Senator Babet puts up the Tucker video discussing the swamp killing Trump:

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Israel lashed yet SAS victims ‘destitute’ with compensation yet to be paid to Afghan families
By ben packham

• Foreign Affairs and Defence Correspondent
• 7:18PM April 11, 2024

Anthony Albanese’s demand for “full accountability” from Israel on aid worker Zomi Frankcom’s death comes as the government drags its feet on compensating the families of 39 Afghans killed by ­alleged Australian war criminals.
The November 2020 Brereton report recommended the government compensate the families of those wrongfully killed by Australian special forces in Afghanistan, without waiting to establish criminal liability for the killings.
Three and a half years on, ­Defence has told The Australian that a “pathway” to providing compensation has been agreed, but details are yet to be finalised.
UN special rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism Ben Saul said Australia’s ­response to the Brereton recommendation had been “sclerotic and inexcusable”, leaving the victims’ families “destitute”.
“Australia is required by international law to compensate for unlawful killings,” Professor Saul said. “The government could pay through neutral humanitarian ­actors. There is no objection from the Taliban, (and) paying would not imply recognition of the Taliban government or infringe any sanctions or terror finance laws.”
Wollongong University international law professor Greg Rose said Australia’s drawn-out ­approach stood in contrast to ­Israel’s immediate probe into the deaths of seven aid workers last week. “The rapidity of Israel’s response would leave Australia as a shadow in the dust in the far distance behind,” he said
The Prime Minister says he ­expects Israel to fully co-operate with Australia’s special adviser on the deaths of Ms Frankcom and six colleagues killed in an Israel airstrike last week, including through the provision of classified documents.
Australia’s doctrine on the law of armed conflict tolerates civilian casualties if they are proportionate to the military objectives and sufficient precautions are taken

theaustralian.com.au02:30

‘Very tough week’: Australia and Israel’s relationship strained after Penny Wong remarksIt’s been a very tough week for the bilateral relationship between Australia and Israel, says Australia Israel and… Jewish Affairs Council Joel Burnie. His remarks come as Foreign Minister Penny Wong has called for the recognition of a Palestinian state. “The rhetoric from the Australian government has certainly intensified after More
A 2006 update on the doctrine noted the ADF’s targeting of residences and convoys to search for Taliban commanders required “consequent acceptance of non-combatant casualties as a necessary proportionate risk to achieve the military objective”.
Professor Saul said Australia’s interpretation of the laws of war was robust, and cultural and leadership failures in Afghanistan were “hopefully being addressed”.
Amid the fallout from Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s speech floating Australian recognition a Palestinian state, the Prime Minister insisted on Thursday that a Hamas-free Gaza was possible as a prerequisite for Palestinian statehood. The Prime Minister rejected a suggestion that separating the terrorist group from a Palestinian state was “just about impossible”.
“Well, that’s not right. That’s not right,” Mr Albanese told Nine’s Today show.
But the head of the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia, Izzat Abdulhadi, said the terrorist group that slaughtered 1200 people and took more than 250 hostages would never be removed from Gaza. “You can weaken their military capabilities, but Hamas is a part of the Palestinian people,” he told ABC radio. “Hamas is a philosophy. Hamas is an idea.”
Senator Wong sparked anger in the Jewish community and among Labor supporters of Israel with a speech on Tuesday arguing Palestinian statehood was a necessary step along the “pathway” to a two-state solution.
She said putting Palestinian statehood at the end of the process had failed for the past 30 years.

But but but save $275 dollars on your electricity bill! Daily Telegraph:

NSW households face paying at least $20 a year extra on their electricity bills after a blowout in the already massive cost of a new privately-owned transmission line to the troubled Snowy Hydro 2.0 project.

Documents recently published on the website of the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) also reveal small businesses are likely to have to fork out $50 annually for the 365km line.

The line is called HumeLink and it will be the property of Transgrid, whose key shareholders include a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and a Canadian superannuation fund.

Despite being privately owned, over several decades customers will repay the cost of building HumeLink — through power bills.

And that cost is skyrocketing.

In January 2020, Transgrid first estimated HumeLink’s expense would be $1.35bn. That rose to $3.3bn in 2021.

Now, Transgrid is asking the AER to approve an outlay of nearly $5bn.

Critics argue that won’t be the final cost, based on the rapid escalation over the past four years.

“It’s highly likely to be much more than that,” said former ING bank chairman Mike Katz, whose cattle farm is in HumeLink’s intended path.

If HumeLink’s budget does rise further, it would increase the amount customers have to pay through power bills.

Despite the blowout, Transgrid estimates HumeLink will have a $1bn-plus net benefit for households and businesses by lowering wholesale energy costs.

The AER has to approve the project costs and Transgrid must then make a final decision to go ahead.

HumeLink will consist of towers of up to 76 metres, which is taller than the Opera House. The towers will be spaced 300 to 600m apart.

Landowners will be compensated for hosting the line.

Mr Katz said what he had been offered was less than half what his valuer said was fair. He said the offer had to be kept confidential. An extra payment of $200,000 per km of line has been put forward to all landowners.

They want the line to go underground instead.

That appears unlikely. Last year a NSW parliament committee was told the cost of going subterranean would be 3.5 times higher.

The documents Transgrid has lodged with the AER say HumeLink stage one “early works” will add $2.80 a year to bills for residential customers and $10.45 annually for small businesses while stage two “delivery” costs will add $20.52 a year for households and $40.78 annually for SMEs.

A Transgrid spokeswoman said it was “keeping the cost to consumers as low as possible as it delivers the transmission projects identified by the Commonwealth and NSW governments as critical to enabling their clean energy vision.

