Australia

These were the top posts across Aussie Zone at the end of this week

Top 5 from Australia:

• Weekly Random Thread #44 31-10-2023
• YouTube Premium family plan price update ($17.99/month -> $32.99/month!)
• John Howard says he ‘always had trouble’ with the concept of multiculturalism
• Australian producers to keep prosecco, feta and parmesan as European Union trade deal doomed
• This Soldier Threatened to Sue Me - Friendlyjordies

Top 5 from Aussie Enviro:

• Rooftop PV takes a bite out of everyone’s lunch as minimum demand records tumble again
• Rare white platypus named Bloop stuns researchers as genetic abnormality found
• Escaping underground: the eerie new age of bushfire bunkers
• Wildlife friendly netting
• Beetaloo Basin greenhouse emissions significantly underestimated, climate institute claims

Top 5 from Australian News:

• Only 2% of freight between Melbourne and Sydney goes by rail – putting Australia’s emissions targets at risk
• Elderly Aboriginal woman repeatedly dragged across the ground by government-funded security guards
• Coles subjecting employees to bag checks in crackdown on some of Australia’s lowest paid workers
• Greens and Coalition slam Australian abstention of United Nations vote for ceasefire in Gaza
• Major thunderstorm outbreak to deliver much needed rain to Queensland and NSW

Top 5 from Australian Politics:

• All of Australia's living prime ministers except for Paul Keating have joined to express their support for Israel

Top 5 from World News:

So this is some bollocks. Guess I'll be cancelling our plan since it's only used by two of us.

Current price $17.99/month, new price $32.99/month.

If they boiled the frog better I would probably have accepted a $5/month price rise, and then another later... But close to doubling in one go is a no from me dawg.

Thank you for being a loyal member throughout our journey. We created YouTube Premium so that you could enjoy all the videos and music you love without interruptions.‌

To continue delivering great service and features, we are increasing the YouTube Premium family plan price to A$32.99/month. We don't make these decisions lightly, and this update will allow us to continue to improve YouTube Premium and support the creators and artists you watch on YouTube. This is the first ever price increase for your subscription.

Links to cancellation etc: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/12400348?sjid=6028684095030617608-AP

G'day all! Just thought I'd chuck up this random thread for a bit of a yarn. You know, sometimes it's nice to have a chinwag about anything and everything – could be your latest DIY project, a recipe you're stoked about, or even just how your day's been. It's all about sharing the good vibes and having a fair dinkum chat. So, what's the goss? Jump on in and let's have a good old chit-chat, like a bunch of mates sitting 'round the table. Cheers!

For apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/queensland-digital-licence/id6456264316

These were the top posts across Aussie Zone at the end of this week

Top 5 from Australia:

• Weekly Random Thread #43 24-10-2023
• This seems to happen more and more recently
• 'Super rare, beautiful animal': White echidna spotted near Tasmania's Cradle Mountain
• The ‘Yes’ case responds: ‘It’s a white flag from Labor’
• Children and babies ‘at risk’ as childcare centres scramble for staff, insiders say

Top 5 from Aussie Enviro:

• Exhausted Queensland fire crews battle 420 bushfires in a week amid warnings of worst fire season in 70 years
• 'The public needs to know': Ecologists and climate scientists reveal devastating culture of suppression
• “The SEC is back:” Victoria flicks switch on state-owned utility in push to 95 pct renewables
• 'Super rare, beautiful animal': White echidna spotted near Tasmania's Cradle Mountain
• 'Irreversible, catastrophic impacts': UN warns humanity must act now to survive

Top 5 from Australian News:

• Neo-Nazis walk free from court, spared further jail time over attack on Victorian hikers
• Front page of yesterday's West Australian
• Bruce Lehrmann revealed as high-profile man charged with Toowoomba rape
• A full year of paid parental leave and no activity test on childcare subsidies among ideas put to government by women's taskforce - ABC News
• Zak Grieve freed on parole after serving 12 years of life sentence for murder he didn't take part in - ABC News

Top 5 from Australian Politics:

• Indigenous leaders break their silence, call referendum defeat 'appalling and mean-spirited'
• Centrelink jobseeker payments suspended more than 450,000 times in three months
• Liberal MP delivers ultimatum to force Bridget Archer from opposition
• With Albanese in the US, Israel-Gaza conflict is shining a light on the differences between his deputies

Top 5 from World News:

• Israel claims dozens of Hamas fighters killed as Gazans face deadliest night of bombing, UN says 'clear violations' of international law committed
• Israeli attacks wipe out entire families in Gaza - Amnesty International
• Stop asking everyone to condemn Hamas
• Gigi Hadid TARGETED By ISRAELI STATE Online; MSM CENSOR Dissident Views On Palestine: Report

After a week of silence, leading ‘Yes’ campaigners have begun to detail three ways forward for the movement – including fighting to keep Peter Dutton out of office.

