Issy M

Albanese’s folly of pandering to Donald Trump ANALYSIS: The prime minister’s flattery of Donald Trump may be about preserving US relations, but he ought to focus on leaders who will really shape Australia’s future.

"Most likely, Albanese and other world leaders are courting Trump simply to keep lines to Washington open, looking forward to the day when he is replaced by a functioning president and American global leadership returns.” satpa.pe/rBl6cbf

The Kimberley region is special: extraordinary landscapes, rich culture, brilliant coastline. WA Labor gov mustn’t allow horrendous fracking, or massive gas developments to disfigure and ruin this part of Oz.

Australia's Great North Conference Declaration: www.ecnt.org.au/australias_great_north

‘For every $100 of gas exported, Australia gets 43 cents’: Unions open new tax battle The federal government this week overhauled its superannuation tax reforms. Now the union movement says it should radically overhaul taxes on gas exports.

🇦🇺 collects just 43 cents for every $100 of gas exported

After recent changes from Labor & Greens, PRRT revenue has been falling

Our resources belong to all Australians & we need a system that delivers a fair return, not one where profits flow offshore

www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

The 2025 Aussie Bird Count is about to start. Here’s how to take part – and why you should Week-long count by citizen scientists around Australia gathers crucial data on our unique birdlife and is now in its 12th year

Our birds tell the story of a changing environment

The Aussie Bird Count helps us understand how Australia’s birds are faring

Many species are under threat. The count’s data helps build the national picture, and reminds us why protecting habitat matters

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

The govt is yet to release the exposure draft of its EPBC reforms — keeping community in the dark on vital environmental legislation.

Without transparency or consultation, we can’t deliver the strong protections nature needs. Once again, this govt chooses secrecy over integrity.

#auspol #EPBC

New from @EmpirePodUK
The Final, Tragic Episode in our History of Gaza:
GAZA & THE NAKBA
linktr.ee/empirepoduk

ACF appoints Adam Bandt as its next CEO The Australian Conservation Foundation’s Board has appointed former Greens leader Adam Bandt as the next CEO of the national environment group.

Let's build a movement 💚
www.acf.org.au/news/acf-app...

Look away if you are trying to buy a home.
Fastest increases in 4 years. Labor’s tinkering is fuelling the 🔥

Aunty Donna expert says they’re, “Too cerebral.” 😂

Hard Quiz — Stream the new season 8pm Wednesdays on ABC iview and ABC TV.

Donald Trump says Australia will get the Aukus submarines – but the decision won’t be his to make If the US navy needs the subs, they cannot be sold to Australia, regardless of how much the president might wish it

As I wrote in Michael West Media yesterday, Trump won’t be President in the early 2030’s when the Virginia subs won’t get delivered. The billions we’re shipping to the US are real, the opportunity costs to the ADF are real, the promises aren’t. 1/2 #auspol

H5 strain of bird flu on Heard Island? Samples are yet to be tested. "The majority of mortalities were detected in elephant seal pups and in a small number of adults." — Dr Julie McInnes, wildlife ecologist with AAD and @imas-utas.bsky.social

▶️ www.abc.net.au/news/2025-10...

📸 Matt Curnock

This is what oligarchy looks like:

Trump gave corporate America a $920 billion tax break.

Now, corporations like Amazon, Meta, Apple, Google & Lockheed Martin are returning the favor by giving Trump $300 million for a fancy ballroom.

That’s a pretty good return on investment.

Here's the thing LNP: climate change is real and as NASA and others have said "human activities are driving the global warming trend observed since the mid-20th century."

Today’s No Kings protest could be the largest single-day protest in U.S. history.

People have power.

Dunno if youse are across this... but it's forecast that in Sydney on Wednesday the temp will be 38C. (100 F)

It's OCTOBER! That's FIFTEEN DEGREES ABOVE AVERAGE!

Our Government and fossil fuel companies are determined to cook us alive! Boil the oceans. Kill our forests. Turn habitat to ash.🥺😩

My good God, reading about USA politics is both exhausting and scary.
Here in Australia, we should be both alert and alarmed.
Protect our precious and fragile democracy - with its checks and balances- to stop the contagion.

Re: politicians and comedy.

Well remember Andrew Peacock (then Opp Leader) being mercilessly pilloried on the "Gillies Report" - way back on the ABC in the mid- 80s

Still have a copy of our "almanac" signed by him: "Wendy, keep up the good work! A. Peacock"

That's the way we do it!

Finland ends homelessness and provides shelter for all in need - scoop.me In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Why? The country applies the "Housing First" concept agains homelessness.

