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Purtting the intent aside, are those particular words racist? Just on the wording alone, I'd call them nationalistic as only the country was mentioned, not the person's race or religion. As an example, if an anglo saxon descent Australian person told a Pom of anglo saxon descent to piss off back to England, is that rascist even tough both parties are of the same race. Intent can differ, but the wording is the same in both cases. I always thought rascism was bias against someone because of their race, not nationality. If you are white and told two South Africans to piss off back to South Africa and one is black and one is white, is it racism in both cases, only in one case or in none?

Which is why neighbourhood batteries and a more distributed grid in general makes sense. Keep generation, storage and usage close where possible.

You have to hand it to short people..... They can't reach it themselves.

Some people don't get what a will is........ I mean, come on, it's a dead giveaway.

I am humbled to be graced by the presence of so many Grande Masters! I bow to your superior grandiosity

Maybe not only an EV issue.....

Speak for yourself. The other senator is just as much an Australian as Hanson and has a right to her opinion. While her comment was a bit bolshie, that's because she's a Greens senator and probably nothing to do with her country of origin. And if you think about her words they are 100% correct, and also stand up for the original Australians. Pauline responded in your classical racist manner and deserves to lose. Maybe she should give up HER well paid position, her overseas holidays, clothes, plane and food all paid for by a billionaire buying influence, and piss off back to Ipswich.

People who worry that Covid Vaccine might change their genetic make-up, should welcome that possibility.

So the Iran invasion achieved its purpose.

Jerry? Is that you?

What is happening in the ME will give a real Impetus to EV sales. People don't want to be hung out to dry every time someone does silly things with supply.. Nev

After the rain finally came a month or so ago, the earth burst forth with mallow weed which took over where I would have liked to have had a lawn, save for two years of drought. It had grown to shin-deep in thick patches, and I knew I had to cut it down. Unfortunately, my lawn mower hasn't been used for two years, either. I pulled it out of the shed, and put in some fuel, which had been in the can for two years as well. You knop already that teh mower would not start. So I had been thinking for a while that the mower had probably had it, and I done some looking around at the price of a new one - about $400. As a last resort, I tipped out the old fuel and oput in some freash stuff. I rejoiced when the mower fired up. I set about attacking one section of my yard and will knock over teh rest of it tomorrow. Eight bucks worth of fresh fuel save me a coulple of hundred bucks, abd gave me a bit of satisfaction for finally starting a job that was high on the To Do list.

Where there's a Will there's a bunch of squabbling relatives.

To appreciate The Goodies one had to have been exposed to English humour. The show involving pizza and hot dogs suggests to me that it was American, and we all know that American humour is not as intelligent as that of the British. The British made excellent children's programmes. Did anyone ever watch Worzel Gummage starring Jon Pertwee and Una Stubbs? Pertwee was, of course the third Dr Who.

USA has the Best Politicians Money can BUY. They then turn into Dictators you can't get rid of. .Nev

OME, give Jerry his keyboard back.

If you are invited into someones home and start to mouth of about the traditional parts of their lifestyle and mouth of about a person who didn't actually have anything to do with the stuff that upsets them, I am sure that you are within your rights to tell them to leave. Pretty sure if we were in Pakistan and started to act like that it wouldn't go down to well. My definition of racism would be that the person was told to go back there just because of their heritage.

It will be interesting to see what becomes of a high court challenge. The judge in this case said it functioned as a test case for the claims of both parties. Marty, you judge Hanson's intent on her past history and you have every reason to, but a court can't take any previous statements on other past matters into account; they must only judge on the matter at hand. If an appeal to the high court happens, they'll have to judge on whether her words I quoted in a previous post constitute racism. The words alone don't in my opinion. Pakistan is a geographic area and a soverign state, so on words alone she's telling someone to go back there. It's her intent in using those words that the courts decide on. On words alone it's no different than if you came up here and I told you to piss off back to Tasmania. You know yourself how many times Tasmanians have said they wish mainlanders would piss off back to the mainland. That's not racist, and it could be argued not necessarily Stateist, just a desire to be left alone. But on words alone, it's no different to what Hanson said.

