With so many scams out there, especially now as we face the end of the financial year and the pinned "How to spot a tax scam" post being nearly a year old, I'm going to pin this thread as a place to share advice regarding scams or any new scams you might have noticed.

This isn't to say not to post scam related stuff in the main community but to create a place to keep track of scam related stuff which might get washed away over time.

Communities don't get cake days on Lemmy, but looking back at the posts in the Aussie Zone meta community, today 12/06 marks one year since @404@aussie.zone requested the community be created. Since then the top posts this community has had were:

1. At 679 - 9 votes and 200 comments: YouTube Premium family plan price update ($17.99/month -> $32.99/month!) (by @trk@aussie.zone
2. At 571 - 7 votes and 68 comments: The lack of ads! (by @Gbagginsthe3rd@aussie.zone)
3. At 551 - 38 votes and 174 comments: Can we stop buying these stupid things? Thanks (by @R00bot@lemmy.blahaj.zone)

I had a look sorting by controversial and I'm quite surprised that the referendum megathread, which bot recruit @dalekerrigan@aussie.zone kept reminding everyone about.

Within this first year we also participated in the first ever lemmyvision contest, with our nomination ranking 4th.

We've also appointed some extra moderators since the start of the year-@Fluid@aussie.zone, @bestusername@aussie.zone and @eatham@aussie.zone-who have been doing a great job at keeping conversations on track.

What were your favourite interactions and posts on this community over the year? And what would you like to see the community move towards in the years ahead?

Thanks everyone for the wonderful year!

Hello from across the fediverse!

If you've contributed to the conversation in discussions in this community you may have noticed you weren't getting a lot of interaction (at least from outside your instance: lemmy.world). There are a couple of reasons for this and I will unpin this post when the issues are resolved.

The problem is basically that lemmy.world is sending too many activities for aussie.zone to keep up with, this is mostly due to the latency going from Europe to Sydney. There are some features being developed for Lemmy to hopefully fix this issue (expected in 0.19.5). The delay currently means that activities are taking around 7 days to reach aussie.zone.

The admins of aussie.zone do a great job keeping the instance going as a place for us to gather and discuss Australia and related issues so please do not direct any criticism at them over this. To be able to properly interact with our community I would recommend creating an account on another instance for the time being (as far as I know lemmy.world is the only problematic one).

If you're interested there is currently a discussion ongoing in !meta@aussie.zone (link for aussie.zone users) covering this.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/5028069

> Meta threads will open federation to the fediverse soon, and while this is mainly to mastodon it will still affect lemmy. They are acting like they won't be evil, but let's be real this is Facebook when have they ever done that. > > This article which has been trending lately explains some of the issues. https://ploum.net/2023-06-23-how-to-kill-decentralised-networks.html > > This comment here is a simple analogy if you can't be bothered reading the article. https://lemmy.ca/comment/5702922 >

G'day all! Just thought I'd chuck up this random thread for a bit of a yarn. You know, sometimes it's nice to have a chinwag about anything and everything – could be your latest DIY project, a recipe you're stoked about, or even just how your day's been. It's all about sharing the good vibes and having a fair dinkum chat. So, what's the goss? Jump on in and let's have a good old chit-chat, like a bunch of mates sitting 'round the table. Cheers!

Hello everyone ,

There have been concerns raised lately over issues with the Auto tl;dr bot which creates summaries of news articles from several known sites, however only really ABC news is applicable here. Relevant threads:

• Truck stowaway 'lucky to be alive' after travelling nearly 400km on metal racks beneath B-double (no problem with summary - just discussion of concerns)
• Small modular nuclear reactor that was hailed by Coalition as future cancelled due to rising costs (Australian Politics)

There are also many other occurrences (I haven't been keeping track), if there are some you would like appended to this list comment with a link below.

Most concerns are that the bot misses important information and/or gives a misleading summary. I'd like to see where people sit on the issue and how we could potentially deal with it. There are a few options I can think of:

1. Remove the bot (through a ban)
2. Get @dalekerrigan@aussie.zone to comment a disclaimer underneath all of its comments
3. Get @dalekerrigan@aussie.zone automatically delete all comments by the bot which have been reported (may open door for abuse)
4. Do nothing

I don't hate the bot - it can be useful, and I like the concept, however, just like us it gets things wrong.

Anyway feedback is welcome, if you have an opinion on this please comment below so I can judge where we all stand on this and try to make the right decision

> > > * In short: The government has confirmed it will impose a mandatory behaviour code on supermarkets, focusing on how they treat their suppliers. > * As recommended by Dr Craig Emerson, fines of up to $10 million would apply to supermarkets who breach their obligations to act in good faith. > * What's next? The government has asked the ACCC to look into customer prices, but the final report is months away. > >

tl;dr - fuck "reality" tv

> In the reality TV production process, after the casting of villains and the baiting for villainous behaviour, comes the editing.

> It's in the post-production suite that a villain edit can truly come to life.

...

> The editor says there are a few techniques to achieve these characterisations. The simplest one is being selective in what gets included.

