zero_gravitas

joined 2 years ago
 

Flooding at unprecedented levels has inundated towns and left residents stranded in the Mid North Coast and Hunter region of New South Wales, with parts of Taree, Wingham and Glenthorne of most concern.

NSW State Emergency Services personnel have rescued hundreds of people from floodwaters and rooftops, while thousands have lost power or been isolated by cut-off roads.

Authorities have issued 13 emergency-level alerts, with the Manning River peaking at 6.4 metres at Taree, surpassing the 1929 record flood level.

Follow our live blog below for the latest updates on the unfolding weather situation.

[–] zero_gravitas@aussie.zone 3 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Hmm, not seeing it... Got any pics that make this apparent?

 

NSW is axing “no grounds” evictions for its almost 2 million renters, they cannot refuse pets without a valid reason, and they must provide a fee-free rent payment option.

Tenants will also be able to apply for a pet, with owners only able to refuse the request for specific reasons, such as the owner living at the property.

Approval will be automatic if owners do not respond to pet applications within 21 days.

Owners and agents must also provide certain fee-free rent payment methods such as direct bank transfers to renters.

See also:

 

In short:

The IDF has issued a major evacuation warning for southern Gaza, telling thousands of residents in the area to leave.

Palestinians around Khan Younis are being told to head west towards the coast and the Al Mawasi region.

What's next?

The IDF says it is launching an "unprecedented attack" against Hamas in southern Gaza.

 

In short:

WaterNSW found a 1992 petrol tanker crash and explosion was one of three likely sources of so-called "forever chemicals" found in a Blue Mountains drinking water catchment.

Firefighting foam used in historic emergency responses matched chemical signatures of the PFAS chemicals.

What's next?

Medlow Dam and Greaves Creek Dam remain disconnected from the Blue Mountains water supply system until WaterNSW is confident mitigation measures are in place.

 

In short:

A fatal bomb near a fertility clinic in California has been labelled as a targeted attack by the FBI.

One person was killed and at least four people were injured in the explosion.

What's next?

The FBI is investigating the explosion, with bomb technicians deployed to the scene.

 

At the Prime Minister’s Press Club address, Albanese stated curtly, repeatedly that ‘Australia is not selling weapons to Israel’.

This is unequivocally not true in any way that actually matters.

Not only have US airstrikes been coordinated and launched from Australian bases, not only has Australia’s political and media class endlessly covered for Israel’s war crimes, but Australia’s ‘defence’ industry has profited from the sale of deadly devices to Israel. The list of exports to Israel after October 7, acquired under FOI by Declassified Australia, is 90 fucking pages long. New armaments contracts have even been signed deep into what Amnesty International last week described as a ‘livestreamed genocide’ – again, seemingly without anyone in the Australian press noticing.

Like a lawyer looking for weasel-y loopholes, Albanese is basing the ‘truthiness’ of his claim on the difference between selling weapons and selling weapons components. This is like claiming IKEA doesn’t sell furniture, only furniture components. The hairs he is splitting are on the heads of murdered Palestinians.

[–] zero_gravitas@aussie.zone 7 points 1 week ago

Second-last paragraph explains the background:

Ley, a known Numerologist, famoussly added an extra character to her name under the belief that the SS would make her life better.

[–] zero_gravitas@aussie.zone 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Able to speak more freely now that he is on the backbench, Mr Husic was blunt in his assessment of the Netanyahu government.

"We've seen just in the past week or so, the Israeli parliament say it wants to annex Gaza and effectively that is a form of ethnic cleansing. We've seen the starvation of its people through the failure to provide humanitarian assistance," he said.

"It should be held to account. Starvation is a war crime."

I'd have more respect for Husic if he had gone harder on this when he had more to lose. I'll take whatever we can get, though.

[–] zero_gravitas@aussie.zone 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

some arcane feud

I think people have been led, deliberately, to believe it's a lot more arcane and/or complicated than it really is. Israel is just a bog-standard settler-colonial project.

[–] zero_gravitas@aussie.zone 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Agreed. If there's any confusion among voters, I reckon it's largely due to NSW's optional-preferential ballots being inconsistent with the federal ballots. NSW should change to mandatory-preferential for the sake of consistency - and because it's better - but the major parties benefit from the optional.

 

In short:

A high number of informal votes in a rural NSW electorate with a record number of candidates has been labelled "shameful" by the region's MP.

By May 6 more than 11,000 informal votes had been recorded in the Riverina electorate, accounting for more than 10 per cent of the voter turnout.

What's next?

Riverina MP Michael McCormack and political scientist Dominic O'Sullivan say the voting system should be reformed.

 

In short:

A class action against police stripsearching people at music festivals is underway in NSW.

The young woman leading the class action had her experience described by a lawyer as "akin to a sexual assault".

The lawyer also claimed that the state failed to adequately train officers on the strict rules surrounding strip searches.

[–] zero_gravitas@aussie.zone 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Lets assume 51% vote 1 for Liberal ... then the Liberal wins regardless ...