No I'm not saying that Marty. Read my post more carefully. What I'm saying is that the words alone don't refer to race, only former nationality. Get over the Hanson thing for a minute and think about the words alone, no matter who utters them. She told the person to piss off back to the country she migrated from, no mention of the person's race or religion. Forget about Hanson and look at the example of a white Australian telling a white Kiwi to piss off back to NZ. Would those words alone constitute racism of one white person toward another? I'd consider a case like that to be nationalistic based and not race based. If Hanson had told a white South African to piss off back to South Africa, is that racist? Would she be having a go at the person's race or nationality? The point I'm making is, that the words she used are not racist but nationalistic. That's looking solely at the wording and not taking perceived intent into account. The court obviously made the decision that they thought she had racist intent in what she said. The words alone (regardless of who spoke them) don't convey that. That's what a high court challenge will have to sort out.

Money should be taken out of politics entirely. Yes there still should be free and fair elections, but I think the application of a few public service rules would do wonders for the political class. No ability to accept any gift, donation or service of any value, for a start. And integrity checks. The ability of interest groups to lobby politicians erodes democracy. Everyone knows gambling advertising should be banned completely. It's a no-brainer. So why isn't it happening?

The TOPIC is ME conflict and the debates in the Parliament are recorded. Public Service is Not elected. The most Important things for a Functioning Democracy (a) A free and fair Election Process. Checks and rules applying to any Money donated or spent, A GOOD honest Press which is Not a fully incorporated arm of the Liberal Part and NOW PHON Otherwise why not Cut out the Middlemen/women) and let Gina and Merdey run the Country directly, Nats have been all about Fracking and mining Not Farms etc as they once were. Follow the Money trail That will find out who calls the shots. Nev

Become an *Islamic* republic perhaps? Gotta watch these muslims, they'll do anything to further their cause for Allah. Mehreen Faruqi didn't think things through before she opened her gob. If she got all the things she wanted, expressed in her "school kid" statement, she'd still be living on "stolen" land ... so, would she go live somewhere else and leave the Aboriginals in peace? ... not likely, she'd probably pretend to be their saviour and advise them of the virtues of Islam. God willing.

"Go back to where you came from?" Yeah, very much racism

You're missing the point. If Hanson was offended by those comments, she could have responded strongly in many ways without the racism. That she chose tell another Australian to "piss off back to Pakistan" just shows (if anyone needed more proof) that she's just a dog-whistling racist.

And no other indigenous population wherever on the planet has no cultural reference to the Moon? Australia is creating a culture of lunar tics.

Changing the conditions for negative gearing in a small economy like Australia's would not endanger the global economic system in the way unprovoked attacks on the economy of another country have done.

I was speaking to my local Member the other day. (I vote for another Party.) We spoke of Pauline and ON. He said that ON had no practical policies, which is something that many people are coming to consider to be correct. He said that he doubted if ON's results in the next election would mirror the current polling figures. The unfortunte thing is that I don't beleive his Party nor mine have a decent set of policies that would benefit all Australians. It seems to me that we have become terribly divided in our wants. Perhaps it's because we have been infected with the 'me first, last and every otehr time' virus.

So that everyone understands the context of Pauline Hanson’s loss on appeal: On 9 September 2022, following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi posted the following statement online: “Condolences to those who knew the Queen. I cannot mourn the leader of a racist empire built on stolen lives, land and wealth of colonised peoples. We are reminded of the urgency of Treaty with First Nations, justice & reparations for British colonies & becoming a republic.” Senator Pauline Hanson responded: “Your attitude appals and disgusts me. When you immigrated to Australia you took every advantage of this country. You took citizenship, bought multiple homes, and a job in a parliament. It’s clear you’re not happy, so pack your bags and piss off back to Pakistan.” I am 100% with Pauline on this, it is one of the reasons Australians want ON.

