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m0nty September 8, 2024 9:24 am So no the Russian money, if it ever existed, did not go to Pool…
m0nty September 8, 2024 9:24 am So no the Russian money, if it ever existed, did not go to Pool…
Do vaccines cause autism? Finally, a definitive answer! Let’s talk stats, baby:In the 1970s: Autism rates were about 1 in…
Great post. Thanks, TE.
Nell, the Cook, and her team of 4 of the kids on the kitchen roster, made 36 lunches every school…
For Indolent, and all those who suspect that the bl—y spike protein has done more damage than we think: The…
It is already taking over some of the menial, repetitive stuff but also enabling non-geeks to do what geeks were required for previously e.g. generating images and designs. 50/50 give & take by AI I’d say
For now AI is a very useful tool for coders & world-be coders. Suggest the boy asks Chat GPT how to learn to code and follows it’s guidance.
Cheap tutoring for $20/month …
King?
Catherine King?
She of the Qatar Airways flight ban that she couldn’t explain?
Another one!
A convicted sex offender who was released following the landmark High Court decision, Emran Dad, has been charged with nine counts of failing to comply with his reporting obligations and trespassing.
Dad, who was convicted of inducing a child to engage in sex work, two counts of penetrating a child under 16 and committing an indecent act with a child under 16 in 2012, was arrested in Dandenong in Melbourne’s southeast today after he breached his reporting obligations as a regsistered sex offender.
“The 33-year-old was arrested in Dandenong this morning without incident,” a Victoria Police spokesman said.
“He was subsequently interviewed by police and charged with nine counts of fail to comply with reporting obligations.
“He has also been charged with trespass in relation to a reported incident in Dandenong on 24 November.
“The man will face Dandenong Magistrates’ Court this afternoon.
“Victoria Police can confirm the man is one of the detainees recently released following a High Court ruling.”
Who is the brown-haired lady that is appearing next to all the walk-ins-to-court that Brittnah has done over these last few years?
I have heard she is some Labor operative but cannot confirm or deny.
This is coming from the individual who’s been asked to substantiate comments since 2012, and we’re still waiting.
Most recent examples of citation non-compliance.
53 permits required to run a motel. Evidence suggests it’s six. Asked to substantiate just thirteen and became abusive citing racial superiority.
GST impossible to figure in betting markets and when corrected went AWAL.
Just a regular ANZAC at Lone Pine.
Cheers Alamak!
And not at equal intervals.
1st November 1993.
12th November 1993.
Nothing since.
If it’s the review I am thinking of the actual phrase was “impenetrable, oozing, putrid* green slime”.
…
* There’s that word again.
Was Dreyfus following Solicitor-General advice when Brittany trousered the $1.9m? Might be the only thing that can save him when the dust settles on all this. In which case there will be some more joining Drumgold with a few extra weeks on the South Coast after Christmas.
Wouldn’t Lehrmann then have a right to sue Brittney for any money she would have left from the payout and any assets she has?
Conrad believed it was self cleaning and the slime added more color.
You’re agreeing you’re unable to, or incapable of, supporting any of your fifteen statements.
No surprise.
The evil hag Jayapal with her “but” and “however”.
tsk, tsk, tsk. Salvatore,
your post went against Community standards. 😀
Driller, stop trolling the blog. You know you’ll get those citations when you provide yours dating back to 2012, otherwise stop spamming and go do some cleaning.
Has someone already done it?
Or shall I?
OK, here goes …
“The eyes of the world are upon us.”
JC
Dec 5, 2023 3:53 PM
The Loons Brigade is harassing the blog and want to be taken seriously.
1. A scammer who posts fake content all the time, from a fraudster who was convicted and served 11 years “service” in Leaveworth.
LOL. The self appointed Blog Milk Monitor, Junior Cretin, is at it again. Doing his/her/its/whatever service for the Pompous Windbag Brigade.
Must have run out of reading material from Penthouse Forum letters pages. Obviously frustrated again.
Maybe the Fat Pizza Bar has run out of fat pizzas – Who knows.
Calling people a crook without any evidence whatsoever is serious stuff.
But then the Blog Wrecker just doesn’t care.
Get back to those Penthouse letters and play with yer’ little ‘todger’. You know it makes sense.
T.W.A.T.
Got my nephew for Christmas; books I, II and III from the Cambridge Latin Course.
Should we assume you’ve already given him one of the complete accounts of the Horus Heresy?
Kim Iversen:
The Kim Iversen Show LIVE | December 4, 2023.
Tucker Carlson speaks with Rosanne Barr to discuss why he was fired from Fox News. The Democratic Party in Florida has cancelled the primary and declared Joe Biden the winner. GOP Senators call to halt travel with China to stop the new mystery illness. NatSec Advisor Jake Sullivan warns funding for Ukraine is about to run out! Leaked document shows that Netanyahu aims to reduce Gaza populations as much as possible. The WHO has been told by the Israeli military to remove their supplies from warehouses in Southern Gaza within 24 hours.
Tucker Reveals Why He Was Fired, Israel Warns WHO They’re Going To Bomb Them
Corruption, embezzlement, fraud, these are all characteristics which exist everywhere. It is regrettably the way human nature functions, whether we like it or not. What successful economies do is keep it to a minimum. No one has ever eliminated any of that stuff.
– Alan Greenspan
Dutton is having a marvellous day out at Manuka.
Burney, has-been (never was), relegated to drinks, O’Neal has been caught out without scoring a single run, Giles has had his middle stump ripped out and that Wong chap has inured himself doing a Chinaman.
Lysander
Dec 5, 2023 5:04 PM
Who is the brown-haired lady that is appearing next to all the walk-ins-to-court that Brittnah has done over these last few years?
Emma Webster, an alleged friend and support of Hoggins.
She is also a leftard lobbyist living in Victoria, had the hots for Andrews.
Ugly as sin, and clearly a grifter to boot.
I was thinking of someone else’s eyes, Sancho.
The “world” can go jump.
Emma Webster.
Hawker Britton.
Nuff said.
notafan of tick tock but making an exception for this guy.
Oh sure, the reasons the site is spammed with Marty flatulence. Marty’s corruption, fraud? No biggie, shit happens, backed up by Alan Greenspan.
More than 20 per cent of the population in Smithton, where CHAC is based in Tasmania’s northwest, identify as Aboriginal.
Mr Mansell said this figure was “rubbish”. “Who in their right mind would believe such rubbish – well, politicians anxious to get their votes maybe,” he said.
Bloody hell – never thought I’d be on the side of Micky Mansell, the sealer’s son.
He thinks the ring-ins will threaten his power base.
The dosh available if you claim bleck is enticing.
I think this calls for a variation on the OJ Simpson glove stunt.
Someone tries to get a form fitting dress off a comatose female as a demo.
Can’t think of a zippy rhyme to go with it though.
Albo cannot handle the googlies bowled by his own team. Though even the steady length & pace of slow bowler Dutton seems to give him all kinds of issues at the crease.
Apparently Brittany and Lisa are longer bestie.
Lisa worried about losing life savngs and blames the Brit.
Oh, right. Ugh!
Slugs and Grubs, PR-style.
Lol, rosie. That’s one angry Jew.
Reminds me of the guy who guided us around Israel in 2018. He was pleasant on the surface, but beneath there was a simmering rage. So I asked him, and he told me. He had seen at least 25 of his friends killed by the @rseholes next door. Good people, young people, doing their duty with the IDF.
Stop killing Jews and you can have all the water, electricity, medical care you want. They had that anyway…but they decided to terrorise, murder, kidnap and torture them for sh*ts and giggles.
Bye bye.
Because they’re maaaaaates, of course.
Latest analysis of wind and solar which we all know are intermittent and require ether backup or storage; on storage this:
The storage capacity needed to align power generation from solar or wind is around 25% of the annual energy consumption.
In other words, you need three months worth of storage to try to make this work. Previous studies that I highlighted in my energy storage Report — for example, those of Roger Andrews and Ken Gregory — had calculated storage needs in the range of one to two months. However, those studies only used one year’s worth of data for each calculation, and allowed running the storage balance right down to zero. If you think that it’s too risky to run the storage right down to zero before the balance starts to refill, then three months of storage is a much more reasonable figure. Indeed, it’s still rather conservative.
