How selfless of her, Pauline insists this trip is a "fact-finding mission" to improve Australians' lives. Funny, because it looks remarkably like a luxury Sicilian holiday. Though, to be fair, keeping Gina's arse wiped while she brainstorms new ways to make herself even richer probably is a full-time job.

....while on holiday in Sri Lanka. Rather than shouting "aw fu*k" (which I would've before I left here for Australia 3 years ago), I shouted "oh you c*nt" before wiping the said excrement off my tshirt.

I know this won't be a big deal for many, but just wanted to ask if this means I've properly leant into Australian culture?

Have a great weekend everyone!

A juvenile southern right whale was stranded in the Peel-Harvey Estuary, south of Perth, for more than two weeks.

Onlookers have reported seeing dolphins guide the whale to the ocean's deeper water.

Yay for the dolphins!

TWU members will protest at airports across the country against tactics led by Qantas that are draining experience from our airports and leading to dangerously low standards across aviation for both workers and the travelling public.

Use of Swissport: Its use of outsourced ground handling companies with appalling records on safety like Swissport, which is receiving up to 400 safety reports a month in some ports and is being investigated by safety regulators in Brisbane and Sydney.

Qantas Freight: Its refusal to reverse fragmentation at Qantas Freight, where the use of up to 8 different companies to perform work has led to rock-bottom standards. Last week NSW health and safety reps served Qantas with 14 provisional improvement notices over safety failings by management at Qantas Freight. A labour hire Qantas Freight worker was killed last year.

Western Sydney Airport: at Australia’s newest airport, opening in just over 100 days, Qantas has chosen to outsource work to Star Aviation, a company operating on poverty-level wages and conditions.

While Qantas workers used to all be employed directly by the company, they are now scattered across 38 different subsidiaries and labour hire companies, a tactic used to dismantle pay and conditions, and which has led to a revolving door in aviation, shocking safety concerns, and a dysfunctional aviation sector for the travelling public.

A survey of over 2000 aviation workers last year revealed 48% have been injured at work, and 87% have been pressured to work unsafely.

With negotiations underway across ground handling, cabin crew, pilots, security and catering, thousands of aviation workers will soon have the potential right to take protected industrial action, with Qantas Freight workers now gearing up for action.

Workers are calling on airlines and airports to properly fund fair standards in aviation and return good jobs to the sector, after a decade of pay and conditions reaching rock bottom under Alan Joyce’s reign at Qantas

What the heck is going on ?

This is the second such major incident in the same area within a few weeks.

The previous crash has seen one driver charged.

In today’s crash, one driver is apparently missing

The proposed settlement, which remains subject to final Federal Court approval, covers approximately 32,000 current and former ALDI store and warehouse employees across Australia

Under the Class Action, ALDI has advised that it has already paid approximately $28.9 million. Under the proposed settlement methodology, the SDA estimates that approximately a further $26.3 million remains payable to affected workers.

As part of those further payments, ALDI has also agreed to pay interest on relevant amounts. Together with a separate $1.5 million contribution towards the SDA’s legal and project costs, the total value of the outcome is expected to be approximately $55 million, subject to final calculations and final Court approval.

The Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW) hit pause on the first stage after receiving a complaint about the pilot administrator procurement process.

“We wish to advise you that this procurement has been suspended,” says the DCCEEW letter, a copy of which was sent to Renew Economy.

“This suspension is required under the Government Procurement (Judicial Review) Act 2018 (Cth) while a procurement complaint is being investigated.

I went on a tour of the Daintree rainforest and learned about a behemoth battle which is brewing in North Queensland, and no one is talking about it.

A biblical battle, locally. A clash of epic proportions.

Along a few km Stretch of the Daintree River, between the Ocean and Daintree Village, scarface is the man to fear.

The 4.5m saltwater croc is the Alpha male along this section of the river. He's an estimated 80 years old and this has been his territory for decades. He gets the ladies and the pick of the feast, and he's scared off (or killed) many young challengers over the years.

Enter Moe (short for Slo-mo)(edit: possibly called Mo because he's from the Mowbray river)

For years, Moe has been the Alpha on the Mowbray river. The food, the mates, the best sandbanks. He was living the life. Moe is longer, heavier, and younger than scarface.

Then two months ago, for no apparent reason, Moe got sick of living like a king 👑.

For currently unexplainable reasons, Moe left his Mowbray paradise, swam 45km and relocated to the Daintree River.

The cool season is when crocs are relatively docile, and Moe and Scarface have been, let's say tolerating each other, for two months, only about 500m-1km apart down the river.

The warm season is when the water heats up, crocodiles get much more active and virile, and most of the mating happens.

There is no way on God's green earth these two alphas will coexist this close for an entire warm season, when the finest ladies are up for grabs.

So who will reign supreme? The old dog with home field advantage, or the young king who swam up from the south looking for a scrap?

We'll probably have to wait until about December to find out.

I don't live up here, so someone will have to let me know when these titans clash. 🐊

I’m currently mid-way between Darwin and Sydney, heading home from six weeks in northern WA.
I pulled into the town where I was saying at 2:30 and started looking for a late lunch.
Both pubs had finished service and the main street cafe was closed.
The only option was the little cafe in the tourist info centre.
I was the only person ordering and asked for a piece of pecan pie and a sausage roll.
“Can I have your name for the pie order?”
“<peterdeg>”.
She takes one step to her left, opens the case, takes a piece of pie and puts it in a box.
She then takes one step to the right, looks at me and asks “<peterdeg>?”
“Um, yes.” I mean, wtf??
The sausage roll took 10 minutes and literally was a sausage wrapped in pastry.

Photo warning: Gina Rinehart in swimmers

Photos posted to Instagram show Hanson spending time poolside at the Grand Hotel San Pietro in the resort town of Taormina, while Rinehart swims.

Context: I have posted lyre bird videos before and I make no apologies - I will continue to do so. This fellow is from my anti-farm (a regenerating ex-cattle property) in south east NSW. Winter is breeding time for lyre birds, so their newborns hatch and grow during spring and summer. The males build a ceremonial mound and try to impress females by imitating other native birds. As the mating season progresses, they do more of their own routines and less imitation, along with their stomping dance.

Some of the world’s largest tech companies offered “gifts” worth nearly $500,000 to Australian public servants, a new report has found.

The Digital Transformation Agency (DTA) quietly released its report into major ICT seller gifts and benefits to Australian Public Service (APS) employees on Friday.

The investigation was in response to revelations in mid-2024 that Salesforce had provided more than 100 gifts to National Disability Insurance Agency employees over the course of four years, during a time when it was awarded a lucrative contract that eventually grew to $135 million.