There's a bit of aggro going on between a couple of members. Hardly the sort of thing that makes for a pleasant place to come and interact with others. The aggro does not carry any of the discussion to a suitable resolve. In fact, it diminishes respect for those creating th aggro, and respecting others should be a foundational rule for we members. Let's make it the custom here to play the ball, not the man.

I’m basically saying don’t defend yourself by attacking the other person. Stick to defending your opinion and keep personal criticism out of it. That applies to both sides. Just stating the obvious really.

And almost no coverage of the Epstein files outrage

I think that would be the least threatening possibility. It's what it might do when it's turned loose deliberately or accidetally on the interconnected systems and devices that we all use these days that would be the bigger threat. Banks and other financial institutions, public facilities like hospitals, power stations and distribution networks, the military etc., and especially if nobody knows that it's there or what it's doing.

OME was just showing solderarity

There seems to be a largely diminished coverage in the Russia Ukraine war as well..

He does know that he has British citizenship by inheritance; if asked, he would have to answer truthfully. So a trip for my son to the UK would involve him, in your opinion applying for an ETA and if that is refused then he would have to start the onerous process of applying for a UK passport, which in his case would involve all sorts of documents including my and my wife's birth certificates and more. Yes Aussie who do not hold British citizenship. I would need a British Passport to travel to England and my son would require a UK passport an NZ passport, and if he were to spend a few days in Aus would require an Aus passport as well, a total of about $700 worth. You seem to imply my gripe is a little petty or a "storm in a teacup" simply because he may be able to travel in the UK without giving away the fact that he is also a UK citizen. Whilst many people may be doing this real people are being affected. UK passport changes leave Australians with dual citizenship scrambling before border rules kick in Teenage Girl Spends 6 Weeks Stuck Abroad Due to New Passport Rule, Her Dad Says More than a million Brits risk being caught out by new passport rule launched this year – with kids stranded abroad The common theme Most of these people were already British citizens. Their mistake wasn't failing to obtain citizenship—it was assuming they could continue travelling on their other passport as they had done previously. The February 2026 changes caught many people because: they had never applied for a British passport, they didn't realise their children automatically held British citizenship, or they had travelled for years using only their Australian, American or European passport. The UK Home Office has stated that from 25 February 2026, British dual nationals generally must travel with a valid British passport (or, in limited cases, a passport containing a Certificate of Entitlement), otherwise they risk being refused boarding. Given your earlier questions about travelling on an Australian passport, these examples illustrate that the airlines are enforcing the rule before passengers even reach the UK border. Yes, I am aware of that. My gripe is not about the UK but the need for 3 passports . There simply must a better way. Sorry if you think I am it is in your words "It's mountain out of molehill stuff.." but it came as news to me and going by newspaper reports IT IS catching people out

I figure if I keep cutting they'll I think Jerry put a curse, not a cursor, on my keyboard.

Just teach them to swim first. The ones with guns will sink.

While Little donold is usung the US military to manipulate the oil futures market, the media has forgotten the Israel/Palestine battles. Palestine, which only existed for 28 years, was carved out of the Ottoman Empire by the Brits in 1920. The Ottomans had been there for 500 years but backed the wrong side in WW1. Nobody wants to see Israel returned to the Ottomans, and the Ottomans probably don’t want it back. Before that the Romans merged Judea into Syria-Palestine and as such it was owned by countless empires without a separate identity until the British mandate of Palestine. The first Arabs arrived in about the 7th century. The Jewish tribes of Israel had lived there since the Bronze Age , so about 2,700-3,500 years before them. Even if the dates are off, the Jews of Canaan and Judea were in Israel then Palestine before the Arabs. Who came first and where they came from needn’t matter. What matters is what exists now and how to fix it. Kicking the 7 million Israelis out of Israel and calling it Palestine is not a viable or moral option. Nor is driving the Palestinians into the sea.

