Nath @ Nath @aussie.zone

Posts

60

Comments

2,182

Joined

2 yr. ago

Moderating

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I mean, Perth installed a rail link in the last five years to the airport. It also costs $5.20 to travel 100km from the airport (if you buy a cash ticket - cheaper if you get a smartrider card).

Melbourne has been talking about it for 60 years, they just can't seem to prioritize it over whatever else the government spends money on. The airport itself has at various times been an impediment to the station as well, though. Much of the debate appears to stem on whether to make a subway or go above ground (cheaper).

So, basically like Theresienstadt.

I agree there needs to be more to stop Neo Nazis. I can’t help but think those powers could be used on other protesters though.

This is also my concern. While I mock these losers for hiding behind their masks like cowards, I also don't want it to become illegal to wear a mask in public/protests. Because I might want to wear one someday for something.

I think she stands a decent chance of getting acquitted. Unknown person in the house semi naked with her daughter. Nobody explains what is going on. Neither the boy nor the daughter admitted he was a boyfriend and it was consensual.

Honestly, I can see this going either way.

Who: Yes, Aussie zone appears to fit the definition of a social media site.

What: "A provider of an age-restricted social media platform must take reasonable steps to prevent age-restricted users having accounts with the age-restricted social media platform." Details are a bit scarce on "reasonable steps". There's a bit about how we are not to collect Government ID details though.

When: Presently December 10, 2025 but the bill is worded such that they are prepared to shift it.

Why: Protect the kiddies from the evils of the site. By the way, if you spot any actual bad content please report it.

How: and now we get to the big question. I truly don't see how you'd enforce this on Lemmy. Even if a perfect system were introduced to verify everyone's ages somehow, nothing stops people from shifting to a non-australian instance and just keep using the site. Or just spinning up their own private instance at home. Lemmy federation works a bit like email - imagine trying to stop kids from being able to access email. Again, I just don't see how you'd accomplish that.

So, we're doing what the government is doing. Keeping an eye on things and waiting to see how the big players respond. I'd love to see Facebook or YouTube to just go 'nup' and withdraw from the market. The public backlash would be insane and this bill would quickly vanish. People are asleep on this thing because they don't really see it affecting them. Yet.

The UK has just introduced an age verification thingy, and it's off to a poor start. The words are nice, but putting them into action is not trivial.

In Australia at least, those cards are everywhere in populated areas. Supermarkets and department stores pretty-much all stock them. I'd say that over 90% of Australians live within 3km of a store that sells Steam cards and takes cash. Most of us even closer than that.

I hear you - if I no longer paid my tax now, it wouldn't make a difference to the ATO financially. However, if all middle-income taxpayers in my demographic who pay between around $30,000 and $80,000 in tax were to stop paying the ATO, they would feel that.

I forget the tax brackets decades later, but $90x2-3 days a week was getting taxed enough that I was losing about two hours per shift on tax. I remember thinking of it in hours at work. The first two hours paid Mr. tax man, the remaining six were for me. I remember that I was making $7 per hour. My annual tax came out at less than $2k, before deductions etc. If all the kids in the same boat as me didn't have to pay tax, I doubt it'd make much difference to the ATO.

Your point is sound because I usually use a credit card for this, but most of my Steam purchases come from buying gift cards. However, I could easily buy those gift cards with cash.

Your comment implies this is not possible/common.

It rankled with me when I was 15-17 that I had to pay income tax as a kid making ~$70-$90 per day. My paltry income would be doing nothing for Mr tax man, but that money would be much better given to me on payday. I think I would have signed up to vote and get a say in how it was spent. But there are also a lot of 16 year old morons who would act in predictable ways if forced to vote.

Maybe introduce it as optional until you are 18? And then it goes compulsory.

I do. It's still a comment in a community and if we delete it here, it's gone for everyone I think.

What makes you come to this conclusion? Given that Australia has been connected to the British crown since colonial days - before federation, and we haven't gone down that path, I'm wondering what makes you think we will? The UK has had its attachment for half a millennia, they also seem to be doing ok.

In fact, I'll go one further and give a counter-example: India detached from the monarchy nearly 80 years ago and I think they've gone way further down that path. Presidents Modi and Trump have a fair amount in common.

So, I think I disagree with you on this point. At least, I can't see what you're getting at.

I don't call myself a monarchist. But I am in favour of someone holding the power to send us to an election if we get a non-functional government. Whoever that is needs to be totally independent of our day-to-day politics and essentially un-bribable.

Right now, that's the king in England. I'm not against disconnecting from that - but like I said, I don't know where else you'll find someone who is outside daily politics in Australia and can't be bribed to act against our interests. If you have a name, I'm all ears (so is the king! 😆).

If you are proposing we just do away with that, then I'd love to know how you'd deal with an Australian Trump administration. Because 3-4 years of that doesn't sound fun.

While Australia is in that supply chain, "stopping it" wouldn't do anything. For a start, the manufacturer/seller of the parts is Lockheed Martin. The government can sanction a country and tell LM they can't send their parts from Australia to Israel.

But all that will happen from this is LM will send the parts to their USA operations and from there, they'll magically be reassigned to Israel. Or worse: They move production of those parts to another nation and Australians lose their jobs. Either way, the parts will still get to Israel. The government holds no actual cards in this equation.

It might be time for another referendum on this topic. However, given the chaos that has come out of the USA in the hands of a rogue government, I'd be hesitant to completely remove the role the monarchy plays in our government. We need that check on power and I don't know what you'd replace it with.

So this entire article is a beat-up in response to a single tweet:

https://twitter.com/PalmerLuckey/status/1947027209845383279

There is no laptop. There is no potential laptop coming soon.

I was indifferent, it's true. People who sell porn have had issues with the likes of PayPal and credit card payments for decades. I wasn't surprised by the move, nor did I blame Valve.

Am I bothered that it was instigated by this mob? Not particularly. If it weren't them, it would have been some other mob. They were only pointing at something the payment companies are already pre-disposed to disassociate from.

Taking credit for it is a bit of overreach. They pointed at Valve and said "Look! they have porn on their platform!" They didn't actually do anything.

The argument that short-term suites are not really suited to long-term living is fair. Do these suites have proper kitchens with ovens? Laundry nooks? Or are we going to have a shared laundromat on the ground costing $20 to do your weekly washing?

The rest is pure Nimbyism. If the government actually adapts these dwellings for safe and stable housing, it can only be a win.

Well, a young American dude went missing in the desert in WA in the 90's and that had wall-to-wall coverage in the news for weeks until he was found also.

I think @DiaDeLosMuertos is right - the driving factor in the interest was that he was a tourist, not that he was any particular nationality/gender. So yes: I think a young Turkish bloke going missing would get just as much coverage.

Huh. A Switch 2 game besides Mario Kart World. I haven't been able to justify upgrading. I'll likely go to Steam Deck instead.