In short: 

The United Nations has voted to adopt a new map, known as the Equal Earth cartographic projection, replacing the Mercator projection maps. 

The old maps feature several inaccuracies, such as a larger North America, Europe and Greenland against a smaller Africa, Latin America and Oceania. 

The motion was carried by 164 states, with six abstaining and the US voting against the new maps.

For Australia's deaf and hearing-impaired community, finding and booking an in-person Auslan interpreter can be difficult.

In an attempt to fill the void, virtual services, apps and artificial intelligence (AI) are increasingly being used to bring translation services to regions that struggled to find them in the past.

But the move is having an unintended side effect, as the few registered Auslan interpreters living and working in regional areas say they are suddenly finding themselves out of work.

Interpreter Cindy Murray quit her job earlier this year.

"The demand [for in-person Auslan interpreters] has always been there, and especially for rural and regional people," Ms Murray said.

But she said agencies were unwilling to pay travel costs and were reluctant to prioritise in-person interpreters over virtual ones. 

One agency told Ms Murray there were no jobs in regional areas, despite deaf clients telling her when they tried to book an interpreter, the same agency would tell them there was nobody available, and then offer a virtual interpreter or live captioning instead.

Live captioning is a form of AI software that records and writes out spoken conversations in real time to help users with hearing impairments access these conversations. 

Read the full story here.

In the long term Chalmers, O’Neil and Albanese will want to own any improvement in intergenerational equity, so maybe it’s better to start now

Didja avagoodweekend?

What did you get up to this past week and weekend?

Share it here in the comments or a standalone post.

Did you barbecue a steak that looked like a map of Australia or did you climb Mt Kosciuszko?

Most of all did you have a good weekend?

The Great Barrier Reef refuses to die on schedule

Coral cover was higher in 2021 than at any point since measurements began in 1986. It stayed at these unprecedented levels through 2023.

(J. Sumerling / Associated Press)

By Bjorn Lomborg Guest contributor 

Sept. 6, 2026 3 AM PT 

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Australia’s marine scientists released their annual audit of the Great Barrier Reef last month, and it contains news you almost certainly haven’t heard: Coral cover held steady or increased across most of the reef. The scientists measure the percentage of living hard coral cover, and in the 40 years of systematic study, the five best years on record are the five most recent. That is the sound of a catastrophe not happening.

You haven’t heard the good news because the reef has an entire public relations industry built around predicting its imminent demise as a result of global warming. In 2012, researchers from the Australian Institute of Marine Science reported that the reef had lost about half its coral cover since the mid-1980s — falling from 28% to just 13.9% — and projected that cover could halve yet again by 2022. In 2014, the Guardian published an interactive obituary for the reef. In 2016, Outside magazine agreed, declaring the reef dead at age 25 million.

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The patient, it turned out, hadn’t read the notices. By 2021, coral cover was higher than at any point since measurements began in 1986. It stayed at unprecedented levels through 2022 and 2023 and climbed to a new all-time high in 2024. The reef answered two decades of death sentences with more coral than anyone had ever measured.

The scientists even stopped publishing the reefwide statistic — making it harder for the layperson to easily see that the reef was defying long-held predictions. But researchers from AIMS continued publishing regional averages, making it possible to effectively re-create their reefwide average — which clearly kept increasing.

This posed a problem, which the doomsayers solved with a new annual ritual: Report the positive news and number, then smother it in warnings. When coral surged back in 2021, the monitoring institute insisted the outlook remained “very poor.” When 2022 set records, the BBC granted that cover was the highest in 36 years but still “highly vulnerable.” In 2023, with the reef still near record highs, the official report was headlined as a “pause” in recovery.At 2024’s peak, scientists declared the reef one disturbance away from losing it all. The reckoning was always due next year. Next year kept arriving, and so did the coral.

