#auspol

[batshit-auspol]

So today the Lord Mayor of Melbourne made the ill judged decision to use AI to generate some artists impressions of the new parks he plans to build

Downside being he didn't notice the dead body the AI decided to chuck in there

Just another day in Australian politics

[nando161mando]

Greta Thunberg is protesting for Palestine again despite being recently arrested for doing so. Keep pushing!

[jenovacomplete]

couldn't fit it into the main post but shoutout to channel 10's response to the whole crowdstrike debacle, lmao

[grahamkennedy]

“Australia Day” is almost over and I haven’t even seen the photo of Burnum Burnum planting the Aboriginal flag on the cliffs of Dover and claiming Britain for the Indigenous people of Australia on my dash yet

[areawest]

ok I’m trying to see something here

[malo-mart]

Jim Everett-puralia Meenamatta refusing to show in court stating he doesn't recognise any Australian court.....iconic

[nyancrimew]

very great coverage of stalkerware use by government workers in australia, im very happy to have worked with crikey to make this reporting possible!

[batshit-auspol]

Please enjoy the infectious laughter of the Australian senate struggling to keep its composure while grilling a man about bee semen

[nando161mando]

Activists hold a protest outside the BBC headquarters demanding freedom and justice for the Palestinian people, who are facing a genocide by Israeli occupation.

[post-futurism]

As a queer person online who is not from the dominant cultural powerhouse in the world, the most common phrase I see is "know your queer history". I was always annoyed by this mantra not because I didn't want to take the time to understand the evolution of queerness through time but because that statement was always silently referring to North American queer history.

Australians. We now have an incredible new LGBTIQA+ documentary about queerness in Australia's colonial and Aboriginal history and it's written by gay comedians. Wins all around. If you want to learn about YOUR queer history, the three part documentary Queerstralia is now showing on ABC iView. Go go go!

[the-lady-maddy]

[asynca]

Are you Australian? Are you worried about Australia's zero-consequence attitude towards Israel's treatment of Palestinians? Sign this officially registered petition which calls for Australia to cut diplomatic ties with Israel specifically over their treatment of Palestinians.

[jenovacomplete]

a failed update from billion-dollar cybersecurity firm crowdstrike has crashed windows machines worldwide today (july 19th 2024), leaving everything from airport terminals to checkout machines to delivery apps to banks stuck with a blue screen of death. here's a screenshot from downdetector (au) to illustrate:

the issue appears to be with crowdstrike falcon, a form of antivirus software widely used in the corporate world -- with emphasis on the world. there have been reports from the us, uk, australia, germany, india, france, japan and more. places affected include (but are not limited to) supermarkets, banks, basically every airline, public transport networks, major broadcasters, emergency services, corporate offices, healthcare providers and stock exchanges.

(woolies pic via archiestaines9 on twitter; s3pirion; akothari. yes that is masahiro sakurai of smash bros fame)

emergency service lines are currently experiencing problems within the american states of alaska, arizona, indiana, minnesota, new hampshire and ohio. similar problems likely plague other areas of the world, they just haven't been reported on yet. australian emergency services are operating, and critical infrastructure remains stable. be sure to check in with the local news stations still online for more updates.

welcome to y2k............................. 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[grahamkennedy]

A police officer shoots his ex boyfriend and partner with his police issued gun and the grieving queer community BEGS for them not to march in pride because we literally just lost two of our own, and there's absolutely no sympathy from the cops? I'm not surprised, but I'm disgusted and appalled. ACAB includes queer cops too.

[justmaghookit]

To protect their identities I will not be posting images of the victims.

Yesterday a 45 year old white man took it upon himself to do a "citizens arrest" wherein he physically restrained three blak kids, binding their wrists together with zip ties and then binding them to each other. The children were aged 6, 7 and 8. They had gone swimming in the pool of a vacant property which is currently for sale, you know, regular kid stuff.

The perpetrator is not the owner of the property, allegedly he is a tradesman who was called to work on the air conditioning in the property and took great personal issue with three kids taking a cheeky swim on a blistering summers day. The man then called the police to report trespassing.

You know you've fucked up when so called australia's famously racist cops rock up on the scene and go "what the fuck mate." even the WA police commissioner was able to find a shred of empathy in his cold dead heart to call the scene "disturbing"

The children were attended by an ambulance and there has been no reports of injuries, though I suspect they're deeply traumatized by the experience, if the images of them sobbing are anything to go by.

The man has been arrested and is facing three counts of aggravated assault.

As I was making sure I had my information correct writing this post I saw a lot of white folks on twitter asking where the parents were, how they wouldn't let their kids do this, how its still trespassing blah blah blah, regular entitled white racist nonsense.

I was once a cheeky kid myself, and more than once I hopped a fence to go swimming in the neighbours pool while they weren't home alongside my siblings, but I'm white, so I'm allowed the luxury of kids will be kids. These were just children, innocent little bubs who just wanted to cool down in the suffocating heat. They were punished for the crime of daring to be children while blak.

It just goes to show just how deeply racism against indigenous people is still rooted in our society.

[ritavonbees]

omelas but the machine that transmutes the child's suffering into everyone else's utopia is fake actually. there is no relationship between the child in the torture room and the smooth functioning of omelan society, but everyone believes there is because politicians and economists have always said so. everyone congratulates themselves for being serious utilitarian adults who have to make compromises and trade offs. of course omelas is the greatest place to live, look what we've done to achieve it. do you think we'd torture a child if we didn't have to? we make hard choices here. that's how we know they're the right choices, because they're hard. nobody would believe in a utopia without a downside. oh, you have some ideas about the governance of omelas? are you prepared to stain your hands by helping us put the child in the room? no? why should we take you seriously, then? you're obviously a naive idealist who isn't prepared to make hard choices.

anyway here in Australia we are still having an agonisingly protracted argument about whether ten years old is the appropriate age of criminal responsibility above which kids can be put in jail so this is not actually a hypothetical