Who would have thought that there could be taste sensory capacity in your lungs of all places? What next: your feet!
  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101024144132.htm

“Taste receptors in the lungs? Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore have discovered that bitter taste receptors are not just located in the mouth but also in human lungs. What they learned about the role of the receptors could revolutionize the treatment of asthma and other obstructive lung diseases. "The detection of functioning taste receptors on smooth muscle of the bronchus in the lungs was so unexpected that we were at first quite skeptical ourselves," says the study's senior author, Stephen B. Liggett, M.D., professor of medicine and physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and director of its Cardiopulmonary Genomics Program. Dr. Liggett, a pulmonologist, says his team found the taste receptors by accident, during an earlier, unrelated study of human lung muscle receptors that regulate airway contraction and relaxation. The airways are the pathways that move air in and out of the lungs, one of several critical steps in the process of delivering oxygen to cells throughout the body. In asthma, the smooth muscle airways contract or tighten, impeding the flow of air, causing wheezing and shortness of breath. The taste receptors in the lungs are the same as those on the tongue. The tongue's receptors are clustered in taste buds, which send signals to the brain. The researchers say that in the lung, the taste receptors are not clustered in buds and do not send signals to the brain, yet they respond to substances that have a bitter taste. For the current study, Dr. Liggett's team exposed bitter-tasting compounds to human and mouse airways, individual airway smooth muscle cells, and to mice with asthma. The findings are published online in Nature Medicine. Most plant-based poisons are bitter, so the researchers thought the purpose of the lung's taste receptors was similar to those in the tongue -- to warn against poisons. "I initially thought the bitter-taste receptors in the lungs would prompt a 'fight or flight' response to a noxious inhalant, causing chest tightness and coughing so you would leave the toxic environment, but that's not what we found," says Dr. Liggett.

     The Australian Citizens Party has put out an excellent press release on the Assange trial, and the precedence it is setting in terms of abuse of process and general injustice, that will impact upon all of us in the coming times:

“Assange trial may determine your fate
This media release is an article that was published in the Australian Alert Service on 26 February 2020. Julian Assange’s extradition hearing commenced on 24 February. Following a week of legal argument the proceedings were adjourned and will continue with three weeks of evidence scheduled to begin on 18 May. In the lead-up to the May trial, it’s vital for Australians to demand justice, and that Assange be exonerated and free to return to Australia. We face perilous times should the British Crown Court uphold the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States. A 25 February tweet by Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, makes this clear: “This is not just about Julian Assange. This is a battle over press freedom, the rule of law and the future even of democracy. For democracy cannot co-exist with secrecy. When you deprive the public of their right to know, you deprive them of the tools to control their government!” Assange should be hailed as a hero who has exposed war crimes and systemic corruption. Yet he faces torture and life in jail. If we as a society collectively accept such a miscarriage of justice through our inaction and indifference, we risk going to our deathbeds with a nagging pain that we failed to act when we could. We risk leaving our world to tyrannical leaders and a miserable future for many generations to come. In a 24 February interview on RT’s Going Underground, Melzer explained the media stonewall he experienced last June. “I was unable to place an op-ed demasking the torture of Julian Assange after having visited him and examined him with medical experts. I contacted the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Australian mainstream media, the British mainstream media; it was impossible to place it.”

     Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) stated to Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, “you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you, if you go forward with these awful decisions.” The reference was to decisions about abortion, the sacred cow of liberals and Leftists, standing as the foundation of modern feminism.

Schumer said, “Now, we stand here today because behind me, inside the walls of this court, the Supreme Court is hearing arguments, as you know, for the first major abortion right cases since [Justice] Kavanaugh and [Justice] Gorsuch came to the bench. We know what’s at stake. Over the last three years, women’s reproductive rights have come under attack in a way we haven’t seen in modern history. From Louisiana, to Missouri, to Texas, Republican legislatures are waging a war on women, all women, and they’re taking away fundamental rights. I want to tell you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you, if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

