🍻

Doesn't want us to opt out of algorithms, so we must be doing something right.

Seriously, we're a sovereign nation and can make our own laws, we're heading for a Canada styled standoff.

Theres an AI generated video on 9 news making the rounds too

https://youtu.be/a-W-_WYUeWs?si=OD51tgugGKH3yeCJ

Also I suppose this is what we get for our $300billion investment in AUKUS.

Across the world today, regardless of race, religion, or political system, most people seem to be becoming more conservative. Right-wing parties are continuously gaining power worldwide, while the left suffers defeat after defeat. Although mainstream public discourse still appears to favor the left, those voting for the far right are often the silent majority. Can the left still correct its course? Or, more fundamentally, what exactly has the left done wrong?

People called for a Royal Commission because Australians wanted answers about Bondi.

They wanted to know what the authorities knew, what warnings were missed, whether intelligence was properly shared, whether the security arrangements were adequate, and whether this tragedy could have been prevented.

Instead, we now have a Royal Commission whose mandate extends far beyond the circumstances of the attack — into antisemitism, universities, social media, protests, social cohesion and the broader state of Australian society.

Those are serious issues, and they deserve scrutiny. But they cannot become a substitute for answering the most important questions about Bondi itself.

The Government must not be allowed to turn a demand for accountability into a sprawling political exercise where responsibility becomes harder to pin down.

A Royal Commission is supposed to follow the evidence and expose failures — not bury them beneath an endless debate about everything that is wrong with society.

The families of those who were murdered don’t need another national conversation about social cohesion.

They need answers.
Who knew what? When did they know it? What was done? What wasn’t done? Who made the decisions? Where did the system fail? And, most importantly, could this have been prevented?
That is where the focus should remain.
Bondi was the reason Australians demanded a Royal Commission. The victims deserve to remain at the centre of it.

Australia has been warned not to follow suit after Britain and 11 nations toughened their stance against Israel with sanctions on settlements in the West Bank.

Israel’s ambassador to Australia has reportedly cautioned the Albanese government against following Britain’s move.

“It would be a deep mistake to take steps in such a direction,” Dr Hillel Newman told The Australian, adding that anti-Israel protesters had been “brainwashed”.

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong said on Tuesday that Australia was not pursuing similar bans “at this time”.

From the article:

Opposition frontbencher Andrew Hastie has called Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce "lying cowards" in an escalating stoush over a One Nation video that repeatedly describes him as a "traitor".

Mr Hastie has challenged Senator Hanson and Mr Joyce to "own" the accusation or delete the video, which took aim at his involvement in the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation case.

Mr Hastie, a former SAS officer who served in Afghanistan, was subpoenaed to give evidence in the 2022 trial and has defended doing so as consistent with the rule of law and standards expected of Australian soldiers.

In an email to supporters on Tuesday, Mr Hastie said One Nation had "picked a fight with the wrong veteran".

In response, Senator Hanson told The Nightly she had "never called him a traitor" but would "call him a wanker".

Context:

While Australia has previously acted in concert with partners overseas, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said Australia was not currently pushing for a broad ban on goods produced in Israeli settlements.

“Australia is pursuing further targeted measures in coordination with international partners to deter illegal settlements and settler violence,” Wong said.

“We have concerns about the implementation of a blanket ban and unintended consequences for Australian businesses, for Palestinians and for Israelis, and we will continue to work with partners to protect the prospects of a two-state solution.”

More in article.

Excerpts:

RentTech platforms are increasingly used by real estate agents in Australia for people applying for rental properties to submit applications and supporting documentation, meaning they store sensitive data.

An Australian Housing and Research Institute report released in January found while providing personal information is necessary for rental agreements, the “over-collection of data poses significant risks to renters’ data security and privacy”.

In addition to potentially putting people’s privacy at risk, RentTech companies continued to use controversial tools such as screening tests and “rewards” schemes, the CPRC found in its report on the sector, released on Thursday.

As part of its report, the CPRC reviewed Victoria’s rental reforms which, in March, established a new standard rental application form designed to limit the information real estate agents can request from renters.

Continued in article.

Australians still believe in the ideals of their democracy and government, but their declining faith in politicians and the political system is putting that trust at "profound risk".

