Australia

Unsure if it's ok to promote here, but similar to /r/CarsAustralia, we have Cars in aussie.zone cars@aussie.zone

Feel free to join, contribute, and help grow this fledgling community.

Australians will soon be able to ban themselves from all online gambling companies in every state and territory using just one form, almost five years after legislation was introduced to parliament.

A national self-exclusion register for online gambling dubbed “BetStop” will be launched on 21 August, the federal government says. It will replace systems in the states and territories that have been criticised as ineffective as they do not cover all bookmakers

There’s also an anonymous opinion piece from an affected person here: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/10/betstop-australian-anti-gambling-register?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

If you’re thinking “why can’t they just not gamble?” There’s also an excellent You Can’t Ask That episode about problem gamblers on iView (Season 2 if you’re looking for it).

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/369276

The plastics consumed yearly by Australians have a greenhouse emissions impact equivalent to 5.7m cars - more than a third of the cars on Australia's roads, new analysis suggests.

Kate Noble, the policy manager of WWF Australia's No Plastics in Nature program, said: "While plastic is not one of the biggest emitters, and the focus on the biggest emitters is absolutely right, it's also right that we should understand what the impact of our growing plastic consumption is in terms of emissions."

Over 20 years, plastic made from virgin fossil fuels was 2.2 and 2.7 times more emissions-intensive than mechanically recycled plastic and plant-based plastic respectively, the modelling showed.

Dr Deborah Lau, who leads the CSIRO's Ending Plastic Waste mission and was not involved in the report, said the analysis "Recognises that carbon emissions should not be the only environmental measure when considering alternatives to plastic products".

Kevin Bonham is on aus.social now @kevinbonham fyi

Good take here, but I think most people would have thought a double dissolution just around the time of this referendum would be bad anyways.

Government reveals a draft framework has been formulated for how ChatGPT rollout will work in schools

Paywall bypass link

Wow. That’s US levels.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1232260

Rentals in NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and ACT dropped below 18C more than 80% of the time, report finds

The education minister, Jason Clare, said opposition leader Peter Dutton had shown “all the empathy of a rock” in responding to Robodebt.

Clare told Sky News:

The fact that Peter Dutton on the day that this came down, went straight to politics showed that this bloke doesn’t get it. It’s not about that. It’s about Jennifer [Miller]. It’s about people like her. You know, a number of people lost their live others tried to take their own life, ended up in hospital and they’re still dealing with that. That’s the real human consequence of this. And that should always be kept in mind here.

I'd say that a rock would have shown more sympathy to the victims than a potato

Greetings folks,

As per the question, how does one get involved with a lobby group? Reason for the question is because like most, I'm tired of this property crisis and I really feel we should do what Canada did and cut off foreign purchasing to our real estate industry as this will bring down the pricing of housing and potentially even your rent.

Thanks

Chemical analysis has identified the Cadia Hill goldmine as a potential source of some of the lead found in samples collected from nearby residential rainwater tanks in central west New South Wales, the mine's management has said.

Under the new licence conditions, Cadia Valley Operations was required to engage a qualified independent consultant to provide an interpretation report of the lead isotope sampling results from a community water tank testing project that the mine had conducted in March and April.

Cadia Valley Operations general manager, Mick Dewar, told Guardian Australia that preliminary test results showed a "Slight overlap" with the characterisation of the mine's lead isotope and the lead found in samples collected from local residents' rainwater tanks.

Dewar said the overlapping lead isotopes were found in the samples with "The lowest lead concentrations" of all those where lead was present.

"The highest concentrations in the tanks actually set far off the Cadia characterisation," he said, suggesting the lead in those tanks came from another source.

It's embarrassing for Australia that this entire saga occurred within in the last 10 years. Not some long ago scandal when general community sensibilities were different. While it was occurring it didn't pass the pub test, yet it carried on for 4 years.

I hope some of the criminal/corrupt activities that have been referred to law enforcement by the royal commission result in meaningful consequences for those responsible.

This week has seen Earth break or equal its record for the hottest day on four occasions and set new July highs for ocean temperatures. While in the Antarctic, the amount of sea ice is well below that recorded in previous years.

I beg for a world where my kids and grandchildren can live in health and safety. I don't know if that will be the case.

How the Centenary of Melbourne Birthday Clock Cake ended up thousands of kilometres away remains a mystery

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/331418

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/331416

The use of guardian dogs for livestock protection has a long history - farmers have been using dogs to protect their livestock from predators for thousands of years.

