Well I plan on voting no, because I disagree with the idea of making something permanent before you've demonstrated that it works. There are countless programmes and departments and taskforces that have been set up over the years that were supposed to help Aboriginals and apparently none of those seem to have worked, so it makes me very sceptical that the Voice is going to be any different. Many in the Yes crowd keep insisting that this will solve problems of the programmes in the past, but I haven't yet seen anything that listed out specific points of why each of those programmes failed, and what the Voice does differently to avoid falling into the same traps.

I just don't understand why it wasn't introduced in a temporary capacity so we could all see how it was going to work first, putting everyone's concerns to rest, and then if it proves successful I wouldn't have any issue voting yes to make it permanent. It's the whole fear of the unknown thing for me - what if it just makes things worse? One of the Yes arguments is that if they made the Voice legislatively instead of via a referendum, a future government might undo it, but that's the whole idea - if it turns out to be another failed attempt added to the pile then we can undo it and try something else. But if it is shown to work THEN we have the referendum to make it stick, I think at that time most Australians would be happy to vote yes as they would know exactly what they are voting for. I think it was incredibly silly of the government to hold the referendum so prematurely, and I think they have probably shot themselves in the foot by doing so.

Sure there are plenty of bigots out there who will vote no because of race, but the majority of people I talk to about it are voting no because they're concerned that it's going to create new problems without solving the existing ones first, and that it won't make one bit of difference to those who need it most. Concerns that could've been easily addressed with a trial run first.

So while I have no ill feelings towards anyone who intends to vote yes, and I think they are well-intentioned and are making the noble choice, I think the government has handled the whole thing poorly and they need to come back with a better plan instead of the half-arsed proposal they put forward this time. It really is straight out of Utopia - make the big announcement first and let someone else worry about whether it will actually work or not.

The charge controllers are likely fine (I am going to put some into practice soon, but full disclosure I haven't yet) however as with most products from Chinese sellers their stats are a little too optimistic. Most Western countries will build a safety buffer in to their products (so a 10 amp controller will work all day at 10 amps, and maybe up to 11 or 12 amps) whereas a Chinese 10 amp controller can probably only peak at 10 amps for a few seconds with additional cooling, and may die prematurely if it sits over 6-7 amps for too long. You see the same thing with inverters - western ones are sold by their continuous rating, like "500 W (1 kW peak)" whereas Chinese ones sell by the peak rating it can only reach for a second or two at a time, like "1 kW inverter" and then in the fine print buried in the listing "500 W continuous rating". Occasionally there are exceptions but these seem to be mistakes, as the majority of stuff is advertised with the biggest and best numbers even if they aren't really reachable.

So as long as you're aware of this and you over-spec everything by a good safety margin then you should be ok. This is assuming you choose a product that is genuine, and not a fake such as a 10 amp controller with a 30 amp sticker on it, of course.

If you're relatively new to solar and don't know exactly what you want and how to figure out whether your Isc is within limits, the Voc has a good safety margin to not blow up the controller, etc. then you may find it cheaper to buy from a local company, because although you will pay more you should only have to buy once. If you go with Aliexpress you may have to buy three or four different models until you find one that works the way you want, and then quickly go back and buy more of them before they change the internals. Fine if you're building a bunch of larger systems with dozens of controllers, but it will probably work out more expensive for a small system with only one charge controller total.

I was going to suggest something disposable, like a garbage bag, newspaper, or an old teatowel or length of fabric held together with a peg or tied in a knot. Might not look great but you can throw it away once you arrive. But then I guess the problem is you can't use it for the trip home again? I wonder whether you could stash normal clothing somewhere out of the way, e.g. at a train station or hidden in a garden somewhere. Maybe it'll still be there later when you return? Not sure what time you would be heading home again or if you would use public transport for that, but I'd be surprised if those sorts of indecency laws were enforced late at night, it seems more like a daylight hours thing.

Does anyone know what was happening on Hermanns Rd last night off the Warrego Highway around 6:30pm? (Between Hatton Vale and Minden.) Approaching from the west there was the smell of smoke in the air and there were a lot of emergency vehicles parked on Hermanns Rd including ambulances and fire engines.

That headline confused me, I thought the Salvation Army had been given the job of managing the housing strategy and they were being fired for corruption!

No argument there, BUT it's not just as simple as building more houses. It's no use building a bunch of affordable houses out at Toowoomba if all the jobs are still in Brisbane, as people still need to live near where they work. There are already plenty of affordable places to live, they are just too far for most people to commute. And nobody really likes the idea of knocking down houses close to Brisbane and replacing them with towering apartment blocks - the traffic is already bad enough as-is.

With more companies pushing for employees to come back to the office, I do wonder whether some sort of tax incentive to encourage remote work would be better. If a company received a financial incentive for each employee who lived more than 100 km from their base of operations, not only would that make it easier for people who cannot work remotely (e.g. peak hour traffic wouldn't be so bad) but it might help revitalise some of these country towns that are suffering from dwindling populations.

