Australia

This popped up not long after my last post about early childhood abuses yesterday.

Education and other social services should never be run for profit.

“Although our study is focused on Australia, the fundamental link between higher temperatures and increased cardiovascular risk has been documented globally. While the specific risks may vary depending on local climates, population demographics and levels of adaptation, the overall trend – that higher temperatures lead to more cardiovascular disease burden – is likely relevant in many parts of the world.”

Australia’s $5 note, which has borne the face of Queen Elizabeth II since 1992, will be redesigned to reflect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s connection to country and the overturning of terra nullius – a foundational moment in the fight for land rights.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/19624480

Rising Tide campaigners were arrested at Newcastle’s coal port in late 2024 after using kayaks and rafts to protest at facility

who would have guessed that when you let companies profile you through your phone, tv, social media they can sell you things that are not really what you need but what lets you identify as a person who needs to carry 3000kgs on the regular when really your just a poser who takes suppliments at the gym while fingering your pretty rectangle searching for your next dopamine hit.

Peter Dutton has vowed to cut overall government spending if elected to government, reiterating his plans to scale back the public service. 

Labor has called on the opposition leader to reveal the details of his plan, warning that fewer public servants would mean longer wait times to access services.

Mr Dutton said he would not detail exactly where the spending cuts would come from until after the federal election.

Elon Musk’s Starlink could be used to transmit Australian election voting results

Does anyone know of such a mythical device purchasable in such lands?

Recruitment incentives are needed to boost the number of emergency services volunteers to respond to natural disasters and take the pressure off the ADF.

As the full moon rises tomorrow (Friday March 14), it will be a special sight for those in Aotearoa New Zealand. It will also be worth a look for people along the east coast of Australia.

Rather than being full and bright, the Moon will be partway through a lunar eclipse, the first of two lunar eclipses to occur this year.

New Zealand is in for a treat as the Moon will rise during totality – when the Moon passes completely into Earth’s shadow. Instead of turning dark, the Moon takes on a reddish glow that’s colloquially referred to as a “blood moon”.

Along the east coast of Australia, totality will happen while the Moon is still below the horizon; by the time the Moon rises, it will be in part-shadow.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/19413486

TLDR:

• The New South Wales (NSW) Anti-Slavery Commissioner is reviewing the state government's deal to buy 319 electric buses from Australian-Chinese manufacturers.
• The Chinese company's CATL batteries used in the government's zero emission bus fleet are allegedly linked to Uyghur forced labour camps in the Xinjiang region.
• The Australian Uyghur Tangritagh Women's Association is calling on the government to rip up the contracts and strengthen procurement mandates.

New South Wales Anti-slavery Commissioner James Cockayne is reviewing the state government's procurement of hundreds of electric buses amid concerns that parts of the vehicles were manufactured using slave labour.

In December the state government announced that it had ordered 319 electric buses as part of its goal to get 1,700 of the vehicles onto Sydney roads by 2028.

The contracts were awarded to Australian-Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers Foton Mobility Distribution (FMD) and VDI Australia, which distributes Yutong buses.

The vehicles use batteries made by Chinese firm Contemporary Amperex Technology Company Limited (CATL).

[...]

China processes 60 per cent of the world's lithium needed for EV batteries and the majority of the work is carried out in the Xinjiang region.

[...]

Have you ever walked into an outlet like OPSM, Specsavers, Bailey Nelson, or Laubman & Pank for an eye test and left feeling like you’d been gently pressured into spending $500 on a pair of glasses?

...

[B]osses impose onto optometrists a variety of targets – whether its “converting” eye tests into sales or increasing rates of certain types of tests.

This type of pressure is reportedly causing many optometrists “significant moral distress” and some are starting to fight back.