...

> The second technique editors use is amplification — finding a moment amongst what the editor calls the "boring crap" that can be boosted into a storyline.

> In the show, it's spun as a major conflict.

...

> And then, the drama is further enhanced with a technique called "frankenbiting".

> Like Frankenstein creating his monster, editors will mix together unrelated elements from the footage to make their own beast.

...

> When the show finally goes to air, the final phase of a villain edit begins: controlling the narrative.

> Now, program makers try to ensure that no narratives that contradict the edit make it into the media.

> "They would remind me in a very threatening way before every single media interview that I had signed a [non-disclosure agreement]," Olivia says.

This becomes a problem for Olivia, because when the show goes to air, the backlash is swift.

>In an age where giving lifts to strangers is mostly advised against, this family sees it as their preferred option to get to India, for environmental and social reasons.

>Mr Jones and Ms Ulman do not own a car, have not been overseas in 20 years, and wanted to show their son the world, in the least polluting way possible.

>"We've done a lot of travel before on bicycles and hitching and public transport in Australia," Mr Jones said.

Whats on this weekend for you guys? Im just chilling so far

The press conference is currently still live so this was the best short video I could find on the topic.

To begin, I'm absolutely against this proposal, but I want to see a discussion - hopefully a constructive one - between Aussies (comments are always turned off for Australian news on YT) to gauge some idea of how people generally feel about the idea.

Fire off.

> Cheaper electricity, less emissions and ready by 2035 are some of the Coalition’s core promises on nuclear energy, but are they backed by evidence?

tl;dr - no

"Peter Dutton has called a press conference for 10am, so it is all official – nuclear is go.

The Coalition teleconference meeting has wrapped up, and the seven sites have been named and it is as we thought: Collie in Western Australia, Mt Piper and Liddell in New South Wales, Callide and Tarong in Queensland, Northern Energy in South Australia and Loy Yang in Victoria."

"There are already issues being identified with the sites – first, the sites would need to be purchased from private operators. There will need to be some pretty major changes to legislation, both state and federally. The Queensland LNP, as recently as yesterday, said it would not lift the nuclear ban for the state, which is a problem given two Queensland reactor sites have been identified by Dutton’s team.

Tarong in Queensland is a particular issue as it doesn’t have a secure water source. In 2006, then-premier Peter Beattie had to propose a waste water pipeline as a last ditch measure to save the plant during a drought."

Australians overwhelmingly support a crackdown on Chinese investors buying real estate amid growing concerns over housing affordability, a new survey has found.

Eighty-three per cent of Australians believe the government “should restrict the amount of investment in residential real estate that is permitted from Chinese investors”, according to the poll published last week by the University of Technology Sydney’s Australia-China Relations Institute.

That was the highest number in the four years the UTS:ACRI survey has been running.

"Chinese investment in Australian residential real estate continues to generate concern,” the authors wrote in the report, The Australia-China relationship: What do Australians think?.

The poll asked a representative sample of 2015 Australian adults a range of questions on issues ranging from national security — including foreign interference and the conflict over Taiwan — to tourism, trade and investment.

Only 28 per cent of respondents agreed that “Chinese investment in Australian residential real estate brings a lot of benefits for Australians” such as housing construction, new dwellings and jobs.

“Agreement with this statement has incrementally decreased over the last four years,” the report said.

A “clear majority” of 80 per cent of Australians agreed with the statement that “foreign buyers from China drive up Australian housing prices”, a seven-point increase from 73 per cent in 2023, and almost back to the 82 per cent high recorded in 2021.

Just under three quarters, or 74 per cent, said Chinese investors “have negatively affected the rental market for residential real estate in Australia”, also a four-year high and a six-point increase from 68 per cent in 2023.

More broadly, just under three quarters of respondents said Australia was “too economically reliant on China”, while just over half said foreign investment from China was “more detrimental than beneficial”.

David Ho, co-founder and group managing director of Asian property portal Juwai IQI, said the findings showed Australians were “stressed by the tight property market and believe foreign buyers are part of the problem”.

“They want foreign buyers to be restricted, regulated, and taxed, and that’s fine — because foreign buyers already in fact are heavily taxed, regulated, and restricted,” he said.

“The real solutions are much harder — limiting population growth, cutting zoning restrictions, building more transit networks to enable housing in new areas, and slashing construction costs.”

Mr Ho said foreign buyers from all countries contributed more than an estimated $200 million in stamp duties just in the first nine months of last year in NSW and Victoria.

“The federal government long ago restricted foreign buyers to only new property, meaning something off the plan or just built,” he said.

"State governments have imposed additional stamp duties and land taxes on foreign buyers that cost each person hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars per buyer. If you’re competing against a buyer at an auction, they’re almost certainly not a foreign buyer.”

Mr Ho added several studies including a parliamentary inquiry had looked at foreign buying “very closely” and found it “leads to a net gain in housing supply and [doesn’t] push up home prices, except in just a very few suburbs in each of the capital cities”.

