Australia

The 42-year-old is the 26th person charged after February rally against Israeli president that led to violent clashes between police and protesters

I'm glad they are looking into this. Children are so vulnerable in situations where there is more isolation.

Australia has, for the first time, tracked how people really move and sleep using wearable devices — revealing a nation running on just over 7.5 hours of sleep a night

Younger Australians are increasingly embracing the idea of multi-generational living as housing costs soar, but older Australians remain far less convinced, a new survey suggests.

The first servo I stopped at had run out of diesel. A tank normally costs me $100 less.

A flag stopped at a stadium gate can tell you more about geopolitical pressure than many an official communique. At a Women’s Asian Cup soccer match in Sydney this month, Taiwanese supporters say flags and banners were turned away, while former Taiwan men’s coach Chen Kuei-jen was escorted from the stands after leading chants of ‘Taiwan’ rather than ‘Chinese Taipei’. Organisers say the matter is being investigated. But even before that process runs its course, the episode has already exposed something worth noticing.

Pressure related to Taiwan does not stay neatly in the Taiwan Strait. It travels. Sometimes it appears not in warships or official communiques, but in the mundane decisions of people managing venues, enforcing rules and trying to avoid trouble.

That is why Beijing’s latest wording on Taiwan should not be dismissed as a semantic footnote. In China’s 2026 Government Work Report, Premier Li Qiang said Beijing would ‘resolutely crack down on Taiwan independence separatist forces’, replacing the more familiar language of ‘opposing’ them. In most political systems, that might be read as emphasis. In the Chinese Communist Party system, it is often more than that. Official language can foreshadow how policy is to be carried out.

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The stadium incident in Australia on 10 March matters because it makes that shift visible in a setting that should feel far removed from cross-strait politics ... The gap between written rules and their application in practice is where political pressure most often finds its opening. Vague restrictions on ‘political’ expression do not enforce themselves neutrally – they create discretion, and discretion under pressure tends to drift in predictable directions.

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That should concern Australia, not because every dispute involving Taiwan is a strategic crisis, but because it shows how easily external sensitivities can begin shaping the boundaries of public expression inside democratic space. Once institutions start narrowing what can be said or displayed to avoid perceived geopolitical risk, the issue is no longer confined to sport; it becomes a question of civic confidence.

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Democratic societies need to become more practised at recognising informal coercion when it appears in ordinary settings, wearing the language of procedure and neutrality.

The central point is simple. What matters is not merely that Beijing’s language on Taiwan has hardened, but rather that pressure is increasingly being translated into habits of enforcement and compliance. The dispute in an Australian stadium is obviously not the same as a crisis in the Taiwan Strait. But it is a reminder that the effects of Taiwan-related pressure do not stop at the water’s edge.

For open societies facing these pressures, the real test is not whether they react loudly. It is whether they notice early enough when political pressure begins to settle into everyday practice – and whether their institutions are prepared to respond calmly, lawfully and with confidence.

Web Archive link

Public schools ask parents to make voluntary contributions because they need the funds...

State governments have consistently not met their funding targets for public schools. On current timelines – and provided future governments deliver the funds – schools will not have their full funding entitlements until 2034.

This puts school principals in a very difficult situation. Their schools are not properly funded by the government and there are limits to their ability to seek additional funds from parents.

2034? Do they really want our public education to fall further behind? I don't understand how they can justify this.

With the cost of living being what it is this could potentially be useful to someone.

Unfortunately not every state currently has a participating clinic but there are different locations around Australia.

I’m also going to piggyback on this to say that even if you’re not homeless but just in financial hardship some pet shops will give you the expired but still usable parasite treatments for your pet if you ask. For free. And possibly also pet food. At least Petstock in Melbourne does.

Please avoid buying flea products for cats from the supermarket as they may be contaminated with or contain pyrethrins which are toxic to cats. Aristopet flea and worm spot ons are the much cheaper generic version of another brand and are recommended if you can’t afford the premium brands. (I’m aware Aristopet is stocked in supermarkets too but due to that I checked with a pet shop manager that this product was okay.) Purina I’m told is not so good.