Quick read

• Hobart resident Zach was on a trip around the west coast of Tasmania when he spotted a white animal on the side of the road, which turned out to be an echidna.
• A zoologist says echidnas with this colouring in the wild are rare, with exact numbers unclear.
• Experts say it could be an albino, or that its colouring may be caused by a genetic condition called leucism.

I don't usually post stuff from rip off news.com but this got me

“Those landlords might prefer to have a space sit empty rather than drop the asking rent, which would impact the value of their asset.”

That's broken af

G'day all! Just thought I'd chuck up this random thread for a bit of a yarn. You know, sometimes it's nice to have a chinwag about anything and everything – could be your latest DIY project, a recipe you're stoked about, or even just how your day's been. It's all about sharing the good vibes and having a fair dinkum chat. So, what's the goss? Jump on in and let's have a good old chit-chat, like a bunch of mates sitting 'round the table. Cheers!

If I choose to drive on anything except the freeway, I get told the road is closed, drive it anyway (the road is, after all, not closed) and spend the entire journey with a mapless screen. Great 4G+ reception the whole way. Happens all over NSW. Weird.

These were the top posts across Aussie Zone at the end of this week

Top 5 from Australia:

• Weekly Random Thread #42 17-10-2023
• ‘Oh fuck, I’ve let everyone down’ local AEC staffer realises he forgot to rig the vote like everyone said he would
• Sara Lee Crumbles as company heads to voluntary administration (headliner writers must've waited their whole career for that pun)
• Scratch the surface of the Voice results, and a more complicated picture emerges — ABC News
• Fossil Fuel Voice to Parliament to Remain in Place — The Shovel

Top 5 from Aussie Enviro:

• RET is still the best: Why it’s time to renew Australia’s renewable energy policy
• Seed bombing for native pollinators?
• We need new solutions to reach Australia’s 2030 renewable goals

Top 5 from Australian News:

• Indigenous communities overwhelmingly voted yes to Australia’s voice to parliament
• Today, I tried to call Centrelink 17 times. I got through to hold music once, then it hung up
• NSW will push on with First Nations treaty despite Voice referendum's defeat. Here's what it means
• Distinguished service medals awarded to army's top brass might be 'illegal'
• Lisa Wilkinson suing Network Ten for $370,000 over legal bills for Bruce Lehrmann defamation case

Top 5 from Australian Politics:

• 'Not the end of the road': PM accepts referendum result, maps path forward for Indigenous recognition
• Days after Voice vote, Peter Dutton waters down Indigenous recognition commitment
• The libertarian think tank that helped build the ‘No’ case
• Scratch the surface of the Voice results, and a more complicated picture emerges
• Colours of Palestinian flag take over streets in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth

Top 5 from World News:

• Many rushed to condemn Israel for the Gaza hospital blast. But what does the evidence say?
• The Hindu Nationalists Using the Pro-Israel Playbook

Hi, I found this guy on my bike mirror this morning. What kind of spider is this? Is it dangerous? How can I remove it safely? What should I do to prevent it from coming again?

So I had a crash. My car has been assessed as a repairable write off and I have to decide if I push the insurer to repair or I take the payout. I owe no money but would be out of pocket to purchase new(ish). I was not intending to trade it in or sell in the foreseeable future.

I understand the process if I opt for a write off. If I push for repair I know it needs review and scutiny.

I am thinking of pushing for repair. Anyone else gone down that path? Any gotchas or experiences to share? I really am in two minds right now.

Edit: had long chat with the repairer and reviewed the damage and went with write off. Panels and all the suspension on one side was stuffed and needed replacement. The risk of other stuff being just out enough to cause future problems, and risk of issues from sitting out for months waiting on parts was just more than I wanted. Got a fair payout. Bye beasty. Thanks for crumpling so I didn't...