“These off-the-plan foreign buyers are crucial for developers to get early sales because, without those sales, they can’t start construction,” he said.

“That’s why foreign buyers are restricted to new development properties. Because each foreign buyer facilitates the construction of four new dwellings by enabling the developer to go ahead with their project. If you remove foreign buyers from off-the-plan sales, it will probably mean prices and rents go up.”

Faced with similar concerns, the Canadian government last year announced a two-year ban on foreigners buying residential property, sparking calls for Australia to follow suit.

The role of Chinese investors in the Australian property market has long been a point of contention — foreigners without Australian citizenship or permanent residency can only purchase new homes, under the theory it that helps boost housing construction, but may purchase established dwellings subject to approval by the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB).

The FIRB’s latest quarterly figures showed, despite a significant drop, the Chinese remain by far the largest foreign buyers of Australian homes, with $700 million worth of investment proposals approved between July 1 and September 30, 2023.

The 523 residential dwellings approved — at an average value of $1.34 million — was down from 826 dwellings worth a combined $1.1 billion in the prior three months.

In the full 2022-23 financial year, Chinese investors purchased 2601 homes worth $3.4 billion, up from $2.4 billion comprising 2317 homes in 2021-22.

The FIRB’s figures for the October to December quarter are expected to be published soon. Industry sources have suggested the numbers are several weeks overdue, as they would typically have been released in early June.

China-focused real estate agents told The Australian last month that many mum-and-dad investors who purchased one or two-bedroom off-the-plan apartments were now desperate to offload their properties and bring the money back home to rescue struggling businesses.

The implosion of China’s real estate bubble, which has sparked a wider economic crisis and a frantic rescue mission by Beijing to use public financing to buy up unsold properties, had already seen billions of dollars worth of Australian apartment projects by giants like Greenland, Wanda, Country Garden and Poly abandoned in recent years.

Rising interest rates and tougher rules on foreign investors who buy Australian properties and leave them empty, announced by the federal government in December, have contributed to the rise in distressed Chinese sellers.

Plus Agency managing director Peter Li told The Australian that prior to Covid his Sydney-based agency kept “buying, buying, buying” for Chinese clients.

“We still service a lot of our Chinese clients,” he said.

“Now we help them with selling, selling, selling.”

But the same domestic economic woes causing pain for the middle-class have had the opposite effect at the top end of the market, as ultra-wealthy Chinese accelerating relocation plans rush to park their money in multimillion-dollar trophy homes in Australia’s most exclusive suburbs like Melbourne’s Toorak.

“They are coming in busloads,” Morrell and Koren director David Morrell told news.com.au in November.

The frustrated local advocate said 100 per cent of sales in the prior six months had been to Chinese buyers, some of whom were paying cash to secure luxury properties and pricing locals out of the market.

“We are seeing jumps of $2-3 million dollars on properties,” he said.

“We have a marketplace that is disproportionately being sold to Chinese buyers, relative to the rest of the population.”

He used the example of a recent property that was on the market for $9.2 million.

“There were five Chinese parties biding and it sold for $12 million,” he said.

“They have paid a $3 million dollar premium. It wasn’t just one of them there are now four wounded underbidders. What’s happening in Toorak is only a look at what is happening under the blankets, across the country.”

His comments came after Toorak buyer’s agent Alex Bragilevsky told The Australian Financial Review wealthy Chinese buyers were taking private jets to Melbourne to purchase mansions on the spot.

“I’ve facilitated $135 million of real estate deals [in Toorak] in the past six months,” he said. “All these buyers were Chinese.”

But Jeremy Fox, director of RT Edgar at Toorak, disagreed that it was necessarily a bad thing.

Ultimately, it flows onto the rest of the market, and has protected the housing market from a downturn,” he said.

“It is good for the real estate market when the top end is strong because the money flows down to all price ranges in Melbourne.”

Leith van Onselen, co-founder of MacroBusiness and chief economist at MB Fund and MB Super, said there had “certainly been many anecdotal reports of increased activity by Chinese buyers in Australian real estate” but “how this translates to FIRB numbers remains to be seen”.

Meanwhile, fresh figures show foreign demand for new properties also remains strong.

NAB’s quarterly Residential Property Survey found the market share of foreign buyers in new Australian housing markets fell slightly in the three months to March to 10 per cent, down from a six-and-a-half-year high of 11 per cent in the last three months of 2023.

This remained above the long-term survey average of 9.1 per cent.

“Despite the slip, there has still been a near five-fold rise in foreign buyer market share in new Australian home markets since hitting a low of just over 2 per cent during the Covid pandemic in mid-2021,” NAB said.

Mr van Onselen said the federal government should step in and ban temporary residents from purchasing established Australian homes.

“Implementing a ban on temporary residents would revert the rules back to what existed prior to the global financial crisis,” he said.

“That is, before the Rudd government carelessly opened up the established housing market to temporary residents in 2009. Australia must also implement the tranche two global anti-money laundering rules pertaining to real estate gatekeepers, including real estate agents, lawyers, and accountants.

