Yet another thing from her recent birthday stream
Melbourne's Southern Cross Station is a gateway for commuters and visitors to the city, but experts say secret data shows the air quality poses a health risk to workers and passengers.
> - In short: Data detailing the air quality at Melbourne's Southern Cross Station has been released for the first time. > - It shows nitrogen dioxide levels in parts of the station have regularly been more than 90 times the guidelines set by the World Health Organization. > - The Victorian government and the station's operator say they've been meeting Australian workplace standards.
It actually sounds like the van's panels (I'm guessing especially the large roof panel) can provide non-trivial power:
"Even if I'm stuck somewhere we just have to wait a couple of hours and it'll self charge and bring me home." (emphasis added)
No doubt the huge array of panels on his roof can give it a lot more juice though!
Since Jacinta Allan took Victoria's top job four months ago, she's put her own stamp on the office. But the state's 49th premier faces the same challenges as her high-profile predecessor Daniel Andrews.
> Ahead of her first sit-down TV interview since becoming premier, the ABC asked voters in Croydon, Werribee, Geelong, Mildura and Ms Allan's hometown of Bendigo what issues they thought were most pressing, and if they had any questions for the premier.
"Finally a day we can all come together."
> In calendar news, Australia Day is officially changing date after this year and will no longer be celebrated on January 26th. With a new date of January 20th chosen instead in order to celebrate the day that Scott Morrison announced his departure from politics. > > The day was reportedly chosen for the holiday as it was clearly the day that Australia has most come together to celebrate, like what Australia Day claims to be.
Analysis of AEC’s annual political returns show one quarter of major parties’ funding comes from unnamed sources
> The origin of at least $57m – amounting to about a quarter of all funding to major political parties – is unknown, according to an analysis by Guardian Australia. > > The analysis of annual political returns, released by the Australian Electoral Commission on Thursday, show between 21% and 27% of donations and other receipts to Labor, the Coalition and the Greens were from unnamed sources.
Anthony Albanese might not be Labor’s strongest policy innovator but as a tactician, he’s as shrewd as they come.
> For the longer term, the Stage 3 decision has burst a dam, unleashing a much wider tax debate. > > The pressure is coming from two directions – from those whipping up scares of what the government might do and those who want the government to undertake a range of ambitious reforms.
Dozens of former colleagues have spoken candidly to the ABC political docuseries Nemesis about the destructive rivalry between Liberal giants Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull.
> It was a political rivalry so utterly self-destructive that one cabinet minister compared it to being "strapped to a suicide bomber". > > "The Turnbull-Abbott tussle was very torrid, not just for the Liberal Party internally, but for the government more generally for years and years and years," says former Coalition minister Bridget McKenzie. "You knew something horrific and catastrophic was going to happen." > > In interviews for the ABC political docuseries Nemesis, dozens of former Coalition ministers and MPs have spoken of the toxic rivalry between Liberal giants Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, and how their relentless internecine conflict crippled both men's governments and helped destroy each other's political careers.
Over months of filming and 60 on-camera interviews for the ABC's landmark political docuseries Nemesis, the free character assessments between former Coalition colleagues fly thick and fast. But as well as the blue language and invective, there are also moments of remorse and regret.
> Over months of filming and 60 on-camera interviews for the ABC's landmark political docuseries Nemesis, the free character assessments between former Coalition colleagues fly thick and fast. But as well as the blue language and invective, there are also moments of remorse and regret. > > Watch the first episode of the ABC's political docuseries Nemesis on Monday at 8pm on ABC TV and iview.
Some choice quotes: > What [Barnaby Joyce] says next, referring to Turnbull, stuns me. Let's just say it's a four-letter word, connected to another four-letter word.
> In one interview, Turnbull is called a "turd" by one of his former supporters. > >For his part, the former prime minister recounts being told to "f*** off" by his predecessor Tony Abbott.
> The last Coalition prime minister Scott Morrison is labelled "smug" and an "arrogant arsehole" during an interview with one of his former backbenchers.
Yeah the titles from ABC News are generally....... not my personal choice these days, but I guess they feel the need to play whatever the title game is.
Did you actually read through the article, or are you just assuming the contents based on the (admittedly mildly clickbait-y) title?
While a lot of the political commentary is fixated on Labor's broken promise, will its backflip make the tax system better? On that, there's a lot less argument.
> ANU economist Ben Phillips ran the government's proposed stage 3 tweaks through his PolicyMod simulator to weigh up the winners and losers. > > He finds about 6.2 million households will benefit from the Albanese government's changes, while just 1.1 million households will lose out compared to the tax laws passed under the Coalition. > > The government's gamble is that nearly six-to-one winners to losers presents pretty good odds for the widespread financial benefits to outweigh the cost of a broken promise.
Covid, yes, but not widespread lockdowns (and some other stuff from the "early covid" period) which is basically what the article is reflecting on. For example, I hadn't really thought about how it could affect child social development due to significantly reduced social exposure.
This isn't really a "covid is over" piece. 'It's still a serious human pathogen' wouldn't be a sub-heading if it was.
