Australia

Good on them, I assume it was years of LNP attrition that it had gotten this bad ? But happy to be corrected if my assumption was incorrect ?

I'm all for inclusion of all people in our society. No one should be prejudiced for who they are.

BUT! Today I have to draw the line! Listening to the Play School alphabet song with my kid and it goes "A, B, C, D....X, Y, zed or zee". Since when is this blatant destruction of our national identity accepted?

I'll be picketing outside the ABC's head office from tomorrow and following that the education office until this travesty can be corrected! Who's with me?!

I am suprised at the number of young families in my tiny regional village here in NE Tassie. The primary school even expanded and built a new extension just 10 months ago.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/25891803

Australian Communications and Media Authority says telco did not check welfare of 369 people who tried to make a call while lines were down

Central to Australia’s cultural and political identity is the notion of a “fair go”. But recent elections, including in the United States, have highlighted the challenge of maintaining shared norms and support for institutions when many voters don’t believe they’re getting a “fair go”.

Australia has maintained a reasonably high satisfaction with democracy. However, this satisfaction is slipping.

A recent study, published by the Australian National University in partnership with the Department of Home Affairs Strengthening Democracy Taskforce, explored this issue further. It analysed how perceptions of income inequality relate to satisfaction with democracy.

It found concerns about income inequality in Australia are strongly related to dissatisfaction with democracy. This suggests Australia’s satisfaction with democracy is at risk. It may erode further if voters think the major parties aren’t sufficiently responsive to the economic pressures they are under.

[...]

Sometimes I try to play up the Australian accent/stereotype to foreigners for a bit of a laugh, only to then get in to a conversation with other Australians and realise I was actually playing it down.

With the US result some friends and I have been discussing who the worst PM was/is.

Just out of curiosity and in the spirit of balance, who was our best Prime Minister and why? And who would you vote for next time around?

Archived version

Australia's national intelligence chief has sounded an alarm about an "emerging axis" of countries supporting Russia in its brutal invasion of Ukraine, cautioning that the strategic development was "profoundly troubling" for the Western countries supporting Kyiv.

[...]

Andrew Shearer, Director-General of the Office of National Intelligence, said the nexus, which included China, Iran, and North Korea, warranted thorough evaluation.

Naming North Korea and China as the main pillars of the Axis, Shearer stated that Moscow's ongoing aggression has been made possible largely by Beijing's consistent diplomatic and economic support.

"The massive provision by China of dual-use assistance to Putin, and economic support and diplomatic support is keeping Putin's army in the field in Ukraine, killing innocent Ukrainians just as surely as if they were providing artillery ammunition and missiles," Shearer said.

In footage from Wednesday night's Student Representative Council (SRC) meeting, two male students can be seen tearing up, and a third throwing pages from The Red Zone report.

The report came out of the 2018 investigation by national group End Rape on Campus Australia and uncovered disturbing behaviour at Sydney University's colleges, including male students ejaculating into female students' beauty products and an annual event where students were encouraged to post graphic details about one another online.

Can't decide on a horse tomorrow? I've got a dart board and I've had a few drinks. Let me decide for you. I've got 18 horses left. All you have to say is go!

*Remember gamble responsibly.

This is in addition to the HECS indexation etc changes that have been proposed.

Australia will increase its missile defence capability after China’s test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the South Pacific raised “significant concerns” and as the Asia Pacific region enters a “missile age”.

[...]

Australia has previously said it would spend 74 billion Australian dollars ($49bn) on missile acquisition and missile defence over the next decade, including 21 billion Australian dollars ($13.7bn) to fund the Australian Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance Enterprise, a new domestic manufacturing capability.

“We must show potential adversaries that hostile acts against Australia would not succeed and could not be sustained if conflict were protracted,” Conroy said in the speech.

A Malaysian man was recently caught by Australian authorities while trying to import 100kg (220 pounds) of methamphetamine into the country. Working together with the Australian Border...

Australia has described the outcome of a meeting between members of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources as a "backwards step".

Attendees said Russia and China vetoed all proposed measures, including one to renew existing krill management measures.

Conservationists say member countries should regroup and figure out how to tackle Russia and China ahead of the next meeting in 2025.

Australia is reportedly set to boost its missile defence capabilities after the recent Chinese test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the South Pacific, which has raised "significant concerns" in Canberra as the Indo-Pacific region enters a "missile age".

In a speech on Wednesday, Australian Minister for Defence Industry Pat Conroy was quoted as saying by international news agencies [...] that his country plans to increase its missile defence and long-range strike capabilities. Conroy added that Australia will cooperate with its security partners -- the United States (US), Japan, and South Korea -- on issues of regional stability.

Why does Australia need more missiles?

"Why do we need more missiles?," posing this question, Conroy answered before the National Press Club in Canberra that "strategic competition" between the US and China "is a primary feature of Australia's security environment".

Conroy added that that competition is "at its sharpest in our region", the Indo-Pacific, which is on the cusp of a new missile age, where missiles will also serve as "tools of coercion".

[...]

The post-War order is meant to provide a check on the untrammelled power of the powerful, whether through military invasions or more subtle ways of bending the will of other countries—methods such as interference, coercion and malicious cyber intrusions.

Yet when asked recently how Australia would address China’s influence in the Pacific, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said, ‘China’s doing what great powers do, and great powers try to lift their influence and expand their influence in the region that they wish.’

[...]

The type of influence China exercises is not something we can accept as simply ‘what great powers do’. It launched a cyber attack on the Pacific Islands Forum, spreads online disinformation in the Pacific to undermine democracies and weaken Pacific partnerships, sought security agreements that lack public transparency, and undertaken various other malicious activities—such as hybrid and grey zone operations.

And that’s just in the Pacific—China is carrying out this malicious activity globally, not to mention being the main supporter enabling Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Of course, other significant powers seek influence, but responsible nations don’t behave like this.

[...]

Nice to see a date put forward following the previously announced upgrades. Interested in the newer 2000/200 tier announced as well, as the higher upload speed will be really nice for pushing my excessively large photo backup onto backblaze, that said if it's priced too outrageously I'm not certain what the take-up would be for normal home users initially.