"Australia has delayed the implementation of these global AML rules for around 15 years, which has made Australian housing a magnet for dirty foreign money and helped to inflate housing prices.”

It came as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hosted China’s second-in-command, Premier Li Qiang, in Canberra on Monday for the annual leaders meeting, where he declared that the two countries will “co-operate where we can and disagree where we must”.

In a statement issued after arriving in Australia, Premier Li said China-Australia relations were “back on track” after a series of “twists and turns, generating tangible benefits to the people of both countries”.

“History has proven that seeking common ground while shelving differences and mutually beneficial co-operation are the valuable experience in growing China-Australia relations and must be upheld and carried forward,” he said.

> > > More than three decades after Jack Karlson's infamous arrest at a Chinese restaurant in Brisbane captured the nation, a film crew is setting out to document his life. > >

> > > The postal service urges dog owners to take responsibility as data reveals an alarming spike in threatening incidents. > >

It's been a long time since I was on the job market, but it was certainly disheartening how low the response ratio was. I must have sent out 40 applications for every response, even an acknowledgement of receipt was rare.

The Albanese government has formally expressed its displeasure to the Chinese embassy over Chinese officials trying to impede camera shots of journalist Cheng Lei during Premier Li Qiang’s visit to Canberra this week.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the ABC on Tuesday: “When you look at the footage, it was a pretty clumsy attempt […] by a couple of people to stand in between where the cameras were and where Cheng Lei was sitting”.

Albanese said Australian officials had intervened to ask the Chinese officials to move, “and they did so.” Australian officials had “followed up with the Chinese embassy to express our concern,” he said.

At his press conference later on Monday, which Cheng attended, Albanese said he was “not aware” of the incident. The opposition questioned his response.

On Tuesday, he said Cheng, who works for Sky, was “a very professional journalist. And there should be no impediments to Australian journalists going about their job. And we’ve made that clear to the Chinese embassy.”

Opposition leader Peter Dutton welcomed the government raising the issue with the embassy. But he said: “I do want to point out that the prime minister clearly misled the Australian people yesterday when he got up and did a press conference and said that he heard nothing of it […] it’s completely inconceivable”.

Meanwhile, Albanese has indicated he believes there is no impediment to media organisations again posting correspondents to China.

The China correspondent for The Australian Financial Review, Mike Smith, and the ABC’s correspondent, Bill Birtles, were forced out in 2020.

They left after Chinese security officials visited their homes late at night, telling them they needed to be questioned over “a national security case”. Before departing, they spent several days under Australian diplomatic protection, while negotiations between officials of the two countries for their departure took place.

This followed immediately after the Chinese government confirmed Cheng’s detention in Beijing. She was later tried in secret for what she said was breaking an embargo on a story by a few minutes. She was released only last year [after three years in Chinese detention].

Asked on Monday whether he had raised the question of the Australian media getting back into China, Albanese said he’d done so in his China visit late last year.

“The Chinese side say that they are willing to grant that access. And speaking to some media organisations as well, it’s a matter of whether they wish to send people in there. I think that is the point,” he said.

A spokesman for the ABC said, “The ABC remains very interested in basing a correspondent in China”.

The incident on Monday took place when Albanese and Li were together at an agreement-signing event at parliament house in Canberra.

My god I had such an awful experience. Shitty people did shitty work. They ran conduit under my lawn and kept saying that "we don't have to put conduit in but the work I do is quality work". Gaps between the conduit and ceiling. He can't even clamp the conduit straight. Shoddy work overall. Paves removed and didn't put it back properly. Sand all over the area. I am pissed. Please share your experience.

Also to add he started working at 8am and didn't even finish it until 7pm then started asking for signature and said he will get the rest of the work done tomorrow. Wtf!

https://theconversation.com/dont-feel-bad-about-bingeing-tv-humans-have-binged-stories-for-thousands-of-years-231713

https://heraldonlinejournal.com/2024/06/14/just-over-the-horizon/

The articles above inspired me to to meld the two premises in the articles together in the post below. A lunch time read for anyone interested. :)

Australians are a nation of travellers, it's been said that at any one time during the year there are over a million Australians abroad. It's worth noting that it's not said that a good chunk of that cohort are in Bali, our go-to destination of tropical delights!

But what are we doing when abroad? True many spend precious, and too fleeting, moments with distant families, but many are also touring a destination they may have no or minimal familial connection with. I think I have an answer, not the answer, just an answer. And this answer contains an insight into how today we are failing to design and build our own cities to capture the imagination. Bear with me, i'm gona be pulling some long bows on this one.

“Don't feel bad about bingeing TV. Humans have binged stories for thousands of years.” An article offered by Darius von Guttner Sporzynski from Australian Catholic University this week on The Conversation website is a short exploration of the consumption of storytelling.

