A little-used expression that I really like is ‘praising with faint damnation’. The opposite of a more popular saying, ‘damning with faint praise’, it describes a way of politely under-reacting to something truly stupid or awful. It’s the ‘you’re going to need a bigger boat’ of political discourse.

I thought of it yesterday when I read Tanya Plibersek’s reaction to the government’s Women’s Economic Security Statement.

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Kelly O’Dwyer’s Boondoggles and Bastardry

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