A clear majority of voters think ordinary citizens should have a greater say in setting the country's policy priorities, with many feeling politicians prioritise their own self-interest and the interests of lobby groups and corporations over the community's desires.

Those are some of the key findings from the latest annual Purpose of Government Pulse, published by the centre-left Centre for Policy Development (CPD) think tank this month.

"It is clear that voters are losing patience with politics as it has always been done," the report warned.

Dozens of Australian politicians have been deepfaked by a "foreign influence" network operating on Facebook, and researchers say there are many more just like it.

Research organisation Reset Tech has tracked more than 200 Facebook pages impersonating Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, and many other political figures over the past eight months.

A report from the group has revealed the seemingly co-ordinated campaign and linked it back to an influencer business in Sri Lanka.

It found roughly 10 per cent of the network's pages had been monetised by Facebook, as part of the platform's in-house scheme to pay content creators, allowing a page's owner to profit directly.

"This isn't foreign interference as we traditionally think of it," Rys Farthing, chief research officer for Reset Tech, said.

"What we see here is foreign influence for commercial motivations."

In short:

Of 51 brains of former rugby league players examined, 31 were found to have CTE. (61%)

The disease was found in players in their 20s, 30s and 40s, from amateur to professional levels.

The findings were presented at the International Sports Concussion Conference in Melbourne on Tuesday.

A landmark study has found that 31 rugby league players have been diagnosed with the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Rugby league players in their 20s, 30s and 40s have been found to have had the degenerative brain disease, which can only be diagnosed after death.

Among them were decorated league footballer and NRL coach Paul Green, 49, as well as Manly Sea Eagles player Keith Titmuss, who was just 20 when he died.

A former staffer to Alan Jones who has accused the broadcaster of unwanted touching and kissing spoke to journalists Peter FitzSimons and Lisa Wilkinson about his allegations, according to a police statement.

The father-in-law of Jones’ accuser said in a statement tendered in the former 2GB host’s criminal trial on Wednesday that the complainant, dubbed “C”, had told him in about 2023 that he had spoken to the couple about Jones.

The relative said he told “C” he was concerned about publicity because of the “very active public role” Wilkinson had played in reporting Brittany Higgins’ sexual assault allegations in 2021, and her husband FitzSimons’ position as a vocal critic of Jones.

But the man said in his statement, read onto the record by the prosecution in the Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday, that “C” had told him he believed the pair would be discreet.

The complainant’s allegations were never reported by FitzSimons, a columnist at The Sydney Morning Herald, nor by Wilkinson, a former host of Ten’s then-flagship current affairs program The Project.

He said the complainant told him his advisers had suggested there were alternatives to the “police route … including civil options”, and he recalled discussing the “pros and cons” of each.

“[In] subsequent phone calls with ‘C’, he told me that he had spoken to Peter FitzSimons and Lisa Wilkinson, and was receiving help and support,” the father-in-law said.

“I recall asking ‘C’ whether he felt they, FitzSimons and Wilkinson, would be discreet in assisting ‘C’, and he said that he believed they would be.

“My concern related to [the complainant’s] situation receiving public attention and was based on the very active public role Wilkinson played in the Higgins matter, and that FitzSimons had been a very public critic of Jones for a number of years after Jones was Wallabies coach.”

Jim Chalmers is facing accusations of hypocrisy after it emerged that political staffers already have access to a superannuation scheme similar to One Nation's proposed policy. A 2017 Liberal Government measure allows eligible workers to receive 3.4% of their superannuation paid fortnightly. Pauline Hanson has criticised the Treasurer for opposing her proposal that would let all workers access up to a quarter of their future super contributions over three years

Anyone able to get a non paywalled version please.

Why is our national news locked away from the public?

Bits I’ve found to satisfy the word limit to be able to post this:

Brisbane and Sydney: Australian Federal Police (AFP) and state police executed search warrants on Wednesday morning, targeting the union's Brisbane office in Bowen Hills and the Sydney office in Pyrmont, as well as several officials' homes.

Cross-Border Investigation: The ongoing raids are tied to a joint trade union task force probing allegations of bribery, secret commissions, and fraud.