Fekete, et al., don’t get into the specifics of cost of any possible storage solution. But then, they don’t need to. The potential costs are so enormous as to completely rule out any attempt even to start down this road. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, total U.S. electricity consumption in 2022 was just over 4 trillion kWh. So one-quarter of that would be just over 1 trillion kWh. Just to get an idea of the cost of that much energy storage, this site (Tesla fans) gives a (highly optimistic) cost for Tesla batteries of just over $100 per kWh. So a trillion of those will run you about $100 trillion. That’s four times the entire U.S. economy. Meanwhile, a Tesla-style battery is not remotely up to the job of the energy storage needed to back up wind/solar electricity generation, which would necessarily include the ability to save up power over a year or more and discharge over a year. But then, the economics are so wildly out of line that it’s hardly worth worrying about such technicalities.
Radio says Time magazine will announce person of the year tomorrow. Here are the nominees :
Putin
Xi
Taylor Swift
Barbie
The Hollywood strikers
Sam Altman (AI)
Entire prosecution team of Trump (I presume it is the NY team)
King Charles
Jerome Powell
I think I am going for Xi. That does not mean I think he is a good guy.
Did they miss anybody obvious?. If Barbie can make it how about John Wick ?!
No honour among thieves? Who would have thought it?
To be grimly accurate, if himself wanted to “rape” her, the dress didn’t have to come off knickerless.
The entire story is grotesque b/s, starting with a reflexive lie and growing like Topsy.
rosie
Dec 5, 2023 5:27 PM
notafan of tick tock but making an exception for this guy.
I hope he wasn’t driving a semi when he made the vid. Although if he were driving through Lakemba I’d give him a pass.
That is certainly possible but the number isn’t implausible, it matches first hand accounts, and even if you use your earlier number of 2K killed, it is considerably higher than the relatively contemporaneous figure of roughly 1K in Ireland during the War of Independence and they at the time had a population 4 times that of the Arab population in Palestine in the relevant years.
Guess What Bill & Klaus
“Guess what – Bill & Klaus. I drove to the food store and stopped by a gasoline station to fill up my Porsche. You know what that’s like, Bill, since you have a 959. Well, someone was in an accident and took down a pole that had fiber-optic connections to the internet. The whole area was down. OMG, I had to pay in cash or no gas risking I might die from handling money and in desperate need of your vaccine which is like playing Russian Roulette. Can you imagine how primitive it was?
What if you had to pay cash to fill up your private jet?”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/humor/guess-what-bill-klaus/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS
I’m not here to tickle your or anyone else’s ears, Bespoke.
Victorian Police under fire for ‘inadequate response’ to Israeli ambassador’s request
Sky News host Sharri Markson has revealed Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon repeatedly requested for Labor Victorian Police Minister Anthony Carbines to send officers to the Crowne Plaza hotel last week.
His request came after someone from the hotel leaked that the Israeli delegation was staying there, which led to friends and families of Israeli hostages being tracked down by pro-Palestinian protesters.
Around 20 protesters stormed the CBD hotel holding banners reading “Stop arming Israel. Free Palestine” and “Zionism is Fascism”.
Mr Maimon spoke to the Labor Victorian minister twice on Wednesday night and requested repeatedly to make sure police officers would be deployed on the spot until the departure of the delegation, but the police failed to do so and said they were still making inquiries.
“Ambassador Maimon expressed great disappointment at the inadequate response of the Victorian Police and the lack of sensitivity to the family members who are grieving their loved ones,” the Israeli Embassy said in a statement.
Got an email from Gillie & Mac announcing the unveiling of their permanent exhibition at Port Stephens.
I do like big sculptures in public & I do like their work.
Not biased at all due to their Weimaraner being the model for their Dogman.
Fun fact, his name is Indie (or Indy), can’t remember spelling.
I think it will be Charles. He just blew his kingdom to spruik for the greenies. How can they not choose him?
If Barbie can make it how about John Wick ?!
John’s dead. They finally killed the tough SOB in chapter 4. It only took 75 gunshot wounds, falling the equivalent of 2 kilometers onto concrete and being run over a dozen times; but there you go.
ANU research finds:
– more than seven in 10 Australians think people in government only look after themselves.
– only a quarter think people in government can be trusted.
– trust in the mainstream media was below 50 per cent
Vice-Chancellor Brian Schmidt, speaking at the National Press Club, says the answer is education, because “We know that trust in government increases markedly with education…”
Only two people locked up under Australia’s detention scheme for high-risk terrorists, calling into question effectiveness of new laws for released criminal asylum seekers
Sky News Australia has confirmed just two people have been detained under the High-Risk Terrorist Offenders Scheme, an indication of how hard it could be for the Labor Albanese Government to lock up criminal asylum seekers released by the High Court’s landmark decision last month.
Andrew Clennell
Just two people have been detained under the terrorist offenders continuing detention scheme – in an indication of the difficulties the government may face in getting many criminal immigration detainees locked up under its new preventive detention legislation.
The Attorney-General’s department has confirmed to Sky News that under the High-Risk Terrorist Offenders Scheme introduced in 2016 in response to the fact terrorist plotters from a decade earlier were about to be released, just two people had been detained under the powers.
One of those is Abdul Nacer Benbrika, who is serving 15 years in jail for directing the activities of a terrorist organisation.
He has remained in jail for another two and a half years under a continuing detention order and is set to be released at the end of next month. The government is attempting to move legislation to keep him detained.
“Two individuals have been detained under a Continuing Detention Order under Division 105A of the Criminal Code. One order has expired and one is currently detained,” a spokesman from the Attorney-General’s department said.
“The High Risk Terrorist Offenders Scheme contains measures available to the Government to deal with terrorist offenders who have completed their sentences, and continue to pose an unacceptable risk of committing a serious terrorism offence.”
Opposition leader Peter Dutton predicted on Monday that just “two or three or four” detainees would be captured by the new laws which are aimed at getting some of the immigration detainees released by the government after a High Court decision found indefinite detention in immigration centres was unlawful.
Under the laws, the government has to apply to a judge for a criminal who can be deported to continue to be locked up.
“I think we should be very clear here; the regime that the Government’s providing might have application to two or three or four people,” Mr Dutton said. That’s it. So the other 142 that they’ve unnecessarily released into the community, now have the potential to cause harm, and I think the Australian public are rightly very angry about it.”
The Opposition’s argument is that the government did not have to release all of the more than 140 detainees they have set free in the wake of the NZYQ decision where a convicted paedophile won his bid against indefinite detention.
The government says it has legal advice saying they had to.
“As a result of the High Court’s decision, the continued detention of any NZYQ-affected person would be unlawful,” a statement from the Labor Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said on Tuesday.
“The Department of Home Affairs undertakes expert assessment of whether a person is an ‘NZYQ-affected person’.
“If and when it is clear that a person in immigration detention is an NZYQ-affected person, the Department must immediately take steps to secure the person’s release from detention. There is no legal basis on which the Government can delay releasing the person until, for example, a court orders the person’s release.
Labor Cabinet Minister Murray Watt compared the new preventive detention laws to the terrorism high risk offender laws on Sunday Agenda.
“I don’t have the exact number[detained under those laws], but I know it’s a fairly small number because it is focused on the people who are the greatest risk to the community. And what we want to do with this new regime is do the same thing.”
The issue blew up again on Monday with the shocking news that one of the released detainees, a convicted offender and Afghan refugee, had already been charged with indecent assault after an incident at his hotel on Saturday night.
‘Playing with fire’: Aboriginal activists linking their cause with pro-Palestinians
Aboriginal activists have been “playing with fire” by linking their cause with the Palestine one, says Sky News host Andrew Bolt.
He criticised Aboriginal flags being displayed at pro-Palestinian protests.
“You hear prominent campaigners like the Aboriginal Head of ‘Get Up’ saying yes the Aboriginal and Palestinian causes are alike.
“It’s got even more explicitly dangerous with one Aboriginal group – the Black Peoples Union – posting this message from a proscribed Islamist terrorist group … calling for action.
“The message calls on supporters of Palestine to intensify their struggle against Israel’s allies … singling out especially embassies like the American one.”
Mr Bolt was joined by Australian Jewish Association CEO Robert Gregory to discuss the issue.
Albo is batting with the tail and might run out of partners.
Much better day for Whybrow today.
