Richard Atkinson

The 5% first home buyers scheme is a miserable policy failure – and the latest chapter in Australia’s housing disgrace | Greg Jericho The government is juicing demand to make houses more expensive for Australians while providing good public housing for … Americans

Fail

AI Is The Ultimate "Forced Meme" There are few things in this world more insufferable than a rich person trying to force their shitty ideas on everyone else. And in 2025, there are very few things that feel more forced than “Generati...

Honored to be featured on the freshly-relaunched @aftermath.site with this new piece!

It's about AI and Fascism, and also the beloved Y2K-era teen comedy Mean Girls.

Antibiotic approved for Tasmania's farmed salmon — but maybe don't eat fish caught nearby The industry's use of the drug is in response to an "endemic" bacterial disease that caused the deaths of up to 15,000 tonnes of salmon from January to April, resulting in dead fish material washing u...

Why anybody eats Tasmanian farmed salmon is a mystery to me. It's not healthy eating. We're being told this antibiotic use is fine. Don't eat wild fish caught within 3km of salmon pens though. So people who want to catch their own fish can't even do that. #politas

Two frames.1: Background lists “undermining the judiciary; ignoring due process; defying the constitution; seeking retribution against political enemies; inciting mob violence; punishing (dissent); under(mining free press); extra-(judicial killing); mass (deportations); param(ilitary crackdowns); cult of (personality); militaristic symbols; purging minorities; rewrit(ing/eras)ing history; state(propa(ganda)”. Commentator in cardigan with patched elbows and reading glasses says, “To call Trump fascist would be a wild exaggeration *snort*” 2: Back-ground lists “free childcare; free buses; rent freezes; affordable housing; city-owned grocery stores; taxing billionaires; boost minimum wages”. Same commentator throws hands in air, glasses fly, says, “AAAAK!! MAMDANI’S A COMMUNIST!”

PANIC!!
My @smh @theage cartoon

Tasmania once criminalised people for being gay or for cross-dressing.

Yesterday Tasmania's Parliament finally passed laws to erase those convictions and offer redress for the harm caused.

This is justice decades overdue.

Net zero is an insidious loophole that distracts from the scientific imperative to eliminate fossil fuels | Joëlle Gergis History tells us that polite incrementalism and political kowtowing will prevail at Cop30 – even as catastrophe unfolds around us As world leaders gather in Brazil this year for Cop30 – the first Amazonian Cop – it’s worth doing a quick reality check on how we are collectively tracking to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Despite 30 years of UN climate summits, about half of the carbon dioxide accumulated in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution has been emitted since 1990. Incidentally, 1990 was the year the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – the global authority on climate change science – released its First Assessment Report confirming the threat of human-caused global warming. As scientists all over the world prepare the IPCC’s Seventh Assessment Report, we do so knowing that our work is still being overshadowed by politics. Despite all the well-intentioned half-measures, the truth is that the world is still disastrously off track to limit dangerous climate change. Dr Joëlle Gergis is an award-winning climate scientist and writer from the University of Melbourne. She served as a lead author on the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on the Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report Continue reading...

Net zero is an insidious loophole that distracts from the scientific imperative to eliminate fossil fuels | Joëlle Gergis

Tasmania Can't Sell Soul For Devils - Tasmanian Times Opinion A footy club meant to unite Tasmanians is bitterly dividing them Richard Flanagan, 29 October 2025 — article courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald For decades the dream of a Tasmanian team was...

'In Tasmania, such battles tend to end in the mud and sometimes in jail – but they usually end the same way. The Franklin River, the pulp mills, the stadium: the people win, and the empire retreats in shame.'

Rockliff Ambushes Crossbench, Cancels Union Talks, Credibility Collapses - Tasmanian Times In the last eight days, the Rockliff Government’s credibility came under sustained attack following two documented instances of broken promises. First, the government promised crossbench consultation ...

Yawn. ALP manages to call the cross bench 'protest parties' 4 times in one media release. The rest of the time they're talking about the Liberal-Green Government.

Do they realise they could be in government if they stopped behaving like children? If only they'd they'd learn to collaborate.

Fortescue: Fuel Tax Credit makes diesel 'artificially cheap', overhaul needed for climate A Fortescue executive has called for a major overhaul of Australia’s $11 billion fuel tax credit scheme, arguing it undermines the nation’s climate goals by making diesel “artificially cheap”.

Even the big iron ore miner, Fortecue, says its time to rein in Australia’s $10 billion per year expenditure on diesel fuel subsidies…imagine all the housing, renewables and cheap education we could have if we took #climate or tax policy seriously.

thepoint.com.au/news/251031-...

