“No one is in harm’s way.” Really, perhaps not to westerners. But tell that to all those who have been beaten from the flotilla and those were taken to Israeli jail and witnessed what was happening to Palestinian people there.
Israel now in damage control. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-21/israel-ambassador-wont-apologise-for-ben-gvir-actions/106707956
We may not need more reviews but we sure need more effective action against the violence. We’re looking at femicide alone here but the number of women with injuries from domestic violence is significant and then there’s the emotional violence perpetrated not only on adult women but on the children who live in dv situations over which they have no control. Absolutely shocking.
According to Australian Femicide Watch, 29 women and nine children have been killed by violence so far this year…
…it’s clear, from last week’s budget, that the Albanese Government is far from throwing “everything it can” at the issue.
The billions in funding the Women’s Statement noted were derived from repackaging existing funding announcements.
The $717 million in relevant new commitments we counted addresses everything from the ADF military sexual violence inquiry to community housing for young people at risk and the child support scheme reform, spread out over the next four to five years, so around $150 to $ 180 million a year. The $4.4 billion the Australian Government has contributed to addressing the issues is the cumulative amount since 2022, amounting to around $1.1 billion a year across the entire National Plan to End Violence Against Women.
Last week’s Budget also committed an additional $53 billion to defence over the next decade, amounting to $5.3 billion a year in new defence spending. That one year in additional defence spending amounts to more than what’s being outlined for the entire National Plan to End Violence Against Women invested over four years.
And to really demonstrate the capacity to throw “everything” at the issue, consider what Australia loses from fossil fuel subsidies and forgone tax revenue, with this Budget indicating it amounts to $19 billion annually, according to the Climate Council.
Clearly, the funding allocated to end violence against women and children isn’t enough because we’re far from seeing a change in the number of those murdered.
And finally our govt finds a bit of its spine and publicly condemns this abomination, this depraved creep who has ironically done us all a favour by displaying what the Israeli regime is about without the PR. I wonder if our govt would have spoken up if others had not already done so. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/21/penny-wong-condemns-israeli-minister-over-shocking-and-unacceptable-treatment-of-flotilla-activists-ntwnfb
If anyone is interested in a bit more depth and background, this video by British Owen Jones is worthy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxwsZb9d5IQ
One day you’ll e proven right. Hope it’s soon!
Lol you’ll have to translate to this grandma what you mean! 😆 👵
That makes sense.
Really interesting. Thanks for that. I just still wonder whether microparticles of the plastic still get into the water.
And all other scientists agree with them too, but to be modest we’ll just say 97%.
Wow, I’d never seen those floating balls till now. I bet they’re made of some sort of plastic too, creating more environmental problems.
You’d be surprised! I was surprised and I live here. You would think being such a large, dry, hot continent (in general) we’d have space enough for enormous solar farms, for example. One of the problems are the distances. If you put solar farms in distant places they are not financially viable (transport, infrastructure, etc, etc.
In some regional areas there’s pushback against renewable projects sometimes for genuine reasons and sometimes for political reasons. I live in a regional area and have seen some of the attitudes, e.g. ‘they’re taking away our farming land’, ‘we don’t like how they spoil the view’, ‘we don’t like the powerlines’, ‘it is hurting our wildlife’ (but there’s plenty of farmers who don’t blink when destroying bushland to create more cattle pasture).
Finding alternatives like putting the solar panels on open water if available, means that in some instances, community upset and land use can be avoided.
Also, floating panels can be very useful on open water projects like wastewater systems and irrigation dams, e.g.
https://www.energymagazine.com.au/largest-floating-solar-array-in-aus-switched-on/
The more well-operating renewable projects the better. Different places have different challenges and situations.
I guess each proposal would have to be investigated. I know floating solar has been used in various places successfully.
Although on second thoughts it’s going to be interesting to see what the international attendance is like compared to other FA Cups. My hunch is that numbers will be down for geopolitical reasons but I’m not a football fan so what would I know.
😆 If only!
I was responding to the points being made, not trying to disparage you personally.
I do understand your viewpoint and respect it but cannot agree.
You could posit that Shoebridge said more than the ‘comfortable’ description of the current govt approach to Israel etc but that this could not be spelled out for fear by the author, Paul Gregoire, of getting into legal trouble, or, that Shoebridge himself did not want to make waves that could damage his Party. We’ll never know but speaking like this is often a sign of a system that is ‘not comfortable’ with openness.
there are often unidentified reasons for policy and decisions
Yes I know but to keep quiet with the bare-faced evidence that your citizens are being assaulted by your ally illegally, to keep quiet about the ongoing murder of Palestinians and the mass destruction of Sthn Lebanon with thousands already killed is very suspect, no matter how hush-hush the reasons might be. The UN has condemned this activity and so should everyone. These are mass crimes. And assaulting foreign nationals on international waters is also breaking the law. Silence is condoning the breakdown of the international order.
Government quietly got Julian Assange home.
We are talking of one high-profile figure and I was overjoyed when our govt finally got him out imprisonment. It saved his life. The above situation is the opposite. Whatever the ‘unidentified reasons’ for the silence and the continued support directly or indirectly of Israeli military action, it has cost at least 100,000 lives and counting. Keeping silent about that but being super public about supporting the illegal bombing of Iran which has caused thousands more deaths and will probably continue on is… what would you say?
Germans and others were castigated after WW2 for turning a blind eye or supporting what was happening to Jews and other minorities in Europe during the war but what many of us are doing now (including our own govt) looks very similar. I am sure they have ‘unidentified reasons’ but the result is still criminal and many lives are being obliterated, including tens of thousands of innocent children. I cannot excuse putting people’s lives behind political expediency.
Those who put together the principles for journalists document are really worthy of respect. Thank you for sharing.
Perhaps try the Victorian electricians association (I don’t know what they’re called, but there must be some trade association} and explain your problem and see if they can help in any way. It’s a long shot but perhaps worth trying.
How about shipping though?