The wash-up from the 2025 election is a disaster for the Liberal Party, they were within striking distance of booting the one term Albernese Government out of The Lodge to electoral wipeout. Could this have been avoided? You bet, this was one of the poorest federal election campaigns in living memory. Instead we watched this trainwreck of an election campaign unfold right in front of us.

Clearly the Liberal Party under performed, to blame this election defeat alone on the Trump factor will set the Liberal Party back a decade. Yes, I do concede there was an anti-Trump sediment for conservatives, but this factor alone could not secure the election rout brought about by the tight Labor Party messaging and ad hoc Liberal Party promotions. The Liberal Party under Dutton’s leadership even knocked back a tax break for wage earners, even whilst a relatively small tax reduction in the scheme of things, seriously?

The first disaster was to try to force federal government workers off of work from home arrangements and send them back into the office full-time. Whilst this policy was dropped in the first week of the election campaign, the damage was already done from spruiking this ridiculous policy. Then, closely following was the announcement of wanting to lay off 42,000 federal government workers, this was just pure lunacy. These people are voters, their family votes and they have friends that vote. This also ties the Liberal Party into Trump style DOGE policies at a time when any astute politician would be seeking to distance themselves from such policies.

The defeat had to stand at the feet of Peter Dutton, as Opposition Leader he ran a terrible campaign. No doubt buoyed by the success of The Voice to Parliament campaign to stop the change to the constitution based on racial grounds, Dutton thought he could replicate this groundswell in the following election. There was no real policy formation, the media releases came across as disjointed and misaligned.

I am not against nuclear energy, but once again, a cohesive marketing strategy failed the electorate, now we are shackled to higher energy costs and availability. I am certainly not against renewables, but we need to educate people that sun and wind energy is not free energy, it comes at a considerable cost. Renewable energy should be in the mix, but proper accounting practices used to educate users. I certainly believe in research, this is where a government spends money to provide the funds for studies, small experimental plants, and analytical driven data.

Policies and costings were released in the final week of the campaign, just days before we headed to the polls. Postal voting was well under way, up to a third of punters had pre-voted so that was a lost opportunity. The Liberal Party has a women problem, Sussan Ley was not wheeled out, nor were any of the female shadow ministers. Then in the final week Dutton got embroiled in the “Welcome to Country” debate, a complete misdirection pushed by the “Trumpet of Patriots” party, just leave it alone Peter, these issues are divisive and just a distraction.

Clearly internal polling was flawed, whilst it was well known Dutton’s seat of Dickson was under threat, the Liberal Party believed it to be safe, instead of shoring the seat up, they redirected funds to outer city seats they thought they could win from Labor. Ultimately, with Peter Dutton losing his seat, this is a positive insofar as his personal failures are gone, the Liberal Party can reset with less right-wing conservatives and promote more centre-left, and centre-right moderates who are more liberal and not conservative. This election loss must be dissected and recommendations implemented, the Liberal Party can turn this around but are unlikely to be competitive at the next election. This will take the Liberal Party at least two elections to be swept into government.

Regardless of whether Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was going to lose his seat or not, there was always to be a leadership spill in the Liberal Party. Could Peter Duttonhave held onto his position as Opposition Leader? Possible, but unlikely probable. With Peter Dutton losing his seat in the election, this is the best outcome as he can now longer influence the party direction. Sussan will come in without the shadow of Peter Dutton in the party room, she has the opportunity to take control and lead the Liberal Party in a new direction.

Ok, so the Liberal Party requires a new leader and I suggest Sussan Ley is the best possible candidate. Yes, I have a high regard for Andrew Hastie but he did not even put his hand up for the role so he was never considered. Like Andrew holding the seat of Canning in Western Australia, Sussan holds the New South Wales regional seat of Farrer. The Liberal Party has a women problem, former leader Peter Dutton certainly had a women problem, whether real or a figment of Labor Party messaging, the perception was real so made Dutton unpopular with women. Angus Taylor speaks well, but he could also a liability if he wanted to keep the Liberal Party on the current direction.

What do we know about Sussan Ley? She was born in Nigeria as her father was working for British Intelligence before moving to Australia as a teenager. Sussan has a pilot’s licence, was a stock mustering pilot, worked as an air traffic controller, and even a shearer’s cook. Sussan studied hard and landed a senior role at the Australian Taxation Office before entering politics in 2001. Sussan has a pretty decent CV, she has broad experience and holds the Liberal Party free enterprise and small business focus.

