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It's great to see a photo of one's Dad in a museum collection. I've got private photos of my Dad taken during his service, but I got the biggest thrill when I found a photo in the Australian War Memorial collection of my Dad in a war zone. He did serve in the Western Desert, but was wounded. That crearted a disability that made him unsuitable for infantry duty (no right index finger to pull a trigger), so he was attached to an narmy hospital where he was a warehouseman. Somebody has to receive and issue new bedpans. Dad had his own copy of the photo, but seeing it in the AWM collection with him identified by name is great.

Coincidentally, I just came across this. I will post a link but here are some highlights. https://reneweconomy.com.au/wild-attack-on-batteries-and-renewables-by-7s-spotlight-program-falls-over-at-the-first-fact-check/?fbclid=IwY2xjawRSvLRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeRENsgXVWg03njVcjEv25LrV4q7XUJEVAYcOkDfurOU4zO3LDDzae9NSaOn8_aem_LVPR3uKcuhqbLOHAX9gfnA Spotlight, the so-called flagship current affairs program on the 7 network, dedicated more than an hour on Sunday evening on a report into the supply chains feeding into the renewables and EV industries, with a particular focus on cobalt mines in the Congo, and also activities in Australia. It was amplified on Murdoch and social media. It fell over at the very first fact-check. “Every battery, every electric vehicle, every piece of so-called clean energy technology today” uses cobalt, reporter Liam Bartlett claimed at the start of the program. Wrong. Nearly every big battery installed in Australia these days uses (LFP) lithium iron phosphate chemistry, which means no cobalt, and no nickel (that’s relevant because Bartlett did a similar hit job on the nickel industry last year, using that as a platform to attack EVs and renewables). Tesla, the biggest supplier to big batteries in Australia, now uses only LFP batteries for grid scale batteries. No cobalt. The two big batteries at Liddell and Tomago being built for AGL Energy by Fluence are LFP. No cobalt. A spokesperson for Fluence said all its batteries in Australia use LFP. “We don’t use cobalt.” Finland-based Wartsila, which is building the country’s biggest grid battery at Eraring for Origin Energy, also uses only LFP for its battery projects in Australia. No cobalt. It’s a similar story with EVs. Tesla, for instance, uses only LFP chemistry for most of the variants of its best selling Model Y and the Model 3. No cobalt. It uses NMC chemistry (which does include cobalt) only in “performance” variants, which amounts to about 10 per cent of sales. Home batteries, which are now being installed at record rates in Australia, are the same. New market leader Sigenergy uses only LFP chemistry, so no cobalt, as does another market leader Sungrow, and most others. Bartlett claims to be appalled by the conditions in some cobalt mines in the Congo, and the nickel mine in Indonesia. And so he should be. So should everyone. But the inconvenient truth is that these mines have been operating for decades, and cobalt has been used widely in many industries. The mineral is essential for the iPhone that Bartlett presumably uses, for the laptop he writes his stories on, for the jet engines that flew him from Australia to Africa, and for widespread use in medicine (hip and knee replacements), the petroleum industry, the manufacture of tools, for construction, for cosmetics, and even ceramics. The use of cobalt in EV and grid batteries is relatively new, and is already moving on. Where it is used, most EV makers are at pains to point out that the mineral does not come from such mines, and they produce blockchain style tracking reports to underline their claims. But Bartlett did not seem particularly interested in balance, or inconvenient detail. His story had three major themes – he doesn’t like the Chinese, he doesn’t like renewables and EVs, and he doesn’t like federal energy and climate minister Chris Bowen. “Bowen’s fanatical approach, aided and abetted by a conga line of true believers and latte-sipping Teal supporters is now set to send the country into bankruptcy,” Bartlett wrote in an op-ed also published on 7’s website. Bartlett – was global head of TV, creative visual at oil giant Shell in London from 2013-2015

This is where you lose me, with the kind of thinking that enables a fascist regime. It's the "yes Trump is bad, BUT..." thing. It's like saying "Yes Hitler was bad, but goddam it, real Germans could get a job." Trump is actively dismantling democracy in the USA. He doesn't have a single thought for the people of the US, except how to continue deceiving them so Donald J Trump and his dynasty can profit from them. The only reason Trump ever mentions immigrants (in Minnesota, which has less than most states but has a governor he hates) is to dog-whistle his white nationalist base and sow hatred and division. We don't need a Trump or any version of him. Democracy is not supposed to be exciting. It's meant to be calm, boring and safe. We are an immigrant nation, just ask the original inhabitants. If you can show me actual statistics that show that crime rates are higher among recent immigrants than those whose ancestors moved here between 40 years to 60,000 years ago, then go ahead. (Statistics does not mean sensationalist crap from Sky News or any Murdoch rag).

