deathofmusic posted:

http://www.afr.com/business/telecommunications/turnbull-in-talks-to-sell-nbn-to-large-telcos-20151204-glfy5d


So there it is, the final stage of the Liberal plan coming to fruition already. NBN destroyed, tax dollars wasted, we all lose. Telstra wins, again.

Ian Winthorpe III posted:

I'm talking about disparities between the sexes which have an well-proven biological basis. As far as I know there is no similar fundamental disparity in the biological make up of men of various races, but if you would like to illustrate to me the clearly-documented differences in chemical, hormonal and anatomical characteristics between Whites and Aboriginal people then feel free.

EXAKT Science posted:

Does Australia have a constitutionally protected right to free speech like we Yanks do?

deathofmusic posted:

http://www.afr.com/business/telecommunications/turnbull-in-talks-to-sell-nbn-to-large-telcos-20151204-glfy5d


So there it is, the final stage of the Liberal plan coming to fruition already. NBN destroyed, tax dollars wasted, we all lose. Telstra wins, again.

Recoome posted:

So it'll be interesting to see what happens in the lead-up to the 10th anniversay of the Cronulla race riots. It appears like the Reclaimers (or whatever right-wing racist group is doing this) wants to attempt to circumvent council laws by holding the rally on Cronulla beach, below the high-tide mark.

e: The question is, is by and large the message espoused by groups such as Reclaim Australia actually protected, or does it fall under the Racial Discrimination Act (against Muslims). I'd say that they are certainly pushing a political communication, but the message is such that I'd say there's a reasonable chance that it'll lead to the targeting of certain ethnic groups.

Cartoon posted:

If they are below the high-tide mark they are outside the migration zone and can not be reported on because it is an on water matter.

Cartoon posted:

If they are below the high-tide mark they are outside the migration zone and can not be reported on because it is an on water matter.

Cartoon posted:

If they are below the high-tide mark they are outside the migration zone and can not be reported on because it is an on water matter.

quote:

<snip>Irvine was launching this document by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which has been widely – and wildly inaccurately – cited as saying that Australia's cyber security is slipping. It's not, it's just that the breathless community of national security reporters didn't bother to read the report (which is probably worth its weight in cybers, given the woeful inadequacy of political and administrative clue in Canberra). Australia's score in the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's Cyber maturity in the Asia-Pacific Region 2015 rankings rose slightly between 2014 and 2015; so did some other countries, three of them slightly further than Australia's.<snip>

quote:

So, in summary, hackers have never been credited with taking down a power grid. States themselves, which have a lot more resources behind them, have only been credited with a handful of full-on, serious enterprise attacks. Only the combined brainpower of America's NSA and Israel's IDF Unit 8200 has ever produced something that affected a physical plant. Again, that we all know of.

From what we know in the public domain, it’s not fanciful to think that Daesh might be able to launch a cyber-attack, but its capabilities in the area lag far behind those of even hermit kingdom North Korea. That third-party hackers might help them in accomplishing their goals is also a stretch.

Hackers have never taken out a power grid; squirrels have more luck sabotaging electrical systems. They love to chew through cables, a habit that results in bangs, fried meat, outages, all sorts of problems for power distribution utilities, and occasionally even fires.

quote:

Greenpeace campaigners descend on Port Kembla for arrival of nuclear waste ship BBC Shanghai
By Emily Laurence and staff



A major security operation is underway at Port Kembla, on the New South Wales south coast, where a shipment of nuclear waste has arrived.
On board the BBC Shanghai is 25 tonnes of nuclear waste, processed in France, for long-term storage in Australia.
A number of spectators gathered to see the ship arrive and about a dozen Greenpeace activists positioned themselves on the port's southern break wall.
Earlier, Greenpeace activists took to the water to protest the ship's arrival.
More than 50 water police were involved in on-water operations on jet skis, tactical response boats and command vessel Nemesis.
About 500 police will be involved in the land-based operation as the waste is transported by truck to the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) facility at Lucas Heights, in Sydney's south, tonight.
The Federal Government is in the process of finding a permanent site for the dump and the waste will be kept at ANSTO in the interim.
Six areas have been named on its shortlist, including three in South Australia.
South Australia is currently holding a royal commission to investigate whether the state should become more involved in the nuclear industry.
Public consultation about the site of a permanent waste facility is underway and the Federal Government will narrow down the list to just three sites early next year.

