Tom Marshall-Davis

PhD candidate at Monash University, researching leadership, ideology and language in the Liberal Party and Australian political culture. Writes junk.

[Tom Marshall-Davis @TMarshallDavis]

@NonwayneWayne In fairness, it's much harder for a university VC to accidentally kill hundreds of people

[Tom Marshall-Davis @TMarshallDavis]

Flag Day only became a holiday in 1996 because the Howard Government thought Paul Keating was being too mean to the Blue. So, y'know, stupid reasons. Flag Day's demented, I love it.

[Tom Marshall-Davis @TMarshallDavis]

It's also Merchant Navy Day, which makes September 3rd the day Australians celebrate two-thirds of the one-national-flag-that-unites-us-alls

[Sussan Ley @sussanley]

Today on Australian National Flag Day, we honour the flag that unites us.

It is the symbol of our nation’s history, our freedoms, and the values we share.

We fly it with pride, respect, and gratitude for all who have served under it.

[Tom Marshall-Davis @TMarshallDavis]

Oh, also the Navy adopted its own flag in 1967, the RAAF in 1982, and the ADF in 2000, so there's *at most* like a 47-year window for those diggers. And we're not even counting state flags, or unofficial flags (like Eureka)

[Tom Marshall-Davis @TMarshallDavis]

@NonwayneWayne If nothing else, it's good advice as to where the AI boys oughta stick it

[Tom Marshall-Davis @TMarshallDavis]

Also, there's a basic contradiction between the idea that the migration program is "out of control" and the supposition that Labor is encouraging it (i.e., that it's part of Labor's programme of control). And, yeah, that's nitpicking; but also - screw these people, they're clowns

[Tom Marshall-Davis @TMarshallDavis]

Yeah, this is actually just racist. The substance of these claims is demonstrably untrue; they rely on the idea that the ABC and ABS are "censoring" something because the statistics disprove their bullshit.

(This message was brought to you by Big Chardonnay)

[Institute of Public Affairs @TheIPA]

The federal government’s out-of-control migration program is making it harder for Australians to get ahead.

Now it seems it is using the ABC and the Australian Bureau of Statistics to censor the debate.

Daniel Wild discusses with Rita Panahi: https://t.co/IyxSkZxc0K

[Tom Marshall-Davis @TMarshallDavis]

I'd suggest that tutorials (at least, emails to your tutors) are the place to ask stupid questions. Universities (to some extent) aren't as snobby as they were in, like, the 30s; unless they're deranged, tutors'll appreciate that you want to learn something, and help you out

[The Conversation - Australia + New Zealand @ConversationEDU]

Research shows nearly half of surveyed Australian university students use generative artificial intelligence for feedback. @MonashUni https://t.co/b2Clc3ABeW

[Tom Marshall-Davis @TMarshallDavis]

It'll be interesting how long they stick with this quite narrowly (sometimes hysterically) dry line, given the break it represents from what (by comparison) may as well have been welfare chauvinism under Morrison

[Tom Marshall-Davis @TMarshallDavis]

I'm not sure what "rules" O'Brien actually IS calling for. He doesn't seem to have seriously engaged in the roundtable - his only contribution ("contribution") was to warn of scary future Labor debt - and, so far as I know, the Charter of Budget Honesty Act's still in effect.

[Ted O'Brien @tedobrienmp]

Extraordinary that in announcing areas of consensus, Chalmers didn’t mention fiscal rules once.

I’m not the only one calling for rules. He’s also rejecting the advice of Ken Henry, Philip Lowe, and countless other budget experts—in favour of the unions!—to just keep on spending.

[Tom Marshall-Davis @TMarshallDavis]

(Just for reference - Henry pointed to Swan's self-imposed fiscal discipline rules, and Lowe pointed out that spending can contribute to inflation(!!!). Chalmers didn't "reject" any of this advice - he just seems not to have said the exact "fiscal rules" thing O'Brien's invented)

[Tom Marshall-Davis @TMarshallDavis]

It ends up being a contentless antediluvian golden age thing. There ARE economic milestones (like AWAs and WorkChoices, deregulations, Doha, or annual incremental tax cuts), but they can't talk about them, because they're either boring or embarrassing.

[Tom Marshall-Davis @TMarshallDavis]

One of the awkward things the Australian right struggles with is that Liberals have no economic highlights. Howard had "stability" and, I guess, the Asian financial crisis, but there isn't a *story* there - the only "stories" are Keynesian or Fraserite - Labor got the good bits.

[Institute of Public Affairs @TheIPA]

Australia used to have the most resilient economy in the world – but not today.

Red tape, taxes and net zero is destroying hope for productivity growth.

The federal government’s secret meetings will not solve this crisis.

Saxon Davidson on the Real Productivity Roundtable.

[Tom Marshall-Davis @TMarshallDavis]

@NonwayneWayne I'm convinced at this point that the only reason AI bros obsess over Plato and Nietzsche and Orwell (instead of, like, Hobbes and Shakespeare and the King James) is that translations and high-school CliffsNotes for 1984 are easier to read.

[Tom Marshall-Davis @TMarshallDavis]

When the Libs started melting and we all rallied round the "small-l"'s in the name of objective reality and stuff, people kinda forgot that they *still* believe all the ugly Darwinian nonsense they believed then; them also believing in science doesn't make *that* stuff *better*

[Sally McManus @sallymcmanus]

When Tim Wilson says he wants to “simplify” workers rights he means he wants to take them away @InsidersABC @David_Speers

[Tom Marshall-Davis @TMarshallDavis]

I'm mainly still on X because I study the right and this is where the "mainstream" crazy people are (the CRAZY crazy people are - I think - still on Telegram), but it also means that my feed is absolutely clogged with raw sewage like this.

[Doug Cameron @DougCameron51]

So members of the Marles faction are reported in the AFR to be pushing back against recognition of Palestine and claiming some on the Right have “gone soft”. Unbelievable claptrap. Get out of the Trump/Netanyahu fan club and stand up for morality, decency and peace.

[Tom Marshall-Davis @TMarshallDavis]

At least in NSW, SFF was always the preferred choice of disaffected, nominally rural, nominally conservative voters. Surprised that the SFF did as well as they did in this election, but, after seeing the preference flows, I'm just as surprised that everyone else is so surprised.

[casey briggs @CaseyBriggs]

Rebekah Pentland's votes (not all of them were 1 Pentland votes) flowed to:

Razay (33%)
SFF (19.8%)
ALP (17.6%)
LIB (10.9%)

18.8% exhausted #politas