Australia

Peter Dutton has vowed to cut overall government spending if elected to government, reiterating his plans to scale back the public service. 

Labor has called on the opposition leader to reveal the details of his plan, warning that fewer public servants would mean longer wait times to access services.

Mr Dutton said he would not detail exactly where the spending cuts would come from until after the federal election.

Elon Musk’s Starlink could be used to transmit Australian election voting results

Does anyone know of such a mythical device purchasable in such lands?

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/25584333

While its logo (along with a former advertisement mascot) is a kangaroo, and slogan is "Add some Roo to Your Do!", along with earlier advertisements having the voiceover of an Australian woman, the brand is not Australian owned, made, nor conducts research & development in Australia. The products are manufactured in Europe and the United States by Procter & Gamble, an American company. The brand and initial product was created by American businessperson Thomas Redmond in the late 1970s

Recruitment incentives are needed to boost the number of emergency services volunteers to respond to natural disasters and take the pressure off the ADF.

As the full moon rises tomorrow (Friday March 14), it will be a special sight for those in Aotearoa New Zealand. It will also be worth a look for people along the east coast of Australia.

Rather than being full and bright, the Moon will be partway through a lunar eclipse, the first of two lunar eclipses to occur this year.

New Zealand is in for a treat as the Moon will rise during totality – when the Moon passes completely into Earth’s shadow. Instead of turning dark, the Moon takes on a reddish glow that’s colloquially referred to as a “blood moon”.

Along the east coast of Australia, totality will happen while the Moon is still below the horizon; by the time the Moon rises, it will be in part-shadow.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/19413486

TLDR:

• The New South Wales (NSW) Anti-Slavery Commissioner is reviewing the state government's deal to buy 319 electric buses from Australian-Chinese manufacturers.
• The Chinese company's CATL batteries used in the government's zero emission bus fleet are allegedly linked to Uyghur forced labour camps in the Xinjiang region.
• The Australian Uyghur Tangritagh Women's Association is calling on the government to rip up the contracts and strengthen procurement mandates.

New South Wales Anti-slavery Commissioner James Cockayne is reviewing the state government's procurement of hundreds of electric buses amid concerns that parts of the vehicles were manufactured using slave labour.

In December the state government announced that it had ordered 319 electric buses as part of its goal to get 1,700 of the vehicles onto Sydney roads by 2028.

The contracts were awarded to Australian-Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers Foton Mobility Distribution (FMD) and VDI Australia, which distributes Yutong buses.

The vehicles use batteries made by Chinese firm Contemporary Amperex Technology Company Limited (CATL).

[...]

China processes 60 per cent of the world's lithium needed for EV batteries and the majority of the work is carried out in the Xinjiang region.

[...]

Have you ever walked into an outlet like OPSM, Specsavers, Bailey Nelson, or Laubman & Pank for an eye test and left feeling like you’d been gently pressured into spending $500 on a pair of glasses?

...

[B]osses impose onto optometrists a variety of targets – whether its “converting” eye tests into sales or increasing rates of certain types of tests.

This type of pressure is reportedly causing many optometrists “significant moral distress” and some are starting to fight back.

In a speech in NSW Parliament’s upper house yesterday, Ms Munro bluntly stated that regulations on ratios should change to cut costs in the sector.

“There are ways we can make childcare cheaper. We can change the regulations around educators who are childcare providers,” she said.

“We don’t need five or six highly educated people to look after 50 kids. Maybe we need one.”

This is a stark contrast to the current National Quality Framework, which mandates a maximum ratio of one educator for 10 children over three years old.

Fuck their increases in costs over and over

Dutton confirms he does hold a champagne flute.

I've seen guides for Canada and the EU to boycot american stuff but do we have any of that here in Aus

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/19124166

Social media giant Meta blocked or hid Facebook search results for "Cyclone Alfred" ahead of the tropical storm bearing down on Australia's east coast.

The platform is a key communication channel for emergency coverage in Australia and is used to help broadcast evacuation orders and other updates to residents during a crisis.

Tropical Cyclone Alfred is expected to make landfall between the Gold Coast and southern parts of Wide Bay region as early as Thursday evening as a category two cyclone.

It is forecast to bring destructive winds and the risk of life-threatening flooding.

But general searches about cyclones or "TC Alfred" did produce information and articles in the search results, indicating some kind of throttling about the term Cyclone Alfred specifically.

[...]

The Queensland government has urged the community to visit its disaster monitoring website for the most up-to-date information.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is among many who are condemning the Coalition’s plan to slash 36,000 public service jobs if it wins the federal election. 

The ACTU said on February 25 the cuts would mean one in five public sector workers would be out of their job, badly affecting services from pensions and veterans’ payments, to the operation of regional weather stations.

In short:

Star Entertainment could enter administration on Wednesday with the company set to run out of cash by the end of the week.

The struggling casino operator was suspended from trade on the ASX on Monday.

What's next?"

Star's CEO Steve McCann is still searching for a deal to refinance the company's loans to prevent it from collapsing.

An ABC investigation in Sri Lanka has found popular certification schemes are failing to live up to their ethical promises.

On one estate visited by the ABC, we met tea plucker Vimaladevi, who showed us inside the one-bedroom home where she lives with seven family members.

“I was born in this house and all my children were born here,” she said.

This plantation has Rainforest Alliance certification and is on the supplier list of Tetley, Dilmah, Lipton, Twinings and Yorkshire Tea.

Under Rainforest Alliance certification, these houses need to be “safe, clean and decent”, but Vimaladevi’s roof is damaged and her home regularly floods.

During the dry season, there’s no drinking water. Early last year “for three months we didn’t have water,” she said.

Despite Rainforest Alliance requiring audits to ensure that standards are met, Vimaladevi said she’s never met an auditor.

“Nobody’s come to see our house. You’re the only one to come and see.”