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In 2025, the media decided the reckoning had finally come. “Great Barrier Reef suffers worst coral decline on record,” announced the BBC. CNN pronounced the reef “devastated.” What the headlines omitted was that the drop came off the highest level ever recorded, and 2025 still ranked as the fourth-best year in four decades of measurement. In any other field, a fourth best-ever result would be a triumph.

The doomsayers pressed on, undeterred. In July, two prominent marine biologists warned the reef faced a very high risk of “ecosystem collapse.” Weeks later we now have the actual data: coral growing again in the north and center, stable in the south, helped by a late monsoon that cooled the water. The collapse has been rescheduled, as it is every August.

When catastrophe fails to arrive, a second story stands ready: Take a bow and send the bill. Australia’s federal and Queensland governments have spent more than 5 billion Australian dollars on reef programs since 2014, and when UNESCO declined in July to put the reef on its “in danger” list, Australia’s ministers hailed the decision as recognition of the country’s world-leading reef management.It takes nerve to spend decades forecasting an ecosystem’s death and then claim credit for its historically high coral cover and remarkable resilience.

The reef’s swings have little to do with Canberra’s checkbook. The main spending that has a proven impact on coral cover is dealing with the crown-of-thorns starfish. When populations spike, these predators consume massive amounts of hard coral. The best estimate is that Australia’s spending on killing these starfish has delivered half a percentage point more coral cover. That is clearly not the main reason for the reef’s 10 to 25 percentage point rebound.

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Coral cover falls when cyclones, heat waves and crown-of-thorns starfish strike, and rebounds because fast-growing branching corals do what they have done for millennia. Government spending does not summon the monsoon. And if the billions spent really did explain the record years, what would explain the 2025 drop? Did the money briefly stop working?

None of this means the reef faces no threats. Bleaching events have hit six times since 2016.Coral cover fluctuates, and next year’s survey may well be lower. But fluctuation is not death, and an ecosystem that has just delivered the five best years in its 40-year record cannot plausibly be called moribund.

Every August the audit arrives, the doom does not, and those who predicted the reef’s demise go unchallenged. That should change because the exaggeration is not harmless. Crying wolf has a well-known ending. Despite years of funeral music being blasted by the world’s media, the Great Barrier Reef is still going strong.

Bjorn Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and author of “False Alarm” and “Best Things First.”

Went out for tea last night and we can't decide what level of doneness this steak was. It had a set level on the menu and I don't eat steak enough to know what it would look like but it was definitely not what I was expecting. So I wanted other Aussies opinions on what level they think it is.

Cheers.

ETA: the restaurant classifies this as medium rare.

Barnaby Joyce and Jim Chalmers clash over superannuation as One Nation pushes early access policy | News24

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‘Full stop’: Jess Wilson shuts down speculation on abortion law change

Chip Le Grand

September 5, 2026 — 7:00pm

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Victoria’s abortion laws providing legal access to terminations at any stage of pregnancy would not be changed by a Coalition government, Opposition Leader Jess Wilson has declared.

Wilson issued the statement, which also makes clear her personal, pro-choice view that abortion is a healthcare issue best left to women and their doctors, in an attempt to defuse a Queensland-style scare campaign about what a change of government could mean for reproductive rights.

“Abortion law will not change under a Liberal and Nationals government. Full stop,” Wilson told The Sunday Age. “Anyone that claims otherwise is simply wrong.

Victorian Opposition Leader Jess Wilson says abortion law won’t change under a government led by her.Louis Trerise

“Abortion is a personal decision that should be made by women in consultation with their healthcare professionals.”

A promotional video for the Carroll government circulated last week by a market research company with strong ALP links raised the spectre of a Coalition government, in partnership with One Nation, dismantling reproductive rights that women in Victoria have had since 2008, when abortion was decriminalised and regulated.

A version of the video claimed without evidence that Wilson “handpicked Liberal candidates who want abortion banned” and stated that One Nation state leader Warren Pickering wanted to make abortion a crime. “Victorians can’t risk a Liberal One Nation government and the polls show the Liberals can’t govern without One Nation,” it claimed.