     Carbon-capture-and-storage “(CCS)” tops the list of silly schemes “to reduce man-made global warming”. The idea is to capture carbon dioxide from power stations and cement plants, separate it, compress it, pump it long distances and force it underground, hoping it will never escape. Smart engineers with unlimited money could do all this. But only green zealots would support the sacrifice of billions of dollars and scads of energy to bury this harmless, invisible, life-supporting gas in the hope of appeasing the global warming gods. The quantities of gases that CCS would need to handle are enormous and capital and operating costs will be horrendous. For every tonne of coal burnt in a power station, about 11 tonnes of gases are exhausted – 7.5 tonnes of nitrogen from the air used to burn the coal, plus 2.5 tonnes of CO2 and one tonne of water vapour from the coal combustion process. Normally these beneficial atmospheric gases are released to the atmosphere after filters take out any nasties like soot and noxious fumes. However, CCS also requires energy to produce and fabricate steel and erect gas storages, pumps and pipelines and to drill disposal wells. This will chew up more coal resources and produce yet more carbon dioxide, for zero benefit. But the real problems are at the burial site – how to create secure space for the CO2 gas.

     There is no vacuum occurring naturally anywhere on earth – every bit of space is occupied by solids, liquids or gases. Underground disposal of CO2 requires it to be pumped AGAINST the pressure of whatever fills the pore space of the rock formation now – either natural gases or liquids. These pressures can be substantial, especially after more gas is pumped in. The natural gases in rock formations are commonly air, CO2, CH4 (methane) or rarely, H2S (rotten egg gas). The liquids are commonly salty water, sometimes fresh water or very rarely, liquid hydrocarbons. Pumping out air is costly; pumping natural CO2 out to make room for man-made CO2 is pointless; and releasing rotten egg gas or salty water on the surface would create a real problem, unlike the imaginary threat from CO2. In some cases CCS may require the removal of fresh water to make space for CO2. Producing fresh water on the surface would be seen as a boon by most locals. Naturally, some carbon dioxide buried under pressure will dissolve in groundwater and aerate it, so that the next water driller in the area could get a real bonus – bubbling Perrier Water on tap, worth more than oil. Then there is the dangerous risk of a surface outburst or leakage from a pressurised reservoir of CO2. The atmosphere contains 0.04% CO2 which is beneficial for all life. But a CCS reservoir would contain +90% of this heavier-than-air gas - a lethal, suffocating concentration for nearby animal life if it escaped. Pumping gases underground is only sensible if it brings real benefits such as using waste gases to increase oil recovery from declining oil fields – frack the strata, pump in CO2 and force out oil/gas. To find a place where you could drive out natural hydro-carbons in order to make space to bury CO2 would be like winning the Lottery – a profitable but unlikely event. Normally however, CCS will be futile as the oceans will largely undo whatever man tries to do with CO2 in the atmosphere.

     I came across this article where it is proposed that climate change denial be made a crime. That, I suppose, is just the way things are handled by the elites today, with their multicult fascism. We have seen the same strategy done with race and immigration issues, and now climate change is the next big thing, to push the Big Agenda even further:
  https://en.unesco.org/courier/2019-3/climate-crimes-must-be-brought-justice

“Climate denial has increased the risk of catastrophic global change. Should international criminal law be used against those who promote this dangerous trend? Economic and political leaders can no longer pretend it is business as usual. Whether they actively induce environmental harm or just ignore the existential threat against the survival of the human species, states and corporations must be held accountable for their actions or inaction regarding climate change. A fire has started in the theatre, from which there are no exits. Unchecked, the fire will kill and injure many in the theatre, starting with those in the cheapest seats. Many people can smell the smoke, but some others have not noticed it yet. Some people are trying to warn everyone so that the fire can be contained before it spreads out of control. Another group – sitting mainly in the most expensive seats – is trying to shout loudly that there is no fire, or that it is not serious, or that there is plenty of time left to put it out. This group uses emotive language and insists that the other group is not to be trusted. Many people in the theatre are confused by these conflicting messages or convinced by the fire-deniers. There are enough people in this combined set to significantly slow down the efforts of those listening to the accurate warnings, those who are trying to put out the fire. In this scenario, those shouting “No fire!” ought to be silenced, because there is a fire that requires urgent and immediate action to prevent it from spreading and becoming uncontrollable. But the fire is not being tackled properly because many of the people in the theatre do not know whom to believe. Can we compare those who deny the reality of climate change to the group that occupies the best seats in the theatre? The answer seems obvious: yes.

