Australian Politics

Archive/non-paywall link.

Australia is failing more than 130,000 people with significant psychosocial disability – despite spending billions every year on the NDIS.

This gap is fuelling a growing problem. People without adequate support are more likely to be homeless, admitted to hospital, or have their needs escalate – adding pressure to systems already under strain.

The gap can be closed without spending any more public money – by redirecting some NDIS funds to ensure Australians can get help whether they are in the scheme or not, and no matter where they live.

“A 25% tax on gas exports would solve the gas crisis. It would cut energy bills, ensure there is enough gas for Australians. It would also provide $17 billion annually for better housing, health care, education and childcare,” said Mark Ogge, Principal Advisor to The Australia Institute.

A decent analysis of one of the systemic weaknesses of our system, party discipline.

Think about one of the things happening in our parliament at the moment. An independent candidate, in the form of Andrew Wilkie from Tasmania, is trying to get the parliament—the body we elect to represent our views—to pass legislation that would ban gambling advertising. It is an issue on which we-the-people are in loud agreement and yet our elected body will not enact such legislation. Or rather, cannot. The impediment is the government itself, more specifically, the Labor Party, even more specifically, the prime minister.

Our Antisemitism Envoy may have slight shades of Nazi

Antisemitism Envoy Jillian Segal — whose family bankrolls far-right political lobby group “Advance” — has misled the Senate over her failure to denounce last month’s NSW Parliament House neo-Nazi rally.

Segal said, she had conveyed her “condemnation” to those media outlets “who approached me”.This is false. The Klaxon approached Segal and her office on November 9, in writing, expressly asking: “As Australia’s Antisemitism Envoy, do you denounce the neo-Nazi rally at the weekend?” We received no response.

As previously reported, Segal’s family trust was the tied-second biggest funder of [far-right group] Advance in 2023-24 — the latest data — giving it $50,000 in the year.

There is a moment in every public conversation about children’s imprisonment when language becomes a weapon. Governments call uprisings “disturbances”, media outlets describe frightened children as “rioters”, and the public is invited to see young people in crisis as threats rather than as children who have been deeply harmed.

That framing tells us far more about the adults in power than it does about the children locked inside these prisons.

Let's try help kids rather than locking them away and forgetting about them while doing nothing to correct the failures that created them.

Revelations of secret F-35 fighter jet parts shipments to Israel have exposed a yawning hole in Australia’s sovereign national defence.

Exclusive reports by Declassified Australia of at least 71 packages of F-35 fighter jet weapons parts being exported from Sydney to Israel have revealed that Australia has forfeited control over the plane’s spare parts stored here for Australia’s fleet of F-35s.

Australia has signed up to a system where, at a moment’s notice, those ‘parts and components’ may be whisked off the shelves at the RAAF Williamtown Air Base in New South Wales on the whim of a foreign state to be exported to a foreign country in a distant war zone.

While it may be known to defence experts and insiders, this was the surprise public admission by a senior Defence official, Deputy Secretary Hugh Jeffrey. He was responding to questions about the F-35 parts exports, that had been earlier revealed by reports in Declassified Australia, during a Senate interrogation ... “These are US owned goods. They’re managed by Lockheed Martin. Australia does not direct the export of those goods. It does not control the export of those goods..."

Two social media apps surging in popularity as alternatives to circumvent Australia's age ban have been issued a 'please explain' notice by the online safety regulator, signalling they will likely be captured by the new laws.

What they didn't mention is the other small forums that won't require age verification:

4chan.org

stormfront (Neo Nazis)

KiwiFarms (facilitates stalking and harrassment)

But thanks for stopping kids getting on Facebook Australian government!

edit: try https://ausinds.com/image-boards/

No logins, no age verification

"Antifascist combat training is about feeling safe, not tough, writes Tom Tanuki."

This article is from anarchist Tom Tanuki, in response to an article in SAlt's publication denouncing "black bloc" violence. This discussion notes both points of agreement and divergence of opinion.

Medicare’s founding promise is failing millions as jurisdictional division leaves patients stuck on waiting lists and priced out of specialist care. A shared federal–state hospital system is the missing reform.