Was able to extract some shouty speeches, many lies and some tears from Hoggins.
Michael Lee had to intervene on a few occasions, as the questioning became somewhat repetitive, partly due to the non-answers by the witness and some sloppiness on Whybrow’s behalf.
Lee repeatedly had to ask the Hog to limit her answers.
Interesting that, just like last Friday pm, Whybrow didn’t, or couldn’t, do it.
The highlight was at the end of the day, when Lee asked Hoggins pointedly about what EXACTLY did Brown, Reynolds, the AFP or ANYONE WHATSOEVER said or did to give the Hog the rational belief that she was poorly supported and hard-done by in her struggles against Brucie.
This was after her claims that the Government’s bribe of $1.9+megas was due to some recognition that she was failed by Parliament in some way.
Words or actions… NOT feelings.
Hoggins struggled with that reasonable request, still crapping on about having “felt this” or “believed that”. Lee had to pointedly direct her to his first request.
In the end, except for deliberately praising the actions of the AFP, she had nothing, zero, nada, niente, nichts.
A supreme example of professional victim-hood, as if we didn’t already know.
Lee nodded quietly… He understood.
Aha, you’ve outed yourself as a Twitter moderator!
Citation required for this.
Like all other citations, it won’t ever be produced.
Sort of like the grubstake for a bet to back the big mouth.
‘Speak to the Commonwealth’: Senior police officer dodges questions over housing of sex offender detainee in a South Australian hotel after arrest over alleged assault
A senior police officer has evaded questions on whether it was appropriate to settle a sex offender released from immigration detention in a South Australian hotel, telling reporters to take the matter up with the Commonwealth government after the man was arrested for allegedly assaulting a woman.
South Australia Police Assistant Commissioner John Venditto has dodged questions from a media pack on whether it was appropriate to settle a sex offender recently released from immigration detention in a hotel after he was arrested for allegedly assaulting a woman.
The Australian Border Force on Monday confirmed the man was charged with two counts of indecent assault three weeks after being freed when the High Court ruled indefinite detention was unlawful if there was no prospect of deportation in the near future.
The 65-year-old was detained by police at Pavlos Motel in the Adelaide suburb of Pooraka on Saturday night when a woman claimed she had been assaulted.
Mr Venditto began the press conference on Tuesday by warning journalists he was bound by the law on what he could and couldn’t say regarding the identity of the sex offender and the whereabouts of the other detainees in the state.
When pressed on the appropriateness of the detainee being settled in a hotel, Mr Venditto paused before making his reply.
“State police are not involved in the housing, in the immediate and the long-term housing of these people,” he responded.
He then told the reporter to follow up with the federal government on why the 65-year-old was permitted to base himself in that location, hinting at his disapproval of the situation.
“That is something that you need to speak to the Commonwealth about,” Mr Venditto said.
“What I think doesn’t matter.”
The assistant commissioner was asked later if he felt the system put in place to protect Australians from the criminals among the newly released detainee cohort was functioning effectively.
Mr Venditto pointed to the mandatory ankle bracelets detainees are required to wear and said the 65-year-old offended in a premises or location that he was entitled to be in.
“The offending occurred in the place that accused person was permitted to be,” Mr Venditto told reporters.
The federal government has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks from the opposition over its apparent failure to prepare for the High Court’s ruling on indefinite detention.
Shadow immigration minister Dan Tehan said Labor Immigration Minister Andrew Giles and Labor Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil should step down for failing to protect Australians.
“The blame lies with Labor Minister Giles and Labor Minister O’Neil. This is a catastrophic failure by them to do their number one priority which is to keep the Australian community safe. They failed at every step to do that,” he told Sky News Australia host Danica De Giorgio on Tuesday.
“They should do the honourable thing and resign and if they won’t resign, the Labor Prime Minister should do the right thing and he should sack them.”
Mr Tehan claimed there was suggestions Labor Anthony Albanese’s leadership has been “weak”, but this was his “chance to step up” and dismiss his two ministers.
“We know that trust in government increases markedly with education…”
Yep Brian, keep that foreign student gravy train going to secure your obscene salary.
I don’t expect that, it’s the method.
The Democrats’ very own Waffen-SS.
Got eny ominous ship hijacking to report?
Wonka, review: the most fun you’ll have in a cinema all year – 5/5
The brains behind Paddington – plus a charming Timothée Chalamet – give Dahl a Goon Show-ish prequel full of irresistible velvety sweetness
Robbie Collin – FILM CRITIC
When it was announced that the creative team behind the Paddington films were making a musical about Willy Wonka’s early life, some cynics speculated that we were just going to get Paddington again, but with more songs, less marmalade, and a different shape of hat. To which the rest of us could only respond: ooh, yes, that sounds lovely, thanks.
Wonka – which is one of the best times you’ll have in the cinema this year – isn’t exactly that film. But it’s far closer to the recent big-screen adventures of Michael Bond’s beloved bear than it is to Dahl’s original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory novel – and, frankly, is all the better for it. This is no conventional prequel, full of bucketloads (or even Bucket-loads) of laborious foreshadowing: there’s no breezy cameo from a hot Grandpa Joe, a la Jude Law’s young Dumbledore, in tasteful midcentury knits.
Nor is it an effortful Dahl cover version. The plot has villainy to spare, but no sadistic streak – even Olivia Colman and Tom Davis’s venomous hoteliers are a good deal less toxic than, say, the Twits – while all confectionary-based mishaps aren’t matters of cosmic punishment but industrial sabotage.
Instead, director Paul King and his co-writer Simon Farnaby have concocted a wholly self-contained caper about a plucky young chocolatier taking on a cartel of older, meaner rivals – then dusted it with enough details drawn from both Dahl’s novel and the 1971 film to make the branding add up.
Devout Wonkarians are rewarded with nods and winks: a turn of phrase here, a visual echo there, or a tinkling of Pure Imagination in Toby Talbot’s magical score. (The suite of new songs, by Talbot and his old Divine Comedy collaborator Neil Hannon, are witty and wondrous: a set of instant, hear-once, hum-forever classics.) Otherwise, though, the film largely just gets on with its own Great Chocolate Caper thing.
As the youthful Willy Wonka, Timothée Chalamet does throw in the odd Gene Wilder-ish line reading or gesture, but the script doesn’t furnish him with many opportunities for those. Rather, he’s mainly required to be bright and charming, sell some amusingly silly lines, and hold a tune – which, with perhaps a little help from the sound engineers, he does.
And yes, perhaps sometimes, if you squint a bit, you could almost be watching a shaved Paddington in a natty purple suit. But his new film’s comic tone is riper and madder: King’s first directorial work was on the BBC sitcom The Mighty Boosh, and Wonka plonks itself squarely in that very British tradition of surreal escapades with a satirical kick. Long before the Boosh came Not the Nine O’Clock News (whose famous gorilla joke makes a cameo of sorts), then the Pythons – and before them all The Goon Show, of which Wonka often feels like a feature-length episode.
Paterson Joseph’s Arthur Slugworth, head of the town’s wicked chocolate cartel, is a deliciously smarmy Grytpype-Thynne type, while Matt Lucas and Mathew Baynton’s sidekicks are a pair of perfect Moriartys. Meanwhile, supporting characters constantly chime in with Goonish non-sequiturs, such as Jim Carter’s dark mutterings of an abbey of chocoholic monks, or Natasha Rothwell’s plumber warily asking Willy, after his clandestine midnight jaunt to the zoo: “Where have you been, and why do you smell of giraffe?”
Even Hugh Grant’s Oompa-Loompa, Lofty – who, with his green hair and orange complexion, must be the film’s cleanest lift from Wonka lore – has an uproarious, martini-dry “must-we?” demeanour that screams Peter Sellers.
Perhaps the film’s only real sop to nostalgia (aside from the encore performance of a certain song) is its replication of the 1971 film’s weirdly ambiguous setting, which has been fleshed out into a gorgeous storybook hybrid of Bavaria, Paris and an English university town. Of all the things to bring back, it’s an odd one, but something about it just tastes right.
Like any good chocolatier, King has obsessively focused on texture and flavour. And it’s those qualities – tuned to mass-market tastes, yet held in connoisseurish balance – that give his film its irresistible velvety sweetness.