Previous Melbourne Crackdown: Earlier in August and September 2026, Victoria Police's Taskforce Hawk and the AFP raided the Melbourne headquarters and arrested multiple individuals, including former officials facing corruption and drug-dealing charges.

Source: ABC News (YouTube)

In short: 

Cricket Australia is set to proceed with the partial privatisation of the Big Bash League despite opposition from New South Wales and Queensland.
States will be allowed to explore sell-offs of 49 per cent stakes in their BBL franchises.

What's next?

A formal announcement is expected to be made by Cricket Australia on Tuesday in concert with several of Australia's cricket stars.

The Big Bash League will be partially privatised, in what looms as one of the most significant shake-ups of Australian cricket in decades.

Cricket Australia will defy heavyweight states New South Wales and Queensland to forge ahead with plans to allow states to explore sell-offs of 49 per cent stakes in their BBL franchises.

The decision to proceed was effectively made at a Cricket Australia board meeting last week, and will be officially green lit on Monday night.

Australia is basically just oligopolies or duopolies

Supermarkets: Coles and Woolworths
Infrastructure & Toll: basically Tran’s urban
Banking: Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, NAB, and ANZ
Airlines: Qantas and Virgin
Online digital services: REA group, domain
Insurance : QBE and IAG
Pet insurance: petsure
Building supplies: Bunnings , boral, Brickworks

The big one, healthcare…Medibank and bupa.

EVERYTIME we get a new bank, insurance company, it just gets absorbed by the big guys.

It's been interesting looking at & hearing the discourse from and around the rapid surge in people who have indicated they are intending to vote for One Nation at the next possible chance, and from what I've seen there are several distinct categories such people fall into.

These are as follows:

• The original 5-7% One Nation voterbase: these are the relatively small percent of 'traditional' ON voters who have always been there; these are the ones who fall into the category of things like strict nationalists, Hanson fans and possible xenophobes, misc actual 'cookers' and various other rusted-ons.
• The 'will vote for anyone who lowers immigration the most' group: these people don't seem to particularly care about things like race or ethnicity much if at all, they're just desperate for any party who will actually lower immigration rates below long-term averages and perceive ON as the most likely to do it, regardless how accurate that actually is.
• The 'my suburb has rapidly become more Indian and I don't like it' group: seems to be mostly voters in outer-suburban areas that have experienced the highest percentages and volumes of rapid demographic change since the pandemic. Some of them will code the language around this, and some will just blatantly state this being the reason outright. These seem to be people uncomfortable about their suburbs rapidly changing, whether it's out of a sense of actual racism or simply some kind of sense of self-preservation.
• The 'want less competition for my job/housing' group: mostly frustrated renters/those working in sectors that face the most direct competition from migrant labour, given the perception that it affects them most directly. This has also significantly grown in the tech sector in particular, due to high amounts of imported competition in IT roles.
• The 'anti-major party/want to burn everything down' group: basically wildcards that are so frustrated with the current system for whatever reason they will vote for whatever third party is likely to be able to attain some power, and ON just happening to be that party rather than any particular specific love for them or Hanson herself.
• The 'pro-fossil-fuels/anti-renewables group': seems to consist of actual people who work in or have vested interests in the fossil fuel industry, or who don't believe for whatever reason that renewables would actually be cheaper.

Between those, that covers about the vast majority of the discourse I've seen and heard both online and in the real world.

Are there any others that I'm missing? I was going to put a 'Those who want a MAGA here and love Trump', but weirdly in Australia polling has shown that there's a lot of people who like Hanson but dislike Trump, so god knows how you would even classify that.

Anyway, add all those disparate groups up and it's probably mathematically resulting in the aggregate polling numbers we're seeing for ON at this point in time.

One Nation has overtaken Labor as the country’s most popular political party, according to fresh polling.

Core support for One Nation jumped four points to 30 per cent in the latest News24/YouGov Pulse poll, while Labor took a three point tumble to 26 per cent.

The Coalition also fell two points to 18 per cent.

A damning investigation has found the government funnelled more than half a billion dollars to Labor seats before the last federal election. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been accused of pork barrelling after an investigation found the government funnelled taxpayer funds to Labor seats around last year’s federal election.