Australia

Mining magnate Gina Rinehart is urging politicians to shift further to the right and adopt US President Donald Trump’s polices as she blames voters and the “left media” for the Coalition’s disastrous election result.

I honestly wonder if she just wants to ruin everything for her own benefit, or she is actually lost in the sauce.

A largely automated pro-Russian news website has been used to "launder" propaganda on Australian topics in the lead-up to this weekend's federal election.

Pravda Australia has increased its output significantly since mid-March, in what experts say is an attempt to sway AI chatbots to spread "Russian narratives".

Liberal home affairs spokesperson James Paterson says any allegations of foreign interference should be taken seriously and investigated.

An advocacy service over the phone for people living with opioid dependence.

There’s not much I can do but share resources and hope it helps someone.

An advocacy service over the phone for people living with opioid dependence.

There’s not much I can do but share resources and hope it helps someone.

Y'all have first past the post / winner takes all, don't you? There was a vote recently and "labor" won from what I'm reading?

Labor, coalition, independents, etc. what kinds of parties are these? I thought Albanese was a "cunt" yet his party seems to have won again? What's going on?

ABC Elections Analyst Antony Green will crunch the numbers on election night for the final time on May 3, after more than three decades in the role. Here's a look back at some memorable moments.

(If you were watching ABC's election coverage near the end of the night this appears to be the same video)

“People only come to polling booths because they know they’ll be rewarded with a sausage, which is also the only reason they come to Bunnings. So it’s a natural fit"

I never carry coins, this is cruel and inhumane to deny me.

Welp

Of 13,334 advertised rental properties...

6 Were affordable and appropriate for a couple on the Age Pension

2 Were affordable and appropriate for a family with 2 children on JobSeeker

21 Were affordable and appropriate for a single person on the minimum wage single parent

0 Were affordable and appropriate for a single parent on Parenting Payment

See also: https://www.buildaballot.org.au/

The questions there are a little biased but the results were generally in line with how I'd vote.

Edit: The rules are changing for permanent residents - see article.

Temporary residents are allowed to keep using their overseas license.

I'm headed for the MUA march in town, it's great having a yarn with all the other workers in the pub afterwards.

I want to know that what does funeral celebrants do, what their actual roles are?

Trying to make this recipe

https://www.justonecookbook.com/wprm_print/baked-japanese-sweet-potatoes-yaki-imo

But it doesn't turn out as good with regular orange sweet potatoes and I live in a regional town and I don't know if my local Asian stores will have them because they don't have websites I can check so I'm wondering is anyone knows which sweet potato type here in Aus is closest to the Japanese sweet potato.

It seems a good time to remember, in amongst the rhetoric of election campaigns that all parties will keep house prices where they are.

The way back to affordability is 10-20 years of marginal house price growth, to enable housing to come into line with long term trends. Fluctuations that are radical pose radical problems for politics. So they opt for the sustained. This is what I think Australia's (and others) future housing comes down to the (continued) debasement of currency through broad (stealth) taxation.

What a game.

I suspect voting preferences will swing around the late 30s quite bad :-/

A few weeks ago for uni I had to write a 750 word policy briefing based on a report of the same name by the Australia Institute, so now that I've been assessed I figured I might as well plagiarize myself a little here.

(the chart is millions of dollars for FY2024-25)

The report estimates that across federal and state/territory governments combined, Australia provided $14.9 billion in fossil fuel subsidies during FY2024-25. These were categorized as “wholly”, “primarily”, or “partly” dedicated to fossil fuel industries. Health and environmental effects / costs were not considered.

Total expenditure is dominated by federal subsidies of $12.5 billion (83.6% of all subsidies), with federal subsidies overwhelmingly comprised of tax concessions rather than direct spending. Federal concessions are in turn dominated by $10.2 billion for the Fuel Tax Credits Scheme (81.7% of federal subsidies) – the 16th most expensive item in the year’s budget – and $1.7 billion for concessional tax rates for aviation fuel usage (13.6% of federal subsidies). Essentially all (99.5%) federal subsidies are categorized as “wholly” dedicated to fossil fuel industries.

State/territory subsidies comprise mostly of Queensland’s $1.8 billion (75.2% of state/territory subsidies), split across spending of $0.8 billion (34.2% of state/territory subsidies) and concessions of $1 billion (41% of state/territory subsidies). Contrasting federal subsidies, state/territory subsidies are a broader mix of “wholly”, “primarily”, and “partly” categorized subsidies and are less concentrated.

Total subsidies have been trending upwards and are projected to continue to rise, largely due to increasing fuel expenditure causing commensurate increases in related tax concessions. The report concludes that “Australia is not taking serious action on climate change” and suggests that “cutting fossil fuel subsidies would not only help achieve genuine reductions in emissions, but would save money that could be spent on public services”.

One part of the report I didn't love was their methodology in how they categorized "wholly" etc, as even RMIT ABC Fact Check called a similar claim "overblown" in 2022 (the beneficiaries of those subsidies is rarely "wholly" the fossil fuel industry as a layperson would understand the term in normal conversation).

The most interesting thing I learnt in my background research outside of the report is that the revenue from the fuel excise -- the counterpart of the majority subsidy, federal tax concessions via the fuel tax credits scheme -- is expected by the PBO to be "effectively zero" by 2050 even though the cost of the tax concessions is expected to continue rising.

I've also infodumped some more notes about this here in a pretty unpolished form, but you shouldn't read that because I'm self-conscious and having an existential crisis over the fact I've publicly published something on a topic I'm far from an expert on.

Nuclear submarines will allow Australia to project maritime power far from our shores. This is critical for an island nation heavily dependent on trade by sea.

This is a counterpiece to Security without submarines: the military strategy Australia should pursue instead of AUKUS, which was published (and posted here) about a week ago.