Just got home from the daytime service. A large number of people of all ages attended, including kids from the three schools and the pre-school. These kids marched in the parade along the main street to the memorial, and representatives from each school laid a wreath. Seniors from the high school read the poems, At the Going Down of the Sun; The Inquisative Mind of a Child; Commemoration of the Fallen, and In Flanders Field. You know the song, I am Australian? I mentioned the Coo-ee March. We add antoerh verse: I'm a band of Coo-ee marchers, From Gil to Sydney's shore; We sailed to France Fought bravely In the muddy hell of war. I'm a digger. I'm an ANZAC I'm a proud Gilgandra son. My heart, my home, my country. I am Australian We don't have the generic war memorial in the main street with a statue of a Digger standing atop. We have a statue in the main street to commemoriate the Coo-ee March. It was sculpted by a member of one of the local families.

If anyone criticises the labour party you call it misinformation. You refuse to admit crime is out of control in Victoria. Because Daniel Andrews caused it Never mention the corruption labour have been involved in. Billions handed to crime gangs and union officials. Alboneses has been a communist party member since he was a teenager. Andrews and Alan are too. And banging on about one nation being racist is crap. They only want what's best for Australians and that means slowing the current migration levels and bringing in more stringent entry standards. We all know we need immigration just not the way the clowns are doing it at the moment. Hopefully this November some healing can start when Jacinta Andrews gets kicked out . But our electoral system needs to change to stop preferences getting unwanted people elected. I don't know anyone that voted labour yet albo got in by a landslide with prefences.

NASA just dropped the clearest view of Moon ever captured... by Artemis 2. You can even see craters in extreme detail. yeah, the moon has a colors, you can see them here. Moon 01.mp4

GON, you forgot to mention Trump has buggered up the American economy, having to pay $37B in taxpayer monies to U.S. farmers whose major soybean market he ruined. He has destroyed nearly every economic/trade agreement around. He's made enemies of a multitude of former Allies - then complains when they won't help with his war he started. He's done nothing to create "regime change" in Iran, and has almost certainly created a more hard-line regime there, who will just bide their time to strike back at the U.S. in bitter revenge. He's created greatly increased U.S. inflation, started wars when he claimed he was the greatest peacemaker in the world, has done nothing to stop the Ukraine-Russia war, and is preparing to invade Cuba. He's enriched himself massively by turning the U.S. Presidency position into a simple extension of his business dealings. He's lost tens of billions in U.S. military equipment losses, from aircraft to defence installations, all across the Middle East. He's had nearly all his tariff imposts overturned by the U.S. Supreme court. He's broken every election promise he made - such as, he "would stop the Ukraine War in one day". We have a good Australian name for people like him. "A Supreme Bullshit Artist".

Totally agree regarding Induction cooking. We installed a Bosch Induction cooktop back in 2008. Then it cost about $3,500.00 but the performance was amazing. While it had 4 cooking zones there was a power option than combined 2 of the zones together with the output in 1 zone. It would boil a litre of water from cold in 45 seconds. Control is superb and instant & the cooking surface never gets baked on spillages as it stays cool only getting hot from the transfer of heat from the bottom of the pot. We are renovating the house we purchased last year & installing a new kitchen. Cooking appliances are all AEG & the induction cooktop has a matt finish which is very scratch resistant & is wirelessly connected to the rangehood so the lights & fan are switched on & the speed managed automatically while cooking & both together cost less that the original Bosch from 2008.

