Dash Nehring

BAE frigate deal referred to anti-corruption commission Referral comes in same week the controversial procurement will face a second parliamentary hearing

It is grimly amusing that Australia’s second largest Defence acquisition deal ($46bn!) was referred to the NACC - for good reason - but the Commissioner won’t look at it bc he’s still a ranking ADF officer.
Readers will be astonished that this referral two yrs ago has yielded nothing yet.

also the government can press button and create more means.

"What this Bill would do is make it harder and more expensive for Australians to get information from the government."

"FOI is not perfect, but this bill would make its issues much, much worse."

- Australia Institute Researcher Skye Predevac
#auspol @skyelark.bsky.social

There, fixed it

Josh Crowley (sp?) (@jdcrowley) on twitter: "If I built a big robot that consumed 33% of my state's electricity so it could go around stealing people's art I would be arrested, and that's how you know law is a social construct."

This but an entire country’s economy lol

we are all sherman

Saying someone is a "member of antifa" is like saying someone is a "member of socialism" or something. it makes zero sense. But they can't use the ideological form of the word because it makes it too clear what the ideology actually is and it would include our grandpas

A post by Rebecca Johnson: “I finally learned how to teach my guys to ID the passive voice. If you can insert "by zombies" after the verb, you have passive voice.” A tumblr respond from mightymur: “The final, brilliant word on passive voice. "She was killed [by zombies.]"<--passive "Zombies killed [by zombies] her." <-- active”

Because it feels relevant as we continue to evaluate the media and our representatives’ statements, my favorite way to identify the active vs. passive voice.

It’s very simple Brian. I didn’t notice that my Questions On Notice team hadn’t noticed that there were questions on notice. I’ll make a note to question them about that

Reminder: Australia's only emissions reduction legislation - the safeguard mechanism - allows for unlimited use of offsets instead of requiring genuine cuts from polluters

Albanese denies bill is bad for transparency But Anthony Albanese rebuffed suggestions his government was turning its back on long-stated commitment to more transparency, suggesting the FOI changes were a "security" issue. "I think most people … would find it surprising that people can put in anonymous FOI requests. What that means is that there's no way to determine whether a foreign agent or actor is putting in requests about information that are sensitive," he said. The bill would stamp out anonymous requests and introduce new powers to block "vexatious" or otherwise abusive requests, which Ms Rowland said were a key reason why bureaucrats spent one million hours responding to requests in 2023-24. "[The bill] is designed to make sure that we can prioritise genuine FOI request and make sure that we most expeditiously spend taxpayers' money," she told the ABC's AM.

Albo:
"I think most people … would find it surprising that people can put in anonymous FOI requests. What that means is that there's no way to determine whether a foreign agent or actor is putting in requests about information that are sensitive," he said.

That's so bad faith it's laughable.

Great to see our research being used in Parliament!

Australia Institute research shows that the proposed changes to Freedom of Information laws would make a repeat of the Robodebt coverup more likely, not less.

@davidshoebridge.bsky.social #auspol

is that average based on mean or median? because if more than 50% of requests could be denied on the basis of time alone, that's super worrying!

It's still worrying regardless of whether there's an FOI Georg out there with 1,000 hours behind it.

'Ministers will have a greater right to refuse requests they consider “vexatious or frivolous”, “harassing or intimidatory”, or “otherwise an abuse of process”.'

It also sets a statutory cap of 40 hours' processing time. The current average is 51 hours.

This will severely restrict access to info.

a meme in two panels. the top panel features Jesus frowning at the text "breeding kink". the bottom panel features Jesus smiling at the text "need for seed". He's winking, one hand pointing at the text and the other giving a thumbs up.

I saw this and a thought popped into my head that I had to make reality. I'm so sorry.

google search field with suggested searches. the top search suggestion is "what do humans taste like"

Are we okay???

I was googling "what do humans need chromium for" and the top search suggestion was uh

IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE IT'S TRUE

this one full hit me in the chest

This shits me to tears. For every Julie there are a dozen women who do seek promotion and are told to wait their turn. Impostor syndrome is what manifests when you are systematically discriminated against.

National guard begins deploying on DC streets after Trump police takeover Troops start appearing in nation’s capital on Tuesday night as president’s move widely condemned

Anyone thinking or reporting that next year will definitely have free and fair mid-term elections, or that Trump is likely to leave in 2028 is so naive as to be dangerous.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

The challenge of halting an ally-turned-monster looms larger still for Albanese and Wong At some point, the diplomats will run out of rhetoric to describe what is unfolding in Gaza, and Western countries will have to work out how to deal with a monster backed by the United States.

www.crikey.com.au/2025/08/13/a...

don't worry guys the stock market is at a record high everything's fine there's nothing to see here

you never hear people say “you never know what other people are struggling with” these days. that’s because The Horrors are public knowledge

I know this is beside the point but richard marles looks like a bad photocopy of someone's least favourite cricket player

Marles insists Australia ‘not supplying weapons to Israel’ but critics argue ‘parts of weapons are weapons’ Acting prime minister decries ‘misinformation’ regarding arms exports while Greens claim ‘hollow talking points … aren’t washing with the public’

Tricky words by the Albanese government obscure the obvious truth: Australia is deeply enmeshed in a global arms trade. There’s lots more being bought and sold than just F-35 parts www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Considering the Arms Trade Treaty applies to parts and components as well as fully assembled arms, I'm not sure the ICJ will care about the intricacy of the "supply chain".

feels like it's an attempt to cast a spell rather than answer a question

it has an insidious psychological effect as well--framing the extremist far right view as the more popular one.