lunch prepared by volunteers and served in hundreds of venues around our country.

Sadly, destitution is rife in this country and growing more pronounced by the day.

• ALBANESE Recall Parliament – SORT THIS BLOODY MESS! (Bondi massacre)

• From the ‘baccy shop a hero emerged. One who loves Australia.

• Albo, Bowen, Wells et.al. – are all on board the gravy train.

• Dementia is akin to brain cancer. But is not curable.

• Australia a harmonious multicultural country? Not any more!

• Wills turn People into vultures and jackals.

•  Denentia strangles laughter, sucks oxygen from merriment.

• What is said is often not what is thought by the speaker.

• Chris Bowen the Pied Piper leads us to a Land without Power.

• Y/N – Can we do a ‘go-fund-me’ page for Politicans travel?

• Dementia is a merciless scourge sowing weeds in the brain.

• Are the Albanese’s at a luxurious NT wilderness resort?

• Dementia clouds once clear minds with kaleidoscopic confusion.

• I should be able to will VAD, applied if I get dementia.

• Christchurch quicksand feels underfoot in Darwin.

It was Nigella Lawson who turned me on to appreciating food.

Thank you Nigella Lawson for your daily inspiration.

Is a town in Scotland.

I have been to Teeth.

I lost a tooth but not in Teeth.

It was lost from my mouth

In a dentist’s chair.

If I visit Teeth again

It will be with one less tooth

Than I had

When last visiting Teeth.

Many are starting to think that with the ongoing palliating and diminishment of the Coalition, it may be that One Nation is far more representative of ordinary Australians than a bombastic – yet – placatory Labour Government, and an opposition more hell-bent on personal aggrandisement, than providing a synergistic response to policies gradually undoing our country and driving us backward.

“Hatred starts with language”.

Anthony Albanese’s utterance in recent days

Merry Christmas and the best of days to all bloggers. May the festive season bring you blessings and joy.

Political affinity

• There is a possibility, but zero probability, that Vladimir Putin and   Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy will be doing the hootenanny and dancing around the maypole this side of the New Year to celebrate peace between Russia and Ukraine.

Inner Feelings

• There is a possibility and are very strong probability that the outward facade reflecting happiness and joy is often an artificial cover for inner feelings of hopelessness and despair.

• There is a possibility and a very strong probability that the lack of security is eating at the very essence of the Australian Jewish Community.

• There is a possibility but very little probability that the majority of Australians will feel inner happiness and joy during the Christmas and New Year period.

EXCLUSIVE – GEOFF CHAMBERS JANET ALBRECHTSEN

From the front page of The Australian December 24 2025

Anthony Albanese and his senior ministers have been accused of “wilful blindness” in responding to warnings from security chiefs on anti-Semitism and ­extremism, as police, security and intelligence personnel fear they will be made scapegoats by the government.

Multiple security sources have told The Australian that the Albanese government’s “permissive” approach to the scourge of anti-Semitism, lack of urgency in response to extremist threats and failure to adequately resource security and intelligence agencies cannot escape scrutiny following the Bondi Beach terrorist attack.

The decision by the Prime Minister to reject a royal commission and order a review into federal law-enforcement and ­intelligence agencies, led by ­respected former public servant Dennis Richardson, has angered under-pressure security personnel who are concerned the government is “throwing them under the bus” to deflect from its inaction on anti-Semitism.

The Australian can reveal that well before Islamic State-­inspired extremists murdered Jewish-Australians in the nation’s worst terrorist attack, the Albanese government was warned by security chiefs that ­existing anti-vilification and hate speech laws were too weak and that thresholds for prosecution must be lowered.

A senior law enforcement figure – who The Australian has called Morgan D to protect their identity – writes in The Australian: “Government leaders now speak as though the terrorist attack at Bondi Beach came without warning, as if there were no signs, no escalating threats, no atmosphere of danger – as if it emerged from nowhere.

