The Echidna: Jim, we're heaving from a trillion repetitions of the same debt line

Spring has sprung and in customary fashion the knives are out for the poor, misunderstood magpie. Sure, for a few weeks the nesting maggie can be troublesome, swooping on those it sees as a threat, but for the rest of the year it's a smart, friendly bird blessed with lovely song. Befriend them (but never feed them mincemeat) and they'll generally leave you alone. Spring also heralds the arrival of a much worse feathered fiend, the koel, a migratory cuckoo that flies in from New Guinea and Indonesia and stays until autumn. It doesn't swoop but messes with heads another way, with the most irritating, persistent call ever devised by nature. The male repeats it over and over day and night. Should one take up residence in a nearby tree, the temptation after 17 hours is to grab the shottie or a chainsaw - anything to make it stop. After 17 days, the temptation is to sell up and move to Alaska.

It saddens me to report that our Treasurer, the normally likeable Jim Chalmers, is beginning to sound a little like a koel. "Heaving with a trillion dollars of Liberal debt." He's saying it over and over, day and night. Every. Single. Day. It's not as piercing as the koel's call - or as grating as, say, Tony Abbott's "stop the boats" or "axe the tax" - but it's almost as persistent. So much so, even Labor colleague Senator Anthony Chisholm mused on the ABC's Afternoon Briefing last week that if he had a dollar for every time he heard Jim Chalmers say it ... well, you know the rest.

We were promised a change in the way politics was done in this country. One change for which I hanker is the dropping of the high-rotation talking point. Just because you repeat something ad nauseam doesn't make it any truer. If anything, it has most intelligent people reaching for the mute button. After a while, overdone talking points begin to sound like those infuriating advertising ear worms. "Just up the Windsor Road from Baulkham Hills, let me do it right for you" comes to mind. If only we had mute buttons when Tony Packard bombarded us with that ad in the 1980s. They might stick in your brain but the repetitions don't necessarily make you buy the product.

So, Jim, here's the thing. We know there's a lot of debt. We get it. You've told us a trillion times. We accept you have to manage expectations. But for all our sakes, talk to your team, get them to come up with some different words to express the debt message if you must hammer it home. Drop the "heaving" because we're heaving from hearing it too often. Once more and we'll most likely hurl.

HAVE YOUR SAY: Do you tire of pollies saying the same thing over and over? Does repetition work? Or does it just irritate? What's the ad that's stuck in your brain the longest? Has an irritating ad ever made you buy the product or service it's pitching? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

THEY SAID IT: "But better die than live mechanically a life that is a repetition of repetitions." - DH Lawrence

YOU SAID IT: Streaming services, so many shows, not enough time. Dogs that watch TV. We asked for your recommendations and whether you'd be cutting back on your subscriptions.

The monotreme award goes to Daniel, who offers this observation: "As I lie awake at 3am, with minor jet-lag on my first overseas trip since the dreaded lockdowns, I can't help but feel the irony of re-engaging with The Echidna discussing "peak Elisabeth Moss" after deleting unread Echidna emails for a few weeks. And then the juxtaposition of reading about streaming overload alongside reader comments on nuclear armageddon threw my mind into a spin. But being reminded of that classic Groucho Marx quote really tipped me over the edge! But the real kicker is that when I woke in the middle of the night, the first thing I did was to reach for my phone, read The Echidna, write this email, and then look back in horror at what I'd just done! We are all being held captive by the constant stream of information competing for our attention, with The Echidna being one of its, albeit enlightened, participants. So damn you, Echidna! And ... er ... thank you."

Carl writes from Vietnam: "Good column on streaming, John. And binge watching too. I've never subscribed to anything and totally missed out on Game of Thrones etc, etc, and some more. But I love SBS On Demand, a truly unique world product, and which got me through the pandemic, especially those Nordic noir series. Not surprised if subscriber numbers are dropping as life returns to normal, but my impression is the product itself has also become stale and formulaic."

Horst has abandoned TV altogether: "I can happily report that I never needed any subscription service and I get much more of the things done which really interest me since the last pet which has been left in the care of our household has reached the end of his life and we got rid of the TV."

Stephanie says, "Ten years ago I almost stopped watching TV in any form and still watch very little. However, in that 10 years I have managed to watch every episode of Schitt's Creek and loved it due to the short 20-minute episodes. I also subscribe to YouTube premium as I'm addicted to John Cadogan, having spent 33 years of my life working in the automotive industry and can't stand the advertising. My partner subscribes to Netflix and I watch the occasional movie but I feel I must have a little ADHD as half way through I find my mind wondering if I should be doing something constructive instead!"

David subscribes to Fox, Netflix, ABC iView, SBS On Demand. His recommendations: "The Good Place (started slowly but eventually binge-watched), High Seas (for a laugh at the appalling over-acting), Avenue 5, What We Do In The Shadows (sitcom), Space Force, AFL Finals, AFLW, women's cricket, SBS World Movies." And as for dogs, "My last Irish setter was often captivated by animal programs. He sometimes looked behind the TV, presumably to see if the animal was there. He did respond to animal noises and changes in volume on TV. Most of the time he was asleep in front of the telly - maybe he was as bored with the offerings as we were."

Dave says, "I watched Mr In-between on Binge last year which was a fantastic Aussie series. Scott Ryan is a tremendous actor as is Justin Rosniak. A surprise was Ian Roberts who was suited to the roll of underworld hard man. After the series ended I couldn't find anything remotely as enthralling so I cancelled my subscription and returned to watching Kayo."

And Tony: "Sadly no dog. We subscribe to Netflix, Britbox and Stan. Still thinking about Stan but it does have fairly good Australian content. We subscribe to the premium versions so we have no ads plus we get 4K, great on our OLED television. We also like to use DVDs. The major issue we have is with Britbox which uses Americanised computer generated subtitles. They can sometimes be funnier than Yes Minister. Love your column, I am keeping them all to reread." Thanks, Tony, glad you're enjoying The Echidna.