I have tried a tiny sample of what was meant to be a hamburger pattie/mince thing. It was not big enough to really judge - but it gave an idea.

It tasted different, the texture was definitely different to what you know. But it wasn’t bad. I think we’d get used to it. They said they were nowhere near making a steak be similar.

After a threshold. You don’t want to tax some poor pensioner who has lived in the same 2-bedroom cottage in Carlton for 60 years, simply because that location is now worth $2Million.

And now it’s complicated. How do you find that threshold?
If it’s per-person, you’ll find rich people divvying up their portfolios to family members to distribute this tax benefit.
If you grandfather it in so it only affects future property purchases, you disincentivise retirees from downsizing to a smaller place, freeing up some 4-bedroom house.

Taxation policies are hard.

Remember that whole thing 15-20 years ago about “Occupy” and taxing the 1% etc?

This whole thing affects the top 0.3% of the population. 99.7% of us won’t be affected by it. There should be very wide popular support for this.

Hell, I wish I were affected by this policy. This is an awesome problem to have!

Unless you are a teenager, you’ll be retiring far sooner than 50 years. Less than 20, for me (hopefully).

Three million?! Who the hell has that much?

At that point, 5% interest will give you an annual salary of $150k. You can comfortably live off that and never touch the Three Million!

Middle-income tech nerd criticises Gina Rinehart for:

1. Being completely out of touch with Australians.
2. Constantly releasing media statements on issues like we should care what she thinks (and the media for publishing them).
3. Being on the wrong side of history on just about every topic.
4. Her awful poetry. Seriously, mine is better and I don’t write poetry.
5. Complaining that paying people in Australia more money than she pays workers in African nations is an issue, while choosing to live in Australia and being a parasite on us.
6. For defending a dude who did do some amazing heroic stuff as well as well as committing war crimes, domestic abuse, bullying and generally being a jerk.

“While concerning, this case does remind us that there are many layers of protection built into the electoral system to ensure it is secure.”

“The system ensured there was accountability, although it seems likely there was some kind of failure to identify immediately that the container had not been delivered to the counting centre.”

My confidence in the AEC remains strong. It is a little concerning that the container wasn’t noticed immediately, but it doesn’t appear to be anything malicious. Just an oversight on both sides for a scenario that will undoubtedly be corrected.

I think they’d have made a point of saying that the temporary staffer was facing further consequences or wouldn’t be a part of future elections if there was more to this. The fact they haven’t and that the case was sealed/intact leads me to believe it was an innocent mistake.

The hubris of claiming ownership of most of the galaxy because it’s above our little piece of rock aside, I liked the thought exercise.

I am now imagining that Earth falls under the night sky of some distant planet and we fall under their dominion as a result. They just haven’t gotten around to implementing their rule over us because of some stupid thing like spiders on our planet make it too difficult to impose. Or the Star Trek Whale thing. 😆

Paraphrasing here, but it was something like: “Gets the most votes ever. ‘Have the Greens lost their way?’”

Kudos to whoever at the AEC drew up this seat. They hit the demographics perfectly for a balanced slice of the populace. This was a super close one, hopefully it stays as a swing seat. Trish Cook has just claimed victory of it, but she’s only ahead by 634 votes with 81.9% counted. She isn’t really a certainty, though is probable winner.

I’m a little sad that Mia Davies didn’t get a better showing. I suppose the voters of the Hills of Perth see themselves more a part of suburbia than a rural seat. Mia was leader of the State Opposition after the 2022 election when the State National Party actually got more seats than the Liberals and were the senior coalition partner for a term. Mia stepped down over the National Party’s decision to side with the Liberal on the question of the Voice to Parliament. She vocally supported the Voice and did not agree with the party’s stance. She may have actually done better as an Independent candidate, her profile is more than large enough to get consideration in her own right.

If she ran as an independent in my seat, I’d seriously consider her. She’s got experience, credibility and integrity. She’s historically been a too conservative for my tastes, but I don’t know how much of that is her and how much is her party.

I saw the ONP vote - Sadly, it was upwards of 15% in some seats. If they head right, they’ll be getting some of that action.

Personally, I think most of the population is to be found in the other direction. It might take them another decade or so to admit they’re wrong. Or perhaps a new political movement will pop up in that time and supplant them? Who can say? I doubt however a strong move to the right will lead them to government.

Gotta be fair to this chap. That ABC presenter was drilling him for who would be the next leader, while the poor dude was still in shock that his party lost the election with him sitting there live in front of the whole nation. He’s not come to terms with the loss, let alone his leader’s ousting.

And they’re trying to get the poor dude to speculate on leadership. Poor bloke didn’t even know who among his party was even surviving the wipe-out.
Not too fair though: He also called himself “a Regan republican; a Bush Republican” the same night.

Not sure who the other Liberal dude they had on that night was, but he was spitting some hard facts. I liked him.

🎶 Why can’t you seeee_eeeee
You belong to meeee_eeeee 🎶

“In Danger” means “Seat in doubt”. Nobody knows, it’s all speculation.
Antony Green even this afternoon still thinks Adam is in there with a shot. Although he’s gone from “I think he’ll retain it” even as recently as yesterday to “Too close to call” this afternoon.

It’s been a fascinating seat to watch though. This is all because Melbourne’s electoral lines were redrawn in October:

They took away Fitzroy North and Clifton Hill and gave him South Yarra and part of Prahan instead. This has done fairly predictable things to his votes.

The same thing happened at the state election in Freo in March. 15+% swing away from Labor. Freo is no longer a safe seat at either level for the ALP.

Antony Green said on Saturday night that he believed Mr Bandt would end up retaining Melbourne.
Antony Green said 2 hours ago that he believed Mr Bandt would end up retaining Melbourne.

Greens leader Adam Bandt looks like he’s in a good position to be re-elected in the seat he’s held since 2010.
Postal votes had been breaking strongly to Labor, with Bandt getting just 23 per cent of preferences from them. For victory, he needs that number to be above a third.
The good news for him is that all four of the polling places counted today have beaten that target.
Based on current preference flows, Bandt trails his Labor opponent, but if today’s counting trend continues, Bandt should be re-elected.
At this stage, no early voting centres have been recounted.

For reals though: you wouldn’t want to be the community group that gets a Bunnings slot on an election date. It would decimate your sales as everyone already had their sausage. People buying a second at Bunnings would not be the norm.

Does CBA not add a virtual card to the phone’s wallet? I don’t need to actually open my bank’s app to make a purchase swiping my phone. I only need to unlock the phone (and you can configure it to make small purchases with the phone locked if you like).

Does he hear himself? I thought this bloke used to be a cop?

Imagine hearing “I have grave concerns about the conduct of the magistrate’s court. I would welcome a fugitive I’ve never met to my home and not turn him over to the authorities”.

I’d sound like a criminal. Because at that point I would be. Australia is a signatory to the ICC. We are bound by its rulings.

Peter Dutton’s misgivings are irrelevant. Either the world can take Australia at its word when it comes to treaties or it can’t. It would not go well for us as a nation if we told the world that we no longer honour our treaties when our (possible) PM doesn’t feel like it.

I loved this teeny bit: “best of Howard”

Mr Howard is remembered for three things:

1. Getting rid of guns.
2. Introducing the GST.
3. Tampa/children overboard.

And I nearly said “two things”, as 1 & 2 are far bigger points; though you could argue that 3 had a lasting impact on Australian politics and outright lying to the faces of Australians being permitted.

I am curious as to what this MAGA-Lite group thinks is “the best of Howard”, because I don’t think that means what they think it means.