I can't find any reference to a second grant, and Josh didn't reply when I asked him about it.

What did the Labor 'opposition' leader say when I asked him about the federal money:

'The $240 million funding from the Federal government is a contribution toward the cost of the Macquarie Point stadium. There are separate federal government contributions toward housing and wharf facilities.'

Perry's Stadium Analysis Raises Serious Questions About Independence - Tasmanian Times The 22 October Public Accounts Committee hearing into Coordinator-General John Perry’s controversial stadium opinion piece has raised serious questions about the independence of his analysis and the u...

Would you buy a used car from this man?

tasmaniantimes.com/2025/10/perr...

Oh look, they can't even do the add-ups and goes-intos either.

ruthforrest.com.au/opinion/vood...

Nope, I can't see any mention of a vanity project stadium here.

federalfinancialrelations.gov.au/agreements/m...

This would be funny if it wasn't so serious. The feral government grants money to Tasmania for urban renewal, transport and wharfs and the state wants the spend it on a white elephant stadium.

www.pm.gov.au/media/macqua...

Perry's Stadium Analysis Raises Serious Questions About Independence - Tasmanian Times The 22 October Public Accounts Committee hearing into Coordinator-General John Perry’s controversial stadium opinion piece has raised serious questions about the independence of his analysis and the u...

This should be front page news and cause outraged laughter whenever the figures are quoted by the government.

tasmaniantimes.com/2025/10/perr...

Thanks to Cory Doctorow for reading our Driven Down report, and also describing a horrifying mental image: chickenized reverse-centaurs

pluralistic.net/2025/10/23/t...

Generative AI is a societal disaster Governments are deluding themselves into believing investment justifies allowing AI to upend society

The AI industry wants us to believe AI superintelligence is the real threat from generative AI.

But that narrative was crafted to distract from the many ways genAI is being used to tear our societies apart, as we saw this week when a deepfake video rocked the Irish election. It must be reined in.

One of the most insightful articles that I've read on the insanity of AI boosterism.

I never understood why the Android BOM app doesn't let you see a synoptic chart, (or a regional forecast that describes the weather systems that are on their way). It's like all we want is the rain radar 🤷‍♂️

As promised - This is a more detailed and expanded version of the opinion piece published on 17 October titled When Economic Spin Masquerades as Analysis. ruthforrest.com.au/opinion/vood... #economics #politas #EconomicAnalysis #infrastructure #infrastructureprojects

What's Halloween? (Okay, I know, but it's sad that it's become a 'thing' in Australia. Bah humbug.)

And don't forget, it's not the under-16s who have to verify their age, it's the rest of us.

Plutocrats, Profits And The Public Good Betrayed - Tasmanian Times The Takeover of Tasmania – How a Quiet Island Became a Playground for Plutocrats There is a quiet war being waged for the soul of Tasmania. On one side stands a coalition of multinational corporations...

A sensible article from a former
Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party candidate.

tasmaniantimes.com/2025/10/plut...

ICEBlock Owner After Apple Removes App: ‘We Are Determined to Fight This’ Apple removed ICEBlock reportedly after direct pressure from Department of Justice officials. “I am incredibly disappointed by Apple's actions today. Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never t...

ICEBlock Owner After Apple Removes App: ‘We Are Determined to Fight This’

🔗 www.404media.co/iceblock-own...

Dear computer boffins please stop trying to fix problems I don’t have | First Dog on the Moon I don’t want AI in anything and certainly not everything please stop asking * Sign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are published * Get all your needs met at the First Dog shop if what you need is First Dog merchandise and prints Continue reading...

Dear computer boffins please stop trying to fix problems I don’t have | First Dog on the Moon

We are doomed as a species.

Optus’s triple zero debacle is further proof of the failure of the neoliberal experiment | John Quiggin Privately owned monopolies always look to increase profits at the expense of consumers. Australia must hasten its return to public ownership of vital infrastructure

'... telecommunications infrastructure is a natural monopoly, and that the idea of “facilities-based competition” is an absurdity.'

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Can ChatGPT help science writers?

Some people think ChatGPT has a place writing things like news briefs, stuff written to a specific style and tone and, y'know, kinda boring.

So Science did a study.

ChatGPT failed.

Why? It got stuff wrong. "Also, extensive editing for hyperbole was needed." www.science.org/content/blog...

I thought it might be some new US weirdness, which I guess it still is. 🙂