PG cert, 116 mins. In cinemas from Friday December 8
Britons may be forced to take selfie before viewing pornography
Ofcom could roll out ‘facial age estimation’ systems to protect children online
James Titcomb
5 December 2023
Selfie Pornography
Adult websites could require visitors to take a face-scanning selfie to prove they are over 18 under plans to prevent children accessing pornography.
Ofcom, which will administer new online safety laws designed to protect children online, said websites could use “facial age estimation” systems to confirm they are adults.
The technology is seen by some as a more privacy-friendly alternative to uploading personal IDs or credit cards because it does not require personal information to be entered.
Ofcom says that children first see online pornography at an average age of 13 and a quarter see it by the age of 11.
Age estimation systems are already used by social media companies like Instagram to check people’s ages and use artificial intelligence to guess a person’s age based on thousands of pictures that the system has been trained on.
Yoti, one technology provider that is used by Instagram and the adult site OnlyFans, says it deletes images as soon as they are checked.
The company says its technology typically detects the ages of 13 to 19-year-olds with estimates that are typically accurate within 1.52 years. It identifies 13 to 17-year-olds as being under 23 with a high degree of accuracy, correct 99.65pc of the time.
Aylo, a company that operates many of the world’s biggest pornography sites, has used the technology to verify users who upload content.
Ofcom said that websites using the technology would have to use a method similar to the “challenge 25” system used to allow adults to buy alcohol and enter nightclubs.
If an age estimation says somebody could be below that threshold, they would have to use an alternative verification system such as a credit card or photo ID.
Ofcom said age estimation systems were one of five ways porn websites could prevent children accessing the sites. Others were linking a bank account, uploading a photo ID along with a selfie, using data from a mobile network or entering credit card details.
More easily bypassed checks, such as users declaring their age or online payment methods that do not require a person to be 18, will not be regarded as acceptable.
The regulator said it would consult on the rules before beginning to enforce them, which it expects in 2025.
Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom’s chief executive, said: “Pornography is too readily accessible to children online, and the new online safety laws are clear that must change.
“Our practical guidance sets out a range of methods for highly effective age checks. We’re clear that weaker methods – such as allowing users to self-declare their age – won’t meet this standard.
“Regardless of their approach, we expect all services to offer robust protection to children from stumbling across pornography, and also to take care that privacy rights and freedoms for adults to access legal content are safeguarded.”
A string of American states have introduced age verification laws in recent months, but the rules have been met with legal challenges.
Ofcom says four in five adults support age assurance on adult websites.
Heh. He can already see the delightful vision of those benevolent gulags, full of capering fauns and friendly forest creatures. All ministering to the re-education of the distrustful.
How lovely.
He’s retiring, so that might be moot.
I think the unspoken assumption shared between speaker & audience was that if only Australians were more educated the Voice would have gotten up.
Because a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) elevates one above the hoi polloi.
Doesn’t help that the little chap is playing French Cricket with a plastic seaside bat.
Hamas reaped a fortune from shorting shares in Israel’s Bank Leumi.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12825653/hamas-trades-stock-exchange-short.html
He should stick to astronomy because he has completely misunderstood the problem. The loss of faith in government is because we now have so much more information from many more sources about how government functions. It is irrational to have demand faith in governments that are more interested in the next election result than the next decade. I’m doubtful I’ll live long enough to witness governance for the future that was present in the Hawke-Howard era.
Typical. Because “safety” is so important!
FDA Shuts Down Enquiries About DNA Contamination in Covid Vaccines
He does mention that.
Seems more a bug than a positive feature of contemporary life in his eyes though.
I’ve no doubt that AI hooked up to a language model will become an absolute coding bombshell – down the track a bit (probably not far) I’m expecting not just quick clean code, but super optimised to its running environment and new programming paradigms.
But currently Chat GPT is still a bit shit at basics in the languages I use.
Alas I am caught totally without popcorn.
Mr Mansell is lighter skinned than she is.
Lee nodded quietly… He understood.
I haven’t watched it, so thanks for the updates.
Much appreciated.
Imagine if BRS had Lee has the judge in his case.
Etna has erupted too, misses it by that much (ten months)
Victor Davis Hanson
Weimar America
We may be headed for a 1930s nightmare
Humphrey, Elbow’s problem is that his A-listers are tailenders. In fact, Elbow is also just a time-server who waited in line for the leadership when Bill Shorten lost the unloseable election in 2019.
The idea of Elbow’s clown show seeing out its full term without an emergency crash-or-burn early election now looks optimistic.
Even Mavis struggling to say anything positive about Albo in Teh Paywallian. Things are crook.
The Mocking of Christ by Mathias Grunewald.
This painting is a frightening parallel of what is happening to our Jewish brethren.
I think a dressing room revolt may be brewing.
There may be tears.
All over for Brittany. Some might say.
Britternickers strikes me as a princess and a pea sort of lass:, stop, it’s too big; I’m uncomfortable, try a different position; it’s too hot, turn on the fan; stop, I want to go to the loo; I’m back, why aren’t you ready; you don’t love me, I’m telling.
Cats. I’m drawing on your combined wisdom and historical knowledge.
Has there ever been a travel alert issued about Australia in its history?
Sky political editor Andrew Clennell is an Old Labor cheerleader, but he’s not as partisan as the Paywallian’s Troy “Mavis” Bramston.
Clennell’s reporting on the Elbow regime’s stuff-ups has been excellent and deserves a gong.
Can’t continue like this into 2024. Christmas and January buys them some time. Certainly need some “clear air”. Thanks Ol’Leathery.
“Conspiracy Theorists” speaking in UK Parliament
Ironically, Schmidt isn’t seeing this from a broader perspective. The NYT article I posted the other day referred to a loss of faith in many traditional institutions. Perhaps this is transitional, the first generation raised in an environment where they can access, anywhere, anytime, information interpreted from multiple perspectives. They still haven’t found a way to reconcile so many contradictory perspectives. What is happening might be analysis paralysis. That’s not surprising. The more knowledge, the more grief, the more wisdom, the more sorrow. Readers all wrinkle their foreheads. Not so quiet voiced elders with eyes useless for peering into the darkness. There are many ways of leaping, the essential being to leap. At some point they will have to choose a course of action and do so in spite of the ambiguities and uncertainties that have arisen from so much information and so many perspectives. Quotes embedded, not referenced. Now I must fight off that Russian fleet heading for Iceland. It is rather tragic that I am playing a 30 year old game!
The haste with which those criminals were released suggests they were keen to do it. A bit of bLIARite rubbing the right’s nose in diversity.
Hard to see where things improve. Chalmers star certainly not burning so brightly these days. RBA not helping on the overseas inflation narrative. Bit late to be running “Blame ScoMo” which worked till now.
I for one can’t say, calli.
It is shameful.
Let’s be clear, though, if it wasn’t for our failed immigration policy we wouldn’t be in this situation.
What game is that, John H?
Let’s be clear, though, if it wasn’t for our failed immigration policy we wouldn’t be in this situation.
Brought to you by canbra- the parasite robber state on the fake lake.
Roger, I’m seeing it as one of those “historical hinges”. It often goes unnoticed. And scoffers scoff.
For instance, Seven News mentioned it then immediately segued into a Gaza story. It was clearly propaganda.
This is a significant point to which we have sunk.
I dropped by a burbs IGA today and there was an dark older man and teenager in Islamic garb, handing out copies of the Koran (of which many copies were stacked on a table along with other “literature”).
They had the Palli flag to boot.
Youngster, about 15, says “How ya goin” as I approach shop sliding doors.
I says “Nah” in a short and curt way, hoping to emphasise my displeasure at terrorists.
15yo turns as I walk past and says “I wasn’t going to ask you anything” in a very angry and shouty manner.
I keep walking.
As I wandered the shop, I was tempted to go back outside and ask him what version of the Koran they were using. The one Mo wrote (which we all now know he didn’t), the version agreed to by Egypt in the 1920’s (which was written by several dictators) or the version with the missing pages that were only found a few years ago?
I didn’t.
But will if this sh!t keeps up…
Another day, another twitter thread from a journo who was shown the Oct 7th footage.
Reading his commentary is distressing, as they all have been.
Yes.
Roger, I’m seeing it as one of those “historical hinges”.
A turning point, yes.
And nobody in government, that I’ve heard anyway, appears to have noticed.
