zero_gravitas

Yeah, it's a bit overblown, but...

the bloke who is in the highest position you can possibly be in can’t buy a nice place to live?

He's not buying it to live in because an MP has to live in their electorate. So unless he's retiring - and he says he's not - it's either an investment or a holiday house.

But the reason it's news isn't because some guy bought a nice spare house. It's because, as you've identified, he's the guy in the top job, who is currently doing fuck all to address the housing crisis.

Crisafulli said he would also aim to change the full preferential voting system, which he labelled “corrupt”, back to optional preferential voting.

Under the current system, it is compulsory for voters to number all boxes on the ballot paper in order of their preference or their vote is not counted.

“Preferences should not be a thing in Queensland elections, and it won’t be if government changes,” he said.

???

I was sacrificing my life for it and I realized nothing would change but I was hurting myself.

Yeah, part of acknowledging that it will take a long time is making sure your efforts are sustainable. Working as part of an organisation - even a small one - lets you share the work around and take breaks.

If you sign up for the APAN newsletter they'll let you know when there's campaigns on where you can take action. They have a list of stuff you can do here: https://apan.org.au/take-action/

The BDS Australia site also has targeted actions you can take: https://bdsaustralia.net.au/

There's nothing like local organising, though, if you can get involved that way. While regional organisations are going to be smaller, I think they can have an outsize impact. The difference between there being nothing going on in your area and something is huge.

Honestly, the neoliberal propaganda is good, and it has convinced a lot of people that they can only act as individuals, and that you need to get instant results. Don't fall for it. We're going to have to organise together, over a long period of time.

There's groups all over the country organising in their own local area. This page has a sizeable list of them: https://wevoteforpalestine.net/solidarity/

Even if there's not an established group in you area, there are decent people everywhere. Create a social media account for '[PLACE] for Palestine' and share it around in local social media groups.

Even if you can't find anyone, get on down outside your local MP's office with a sign.

You might also be able to contribute remotely. Either volunteering to contribute your time and skills to one of these groups, or even monetarily to APAN (apan.org.au).

I'm thinking they mean in protest, e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jun/22/teenage-boys-wear-skirts-to-school-protest-no-shorts-uniform-policy

The initial Israeli evacuation area was within 2 kilometres of the border with Lebanon. There seem to have been some expansion of evacuations since, but I believe it's still only within a few kilometers of the border. Estimates in March were that about 60,000 Israeli citizens remain evacuated (source: AP).

The IDF camp in this article is around 55 kilometres from the Lebanese border, and about 30 kilometres south of Haifa (a city which is not evacuated) (source: ABC News (AU)).

Incredible that they are still doing this 🤡🤡🤡

You mean huntsman?

BBB 💙🖤💙🖤

At a press conference later that day, Minns said “crime doesn’t turn off because a protest is taking place in Sydney”.

“We still have to have police to investigate serious crime in NSW, that’s proven to be incredibly difficult if our resources are tied up policing marches and protests,” he said. [emph. added]

Minns is so obviously talking out of his arse there.

[Police Association of NSW president Kevin Mor(t)on] said protests were treated as a user-pays event in terms of police staffing, but the government picked up the bill. He said he would support legislative changes to make organisers cover the cost.

“We would support any change that saw it entrenched, that any sort of protest would be a user-pay,” he said.

Get fucked.

Non-AMP URL: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-10-11/platforms-not-parents-to-enforce-social-media-ban/104459876

Yeah, for most politicians it's just them towing the party line of toadying to the U.S. and weapons manufacturers (or freelance toadying to them), but Minns does seem to have an actual ideological pro-Israel position.

Most famously he lit up the Sydney Opera House in Israeli colours, but here's an article reporting on his speech at a Sydney event in May, for Israel's 76th 'Independence Day' (i.e. celebration of the Nakba): https://web.archive.org/web/20241008230705/https://www.australianjewishnews.com/premiers-praise-for-israel-2/