It's outrageously and irresponsibly offensive to suggest anyone here Hates Australia. What's left wing views? Letting the ordinary people have a fair go? Nev

"Australians" have the strong link towards Anzac Day because of the historic and family links referred to in the previous posts. However, if we moved to, say, Canada, would we adopt their historic memorials? It's easy to understand the disassociation immigrants have without the family links to the past.

Who's the `we' in this, and where do you get the idea that people with left wing views `hate' Australia? That's the kind of stuff that Trump and his cohort say to whip up anger among their supporters. I don't believe that anyone on this forum hates Australia, no matter what their views are.

My dad served in the Dutch army as an anti-tank gunner before Germany invaded Holland. He and his crew actually derailed one of the returning German troop trains on its way back to the border after delivering troops to the Rotterdam area on the morning of the invasion. They were also involved in a number of rearguard actions before Holland capitulated. In his later years he decided that despite not being a naturalised Australian he should be entitled to walk in the Anzac parade and take part in the Dawn Service as an allied soldier even though he wasn't an Anzac, so he did. One year he was very proud to be able to march with his grand daughter who was in uniform. She is currently a captain in the Navy. At his funeral in 2016 some local RSL volunteers played the Last Post in accordance with his wishes. Many years ago I went with him on a trip back to Holland, my first time going overseas. We were in a museum in Eindhoven one day and there was a photo among the exhibits of a wrecked locomotive and carriages lying on their sides. He pointed to it and said; "I did that".

If you add up all of the countries that contribute less than 2% it comes to around 35%. The amount of tax I pay is minuscule by itself, so perhaps I shouldn't have to pay it.

I watched a video from Spanian, the Sydney chap who spent a time in jail and now travels and eats out recording his travels. in Paris he had a guide who had lived in Sydney who was from France. She took him through the city. There were many parts where the Parisians are scared to go, at least alone and female due to the large number of male immigrants living in tent cities under the bridges and on the foot paths. Spanian is a scary enough looking dude and many of them wanted to front up to him just for being there. that type of migration is not beneficial to society. when I was younger I remember everyone talking about the Greeks and Italians that came to Australia. They worked hard, opened shops, built houses and became the new Australians I know there are other groups that have done similar. Without this type of input we would be pretty boring. All the new foods and culture brought here has been beneficial to all. gangs of youths wandering the streets with machetes and committing crime are not welcome. Some of these groups are children of people who escaped pretty bad situations in their home countries, but the youth seem to not appreciate the fortune of living in a good country, perhaps dreaming of being gangsters from too many poor influences. maybe sending these ones back to where they (or their parents) are from for punishment might be the answer, then they may appreciate what they had.

You are a very Patient person Octave and put a lot of effort into correcting erroneous figures and statements, There's a hell of a lot of deliberate Misinformation out there so we ALL should put a more critical eye on stuff from dubious sources for Nefarious Reasons . You have consistently done this for a Long time and I thank you greatly for your efforts. Nev

The best and cheapest reactor is 93 Million miles away.. Nev

I think it is crucially important that, whatever our views are, we try hard to present information that is accurate. The problem with a meme is that it can say anything, true, partially true or false, and this somehow becomes fact. Incorrect reporting of ABS data fuelling false claims Australia has a mass migration problem The report’s authors say that public commentators, activists and some media outlets are incorrectly using Permanent and Long-Term (PLT) movement data, which is collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), to claim Australia has a ‘migration problem’ and distort public understanding. This is despite repeated, clear comments from the ABS that PLT does not measure migration but instead records people coming in and out of Australia, and includes tourists, temporary visa holders, returning residents and repeated short absences. ANU Professor Alan Gamlen explains that net overseas migration (NOM) — the number of migrants arriving in Australia minus the number of migrants departing Australia — is in fact falling sharply and has been since June 2023. Approximately 838 people were added to Australia's population each day through net migration during the 2024–25 financial year [5.18, 5.21]. This daily figure is derived from Net Overseas Migration (NOM), which measures the number of people arriving in Australia minus those departing [5.27, 5.33]. It is the most accurate official measure for population growth, as it only counts individuals who stay in the country for at least 12 out of 16 months [5.27, 5.33]. Recent Migration Statistics (Daily Breakdown) Net Overseas Migration (NOM): In the 2024–25 financial year, NOM was 306,000, averaging roughly 838 people per day [5.18, 5.21]. This was a decrease from the record high of 538,000 (approx. 1,474 per day) seen in 2022–23 [5.21]. Gross Migrant Arrivals: About 1,556 people arrived daily (568,000 annually) in 2024–25 [5.18, 5.21]. However, many of these arrivals were offset by the roughly 720 people who departed daily during the same period [5.18, 5.21]. Permanent vs. Temporary: Of the daily arrivals, only about 252 people per day (92,000 annually) arrived on permanent visas, while the majority were on temporary visas, such as international students [5.3]. Distinguishing Different Data Measures Reports often cite different numbers depending on the metric used: Official NOM (Population Growth): Currently averages around 838–933 per day based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) [5.27, 5.33]. Net Permanent and Long-term (NPLT) Arrivals: This is a "raw" measure of border crossings often used as an early indicator [5.13, 5.32]. It is typically higher (sometimes cited as 1,160 to over 3,400 per day in specific record months like February) but can be misleading because it may count the same person multiple times if they travel frequently [5.1, 5.2, 5.11, 5.33].