     Grandma is ill today, probably from journalism over-work, and asked me to put in an article, the next one in the pipeline. Oh, it is on sperm counts, which is of interest, since my hubby had a bit of trouble in that area until giving up the beer and losing weight. Now he is back in fine form. But, a lot of men are struggling in that department, being like dying whales on the beach:
  https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/21/health/poor-diet-kills-sperm-quality-wellness/index.html

“Total sperm count in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand dropped by up to 60% in the 38 years between 1973 and 2011, research found -- an acceleration of a trend that began in the 1940s. More recent studies show the trend is continuing. At the same time, studies show a concurrent decline in testosterone levels -- the hormone needed to build a man's muscle and bone mass and boost his sex drive. Why? No one knows for sure. Debate rages about the role of radiation, air pollution and chemicals in our food, clothes and water. Smoking, alcohol consumption and obesity likely all play a role. So could the lower nutritional quality of the typical Western diet, according to a new study published Friday in JAMA Network Open. "This study is the largest study to date to examine the diet pattern with men's testicular function," said study author Feiby Nassan, a research fellow at Harvard's T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

     I admire the Japanese, not in the cringing way places like American Renaissance does (they are so much smarter than us), but with respect as a highly capable society. Thus, if Japan is onto something, just as if Israel was, it would be foolish not to look and learn. Consider Japan’s present response to the coronavirus pandemic, and yes, it is now universally admitted to be a pandemic now:
  https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2020/02/27/japan-to-close-schools-nationwide-in-bid-to-contain-coronavirus/

“Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo ordered the closure of all elementary, middle and high schools on Thursday until the beginning of the country’s spring holidays in late March in a bid to contain the outbreak of the coronavirus. The measure, which will cost the Japanese economy billions of dollars, will impact 12.8 million students at nearly 35,000 schools nationwide, according to the country’s education ministry. The drastic measure comes amid rapidly growing concern about the spread of the virus across Japan and other parts of Asia, as the number of untraceable cases of the virus continues to rise. Japan now has around 900 cases, including more than 700 from a quarantined cruise ship. At least eight deaths have been confirmed. “Efforts have been made to prevent the spread of infection among children in each region, and these one or two weeks will be an extremely critical period,” Abe told a meeting of key Cabinet ministers on Thursday. “The government attaches the top priority to the health and safety of children, among others.”

     This situation with the coronavirus is very different from the climate change scam, where the political element is clear on the face of it; that is, one can see a globalist anti-Western agenda. Coronavirus is more complex. As the articles which I have assembled below show, the virus continues to spread throughout the world, with a steep rise in cases in South Korea, Japan and Italy. It is no longer, just China’s problem, and the so-called racial realists who thought that there would be no white deaths have been proven wrong.
  https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/fda-announces-plan-speed-coronavirus-testing-south-korea-reports-huge-jump-new-cases
  https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/02/29/coronavirus-in-italy-over-1100-now-infected-29-dead/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=todays_hottest_stories&utm_campaign=20200229
  http://www.occidentaldissent.com/2020/02/27/coronavirus-goes-from-bad-to-worse/
  https://www.zerohedge.com/health/nightmare-londons-worst-case-plan-coronavirus-includes-giant-morgue-hyde-park
  https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/serious-virus-hunter-who-discovered-ebola-discusses-worst-case-scenario-coronavirus

“As the coronavirus becomes the all-consuming news story of the moment, the Financial Times decided to invite an extremely apropos guest for this weekend's "Lunch with the FT". That guest is: Belgian scientist Peter Piot, the "Mick Jagger of Microbes", best known for discovering the Ebola virus. Obviously well-qualified, how does Piot feel about COVID-19? He didn't mince words: "This is serious." "I’m not the scaremongering type," he says. "But I think this is serious in the sense that we can’t afford not to consider it as a serious threat." "It could be that, indeed, it’s going to be over in a few months," he continues, crunching into a tempura-covered sage leaf. "But just take the counterfactual. We say, ‘OK, it’s fine and we don’t do anything.’ I bet that we would already have had far more cases in Singapore, the UK, Germany. Let’s not forget, we are already well over 1,000 deaths. That’s not a detail." The interview took place on Feb. 13, which means that since Piot made these comments, 1,500 more people have died, and serious outbreaks have emerged in Iran, South Korea and Italy. Saudi Arabia has halted pilgrimages to Mecca, and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe has asked all schools in the country to close.”