Or perhaps they’re too afraid to address the causes?
History of the Truth and the Arabs
In all these discussion people are amazed at how much the Arabs and Muz are quite willing to lie.
The Arabs do not tell the truth – there are no facts just feelings and power. The concept of the fact and truth is part of the Western Industrial revolution combined with exploration. Facts were needed to both industrialise and chart new territories. Hence the scientific revolution.
The Arabs completely missed that. Utterly.
They went from felaheen ( peasants under the Ottomans) and Bedouins to the modern world with no gradual development. They got cars, roads and AK47s with no logic. Dubai went from a fishing village to an trade hub in less than two generations. Hence they will tell you whatever gives them power. There is no point in arguing, pointing out facts, showing contradictions. They see it purely as a power grab by you. BTW this is why post modernism paves the way for Islam,
The fake outrage over a fake story about a woman wearing a hijab on a train resulted in every z-lister posting crap on social media #illridewithyou.
Compare that to the silence over rape rampage on Oct 7th.
Or the support for the perpetrators of the rape rampage.
Australia is so screwed up.
Bless you, Bruce. You have sensed my distress and responded accordingly.
This is a terrible thing. My uncles fought in the ME, the Beloved’s grandfather was a Light Horseman. His father fought in the ME also. My other uncle died for this country.
And this is what we are reduced to because our filthy, degenerate, opportunistic, power-hungry governments of decades’ duration have chosen to repopulate this country with rubble bunnies and meanwhile coerce and manipulate our children into anti-semitic, traitorous automata.
But “education” will fix it.
Orwell was right.
Except for the name, Current Labor and Old Labor are entirely different parties.
Yes.
But as a punishment for Australia, rather than for the benefit of travellers.
What a cretinous twerp the VC of the ANU is but then what would you expect.
The Greeks and the Hebrews, who from whom we jointly inherited and developed our notion of truth, are the source.
Calli – I’m not happy about the sudden manifestation of outright Nazism in Australia.
But I have to laugh, the alternative is to mourn.
We never in my relatively long lifespan had trouble with the Jewish people. In modern times (post 1970) the worst things to emerge have been terrorism and now anti-semitism.
Thanks to all those who have boosted the “non-discriminatory” immigration policy, and worse, the importation of ME types who quite clearly do not want to assimilate at all.
This country will be f*cked up just as surely as all of Europe, all of the USA.
It’s not election fever??
Maybe Pfizer guy is keeping the Treasury’s powder dry for the real humdinger they’re still cooking up.
What’s he said or done?
Whatever he may be, he’s not a cretin, milt.
But he probably should have stuck with astrophysics, for which he won the Nobel prize in conjunction with two others.
Except for the name, Current Labor and Old Labor are entirely different parties.
Correct. So many of these incompetent spiteful mediocrities are alumni of Scotch, Geelong Grammar etc
OK Roger, let’s say he’s not of this world.
From Roger above-
ANU research finds:
– more than seven in 10 Australians think people in government only look after themselves.
– only a quarter think people in government can be trusted.
– trust in the mainstream media was below 50 per cent
Vice-Chancellor Brian Schmidt, speaking at the National Press Club, says the answer is education, because “We know that trust in government increases markedly with education…”
Bruce, I do both on a rapid cycle. My first reaction is outrage! Then I examine my emotions and think…is this justified? Are there any exonerating circumstances that I need to account for (apart from chronic stupidity, for which there is no cure)?
I refuse to lapse into melancholy. It’s way too dramatic, for a start, and achieves nothing.
All that’s left is righteous anger. Now that’s something to work with.
I notice the imbecile has a down thumb on anything Calli posts.
Get your jollies poof. Pathetic.
Old Labor was loyal as follows:
My God, my family, my party.
According to Fred Daly.
Schmidt gives the game away by that ridiculous statement- he implies ejucashun will cause people to have opinions of which Schmidt approves. Education literally means leading out but not in Schmidt’s world.
I am more or less reliably informed that since becoming VC of ANU he has been courted and subverted by prog-left influencers in academe.
A very bright fellow, but perhaps not worldly enough.
Public School Puts Boy and Girl in Same Bed on Field Trip
I wouldn’t be surprised if this is happening hear.
Fun fact. I’ve been to Oslo and seen the porch from which the mighty prize is announced.
It’s just a porch, and the “winners” are just people. They are clever people, and have shown extraordinary ability in their chosen field. Within these parameters they are to be admired.
And then there’s the other aspect to the “Prize”.
I leave it to you to figure it out.
And hope.
What is there without hope?
Both in the earthly and theological senses.
Harpoon. Matrix Games still has it, for ~$15 every version can be downloaded. Got it a few days ago. As usual US military simulations heavily stacked against a US win. I have launched 100 harpoons at a Russian fleet to sink one ship! I’ll be done with it in a week.
What is there without hope?
Both in the earthly and theological senses.
very true
Postmodernism is a leaky bucket that gives space to all sorts of terrible ideas.
Quite so, Roger. I was discussing this with my minister this afternoon.
Active, positive, enduring hope.
Don’t leave home without it.
F*CKING FURIOUS.
An anti-Semitic incident against 13 year old Jewish girls, dressed in their school uniforms, at WESTFIELD BONDI JUNCTION yesterday.
Westfield Bondi Junction should be a safe place for Jews, it is located smack bang in the middle of an area populated by many Jews. However, call me a racist, call me an Islamophobe, I don’t f*cking care anymore because over the last decade I’ve noticed more and more Muslims frequenting the shopping centre. I have never liked it, I’ve always felt uncomfortable, I’ve smelt trouble brewing.
Israel is right to issue travel warnings about Australia. This country is not safe for Israeli Jews, and this country is no longer safe for Australian Jews, and don’t dare anyone tell me I’m over inflating the problem.
Between 1788 and 1868, depending on your circumstances, you weren’t allowed to leave
OK, thanks John.
I’m an old school hex and counter wargamer.
. I was a committee member of the Spitfire Association for many years including a time with the
legendary Bobby Gibbes. I read many of the books written by these amazing, courageous men of their time in the Middle East. The wrote with great clarity of the duplicity of arabs and then some.
What happened, Cassie?
oh, and also between 2020 and 2022
ROFLMAO!
If, by “education” he meant brainwashing I would agree with him.
Thanks, milton.
Chuckle, Matrix. They say three times lucky.
My family is truly blessed!
13 year old school girls in uniform were eating in the food court after school, and scum threw food and a box at them from above, and the box had swastikas daubed on it.
F*CKING SICK OF IT.
We have a Jew hating government, federal and state. Labor and the Greens, the left in general, are either fully fledged Nazis or Nazi supporters.
As I fecualed* before, the government ran this case to lose. By losing it thought it would.
A: get all the remaining long term detainees out, satisfying the drs wives and mush headed left.
And even better, ensure it’s never an issue again as every detainee who refuses to co- operate in their removal gets the Aussie gold card for life.
B: have any odium about the decision fall on the high court while they pretended to ” fix” it.
C: carefully poison pill some legislation and run dead on ” testing it in the courts” effectively getting the court to scrap detention all together. Thus removing the Libs attempts to reinstate migration detention.
In effect delivering the free the ‘ Fugees wet dreams, because screw ordinary Aussies.
It seems that Mark Dreyfus, Australia’s Attorney General, allowed the Human Rights Commission leave to put in a submission to the HC on that Illegal alien case and Australia’s responsibilities under international agreements.
There’s no seeming about it; he signed off on it.
Cyclone Jasper is born.
http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDQ65002.shtml
All conditions great for intensification bar high wind shear which will weaken it by the looks…
Oz Cyclone Chasers up this way reckon anywhere from Cairns to Brisbane crossing in about a weeks time…
This is the sort of hate crime that would otherwise have had Triggs, Southpossumass, et al foam-flecked with outrage, ABC on air talent arranging 7.30 report & Insiders to call for increased penalties, Q&A stack a panel to condemn it, & Michelle Grattan and the like writing endless columns calling for something to be done. 4-Corners to make a special about “the dark underbelly of Australian racism” & the school/employer of the culprits would be copping so much on-air & in-print pressure that they’d near consider closing down.
Jews? Shrug.
Uncle Albo is rapidly becoming the Scott Muller of Australian politics.
