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Following a spike in accidents and deaths, Queensland is putting new laws before parliament to crackdown on the use of ebikes. Faster, more powerful e-bikes — anything over 25km/h — will now be treated like motorbikes or mopeds, meaning they can only be ridden on the road and must be registered and insured. On footpaths, riders will have to slow right down to 10km/h, and a new offence will make it illegal to ride near pedestrians without proper care. There’s also a broader push behind the scenes, with plans to tighten rules on retailers, crack down on tampering, improve lithium battery disposal, and roll out education campaigns to try and get on top of the growing issue. Parents could also be held responsible, with fines able to be passed on if their child breaks the rules. Police are being given stronger powers too, including random breath testing, and the ability to seize and impound illegal devices on the spot, with repeat or serious cases potentially seeing bikes destroyed. There’s also a broader push behind the scenes, with plans to tighten rules on retailers, crack down on tampering, improve lithium battery disposal, and roll out education campaigns to try and get on top of the growing issue. E-wheelchair users will be exempted from these rules. Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg branded the suite of changes "nation-leading reforms". "We are banning under-16s from these devices because the safety of kids is paramount," he said. "We've taken the time to get this right, and our reforms strike the right balance between keeping Queenslanders safe from those who do the wrong thing, while backing the Queenslanders who do the right thing."

People look for an easy answer and don't Look or Think very Hard . What are HER Policies? She's Never been Interviewed at depth or addressed the Press Council in 30 years Murdoch Press is in Love with her. People should question why that is. One reason is she will abolish SBS and the ABC and no doubt anything else Rupee desires. Nev

I'm no fan of the backroom influence held by big mining (and esp multinational interests). However, a quick websearch offers up Australian mining revenue. In the 2022-23 financial year, Australia's mining industry generated a record $455 billion in export revenue. (Aside: just imagine the profits if we turned it into steel). Big dollars indeed. But look at the ratios. Australian mining sector contributes more than half of the country's corporate tax revenue, with the industry paying approximately $65 billion in company tax and royalties for the fiscal year 2023-24. This makes mining the largest taxpayer in Australia, At risk of oversimplifying, they collectively paid about 14% tax. I wish I had that tax rate on my pay packets!

She is in the enviable position, to paraphrase el Chumpo, she could walk down Ann street in Brissie and shoot someone and no one would care. There is so much disenchantment with the poltical establishment, that a vagabond to that establishment has got sort of Ned Kelly status. As the article says, you can't attack PHON at the moment. Well, you can, but you do so at your political peril. It's the same here with Farage and BoJo when he was in power. If it were up to the people, BoJo woudl still be PM. This larrakin like approach to politics is winning over the disenfranchised, and like a lot of people who's values/agenda are corrected by fact, they tend to ignore the fact, or interpret it in a way that confirms their bias. The rebellion is starting, I guess.

I do think these people and company's do need to pay there fair share of tax though which appears not to be happening.

So what we are saying is we need some politicians with balls to think long term about the future of Australia and not just about the next election. So yes our present system is a con. Having said that I would rather it then some of the alternatives. She kind of does pay for it indirectly. Most of these people she employs pay a lot of tax and again at least she is Australian and supports other things. More than would happen if she was an overseas company.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/24/one-nation-pauline-hanson-integrity-she-breaks-rules-ntwnfb 5 undeclared gifted flights in 6 months. If this were a member of Labor or the LNP you could hear the usual suspects frothing about the "corrupt major parties". Yep she's just an honest Aussie battler, isn't she!

I'd really like to see what this great Australian Plan is, that One Nation has for ALL Australians in ALL States. I suspect there's no plan, except to blame immigrants for every problem that arises. Pauline Hanson is a Female Donald Trump. Says what people want to hear, but has no long-term plans, indulges in "stunts" to keep her name in the media, and picks people for her party members who have zero leadership skills, they only need to support a radical right wing agenda that focuses solely on, "too many immigrants from s***hole countries". I like going through the long list of deadbeat One Nation picks for representatives, who have turned out to be criminals, total rabbits, incompetent, geriatric, or who changed sides as soon as they were elected. And none of them, were immigrants from "s***hole countries".

One Nation would be a disaster for Australia’s interests. There would be no bright future from a right wing populist party with Pauline in charge.

Yes One Nation just did OK, quite encouraging. We should urge them on to bring about a bright future for all Australians in all States.

No, we don't need massive change. Massive change is disruptive and hurts many people. Unintended consequences are greater in size and impact. Australia is a well functioning democracy. Are there things we can improve? Definitely. Are massive changes required? No.

Just the same, we need massive change. The major parties have ignored the disenfranchised for far too long and now it's catching up with them. They've also swapped Australianism for Internationalism, and now they're paying for that too.

Yeah it IS a picture. But is it silly?

The Trump comparison is not relevant here Marty. The Americans have a fairly undemocratic system where the nation elects a president, a bit like an elected king. That president then appoints his cabinet from non elected people. In their case the protest vote can deliver the federal administration where only the king/president has been elected. Now look at the case here where we have a much fairer way of electing a government. The chances of One Nation winning government and Pauline Hanson becoming prime minister is not even worth a mention it's so ludicrous. They'll never get enough seats to do that. So back to complacency. If the majors see their vote going in concerning numbers via the way of protest to One Nation or any other minor party, they are smart enough to do something about it to head it off, in other words, shake out of their complacency. Othewise we could stick to the status quo and continue to reward complacency.

Thanks Jerry. It's not a serious glitch, just a bit of a niggle for someone like me who uses multiple tabs most of the time.

If One Nation ends up with 22% of the vote, they should be entitled to 22% of the seats.

As bad as complacency is, One nation is worse. Trump is a protest vote. Look how that's going.