The 2025 was a disaster for the Liberal Party, the party has become too conservative and Sussan is more centralist hopefully pulling the party back to the centre of Australian politics. The policies were poor, this is where Sussan cannot escape examination here, she already held a senior role. However, it appears Dutton was making too many leader’s decisions, known as Captain’s calls. Sussan needs to take a greater collaborative approach and that can only be a positive. I am looking forward to watching Sussan as the first female leader of the Liberal Party, it is a difficult trip back, but hopefully she keeps the Albanese Government accountable and gets the Liberal Party competitive in three years time for the 2028 federal election.

So if the object of superannuation is to provide an income in retirement, and to replace the age pension for those who are in a position to do so, why does the government keep changing the rules to disadvantage those who make the effort to save for their retirement?

Patronage is typically described as the practice of rewarding allies and supporters with important positions based on their partisan loyalty. This is generally aligned to political appointments where department heads are appointed based on political persuasion, favours owed or to engage in the stacking of organisations with compromised people who will pursue a political agenda.

In a workplace setting, especially in government departments, patronage may be described as awarding supporters positions of power without meeting selection criteria. These rewards are offered to individuals who will consolidate a power base to the appointer. Typically, these are not the most competent individuals, they are rewarded for their loyalty to the appointer. These individuals are selected to a degree for their ability to do anything to keep their role, they will execute the instructions of their benefactor without question or remorse.

They offer a degree of support, or as a favour owed and will do the dirty work for their master in return for the gifted position. The appointee will exert proxy power through their hand selected cronies, this provides a fairly high degree of power to be exercised for these individuals within the department where they operate. When an organisation has a mission, values and vision statement, the appointer can keep at arm’s length to claim they have not breached any standards.

Generally these individuals are unlikely to progress on their individual merits, they are typically not a threat to the authority of the leader. As such, the leader does not feel concern for their position, whilst they may have the ambition, they typically do not have the knowledge, skills or abilities to pursue independence. They follow the directions of the appointer, they are not chosen for their abilities, they are appointed into a role where they act under the authority of appointer.

These appointees are generally aware of their limited abilities and know they can be replaced with another person offering absolute loyalty should they get a little too ambitious or display rebellious ideas. They enjoy the power they exert through the authority they are entrusted, they are offered protection as reward for their efforts so the appointer can typically claim to operate with some level of integrity. This is a difficult concept to grasp for many of the staff in these departments as they are ridden roughshod over, they know the truth.

My worst business decision by far was to enter into a business partnership with a friend  – never again will I trust a partner with my financial future. Naturally I had my concerns in the planning stages, I heard all the warnings and I viewed the behavioural changes first hand. My business partner was lazy, I already knew that so I should have been better prepared for the inevitable – not so.

Openness and trust cost me not only the direct funds I invested in the business, it almost cost me my retirement savings and my financial future. It also cost the non-financial aspects of extreme personal stress and definitely damaged my professional reputation. My credit rating was affected almost to the point of beyond repair so I have to respectively disagree with Felipe; never again will I trust a business partner with my financial future.

The Suunto Stinger was a pretty decent wrist worn dive computer, it was exceptional at the time. I really liked the look of the Stinger, it made a diver fashion statement to identify a diver well before dive fashion brands took off. Plenty of people wanted a Suunto Stinger as their dive computer and daily wearing watch, it is a pretty big daily wearer watch though.

The Vyper took off at the same time, just about every divemaster and dive instructor had either the larger wrist mounted plastic Vyper dive computer or the smaller stainless steel case and bracelet Stinger watch/dive computer. The newer range of Suunto dive computers sported the RGBM algorithm, a series of profiles I was not so enthusiastic about, what was great at the time was the safety stop timer – that was a real hit.

Then Suunto came up with the D4, D6 and D9 dive computers with rubber straps and eventually the Stinger went out of production. I knew a German dive shop owner who requested to Suunto that they offer the Singer to him. Suunto were happy to reopen the production line again for 100 units that he promptly sold through his chain of dive shops.

My former partner now living back in Japan was interested in snapping one up as well. She was pretty stylish, she knew what she liked and had the disposal funds to purchase quality products. I missed my chance and ended up with the D6 computer, good for single dives only and was harsh on batteries. The Stinger is not an easy battery change either, it is pretty expensive and based on my D6 experience, the batteries do not last all that long so I am not keen on the Suunto battery life.