Books on agriculture written 2,000 years ago in ancient Rome made it clear that livestock guardian dogs were essential for successful farming and gave detailed instructions on their selection and management.

What if it is just too hard to keep this system working in the long term? Maybe predators initially avoid farms protected by guardian dogs but eventually learn to outsmart or intimidate them and go back to killing livestock; or perhaps farmers find guardian dogs too difficult to manage in the long term and give up on them.

Some farmers gave up on guardian dogs because of two kinds of problems: 24% had trouble with dog misbehaviour, and 19% had trouble with neighbours who objected to the presence of these dogs close to their own farms.

From the answers, we estimate that farmer-to-farmer contact is increasing the total number of Australian farms with guardian dogs by 5% per year.

We’re in the season of tax returns and now is a great time for scammers to strike. Here’s some things to keep an eye out for but it’s not exclusive.

• unless you have engaged an accountant, no one will contact you about your tax except myGov
• if myGov contact you, they won’t tell you to do anything except check your inbox (exception is security codes but you will have initiated the reason for this)
• if myGov contact you, DO NOT CLICK ANY LINKS. They don’t send them.
• if you get a message from mygov and it shows a phone number, it’s a scam. MyGov messages will only say they are from myGov. This isn’t a guarantee that it’s legit, but the lack of it means scam.

Please add more tips below to ensure people don’t get caught out.

Another bloody myGov scam

I have a loved one recovering from opioid addiction currently and they went to their appointment today only to be informed going forward it'll be $380 per session (used to be free). This applies to everyone except health care card holders.

It appears that they've privatised the pharmacy system behind it. Before, the medications for the treatment were dispensed by the hospital. Now they are dispensed by the nearby chemist to whom you directly pay your money.

Some people need this treatment as frequently as weekly. I guess it's back to the drugs again for most of them or more likely even more people choking up the emergency rooms and mental health system when they can't afford to be treated. Absolutely shocked that this has flown so far under the radar.

Edit: Did some more digging, looks like it might be the federal government cutting funding. Rip NSW too. Up to 17 addiction treatment centers are at risk of closing their doors too.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-05/opioid-treatment-funding-budget/102426466

Australian Labor Government Approves First Thermal Coal Mine

Idemitsu Kosan gets nine-year extension for Queensland mine
Decision angers Greens party, may complicate Labor’s agenda

By James Fernyhough
5 July 2023

Australia has approved its first thermal coal project since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese came to power, drawing criticism from climate groups and the Greens party.

The decision, made on Friday, allows Idemitsu Kosan Co. to mine power-station coal at Ensham in Queensland for another nine years. The Japanese company will be producing 4.5 million tons a year of the fuel at the mine, which is equivalent to around 2.5% of Australia’s thermal coal exports in 2022.

The decision shows the tricky environmental and economic balancing act for Albanese’s Labor government. It won last year’s election on a platform of stricter emissions targets and support for renewable energy, but it has also backed the expansion of coal and natural gas production, Australia’s second- and third-biggest export earners.

Albanese’s government approved another mine in Queensland for metallurgical coal, used in steel-making, in May.

The greenlighting of new fossil-fuel projects may complicate Labor’s legislative agenda in the Senate, where it doesn’t hold the balance of power and often needs the support of the Greens.

“Labor’s current climate strategy is to condemn a decade of Liberal inaction in Parliament, whilst hoping you don’t notice their massive expansion of coal & gas at the exact same time,” Greens leader Adam Bandt said on Twitter on Tuesday.

The Ensham decision was made according to existing environmental rules, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said in a statement, adding she had blocked three coal mines since coming to office. The government remained committed to rolling out renewable energy, she said.

Climate advocacy group Lock the Gate said the approval would worsen climate change, estimating it would contribute an additional 100 million tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere over its lifetime — about a fifth of Australia’s annual emissions.

The coal would be mined after Idemitsu sells the project to a consortium led by South African coal miner Thungela Resources Ltd., in a deal reached earlier this year. Thungela was spun off from Anglo American Plc in 2021.

Growing demand for coal in India and Southeast Asia will underpin an increase in Australia’s exports of the fuel by volume for at least the next three years, according to an Australian government report released this week. The country earned A$113.8 billion ($76 billion) from coal shipments in the year through June 2022, almost a fifth of total export earnings.