The Invasive Species Council has expressed serious concern following the detection of multiple new fire ant nests at Oakey, 29 km west of Toowoomba in Queensland.

The euphemisms were flying when Australia's Defence Minister Richard Marles announced last week that an extra $50 billion would be spent on our military over the next decade, and that $72.8 billion of already announced spending would be redirected.

Thanks to years of political inaction, Australia is one of the few countries in the world not to have a New Vehicle Efficiency Standard. The European Union, New Zealand and China have one. Even the United States has a standard, which means new cars in Australia use 20 per cent more fuel and create 20 per cent more pollution than their American counterparts. With the Albanese Government about to introduce legislation to correct this situation, the Coalition is busily dusting off the 'war on utes/the weekend' rhetoric.

The Dunkley by-election is done and dusted, with Advance's fear campaign failing to fire, and Labor's primary vote actually increasing. The swing to the Liberals on preferences came from right wing voters not having anyone crazier to vote for this time, with UAP and One Nation out of the race. Meanwhile another question continues to be raised; which Australian politician was secretly working for a hostile foreign power, and when?

The eyes of Australia turn this week to the electorate of Dunkley in Victoria, historically the site of the Frankston riot and just down the road from where Harold Holt disappeared. Now it's the location of an all important federal by-election.

Parliament returned to Canberra last week to be greeted by the Rally Against Reckless Renewables on the front lawn; a protest against net zero policies, wind turbines, the United Nations, COVID vaccinations, China and chemtrails, amongst other things.

Despite promises of reform when the Albanese Government was elected, Australia’s political donation laws remain unchanged, which is why it took until last week to find out who was donating in the last financial year, via the AEC's Transparency Register.

In what's been a busy week in Australian federal politics, ScoMo finally announced he would be leaving the parliamentary building, just as Albo undid one of his predecessor's signature policies (or land mines) by reworking the Stage 3 tax cuts, creating hysteria among Liberals and the mainstream media, and some relief for those Australians earning less than $200,000 a year.

The Albanese Government is currently considering whether billions of extra taxpayers' dollars should go to prop up the Middle Arm gas hub in the Northern Territory, which will facilitate the fracking of the Beetaloo Basin shale gas reserve, one of the world's great carbon bombs.

Peter Dutton's ongoing quest to bring the worst elements of American politics to Australia reached a new low this week with his social media post urging Woolworths to stop 'peddling woke agendas'. This was in response to the supermarket giant saying it would no longer be selling Australia Day merchandise, along with Kmart and Aldi, due to declining sales.