Takes me back to my holiday in Scotland.

If the payout is only payable on your death, your kids are adults now and presumably looking after themselves, and your wife has passed away, then I can't see the point of continuing to spending 25% of your pension on this product anymore. Far better to walk away, accept the loss of a payout you will never benefit from, keep the money and spend it on yourself now while you're alive.

Manufacturing accounts for around 20% of electricity consumption. It's drop in electricity consumption, according to AI, is due to structural issues and reduction in production outputs; not efficiency gains, so that needs to be addressed - but that is outside the scope of this thread, unless you are somehow asserting the transition to renewables is inhibiting manufacturing output. Of course, one can argue that the cost of the transition has to be borne and this flows into higher input costs for manufacturers, which makes them less competitive. But, that would be an argument more that the longer term planning of our manufacturers and government was deficient as the world's largest manufacturing country, China, is going hell for leather into renewables and surely they would be having similar transition costs. Be that as it may, if we stay with relatively high fossil fuel costs or move to expensive nuclear costs, we will, by the next generation or so, have much higher input energy costs. Not to mention the increasing cost of geopolitical and civil unrest by staying with fossil fuels and further accelerating the earth heating up, drying out, and food and other resources (such as wood) becoming more and more scarce. The one saving grace on resource demand is in the western world, the birth rates are declining and in some cases, dramatically, but the rest of the world will fill that hole. Also, other environmental impacts such as ocean warming, jetstream and gulfstream disruption will have a profound impact and cost far in excess of economic costs. Algal blooms; microrganisms dying which are causing starvation up the food chain are very worrying because of the impact they will have on the ecology and life on earth - ironically which sustains human life. It looks like there will be an "I told you so" moment able to be delivered by Greta. But I digress.. The cost of not doing it is far bigger than the cost of doing it.

That is crazy!

Agree you have to differentiate yourself from the previous pack - I think Kamala Harris learned that the hard way. And I am not saying what he is saying is not welcome.. It is... But I simply pointed out there are simpler ways to bring in one of the things he wants to bring in. And it will be an actual step forward.. What has come of the royal commissions that found damning evidence of misconduct and criminality: Robodebt Veterans Affairs Banking And the plethora of others?

Wife: Have you seen the dog bowl? Husband: I didn't know he could.

He means a BUBALUS (Latin for gazelle)

Can we have some video of OME leaping like a gazelle?

Here's a literary gripe. I'm reading, and enjoying, a series of fiction books set in modern Edinburgh about the lives of people living in a small, middle class area of the city. The writing is good and make for good bedtime reading. However my gripe concerns the practice of the author to have his characters include either Latin or foreign phrases in their speches. Sometimes I know the phrase, but very often I have no idea. Of course, since the characters are Scots and the setting is Scotland, some of those unique Gaelic words sometime appear, but that is what is called "atmosphere'. What gripes me is that these phrases cause me to stumble, losing the otherwise free flow of the writing. I have to pause and wonder if my interpretation of the phrase makes sense. Frotunately, the words are printed in Bold, so I can see them coming and can decisde whether to pause at them, or ignore them and leap over them like a gazelle.

Possibly. It would depend on your intent and in what context you wish your statement to Apply. 4th Aug is designed to apply to a specific group of Individuals." Everybody Other than" is terribly Non specific and Philosophically one could ask what is the particular obvious Need? I imagine it would be a question PHON would raise, or maybe already HAS. The Purpose there would be that of a Stirrer. Nev

I was thinking more applying for new credit - such as a store card or another credit card. I have to admit, I don't know how the Aussie retail credit market works, but it wouldn't take a too bright criminal to work out the rest needed to impersonate you on an online of phone application in the UK. I find it astounding that today there are organisations that don't appear to use multi-layered encryption to avoid this sort of stuff.