James Valentine passed away on 22 April 2026). He was an Australian musician, and radio and television presenter. As a saxophonist he was a member of Jo Jo Zep (1982), Models (1984–87), and Absent Friends (1989–90). Valentine was treated for an oesophageal cancer in March 2024 and was alerted to a tumour in his omentum in June 2025. He died in on 22 April 2026 using voluntary assisted dying.

And just like a mafia boss, he should be behind bars

l reckon, but so how ironic is it that the rest of the world respecting the US again was one of his biggest things campaigning. Yet instead he's made a laughing stock out of himself , destroyed just about any international relations they had and they're leaving him in dust .

The moon over the Persian Gulf (Strait of Hormuz) and the International Space Station. Moon 02.mp4

What do you mean, "support one nation" - you've proudly told us many times that you don't vote!

The reason why Trump is into Iran, is because we as Aussies, fail to grasp just how important Israel and the Jews are, in the American Christian Fundamentalist psyche. Israel MUST be supported at every turn, according to the majority of God-fearing Americans (and there's a lot of them, and a lot in positions of great power). The Jews are Gods Chosen people in their view, and Fundamentalist Americans believe they alone have the greatest God-given power in the whole World, to ensure that the Chosen people survive the Great Evil of the End Days - and that great Evil is Iran, and the Islamic Empires. So every attack on Israel is an attack on every American Christian Fundamentalist. So when Netanyahu says he's under attack and needs to beat back the Evil Empire, the American can only reply with, "how much help do you need, and we'll provide it for as long as you want". Netanyahu knows full well the great benefit of having both a huge Jewish influence in America, backed by Christian Fundamentalists. Trump can only see huge Trump Inc gains in resorts and hotels in any of the "conquered" areas - so he's happy to go along with Netanyahu's aims. And Bibi's aim is to devastate anyone, or any organisation, or any country that is Islamic, and threatening Israel. Remember, Bibi's greatly loved brother was killed by Islamic terrorists at Entebbe, and he harbours a bigger and longer lifetime grudge against Islamics, than the grudge that GON harbours against politicians that favour conscription. Trump is an opportunist, constantly seeking adulation and personal glory and wealth gains, and anything that helps those agendas can only be good, in his feeble mind. Accordingly, he's happy to continue to support Netanyahu's adventures into killing multitudes of "nasty" Islamics, because Trump knows that's an agenda that's got a huge level of support in America - and any "wins" over nasty Islamic terrorists (who took a couple of hundred innocent Americans hostage, and who also tortured them in 1980-82, don't forget), is a huge win for Donald. But now, the American adventure into Eye-Ran is looking a bit messy - and besides, Donny just got told his military have just expended around 11,300 VERY expensive missiles, rockets and other hi-tech armaments - and that Damned Strait is STILL blockaded! - and he's also been told, it will now take about THREE YEARS to produce another 12,000 of those very expensive missiles and rockets, just to make up their basic ammo requirements - and American arms manufactures are RELIANT on that Straits being OPEN! - because American companies are now having problems acquiring the BASICS of many arms manufacturing materials - because quite a number of those basic supply-chain materials HAVE to come through those Straits! "Here is how materials passing through the Strait impact American manufacturing: Helium for Semiconductors: Qatar, which exports through the Strait, supplies nearly one-third of the world's helium. This is crucial for cooling in semiconductor wafer manufacturing, affecting the production of computers, vehicles, and electronics. Petrochemical Inputs: The Gulf region is a hub for petrochemicals, supplying a significant share of raw materials used in plastics, polymers, and single-use packaging. Disruptions affect production and increase costs for manufacturers in these sectors. Sulfur and Fertilizer: Nearly half of all global seaborne sulfur trade passes through the Strait. Sulfur is essential for producing sulfuric acid, which is used in processing critical minerals like copper and cobalt (for batteries and jet engines). Aluminum and Steel: The Middle East accounts for a significant portion of primary aluminum production, with Gulf smelters supplying material for construction, transport, and renewable energy industries. Energy Prices: About 20% of global oil and LNG flows through the Strait. A closure causes a dramatic surge in energy prices, impacting the cost of manufacturing and transporting goods in the U.S." So....... right about now, Donny is in a BIG bind! That AWE and SHOCK attack on Iran ain't working! Those GODDAM Islamic terrorists are still beavering away, and still controlling important things like the Straits!! I reckon Donny must be looking for a quick and easy way out, and expecting some of his LOYAL associates to come up with the ANSWER! But it ain't forthcoming, and things are getting to be a little too wild for him!! This being a World Hero ain't the easy ride, he thought it would be!!

