Skip Navigation

Nath

@ Nath @aussie.zone

127
2901
3 yr. ago

  • Is cash dead in Australia?

  • Guilty. I never use cash. I rarely even carry my wallet these days. Everything is on/via my phone. All my ID, all my payments. Now that Transperth can do phones for tagging on/off public transport, there is literally nothing in my wallet that my phone can't also do.

    Phone is simply more convenient. I've been basically cashless for about a decade, now.

  • A 'huge' trade-off: One Nation's pitch for cheaper cigarettes

  • To save anyone else the search: Chretien was the Canadian Prime Minister from 1993-2003.

  • Walter led a campaign that resulted in the shutdown of a music venue. He says whingeing is a right

  • Before she took it over, it was dormant for two years. Prior to that, it was a Greek Macedonian Club.

    It's annoying that the article doesn't provide this information.

  • Anthony Albanese's teen social media ban has a shark problem

  • Imagine being us, running a Lemmy instance. The government has directed us to take "reasonable steps" to prevent under-16's on the site (aussie.zone qualifies as social media according to the law).

    They tell us we have to take steps to stop kids getting around the blocks. But provide zero guidance on how we are supposed to do that. You can write these words, but that does not make them reality. The truth of the matter is that no matter how many steps (reasonable or not) you take to try and prevent kids from getting on your site, the fact is you won't succeed with an automated/technology-based system.

    They may as well tell us that only people with beards are allowed on the site. Or people who weigh under 100kg. Or any other useless metric that a simple video filter can beat.

  • Shoplifting crime wave?! Putting facial recognition technology everywhere will fix it | First Dog on the Moon

  • I don't even need a campaign. If my local Colesworth gets AI facial recognition, I'll happily go to the next suburb. We're spoiled in Perth - between Aldi and Spud Shed, I can pretty-much avoid Colesworth if I like. Spud Shed is a bit of a hike, but I'd do it if my choices were that or a complete lack of privacy - particularly on the kids. These stores already know too much about me with their loyalty cards, that's a deal I make to save $10 every few weeks.

    The AI stuff gives me nothing - and the kids can't really give consent to be surveiled.

  • Shoplifting crime wave?! Putting facial recognition technology everywhere will fix it | First Dog on the Moon

  • The comic is great, but this is the single thing that will work. Unless we choose in large numbers to avoid stores with facial recognition, they will proceed with this. Someone has crunched some numbers somewhere and decided that ultimately we will put up with it. If enough decide not to (and it'd only require about a 10-15% drop in sales), they will decide the technology is not worth it.

  • Walter led a campaign that resulted in the shutdown of a music venue. He says whingeing is a right

  • This is the key bit here:

    Alison Flett never imagined her live music venue would cause such conflict when it first opened in 2021.

    This isn't a case where people moved to an area that had a live music venue and then started complaining. This is an established neighbourhood and the music venue came to them. Then:

    "When the club shuts down in the early hours — or late at night, rather — you've got the antisocial aspects of people slamming car doors, people shouting, people urinating in the street, people leaving bottles, cans, et cetera ... "

    He said it was taking a toll on himself and his neighbours.

    "People wake up to mess in the morning ... People can't sleep — it stresses people out."

    I mean, fair enough. Some club opens up the street from me and every night arseholes are making a lot of noise at 2am, waking the kids up. Finally, we wake up to a trashed street - yeah, I reckon I'd complain to the council, also.

  • Mental health is not a niche issue. It is the electorate

  • That $919 average for smoking is wild. Only about a quarter of households have a smoker, so those are carrying the other three quarters. When a pack of cigarettes costs up to $50, I guess it's pretty easy to spend $919. That's only about 1.5 packets per week.

    When I was a kid, 'pack a day' was a common expression. I wonder whether that still is? Because Even if you can source them at $30/packet, that's over $10k per year. I'm seeing how the black market has sprung up.

  • Discussion Thread 📚 Sunday 16 August 2026

  • I wonder whether you could get away with making a paper called 'Old Age'? If it was a proper broadsheet with all the good stuff, I reckon it'd go well. 😀

  • Discussion Thread 📚 Sunday 16 August 2026

  • I really, really miss the donut van at Preston Markets.(He's still there, I'm not).

  • One of Australia's most senior Catholic figures convicted of sexual abuse crimes

  • Most of them got away with it (died before facing justice).Tragically, an awful lot of their victims have also died from things like suicide and overdoses etc.

    Before we get too complacent that this is a blight only within one flavour of Christianity, it's important to remember we had a whole royal commission into institutional child abuse that found this happening everywhere where adults had access to children. Parents are better today at being wary around who they leave their kids alone with.

    And these are just institutionalised instances. It is/was more prevalent that abuse would be from a family member/friend.

