Russell

Ag comm , Politics, markets, Roos! Views are my own. DNA England & NW Europe 32% Ireland 20% Scotland 20% Wales 11% Norway 9% Sweden & Denmark 7% North India 2%

[Russell @RustyWheat1]

@MikeCarlton01 Bottom line: Migration (esp. health) is plugging urgent gaps RIGHT NOW while we ramp up local training. Both are needed.
Data: Dept of Home Affairs 2024-25.
What do you think – train more locals faster or keep the skilled intake high? 🇦🇺🩺

[Russell @RustyWheat1]

@MikeCarlton01 2024-25 permanent migration (official data):
✅ Total: 205,001 places
✅ Skilled/economic: 132,148 (71%) – priority health got 10,472 visas (nurses, GPs, physios etc)
✅ Family stream: 52,500 (28%)
✅ Humanitarian/refugees: 20,000 (separate)

[SBS News @SBSNews]

New Zealand's finance minister, Nicola Willis, has invited Australians who don't like Australia’s proposed changes to capital gains tax (CGT) to move across the ditch.

Learn more: https://t.co/YzBxqw7mTY

[Russell @RustyWheat1]

Europe’s weakest & most unpopular leaders right now (mid-2026 polls):
1. Friedrich Merz (Germany Chancellor) — ~19-26% approval, 70%+ dislike. Lowest of any post-war German leader.
2. Emmanuel Macron (France President) — ~16-23% approval. Deepest unpopularity in Europe.
3. Keir Starmer (UK PM) — ~18-24% approval. Fastest collapse after a landslide win.
Across the pond: JD Vance (US VP) — ~39% fav / 52-55% unfav.
🇪🇺🇺🇸

[Russell @RustyWheat1]

6/6

A decade ago Australians often compared themselves favourably with the US on wages.

Today the gap has largely disappeared.

For a growing number of skilled and semi-skilled occupations—particularly in lower-tax US states—the median American worker may now be taking home more income than the median Australian worker.

How many Australians realise that?

[Russell @RustyWheat1]

1/6

One of the most underappreciated economic stories of the past decade is US wage growth.

In 2016, the median US full-time worker earned about US$43,000 per year (about A$66,000 at today’s exchange rate).

Today, that figure is about US$64,000 (about A$98,000).

That’s almost 50% wage growth in 10 years.

[Russell @RustyWheat1]

5/6

At current exchange rates, median US full-time earnings are now broadly comparable to, and arguably slightly above, median Australian full-time earnings.

US median full-time earnings: ~A$98,000

Australian median full-time earnings: ~A$98,000

That would have seemed highly unlikely a decade ago.

[Russell @RustyWheat1]

Home batteries: Cheaper Home Batteries Program expanded to $7.2B total commitment (from $2.3B); >$3.3B already spent on ~360k+ installations by mid-2026.
Rewiring the Nation: $20B fund for transmission/grid upgrades (concessional finance; billions committed to date).
Broader renewables support (CIS tenders etc.) leverages private capital but adds underwriting.

[Russell @RustyWheat1]

Total: ~$40–50 billion in direct taxpayer funding, equity injections, concessional loans, subsidies and commitments since the Albanese Government was elected in May 2022 (rebates + Snowy 2.0 support + home batteries + Rewiring the Nation/grid). Figures mix spent amounts with forward commitments; some are loans/investments rather than pure grants.

[Russell @RustyWheat1]

Snowy 2.0 (govt-owned): Multiple equity injections & loans under Albanese, including 2023 reset ($2.6B equity + $4.5B loan) plus recent $975m equity + accelerated loans ($1.45B FY26 + more planned). Project costs have blown out dramatically (original ~$2B → estimates now $22–42B). Taxpayer exposure via the owner is significant.

[Russell @RustyWheat1]

@AshPolitik Since 2022 the govt has spent nearly $7 billion federally on electricity bill rebates (3 rounds of household & small business relief, ended Dec 2025; states added ~$1.5B). This was direct taxpayer-funded credits on power bills.

