I don't disagree at all. That said, I also want to say I'm glad the ABC exists as a state-funded channel, and it's no secret that I'm very critical of the governments who have held the levers. The main reason I'm glad is because without state-funded channels, we see a more-or-less dominance of the owning class controlling the vast majority of mass media in the hands of the mega-rich and using it to pursue their financial interests and fill the remaining airtime with for-profit drivel. The ABC enables creators to create art and educational shows far far more than commercial media does, it reminds me of George Lucas talking about the filmmaking industry and artistic freedom. When the channel isn't desperate to make money, the employees have more real freedom. And like you said, the ABC is still dependent on the government allowing them to get funding, and they often kow-tow to receive it, but it's miles better than having to please a major shareholder board and major advertisers who don't want to be criticised.

As you've described, the ABC certainly has pressures which bias it against neutrality, and you've proposed some good alternatives which reduce these biases.

I'm not convinced that the ABS graph shows that productivity and earnings were closely coupled before or during the 90s. As it says in the graph title, they've set 1991 as a starting origin (setting Productivity equal to Earnings), so it doesn't imply the two were already as closely coupled as they look. They only appear so close because the graph sets 1991 as the common point to compare both axes.

To demonstrate, I've edited the graph to show what would happen if they made that same graph start from 2009. I've done this by copying the orange line up (and colouring it red) so that both lines begin at the same spot in 2009 instead of 1991. And just like the 1991 line, they appear to match each other for a few years - apart from one major dip around 2016, they align very closely for the first 10 years just like in the full 1991 graph.

But we know from your original ABS graph that the wages were already significantly diverging from productivity by 2009. So, I suspect that if we had a longer graph, then we'd learn that wages were already decoupled from productivity in the decades before 1991, but at the very least this graph doesn't imply close coupling existed in the past and shows evidence of regular uncoupling.

Maybe we should use AI to train them :D

Sure. Although like all tools, AI can only help if used properly. It's not a panacea, and it can't replace most training techniques by itself. Similarly, we can't just "use the internet" to train them or "use books" to train them.

On the other hand, I enjoy finally seeing a correct use of the word "antisemitic" by ABC News.

Out of all the countries to take high-speed rail inspiration from, I would hold off until that US line is actually operating.

Bowel cancer is now the leading cause of death in people aged 25 to 44 in Australia.

This is surprising. It wasn't even in the top 5 a couple of years ago, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (gov).

[edit: another article the day after says it's "the deadliest cancer for Australians aged 25 to 44", which I suspect may have been mistakenly transformed into "leading cause of death"]

https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/life-expectancy-deaths/deaths-in-australia/contents/leading-causes-of-death

It's great to see that more and more people are voting away from the ALP and Coalition every election. The false dichotomy rhetoric of "they're better than the other party" is just insufferable, and the US has shown us how the two-party duopoly plays out.

Investigate your candidates. Don't assume all independents and minor parties are different, many are former members of the big parties. There are plenty of resources other lovely aussies have posted in the past couple of weeks so just ask around.

I highly recommend reading Manufacturing Consent^[wiki]^. It's easy to find free online. It explains how mass media is systematically filtered by five major factors, the first being ownership, which is more and more relevant every year as media outlets consolidate under the ownership of billionaires like Murdoch, Bezos, Musk and Bloomberg, who have very different material class interests to the other 99.99999[...]% of the population.

It's as if the Liberal Party studied at the US election and forgot to look at how their citizens, and the world for that matter, are reacting afterwards. We know what an efficiency department looks like now.

Hoarding a scarce, essential resource to make money is villain shit, yes. Get a real job, Margaret.

That said, the real villains are politicians for not outlawing housing investment. Privileged opportunists will do it until it's illegal.

Most of them I want gone. From that list, I only use one or two Google/YouTube products, and am forced on a couple of the social medias only for specific event chatrooms.

You're right, it's cultural dominance and propaganda, not reliance. They benefit from it more than we do.

The majority of the world has always been in a bad mood because 90% of planet has always been poor, struggling, doesn’t have enough, live in poverty, are hungry and are generally not happy.

On one hand, there is absolutely harsh struggle around the world for the vast majority of the world.

On the other hand, it's not as if most people are never in a good mood. Australia's state broadcaster (ABC) had a show where people in small or disadvantaged groups answer anonymous questions, and when it came to Sudanese Australian refugees, a few were saying that life in Sudan was often happier despite their material struggles. IIRC a main part was that they had a collective culture, in some places outside of the cities even a communal village culture, and where good fortune was cause for celebration. Some contrasted that with our largely individualist, money-centric culture here.

All that to say, money doesn't buy happiness, poverty doesn't guarantee sadness. Money and other resources really really help, but it's far from the whole picture.

The FBI was aware of the suspect.