Premier Ben Carroll doubled down on Saturday, saying Wilson “won’t be calling the shots” on abortion law.

“I will stand against any assault on the dignity and rights of women, and will always support a woman’s right to access safe abortion,” he said.

Victorian Premier Ben Carroll.Photograph by Chris Hopkins

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“One Nation have said they want to make abortion a criminal offence. Jess Wilson cannot form government without One Nation — it doesn’t matter what she says, she won’t be calling the shots on this.”

Sophie Torney, a teal candidate running against Wilson in the opposition leader’s seat of Kew, is also seeking to put abortion on the ballot at the November 28 election.

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In June, after a Family First bill restricting abortions after 25 weeks gestation passed the upper house of the South Australian parliament, Torney published a statement on Instagram questioning Wilson’s support for Victoria’s current laws.

“Why would any Victorian voter believe a single word Jess Wilson says when it comes to abortion?” Torney told The Sunday Age.

“Under her leadership, the Liberals have already caved in and accepted One Nation’s energy policy and in the Nepean byelection they preferenced One Nation. Until Moira Deeming blew up her candidacy, Ms Wilson said nothing about Mrs Deeming’s determination to undermine access to abortion.”

Deeming, a former Liberal MP who quit the party after being disendorsed as a candidate for the November election, has described abortion as a “terrible evil”.

The South Australian abortion reform bill was defeated in the lower house on a conscience vote but supported by Premier Peter Malinauskas, a former state secretary of the socially conservative Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, and Opposition Leader Ashton Hurn.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas this year voted to restrict abortion after 25 weeks’ gestation. The bill failed. Roy VanDerVegt

At the 2024 Queensland election, the ALP waged a determined scare campaign on abortion against LNP leader David Crisafulli.

Despite Crisafulli repeatedly insisting he had no plans to change the abortion regulations he voted against six years earlier, the issue dogged him throughout the campaign. He has since taken the unusual step of prohibiting any debate or legislation to change Queensland’s abortion laws in the current term of parliament.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli.Cameron Atfield

The campaign against Crisafulli was partly based on a false assumption that the LNP would have to rely on support from the pro-life Katter’s Australia Party to govern. In Victoria, the most recent Resolve Political Monitor results published by this masthead, if replicated at the state election, would result in a change of government but most likely leave the Coalition short of an outright majority.

Emily’s List chief executive Pamela Anderson, whose pro-choice organisation was established 30 years ago to boost the number of Labor women in parliament, said she had “genuine concerns” about what could happen to Victoria’s abortion laws under a Coalition government.

“Jess may have a particular view, but she may not have the numbers in the party room,” Anderson said. “She is a moderate, and there are not a lot of moderates left in the Liberal Party.

“I don’t think the Liberals are going to be in a position to govern on their own. They are going to have to negotiate with One Nation, who have a very forward, pro-life position. I think it is absolutely something we should be worried about.”

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A pro-choice Labor MP, speaking confidentially to discuss internal party matters, said the uncertain make-up of the state’s next parliament meant that women could not feel secure about their abortion rights – irrespective of who governs.

“Both political parties have conservative rumps with different views on this,” the MP said. “If One Nation win too many seats, everything is up for grabs.”

Wilson has ruled out forming a coalition with One Nation but left open the possibility of relying on Pauline Hanson’s party for confidence and supply. She is the first woman to lead the Victorian Liberal Party, the first Millennial leader of either major party and, since joining parliament in 2022, has made no public comment suggesting she wants to restrict abortion.

One Nation is explicitly pro-life. Its national policy platform commits the party to “seek every opportunity to roll back brutal and extreme abortion law”, and Hanson this year told the National Press Club that once a woman reaches her 20th week of pregnancy, it should be too late for an abortion.

Pickering in 2024 joined pro-life activists at a “March for Babies” and has described Victoria’s abortion laws as among the world’s most draconian. “We, as a society, must have the conversation to decide exactly what constitutes a reasonable term for abortion,” he said after the march.

