Australia

I'm in Brisbane and watching the search for the 9 year old girl play out in real time via the local Facebook group was pretty rough.

From the first message saying they've wandered off, to the initial optimism of people joining the search by walking the local parks and creeks / looking up camera footage etc to see if she'd walked past, to the final post by the family member saying they'd been found deceased all within a couple of hours.

Stark contrast to the updates from other people enjoying holidays and time with family etc.

Whether you’re seeing family, staying home or working your arse off, hope you have a happy Christmas. Be good to each other. ❤️

This is a day old. But if you see this, are in NSW and have those specific pies check the date on them

The city I live in, Port Macquarie, has awful cell phone reception basically everywhere (I'm on the Vodafone network).

Is this something I can bring up with the local council, or elected representative?

I can't believe I live in a city of 50,000 people and I'm unable to receive phone calls from my house.

Report also calls for spit hoods to be banned and strip searches to be limited after UN visit last year

Dale seems to think he's getting a break

Via various Freedom of Information requests, it looked like the Reserve Bank of Australia has never studied, reported, briefed, spreadsheeted or generally put a thought in writing about the inflationary impact of the looming stage-three tax cuts.

Day X is here. The public hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice will be on 20-21 February. It may be the final chance for the UK to stop Julian’s extradition.

Dealing with a government welfare system for the first time in a while.

Last time there were still people you’d talk to who’d smooth over the process.

Now it’s all online and automated.

And holy fucking hellscape Batman.

They’ve just shipped the whole bureaucracy along with their own software bugs.

And as the welfare seeker you have to navigate all of the details and jargon (and bugs/broken links) without any assurance that anything is ok, hoping the money comes.

#welfare

@australia

Housing and welfare groups call on Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton to show leadership amid rise in ‘nonsense’ rhetoric

Save you a click:

Australia’s number one grocery prison has announced a brand new policy stating that loss prevention officers will be granted license to shoot any suspected shoplifter on sight.

“Do you think this is a fucking joke?” sprayed a nameless executive wearing a balaclava at a press conference.

“We put in the security gates, the guards, the cameras everywhere and even fitted our creepy cleaning robots with lasers, and we’re still seeing a small amount of people who are doing the wrong thing, it’s not on!”

Woolworths have also announced 9 cents a litre fuel discount as a reward for any information leading to the capture of a shoplifter this holiday season. “This Christmas, snitches get the riches,” said the masked executive.

“Woolworths needs to be treated with the respect a corporate giant deserves,” he said, as he gently patted a baseball bat in his hands. “What we did to Australian farmers we can do to you. Don’t tempt me.”

“Our new partially trained loss prevention officers didn’t have the skills to be full police officers, so we’ve given them jobs as a private militia. They are authorised to use lethal force in any situation where they believe someone is taking our overpriced, invisibly shrunk products without paying above full price.”

The new security comes in the wake of a successful strike from a Coles Brand MQ9 reaper drone which neutralised a customer who allegedly stole a red seedless grape.