  • Australian Politics @aussie.zone
    Nath @aussie.zone

    Deliberately misleading party name approved for Victorian election

    www.abc.net.au /news/2026-08-08/vec-party-registration-free-palestine-avi-yemini/107009614

  • PETITION: Demand Kmart take the Anko surveillance glasses off the shelf

  • Cameras that I see as worse than the glasses already exist. Just google "spy camera" and you'll see lots of options that come in all sizes and shapes. Cameras integrated into caps you wear, cameras disguised as pens or clocks, cameras about 1cm wide that can be hidden just about anywhere in a room, others you wear around your neck as a necklace, the list is endless. Kmart sells a camera on their site that could easily be used for abusive purposes. Or it could be used to watch over and soothe a baby.

    I see no point in being riled up by one style of camera being sold at one retailer. Do I want randoms filming my kids? No. Can I stop them? Also no. Unless we make a serious cultural change to our society, it's decades too late. The simple fact is that anyone can stand in a public place like a playground and film kids. They can do it secretly with a camera embedded into an item of clothing. They can do it blatantly with a giant television camera mounted on their shoulder. This is perfectly legal - you can't stop them. All you can do is remove your kids from that public place.

  • PETITION: Demand Kmart take the Anko surveillance glasses off the shelf

  • This sounds to me like classic Technophobia. We've already normalised body cams to the point where we are outraged when law enforcement isn't recording and the kids working at Woolies are wearing them. You can buy personal body cameras also on Amazon that look like tie pins/lapels and are far more subtle than these glasses.

    It is not against the law to record someone in a public setting. If you are walking down the street, you will already be recorded by dozens of cameras. I don't see the controversy. If someone is recording you in your home against your will, they are already breaking the law.

    The silly thing is I don't actually care enough about these glasses specifically to be seen as defending them. I would prefer not being recorded everywhere I went. But that ship sailed 40 years ago. Unless we are going to make CCTV, Dashcams, bodycams, hell even phone cameras illegal, we are stuck with a world where you can already expect to be on camera pretty-much wherever you go.

  • PETITION: Demand Kmart take the Anko surveillance glasses off the shelf

  • There are 50,000 different camera glasses on Amazon, no idea how many are on Temu etc. I have no idea why Kmart is being singled out.

    These style of glasses are not going away.

  • Kmart sells out of low-cost rival to Meta camera glasses across Australia amid warnings of ‘privacy nightmare’

  • Dashcam for cyclists - at least that was the thing that made me consider getting a pair.The battery only lasts for about two hours of video recording though, so I didn't consider them very long.

  • The case for a blatantly discriminatory Australian voting system

  • I would vehemently endorse such a bill. Under the guise of 'All Australians retire at x'. I'd propose that number to be ~70 years old.

    Interestingly, our politics aren't too bad at this. Only 4/226 members in parliament and senate are over this age (they're all blokes of course). Contrast to the USA where this is a far bigger issue - over a third of their senators are over 70 and a fifth of their house members (not sure what the term for those is) are over 70.

  • The English-world is TERRIBLE at building transit. This is why.

  • I must get around to watching this video. I will say that I take exception to the thumbnail though: The Perth Metronet project finished up earlier this year, it costing $12.4 billion to roll out 72km of track.

    On the surface, that comes out at about $172 million per kilometre. But, that is only part of the story. That money also paid for the construction/renovation of 18-23 stations, 8km of tunnels under the river for the new airport line, elevation of 5.5 km of track, removal of several level crossings, and a whole program to locally manufacture trains.

    Just reducing the project to 'dollars per kilometre' would be super inaccurate for the overall result. But even then, that would be less than a quarter the implied cost of building a rail line in Australia from that thumbnail.

  • Gina Rinehart funded flights and fashion show for Pauline Hanson

  • Despite my differences with senator Hanson (and boy howdy, there are many), I will respect that what you see is what you get with her. She has one trick, and she does it openly and honestly. She hasn't tried hiding expenses, she stomps on people in her own party when they are caught out and doesn't try to defend them. I even think she was treated a bit harshly in 2003 when she was imprisoned for electoral fraud. I have never begrudged her existence, nor the rights of the whackos who have repeatedly voted for her. I see value in her as a litmus test of that end of the scale in the electorate. Yes she is racist. She, she is frankly awful. But on the other hand, those things are not against the law.

    These two have been associated with one another in the public mind for about 18 months now. There has been intense scrutiny on them since they went to the US President's Halloween party last year. They've both spoken publicly about their friendship when asked about it. As to keeping it low-key, how much do we know about the friends of any politician? They didn't raise it, but didn't shy away from it either.

    I actually worked with the Minister of Veteran Affairs 25 years ago when he was a uni student. While we not exactly close, I'd have called him a mate at that time (I haven't heard from him since I left there in 2004). So there's a little low-key disclosure for you. 🙂

  • Gina Rinehart funded flights and fashion show for Pauline Hanson

  • Controversial take, but I don't have as huge an issue with this. Senator Hanson is upfront about the gifts, it's all in the open. She's clear that Ms Rinehart is a friend and speaks to her about government policy. Gina is also pretty straight-up about her agenda and a desire to turn Australia MAGA. This influence is crystal clear. We (the public) are aware that this is happening and have the ability and opportunity to decide whether we will accept this relationship in our public figures (and vote accordingly). A straight-up transfer of money in return for senatorial votes would be corruption and a step too far. Yes, this friendship skirts that line pretty damn closely.