D. Sporzynski wastes no time dispelling the negative connotations around bingeing. Instead offering an anthropic historical record of the “human desire to be completely immersed in a story.” He lauds bingeing as an act of unrestrained and excessive indulgence. Using examples as far ranging as Palawa Aboriginal (Tassie) oral stories that could refer to events 12,000 years in our pasts to theatre, television, or the moral panics brought on by serialised literature.

Of course, from a certain point of view touring a destination could then also be regarded as a form of bingeing. Certainly experiences in my pre-poll of one, (me), bear out the “unrestrained and excessive indulgence” of touring a destination, my trips to Paris were deluxe all those years ago, thank you for asking. ;) Instead of a piece of art, or literature, or even beer, I suggest we can binge on a destination, in fact why not indulge on whole cities.

Australia might not have fully bingeable cities like Paris or New York, Sydney comes closest (maybe even is), plenty of places around the country have flashes in the pan but fall a little short at the moment. Maybe it's simply due to our country being reasonably young, but I think part of it is the buildings we're constructing in this era. Even the ones where we're trying, for example One Barangaroo, (that big tall new one in Sydney), it's nice, but i'm not sure it adds a great deal to the feel or life of Sydney.

In Western Australia if there's a single destination that has the potential to be bingeable it's Fremantle. Roel Loopers’ Fremantle Herald article, Just Over the Horizon, tells us the city of Fremantle is “embarking on a spatial vision City Plan to shape the future…”

In the article R.Loopers laments sameness, and demands diversity in type, form and use of the buildings developers should be forced to build in the city of Fremantle, stating “level 2 looks the same as level 12, etc and that needs to change.”

He offers suggestions like high rises surrounded by townhouses, single function buildings broken up by different facades, he even suggests the historic Fremantle prison becoming part/neighbouring a mixed use development along with the football field.

It is right to demand this of developers in our cities, especially in those places around our country like Fremantle or Sydney who have the potential to create a touring destination, that, in its discovery and excitement can be a dopamine hit that demolishes the dopamine hits of the latest tv series. But a bingeable city isn't accidentally created, it is demanded and loved.

D.Sporzynski describes “humans desire to escape from reality and engage emotionally with stories.” I say that is what our one million travellers abroad are doing. They are engaging emotionally with far off cities like Paris, London, Tokyo, and of course even our beloved Bali. As D.Sporzynski says, we are developing the 17th and 18th century enlightenment ideal of a critical view of the world through our experiences abroad, but we should take the opportunity now and use our foresight to make our cities bingeable destinations. Sorry developers, concrete and glass boxes aren't enough.

By Gorgritch_umie_killa

Our response to Yang Hengjun’s jailing is inadequate and chilling. Chinese-Australians are Australians too! - writes Badiucao, a Chinese-Australian artist based in Melbourne.

China’s premier is visiting Australia and Li Qiang’s first stop was the Adelaide zoo, home to pandas Wang Wang and Fu Ni.

Beijing has enjoyed exercising “panda diplomacy” over the years, loaning bears to countries depending on its assessment of how well diplomatic relations are going.

The cute black and white animals present a softer, friendlier image of China – but they also represent something much darker.

They are found in present-day Sichuan province – once Tibetan territory. The national symbol is actually an unapologetic symbol of China’s own dark colonial history of the subjugation of the Tibetan nation.

I don’t expect any Australian official to point this out – despite this country’s special obligation to do so, given its own history with the Indigenous community here. Nor do I expect any official to ask Li about what has happened to the Uyghurs, the Turkic minority within China’s borders who have become targets of a national campaign that some human rights groups call a genocide.

Australians love to express guilt about our own history. We talk about it – then do nothing to speak up against present-day injustices. Instead our government decides trade is more important, despite the fact that China has repeatedly acted like a bully on trade matters, hitting Australian wine or lobsters whenever something upsets the Chinese Communist party.

Economically, Australia is a small country compared with China. But how did it come to this? Surely protecting the integrity of the country and protecting our citizens should be important.

A Beijing court tried the Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun in a one-day, closed-door hearing on espionage charges and handed him a suspended death penalty. Canberra responded by saying it was “appalled”.

Now the Chinese premier is visiting and our government is installing temporary guardrails and isolation fences around the capital to shield CCP officials from seeing pro-democracy protesters. How can we possibly save our fellow citizen if we cooperate so easily with authoritarianism?

This is not just about Yang. This is personal. I’m an immigrant who chose to live in Australia because I believe in this country. For three generations my family were victims of the CCP. I wanted to escape that cycle. Now I am a target of Chinese transnational aggression, as are other Australians of Chinese-speaking origin who have dared to speak out about human rights and democracy and against the dictatorship of Xi Jinping.

I think of the writer and comedian Vicky Xu, the great novelist Murong Xuecun, the Hong Kong rights lawyer Kevin Yam. We do not feel safe exercising our right to free expression when we see our government unwilling to stand up for Yang, unwilling to fight for its citizens. The Australian government’s response to what has happened to Yang is inadequate and chilling. Chinese-Australians are Australians too!