“The truth is unmistakeable: the alarm bells were ringing long ago. The October 9, 2023, protest at the Sydney Opera House, the 300 per cent rise in harassment, threats and assaults against Jewish Australians; the arson and vandalism of Jewish businesses, schools and places of worship; the anti-Semitism on university campuses, the unchecked hate speech, the weekly protest marches calling for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people.

“And the repeated briefings, particularly to Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, from security agencies all pointed to a growing and foreseeable threat.

“There is a legal term for ignoring such warnings: wilful blindness, when someone deliberately avoids knowing the truth so they can later claim ignorance. It is about accountability for choosing not to see what is in front of them.”

Prominent national security figures told The Australian the Albanese government did not have a “real focus on national ­security” and that the security ­architecture and personnel had been degraded since the 2022 election, when Labor came to power.

Mr Albanese on Tuesday ­defended his relationship with law-enforcement and intelligence agencies after being asked about concerns in the national security community that the government was deflecting from its mistakes on anti-Semitism.

He would not confirm whether his government had enacted all recommendations made in Mr Richardson’s exhaustive 2019 review of the legal framework of the national intelligence community.

“I actually sit on the National Security Committee,” Mr Albanese said. “That consists of the leadership of the national ­security community, and we are working in lock-step with the ­national security leadership of this country. We provide every support for them and no one should undermine them.”

The Australian understands the terms of reference for the new Richardson inquiry will make clear that the review is independent and not controlled by the ­Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. Mr Richardson, who is known for his frank advice to governments, is not expected to be required to report to DPMC secretary Steven Kennedy.

The voluminous Richardson review of the legal framework of the national intelligence community, which included classified recommendations, was acknowledged by a Morrison government response in December 2020 but has not been fully implemented by the Albanese government.

Security sources said inadequate resources and the government’s failure to modernise legislation and give more powers to national security agencies in the digital age had heaped stress on federal police and intelligence officers. With security agencies and departments undergoing expensive digital transformations and systems upgrades, security ­insiders said funding was being shifted away from core priorities at a time when the threat environment was rapidly deteriorating and becoming more sophisticated.

Former head of the Office of National Intelligence and Australian Secret Intelligence Service, Nick Warner, last week told The Australian that “scapegoating the intelligence community is a cop out”. Former ASIO director-­general Duncan Lewis and Mr Richardson also called for greater resources for security agencies.

In the article published in The Australian, Morgan D writes that “the police investigation remains in its early stages and will require months of detailed work, in Australia and overseas, to establish the full sequence of events”.

“Only once the investigation is complete will we have the evidence necessary to identify any system or policy failures,” Morgan D writes. “Premature decision-making, in the absence of all relevant facts, risks undermining the integrity and effectiveness of any subsequent reforms.

“An inquiry into the circumstances leading to the Bondi ­attack is essential. It should not be a witch-hunt; if conducted independently, it can help shape ­evidence-based government policy and determine whether agencies are adequately resourced, whether current information-sharing protocols are effective, where operational improvements and capabilities are needed, and determine whether immigration settings are keeping pace with evolving global threat dynamics.”

Citing the core issue as being the “failure to recognise, confront and act decisively against escalating extremist ideology and anti-Semitism”, Morgan D criticises the political crackdown on gun laws and punishment of “law-abiding Australians”.

“This defies logic. It is the policy equivalent of confiscating the knives from the local butcher because someone was stabbed in the next town,” Morgan D writes.

“This issue is not about gun control. It is about leadership, anti-Semitism and confronting radical Islamist extremism – about successive governments and agencies avoiding hard truths, prioritising political optics over national security and failing to properly resource the systems designed to protect Australians.

“Any errors within these ­agencies should be recognised as organisational failures, not individual ones. The people working in these environments are ­dedicated Australians doing their best despite chronic under-­resourcing, underfunding and ­operating in a high-threat landscape where the margin for error is almost non-existent.”