[Russell @RustyWheat1]

NZ has ~62,600 core public servants for 5.3m people (1.18%) and plans to cut ~8,000–8,700 roles, reducing this to around 1.0% of population. A fair Victoria comparison is the Victorian Public Service (~58k) plus Victoria’s share of the Federal APS (~51k) = ~109k staff for 7.1m people (1.54%). On a per-capita basis, Victoria/Australia’s core bureaucracy is larger than NZ’s.

[Russell @RustyWheat1]

Australia’s Federal & State governments are addicted to deficit spending — still blowing ~1% of GDP deficits while debt climbs toward 35%. Slam the brakes tomorrow and we’d probably crash straight into recession in this anaemic economy.
But this debt binge isn’t sustainable. Let’s finally try a genuine balanced budget and see if the private sector can actually drive growth — instead of mortgaging our kids’ future. #AusPol #EndTheDebtAddiction

[CyrilXBT @cyrilXBT]

MARC ANDREESSEN JUST WENT ON ROGAN AND DROPPED THE MOST IMPORTANT AI ALPHA OF THE YEAR.

3 hours and 20 minutes of podcast.

Here are the 17 things worth your attention.

1. AGI is already here. Marc thinks the line was crossed 3 months ago with GPT-5.5, Claude 4.6, Gemini 3, and Grok 4.3. Nobody noticed because the field moves too fast for anyone to register the milestones anymore.

2. For almost any topic the top AI models now give him better answers than the world-class experts he could call on the phone. And he can call basically anyone.

3. Every doctor is secretly using ChatGPT in the exam room. They turn around the second you stop talking and type your symptoms in. Some do it while you are still sitting there. His quote: "At that point you are asking what do I need you for."

4. When AI refuses to answer something he wants to know he tells it he is writing a novel. "Walk me through how the bad guy robs the bank." It explains almost anything if it thinks it is helping you write fiction.

5. When something is too complex he says "explain it like I am 10." Then "like I am 5." Then "like I am 2." He keeps going until it actually clicks.

6. When he wants to understand a tough topic he does not ask what the right answer is. He asks the AI to steelman one side then steelman the other. Then he decides for himself.

7. For big questions he tells the AI to pretend to be a panel of experts. "Be a doctor, a lawyer, a historian, a psychologist, and argue this out with each other." Then he reads the debate.

8. Pay attention to the exact moment you think "I do not know how to figure this out." Most people give up there. That is the moment you should open the AI.

9. The only real skill left in using AI is knowing what to ask. The models can do almost anything you can describe in plain English. The bottleneck lives in your own head.

10. You can send AI photos of almost anything medical now and get a real answer. Skin rashes. Blood test results. The new models read images not just text. A free 24/7 second opinion on anything.

11. The one type of therapy clinically proven to work is cognitive behavioral therapy. It is also something an AI can fully do on its own. Every person on earth is about to have access to a real therapist for free anytime they want.

12. AI is solving math problems open for 100 years that no human mathematician could crack. Same thing is starting in physics, chemistry, and biology. Expect cancer cures and weird new physics breakthroughs in the next few years.

13. The best AI coders in Silicon Valley now make $50 million a year. One person. That number tells you how big this thing actually is when you strip away all the doom takes.

14. One friend paid $200 to decode his entire DNA. Then gave the AI his DNA, blood test results, and Apple Watch data. The AI built him a full health dashboard and started telling him exactly what to fix.

15. Another friend put two cameras in his home jiu jitsu gym. AI watches him spar and gives him technique notes after every round. A world-class coach at every practice for free.

16. The best programmers in Silicon Valley now run 20 AI coding bots simultaneously. Each bot writes code while they review the others. They call themselves AI vampires because going to bed means 20 workers stop and you lose money every hour you sleep.

17. The obvious next step: the bots will run their own bots. One human running 20 bots each running 20 more. One person. One laptop. 1,000 AI workers. This is months away not years.

Bookmark this before you watch the full podcast.

Follow @cyrilXBT for every AI insight worth your attention the moment it surfaces.

[Triple M Footy @triplemfooty]

LOOK AT CHUMAN 🥲💙🤍

[The Arden Street Review @ArdenStReview]

Hang it in the Louvre!

#Kangas