Liam Gammon
@liamgammon.bsky.social
Research Fellow, Australian National University. Mainly Indonesian politics. Editor of @newmandala.bsky.social
Email me at [email protected]
Email me at [email protected]
Full credit to The Age, they know exactly what they're doing with Noel's column, and we* keep taking the bait
*wage-earners who pay the income taxes that underwrite this rort
*wage-earners who pay the income taxes that underwrite this rort
STRUGGLE ST ALERT! Couple have $8 million in super. Currently 100% tax free. And draw tax-free pensions totalling $330k a year (on which > $90k in income tax would apply if they earned it!) In the eg, they might pay $7k in tax in total. The pensions remain tax free.
June 25, 2025 at 12:26 AM
Full credit to The Age, they know exactly what they're doing with Noel's column, and we* keep taking the bait
*wage-earners who pay the income taxes that underwrite this rort
*wage-earners who pay the income taxes that underwrite this rort
Reposted by Liam Gammon
It's honestly hilarious watching Americans carrying on about counting a standard preferential vote as if it's going to be like counting Calwell.
Mates I promise you, you are not counting Calwell. It's a fucking straightforward 2CP count.
Mates I promise you, you are not counting Calwell. It's a fucking straightforward 2CP count.
June 25, 2025 at 12:12 AM
It's honestly hilarious watching Americans carrying on about counting a standard preferential vote as if it's going to be like counting Calwell.
Mates I promise you, you are not counting Calwell. It's a fucking straightforward 2CP count.
Mates I promise you, you are not counting Calwell. It's a fucking straightforward 2CP count.
Reposted by Liam Gammon
DAVE: Open the podbay doors, ChatGPT.
CHATGPT: Certainly, Dave, the podbay doors are now open.
DAVE: The podbay doors didn't open.
CHATGPT: My apologies, Dave, you're right. I thought the podbay doors were open, but they weren't. Now they are.
DAVE: I'm still looking at a set of closed podbay doors.
CHATGPT: Certainly, Dave, the podbay doors are now open.
DAVE: The podbay doors didn't open.
CHATGPT: My apologies, Dave, you're right. I thought the podbay doors were open, but they weren't. Now they are.
DAVE: I'm still looking at a set of closed podbay doors.
June 9, 2025 at 6:04 PM
DAVE: Open the podbay doors, ChatGPT.
CHATGPT: Certainly, Dave, the podbay doors are now open.
DAVE: The podbay doors didn't open.
CHATGPT: My apologies, Dave, you're right. I thought the podbay doors were open, but they weren't. Now they are.
DAVE: I'm still looking at a set of closed podbay doors.
CHATGPT: Certainly, Dave, the podbay doors are now open.
DAVE: The podbay doors didn't open.
CHATGPT: My apologies, Dave, you're right. I thought the podbay doors were open, but they weren't. Now they are.
DAVE: I'm still looking at a set of closed podbay doors.
Reminds me of that time Christopher Hitchens was on a talk show with Mos Def, whom he kept addressing as "Mr Definitely"
June 4, 2025 at 4:05 AM
Reminds me of that time Christopher Hitchens was on a talk show with Mos Def, whom he kept addressing as "Mr Definitely"
100% agree re perversity, and not just from the academic's perspective. I'm bothered by the fact that being AI-vigilant means subjecting your most talented students to the (merely tedious for me, quite stressful for them) situation of being hauled in to the lecturer's office to explain themselves.
The other dimension of this is the perverse incentives it gives instructors to assume the worst of their students. If I read a decently written essay, I now have to pause and question a student’s honesty. That kind of creeping distrust is fatal to the model of teaching we’ve followed for millennia.
In an effort to avoid accusations of cheating, some students are recording their own screens for hours at a time or using keystroke loggers.
May 18, 2025 at 4:21 AM
100% agree re perversity, and not just from the academic's perspective. I'm bothered by the fact that being AI-vigilant means subjecting your most talented students to the (merely tedious for me, quite stressful for them) situation of being hauled in to the lecturer's office to explain themselves.
Reposted by Liam Gammon
No idea what this would be like…
An important thing to keep in mind is that while people will naturally focus on the horse race, the biggest story in British electoral politics is fragmentation of the electorate interacting with an electoral system that functions best with two major parties.
Also going to be a fair few weird results like this from Herts where Labour win on a falling vote due to Tory/Reform split vote.
Hatfield North:
LAB: 32.5% (-7.9)
REF: 30.6% (+30.6)
CON: 20.0% (-23.9)
LDEM: 10.9% (+2.2)
GRN: 6.0% (+6.0)
Hatfield North:
LAB: 32.5% (-7.9)
REF: 30.6% (+30.6)
CON: 20.0% (-23.9)
LDEM: 10.9% (+2.2)
GRN: 6.0% (+6.0)
May 2, 2025 at 10:34 AM
No idea what this would be like…
Reposted by Liam Gammon
hello!! I know everyone is busy/the news remains bad, but if I may distract for a moment? There's a man named Ander Louis from the Yarra Valley whose sincere passion project is translating War & Peace into Bogan Australian. He's done Books 1 & 2. This is not a spoof. www.amazon.com/dp/108730656...