     This is a surprising piece which goes against a lot of what I thought was established, namely that the carnivore diet of only meat was defective. Humans need anti-oxidants and other nutrients not found in meat, so the all meat diet is as flawed as the all-vegetable diet. But, consider the book by Paul Saladino, The Carnivore Code (2020):
  https://www.amazon.com/Carnivore-Code-Unlocking-Returning-Ancestral-ebook/dp/B084FKQYGQ
  https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/02/23/carnivore-code.aspx?cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1ReadMore&cid=20200223Z1&et_cid=DM466555&et_rid=816276206

“In his book, Saladino states he’s going to bust nutritional dogma, which he does in spades. Saladino, who struggled with asthma and eczema, was actually a vegetarian and then a vegan for a time. It didn’t help. In fact, it made things worse. His health problems didn’t resolve until he went on an exclusive carnivore diet, and he recounts the various twists and turns in his personal journey at the beginning of the interview. After hearing Jordan Peterson talk about the carnivore diet and how it improved his daughter's autoimmune symptoms, Saladino was intrigued enough to look into it. The rest, as they say, is history. “The more I thought about it and dug into it, I started to realize, maybe there's something to this,” he says. “I'm at least going to try it. And so, the first time I tried it, within a few days, my mood changed, and my outlook on life got to be significantly better and more positive. I thought, ‘There's something to this.’ A few weeks later, the eczema had completely resolved and hasn't come back since. I've been eating a carnivore diet for the last year and a half. But there really was this sort of personal quest throughout to find out what the triggering food was, and it was just so striking for me to see the eczema go away when I cut out all plants — and then the added benefit. The mental clarity, the psychological benefits were surprising. That kind of hooked me, and I thought, ‘OK. I need to just pour myself into this and understand this because this is going to help a lot of people, or it potentially could.’"

     What did the Anzacs die for I ask myself, every Anzac Day, when filled with sadness I look at what Australia has become?
  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51581894

“A decision to ban the Aboriginal flag and other forms of recognition from Anzac Day services in Western Australia (WA) has sparked widespread backlash. Each year, solemn ceremonies are held on 25 April in Australia and New Zealand to commemorate veterans and soldiers. But a veterans' organisation said it would no longer allow Aboriginal displays at its services in the state. It added that all content, except the NZ anthem, must be in English. The Returned Service League (RSL) has previously been criticised for ignoring and diminishing the service of Aboriginal soldiers in World War One and other conflicts. The decision follows a move last year where the Ode of Remembrance was read at a ceremony in an Aboriginal language, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported. Critics, among them indigenous and non-indigenous lawmakers, have called the move "offensive" and demanded it be reversed.”

     Being dirt poor, I can relate to my fellow Aussies sinking into the mud with me. Like not being able to pay for dental treatment, and having to contemplate pulling out one’s own teeth with rusty pliers. Don’t even ask about do-it-yourself surgery:
  https://www.sbs.com.au/news/one-in-eight-australian-adults-one-in-six-kids-are-living-in-poverty

“One in eight Australians adults and one in six children are living in poverty, a new report has found. The Australian Council of Social Service and UNSW Sydney joint study found 13.6 per cent of the population - or 3.24 million people - are estimated to be living below the poverty line, after taking account of housing costs. Of those, 774,000 children are living in poverty, the study published on Friday said. The council's chief executive Cassandra Goldie said Australians were locked into poverty by low welfare rates, a lack of jobs and unaffordable housing. She called on the government to raise welfare payments, invest in social housing and boost jobs growth. "Our economy is leaving people behind, with persistently high poverty rates despite decades of uninterrupted economic growth," Dr Goldie said. Researchers warned Australia's poverty rate was worse than most wealthy countries, including New Zealand, Germany and Ireland. In Australia, the poverty line was $457 per week for a single adult, with the poverty line measured as 50 per cent of median income. The average gap between the poverty line and people living in poverty was $282 per week.”