It's not so much "immigration", but "mass immigration" created by the conjoined major parties. They ignored public opinion and went ahead with it anyway. Immigration was no longer included in the democratic process, and still isn't. You can have your say, but it inevitably falls on deaf ears. Things might be changing though, with the high cost of living and shortage of housing, the pig-headed major party politicians can't help but hear rumblings from nearly every sector of the broader community. Mass immigration drove me to support One Nation, that's how it affected me. I will not support or vote for parties who find it convenient to gang up against the Public for selfish reasons. They promise sweeteners at election time, but the issue of immigration is completely off the table. As the major parties lose their influence over the general public, as is happening now, we'll get a chance to gain power over them and tell them what we want, not what they want all the time. Mass immigration is not doing what it is intended to do, making us stronger, no, it is making us weaker in every respect you can think of. Why do we have a trillion dollar debt? Why do we have so much drug crime? Why is the nation split into 200 different groups with 200 different flags? Why did we have an anti Semitic "Bondi", and blocked streets full of River to the Sea people? We shouldn't go around with blinkers on. Take them off and look around.

Thanks to my parents I'm a post war immigrant from Holland so the impact on me personally has been quite significant. Likewise, I think our family's impact on Australia has been quite significant, but that's just my opinion.

Rooftop solar isn’t the problem here—the constraints you’re pointing to are a sign the grid hasn’t caught up yet. The system we’re using was built for one-way power flow from large generators, not for distributed generation like rooftop solar. So when you see oversupply or curtailment in places like South Australia, that’s not solar “breaking” the grid—it’s the network hitting its limits in moving and using cheap energy. We’ve seen this before in other sectors: when better technology comes along, you don’t hold it back to suit old infrastructure—you upgrade the system. That’s exactly what needs to happen here with transmission, storage, and smarter demand. Yes, we need enough capacity for low-renewable periods, and yes, storage is critical—but that’s part of the transition. Excess daytime generation isn’t a flaw, it’s an opportunity to shift cheap energy into the evening peak. Even Australian Energy Market Operator is clear on this: the solution is more transmission, more storage, and better integration—not less rooftop solar. So those constraint charts don’t show solar causing instability—they show where investment is needed to modernise the grid. You don’t solve a modern energy system with 20th-century infrastructure—you upgrade the infrastructure.

In a week, it will be 61 years since I moved here ( Melbourne) for a Flying Job . Nev

The problem the Democrats have is that they aren't organised and don't have an obvious plan for what they want, apart from getting rid of Trump's mob. They need to work out their version of a Project 2025 type manifesto that makes sense for the country and that they can sell to the public before the 2028 elections. I think Project 2025 was a disaster for democracy in the USA, but it unfortunately showed what can be done if you get organised.