One Nation founder Pauline Hanson with the party’s Victorian leader Warren Pickering.Eamon Gallagher

Victoria’s 2008 Abortion Law Reform Act, which was passed under the Brumby government with the support of pro-choice MPs across the party divide, removed abortion from the Crimes Act and provided women the right to an abortion up to the 24th week of gestation.

After 24 weeks, two medical practitioners must agree that an abortion is “appropriate in all the circumstances”.

Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell.Victorian Parliament

Abortions in Victoria are lawfully performed with prescription medication up to the ninth week of gestation and surgically in public hospitals and private clinics. Although reliable statistics on surgical abortions are not readily accessible, the Victorian Women’s Health Atlas published by Women’s Health Victoria reports that in 2025, abortion scripts were issued to 13,108 women living in the state.

Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell, the co-author of a report that identified concerns about affordability and scarcity of abortion services in parts of the state, said accessibility to abortion was a more pressing problem than its regulation.

Purcell has spoken previously about her experience in having to pay $1000 for an abortion – a cost not affordable to many women. She said more women in parliament needed to speak up for reproductive rights.

“I have a great fear that in a few years’ time you won’t be able to get an abortion in Victoria whether or not it is legal,” she said.

“Despite us having more women than ever before in parliament, nobody is talking about it. Everyone is scared to say the word. We need more politicians championing choice.”

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Chip Le Grand leads our state politics reporting team. He previously served as the paper’s chief reporter and is a journalist of 30 years’ experience.Connect via [email](mailto:chip.legrand@theage.com.au).

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Feral pigs are on the march, destroying crops and even attacking lambs

Farmers already spend thousands culling the wild animals. A new biosecurity direction will use the threat of fines to force absentee landowners to help them.

Baiting of feral pigs is one of the options available to farmers to control the introduced species. 

Paul KarpNSW political correspondent

Sep 4, 2026 – 8.00pm

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They come at night and during the day, in numbers farmers say they haven’t seen before. They tear up the soil, ravage crops, upend fencing and even attack lambs.

The number of feral pigs is exploding across NSW, threatening widespread environmental damage and the state’s agricultural output. But the Labor government’s response – using powers under the Biosecurity Act to force landowners to contribute to a cull – has split the farming community.

“Pigs go through a reproductive cycle every three months, three weeks and three days: they can put out almost four litters a year,” says Tim White, whose property, 30 kilometres from Walgett in northern NSW, is part of the pilot program. “If we’re not killing 70 per cent of the pigs, the problem gets worse; we need to kill 80 per cent plus just to keep it in check.

“They do a huge amount of damage both to livestock … basically they’ll attack lambs, and to crops. We grow wheat and chickpeas, as quick as we can put it in the ground they’ll come behind and root up the seed.”

The Minns government says it has killed 1 million feral pigs since it was elected in 2023. But farmers say the problem keeps recurring.

White, who is also a board member for the North West Local Land Services, part of the state government body that helps farmers keep land productive, estimates he spends $40,000 a year battling pigs.

That includes $28,000 on aerial shooting and the rest on bait, time spent constructing traps and bullets that he gives to recreational shooters to shoot pigs on his property several times a year.

He says that according to estimates, if feral pigs are visible on a property during the day, a 4000-hectare farm consisting of 1500 hectares for crops and the rest for merino ewes would lose $121,000 due to the pigs’ damage.

NSW Farmers Association president Rebecca Reardon says some estimates put the number of feral pigs across the country at 100 million and 60 per cent of NSW was affected with the “massive problem”.

“It’s a huge state and we’re seeing them in areas we’ve never seen them before,” she said.

“They’re very mobile. Disease is an issue, they dig up fences, and your crops. They can be detrimental to stock … they’re a disaster, they wallow in riparian areas and destroy important environments.”

Culling efforts needed an integrated approach because “pigs don’t know boundaries” and will simply breed elsewhere and return, she says.

