Solemn Sloth posted:

ASIC investigating senators and staff for insider trading

Les Affaires posted:

Perth would take a long, long time to be able to conveniently convert across to rail (light, heavy etc) so the transition to full time ride sharing is a more likely outcome if they can do it without the expense of a driver.

This is something I've discussed with the better half and she doesn't believe me when i say that eventually with enough tech the majors like Uber and Google will have enough auto cars running around that it won't make sense to own a car in perth anymore when you can just pay a dollar to go most local places.

MysticalMachineGun posted:

bell jar posted:

Endman posted:

I honestly hope that doesn’t happen. Giant US monopolies don’t need control over our cities’ transportation. Not to mention that the infrastructure costs (roads) for these fleets of robot cars will still be funded by taxes that these corporations actively avoid paying.

Public owned mass transit, preferably rail, is the only solution that grants people democratic control over their means of transportation and provides money back to the government to spend on infrastructure.

The Canberra Times, 1964 posted:

SUPERFICIALLY it was a small thing — West Australian entertainer and songwriter Rolf Harris was accused of being in poor taste in two of the lines of his internationally-known "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport."
The lines are: "Let me abosgo loose, Lou; they're of no further use, Lou."

But with aborigines now owning the right to vote and — in the southern part of the State — the right to drink, it was felt by some people that the lines were racially offensive.

There were suggestions that the aborigines were slaves of the while man and that the expression "abos" signified contempt.
On Monday the A.B.C. banned the song, saying that only instrumental versions would be played in future. The lines in the song might be offensive to aborigines or people trying to help them. Other criticisms followed.

But, mysteriously, the ban was lifted the next day, the A.B.C. claiming that there had been "some misunderstanding."

Rolf Harris is an equable young man not often upset by criticism of his work and he is not likely to be disturbed by the objections. He wrote the song in a Lyons corner house in The Strand, London, not long after he had gone to England in 1952. One of his proudest possessions at the time was a briefcase presented to him by a group of aborigines at Bassendean, his home town near Perth. He had entertained them regularly at socials, often turning down lucrative engagements to do so.
Two other of his songs — Sun Arise and Johnny Day are based on aboriginal chants. A Derby native made Harris a didgeridoo, taught him how to play it and even gave him some "suck-blow" music for "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport." The same native made another didgeridoo to replace the one Harris lost recently in Chicago.

Presumably, if the aborigines are happy about the song, every one else should be.

There is an interesting footnote. When Harris's wife Alwen presented him with a baby early this year, he had already chosen a name for her.

It was Bindi, an aboriginal word meaning grass seed.

bowmore posted:

I am waiting for the Australian to report that Labor poll increases are actually bad for Labor

Les Affaires posted:

Publicly funded automatic personal transportation. I'm sure with a bigger budget Transperth could have their own fleet easily enough.

Doctor Spaceman posted:

Labor Loses Underdog Advantage
Sheridan Shanahan

Scott Morrison has learnt well from John Howard. The longest serving PM since Menzies came from behind to win in 2004, and in 2001, and in 1998, because he knew that Australians love an underdog. A battler. Australians are a humble people, and love nothing more than to cut down people with an oversized sense of popularity and success.

By consistently leading in the polls Labor have doomed themselves to complacency. Without the threat of an election loss they have no reason to remove a weak leader like Bill Shorten, whose unpopularity remains a drag on the party.

Cartoon posted:

quote:

In his maiden speech in the Victorian upper house this week, Liberal Democrat MP Tim Quilty called for regional Australians to secede and create new states. His proposed home of the new country Victorian parliament? The Wodonga RSL. Here is an edited excerpt of his speech.

Ora Tzo posted:

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/mp-tim-quilty-s-rexit-speech-20190219-p50yw6.html

Ora Tzo posted:

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/mp-tim-quilty-s-rexit-speech-20190219-p50yw6.html

pikachode posted:

and so they should be, "you're riding this fancy tram through completely empty streets and a cbd full of shuttered storefronts, what has this actually done for the city" was a great thing to say and deserved a real answer

aejix posted:

Please tell me there's footage of this.

Hunter Street isn't that dire but the general point still stands. We'll see if everyone saying that all those shops are going to have new life breathed into them when the tram gets going are right or not.

aejix posted:

Please tell me there's footage of this.

Trapezium Dave posted:

https://twitter.com/David_Threlfo/status/1097406185492213762

Knobb Manwich posted:

if Bega is talking about New Castle it's because of a certain someone's multidimensional metaphysical BREASTS rather than some dumb rail bullshit.

pikachode posted:

news of my breasts has reached even the cheese kingdom of the south