I have requested a Section 82 intervention by the safety regulator in Western Australia after the organisation failed in their duty of care to staff members. The safety regulator, a state government known as Worksafe is tasked with the role of regulating the health and safety of workers in the state.

When you apply for a Section 82 intervention, this relates to the Work Health and Safety Act 2020 in Western Australia. An Act is an Act of Parliament, that is a law and that is supported by Regulations [2022] that provides details to interpret the Act. This legalisation is further supported by Codes of Practice and Guidance Notes.

So I set a deadline and the response I received was the individual making the bullying claim has provided no evidence of workplace bullying. So I can supply documented evidence from safety committee meetings where I raised the issue. The safety committee meeting minutes are vaguely written, I would argue intentionally so to offer little detail. However, I can show to a regulating authority that the issue was at least discussed.

The organisation has deliberately avoided the issue, I will show via internal emails where I have previously raised the issue and the matter has been dismissed. That is because the A-team of non-performers have been involved. Known internally as the three stooges, they have done everything within their power to bury their misdeeds.

A Section 82 requests the safety regulator to intervene in an unresolved matter to solve a health and safety issue in a workplace. That is what I have informed them what I intend to do, and this is what I will follow through with. The organisation believes I am making threats, not so, I alerted them to my intentions, I gave them an opportunity to respond and they were once again dismissive. Now I have escalated the matter to the regulatory authority to review and make an independent decision.

The 3G network is shut down, there is no chance of ever reviving my Nokia 5110 mobile phone, for me, that is a big misfortune as I would prefer the 5110 over current smartphones. When my then girlfriend returned to Japan, she took my prized 5110 with her. I had loaned it to her to use while she was here and I never saw it again.

For me, I am not glued to my mobile phone and I could do pretty much without a mobile phone. I know the world moves on and the Nokia 5110 is a relic of history, I never had a more robust mobile phone that was easy to carry around. There was a phone you could drop and not worry about breaking the screen, you were more likely to break whatever you dropped the phone on. To my mind, that was the best phone I ever owned and even though the network is no more, I would be happy with a modern version of the Nokia mobile phone.

The S/el chronograph was my first serious watch, I purchased it when I was working in Guam back in the late 1990s. Designed by Eddy Schöpfer, the S/el designation is sports/elegance. The S/el is a 200 hundred metre professional dive watch that could be worn with a dinner suit or wetsuit – it really could.

I pretty much wore it full time for 19 years before I decided a larger mechanical timepiece was going to be my new watch. For a while, I wore my new Aquaracer for a week and then swap back to me S/el for the next week, but that was just a hassle. So, my S/el sat in a safe except for when I was training; I would wear my chronograph during a run to time my cardio time. The aim was to run the same circuit and try to improve my times, my chronograph was a pretty good run timer.

As I was a dive guide and dive instructor, this was my dive watch. I was decompression diving back then pretty regularly and used the chronograph to time decompression stops. This was an excellent dive watch, the chronograph function so so important for him at that time. When the battery ran out, I had the battery removed and placed the watch into retirement. This won’t be permanent retirement; at some time in the future, I will look to power up my old S/el again and this timepiece will get some wrist time again.

I have been a fan of Omega for a long time, I am a diver and I have an engineering trade background. It is no coincidence that I would be drawn to the engineering prowess of an automatic timepiece. Sure, I like of the aesthetics of the Seamaster line, they have a fine heritage, they have a number of lines within the Seamaster range – I feel an affiliation with the brand.

Scuba diving was a relatively new activity when the Seamaster was released, Omega has a history with the British military supplying timepieces to the RAF during World War II. The Seamaster is well suited to the Royal Navy as the timepiece is water resistant, rugged and accurate. The Seamaster was released to coincide with Omega’s 100 year anniversary and is the oldest timepiece in their current collection.

The Seamaster range has evolved with the professional range of timepieces; the Seamaster 300 released in 1957, Diver 300 released in 1994, Aqua Terra released in 2003 and the Planet Ocean was released in 2005 providing a series of price points and variations. There are limited edition series from James Bond, Michael Phelps to Spectre and models have the option of chronograph and GMT variations.

The range also includes the 1969 Bullhead and Proprof 1200 released in 1970, both very distinctive timepieces. I note with interest that the re-release of the Railmaster finds this particular timepiece as part of the Seamaster range. But I really don’t think so, maybe that was the closest family they could identify as the Railmaster is suited to engineers, scientists and technicians. The Seamaster goes back a long way with Omega and is my favourite range based on not only my diving preferences but the aesthetics of this special timepiece.