Meanwhile, China is hardly rewarding Australia for our lack of a spine. It is doing what all bullies do – pushing to get away with more. It has changed Hong Kong’s vibrant open society and it keeps making suggestions that it will do the same for Taiwan, including constantly sending fighter jets in its direction. It has been picking fights with the Philippines in the South China Sea. These are unpleasant developments, so the Albanese government prefers to ignore them in the hope they will go away. But China is not going away.

I once drew a political cartoon depicting Anthony Albanese caught in a balancing act, trying to juggle selling wine exports with our Aukus submarine defence strategy. My message was that this approach is increasingly unsustainable – and dangerous. It’s a funny-looking cartoon but I hoped that Australians would see it and understand that if we choose not to be brave, to do the right thing, to stand by our principles, then the joke will be on us.

- One protester has claimed the Australian Federal Police used "brutalising" force in Canberra, as China's premier met with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and dignitaries at Parliament House.

- Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who was freed last year after being detained in China for three years, claims she was blocked by Chinese officials during a signing ceremony during official proceedings.

- "I think the worry is that my being there is a symbol of some sort, and maybe they didn't want that for the domestic audience," Cheng Lei said. "Having dealt with Chinese officialdom on these sorts of events, they are very, very control freak-ish, so they want to know everything and they want to stage-manage everything."--

Critics of the Chinese Communist Party have accused Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers of using "unnecessary" force against demonstrators who were protesting against a visit by a Chinese official on the lawns of Parliament House.

Chinese premier Li Qiang's four-day visit to Australia sparked a face-off between protesters in Canberra on Monday, with pro-China demonstrators colliding with the Australian Tibetan community and the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement, vocally opposing his visit.

Human rights activist and journalist Vicky Xu criticised the AFP after she was filmed being dragged by officers as she held the Chinese flag on Monday.

"A friend of mine had a Chinese Communist Party flag, that he was planning to burn," she told SBS News.

"I saw that the police were trying to forcefully take the flag away from him, so I intervened and tried to understand what was happening.

"Next thing I knew I was being shoved by the police."

She claims an officer had a hand on her neck and that her finger was twisted during the incident.

While she understood the need for the AFP to reduce the temperature and ensure peaceful protesting, she said it was "too much force", labelling it "brutalising" on X.

SBS News has contacted ACT Policing for comment.

In a statement, it said: "The AFP has received no complaint in relation to police conduct in managing protests today at Parliament House".

Police have been forced to intervene from time to time as the protesters confront one another.

One person was arrested at the protests outside Parliament House for what ACT Policing said was "a breach of the peace".

The tense moments contrasted with the official reception for Beijing's second most powerful leader, with the day starting with a ceremonial welcome, including a cannon salute, on the forecourt of Parliament House in Canberra.

Li declared that Chinese-Australian ties were "back on track after a period of twists and turns" when he arrived on the weekend, for the first visit by a Chinese premier in seven years.

Cheng Lei says she was 'blocked' at Parliament House

But another moment during the proceedings has also raised eyebrows.

Australian journalist Cheng Lei, who was freed last year after being detained in China for three years, claims she was blocked by Chinese officials during a signing ceremony during official proceedings.

A video of the signing ceremony appears to show two Chinese officials blocking her from the view of cameras broadcasting the event and refusing to move when asked.

She told Sky News she believes this was done to prevent audiences from seeing her as a symbol of defiance of the Chinese government.

"I think the worry is that my being there is a symbol of some sort, and maybe they didn't want that for the domestic audience.

"Having dealt with Chinese officialdom on these sorts of events, they are very, very control freak-ish, so they want to know everything and they want to stage-manage everything."

China-Australia relations 'on right track'

Premier Li arrived at Parliament House to meet with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and several cabinet members including Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong, Trade Minister Don Farrell and Resources Minister Madeleine King.

The prime minister's November 2023 trip to China followed by Li's current visit to Australia showed both countries attached "great importance" to their relationship, the premier said.

"This relationship is on the right track of steady improvement," he said. "Prime Minister Albanese and I have had a candid, in-depth and fruitful discussion that has reached a lot of common consensus."

Albanese said the bilateral talks were crucial for the Australia-China relationship which had been "renewed and revitalised" by the engagement.

The politicians signed four memoranda of understanding on the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement, climate change, education and research, strategic economic dialogue, and cultural cooperation.

Representatives of both nations then attended a state lunch with business and community leaders where they were served wine, wagyu beef and, most notably, Australian rock lobster - which remains subject to trade restrictions.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt noted there had been "enormous progress" in restoring trade with China in the past few years after sanctions on coal, wine and barley were lifted.

The remaining trade bans are expected to be lifted within the coming weeks.

Also on the battle agenda of the high-level talks was the case of Australian writer Yang Hengjun, who languishes ill in a Chinese jail, and tensions in the South China Sea.

