Was it really only two months ago that I wrote that the Australian state of Victoria was staring down the barrel of disastrous summer blackouts thanks to its “progressive” energy policies?

Because guess what?

Thousands of [Victorian] homes have been without power on Thursday due to extreme heat. There were 5800 Powercor customers without power at 10.30am, but the figure was down to 4000 by 11.30am.

“Forecasted extreme weather today may lead to power outages in your area,” the energy provider said on Twitter…

theage.com.au/national/victoria/blackouts-flights-delayed-trams-disrupted-in-extreme-weather

“Extreme weather”? Or the fact that the state has busily shut down all its reliable coal-fired power generators?

Meanwhile, Australia’s own little Venezuela is attracting all the wrong kind of attention from the nation’s spooks.

ASIO is monitoring and advising the Andrews government on its controversial Belt and Road agreement, amid a dramatic surge in deals that have helped create a $10bn Chinese-Victorian export market.

Victorian Premier Daniel ­Andrews has revealed Australia’s peak intelligence agency is monit­oring the initiative […] Last year, Victoria became the only Australian state to sign a memorandum of understanding on China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Victorian premier, socialist Daniel Andrews might be cock-a-whoop about the rivers of yuan flowing into his coffers, but more sober heads are sounding the warning bells.

Australian Strategic Policy Institu­te analyst Alex Joske warned that local and state governments had insufficient foreign policy ­experience and China expertis­e to properly manage deals such as Belt and Road. “I’m primarily thinking about their ability to control any ­attempts at political influence which come with investment deals under the agreement and also just their ability to effectively evaluate some of these deals,” he said.

Mr Joske cited Monash University’s $10m research agreement with the state-owned Commer­cial Aircraft Corporation of China, the signing of which was witnessed and welcomed by Mr Andrews in China in October, a week after the company had been linked to a global industrial espionage campaign.

“I think the Premier’s statements around that agreement ­really indicated that the government hadn’t done enough due diligence and wasn’t fully aware of what kind of a company COMAC is,” Mr Joske said.

Recently retired ASIO boss Duncan Lewis warned this week that the Chinese government was seeking to “take over” Australia’s political system through “insid­ious” foreign interference operations.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/asio-keeping-tabs-on-states-china-deal/

The sort of operations that hand over Aldi bags full of cash to state Labor politicians?

But, hey, who cares if Victoria can’t keep the lights on and faces a spiralling public sector budget? At least they’re “woke”.

It is the almost messianic zeal Andrews has adopted on social policy that has captivated the political and chattering classes […]this supercharged progressivism is also influencing governments around Australia on seminal issues such as how to die and how to recognise First Australians.

The Andrews era social policy reform is exhaustive and includes voluntary euthanasia, treaty, a ban on gay conversion therapy, medicinal cannabis, an inner-city safe-injection drug facility, a dramatic and ongoing attempt to address gender imbalances in the judiciary and on boards, a ban on plastic bags, a mental health royal commission, growing financial support for the LGBTI community and aggressive support for the Safe Schools anti-bullying campaign…

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/inquirer/andrews-agenda-keeps-libs-out-in-the-cold-in-victoria/

Except that Andrews’ support for Safe Schools – which is really a Queer Theory-indoctrination program masquerading as “anti-bullying” – doesn’t extend as far as subjecting his own children to its Marxist nonsense, which is compulsory in state schools. Nope: Andrews votes with his feet and sends his own precious offspring to a non-state Catholic school.

But then, the nomenklatura are like that.

Punk rock philosopher. Liberalist contrarian. Grumpy old bastard. I grew up in a generational-Labor-voting family. I kept the faith long after the political left had abandoned it. In the last decade...