Dr Deborah O’Connell

“I am somebody” shaped how millions of us saw ourselves as kids, including me. That message mattered. It still does.

Rest in power, Jesse Jackson
🙏🏽

YouTube video by Rocket Won’t You Be My Neighbor? | Lady Gaga Original

Lady Gaga has put out a gorgeous anthem for Minneapolis.
youtu.be/e3o5FIXoK84?...

YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Lyric Video)

Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
We’ll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst

Directed by Thom Zimny
Edited by Thom Zimny and Samuel Shapiro
Production Footage: Pam Springsteen and Thom Zimny

YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

From scourge to saviour: How the sun powered the grid through a heatwave For so long, the pounding sunshine of an Australian heatwave was the grid's biggest threat. It has now become its greatest asset.

'This week has shown the explosive growth of solar power in particular had diminished the risks of blackouts during heatwaves caused by supply shortfalls' www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01...

The ice that holds up half a meter of sea level begins to crack like a windshield Cracks spreading across Antarctica’s Doomsday Glacier reveal how a hidden weak point could accelerate global sea-level rise.

www.ecoticias.com/en/the-ice-t...

Holding complexity amidst catastrophe I didn't want to write this. I don't want to write this. I feel like I need to write something. I am writing this. I am not good at writing about my Jewish experience. I am still writing this, ei...

I find it incredibly difficult to write about my Jewishness. I didn't want to write this, but I did.

We need to re-embrace complexity and nuance in thinking about and discussing the Jewish future.

What I always hear: “We can’t afford to pay our workers more than $15 an hour.”

What I never hear: “We can’t afford to pay our CEO millions of dollars a year.”

Funny how that works.

Factchecking five Coalition claims about net zero, from power prices to the $9tn cost As Liberals join Nationals in abandoning a 2050 emissions target, we unpick some of the opposition’s talking points

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Facts......

Assumption of buyouts after disasters ends now – minister The era of government paying for storm-damaged properties is over, with the climate minister signalling a new approach to the next extreme event. Marc Daalder reports.

“ .. where the Crown no longer distorts risk signals and blunts incentives to manage risk .. “ - Climate Minister Simon Watts.

Homeowners will find out how expensive full insurance is compared with taxes.

From listening to the evidence given in this senate committee - there is a large, well funded and well organised global network of groups, orgs, think tanks etc which are funded by the fossil fuel sector - doing everything they possibly can to obstruct climate progress #auspol

exactly like the Chinese surveillance state

The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice. Except it doesn’t bend on its own—it bends because we pull it in the direction of justice. What keeps me hopeful during times like these is being surrounded by people who are doing just that.

Not only is the hunger for new data centres already impacting Australia's energy demands, it's even driving down our ambitions for reducing our emissions, Ketan Joshi reports in Crikey.

www.crikey.com.au/20...

Science is under siege from weaponised disinformation – posing a threat to human civilisation | Michael Mann and Peter Hotez From Covid misinformation to climate denialism, understanding the divergent paths of Australia and the US can help us fight the powerful forces that threaten our world

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Standing up for science and facts - @michaelmann.bsky.social and @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social

🤮

Australia's capital class remains too focused on profit to truly address productivity

The same groups advising on how to disarm the intergenerational economic bombs that have started to explode are the same groups that helped set them, writes Amy Remeikis.

'Revolving door' between politics and lobbying rings transparency alarm bell Lobbying has become big business, with around 727 lobbyists registered in the national capital, more than three times the number of elected officials sitting in parliament.

This is how broken our lobbying laws are.

Every resources minister since 2001 went on to work for fossil fuel companies & 8 ex-ministers & senior advisers now lobby for gambling💰

It's time for complete reform of lobbying rules + independent watchdog.
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-08...

PM’s trip to SA algal bloom reveals cautious Labor’s climate fears The Coalition lacks credibility on climate. But that doesn’t translate to an automatic advantage for Labor.

The Labor Govt delayed approving one of 🇦🇺's biggest fossil fuel projects until after the election & is now hiding the National Climate Risk Assessment.

Australians deserve honesty.

Selling out the people & places we love to vested interests must stop.
www.afr.com/policy/energ...

WA government put ‘very rosy spin’ on report into Woodside emissions at Murujuga, scientist’s private email says Report part of a project used in lobbying effort to dismiss UN concerns that industrial emissions were damaging 50,000-year-old ancient rock art

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Mullins also wrote in his email to the vice-chancellor that the state Department of Water and Environmental Regulation had probably “hoped everyone would only read the summary and not the full report”

Big miners have banked $60b in diesel fuel tax credits A Climate Energy Finance report recommends a $50 million cap on the fuel tax subsidy for mining companies to create more cash for green projects.

Australia’s biggest miners have pocketed almost $60BN in diesel tax subsidies in <20 years.

Unless we act, taxpayers lose $84BN more by 2030.

It makes no sense for 🇦🇺ns to pay tax while coal giants get a free pass.

End this fossil fuel subsidy now.
www.afr.com/companies/mi...

Labor talk a big game on climate action but their first act after the election was to approve the biggest fossil fuel project in Australia out to 2070.

They need to set a strong target to be able to cut emissions here & pressure global leaders to take action
www.canberratimes.com.au/story/903552...

Getting there slowly but surely. Stabilising the grid and making best use of renewables and existing infrastructure, putting downward pressure on prices

Ahead of National Homelessness Week I caught up with Homelessness Australia CEO Kate Colvin and YWCA ACT CEO Frances Crimmins to talk about priorities for the 48th parliament.

With a 10% increase in ppl seeking to access homelessness services there is a lot of work to do.

New Australia Institute analysis shows ACTU Secretary’s call for a 25% tax on gas export revenue to replace the PRRT would raise around $12.5 billion annually.

“Stop giving quantities of gas away for free and start putting the interests of Australians first.”

@richarddenniss.bsky.social #auspol

This is moving.

Kamala Harris feels the pain we feel. Not just from her loss, but from the trauma and abuse our country is living through.

What could have been…

#disgrace

Ken Henry urges nature law reform after decades of ‘intergenerational bastardry’

In his National Press Club address, Former Treasury Secretary Ken Henry made the case for urgent, ambitious nature law reform to boost productivity while saving species.

Budget reveals WA oil and gas royalties in rapid decline Shared revenue from Australia's largest mainland gas project has dropped by more than 70 per cent in three years, contributing less than 1 per cent of the state's revenue this financial year.

West Australians reading the latest budget should be outraged: "Australia is being robbed of its resources and our governments are entirely complicit," said @markogge.bsky.social speaking to ABC.

"WA motorists will be paying 6x the amount in car rego fees as the gas industry pays in royalties."

David Littleproud (holding a small nuclear cooling tower) and Sussan Ley at either end of a sofa which has been severed in the middle, facing a bucket of coal, saying “Mummy and Daddy still love you very much.”

The split.
My @smh cartoon.