Australians do not want waste, activists say

Greenpeace said the Australian public did not support the return of the nuclear waste.

It commissioned a poll, which showed nearly three quarters of Australians opposed plans to store nuclear waste for other countries.
The ReachTEL poll conducted in November surveyed 3,144 people.
It found 72.1 per cent of respondents opposed the idea of relocating waste to Australia, 9.6 per cent were undecided and 18.3 per cent supported it.
The poll had a margin of error of 1.9 per cent.

Greenpeace spokeswoman Emma Gibson is on board a boat following the BBC Shanghai and said it appeared unsuitable to transport the radioactive waste.
"It's a right rust bucket of a ship which is what I was expecting," she said.
"It's been banned by the US government from carrying any kind of government cargo at all, but the Australian Government has decided that this ship is good enough to transport highly radioactive nuclear waste from France to Sydney.
"This is the first shipment of nuclear waste of many that are coming back from different parts of the world and we've seen that the Australian Government has cut corners on safety by using this ship.
"We're also really concerned about [Prime Minister] Malcolm Turnbull talking about Australia maybe becoming a host for nuclear waste coming from all kinds of different countries.
"So we could be taking more and more of this stuff and that's a really, really bad idea because the more you transport nuclear waste the more trouble there is, the more chance there is of something going wrong."

Ms Gibson said the Government had not been transparent in revealing the exact nature of the waste being transported.
"We found out in the last few days that there's confusion about what's actually on the ship.
"The Australian Government is playing down the nature of what's on the ship.
"They're saying its intermediate level nuclear waste like gloves, protective clothing, but the French authorities have told Greenpeace that this is high-level nuclear waste containing plutonium, that's the most dangerous kind of nuclear waste you can get."
ANSTO have said Greenpeace's comments about the presence of plutonium were inaccurate, and maintain the waste is safe and medium level, and that high-level waste stems from weapons and energy production.



Bringing reprocessed waste back to Australia

In the past two decades Australia has sent eight shiploads of waste overseas.
In the 1990s, the Federal Government made a deal with France to take some of our nuclear waste.
Australia does not have the capacity to reprocess it to make it safe for long-term storage.
France has now done that and what is left is on a ship coming home.
Eight shipments were sent to France, the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The waste sent to the UK will return in the second half of this decade and the waste sent to the US will remain there.

quote:

Q. Why did Australia export spent fuel? A. Australia does not have a facility capable of converting spent fuel into a form suitable for long-term management. France has developed this capability due to its large nuclear energy program. Exporting the spent fuel to France has allowed the removal of residual uranium and plutonium, which will be recycled.

The reprocessed waste will be safely immobilised in a durable vitrified (glass) form. With appropriate ongoing management, the resulting vitrified waste can be safely managed for thousands of years - allowing any remaining radioactivity to safely decay over time.

Q. What did France do with the spent fuel? The material was sent to France's La Hague nuclear fuel recycling facility. The reprocessing plant at La Hague extracts the unused uranium and the plutonium for reuse in nuclear fuel. The remaining waste is processed, producing a durable solid waste form that can be safely managed for thousands of years.

Q. How much uranium and plutonium was extracted in France? A. The spent fuel was exported to France in four shipments that occurred between 1999 and 2004. The spent fuel amounts to 20 stainless steel canisters and a total weight of 10 tonnes, which is removed during reprocessing and will be recycled and used for nuclear energy generation. The remaining waste will be vitrified and returned to Australia for safe storage.

Q. Were there guarantees that the recycled uranium and plutonium were used peacefully? A. Yes. All nuclear material (uranium and plutonium) extracted from the spent fuel is subject to the peaceful uses provisions of the Safeguards Agreements between Australia and France. It continues to be tracked by ASNO as Australian Obligated Nuclear Material.