Aussie dessert makers Sara Lee have filed for voluntary administration as they seek a new buyer for the company and are currently undergoing restructuring so their staff don't lose their jobs.

A tip truck driver who hit and killed a woman cycling to work did not see the Brisbane nurse due to a large blind spot, a Coronial investigation has revealed.

The death of avid cyclist, Carolyn Lister, in 2020 has been labelled “tragic and unnecessary” by cycling advocates.

Coroner Anne Thacker’s report into Ms Lister’s death was finalised this week and detailed the registered nurse’s final moments.

On June 30 Ms Lister left for work at 7:17am on her new bicycle after she ate breakfast and read the paper.

Just 20 minutes later she would be dead, after CCTV captured her at a red light appearing to indicate to a tip truck driver she would be riding straight in front of him in the right hand lane of O’Connell Tce, Bowen Hills.

The lights turned green and Ms Lister cycled straight ahead, the truck driver moved forward and began to turn right onto Bowen Bridge Rd, when the vehicle struck the back of her bike.

She was killed instantly after being run over by the passenger side wheels.

The 50-year-old was a keen cyclist – with 10 years experience – and would normally ride along a bikeway to the hospital, crossing at a traffic light and using a footpath to reach the hospital’s cycle centre parking.

However, the week before her death, construction to remove combustible blocked the footpath north of the cycle centre forcing her to take the alternate route.

The report found the truck driver, contracted to construction materials company Boral, was speaking on the phone, legally using hands-free Bluetooth and did not see Ms Lister.

The vehicle was not equipped with, and did not legally require, blind spot mirrors, cameras or sensors, despite recommendations made in a coronial inquest into the death of Danish student Rebekka Meyer, who was hit by a truck while riding on Annerley Road in South Brisbane in 2014.

Ms Meyer’s death inquest called for “conventional shaped heavy vehicles [to be] prohibited unless they are fitted with appropriate technologies to warn the driver of any obstacles or other road users within the forward blind spot of the truck”.

Ms Thacker’s inquest said this recommendation was not implemented as the cost of retrofitting and disparity in state legislation with vehicles frequently crossing state borders.

Bicycle Queensland CEO Lisa Davies-Jones said they had been “very disturbed” to read the coronial report.

“She died because there is no appropriate cycling corridor around the Royal Brisbane Hospital, a major workplace. The truck which hit her did not have safety features which have since been made mandatory for new trucks in Australia,” she said.

Advocates Space 4 Cycling wrote that if the truck had additional safety features Ms Lister would have likely made it work and back home safely.

“We had hoped a full Coronial Inquest might provide a more comprehensive analysis of the system that failed Carolyn and the truck driver that morning,” the advocacy group wrote.

The cycling advocacy group said the report left many unanswered questions including why the route the truck driver took was approved, what consideration was given to how cyclists might access the RBWH Cycle Centre safely while the footpath was closed and if the road design is suitable.

“We hoped the community could be reassured that adoption of better practices would make cycling safer for them and their loved ones,” they wrote.

“Instead, the only real response to the tragedy so far has been some “educational” and “awareness” campaigns directed at cyclists to help us understand that trucks with dangerous blind-spots are our problem to deal with.”

A spokesman for Boral welcomed the coroner‘s report and noted that they have acted to ensure that their fleet has appropriate blind-spot mirrors or cameras installed.

“And to restrict the route that our fleet and contractors travel through in Bowen Hills so as to avoid the intersection in question,” he said.

“The contractor truck involved in the accident was compliant with Boral’s fleet standards at the time. We have now defined as part of our minimum national fleet specifications that blind spot mirrors are a requirement across all company and contractor fleet.”

G'day all! Just thought I'd chuck up this random thread for a bit of a yarn. You know, sometimes it's nice to have a chinwag about anything and everything – could be your latest DIY project, a recipe you're stoked about, or even just how your day's been. It's all about sharing the good vibes and having a fair dinkum chat. So, what's the goss? Jump on in and let's have a good old chit-chat, like a bunch of mates sitting 'round the table. Cheers!

Satirical

Direct link

Some interesting data analysis here. I’ll pose the same question as the author:

…by majority vote, Australians have made clear that a constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament is not how they want to respond to these crises.
An urgent question emerges — what is?