You were warned, dickhead:
Victorian MP Moira Deeming lodges defamation suit against Liberal leader John Pesutto.
And gargling Gaegler was persuaded to NOT protect the Australian Community but to side with monstrous criminals. Good one, I’m sure everyone feels safer now.
Funny though during the scamdemic the Australian Human Rights Commission was totally silent on the infringement of the rights of all millions of Australians under the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights but the governments in every jurisdiction.
Thanks C.L typical of the lying ABfnC say that Ms Deeming had attended an anti-trans rally when it was a Women’s Rights Rally. I effing-well loathe the ABfnC — if the next Coalition government doesn’t make it a subscription service then they’re just dog-shit
Victorian MP Moira Deeming lodges defamation suit against Liberal leader John Pesutto.
Go Moira.
From the Oz…
Liberal Senator Dave Sharma has expressed his horror at “an antisemtic incident” that targeted 13-year old schoolgirls at a Bondi Junction shopping centre yesterday.
“We are failing as a society to combat anti-semitism, and we are failing as a society to support multicultural Australia, by our failure to stand up against this,” he told Sky News.
“The idea that 13-year-olds, who have nothing to do with this conflict whatsoever, are being made to feel responsible and are being made to feel threatened and unwelcome in their own country, is an absolute stain on our national character.”
Louise Adler gave an interview on the ABC’s 7.30 Report last night, where she described Israel’s long and “insidious” campaign to quell criticisms of its policies and successive governments.
“There’s been a long and insidious campaign by those who support Israel and its successive governments and policies, to suggest that any criticism of Israel is intolerable and inappropriate, and that project – I would say agenda – has been crucial in promoting a conflation of anti-semitism and anti-Zionism,” Ms Adler said.
When asked what his response was to this interview, Senator Sharma said that Ms Adler’s comments were “entirely wrong.”
“There is one party to this conflict that does want to commit genocide and that is Hamas, this is in their national charter, after the October 7 terrirorist attacks they announced their intention to conduct more of these attacks until Israel is eradicated from the Middle East, and the Jewish people are forced to flee,
“That is the party that has a genocidal intent, not Israel which is exercising its right to self-defence, not Israel which is taking all the precautions of any state operating in a theatre of war like this one, to protect civilian lives,
“Unfortunately this is feeding into the levels of anti-semitism we are seeing in Australia,” he said.
Firstly, good on Sharma.
Secondly, as for Adler, I’ve long loathed her. She was one of the Get Pell lynchers, she published that slag Nilligan’s book of fiction.
Antisemitism is tarnishing nation, mining boss warns
Brad Thompson
One of Australia’s most prominent Jewish business leaders says he is alarmed by the rise of antisemitism in the streets of his Sydney home and other parts of the country.
Gold industry boss Jake Klein said the local Jewish community was growing more anxious and feeling threatened by recent events in Australia, where pro-Palestine rallies have featured antisemitic rhetoric and chanting.
“I’m very concerned about the current level of antisemitism, and I think it has caused deep reflection and concern,” he said.
“It’s not, in my view, the Australia which I have come to know and love, and I think we need to ‘course correct’ and be an inclusive culture without prejudice to any religion or nationality.”
Mr Klein said he was speaking as a Jewish business person in Australia and not in his role as executive chairman of ASX-listed gold and copper producer Evolution Mining.
He spoke out as Israel’s National Security Council upgraded its travel warning for Australia to a “potential threat” for Jews.
Mr Klein said Greens MPs and others who wanted to criticise Israel should first acknowledge that Hamas was a terrorist organisation that “committed a genocide against innocent Israeli civilians”.
“I vehemently believe in free speech and don’t have any issue with people criticising Israel,” he said.
“But I do think that they should start off with the statement that Hamas is a terrorist organisation and committed a genocide against innocent Israeli civilians.
“There seems to be an absence of that recognition before launching into criticism of Israel.”
On the prospect of an end to fighting in Gaza, Mr Klein said: “Hamas is a terrorist organisation and until it is prepared to lay down its arms and return all the hostages, who are innocent civilians, I’m not sure if there can be a ceasefire.
“There is a pathway to a ceasefire, and it means lay down your arms and let’s engage in a peace process that doesn’t threaten the extinction of Israel.”
Mr Klein, who founded Evolution in 2011, told the company’s annual general meeting in November that Russia’s war on Ukraine and the Middle East conflict were having significant social, political and economic impacts around the world.
“I think it’s fair to say this is one of the most seminal geopolitical moments in our lifetime,” he said.
“A century ago, the global order was being redefined following World War I and similarly today, geopolitical changes have the potential to have ongoing, material repercussions for many years to come.”
Once played an international email game of Avalon Hill’s Empires in Arms, which is topical with Ridley Scott’s fillum just out. I drew Spain.
Even with email we still were running about 1:1 timewise. It took three solid years for the seven of us to get from 1805 to 1807. A lot of fun though!
Thank you Cassie.
The “hijab twitchers” can get stuffed. And Sharma has finally manned up. It takes a massacre to concentrate the mind.
Fall in coal, gas exports to send growth below 2pc
Michael Read
A sharp fall in coal and LNG exports has pushed Australia into a balance of payments deficit and is expected to have driven annual economic growth below 2 per cent for the first time since the pandemic recession in 2020.
Announcing the cash rate had been left on hold at 4.35 per cent, Reserve Bank of Australia governor Michele Bullock said on Tuesday there was still significant uncertainty around the growth outlook.
But the possibility inflation could prove stickier than expected meant the prospect of further interest rate rises could not be ruled out.
An outcome in line with expectations would cause the annual rate of economic growth to step down to 1.9 per cent from 2.1 per cent, which would be the first time GDP expanded by less than 2 per cent on an annual basis since activity ground to a halt at the onset of the pandemic in 2020.
Lower coal and LNG volumes underpinned a fall in net exports that will subtract a hefty 0.6 percentage points from quarterly GDP growth, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.
A combination of falling commodity prices and export volumes pushed Australia’s current account into a narrow $0.2 billion deficit in September, wiping about $7.9 billion off the trade surplus.
The outcome was just the second quarter in four years the economy recorded a current account deficit, which had been commonplace until 2019.
Despite the weakness in Australia’s external position, the economy is still tipped to have grown in September thanks to a boost in business inventory investment and government spending, which will add 0.9 percentage points and 0.3 percentage points to growth respectively.
The main unknown is how household spending on services fared over the September quarter, with data painting a mixed picture on the health of the consumer.
‘Sighs of relief’ on rates
Markets and economists had expected the RBA to leave the cash rate unchanged at its final meeting of the year, after data released over the past month showed the central bank was making progress on lowering inflation and slowing the economy.
Speaking to reporters, Dr Chalmers said the decision will be met with “sighs of relief right around Australia”.
“The last thing that people needed at Christmas time was another rate rise,” Dr Chalmers said.
The question for analysts is whether December-quarter inflation data will force the RBA to deliver a 14th rate rise at its February 2024 meeting, or whether Tuesday’s decision marks the start of a protracted pause that may end with a rate cut at some point next year.
HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham said he did not expect the RBA to raise the cash rate again.
“Our view is that, given the revisions the RBA made to its own forecasts in early November, it will be quite hard for them to be tangibly surprised to the upside relative to their own forecasts for underlying inflation or the jobs market,” Mr Bloxham said.
“However, given that inflation is set to fall only slowly and therefore remain above target for some time yet, we also see cuts as unlikely anytime soon. Having hiked by less than most of the major central banks, the RBA may be one of the last central banks to be able to cut.”
The Paris-based OECD said last week the RBA was done with rate rises, predicting the central bank will start cutting rates in the third quarter of 2024.
Ms Bullock said higher interest rates were working to “establish a more sustainable balance between aggregate supply and demand in the economy”.
“Holding the cash rate steady at this meeting will allow time to assess the impact of the increases in interest rates on demand, inflation and the labour market,” she said.
Uncertainties about spending, the Chinese economy, and inflation cloud the outlook.
“While there have been encouraging signs on goods inflation abroad, services price inflation has remained persistent and the same could occur in Australia,” Ms Bullock said.
Central banks globally appear to be approaching the end of their tightening cycles, as inflation trends downwards towards target bands and labour markets gradually cool under the pressure of higher interest rates.
