For those who care about this nation's sovereignty, the issue is whether new nuclear powered submarines would be able to be deployed and operated by the Australian Government without the support and oversight of the US Navy. Would these be "mother may I?" submarines? An Australian Government could conclude that because the American alliance is so important & relationship so strong, that it does not matter that the Australian taxpayer spends many billions of dollars on capabilities that in practical terms cannot be used without US consent.

This story continues, rightly, to resonate in Australia. Almost completely overlooked in Australia is the fact that nuclear powered submarines to be acquired from the US will not be able to be operated or maintained without the supervision of the US Navy.

https://twitter.com/justinskatz/status/1611111798597459970

It is surely remarkable that this abdication of Australian sovereignty was effected by the Morrison government and now, apparently, endorsed and adopted by the Albanese government.

At the heart of the Liberal Party's defeat in the Victorian election on Saturday is the paradox that in this, the most small "l" liberal state in Australia, the Liberal Party has been taken over by the hard right and is therefore at odds with the electorate whose support it seeks This is, in large part, dictated by the right wing angertainment complex, mostly Murdoch, which claims to speak for "the base" overlooking the fact that the "base" of any political party are those that habitually vote for it (dramatically ignored in the last federal election)..

The inquiry into the #SecretMinistries scandal must go beyond Morrison. Understanding, as I do, how PMO, PMC and the GG office are meant to work I remain astonished that there was apparently no pushback to Morrison when he embarked on his bizarre secret accumulation of power. Morrison’s CoS, John Kunkel, had worked for John Howard. He must have known this was a bad move. Equally PMC officials including Stephanie Foster must have known this was utterly without precedent and wrong. What did they do and say. If they did nothing - the system failed.

Watching @InsidersABC - hands wringing about “how do we get to net zero by 2050?” Bottom line is if we don’t get there the planet will be uninhabitable for billions of people. How do we get there? Answer is plain: Engineering and economics NOT ideology and idiocy. Cheapest, cleanest form of energy today is renewables plus storage and is getting cheaper. So transition to clean and cheaper electricity. Couple that with electrification of industry as well as green hydrogen.

Snowy Hydro 2.0 is the key to making renewables reliable. It is opposed by vested interests in the energy sector who know it will reduce volatility and deliver zero emissions and more affordable electricity. Pumped Hydro is the cheapest form of large scale energy storage. It is not new, has been around for more than a century, and is being built around the world. Variable Renewable Energy needs storage. It is the key to a clean energy future.

I see @David_Speers is referring to the National Energy Guarantee as “Malcolm Turnbull’s NEG”. In fact the NEG had the support of the entire Cabinet, including and especially the current PM and Treasurer. It was approved by the Party Room on several occasions. It had the support of the business community and energy sector in a way that no previous energy policy had. However a right wing minority in the Party Room refused to accept the majority position and threatened to cross the floor and defeat their own government.