The relics of the pandemic are slowly fading but four years on, it still haunts the collective consciousness.
> COVID-19 was detected in Australia four years ago today.
The government will halve the stage 3 tax cuts for the highest earners and use the money to deliver an $804 tax cut across the board.
> The government will halve the stage 3 tax cuts for the highest earners and use the money to deliver an $804 tax cut across the board.
> The prime minister will tell press club the reversal was motivated by changing economic circumstances.
The confidentiality period of cabinet documents from 2003 expires, revealing some of the deliberations of the then-Howard government — though the most sensitive discussions remain secret.
> * Cabinet documents from 2003 have been unsealed [by the National Archives of Australia, after the documents' confidentiality period expired]. > * The documents reveal some of the high-level discussions of the government, including on the Iraq War. > * Much of the deliberations on the war have been kept secret, despite the then-defence minister supporting their release.
The ABC contacted every male MP in the House of Representatives to ask what is being done in their electorates about a family violence crisis that has seen more than 50 women killed this year.
> We asked them: > > - Do you believe the government you currently serve is doing enough to combat domestic violence? (For government MPs) > > - What would you like to see the Albanese government do about this issue? (For opposition MPs) > > - What active steps have you taken in your communities to help address women dying at the hands of their partners? > > - What kind of cultural change do you think would help make a difference in your communities? > > Just 20 out of the 92 MPs responded by the original publication time and only ten had answered the questions asked. > > Once followed up, 25 responded and 21 answered questions.
Good stuff, sometimes aggressive measures need to be taken to look out for the interest of the shareholders. Plus the fuel discount is a perfectly timed Christmas gift, exactly what Australia needs in a cost of living crisis. Bravo Woolies, very proud to have my superannuation invested in a company that cares!
A Senate report has found FOI does not function as intended in Australia, and recommends significant changes.
(The article isn't that long, but its content is hard to summarize without significant information loss.)
It's funny when the two of us more-or-less agree on the summary. Nonetheless, whoever reads both often ends up just basically reading the original lol.
The federal government is set to unveil a major new migration strategy that aims to dramatically cut Australia's intake after a surge of arrivals after the COVID-19 pandemic.
> Temporary migration has jumped sharply over the past year — largely driven by foreign students — leading to a record intake. This was previously described as a post-COVID 19 influx of returning foreign students, but the ABC understands the government believes this is more than a one-off surge. > > As part of the new migration strategy — which has already been signed off by cabinet and follows months of consultation with the higher education sector, business groups and other stakeholders — steps will be taken to cut the intake of foreign students entering low-quality courses. > >The ABC understands the government will not cap the number of foreign students allowed in but will crack down on low-quality training providers and limit opportunities for student visas to be used as a backdoor for low-skilled workers to stay in Australia. > > The new strategy will also involve new efforts to retain the best-performing students in Australia and new pathways to attract more high-skilled permanent migrants.
> "People are coming here, enrolling in courses that don't really add substantially to either their skills base or to the national interest here," Mr Albanese said.
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Coverage from SBS has a bit more background on the "why" for those interested.
Edit: ABC has some followup coverage of its own, mostly on the "what".
Police arrest and fine Extinction Rebellion demonstrators for failing to obey traffic directions when staging a rally in the middle of the road outside Flinders Street Station.
> * In short: Police have arrested and fined 72 climate activists [$385 each] for staging a protest in the middle of a Melbourne CBD intersection. > * Demonstrators from the group Extinction Rebellion say they have tried less-invasive forms of protest to make governments listen to their concerns, but they have not been heard. > * What's next? The group is planning further disruptive action for March next year.
> It was the fourth consecutive day of action by Extinction Rebellion demonstrators, culminating in a rally outside Flinders Street Station at the intersection of Flinders and Swanston streets. > > The protesters are calling on the federal government to reduce carbon emissions. Many who attended the rally came prepared to be arrested, saying their actions were a last resort.
Australia is likely to have a Senate inquiry into supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths next year, but across the ditch there are lessons about how hard it is to disrupt a duopoly.
> While a new [Senate] inquiry looks set to examine [Coles and Woolworths'] profit margins, New Zealand offers a lesson in just how difficult it is to disrupt a duopoly. [They have] no Aldi or IGA, and the duopoly there has also faced allegations of price gouging. > > The New Zealand competition watchdog has already held a market study into why food costs so much in Aotearoa and established a grocery commissioner to help implement its recommendations. > > But 18 months down the line, Kiwis are still reporting their grocery bill as a major financial concern — for the first time, some families are struggling with the cost of putting food on the table. > > Based on this experience, advocacy group Consumer NZ said an inquiry could be helpful to establish the facts around whether or not supermarket giants were making more than what was fair. > > But they warned the process was slow, and ultimately if it did not lead to bold changes, the business of selling food to Australians was likely to continue being a very closed, and expensive, shop.
In this experiment, external funding is paying for the handouts.