‘Home-grown’ problem
Ms Bullock said last week that Australia’s inflation problem had become “home grown”, as strong demand combined with rapidly rising costs fuelled large price rises in the labour-intensive services sector.
But the concerns were not enough to trigger a 14th rate rise, after the release of weaker-than-expected inflation figures showed price pressures eased last month.
Annual inflation fell to 4.9 per cent in October from 5.6 per cent in September, beating market forecasts for a 5.2 per cent increase in the consumer price index.
Although inflation remains high, Ms Bullock is conscious the 13 interest rises since May last year are yet to have their full effect on the economy. Changes in the cash rate take about 12 to 18 months to flow through to households and businesses, and the surge in fixed-rate lending during the pandemic means transmission may be slower in this cycle.
Supporting the RBA’s inflation-fighting efforts is a higher Australian dollar, which has appreciated 2 per cent on a trade-weighted basis since the start of November because of US dollar weakness.
Expectations the US Federal Reserve is done with rate rises has pushed the Australian dollar up to US65.8¢ from US63.2¢ since the start of November, which will put downward pressure on the cost of imports if sustained.
The rapid increase in interest rates over the past year has been felt most acutely by the 3.2 million households with a mortgage, who in some cases have experienced monthly repayment increases of more than $1000.
With the cash rate at 4.35 per cent, a household with a $500,000 loan is paying $1210 a month more on its mortgage than it was in May last year, representing a 59 per cent increase, according to RateCity.
For a household with a $750,000 loan, that figure is $1815. Borrowers with a $1 million mortgage are paying $2420 a month extra.
Higher interest rates have also caused a sharp decline in how much money households can borrow to buy a home.
A family with two children and a household income of $150,000 have seen their borrowing power fall by 28 per cent to $623,400 since May last year, according to comparison site Compare the Market.
A single person earning $75,000 can now borrow a maximum of $366,900, down from $511,100.
Yep, you would describe her track record as patchy at best. One of the tribe.
Statement by Michele Bullock, Governor: Monetary Policy Decision
Dec 5, 2023
At its meeting today, the Board decided to leave the cash rate target unchanged at 4.35 per cent and the interest rate paid on Exchange Settlement balances unchanged at 4.25 per cent.
Last month, the Board increased interest rates by 25 basis points, following a period of four months where it had held interest rates steady. This decision reflected the Board’s view that progress in bringing inflation back to the target range of 2 to 3 per cent was looking slower than earlier forecast.
While the economy has been experiencing a period of below-trend growth, it was stronger than expected over the first half of the year. Underlying inflation was higher than expected at the time of the August forecasts, including across a broad range of services.
Conditions in the labour market had eased but remained tight.
Housing prices were continuing to rise across the country as was the number of new mortgages.
Given this, the Board judged that the risk of inflation remaining higher for longer had risen and an increase in interest rates was therefore warranted to be more assured that inflation would return to target in a reasonable timeframe.
The limited information received on the domestic economy since the November meeting has been broadly in line with expectations.
The monthly CPI indicator for October suggested that inflation is continuing to moderate, driven by the goods sector; the inflation update did not, however, provide much more information on services inflation.
Overall, measures of inflation expectations remain consistent with the inflation target. Wages growth picked up in the September quarter but this was expected given that it captured the earlier Fair Work Commission decision on award wages.
Wages growth is not expected to increase much further and remains consistent with the inflation target, provided productivity growth picks up.
Conditions in the labour market also continued to ease gradually, although they remain tight.
Higher interest rates are working to establish a more sustainable balance between aggregate supply and demand in the economy.
The impact of the more recent rate rises, including last month’s, will continue to flow through the economy.
High inflation is weighing on people’s real incomes and household consumption growth is weak, as is dwelling investment.
Holding the cash rate steady at this meeting will allow time to assess the impact of the increases in interest rates on demand, inflation and the labour market.
Returning inflation to target within a reasonable timeframe remains the Board’s priority.
High inflation makes life difficult for everyone and damages the functioning of the economy. It erodes the value of savings, hurts household budgets, makes it harder for businesses to plan and invest, and worsens income inequality.
And if high inflation were to become entrenched in people’s expectations, it would be much more costly to reduce later, involving even higher interest rates and a larger rise in unemployment.
To date, medium-term inflation expectations have been consistent with the inflation target and it is important that this remains the case.
There are still significant uncertainties around the outlook.
While there have been encouraging signs on goods inflation abroad, services price inflation has remained persistent and the same could occur in Australia.
There also remains a high level of uncertainty around the outlook for the Chinese economy and the implications of the conflicts abroad.
Domestically, there are uncertainties regarding the lags in the effect of monetary policy and how firms’ pricing decisions and wages will respond to the slower growth in the economy at a time when the labour market remains tight.
The outlook for household consumption also remains uncertain, with many households experiencing a painful squeeze on their finances, while some are benefiting from rising housing prices, substantial savings buffers and higher interest income.
Whether further tightening of monetary policy is required to ensure that inflation returns to target in a reasonable timeframe will depend upon the data and the evolving assessment of risks.
In making its decisions, the Board will continue to pay close attention to developments in the global economy, trends in domestic demand, and the outlook for inflation and the labour market.
The Board remains resolute in its determination to return inflation to target and will do what is necessary to achieve that outcome.
Brinny has fessed that she got $2.3 mill for her part in get-the-Liberal-Party.
Brittany Higgins reveals she received $2.3m from Commonwealth, as her evidence wraps up in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Network 10, Lisa Wilkinson (5 Dec)
Services clearly rendered.
What’s called a “monster game” and for good reason.
Avalon Hill produced all of the games we played back in the ’70s.
Defunct by the ’90s but a plethora of publishers have since filled that void and increased the historical and publication standards considerably.
Upper middle-class twerps, but born into it, rather than marrying into it.
The same Sharma who recently argued the ALP was morally right to accept Pali refugees via hastily arranged temporary visas, which we all know will be translated into permanent residency.
He is, I assert, part of the problem.
Oh, great.
Like I need life coaching from an iodine hoarder.
Wassup Nurse Betty?
You seem tense today.
Have they changed the locks on the cabinet?
Roger – and SPI. I have both their WW1 and WW2 massive nine map extravaganzas. Excellent stuff.
Wore out my copy of Tactics II.
I saw on Steam last week that someone has rebuilt Gary Grigsby’s War in the East for modern PCs. Must get it.
Roger.
The old ” war in the east” was my go to for a long time.
Lots of crunchy goodness.
Cassie
Worse, she published it under false pretences, claiming that it was non-fiction.
Labor Albanese government denies responsibility for release of immigration detainee arrested for allegedly committing assault
The Labor Albanese government has denied responsibility for the release of a former immigration detainee arrested and charged with allegedly committing assault.
Former immigration detainee Aciek Akec, who was released in 2022, has been arrested and charged with allegedly committing assault and attempting to dishonestly take property without consent.
In a Facebook post dated December 2 last year, supporters of Akec thanked Labor Immigration Minister Andrew Giles alongside “those who supported us to follow this through”, apparently implicating theLabor Albanese government in his release.
“We are very relieved to welcome back Aciek Akec after nearly 5 years in Immigration detention,” the post reads.
“Thank you Andrew Giles and those who supported us to follow this through.”
The revelation comes amid heavy criticism of the government’s response to the landmark High Court ruling on immigration detention that has seen 148 dangerous non-citizens released into the community.
There have been three other arrests of former detainees released after the decision, including one now charged with indecent assault, with the Opposition demanding Labor Mr Giles and Labor Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil resign over the crisis.
Shadow immigration minister Dan Tehan on Tuesday attacked both Ministers as he called on Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to act.
“They’ve failed at every step to do that and they should do the honourable thing and resign and if they won’t resign, the Labor Prime Minister should do the right thing and he should sack them,” he told Sky News Australia.
Cassie,
Sharri had that story this afternoon. What really impressed me was, the mother of one of the girls had been in touch with Sharri and related that, when her daughter asked her mum if they will have to stop wearing their uniforms and stop going to the food court.
Mum said “No Way!” We don’t show fear. We live our lives as we always have. I am paraphrasing here as I can’t recall it word for word.
The letter made me think of you and your mum Cassie. A great streak of toughness and “never bloody let them think you are scared”.
Adler is married to Max Gillies who many mistook for an actor but was nothing more than a garden variety Labor shill. She reads from the same script. Funny how she got kyboshed from her role on the board of Methodist Ladies College.