     I think I will die from having to correct text which suddenly goes capitalised because some fool put the caps lock key next to the common “A” letter. Anyone with thick fat fingers will hit the cap key 9 times out of 10. Anyway, after losing $30 on my Load and Go card, losing the receipt, I have a bad case of reflux, caused we are told by excess acid travelling up the food pipe in a marvel of engineering. The acid is said, over time, to erode things away, and bingo, cancer and you are dead. In my case my voice box gets a dose, especially at night, so the concern is cancer of the vocal cords. But, with a bit more research, I found that the issue is complex:
  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hed.23208

“Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), or its variation known as laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR), has been recognized as a potential cause of several laryngeal disorders. Patients with laryngeal cancer have lifestyle risk factors, especially tobacco and alcohol consumption, that play an etiological role in the development of their cancer but also places them at risk for reflux. The question then arises whether there is merely an association or a causal relationship between laryngeal cancer and reflux. However, despite a number of studies, a causal relationship with laryngeal cancer is uncertain. In this article, we address the current literature in a critical manner to evaluate the relationship between reflux and laryngeal cancer. From the review of the literature, we conclude that there is insufficient evidence to support a causal role of reflux in laryngeal cancer, mainly because of the confounding effect of tobacco and alcohol consumption and the inaccuracies in the diagnosis of reflux.”

     The American race realists, such as American Renaissance, against whom I have been critiquing for some time, hold among many things, that Black people have an athletic superiority in various sports, such as sprinting, and perhaps boxing. I note with regard to boxing that the recent fight between Tyson Fury (white) and Deontay Wilder (black), where Fury devastated him, should give them pause:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0pvpiyc4Wc

     This epic battle should raise some doubts about generalisations of racial superiority in sports. I think that here the individual is king/queen and the differences are too great to generalise.

     Have a look at this; an ad showing a Burger King burger going mouldy, supposedly to demonstrate lack of preservatives. Well, my guess is that whatever preservatives one put in a burger, after a few days it will go rotten, let alone 34 days. So, what is the point? It certainly has created the mental image of burgers = mould in my mind, somewhat counter-productive, I think.
  https://10daily.com.au/amp/shows/theproject/news/a200220rpwud/burger-king-launches-its-mouldy-whopper-campaign-20200220

     There is a lot of angst about so-called species loss and the sixth extinction. But, really, short of over-turning the crazy system not much can be done. Or can there? One man started at the grass roots, literally and saved a species in his own backyard:
  https://www.ibelieveinmothernature.com/my-world/this-man-repopulated-a-rare-butterfly-species-in-his-own-backyard/

“The so-called pipevine swallowtail of California has iridescent blue-colored wings, and collectors consider them among the most important and magnificent ones found in the area of North America. This beautiful butterfly thrives in San Francisco for centuries, and also around the so-called Bay Area. However, as this particular region was increasingly urbanized during the early 1900s, this butterfly species started disappearing. Nowadays, people living there can extremely rarely spot it. Tim Wong, who is an aquatic biologist at the Academy of Sciences in California, made the bringing of this butterfly his personal goal and mission, and he is on the way of something very promising. During 2012, he started searching for the California pipevine, its sole source of food, which disappeared together with this beautiful butterfly around the city area. He said: Finally, I was able to find this plant in the San Francisco Botanical Garden. And they allowed me to take a few clippings of the plant. He also propagated this plant in the backyard of his house, watering, tending, and weeding it until he created a paradise for the pipevine swallowtail. He explained that he built quite a big screen enclosure in order to protect this insect and to permit it to mate when the outside environmental conditions are perfect – natural airflow, sun, and temperature fluctuations. He also mentioned that this specialized enclosure even protects them from predators, increasing the opportunities for mating, and serves just like an environment for studying and observing these insects in order to comprehend better the criteria that the females look for in the ideal host plants.