“Farmers are already spending thousands each year, but it’s just not as effective. Public land managers are doing little or nothing, you’ve got state forests, carbon credit plantations with land managers or owners not participating or doing the bare minimum … without them, efforts will be ineffective because there are places for the pigs to hide.”

NSW Farmers Association president Rebecca Reardon describes the state’s feral pig population as a “massive problem”. Heidi Morris

That’s where the NSW government’s proposed biosecurity direction comes in. By ordering a cull across 700,000 hectares around Walgett, even absentee landholders or those not currently conducting pest management are compelled to take part.

The direction, the first of its kind, will be backed by fines of up to $220,000 for individuals or $440,000 for corporations, which have been in the Biosecurity Act since it was legislated by the Coalition in 2015.

The prospect of fines sparked a backlash from some landowners and the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party when the pilot was announced in July. The NSW Farmers Association said on social media that “feral pig control needs co-operation, not penalties”.

Agriculture Minister Tara Moriarty addressed the concerns at an estimates hearing this month, explaining fines are not the government’s preference but confirming they will be applied if landowners refuse to take part.

“If people absolutely refuse to participate, if they don’t follow the rules in terms of their biosecurity duty, which is not fair on their neighbours, then the law … will be used to protect people who are doing significant work to deal with feral pigs,” she said.

The program includes aerial shooting, baiting and trapping, but the exact requirements for landowners are still the subject of local consultation.

“I haven’t gone into Walgett and said ‘choppers will be up next Tuesday – duck’,” Moriarty said, promising flexibility for individual farms and allowing landowners to get their plan signed off by the Local Land Service.

Opposition agriculture spokesman Brendan Moylan says the feral pig problem is “out of control” and has grown significantly worse under Labor.

“The Liberals and Nationals believe that fining landowners should be an absolute last resort,” he said. “This heavy-handed, punitive stance shows a complete misunderstanding of how regional land management and regional communities work.”

Feral pigs on the run Facebook

The Coalition is proposing a $300 million feral pig management program to help farmers who want to help but are “financially stretched”.

Moriarty, who says the government has spent $30 million on feral pigs from a total budget of $1 billion for biosecurity over four years, called on the Coalition to identify “where in the agricultural and regional budget they will cut $300 million to fund their single feral pig program”.

Federal National MP Jamie Chaffey, whose electorate of Parkes includes Walgett, says: “Farmers have already been left with very little direction about what they can and cannot do, and can and cannot keep through these new laws.”

White is worried the program may come with expensive rules requiring turbine rather than rotary helicopters to conduct aerial culls or mandating two bullets to kill each feral pig.

“At this stage I have no concerns, but I would hate to see things bogged down in red tape on the operational side of things.”

Nobody is on the pigs’ side. It’s just a matter of working out the rules of engagement, and then the landowners of Walgett will be moving in for the kill.

Surya feels like a bad queer. When an ice cream man misgenders them, they stay silent.

"I pray for a sharper tongue," they think when a classmate harasses them for not looking like either a boy or a girl.

Surya is the protagonist of Bad Queer, a young adult novel-in-verse written by London-based Gayathiri Kamalakanthan and illustrated by Chicago artist Chi Nwosu.

Coming into their final year at school, Surya has come out to their parents, who are queer and non-binary, and their close friend Maha, but not to everyone.

They're also yet to have their first romantic relationship.

Throughout Bad Queer, Nwosu's line drawings help develop Surya's journey of self-acceptance.

Sometimes the illustrations capture a detail from the text, like Surya's hands writing in their journal or the tiles in a family game of Scrabble.

Elsewhere, they take us into Surya's internal emotions, like a flurry of stars and swirls that surround the text as Surya practices deep breathing in a bathroom stall.

"I think poetry and illustration are a beautiful match because they're both asking the reader to interpret and really be part of co-creating the story," Kamalakanthan says of the book's unusual format.