Yes? That is always the case.

I'm just wondering why you say: "if you vote green in one of those districts then you’re endorsing the Liberal Party of Australia to Drill Drill Drill, baby". Unlike the Liberals and Labor, the Greens are against all new coal and gas.

[–] zero_gravitas@aussie.zone 12 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

If you vote green in one of those districts then you’re endorsing the Liberal Party of Australia to Drill Drill Drill, baby.

That's not how preferential voting works.

[–] zero_gravitas@aussie.zone 7 points 3 weeks ago

Nah, these were neo-Nazis, they're not taking their cues from Palmer, they're taking them from... another guy.

From the ABC article (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-25/melbourne-anzac-day-welcome-to-country-hecklers/105215124):

Police were later seen escorting prominent neo-Nazi Jacob Hersant away from the service.

In November, Hersant was the first Victorian found guilty of performing an illegal Nazi salute in public and was sentenced to one month behind bars.

The ABC understands a group of far-right extremists were present at the Shrine.

This quote cited on his Wikipedia page (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Hersant):

After his conviction in 2024 for performing a Nazi salute in public, he stated to journalists "I'm ready to go to jail, because I'm a Hitler soldier and what I'm doing is right".[8]

[–] zero_gravitas@aussie.zone 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

The biggest issue with this is that people that think like this tend to throw accusations like “neo-Nazi” out like lollies, at everyone that they disagree with about on certain things that are in no way “nazi-esque”.

Disliking the “welcome to country” does not make you a neo-Nazi.

The hecklers in this case were straight-up neo-Nazis.

From the ABC article (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-25/melbourne-anzac-day-welcome-to-country-hecklers/105215124)

Police were later seen escorting prominent neo-Nazi Jacob Hersant away from the service.

In November, Hersant was the first Victorian found guilty of performing an illegal Nazi salute in public and was sentenced to one month behind bars.

The ABC understands a group of far-right extremists were present at the Shrine.

This quote cited on his Wikipedia page (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Hersant):

After his conviction in 2024 for performing a Nazi salute in public, he stated to journalists "I'm ready to go to jail, because I'm a Hitler soldier and what I'm doing is right".[8]

[–] zero_gravitas@aussie.zone 6 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Are you talking about Australian war crimes in 1918 or the fucking events of 1947.

Both - they're drawing parallels between the two events.

That quote is actually from the booklet they published last year, which you can find here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FzMIZo-GZLtrakJKkdITx5zhzRSvnPeK/view

Specifically, in this section:

WHAT DOES PALESTINE HAVE TO DO WITH ANZAC DAY?

Few students and teachers sitting through the annual Anzac ceremony, for instance, would associate Anzac day with Palestine — but the first Anzacs invaded Ottoman Palestine in World War I, and they took control of the land and the people for the British Empire.

After the armistice in 1918, Anzac soldiers of the Light Horse brigade remained in Palestine, waiting to be demobilised and sent home to Australia. During this time, some returned to the Gallipoli Peninsula, where they engaged in what was described as the “holy task of locating the graves of Anzacs, and in collecting trophies for the Australian national memorial collection,” solidifying the nationalist myth of the Gallipoli Landings, the anniversary of which was already being observed as Anzac day from 1915 onwards.[1]

Such acts of quasi-religious myth-making about the Anzacs have continued to this day. In 2017, to mark the centenary of the Anzacs’ capture of Palestinian territory, then Prime Minister Malcom Turnbull and opposition leader Bill Shorten attended a commemoration service at Beersheba with Benjamin Netanyahu.

In his official address, PM Malcolm Turnbull stated that the Anzacs “like the State of Israel has done ever since … defied history and with their courage fulfilled history. Lest we forget.”[2] His words are striking, not only because of the monumental historical narrative that they invoke (the Anzacs “defied” and ‘fulfilled’ history), but also because of the way in which they situate the Anzacs as “courageous” heroes who birthed two nations.

Turnbull was right to connect the Anzacs’ military successes with the creation of Israel. The Australian victories set in motion a series of devastating events, enabling the fulfilment of the Balfour Declaration, where Britain agreed, despite separate and contradictory promises, to recognize “a National Home of the Jewish people” to be located in Palestine, and the establishment of a “Jewish National Colonising Corporation for the resettlement and economic development of the country [Palestine].”[3] In short, the British mandate was secured in part by the Anzacs, and this laid the ground for the creation of the state of Israel, while preventing the creation of a Palestinian state.

There are some other parallels with Israel that Turnbull did not draw. If both countries form their identities through stories of noble military successes, they both also hide a history of horrific, racially motivated violence against Palestinians. More than this, the brutal massacre committed by the Anzacs at Surafend chillingly portended the Nakba, the catastrophic displacement of Palestinians in 1947-1949.

Turnbull did not share this darker parallel because it did not suit the heroic myth-making project of the Australian and Israeli governments to do so. As teachers, however, it is our obligation to bring this history to light.

[–] zero_gravitas@aussie.zone 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

"vows to consider"

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