To The Australian         The rewritten version of "Advance Australia Fair" recommended by Cathy Freeman is a non-starter ("Olympic star backs move to alter national anthem's lyrics", 26/2). The song itself is anaemic and out of date; and the RAP version is not inclusive. A new and widely acceptable national anthem could have five stanzas: (1) an opening commending past efforts and achievements by all our predecessors (including the Anzac tradition); (2) celebration of Aboriginal culture; (3) celebration of our British foundation; (4) celebration of our diversity made up of immigrants from all over the world; (5) an ending calling for fruitful contributions from all Australians to a worthwhile national future. The first and last stanzas should have a generalised invocation to divine blessing and providence. Essential would be a genuinely rousing tune. If a totally new musical contribution cannot be found, something from an earlier Australian composer might be appropriate - say, from Percy Grainger, for example.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

25 February 2020,        Australian camels are well-adapted to thrive in the dry heart of Australia but landowners have been unable to harvest them profitably for meat, leather, racing or genetics. With no real predators, camel numbers ballooned. They did reduce wildfire risk in parks by consuming excess vegetation, but during drought, starving, thirsty camels become pests, invading neighbouring pastures and water supplies and destroying fences. So the federal government pays helicopter sharp-shooters to shoot hundreds of them, leaving carcasses to rot. A similar fate awaits Kosciusko Park brumbies. At the same time, nearer to the coast, hungry kangaroos trash irrigated pastures and help themselves to dwindling water supplies, but landowners are forbidden to cull them and red tape and quotas hamper those licenced to harvest them for natural chemical-free meat. Graziers are forced to destock in droughts – kangaroos should also be destocked. Then there are the hungry rabbits and wallabies often in pestiferous numbers. They love improved pastures. Rabbits get poisoned, shot, trapped and deliberately infected with viruses. But wallabies are widely protected. Dingoes and wild dogs are a lethal threat to outback sheep, calves and goats and also endanger children on Frazer Island, Uluru and in other “protected” places. Some dogs are protected, some not. Sharks and crocodiles are increasingly numerous, bold and dangerous in coastal waters and estuaries. They have few predators, but hunting them is not allowed. Feral cats, dogs, pigs, foxes and deer infest National Parks and harass park neighbours, but hunters are locked out and no government sharp-shooters are sent.

     In other places, towns and orchards are besieged by invasions of smelly, noisy, messy, disease-carrying flying foxes but it is these bats, not the people, who are protected. For example see how just one Australian town is besieged by untouchable fruit bats:
  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/11/it-smells-so-bad-you-can-taste-it-bats-plague-australian-tourist-town

     To The Age        Unlike Tim Huf and Dora Houpis (28/2), I do not welcome the Victorian Government's proposal to require all high school students in government schools "to learn a mandatory and more thorough history of the Holocaust", as I fear that the subject will be taught in a quasi-religious manner involving a doctrine all must believe. Or will fair space and attention be given to the substantial researches and theses of Holocaust revisionists?
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

     Uncle Len is a bit like the Nobel Prize winner Samuel Beckett, a minimalist, releasing works, brief works, like diamonds. Well, probably more like plastic:

   https://amp.nine.com.au/article/be6696ee-ad1f-4a1f-bd88-719e50359c38 

     Here is a good article, not every unquoted word of which I necessarily endorse, detailing why big business loves mass immigration; it is all about the money, bunny, and has been since this place was set up.
  https://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/2020/02/23/the-war-on-white-australia-cheap-labor-importation-schemes/

“Population growth fuelled by mass immigration and the servicing of it with cheaply-built houses, apartments, and supermarkets has essentially become Australia’s economic strategy. Former Australian Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, pointed out that “Australia digs up and sells raw materials. In the cities the economy is based on building apartment blocks and shopping malls. The idea of Australia as a clever country is a myth, it’s an illusion.” Unsurprisingly, surveys have found a steep fall in public support for immigration over the last decade. A 2018 survey found that more than 69 per cent of respondents felt the country didn’t need more people. Community concerns about the deleterious effects of mass immigration are not, however, represented by Australia’s political class. At the 2019 federal election, despite some clear differences between the two major political parties in a range of policy areas, they effectively ran a joint ticket on immigration. Economics journalist Judith Sloan notes that immigration is “a no go subject for many in the political class,” who are “in heated agreement in their support for high migrant intakes, both permanent and temporary, and the associated high population growth.”