The Albanese government’s move to strengthen anti-vilification and hate-speech laws following the Bondi terror attack came after advice was received from law-enforcement heads about deficiencies in legal thresholds being manipulated by ­extremists. The government was told that action against individuals engaged in anti-Semitism could not be progressed because existing laws did not reach the threshold required by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.

AFP commissioner Krissy Barrett said last week the “challenge has been around some of the thresholds and we certainly welcome the reform around the thresholds, which will allow us to apply the legislation”.

The Australian last week also revealed the Albanese government downgraded a network of “eyes and ears” across immigrant communities designed to identify problems that could lead to Islamist terror attacks. Home Affairs’ community liaison officers were removed from the department’s national security group in late 2022, and have been stripped of their role of reporting on emerging frictions in key diaspora communities since 2018.

ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said on Sunday that if ASIO was found to have made mistakes, “we will own them and we will learn from them”.

“I welcome scrutiny and ­embrace accountability, but some of the recent criticisms of ASIO have been unfounded,” he said. “The review provides an opportunity for us to refute claims such as we failed to pass on relevant intelligence, defunded and deprioritised counter-terrorism, and ‘purged’ our ­experienced counter-terrorism officers. None of these claims are true.”

ANU strategic and defence studies centre professor John Blaxland said he was not convinced the Bondi shooting could have been identified in advance, given the perpetrators were likely to have been conscious of being detected. “What’s happened is the detection thresholds are getting lower and lower – it’s got very, very difficult to detect these kinds of incidents in advance,” Mr Blaxland warned.

Former Defence Department deputy secretary Peter Jennings said the Richardson inquiry appeared “hasty”.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: JACK QUAIL

A shocking way to end the year

Reproduced from the Australian newspaper today December 24 2025

Morgan D*

As a high-ranking law enforcement professional, with decades of frontline experience in Australia and overseas within the Australian Federal Police, I cannot write this under my real name.

Strict secrecy provisions in the AFP Act force officers into anonymity, under threat of harsh punishment.

This is rooted in reputation and institutional protection, not the protection of classified information.

Government leaders now speak as though the terrorist attack at Bondi Beach came without warning, as if there were no signs, no escalating threats, no atmosphere of danger – as if it emerged from nowhere. Security and law enforcement officials repeat that they have the situation under control and are considering appropriate responses, but these assurances come far too late.

The truth is unmistakeable: the alarm bells were ringing long ago.

The October 9, 2023, protest at the Sydney Opera House, the 300 per cent rise in harassment, threats and assaults against Jewish Australians; the arson and vandalism of Jewish businesses, schools and places of worship; the anti-Semitism on university campuses, the unchecked hate speech, the weekly protest marches calling for the destruction of Israel and the Jewish people, and the repeated briefings, particularly to Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, from security agencies all pointed to a growing and foreseeable threat.

There is a legal term for ignoring such warnings: wilful blindness, when someone deliberately avoids knowing the truth so they can later claim ignorance. It is about accountability for choosing not to see what is in front of them.

Can this government credibly claim it did not see this coming? That it required the largest loss of Jewish life since October 7, 2023, to acknowledge rising anti-Semitism and the threat of radical Islamist extremism? Australians are patient, but that patience is wearing thin as law-abiding citizens face consequences while the real dangers remain unaddressed.

The situation echoes the period between 2008 and 2013, when security and law enforcement agencies briefed successive govern­ments on the people-smuggling crisis. With clear evidence and analysis, officials insisted nothing more could be done to stop the boats, even with additional resources, and that only a policy change would be effective. Boats continued to sink. More than 1000 children, women and men drowned.

These deaths were preventable. A reasonable policy shift would have saved lives but inaction cost hundreds of them. Wilful blindness.

What happened at Bondi Beach should never have occurred.

Yet, once again, it appears state and federal policy is shifting the burden on to law-abiding citizens rather than addressing the actions of criminals and terrorists – individuals already known to security and law enforcement agencies.

Meanwhile, shootings continue almost nightly in major cities.