Pity the Democrats, whether you like them or not. They are going to be stuck with the cost of repairing all the damage the Republicans have done, as trying to restore sone semblance of respect for the country and the rest of the world. And there will be some expectation for them to contribute to rebuilding some of the infrastructure destroyed in Gaza and Iran by Trumps indiscriminate bombing.

The fact that I like my son's Chinese partner does not mean I hate Australia. I judge people by their character and their deeds, not by where they were born.

Its the uncontrolled immigration. Albo is importing thousands of new voters that hate our way of life as much as he and his leftie mates.

He Behaves just like one. He only deals when he has a gun to your Head. IF he was a car Headlight bulb, He'd be about 5 watts. Definitely NOT Forman Material.. Nev

What Trump meant by respect was not admiration, but more like the `respect' a Mafia mob boss wants.

He rubs former allies Noses in the Cat$$#!t and expects us to follow him into stupid situations Like we have done blindly before without Questioning it. Even Americans are sick of Foreign Wars that Never end well. . Nev

Cleaning up the mess he’s created will be a major headache for whoever comes after him. He has knocked the US off its perch in terms of how the rest of the world sees it now, and it will never fully recover. Not much of a legacy to brag about. The reason he’s erecting so many monuments to himself is that he knows nobody else will.

He isn't even good at golf. There have been numerous videos posted of his caddies shifting balls to more favourable positions & prior to his foray in to politics was a poor investor as well having been bankrupted 6 times. This time of course he has posted sycophantic Yes men & women to all the important and influential roles, dismantled many of the departments that provide checks and balances and breached the constitution and rules more times than you can count and the Senate & Congress have become paralysed. He thought he had control over the supreme court having appointed sympathetic judges but obviously some of these actually have a conscience. His tariffs were deemed illegal & the Epstein files got released though missing all the important stuff that would implicate him, his ICE thugs have been called to account after murdering 2 protesters in Minnesota so he was getting into pretty hot water. A diversion was required. What better diversion than to start a war. It is all beginning to unravel now & he is becoming more erratic and lashing out via his social media platform. Then picking a fight with the Pope was the last straw. There are a lot of loyal catholics in the US so how he is going to survive this one is hard to say. Only his appointees & the MAGA nutters seem to be supporting him right now. Most of his media supporters from Fox News and right wing influencers have railed against him. He was called insane just this month by Marjorie Taylor Greene, former Georgian congress woman initially one of his staunchest allies. Not only that but the protests against him in the US have grown to massive proportions with over 3200 events in all 50 states in late March estimated at more than 8 million participants. As well he has virtually no friends left in Europe & the rest of the World except Israel, Russia & North Korea. I hope we are witnessing his downfall and that it won't be too long before the world can sigh a collective relief.

Ain't that about it. The morons been up all night on his SM ranting and raving like some mad bloody lunatic. He did 150 posts the other night, 2-4am, 300 a few wks before. Ranting, bragging and hanging shyt on every bugger. What sort of a moron US president does this shyt. Let alone an 80yr old. No wonder he's half mad how could an 80yr old do that job plus stay up all night ranting on his SM.

Critics say Donald Trump has become the first American president to unite people across the U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Middle East --- against him,” — a claim reflecting strong global reactions and political polarization. Disclaimer: This post is for informational and discussion purposes only. It reflects reported opinions and may require further verification and context.

We haven't got a lot to Winge about compared to Many others. Nev

Trump is still better than Johnson and Nixon, they killed off 56,000 young Americans for no good reason, no good reason at all. Trump closed the Southern Border, cleaned up Biden's illegal immigrant mess, and what a mess it was. He then started clamping down on illicit drug importation, not fooling round either. Now he's letting Islamists know who's boss. Trump warned them some time ago, don't mess with the United States, Christianity nor Western societies.

What Gina wants

In the first Trump administration he lied over 35,000 times according to the Washington Post. Now that publication has been taken over By Amazon Billionaire Jeff Bezos it has become far less critical. There are now multiple organisations reporting and debunking his lies. In one 69 minute interview in 2024 he lied over 150 times.