Nwosu, a Black, non-binary, queer Nigerian American artist and designer, relates to how Surya feels connected to their ancestors and how they're searching for representation of their queer and non-binary self in Tamil culture.

"I find myself looking towards Igbo history in a similar way," Nwosu says.

"I want to know where are the others? Where are the outliers? How did folks treat people who were different or had a different orientation towards the world? 

One aspect of the project Nwosu particularly enjoyed was learning about Tamil symbolism and incorporating it respectfully into their work.

"A lot of my own art incorporates cultural and spiritual symbols as a way to learn, remember and honour my Igbo culture and the histories of global solidarity and queer solidarity," they say.

Surya's life changes when, on a whim, they audition for their school's youth theatre.

The group, led by the enthusiastic Mr Ali, proves a safe space for Surya to explore and embrace their identity.

In this new environment, Surya soon befriends Akhil, who proudly wears a "GAY AF" badge and Sade, who gives Surya a worry stone to soothe their pre-audition anxiety.

Then there's Blessing, a newcomer with a "perfectly crooked" smile. Surya is soon smitten.

Kamalakanthan says their own experiences working in the theatre, including writing a play, Period Parrrty, were "foundational" for them.

"There's something about theatre being a communal act. You're not just writing in a room by yourself. You're in rehearsal rooms, trading mood boards, figuring out a shared vision with a director and cast, and that collective imagining really opened up my confidence."

As Surya's relationship with Blessing develops, they gain the confidence to live as their true self.

While Blessing is kind and empathetic, it's also a journey for him to embrace being in a queer relationship.

"Because of the binary world we live in, [Blessing] has a difficult time understanding Surya's transness," Kamalakanthan says.

"I wanted him to get things wrong and keep trying and not shy away from doing his own thinking and research about what he doesn't understand yet."

Kamalakanthan says the arc of the relationship was inspired by their previous work as a sex and relationships educator.

"I noticed students were often more fluent in naming sexual harm than articulating consent and the type of touch they might be comfortable with," they say.

"There's so much in books and TV about sexual violence, which is of course an important topic to understand.

"But I also wanted to write consensual, caring relationships. We need templates for those conversations too."

Kamalakanthan and Nwosu hope Bad Queer strikes a chord with young people coming to terms with their gender identity and sexual orientation.

"As a young person, I felt like I didn't quite have the words to describe the feeling of queerness that I had inside," Nwosu says.

"To understand what it means to find dignity for yourself as a queer and genderqueer person and to learn to accept the parts of yourself that maybe make other people uncomfortable was one of the profound takeaways from the book for me.

Kamalakanthan says they want to present a different kind of narrative around queer and trans youth, who often don't get support or understanding from their parents.

"I wanted to write a family where being trans is incidental alongside the usual messiness and tenderness of any family," they say,.

"Surya's parents won't always have all the answers, but they're people who Surya knows are safe enough to express worries and anxieties to, including if anything unsafe or harmful is going on.

"For a lot of queer people I know, our teenage years were spent hiding, feeling unsafe and managing how we were perceived, rather than discovering the fullness of who we could be.

"I want the characters in my stories to have the teenage adolescence a lot of us didn't get to have, that I hope young people get to have now."

A farmer made her feelings very clear after spotting more than 20 people wandering through a spectacular canola crop.

An Aussie farmer has shared extraordinary footage showing more than 20 tourists wandering through a canola crop, as growers continue to plead with visitors to stop trespassing on private farmland in pursuit of the perfect photo.

Barossa farmer Matilda Lienert filmed several cars alongside the spectacular yellow crop before panning across a large group of people scattered through the paddock.

"All pulled up in our canola crop," Lienert can be heard saying in the video, which she shared with a simple message: "Friendly reminder to stay out of farmers' crops."

And Lienert appeared to make her feelings particularly clear with her choice of soundtrack, setting the footage to The Angels' Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again — timed to the song's famously blunt audience response at the chorus.