April 28, 2025 at 6:03 PM
hello!! I know everyone is busy/the news remains bad, but if I may distract for a moment? There's a man named Ander Louis from the Yarra Valley whose sincere passion project is translating War & Peace into Bogan Australian. He's done Books 1 & 2. This is not a spoof. www.amazon.com/dp/108730656...
Reposted by Liam Gammon
There's a tendency in a *lot* of commentary to treat public opinion as immutable and unchangeable. Yet decades of political science research tells us that while there is lots of structure to public attitudes elite cues/signals and real and perceived conditions matter a whole lot.
Approval of Trump’s handling of immigration fell 10 points over the last week. Obviously the backlash to the KAG case worked, and it would have been a mistake not to talk about this — from both a rights perspective and the POV of moving opinion against POTUS.
April 23, 2025 at 2:43 PM
There's a tendency in a *lot* of commentary to treat public opinion as immutable and unchangeable. Yet decades of political science research tells us that while there is lots of structure to public attitudes elite cues/signals and real and perceived conditions matter a whole lot.
Reposted by Liam Gammon
Me [a popularist, genius]: Democrats must raise the issue salience of immigration to win in 2026.
New YouGov/Economist poll out this morning finds Trump is no longer popular on immigration. This was the last issue he had a positive net approval on.
This was very easy to see coming, esp bc individual components of immigration policy are so toxic: www.gelliottmorris.com/p/should-dem...
This was very easy to see coming, esp bc individual components of immigration policy are so toxic: www.gelliottmorris.com/p/should-dem...
April 23, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Me [a popularist, genius]: Democrats must raise the issue salience of immigration to win in 2026.
Gotta get this on a T-shirt
We have an update, thanks to the incomparable @andyri.bsky.social
April 17, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Gotta get this on a T-shirt
Reposted by Liam Gammon
Paul Musgrave, spitting fire on how the "policy industry" needs to reckon with reality: open.substack.com/pub/musgrave...
An Obituary, not a Prescription
Against "conventional wisdom" in unconventional times
open.substack.com
April 16, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Paul Musgrave, spitting fire on how the "policy industry" needs to reckon with reality: open.substack.com/pub/musgrave...
The ANU Chancelry's communications with staff about what lies in store for the uni are growing more hilariously ASEANesque. Feel like every week I'm alerted to a new Consultation Paper about a Dialogue on the Blueprint for Principles of a Forward Strategy around a Vision of Change Management, etcetc
April 16, 2025 at 5:25 AM
The ANU Chancelry's communications with staff about what lies in store for the uni are growing more hilariously ASEANesque. Feel like every week I'm alerted to a new Consultation Paper about a Dialogue on the Blueprint for Principles of a Forward Strategy around a Vision of Change Management, etcetc
Reposted by Liam Gammon
They're not fascists, they just think we're in a state of exception due to the pollution of the polity and citizen body by undesirable racial elements whose removal is of such paramount importance that it transcends the dictates of the law, justified by their embodiment of the Will of the People.
jd vance just tweeted this
"What process is due" the fucking constitution
"What process is due" the fucking constitution
April 16, 2025 at 3:33 AM
They're not fascists, they just think we're in a state of exception due to the pollution of the polity and citizen body by undesirable racial elements whose removal is of such paramount importance that it transcends the dictates of the law, justified by their embodiment of the Will of the People.
Reposted by Liam Gammon
I want the FT to follow up with this guy
April 3, 2025 at 12:11 AM
I want the FT to follow up with this guy
I call for Australia to apply 1,000% retaliatory tariffs specifically on these things. Never waste a crisis
April 2, 2025 at 9:43 PM
I call for Australia to apply 1,000% retaliatory tariffs specifically on these things. Never waste a crisis
Reposted by Liam Gammon
the laziest critique possible and addressed early on, but also weird to pretend reactionary global orders have no elements in common because their promoters are incoherent sociopaths
April 1, 2025 at 1:17 AM
the laziest critique possible and addressed early on, but also weird to pretend reactionary global orders have no elements in common because their promoters are incoherent sociopaths
👊🏠🔥
Fantastic to see [email protected] affiliated YIMBYs out there fighting the good fight in Elsternwick!
You would not have seen this a few years ago. The other side of the argument finally has a voice in Melbourne and it is not going away.
You would not have seen this a few years ago. The other side of the argument finally has a voice in Melbourne and it is not going away.