How many incidents involve licensed firearm owners using licensed firearms? The number is, by any reasonable assessment, close to zero. Where is the leadership, honest discussion and action needed to confront illegal firearms in the hands of criminal groups? The police investigation remains in its early stages and will require months of detailed work, in Australia and overseas, to establish the full sequence of events. Only once the investigation is complete will we have the evidence necessary to identify any system or policy failures. Premature decision-making, in the absence of all relevant facts, risks undermining the integrity and effectiveness of any subsequent reforms.

An inquiry into the circumstances leading to the Bondi attack is essential. It should not be a witch-hunt; if conducted independently, it can help shape evidencebased government policy and determine whether agencies are adequately resourced, whether current information-sharing protocols are effective, where operational improvements and capabilities are needed, and determine whether immigration settings are keeping pace with evolving global threat dynamics.

Key questions include: 

B● How individuals known for extremist views were allowed into Australia and the community.

● How they obtained a firearms licence despite security concerns.

● Why watch-listed individuals were permitted to purchase firearms.

● How monitored individuals were still able to carry out the attack.

● How the government can propose firearm reforms when the data held by police and firearms registries systems are inaccurate.

A serious question now arises as to whether state and federal governments have misled the Australian public by selectively shaping communications about anti- Semitism and radical Islam for political purposes.

According to reporting by Sky News, the AFP commissioner stated the Bondi Beach terrorist attack was “not motivated by religion”.

Most Australians will find that assertion difficult to reconcile with the facts, and those with experience in security or law enforcement agencies will likely be particularly surprised given the ideology underpinning such attacks is inherently religious, albeit based on a radical and distorted interpretation.

As a nation, we require a mature and candid discussion about how to address the minority of Muslims who subscribe to radical Islamist ideology, which is in stark contrast to Australia’s own values.

The AFP commissioner’s comments give rise to questions of political interference or preference, given her previous service in counter-terrorism. 

At the centre of this tragedy is the rise of radical Islamist extremism and violent anti-Semitism. Individuals who entered Australia, adopted or already held extremist ideologies and were known to national security agencies were nevertheless able to obtain a firearms licence and purchase weapons while not being citizens and while being monitored. Despite these red flags, they still were able to carry out a horrific attack on innocent Jewish Australians celebrating a religious festival. That is the core issue: the failure to recognise, confront and act decisively against escalating extremist ideology and anti-Semitism.

And the proposed response? Change the gun laws. Punish responsible, law-abiding Australians.

This defies logic. It is the policy equivalent of confiscating the knives from the local butcher because someone was stabbed in the next town.

There isn’t a licensed firearms holder in the country who would be comfortable knowing that individuals with extremist ideology were able to obtain a firearms licence and purchase weapons. Reviewing the regulations and protocols governing the issuing of licences is reasonable. What is not reasonable is the reaction driven by optics rather than evidence by governments to push through legislation without consultation with affected citizens or any stakeholder groups.

The number of licensed firearms in Australia is dubious. Data inconsistencies between police systems and firearms registries are common – a firearm still may appear on a licence in one system even though it has been disposed of and is no longer registered in another.

A single firearm may be recorded several times because of serial numbers being treated as separate entries. To support any meaningful policy or regulatory discussion, we need accurate firearm data.

This issue is not about gun control.

It is about leadership, anti- Semitism and confronting radical Islamist extremism – about successive governments and agencies avoiding hard truths, prioritising political optics over national security and failing to properly resource the systems designed to protect Australians. Any errors within these agencies should be recognised as organisational failures, not individual ones. The people working in these environments are dedicated Australians doing their best despite chronic underresourcing, underfunding and operating in a high-threat landscape where the margin for error is almost non-existent.

The consequences of these failures will fall on law-abiding citizens who have done nothing wrong. It is not fair. It is not democratic.

It is not Australian. It reflects governments scrambling for cover – because when you fail to act in the face of escalating anti- Semitism, radical Islamist extremism and hate speech, this is the outcome.

*This is an assumed name to protect the identity of the author

Bolding mine

Follicular challenge or follicular diminishment

I live in the corner of an increasingly busy T Junction.