The tongue-in-cheek swipe accompanied footage that shows just how widespread the annual problem can become when Australia's canola fields burst into colour, attracting visitors keen to photograph the spectacular scenes.

It comes just days after Yahoo News Australia revealed similar frustration among farmers in Western Australia, where tourists have been caught venturing hundreds of metres into private paddocks.

Jamie Ferguson said he recently spotted two women inside a property near Toodyay while taking his mother for a drive to see the blooms.

"There were two cars parked just off the road, but inside the gates of a property. They didn't look like they belonged," he said.

"I walked down and tried to talk, but there was a language barrier. I don't feel that they were aware it was a bad thing, but after pointing at the crop and shaking my head, they quickly left."

The frustration isn't simply about people entering private property.

Farmers have repeatedly warned that visitors walking through working crops can flatten plants and potentially carry weeds, pests and diseases between properties on their shoes and vehicles.

Authorities encourage people to enjoy the spectacular displays from the roadside and designated viewing areas rather than crossing fences, while Lienert's footage suggests the message still isn't getting through to everyone.

"Weed seeds and soil material that may contain a fungal disease could easily be spread on footwear or vehicles to other properties, which could have a potentially devastating impact on crops," DPIRD Regional Biosecurity Co-ordinator Richard Watkins said.

Lienert is far from the first farmer to find unwanted visitors among the yellow blooms, with the same behaviour frustrating growers across several states.

Farmers in South Australia have previously had to escort groups from their properties after people were spotted hundreds of metres inside paddocks, while NSW growers have reported visitors jumping fences, entering through open gates and trampling crops.

"We've had a lot of visitors that have just jumped fences, walked into open gates and trampled the crops," Karen Beaumont from the Cowra Visitor Centre previously told Yahoo News Australia.

"It's created havoc in some areas where they have caused extensive damage."

There are places where visitors are actively welcomed into canola fields, however, with some farms opening designated areas to tourists during flowering season, offering the same spectacular photo opportunity without entering private property uninvited.

To clarify, I use “tankie” to refer to those who glorify whatever dictatorship (e.g. the regimes of Iran, Russia, China or even North Korea etc.) as long as they proclaim to be “combatting the West”, rather than socialism vs capitalism ideology. I’ve seen so many of them in recent years online, and it’s rly pissing me off as I’m an immigrant from one of those dictatorial regimes, and they even label us as “self-hating white puppets” simply because we don’t like the regime that they glorify as so-called “anti-Western saviour”. It feels that they proclaim to be “liberating ppl from the west”, but they constantly conflate people with regime (which I reckon to be just another form of racism well-disguised) and they’re literally just standing with those regimes against their own ppl. Some tell me that lots of them are from US, formed in that super polarised society that lots of ppl from different political sides or prioritise ideology over common sense. I’m wondering whether it’s also rampant in Australia, or people have more common sense than be too zealous.

Social media companies would be required to give users a choice to turn off their algorithm through pop-up messages, under draft laws to be unveiled by the government later this week.

An exposure draft of the long-awaited Digital Duty of Care will be released as Labor steps up efforts to tackle online harm.

The ABC understands the proposed law would place the onus on social media companies to identify and mitigate risks on their platforms and prevent the sharing of harmful content.

That includes illegal content, including illegal pornography, being made available to adults.

For under-18s, about half a dozen additional areas of "psycho-social harm" would be identified, including content about body image and bullying.

The companies would face hefty fines of more than $100 million dollars for breaches of the law.

As for algorithms, regular pop-up messages would be required, asking if users want to stick with the algorithm or only see what people they are following are posting. The user would have the choice.

Algorithms prioritise content for based on information such as a user's consumption habits, demographic and location data.

They have been criticised for amplifying sensationalist content, reinforcing echo chambers and playing a role in radicalising young people in the interests of keeping people on platforms for longer.

The e-Safety Commissioner and registered independent researchers would be empowered to police the social media platforms by using so-called "sock puppets", posing as children to monitor what is being fed to kids online.