    I have far more issues with billionaires influencing politics inside a veil of secrecy. We all know it is happening, but we don't know for certain who those billionaires and politicians are, nor what policies they're talking about.

    I do have obvious concerns with the Gina/Pauline BFF thing, but I think the "secret mates" are a bigger problem.

  • Was Aunty mean to Gina?

  • I swear, it used to be better. When I first returned to Perth after living in Melbourne, the West Australian was a breath of fresh air. Yes, it still had its bias, but compared to the Hun and what was happening to The Age, it was actually pretty good.

    It has shifted so far right in the last decade that it is unrecognisable to where it was. It's been a slow process, with the changes amping up this year. I think that if you somehow took today's editors & writers back in time a few years and produced a 2018 paper in today's style, the whole city would be talking about the massive shift. But because the shift has been gradual, it isn't spoken of. I recognised the changes in writing style as they happened, because I'd watched it happen to The Age around 2010-2015. It was the same.

  • Australia @aussie.zone
    Nath @aussie.zone

    Was Aunty mean to Gina?

  • Australia @aussie.zone
    Nath @aussie.zone

    Tech billionaire accused of assaulting partner, cutting $66k Birkin bag with scissors

    www.abc.net.au /news/2026-06-24/gambling-billionaire-laurence-escalante-bail-varied/106836292
  • Life Support @aussie.zone
    Nath @aussie.zone

    Inside the manosphere: A world-first look at what young men actually see on TikTok

  • Perth / Western Australia @aussie.zone
    Nath @aussie.zone

    Train smashes into truck in Perth suburb of Guildford

    www.abc.net.au /news/2026-05-20/train-hits-truck-at-guildford/106703662
  • Australia @aussie.zone
    Nath @aussie.zone

    Hantavirus ship travellers headed to Perth's COVID 'white elephant'

    www.abc.net.au /news/2026-05-12/perth-quarantine-facility-to-help-hantavirus-disease-control/106667314
  • Australian News @aussie.zone
    Nath @aussie.zone

    Former US Marines pilot Dan Duggan loses bid to avoid extradition from Australia

    www.abc.net.au /news/2026-04-16/former-us-marine-pilot-dan-duggan-to-be-extradited-australia/106570508
  • PC Gaming @lemmy.ca
    Nath @aussie.zone

    It took 3 years for PlayStation to earn $300 million in PC sales

    www.gamesradar.com /platforms/playstation/it-took-3-years-for-playstation-to-earn-usd300-million-in-pc-sales-according-to-former-manager-which-makes-the-platform-less-than-half-as-lucrative-as-the-ps4-and-ps5/
  • Overseas News 🦘 @aussie.zone
    Nath @aussie.zone

    Thieves steal 12 tons of KitKat chocolate bars in Italy

    www.reuters.com /business/thieves-steal-12-tons-kitkat-chocolate-bars-europe-2026-03-28/
  • Australia @aussie.zone
    Nath @aussie.zone

    Not so express post

  • Australia @aussie.zone
    Nath @aussie.zone

    'So lucky': Burke warns failed Perth bomb attack could have killed many

    www.abc.net.au /news/2026-03-25/burke-says-luck-saved-lives-in-perth-bomb-plot/106493642
  • Perth / Western Australia @aussie.zone
    Nath @aussie.zone

    Settle down, guys. They won one game against North Melbourne

  • On the Telly @aussie.zone
    Nath @aussie.zone

    Swedish Dads: An Australian Documentary on the Benefits of Sweden's Paid Parental Leave Scheme

    vimeo.com /360756638
  • Australia @aussie.zone
    Nath @aussie.zone

    Man charged with traffic offences after child allegedly detected driving

    www.police.nsw.gov.au /news/article
  • Perth / Western Australia @aussie.zone
    Nath @aussie.zone

    Drunk obstetrician jailed for 10 years

    www.abc.net.au /news/2026-02-25/roger-cook-backs-rhys-bellinge-manslaughter-sentence/106387722
  • Perth / Western Australia @aussie.zone
    Nath @aussie.zone

    Drivers fuming after losing licences over passengers' misbehaviour

    www.abc.net.au /news/2026-02-27/seat-belt-cameras-catch-drivers-in-costly-mistake/106395672
  • Perth / Western Australia @aussie.zone
    Nath @aussie.zone

    Seaside city's leap to major AUKUS defence hub leaves locals trepidatious

    www.abc.net.au /news/2025-12-28/rockingham-locals-worried-about-impact-of-aukus-defence-hub/106153364
  • Australia @aussie.zone
    Nath @aussie.zone

    Christmas Present Inspiration Thread

  • Meta @aussie.zone
    Nath @aussie.zone

    As of December 10th, You need to be sixteen to hold an Aussie.Zone account

  • Australian News @aussie.zone
    Nath @aussie.zone

    Cloudflare apologises for outage which took down Aussie.Zone

    www.bbc.com /news/articles/c629pny4gl7o