“Were they promises?” “They were statements.” “Promises?” “Statements.” “Is there a difference?”
The Prime Minister explains housing policy, the Australian dream, and why he’ll be at the Mid-Winter Ball.
Category: Economics, Australian Politics, Corporate Power, Economic Policy, Neoliberalism, Social Justice
Uninvestable, A Clarke and Dawe sketch
This sketch is written in the tradition of John Clarke and Bryan Dawe, whose work set the standard for Australian political satire. It is offered as homage, not impersonation. John Clarke died in April 2017. Bryan Dawe continues to work as a writer and performer. … Continue reading Uninvestable, A Clarke and Dawe sketch
THE RECEIPT: the tab
The receipt from the Ararat servo gets longer. Palantir Technologies is watching every movement of every Coles shelf-stacker. The AI bubble is burning gas to produce, so far, almost nothing of measurable value. And thirty-five thousand Victorian teachers walked off the job to tell us what this is all costing. Urban Wronski tallies the full tab.
THE RECEIPT Part One: Where Does the Money Go?
At the Ararat servo, a bloke stares at a $255 diesel receipt and says nothing. That silence is the sound of geopolitics arriving in the western districts. Jim Chalmers is in Washington being told to tighten his belt while Iran runs a tollbooth on the world’s oil supply and Woodside counts its war dividend. Urban Wronski follows the money.
The Corporate Insiders on the RBA Board and How to Break Their Grip
The RBA isn’t just failing Australians—it’s actively transferring wealth upward. A searing look at the corporate elites running the bank, the myths they peddle, and how to dismantle their power.
The Sledgehammer and the Scalpel: Why the RBA is Punishing You for Corporate Greed
As the RBA raises interest rates, the real culprit of inflation—corporate greed—goes unchecked. A searing analysis of how Australia’s economic policies punish workers while protecting profits.
The Hollow Crown: Australia’s Liberal Party and the Contest for a World That No Longer Exists
The Liberal Party’s leadership circus isn’t just about who wins—it’s about whether Australia can afford the show at all. From Angus Taylor’s Cayman-stained ledgers to Andrew Hastie’s heretical protectionism, the contest for the Liberal crown reveals a party—and a country—grappling with a world order in freefall. Part 1 of a 2-part analysis.
The Blue Bacillus: How the Liberal Party’s Corporate DNA Became a Fatal Infection
The Coalition’s polling collapse reveals a terminal decline. When corporate DNA meets authoritarian legislation, democracy itself becomes the casualty.
AI: The Emperor’s New Algorithm, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Recognise the Same Old Con
After billions in development, Microsoft quietly slashed expectations for Copilot, its AI wonderchild that can’t reliably perform basic tasks. The pattern is grimly familiar: massive investment chasing promised returns that never appear, followed by market correction when reality intrudes. But this bubble comes with a uniquely toxic twist—AI’s environmental cost accelerates the very climate crisis it claims it will solve.
Data centers now gulp enough water annually to supply hundreds of families while generating marketing copy riddled with errors. Training GPT-3 alone evaporated 700,000 liters of clean freshwater. Meanwhile, Australia’s Albanese government subsidizes data center expansion while manufacturing collapses, emissions targets slip through accounting tricks, and workers face automation without security.
The millenarian faith in AI’s salvation delays the unglamorous work we actually need: rapid decarbonization, public investment in resilience, and democratic reform to counter corporate capture. Time to stop waiting for miracles.
The Blind Spot That Reveals Everything
We excised Brenton Tarrant from our consciousness because examining him would require examining the political culture that helped produce him. Meanwhile, elite networks use “combating antisemitism” to advance right-wing agendas funded by the same corporate interests that profit from inequality. Part 2 reveals how institutional power operates through selective attention to religious violence.
Urban Wronski Writes 