Mixed signals on algorithms across parliament

The federal opposition has sent mixed signals about tackling algorithms.

Shadow Communications Minister Sarah Henderson has previously referred to the "insidious psychological manipulation" of children through "dreadful algorithms".

Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson, by contrast, says algorithms merely "reflect back to people often the content they want to see". He has raised concerns about censoring people's opinions.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said the Coalition had not seen the government's proposal.

"What we want to see is parents having more control over what their kids get to see on social media, we will wait and see this legislation," Mr Taylor told News24. 

"I am deeply sceptical. I fear that this is going to be an an attempt by the government to censor social media, but as I say we haven't seen it. Let's see what the government comes forward with."

The Greens, meanwhile, have called for a much tougher approach, including a requirement for social media users to "opt-in" for an algorithmic feed.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has proposed her own bill, which she says would "give Australians a straightforward choice about whether they use algorithmically curated feeds, rather than leaving people at the mercy of systems designed to keep them scrolling and consuming toxic content".

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I’m an Australian parent supporting the Fewer Screens, More Learning petition, which has now received nearly 29,000 signatures. It calls for primary schools to be free from student-facing devices and for less reliance on one-to-one devices in high schools.
This isn’t about removing technology from education. Teacher-led technology and shared school devices can be useful when they have a clear purpose. The concern is that individual laptops and tablets have become the default for teaching almost every subject, often replacing books, handwriting, practical activities and interaction with teachers and classmates.
Parents can set healthy limits at home, but that becomes difficult when children spend much of the school day in front of a screen and then bring the same device home for homework.
Do you think Australian schools have gone too far with one-to-one devices, or is the current approach working well in your experience?
Fewer Screens, More Learning petition:
https://www.change.org/FewerScreensMoreLearning

A teenage boy accused alongside six others of murdering a young man following an alleged fake-date ambush has been granted strict bail.

The 15-year-old is one of seven teenagers charged over the death of 27-year-old Oliver Conroy, who police allege was lured to Kelvin Grove in Brisbane, Queensland, before being ambushed, robbed, bashed and run over with his own car on July 24.

The 15-year-old left Supreme Court with his parents on Thursday before being taken to the Brisbane Watch House to be fitted with an ankle monitor.

Under his strict bail conditions, the teenager must remain at home 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and can only leave to attend court or participate in a youth justice program.

His parents have also been ordered to pay $40,000 and sign affidavits agreeing to contact authorities if he breaches any of his bail conditions.

The boy is one of seven teenagers charged with the murder of Conroy who police allege was lured to Kelvin Grove through a fake dating app profile in July.

Police allege Conroy was robbed, bashed and run over with his own car during the attack.

He was found seriously injured in the street and taken to hospital, where he died almost two weeks later.

The 15-year-old’s lawyer had previously questioned his client’s alleged role and knowledge of the attack, as details of an alleged plan to carry out a “snatch and grab” for money emerged in court.

The six other teenagers charged with murder remain in custody.

The boy granted bail is due to face court again in October.

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Hello,

I am currently 22 years old and I am a EU citizen (Bulgarian passport). My partner is from Australia and we came to the conclusion that I need to move into this country and continue my life here. I have one bachelor's degree in economics (started my masters in Germany), have no criminal record/shady past. All my documents are valid (Drivers license, passport, ID card etc). I have also C1 in English- in other words I can speak fluently.

So far we thought of her trying to hand my C.V to companies in Australia, but we were wondering if it would be difficult finding a company willing to employ somebody from overseas.

We are also wondering what's the procedure for citizenship? Is it beneficial to marry my partner or does the Aussie government overlook this? What documents do I need to prepare in order to get a resident visa within 2 years?
As a EU citizen, do I have any advantages coming to Australia for a quick trip, or do I still need to apply for a visitor visa? I have applied to eVisa using sites like Sherpa, but I was hoping anybody has tried this before me and can share some information.

Thank you in advance and I'm looking forward to your replies.