Hi @willedoo - Sorry - missed this post as well.. I still use floorp, but there are some sites it doesn't work great with, so I revert to firefox for those. Floorp had its fair share of niggles but the last release seemed to fix most. I haven't had that on mine that I can think of, anyway. You may also want to look here: https://github.com/Floorp-Projects/Floorp/discussions

I did neglect to mention that I have changed my London days to Thursday and Friday. Thursday morning, it was bloody cold, starting off at 4am at 2 degrees. Those heated gloves worked well, except for the index finger on the right hand.. there seems to be a cold spot there, but on testing in the comfort of my room in the pub, it seemed OK. I am gettng more confident filtering through traffic with the big lump it is, but I am still no way hear as aggressive as others on bigger bikes. But, I am also older now, so a little more mindful of the possible consequences. Plus I can;t be botehred with the insurance faff if I damage someone else's vehicle or person. I left early on Friday - 4:30pm. The sun was shining, but I had to stop by the pub to pay, as I fell asleep on first going to my room on Thursday night and didn't awake until well after closing time (no dinner either). I then navigated peak hour traffic to get on the M4 motorway, which was moving well all they way and queues. COVID has had a benefit of bringing forward hybrid working and few people like to go to the office on a Friday. Once out of the vaiable speed limit area past reading (about 30 miles from the start of the motorway), with the weather still nice and the longer evening twilight, I did most of the ride at aorund 87mph - about 140kph. The limit is 70, but I had plenty of people overtaking me, and I was mainly overtaking trucks. The police are far more reasonable in the UK; although at that speed, you are likely to get done. Unless it is dangerous, they are usually tolerant to 80mph (130kph). With one stop for dinner and the diversion to Richmond, I was home a little after 8:30, which was not bad going at all. If I had taken the car, it would have added an hour to the journey I reckon. The train to North Sheen (next stop from Richmonnd and basically same route to M4) would have taken an hour; It would have been longer to the pub and a lot longer to the motorway as one can't filter in a car... Once on the motorway though, I probably would have been doing around 80mph all the way, so it wouldn't have taken that much longer for that part of the drive.

Digging holes in the ground? Mining today is one of the most high tech activities in industry. Knowing where to dig, how to dig and doing it safely involves all sorts of expertise.

ON are certainly rocking the boat. The Liberal boat has already hit the rocks, but the Labor boat is slowly leaking as well as they are losing the blue collar vote. The chattering classes like to dismiss the rise in One Nation as being all about ignorance and racism, but that's an over simplification by simple minds. If it was all about racism, One Nation woud have been polling these numbers all along. There's more factors to the rise, and cost of living and housing is a big one pushing voters to One Nation. A lot of people see their situation going downhill under the status quo and they see One Nation as a way to shock and punish the big parties into some real action. Complacency is a big thing in politics and often the only way the big parties will look outside their bubble is if someone gives them a jolt like this. The Coalition is getting a big slap in the face, but it's no time for Labor to think they are immune from it. The only party not effected by this is the Greens. They have a niche spot in politics and a steady voter base, so not much will ever rock them.

But, it is OK to bag, but I also prefer to offer some solutions. This has previously been discussed on these forums. but a couple from memory: Ban political donations more than a de minimis amount from one controlling person/group (to make it hard to create 100 cmpanies and each of them contribute a seaparate donation to the limit). Maybe restrict it to living people rather than corporations. I would personally advocate a ban on lobbying groups and companies. If you have something to say to the government, it can be done through a public forum where everyone gets to hear it and scrutinise it. And contribute to it. If not point 2, ban parliamentarians from lobbying or representing/being emeployed by firms in any official or real capacity that involves communication - directly or indirectly - with the government. Period. No cooling off periods, etc. Aussie media regulator, ACMA, being given real teeth over both mainstream and social media, which must have independence, legally trained/accomplished people adjudicating, where they can impose real consequences/punishment for intentionally misleading the public. Those impacted can appeal through the court systems if they want. Of course, paid advertorials that are clearly labelled as such would be exempt, however, if the publisher reasonably had facts that rebuke such advertorials, then they have to state this prominently either before or after ther advertorial. A new "offence" is intrroduced of high public misconduct (there is a public misconduct charge which is applying a damp wetted to the wrist very softly). For this, the bar should be recklessness in its criminal definition( foresaw the consequences that are likely to happen, didn't want them to happen, but went ahead with the action anyway) or intention. In other words simple incompetence or even negligence do not count. So, unless the polly clearly states the likely outcome of their policy, and it results in an absurd and large cost to Australians and the benefit promised doesn't materialise, they can be held liable, with the punishment being they and their controilling interests (so, for example, not hiding assets with a partner or company or whatever) can be held finalcially responsible (i.e. having to pay what they can back). The above offence would automatically include acting on prohibited lobbying. I am sure I could think of many more things, but I bet with the above, there would be far more transparent and hopefully logical and rational decisions made in the best interests of the country as a whole.

Thank's @willedoo. That s a hell of a swing to PHON. PHON most likely picked it up from most of the swing against the Libs, but that is diosconcerting enough as one would have hoped the majority of Lib voters were in the moderate camp. The Libs are a spent force at the moment and it is a long, if at all possible way back. But, this has let someone in who is even more loony right wing, which is in itself a worry. It has to be a wake up call to the pollies that they have to start changing. I don't think anyone but the fringes is calling for out and out socialisim, but at least get the billionaires and vry wealthy who manage to avoid paying their taxes tipping in and contrinuting - they explout what is on offer - that is only fair. And then the government should move more on what is better for the majority across all spectrums. It feels lik the silent majority are feeling more and more alienated and, with the only real leverage they have, they are starting to talk. Sadly, they can only exert leverage every three years.