Q. How much waste will return to Australia?
A. The intermediate-level waste returning from France will comprise up to 20 stainless steel canisters (containing the vitrified waste) with a total weight of about 10 tonnes. The total volume of vitrified waste will be 3.6 cubic metres.

The stainless steel canisters will be placed inside a single large shielded dual-purpose storage/transport container which will weigh about 112 tonnes.

In addition, Australia will also receive six drums of intermediate-level waste in cement. These are technological wastes such as gloves, protective clothing and obsolete equipment that have been generated during reprocessing and vitrification. The six drums of waste is proportional to the amount and activity of the waste reprocessed in France.

The total volume of all the reprocessed waste, including the technological wastes, to be returned from France to Australia will be approximately 6.8 cubic metres.
- See more at: http://www.ansto.gov.au/NuclearFacts/Managingwaste/Returnofwaste/Frequentlyaskedquestions/index.htm#sthash.88gNfVOU.dpuf

Birb Katter posted:

That is well and truly the long way round from usage to disposal.

In unrelated news Plibersek tries to score points on the Greens for doing that deal with the LNP the other day. It goes about as well as expected

quote:

Eddie Alexander - Tanya Plibersek you and your petty excuse for an opposition party stand for nothing. You are a toothless tiger that will get crushed at the next election because Bill Shorten is spineless and lacks any initiative or leadership qualities. He has simply spent the last couple of years bickering with the idiotic Tony Abbott and now that someone with charisma has taken over the coalition, Bill Shorten is crumbling with no sight of improvement or direction. I will always have faith in the The Australian Greens for standing up for Australia's environment and for equality within this country, not the ALP. Get rid of Bill Shorten and become a progressive party that doesn't sit an inch left of our current government.
Like · Reply · 77 · December 3 at 3:15pm

Birb Katter posted:

In unrelated news Plibersek tries to score points on the Greens for doing that deal with the LNP the other day. It goes about as well as expected

Kommando posted:

...

starkebn posted:

Not a single positive response in the first 50 out so comments

Ian Winthorpe III posted:

Well yeah, obvs.

Edit: I think a few people in this thread need a remedial sex-ed class or at the very least a 10:30 movie on SBS.

NTRabbit posted:

I look forward to the day when, regardless of race, gender, or creed, we are all paid equally poorly by our benevolent corporate job creators

Negligent posted:

the hdi is not heavily weighed against 'has offshore gulags y/n' then

Jumpingmanjim posted:

Jumpingmanjim posted:

quote:

Another win for uber.. can parked near cricket field, had ball smash windscreen, taxi driver retaliates by driving onto our pitch mid game! Cops removed car.

Negligent posted:

cricket is a really good game and that dude is lucky to have escaped a lynch mob for loving up the pitch

EXAKT Science posted:

Same.

Also I just learned that Australia has federal trans-inclusive non-discrimination laws on the books, and also that non-binary folx have the option to have a non-specific gender on legal forms. That rules.

Birb Katter posted:

13.5% swing against Libs at North Sydney by-election. Labor didn't even run a candidate.

Birb Katter posted:

13.5% swing against Libs at North Sydney by-election. Labor didn't even run a candidate.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-06/brandis-says-questions-remain-over-macfarlane-flip/7005184 posted:

Mr Macfarlane's move also gives the Nationals a chance at a fourth Cabinet seat, based on a formula agreed upon by the Liberal and National Parties.
...
The government currently uses a distinct formula for calculating how many of the 21 Cabinet positions the Nationals should hold. ABC reporter Stephanie Anderson used it to calculate how many recruits the Nats need to claim more seats.
...
The formula for calculating the division of Cabinet positions is number of Nationals divided by total number of Coalition politicians multiplied by the number of Cabinet positions. Numbers have been rounded.

Birb Katter posted:

13.5% swing against Libs at North Sydney by-election. Labor didn't even run a candidate.