Completely agree but sadly even if the war was to stop tomorrow the shut down of oil producing and refining facilities means that there will be a shortage for the next 6 months (apologies for not having a reference. I can’t find the statement which I think was made by the IEA but will add it if I can).

Hopefully the state and federal governments will start pushing for more subsidies for public transport.

I don’t normally wade into these threads because they’re normally very emotionally charged but discrediting people cause they no longer live in the country of question denies displaced communities a voice.

Your statement would mean refugees or individuals who had the funds to legally (or illegally) escape from places like Syria under the Assad regime should be ignored as they don’t live in the country (roughly 6.2 million refugees or displaced individuals from as early as 2011).

While we should always take care when taking statements from any individual or group at face value and we should always complement them with a wide range of research from various sources we should never discredit someone’s voice because of something as arbitrary as not living in a country anymore.

This is a real step backwards, we all know that cage raised lobbyists have a far worse quality of life. I would beseech the government to rethink this approach for their wellbeing

Except that would mean forums like Steam or whirlpool would require people to verify their age is over 16 before posting but as far as I can tell they have no such requirements.

It seems to me that people can still quite easily set up forums for special interest topics and groups without issue from the government.

I’ll second that anecdotal comment. I was at a fundraiser for Ukraine earlier this year and there was a lot of frustration at how the Palestinian Israel conflict has had overwhelming support with protests and outcry from the general public but the invasion of Ukraine has been met with far less observed fervour and protests. I would imagine other groups feel harbour similar sentiments.

A few things. Firstly, I don’t know how VPN usage has come into this discussion as I haven’t made mention of VPN usage. Secondly, I’ve just not had the same experience. I use a VPN for all my devices and have never had a single issue using Google and it’s services both with and without an account so it could be an issue on your end.

What I find fascinating about this whole thing is the almost universal simping that has occurred in defence of these large websites like Facebook, Twitter (X), Reddit etc. I find it amusing that people who would decry using these large websites suddenly need to defend them.

It’s pretty depressing to see how many people have been ignoring the genuine harm that can occur using social media. During recent filings in the US, Meta hid and defunded research that showed a causal relationship with mental health and social media usage in under 13’s along a myriad of other issues identified.

These new restrictions aren’t perfect and really should be reviewed in the future, however something does need to happen and asking the industry to self regulate has resulted in no meaningful changes occurring.

And yet in your own article it can be quoted:

“Search engines will not be required to implement age assurance measures for users who are not logged in to their services, according to the new rules.”

So I fail to see how you will be unable to use Google.

Please don’t spread misinformation.

Under 16’s can still access websites like YouTube and Google but will not be able to interact (i.e liking videos) and comment on content. They will still be able to view videos and publicly shared content.

At least from my experience there just isn’t the same reverence about the PM as there is about the presidency. We’ve had a PM who would catch the train for official events. A comedy group called the Chaser even did a skit trying to get a hug from the old PM John Howard which I don’t think they could have pulled off in the US.

I think it does somewhat speak for itself that we’ve had so few constitutional crises that the Whitlam dismissal remains as common knowledge as it does. It’s not perfect but our government does appear to uphold tradition and precedent.

The mostly apolitical nature of the GG and the judiciary has helped us against bad actors who would abuse the powers of government. I could only imagine the damage that could occur if we had elections for our GG. Imagine someone like Clive Palmer getting the role and being expected to not abuse it.

Oh I know! It’s the first line from the Clarke and Dawe skit “The Front Fell Off”.

I was just saying the next line!

Well, how was it un-typical?

No problem! Happy to post more if people want photos of Australian fauna!

Here’s a photo I snagged of some tawny frogmouths which had the misfortune of trying to sleep next to a construction site. Not the best photo but they are beautiful birds!

Really disappointing. Standing alongside autocrats who are responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Ukranians. Even worse that he attended a military parade which is being used to spruik weapons.

Seems similar to Australia’s love for musk sticks! Thankfully I don’t think actual musk has been used for a long time!

I personally use a mix of grayjay and revanced. Grayjay is missing a few QoL features like a sleep timer. You can always make a burner account for revanced if you want to keep to a single app but honestly I find it works fine when I use it!

I wonder if they limited negative gearing to new properties it would allow established units/houses to be sold and encourage more houses and unit to be developed? Could limit it to 5 - 10 years before you lose the negative gearing benefits.

Agreed, if anything I’d like to see mandatory civic classes added to the curriculum before reducing the voting age. There’s no point in lowering the voting age if people fundamentally don’t understand how our democracy works.