SPI was too advanced – and expensive – for us at the time.
Actually you probably do require such life coaching.
Wassup is something you’ll just have to wonder about.
Work on some new material, the “iodine hoarding” is becoming your personal trademark of verbal incontinence. (well, we see only the verbal end of it on this site)
Is there a reason you’re unable to update your jejune trolling drivel?
I might book a ticket and take some eggs.
Leave them on the window sill for a couple of weeks
Duck eggs are the best for maximum stink.
When I was heavily into wargames back in the late 1970s and 1980s,
one of my hex/counter games was a massive D-Day one (don’t recall the exact title).
It was playable down to company level (!), featured a number of maps, and at least 2000 counters.
Abetz supporting Chuck the King.
SFL!!!
Sharma is the contemporary iteration of Fraser & his cabinet members of 1975 who brought the problem here in the first place against all public service advice.
Too smart by half.
Re: the disgraceful feminists ignoring the rape of Jewish women on 7/10. Gutfeld, still the best social commentator, described these women as ignoring not a terrorist act but a sexual atrocity. Gutfeld says the word terrorist act allows the grotesque equivalence vomit to come into play but there is no escape from a concerted planned, mass sex atrocity. This is especially relevant now with the hamas pigs keeping those poor women who they have raped while in captivity from being released because they will be able to give first hand accounts of what pigs hamas are.
I’ve always loved the gorgeous Deborah Conway, she was gorgeous thirty years ago, and she’s still gorgeous. Tonight she was fabulous on Bolt. She said, rightly, that what we’re experiencing has echoes of 1930s Germany.
Deborah is correct.
Also is batting with the tail and might run out of partners.
Just wait til he opens the bowling, from both ends.
By the way, the equivalent of what happened yesterday at Bondi Junction would be me and other Jews travelling out to Westfield Parramatta and throwing food and offensive items at hijabi wearing Muslim school girls.
But we don’t do that.
Black Gazans come to mind because it was a black hamasisis that had Naama Levi by the hair dragging her into the back seat of that jeep.
Also wondering what happened to the second Tanzanian hostage (one was certainly murdered).
2017 story on black Gazans haven’t been ‘Palestinian’ for very long
Bruce, mole, Lee et al, some of the classic older games have been republished since with better rules and production values. You can check it all out at Board Game Geek. 😀
‘ night!
Beertruk
Dec 5, 2023 8:02 AM
Comments at the Paywallion under this article. I couldn’t help meself and had to say something:
Rip off keffiyeh, and ‘solidarity’ is bigotry in disguise
Brendan O’Neal
Now waiting to see if it is accepted or rejected.</em>
Just cecked…Rejected.
FFs…
He might be lucky to make it out the shed.
Oh dear, now Aboriginal people and ‘Palestinians’ are as one, Aboriginal activists are calling Australians ‘settlers’ rather than ‘colonials’.
That’s gunna sting.
No actually, couldn’t care less.
That sort of support sees your head rolling down the street.
The divine Deborah Conway said it best tonight, and that is that since 7 October every Jew has felt utterly wretched, depressed, sad. We’ve watched in dismay Jew hatred rise and rise with very little push back.
But we’re proud of being Jewish, we’re going to stand up and fight this Jew hatred running amok.
Pogria, my mother always said to us children, never ever cower in the corner. I watched a video of a Jewish woman on 7 October kicking and fighting the Nazi scum who were trying to drag her away. She fought. We will fight the Palestinian Nazi scum, and we will fight the leftist progressive scum.
Barking Toad,
Just received Digger’s book in the mail – “Bubbles,Booze ,Bombs and Bastards – A Clearance Divers Story”.
Pleased to hear it turned up, BT.
I wonder if Brittany and the fiance are wargaming where they go from here? Might be lucky to escape with Linda Reynolds jacket on her back.
this is response to this. Why I continue to report some of the vile hamasscum on twitter
Over the coming months the Bureau of Meteorology will be changing our products and services to refer to K’gari instead of Fraser Island. For more information about the change visit the Queensland Government’s K’gari statement.
bom.gov.au
If Chris Kenny adds “never Trumper” to his list of miss-hits (like his support of da voice) he’ll be deleted from our Sky News lineup permanently.
Kristin Tate on the other hand …!
As expected, the Brittany payout figure, now known, puts the ball very much in the Liar’s court. The trial is now a sideshow.
Over the coming months the Bureau of Meteorology will be referred to as that mob who have fudged the historical temperature records to assist the climate alarmists, media and useful idiot politicians in destroying all the western democracies.
JC, I particularly enjoy your erudite comments where they are pertinent to the open thread.
You and JR and others slinging half arsed insults do not IMHO add one positive scintilla of enjoyment to this forum.
I am certain you are better than that.
Pat
Wiki tells me Adler since 2021 is a professorial fellow at Monash, which includes the title, Professor.
These honours, though, I suspect, must count for nothing beside the big one: pre selection for a safe Labor seat.
‘The ruling classes of a fading West are determined to save the planet by immiserating their fellow citizens.’-It’s time to piss king tampon and the rest of them right off. They don’t even pretend they’re not the enemy of everyman anymore.
Cassie,
I saw that video. I like to think that I also, would fight as hard as I could.
Very happy to hear Deborah Conway is on the side of the angels. I didn’t know she was Jewish. Being part of the entertainment industry, I would have thought she would have gone for the default position. So damn glad she didn’t. “It’s only the beginning!”
Brittany and Bruce were always the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of this particular saga.
Correct.
Whether Brucey is an Olympic standard teller of Pork Pies is of peripheral interest as far as that goes.
Why?
Because Channel 10 didn’t talk to him so they couldn’t have formed a view as to whether he was a liar or not.
Where is the application of the ethical j’ism standard which demands allegations be put to the other party before publication?
Of course, Wilkinson and Ten will claim Britnah was fearful and they didn’t want to tip Bruce off.
Bullshit.
They could have put questions to him about an assault of a colleague in Parliament House in early 2019. See what he says.
If he starts messaging Hoggins straight afterwards that would tell you something.
Why?
I don’t get this view that the bigger lying liar Britnah proves to be, the closer Ten gets to a favourable judgement.
Due diligence would have involved stress-testing her story. Like, for instance, “Err, Brit, how exactly did Bruce de-clothe you while you were comatose on the couch, do you think? Take your time. Have another won-ton … or the whole tray if you prefer.”
It wouldn’t have taken long to establish Britnah’s rather elastic powers of recall, and cast doubt on the wisdom of running the story.
palliwood
It’s taking 35 seconds to reload the page after following a link. This is far too long. Six pages and this site is stuffed.
What Conway wore to Mushroom 50 Live last week.
Yet in the short part of the hearing that I listened to yesterday, Miss Higgins was adamant that Michaelia Cash was wonderful to her.
I’m a tiny bit curious about when Dalloway got the flick and Sharaz turned up.
Tintarella di Luna
But you’re not allowed to say that.
Otherwise you’re a racist. Even if they are a pack of lying bastards.
Make that forty seconds.
I saw a couple of nice stories on Twitter, some older people visiting an IDF base to provide a BBQ for the soldiers.
The recently arrived mother and sister of a Brazilian girl killed at Nova who didn’t have the numbers for a Minyan, put out a request on social media and hundreds attended.
Even Beyonce offering to host Emily Hand at any concert she wanted, anywhere in the world.
So much good still in the world.
Deborah Conway has always been a bit of a square peg in the round hole of the local entertainment scene. I can’t remember why I knew she was Jewish, but it has come up before I think.
You’ll have to buy the book.
Over my dead body, not even from a remainder table – life’s too short !
DrB – You need a laptop or etc and use ‘open link in new tab’ for the links. Or ctl-click, same thing.
Very happy to hear Deborah Conway is on the side of the angels. I didn’t know she was Jewish. Being part of the entertainment industry, I would have thought she would have gone for the default position. So damn glad she didn’t. “It’s only the beginning!””
Pogria, she’s always been a proud Jew and a proud Zionist. She married a Jewish man and has had three Jewish children. I remember seeing her in concert in about 1993. She’s fabulous.
Try Mosman Vinnies.
So much good still in the world.’
Yes, and we need to grasp it, hold onto it and never let it go.