“Given the cost-of-living pressures being experienced by consumers, Transgrid is committed to doing everything it can to put downward pressure on energy costs,” she said.

Other documents Transgrid filed earlier with the AER say its transmission costs for NSW’s renewable energy zones will add $16.81 a year to residential bills and $36.04 annually for small businesses.

The Daily Telegraph recently revealed the recovery of power distributors’ renewable energy zone costs would bump up bills by $20 to $58 a year for households.

Snowy Hydro 2.0 is set to cost at least $12bn, versus a 2017 estimate of $2bn when it was announced by then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. The pumped hydro project has been beset by problems, including that one of the tunnel boring machines was stuck for a year.

Seems a feature, not a bug, to have monumental cost blowouts on ‘renewable’ energy projects.
And landowners don’t host the lines, they have the valuation of their properties diminished by these eyesores.
It really is a clusterphuck of proportions large enough to have private sector employees sacked on the spot to display such ineptitude.
And will of course beset the next project on the horizon.

directly

We’ve got oil and gas and coal and uranium and everything else that should ensure comfortable living.

Comfortable living be stuffed. If we were halfway smart we’d be filthy rich.

Indolent

 April 12, 2024 8:03 am

UN climate chief presses for faster action, says humans have 2 years left ‘to save the world’

Thats when the new Western Sydney Airport is meant to start operating. Pity, all that work and expense and the world ends.

“Australians will have to pay more for energy in future.”

Alinta Energy CEO Jeff Dimery this week.

Hot on the heels of CSIRO and RedBridge surveys reporting that Australians are not willing to pay more for electricity and favour prioritising bill reductions over emissions reductions.

Just wanted to let you all know that, despite our often very harsh opinions of the various GovCo departments, agencies etc, that I recently had cause for two(2) interactions with Service NSW, and despite my pre-interaction concern that these would be difficult and involve much ridiculous paperwork and long waits (both in person and on the phone), that both of these interactions went smoothly and much more quickly than I anticipated, and no significant delays or endless paperwork were involved. One (in person) was resolved in under 10 minutes (including wait time), and one (on the phone) resolved in under 5 minutes (again, including wait time).

In light of that, I would only say: Well done Service NSW – you have excelled with this customer and I am most pleased with you at this time. If this is a typical example of your service levels, then the citizens of NSW have much to cheer about and little to complain of in regards to Service NSW.

Families seek damages after OJ Simpson dies
theaustralian.com.au01:37

O.J. Simpson, the man famously acquitted of murder, has died aged 76O.J. Simpson, iconic football star, Hollywood actor, and notorious murder suspect, has passed away age of 76…

• By kieran southern and will pavia
• The Times
• 11:15AM April 12, 2024
• No Comments

The families of OJ Simpson’s alleged victims have vowed to pursue his estate for unpaid compensation after the death of the former American football star.
Simpson, who died in Las Vegas on Wednesday of prostate cancer, aged 76, was acquitted in 1995 of the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ron Goldman, in a trial that transfixed America and the world.
In 1997 he was found liable for the pair’s deaths in a civil proceeding. Simpson was ordered to pay $US33.5 million.
However, the legal victory was a largely pyrrhic one: he avoided paying significant damages. The Goldman estate received only about $US123,000.
Simpson continued to deny involvement in the deaths, eventually writing a “hypothetical” memoir called If I Did It, laying out the way in which he would have killed the pair, had he been so inclined.

That sounds like a pretty good indicator that he may have been tapped on the shoulder for VP regardless of their public animosity during the primaries. The other possibility is that DeSantis will need a job with the Trump admin when his governor’s term expires so getting into Trump’s good books is necessary.

Consider a third option;
It’s an indicator as to the calibre of the man.
I’d also make the point that if the roles were reversed I doubt if Trump would behave the same way.

Here’s more from Partridge, this time talking about land taxes. The state governments aren’t just fcking over individuals where these days the cost of land tax means you’re essentially renting the land from the government as it’s so high.

They’re also fcking businesses.

Brickworks boss Lindsay Partridge says state governments have “their hands in the cookie jar” by imposing hefty land tax bills on manufacturing sites which threaten the viability of businesses and which would ultimately feed through to higher prices for end consumers.

The boss of the nation’s biggest brickmaker was also highly sceptical about the federal government’s target of building 1.2m new homes over the next four years to alleviate the housing crisis.

Mr Partridge said “tell ‘em they’re dreamin’!”, as labour and raw materials shortages and a sclerotic building approval regime would make the government struggle to even build 800,000 homes.

Speaking to The Australian after Brickworks released its first-half results on Thursday to report a loss of $52.1m, Mr Partridge, highly agitated by the taxes, red tape and bureaucracy now saddled on Australian businesses that is also weighing down the Australian economy, said the bricks and housing materials company had lifted prices by 10 per cent last year and would likely seek another 10 per cent hike in the next 12 months — driven by costs which consumers would ultimately have to carry.

He sheeted home much of this pricing pressure to government taxes, namely land tax.

“Our margins are under pressure and some of the things we can’t control, unfortunately the government has their hands in the cookie jar and thinks it is a good idea to tax the cost of production.

Daily Mail.
RICHARD KAY: Harold Wilson, the seducer so hapless that he left his slippers under his lover’s bed at Chequers

your phone doesn’t meet the requirements for the shutting down of 3g in September 2024 .. you’ll need to upgrade your phone if you want to make/receive calls/msgs after that date ……. FFS!

It really is outrageous that you have to upgrade your mobile at your expense – even in remote areas where a phone is essential – due to changes in the local tower.