“In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. Those affected receive a small apartment & counselling with no preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected make their way back into a stable life. And all this is CHEAPER than accepting homelessness.”

It costs a lot less to house people.

The Great Barrier Reef Experiences Largest Annual Decline in Nearly 40 Years A coral bleaching event in 2024 has severely hurt the Australian underwater ecosystem.

"The coral that makes up the Great Barrier Reef has experienced the greatest decline in recorded history. According to yearly surveys that track the state of coral, the reef has declined by up to a third in some parts following a major bleaching event in 2024."

Systematic attribution of heatwaves to the emissions of carbon majors - Nature Climate change made 213 historical heatwaves reported over 2000–2023 more likely and more intense, to which each of the 180 carbon majors (fossil fuel and cement producers) substantially contributed.

no time to post properly about this but yeah - the companies, governments and state-owned orgs that extract the stuff are the first in a chain of events that lead to Earth's atmosphere becoming deadlier, and bear a necessary but insufficient amount of responsibility for who gets hurt

‘Fearless exploration’: visionary Australian artist Janet Dawson gets her first retrospective aged 90 Art Gallery of NSW exhibition spanning more than six decades is a long-overdue celebration of a life lived through art, where nature and abstraction converge in luminous harmony * Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email As a young child, artist Janet Dawson learned to see the world through her mother’s eyes, the eyes of a woman who could find wonder in both the cosmos and the kitchen. “She took me out in the early evening and explained the moon,” Dawson recalls, graciously holding court from her wheelchair at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) on Friday. “She taught me that the moon had a job to do – to rise and to return. She gave it purpose, and so I watched it carefully and waited for it every night.” Continue reading...

‘Fearless exploration’: visionary Australian artist Janet Dawson gets her first retrospective aged 90

How to reduce your food footprint: if it’s better for you, it’s better for the planet Curbing waste, eating a plant-rich diet and limiting ultra-processed food (and sadly, coffee and chocolate) will dramatically reduce your carbon footprint * Change by degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprint * Got a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at changebydegrees@theguardian.com Food production globally accounts for nearly 30% of greenhouse gas emissions, with the average Australian diet contributing more than 3kg of Co2 per person per day. And what’s worse, we waste about 35% of the food we bring home. If we keep this up, it has been estimated the already unsustainable environmental cost of the food system will nearly double by 2050. Calculating the precise impact your individual food choices have on the environment isn’t simple, but research suggests the actions we can take to bring that impact down are – and they aren’t just better for the environment, they’re better for our health too. Continue reading...

How to reduce your food footprint: if it’s better for you, it’s better for the planet

Antisemitism, free speech and a dangerous redefinition: How one envoy is rewriting the rules The recent synagogue fire in Melbourne is being used as a blueprint for sweeping changes to Australian law.

This is not just about one envoy or one definition. It’s about whether Australians will allow unelected figures to dictate public discourse, criminalise free speech and reshape our institutions in secret. #auspol

For tens of thousands of years, Aboriginal people in Arnhem Land have used fire strategically — lighting small, cool burns early in the dry season to prevent dangerous wildfires later.

Often think of Paul Keating's pitch to "pivot to Asia" in the 90's - strengthening our ties in OUR region - and lament that we kept looking to Europe and USA... what a wasted 30 years that's been.

Love my husband - and we keep separate bank accounts - but reckon I'd know by now if he was a flat-out, climate-denying racist.

Gosh, good thing our supposedly left-wing government didn’t create a special position in public life expressly for this person as part of its big push for ‘social cohesion’.

That would have been pretty daft.

Trump’s New Brazil Tariffs Aren’t About Trade, and They’re Not About Free Speech | TechPolicy.Press Few other countries have fought back against repeated attacks on their sovereignty like Brazil, writes Tech Policy Press fellow Laís Martins.

Trump’s tariffs on Brazil aren’t about trade, writes Tech Policy Press fellow Laís Martins (@laismartins.com). His real target? Brazil’s effort to hold its former president to account and its tough stance on American tech firms in defense of its own sovereignty, she writes.

Fossil fuel emissions have warmed atmosphere and most heat is soaked up by sea, creating marine heatwaves. Extra science funding for monitoring is welcome, maybe even for small scale mitigation and warnings, but the ONLY solution is to stop burning fossil fuels. And the Govt isnt acting fast enough.

"If the Albanese government is genuinely worried about the costs of insurance, it needs to rapidly introduce a ban on new gas and coal mines, abolish expensive fossil-fuel subsidies and stop giving away export gas for free"

Denying the costs of climate change is no different to denying the science.