It really shows on the roads tbh, the pandemic caused so much more aggressive driving.

Wait, the rest of the country doesn’t have a fuel cycle?? Huh.

Pro: you can reliably get “cheap” fuel on a Tuesday.

Con: Everyone gets fuel on Tuesdays, and you will sit in traffic to fuel up. And if you run out of fuel on a Wednesday or Thursday, you’re gonna be (even more) broke.

Australia is becoming an anti-intellectual country. Shameful that this should happen at all, let alone under a Labor government.

It’s always a grim reality check to see how easily foreign nations influence Australia. I hope everyone doubles down and keeps saying the phrase.

Not the worst federal government in recent times, but probably the most disappointing.

Too early to call. The senate is the biggest worry for 2028, but I just think they’ll gain senators at the expense of the Liberals and Nationals.

If they are somehow able to sustain their trend and grow over multiple election cycles, I would be pretty worried about a hung parliament. I can’t imagine any coalition with One Nation in it being particularly functional though.

I don’t know anything about good security measures tbf, but damn, a fence would ruin the whole design of Parliament house…

Edit: it’s a 10 year old post, surprised I didn’t hear about this until now

Jeez, what does one have to do? Put a big green tick next to the Star of David and a big red cross through the Israel flag?

I don’t like any of the Liberals but Ley was one of the few remaining ones that seemed at least partially human. Taylor gives the ick.

I hope the people of Sydney keep protesting today after this. Every one of these policemen need to be held accountable, there is no justifiable context for this.

What a flog. A lot of people need to resign over this, including Minns himself.

There is no acceptable context for many of the videos we have seen.

The media is one thing, but the silence from politicians is deafening. I haven’t checked in the last day but on the 27th I only saw 4 representatives from WA even mention it.

Roy Morgan polling found ~70% support for for ‘celebrating Australia day on the 26th of January’, but only around 59% for ‘Australia day should not be moved from the 26th of January’.

Sigh… peak culture wars.

The IPA is a right-wing think tank that pretty much exists to mislead the public, so take this data with a grain of salt. As a side note, that article really sounds like it’s written by a teenager haha, the wording is so weird and cringy and not certainly not befitting a statistical report.

It is true that the vast majority of Australians support celebrating on 26th January though, even if the extent may not be as large as portrayed here (pollsters generally seem to show ~60-70% support). But still, to have 30-40% of the population not keen on celebrating the national holiday is extreme (hell, even 10-20% would be pretty noteworthy). The notion that “the debate is over” is pretty flawed for that reason alone.

Ultimately, even though I haven’t really heard any strong arguments for keeping the date, I don’t think there’s enough public willpower to change the date until we one day leave the monarchy, and hopefully pick a nice date in summer to recognise a new level of independence as a nation.

Well I tried…

How dumb does an arts organisation have to be to still be doing shit like this? Melbourne symphony orchestra’s reputation is still hurt (and they’re still missing out on gigs, too) from cancelling that soloist that dedicated a piece to the journalists of Gaza, and that was a good two years ago.

Get vaccinated ya bloody hippies

Not super familiar with Resolve polls but I do find this pretty difficult to believe, that only 16% of the country would OPPOSE a ban on Palestine protests. Would definitely need to see similar polling independently reproduced to take it seriously.

That said, I’d wager a non-trivial chunk of the country is apathetic and would be against all protests, full stop.

Favourite (voting lifetime): Albanese (slim pickings for me lol)

Favourite (lifetime): Gillard

Favourite (all time): Whitlam

Most hated: Morrison (honourable mentions to Abbott and Howard)

Well deserved, although I’m still going to soapbox that the Baudin’s Cockatoo (which unfortunately didn’t win) is under immediate threat by the proposed Alcoa mine in the southwest Jarrah forests! It’s some of the last habitat they have left, and once it’s gone, it’s gone for good.

I do love tawnies though. They’re such characters.