Hoons and rev heads broggy around the corner, tearing along at breakneck speed.

Motor bikes are an abomination of noise.

Can I have a set of tyre spikes for Christmas?

Pro-Gaza ghouls’ insult to the victims as they chant ‘globalise the intifada’Anti-Israel protesters have gathered in Sydney and Melbourne chanting ‘globalise the intifada’ just days after the Bondi massacre memorial, prompting government crackdowns on hate speech

Too hot
Too dry
Too windy
Too humid
Too much traffic hooning
Too much bad behaviour at shopping centres.
Too much – much too much – domestic violence.
Too much threatening behaviour on public transport
Too many home invasions
Too much vehicle theft
Too much leniency for criminal behaviour.
Too much diminishment of traditional Australian values.
Too much tinsel and glitter – hollow learning – in schools
Too much superficiality.

Not enough genuine humanity.

I read recently that one should never hold a grudge. This is excellent advice, but for me, there are three exceptions. They were, or are, all politicians who thwarted the Marshall Perron Right to Die Legislation passed by the NT Assembly in 1996.

One of them, Kevin Andrews, has passed away. The second is Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke. They were the mover and seconder of the private members’ bill, which was passed in the Federal Parliament to rescind and void the Marshall Perron legislation.

The third unforgivable is the then Prime Minister John Howard who persuaded the recission bill through the agency of this pair, overruling the NT because we were only a territory.

Fast forward three decades, and appreciate the dreadful situation in which these three ‘visionaries’ have landed us—still no VAD in the NT.

For me, they can never be forgiven

The coming together at Bondi after the terrorist massacre – tonight’s December 21 – will I hope lead to healing.

Sadly, terrorism seems to be here to stay.

Thank you Nigella Lawson for helping me to become so aware and discerning of fine foods.

.

I have been overwhelmed by fatigue all day and inertia and tiredness, ineptitude and the semi-thinking about negative things have burst my motivational balloon.

Just totally overwhelmed hot and feeling dead in body and spirit.

This is something I will have to think about carefully.

Donald Trump

Happiness is peripheral

• There is a possibility and are very strong probability that the outward facade reflecting happiness and joy is often an artificial cover for inner feelings of hopelessness and despair.

• There is a possibility and a very strong probability that the lack of security is eating at the very essence of the Australian Jewish Community.

• There is a possibility but very little probability that the majority of Australians will feel inner happiness and joy during the Christmas and New Year period.

Have a think!

• The Victorian opposition is acting like feral cats.

• “Lasso a column of smoke.”

        Credlin 24/6

• “I wouldn’t trust the coalition to do up its own shoelaces without tripping over.”

Chris Uhlmann on Credlin Sept 8

• “Looks like a boy lost in a lolly shop.”

Michael Danby on Anthony Albanese

• “Rolling hand grenade blowing up her own party on a regular basis.”

        Steven Conroy on the Indian                      and Community

• Anthony Albanese has taken a holiday from history.Greg Sheridan on Credlin 23/9

•  You can’t open an envelope in Victoria without a welcome to country. Peta Credlin 26/11.

Q

Thank you Nigella Lawson for cultivating my intense interest in food.

Tom Piper Braised Steak and Onions.

Tasmanian grown export quality cherries

Outback Backery bread and counter sale delicacies

Karma’s Panda takeaway bacon and egg toasted sandwiches.

Connoisseur brand strawberry ice cream

Life is much changed and a great deal different to the way I imagined it would be.

Some of it okay.

Much of it not.

I live in a disunited, fragmented, kaleidoscopic country where our leaders – federal government politicians – seem so focussed on the Gravy Train that little else counts.

That is the Australia of 2025

Thank you Nigella Lawson for your inspiration.

Is there a message in this picture – from The Ausrralusn News – of Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen?

I think dead people who throughout their lives were good people, are lucky they no longer have to bear witness to the horrors of the world in which we now live.