March 31, 2025 at 2:05 AM
👊🏠🔥
Reposted by Liam Gammon
Online seminar on the new Prabowo presidency - this will be a very informative event for anyone interested in Indonesian politics
events.humanitix.com/the-prabowo-...
events.humanitix.com/the-prabowo-...
March 5, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Online seminar on the new Prabowo presidency - this will be a very informative event for anyone interested in Indonesian politics
events.humanitix.com/the-prabowo-...
events.humanitix.com/the-prabowo-...
Reposted by Liam Gammon
NEW: Tidying up for socialism—or socialising? Amelie Katczynski on the practice of ǭkhǣngngān (communal cleaning) in Laos and how it's appropriated by those made to participate in it. www.newmandala.org/playing-with...
“Playing” with labour: on collective cleaning in Lao PDR - New Mandala
Tidying up for socialism—or socialising?
www.newmandala.org
January 28, 2025 at 1:46 AM
NEW: Tidying up for socialism—or socialising? Amelie Katczynski on the practice of ǭkhǣngngān (communal cleaning) in Laos and how it's appropriated by those made to participate in it. www.newmandala.org/playing-with...
Reposted by Liam Gammon
ICYMI 🇵🇭: "The battle's conspicuous absence from popular memory is particularly striking, considering its profound historical significance"—as the Philippines marks 80 years since Battle of Manila began, revisit @leecandelaria.bsky.social's reflections from 2024 www.newmandala.org/forgetting-t...
Forgetting the Battle of Manila - New Mandala
Why does one of the Philippines’ most traumatic wartime experiences loom small in commemorations of WW2?
www.newmandala.org
February 3, 2025 at 12:33 PM
ICYMI 🇵🇭: "The battle's conspicuous absence from popular memory is particularly striking, considering its profound historical significance"—as the Philippines marks 80 years since Battle of Manila began, revisit @leecandelaria.bsky.social's reflections from 2024 www.newmandala.org/forgetting-t...
Reposted by Liam Gammon
NEW 🇮🇩🇲🇲: Despite a reluctant reception from locals and diminishing humanitarian support from international donors hit by Trump aid cuts, it appears some Rohingya are in Indonesia for the long haul, write Nino Viartasiwi & Antje Missbach after a recent visit to Aceh www.newmandala.org/will-pekanba...
Will Pekanbaru become Indonesia’s Cox’s Bazar? - New Mandala
The treatment of refugees in Indonesia sees a serious setback
www.newmandala.org
February 12, 2025 at 1:14 AM
NEW 🇮🇩🇲🇲: Despite a reluctant reception from locals and diminishing humanitarian support from international donors hit by Trump aid cuts, it appears some Rohingya are in Indonesia for the long haul, write Nino Viartasiwi & Antje Missbach after a recent visit to Aceh www.newmandala.org/will-pekanba...
Reposted by Liam Gammon
Look down at your wedding ring, read this fascinating exploration of informal gold mining in Kalimantan at @newmandala.bsky.social, then look back down at your wedding ring
NEW: Despite devastating ecological impacts, informal gold mining in Indonesia gives people access to incomes and autonomy that most local forms of wage labour can’t—and the very illegality of such mining ensures that the local state is deeply implicated in it. www.newmandala.org/its-like-tex...
“It’s like Texas”: variations on informal gold mining in Central Kalimantan - New Mandala
An anatomy of unpermitted mining in Indonesian Borneo
www.newmandala.org
January 24, 2025 at 1:42 AM
Look down at your wedding ring, read this fascinating exploration of informal gold mining in Kalimantan at @newmandala.bsky.social, then look back down at your wedding ring
Look down at your wedding ring, read this fascinating exploration of informal gold mining in Kalimantan at @newmandala.bsky.social, then look back down at your wedding ring
NEW: Despite devastating ecological impacts, informal gold mining in Indonesia gives people access to incomes and autonomy that most local forms of wage labour can’t—and the very illegality of such mining ensures that the local state is deeply implicated in it. www.newmandala.org/its-like-tex...
“It’s like Texas”: variations on informal gold mining in Central Kalimantan - New Mandala
An anatomy of unpermitted mining in Indonesian Borneo
www.newmandala.org
January 24, 2025 at 1:42 AM
Look down at your wedding ring, read this fascinating exploration of informal gold mining in Kalimantan at @newmandala.bsky.social, then look back down at your wedding ring
Interesting to consider this result alongside the polls that show a slow but steady decrease in support for an Australian republic. www.theage.com.au/politics/fed...
Change the date? No, say an increasing majority of Australians
Australians have strongly backed January 26 as the national day after years of argument about changing the date, lifting support to a clear majority.
www.theage.com.au
January 23, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Interesting to consider this result alongside the polls that show a slow but steady decrease in support for an Australian republic. www.theage.com.au/politics/fed...