💧Cameron Baillie | @[email protected]

Tim Wilson gets the Muhamed Ali treatment, with the feminine touch. When @SueBarrett writes, she doesn’t type - she circles the ring and waits for the opening. Float like a metaphor. Sting like an audit. Her piece - Hope Is Not A Strategy - isn’t just a takedown. It’s a slow, clinical undressing of a political brand that has been spray-tanned in “hope” and propped up with think tank slogans. And the joy of it? She never raises her voice. She just opens the file. As Sue says, “Hope is not a strategy.” Four words. Polite. Reasonable. Fatal. Then she proceeds to lay out a ledger so calm and so methodical it feels less like an article and more like evidence being placed gently on a mahogany table. • Debt figures. • Inquiries. • Expenses. • Carparks. • Culture wars dressed as policy. • She doesn’t rant. She arranges. Reading her is like drinking a Class A martini on a thirsty day - crisp, clean, and before you realise it, you’re standing up straighter. Some might say this post is The Noisy Trunk pissing in her pocket. Incorrect. This is insurance. Because if Sue ever decided to take us to the Publishing Punishment Chamber, we would like to be on record as having recognised greatness early. Unlike Timmy. Oh dizzy, and there’s more. She writes: “Let’s examine the evidence, shall we?” That line alone should come with a warning label. Because when Sue says “shall we,” what she really means is: Sit down. I’ve brought receipts. The beauty of her work is that what you’re reading on the surface is only a sample of the prayer book she’s about to drop on Tim’s head. Page after page, calmly turning. No theatrics. No froth. Just pattern recognition and consequence. And here’s the thing - this isn’t partisan squealing. It’s structured accountability. The kind that makes you better for having read it. You will discover things you didn’t know. You will connect dots that were sitting there in plain sight. And you will understand why branding is not delivery. “Hope is on its way,” he tweeted. Sue replies, without shouting: Hope requires evidence. 💥Boom. If you care about economic credibility, political integrity, or simply the art of dismantling a narrative without breaking a sweat - go read it. Goldstein deserves it. Australia deserves it. And frankly, so does your brain. Onward we press. Must Read: suebarrett.substack.com/p/ho…