The AirBnB is already "taxed" when it's empty because the owner still has to pay rates, loan interest, body corp, etc. so they are already losing money if nobody is there. They would appear to be popular enough that that 'tax' is still a better deal than putting the place up for long term rent.

With the recent rule changes limiting rent increases but interest rates still so high, a short term rental is now probably more attractive to a property owner than a long term rental as far as covering the costs of owning the property.

If you want fewer AirBnBs and more rentals available, make it more attractive for property owners to provide long term rents, don't put them all off like they are doing now by making it such a hassle to make a place available for rent.

Sydney has many more Asians than Brisbane if that's what you're asking? I don't think many are refugees though, most seem to be international students here to study. That's why you see a lot of younger people but far fewer older people.

As far as people moving here permanently, if you follow what China has done in Hong Kong, it's awful. Those people are welcome here as far as I'm concerned. Most of them would return home in an instant if the Chinese government left and things went back the way they were, so you can't blame them for escaping a bad situation.

There are plenty worse cultures that could be filling up our streets. At least most Asian cultures are generally courteous and encourage you to get a job, work hard, and ultimately pay taxes that benefit us all. They also don't try to change our laws or force us to accept their religious ideas either as some other cultures do. It could be much worse than having Asians here believe me.

It's the ones who don't work and just leech off society that bother me, and most of the ones who do that were born here. (Like the guy that carjacked the taxi the other day, we certainly don't need people like that in our society.)

I thought you meant the bogans, get rid of them and the big dumb ute problem will solve itself with nobody to buy them

I lived in Yeronga without a car for 10 years. I hardly ever used public transport either (mostly because it was so inconvenient it was a whole day trip if you ever wanted to go anywhere). But I could do it because I was comfortable walking a lot. It was a 10 minute walk each way to get groceries, a 45 minute walk (4 km) to where I worked (so no gym membership needed), and being an introvert I didn't enjoy going out on weekends so that made it easy. The walk home from work was past the shops so I'd just buy a little (at least as much as I could carry) every 2-3 days on the way home from work, so I rarely had to make a specific trip to the shops.

If you're an extrovert and you have to be out in public all the time, the other advice here about living near good public transport connections is wise, but if you're an introvert it's probably beneficial to live within walking distance (or at least a short public transport trip) from where you work, and not too far from some grocery shops. That way food and work is taken care of.

I will admit though, after finally getting a car it's much nicer to be able to pop down to Bunnings to get something and be home again 30 minutes later, instead of having to set aside a whole day for the journey, or order it online and have to wait a week or two for it to arrive. I guess if you can afford it then a taxi or Uber could be another option, but if you do that too much then it won't take long before it's cheaper to own a car.

I ended up buying a cheap ~8 year old ex-taxi hybrid, which only gets driven once or twice a week so uses hardly any fuel (around $200/year) so the overall cost ended up being much less than I expected. It has made me a lot lazier though as I will drive the two minutes to the shops instead of walking for 10, so with WFH also reducing the amount of walking I'm doing I have put on quite a bit of weight (20 kg) so going without a car and having to do so much walking was certainly much better for my physical health.

I don't have any experience with it myself but a quick Google suggests it's edible: https://www.wildedible.com/bittercress

Hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta) is a really unfortunate name for a wonderfully tasty edible weed that is perfect for foraging. It's a wild mustard, so its bitterness is more spicy-hot than bitter, though it's not nearly as hot as some other members of the Brassicaceae family. A more appropriate name would be Not-so-hairy and pleasantly-mild spicycress. Like all brassicas, Hairy bittercress is an excellent natural source of vitamin C. Its flavor profile is similar to watercress but bittercress is more readily available. It makes an excellent substitute for micro-greens. Use Hairy bittercress as a main salad green, garnish, or in a sandwich. The roots are also edible and can be blended with vinegar to make a sauce or dip that's similar to horseradish.

I presume you've tried to eat it but dislike the flavour?

That page says it can be invasive and best to harvest it by removing the whole plant, so I guess if you don't like the taste probably best to remove it before it becomes too established. But if you like the flavour I guess it won't be a problem dealing with it!

Having said that most weeds don't do damage to soil but rather their appearance is a sign of disturbance, and weeds will grow until the soil improves and other plants become established. So if it's not causing you any problems it's probably doing the soil some good having it growing.

I think for many people it's fear of the unknown. Once you understand how electricity behaves, you start to instinctively know what's dangerous and what's not. You can clearly see this in YouTube videos on solar, where people explain how their solar systems work. It's pretty clear which presenters know what they're talking about and which ones are just repeating things they've read without truly understanding what's going on. I think once you gain that fundamental insight into what's actually happening, everything else starts to fall into place and it makes a lot more sense, it's a lot less mysterious, and much less intimidating.