> > > The call came at midnight with a veiled threat in Punjabi: Stop 'or the result will be bad' > >

> > > The long arm of the Indian state is reaching Australians with threats against members of the Indian diaspora, the amassing of political power, and never-before-reported details of a "nest of spies". > >

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As Chinese Premier Li Qiang prepares for his upcoming visit to Australia, it’s more important than ever for the Australian Government to prioritise human rights in their discussions. While recent efforts to address human rights issues in Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, and broader China, highlighted during Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit in March, are welcomed, Premier Li’s visit is a unique opportunity to push for concrete commitments and tangible improvements from the Chinese Government.

Balancing Trade and Human Rights

Communities concerned about Uyghur, Tibetan, Hong Konger, and Chinese human rights rightly fear that renewed trade and economic ties, a key agenda of this visit, might compel governments like Australia to overlook human rights issues. This concern is not unfounded. The past thirty years of the Australia-China economic relationship have often seen economic interests overshadow human rights. It’s crucial for the Australian Government to demonstrate a commitment to upholding human rights and seeking accountability as part of renewing and repairing its relationship with China.

Key Areas for Human Rights Advocacy

Let’s delve into the key areas where tangible improvements are urgently needed:

Dr. Yang Hengjun: A Voice for Freedom

The suspended death sentence handed to Australian-Chinese writer Dr. Yang Hengjun is a shocking attack on freedom of expression and a grave affront to justice. Dr. Yang, like many other Chinese dissidents, has been detained for his outspoken support of human rights, facing horrendous conditions and long prison terms. We urge the Australian Government to call on the Chinese leadership to release Dr. Yang immediately and unconditionally on humanitarian grounds, ensuring he receives urgent and appropriate medical care.

Xinjiang: Families Torn Apart

Many Uyghurs in Australia remain separated from their family members, with some having had no contact for up to seven years. The UN has highlighted the large-scale separation of young Uyghur children into Chinese state-run boarding schools, while their parents are in exile, interned, or detained.

Uyghurs continue to be subjected to forced labour, despite a damning UN report two years ago that detailed these practices, which amount to crimes against humanity.

We urge the Australian Government to:

• Demand the release of spouses, parents, and relatives of Uyghur Australian citizens who have been incarcerated on trumped-up charges or are otherwise unable to make contact.
• Raise the issue of the forced removal of Uyghur children into state-run boarding schools and call on the Chinese leadership to end this policy.
• Call on the Chinese leadership to end forced labour programs in Xinjiang.

Tibet: Erasing a Culture

The situation in Tibet is equally alarming. Multiple UN human rights bodies have expressed concern over the Chinese state-run boarding school system that has separated at least one million Tibetan children from their families and culture. This is part of a broader plan to assimilate Tibetans into Chinese society and erase Tibet’s distinct identity. Additionally, forced labour programs and massive involuntary relocations have disrupted the lives of Tibetan farmers and nomads, compelling them to abandon traditional livelihoods for manufacturing and construction work.

We urge the Australian Government to:

Address the forced removal of Tibetan children into state-run boarding schools and the forced labour of nomads and farmers, urging the Chinese leadership to end these coercive policies.

Hong Kong: Silencing Dissent

The rapid disintegration of human rights in Hong Kong is deeply troubling. Last month’s arrest of six people, including human rights activist Chow Hang-tung, for alleged sedition under Article 23 legislation, highlights the continued use of laws to silence dissent. Recently, 14 Hong Kong opposition figures, including Australian-Hong Kong dual citizen Gordon Ng, were convicted of “conspiring to subvert state power” under the National Security Law, marking a near-total purge of the political opposition.

We urge the Australian Government to:

Call on the Chinese leadership to press Hong Kong authorities for the immediate and unconditional release of all those arrested under Article 23 and the National Security Law, including Australian citizen Gordon Ng.

Falun Gong: Ongoing Persecution

The persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China continues unabated, with reports of arrests, unfair trials, and forced organ harvesting as documented by UN Special Rapporteurs and human rights experts. We urge the Australian Government to raise these issues during their meeting with Premier Li.

The Path Forward

Premier Li’s visit is a critical moment for Australia to reaffirm its commitment to human rights and hold the Chinese Government accountable. The Australian Government must ensure that economic interests do not overshadow the fundamental rights and freedoms of Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kongers, and Chinese human rights defenders.

This time the flag will be much smaller than last time so it actually gets completed, only 200 pixels wide instead of 300. The canvas this year is also 1/4 the size of last years, 500 x 500 instead of 1000 x 1000.

The template link that will show what needs to be drawn over the canvas is here. Make sure to lower template opacity by over 50% so you can see what is currently drawn.

Canvas Matrix

Canvas Community: !canvas@toast.ooo

Aussie Flag Canvas Matrix

Last Canvas Timelapse

Last Canvas end:

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People will be alerted each time their interest rate moves and when promotional offers expire under a suite of changes aimed at prodding bank customers to snag a better deal.

The federal government plans to act on a number of recommendations from two Australian Competition and Consumer Commission reports that found bank customers could earn and save more if not for barriers stopping them switching to better offers.

Under the changes, savers should eventually be notified about bonus offers that reward customers with extra interest for saving a certain sum or meeting other conditions.