In a self-contained system, the same system/community providing the handouts would be generating the revenue for them (e.g., via taxation). Think of existing social welfare where "the system" generates the revenue that pays for the welfare programs.
I agree it's a useful insight, but it's the only sentence in the entire article that isn't instead discussing the merits of lump sum vs regular payment. Saying that "it's the takeaway" from the linked article is insanity.
The Wikipedia page for Hitler includes the sentence:
The stock market in the United States crashed on 24 October 1929.
That doesn't make it the takeaway of the article!! If you want to make a case for something, bring the right evidence. As the researchers themselves have said, this study can't just be generalized to high-income countries.
The Australian mining magnate and climate campaigner lashes out at oil and gas supremos he says are "selfish beyond belief".
> - Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest is attending the COP28 climate conference in the United Arab Emirates. > - He says energy bosses should have their heads "put up on spikes" for not committing to phase out fossil fuels. > - It comes as some companies, including the national oil company of the UAE, defy calls for a wind-down of fossil fuel use.
Quote with context:
> And he took particular aim at the oil and gas bosses who were dismissing the calls, describing them as "selfish beyond belief". > > He said their actions were jeopardising the lives of millions of people in overwhelmingly poor countries who were at risk of "lethal humidity", or an inability to cool themselves down. > "If you can't cool yourself you're actually an oven burning around 100 watts all the time," Dr Forrest said. > > "If you can [sic] get rid of that heat energy, you cook. > > "And when these deaths occur — and they're occurring now, but when they occur at much larger-scale — I want these so-called people who are very smart to be held to account. > > "It's their heads which should be put up on spikes because they wilfully ignored and they didn't care."
An AI-based analysis of 20 years of logging by VicForests, shared exclusively with the ABC, shows for the first time, the potential scale of failed regeneration in Victoria's state forests.
Our new research found Australia is spending $1 billion less on maintaining roads than we need – and the biggest reason for that gap is federal funding.
> [Roads] are getting worse because we’re not spending enough to maintain them. > > Three-quarters of our roads are managed by local councils. > > Every year, those councils spend A$1 billion less on maintenance than is needed to keep those roads in their current condition – let alone improve them. > > New Grattan Institute research finds the typical regional area has a funding shortfall of more 40%. In remote areas, it’s more than 75%. > > One reason for this underspend is that untied federal government grants to local councils haven’t kept pace with soaring costs. > > [...] > > Tight budgets make it tempting to delay maintenance. > > But delaying will only end up costing more in the long run, leaving taxpayers paying more to fix more badly damaged roads.
I've never seen the stats before and 8% seems really high?? Is there some subset of Australia that tips all the time that I rarely see?
Edit: nvm, the stat is confusing as other commenter pointed out.
The number of payments with tips has remained stable throughout the last year with 0.52% of payments throughout the hospitality sector including a tip in August 2023, according to Lightspeed.
“I often wonder: where did I go wrong?” Graeme Pearman says. “Why didn’t people respond? Is that my responsibility?”
When Guardian Australia meets him at his home on the outskirts of Melbourne, the veteran climate scientist is frustrated.
“If you go through the whole process and the rigour of conducting science, [you think] at the end of the day surely people will understand what you’re saying – they will incorporate those risks into what they do,” he says.
“Well, it doesn’t work that way.
“The reality is that for a period of nearly two decades, Australia went backwards [on climate action]. From a personal perspective, yes, it’s frustrating.”
Precursor: f I was feeling hopeless about the climate, what of the scientists? So I asked them
Given that they remind readers what brands an Android phone phone could be, I don't think the article is aimed at many aussie zoners.
I guess they're trying to drive home that the scammer isn't coming at you with a poorly worded email riddled with typos here - the overlay can look legitimate (even if in some cases it still has typos lol). Probably would've been a bit much for them to cover every banking interface tbf.
I really enjoyed Scienceworks and the Melbourne Aquarium as a kid. Not sure I'd go far as to call them must-see, but worth checking out if your crew is keen on them!
I guess there's going to be some interpretation about what a high vs low result really is (like how a 6/10 rated game or movie is "low"). I personally thought the raw results would have been lower based on some of the doomposting elsewhere in the thread.
I know you're joking, but thankfully they were done away with: https://www.aapnews.com.au/news/australia-permanently-cancels-kyoto-carryover-credits (not the best source but the most important part is at the start)
Thanks for your valuable contribution to !environment@aussie.zone 🫠
The list of options participants were given:
- Eat less meat (50% reduction)
- Stop eating meat
- Avoid food products imported by plane
- Use public transport
- Recycle things more
- Buy fewer new things
- More energy from renewable sources
Some of it is a bit less actionable then "eat less meat", but they're still pretty concrete.
Eh, it's 10 points down on PM approval, with a net approval decline of 40 (!) in 3 months. I think the descriptions are pretty fair when applied to the combination of polls, especially since "worst" is objective in this context.
If you believe the study enough to mock the outcome, then yes, apparently they'll take other actions:
"They are very happy to get more energy from renewable resources, to recycle things more, to buy fewer new things — which all do have an impact."