Edit: Please don’t buy a higher dosage of parasite treatment (or other meds) and split it between pets to save money. This may be alright with very safe OTC supplements like Zylkene and you may open a capsule or break a tablet to give half if your vet says to. But the reason it isn’t really safe to split up a larger dose of medication between animals or multiple administrations is that the drug isn’t always equally distributed through the whole of it, so one part may have way too much of the drug and another not enough. Flea products intended for dogs can also kill cats.

It’s possible to get pet meds cheaper online if you get the prescription from the vet and submit it to the website. There will be a delay due to mailing it out but this is legit.

Also check if there are local pet food pantries. Some human food pantries may also give pet food.

In Melbourne Lort Smith gives concession discounts and offers payment plans. Open Pay is available at other practices.

Pets Of The Homeless is another great resource. (Their aim is to offer enough help for you to keep your pet through tough times so they will NOT take your pet away. In fact they don’t even accept surrenders.) They also offer low cost desexing, a pet food bank, and a one-off cover of a medical procedure in your pet’s lifetime.

Edit: There’s also Best Mates run by Dr Jason Rapke in Glen Iris.

Low cost desexing may also be offered by The Cat Protection Society, RSPCA or through your local council.

Hope this helps someone 🤞

In 48 hours, my parcel has managed a little under 20km and hasn't actually left Sydney yet. I was sorta hoping to get the goods by the weekend. I'll be lucky to get them in March. According to the same tracking page: "This parcel is on time. Expected to arrive Mon 30 – Tue 31 Mar".

I can get parcels from Hong Kong, including customs clearance quicker than this. 😢

Electric vehicles and cheese are among the items that will become cheaper for Australians as a result of a historic agreement signed with the European Union after close to a decade of negotiations.

Why Idle Off Matters

Idling pollutes the air wherever it happens, but near schools and childcare centres it’s especially harmful, because children are right there, walking, playing, and breathing in exhaust at close range.

Children are most at risk:

• Kids’ lungs are still developing, and they breathe more air relative to their body size than adults.
• Short-term exposure to traffic pollution can trigger asthma attacks and respiratory irritation, while repeated exposure can affect lung, heart, and brain development.
• An idling car can produce concentrated pollutants that linger at breathing height — leaving an engine running near a child can be equivalent to smoking a cigarette around them.

I first read about the campaign from this article: “You smell it:” Fumes from idling SUVs queuing at school are killing our children.

The anti-idling project at the Clovelly school started with an audit finding that roughly 50 per cent of cars remain running while waiting. Conducted during temperate autumn months, the findings suggest idling can be habitual rather than a necessity for air conditioners or heaters.

In Australia, air pollution was attributed to 1.3 per cent of the total disease burden and linked to more than 3200 deaths in 2018.

More details from Melbourne University

Union leaders say Tuesday’s protest in Melbourne’s CBD was among state’s ‘biggest’ in years

• UQ researchers recruited 10 car-owning Brisbane residents to go without their vehicles for 20 days;
• Participants were asked follow their regular schedules using only public transport, cycling, walking, micro-mobility devices such as scooters, and taxis and ride-share services in an emergency;
• Brisbane's sprawling urban layout and public transport limitations were identified as the main barriers to permanent car-free life in the city.

Their generation caused climate change, now they're complaining about living with the consequences. No sympathy.

It's half the price of regular unleaded, produced in Australia and comparably lower in emissions than petrol — yet the number of service stations offering LPG is dwindling across the country.

If I’d driven to Woolworths and bought imported or industrially grown vegetables wrapped in plastic, flowers flown in from Kenya, and produce grown with synthetic fertilisers and pesticides, that would count as a positive contribution to Gross Domestic Product. The packaging counts. The freight counts. The retail transaction counts. The profit counts. Even the pollution and waste generated along the way are often folded into “growth” in the system.

But stepping outside to pick lunch and dinner from the garden, and cutting flowers for the kitchen table doesn’t. That should tell us something.