They will also be sent attractive introductory offers that are used by banks to bring in new customers but are short-lived and, on expiry, savers fall to a lower rate.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, ordered the ACCC investigation into deposit products in 2023 as banks were thought to be passing cash rate hikes straight on to borrowers but rates were slower to move for savers and increases were often much smaller. Sydney housing Lack of mortgage competition to hurt customers and boost Australian banks’ profits Read more

The consumer watchdog found banks were using pricing strategies that were highly complex or took advantage of the tendency to set and forget.

The ACCC’s calls to notify customers about deposit product changes have been acted on but the government stopped short of revisiting the commission’s suggestion of banking portability.

A prominent barrier to changing banks is switching bank details, forcing consumers to reorganise automatic payments and the like.

The consumer watchdog said it was worth investigating options to make this easier.

Banks will also need to make mortgage-exiting forms easier for customers to find, under the new changes, and Treasury will consider how prompts could be used to encourage customers to switch to better deals.

Comparison websites will also have to disclose if there are ties between their product rankings and financial relationships with firms.

Detailing the banking product changes on Saturday, Chalmers said they would help savers and mortgage customers get a better deal.

“They will help create a more dynamic, diverse and resilient Australian banking sector, which is good for consumers, good for industry and good for the economy,” he said.

The Council of Financial Regulators and the ACCC are also set to review challenges faced by small and medium-size banks, Chalmers said, including the role they play in the competitiveness of the sector.

The banking changes were also informed by a second ACCC inquiry into home loan pricing released in 2020, as well as recommendations from a year-long parliamentary inquiry chaired by the Labor MP Daniel Mulino.

The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, has announced plans to ban donations to registered political parties, members of parliament and candidates. The state will provide funding to allow parties and candidates to contest elections, run campaigns and promote political ideas, according to the proposed bill.

Loans to registered political parties, MPs, groups, or candidates from anyone other than a financial institution would also be prohibited, it says.

To ensure new entrants to the political process are not disadvantaged, newly registered political parties and unendorsed candidates will be entitled to receive donations of up to $2,700, and will also be subject to a spending cap.

A person who knowingly participates in a scheme to circumvent the proposed donation laws could face a fine of up to $50,000 or up to 10 years in prison.

The bill proposes a restructure and mandatory application of the existing public funding model, including a reduction in the amount parties, MPs and candidates can spend.

Given that under the proposed scheme participants would no longer be able to fundraise, the bill proposes to increase the amount of public funding provided, and a system of partial advance payments, so funding entitlements are available to parties and candidates prior to an election campaign.

This significant reform is complex and may well be subject to legal challenge, including via the High Court.

Starting today, members of the public and other interested parties are welcome to provide feedback on the draft bill over a four-week consultation period via the YourSAy website. Quotes

Attributable to Peter Malinauskas

Since its foundation, our state has a rich tradition of leading the world in democratic reform.

In the 1850s we pioneered universal male suffrage and the Australian ballot. Half a century later, we did the same for universal female suffrage and became the first jurisdiction in the world to grant women the right to stand for Parliament.

Now, we are on the cusp of becoming a world leader in ending the nexus between money and political power.

We want money out of politics.

We know this is not easy. These reforms may well face legal challenge.

But we are determined to deliver them, with this bill to be introduced in the Parliament in the near future.

Attributable to Dan Cregan

These reforms are ambitious and, if realised, will ensure South Australia is at the forefront of protecting and improving democratic practices.

Banning political donations will not be easy. Sectional interest groups and lobbyists will fight tooth and nail to keep the current system.

No political donor should be able to buy a favourable political outcome in our state by donating to parties or candidates.

The hard truth is that public confidence in democracy is in decline. We need to take real steps to address that decline or risk falling into the extreme political disfunction which is playing out in other jurisdictions.

The hard truth is that public confidence in democracy is in decline. We need to take real steps to address that decline or risk falling into the extreme political disfunction which is playing out in other jurisdictions.

> > > PwC's tax scandal isn't over yet, with a new Senate probe demanding the firm hand over the name of staff involved in the affair. > >

I really don't want to do this again

These words appear on almost all food labels these days, but they are kind of meaningless. Take something like those flavoured waters, "ingredients: water, flavour". They taste amazing, there's definitely a bunch of 'stuff' in there, but they don't tell us what it is on the label?

I thought we used to have number codes for additives and what-not that they had to disclose so we knew what was in it. Did the food labelling laws change somehow? Or are these new additives something different which can just hide behind the word 'flavour'? Genuinely curious if anyone has some idea, there doesn't seem to be any explanations on the food standards website...

> > > "I asked him a question and next [thing] I know I'm lying flat out on the ground with my legs in the air" > >

Researchers from James Cook University were tagging marine life on the northeast coast when the 3m tiger shark they caught vomited up a dead echidna.

Nicolas Lubitz, a PhD candidate who studies marine predators, said he could only assume the shark gobbled up the echidna while it was swimming in the shallows off the island, or travelling between islands, which the animals are known to do.