Whilst some cobalt is mined under poor conditions, my understanding is that most is not. The other thing is that batteries are increasingly moving away from cobalt. LFP (lithium iron phosphate) uses no cobalt at all. I think it is entirely appropriate to give a sh1t about the percentage of cobalt that is mined by dubious means; however, it is often used is some sort of argument against renewables and EVs. Does anyone say oil refining is evil because it uses cobalt as a catalyst? About 20% of cobalt comes from artisanal mines with poor conditions. Some uses of cobalt Batteries (EVs, phones, home storage) Superalloys (jet engines, turbines) Magnets (motors, wind turbines) Catalysts (oil refining, chemicals) Pigments (cobalt blue in glass/ceramics) Medical uses (cancer treatment, sterilisation) Tool steels and industrial uses

I don’t see people with rooftop solar as part of the problem—I see generating your own clean electricity as a positive. If we zoom out a bit, the real issue looks different. The electricity grid we use today was largely designed and built from the 1950s through to the 1990s. It was built as a one-way system: electricity flowed from large, centralised generators—coal, gas, and hydro—out to consumers. That made perfect sense at the time, because generation technology dictated that structure. But generation technology has changed. We now have distributed energy—rooftop solar being the most obvious example—where electricity is produced at the edges of the grid, not just at the centre. I think this is where we differ. You seem to be saying (correct me if I’m wrong) that generation methods should be limited by what the existing grid can handle. I’d argue the opposite: the purpose of the grid is to distribute electricity as efficiently as possible, and that means adapting it to modern forms of generation, not restricting those forms to suit legacy infrastructure. A useful comparison is telecommunications. In the 1990s, the copper phone network was sufficient for voice calls. Then the internet arrived, and we initially squeezed it through that same copper using dial-up. As technology advanced, the limitations became obvious. We didn’t respond by saying “we must limit internet use because the network can’t cope.” We upgraded the network—eventually rolling out systems like the National Broadband Network. Electricity is no different. Rooftop solar isn’t a flaw in the system—it’s a signal that the system needs to modernise. The system was built for one-way, centralised generation. Now we’ve got distributed generation changing demand patterns. That’s an engineering and market design problem, not a reason to limit a cheaper, cleaner energy source.

There are Australians and there are immigrants. Not the same. We hope the immigrants become Australians and in the past they did. But many of the recent ones, last 20-30 years, carry such huge prejudices that they want to remain what they were and to exploit the opportunity created by the Australians.

I've worked wth a lot of traditional owners over the years. They vary a lot depending on the location of the traditional land. In areas where their ancestors were relocated, generally very few if any were living on traditional lands. All were mixed race and a lot born and bred in the cities. They used to come out to their traditional land to work with us as cultural heritage monitors. Very few had any experience or knowledge of it but they were put through training induction courses to teach them what was what. At times I sensed a bit of embarrassment on their part, particularly the city people who had to learn some of the most basic things like how to boil a billy. They were all generally good people but that sense of disconnect to their traditional land weighed heavy on them. On the other side of the coin, we sometimes worked with traditional full blood people who had never left their land. Some could barely speak English, but those that you could converse with were very knowledgeable about their country and the ways of their part of the world. I must admit, when I first worked with full blood traditional people in the early 80's, I got a bit of a surprise to see young men with big thick tribal cicatrices on their bodies. I thought at that stage in history it might have been a dying practice and only found on the older men, but not so. Tribal customs are still solid in some of those areas.

Did you not see the bit in the video - and these stats apply to Australia too - that immigrants are statistically more law abiding, more likely to start small businesses that employ locals, and do the jobs that the locals don't want to?

They'd never do that.' For one, that could show be some sort of initiative, courage, investment and foresight from our Gov. But 2, it'd be helping our people . Couldn't have any of that stuff. PS, use to ran my old jackeroo on all sorts of cooking oils, even cleaned sump oils- prob not great that one l know. But man, some of the stuff l put in that poor thing, never complained once. Don't think we'd wanna try it with a modern diesel though , well yours maybe but not mine 😅 They'd like Canola ok though l'd imagine.

This is very chilling: