At a busy inner-city Canberra polling booth, a man confronted the incumbent finance minister with accusations of genocide.

Labor ACT senate candidate Katy Gallagher was leaving the Lyneham Public School polling booth when she was approached by James Godfrey, spokesperson for pro-Palestinian group Freedom Flotilla Coalition.

"You're a minister in this government and you're doing nothing," Mr Godfrey yells at Senator Gallagher.

"Palestinians in Gaza are being starved at the moment.

"Sixty days plus of no food, no water, no medicines and no fuel and your government is complicit in this genocide."

Pro-Palestinian protester confronts Labor Senator Katy Gallagher

Mr Godfrey says a Freedom Flotilla ship carrying aid bound for Gaza was recently attacked by drones.

"Our ship's been attacked in international waters off the east coast of Malta," he tells reporters afterward.

"There's been fires on board, and we're trying to transport humanitarian aid to Gaza and the Australian government won't speak out against it."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-02/freedom-flotilla-group-says-ship-struck-off-malta/105245778

-- https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-03/federal-election-2025-live-anthony-albanese-peter-dutton/105245936#live-blog-post-176075

Related information/news:

• https://freedomflotilla.org/2025/05/02/condemnations-and-call-for-investigation-from-experts-following-the-attack-on-the-freedom-flotilla/
• https://declassifiedaus.org/2025/04/26/confirmed-australian-weapons-sold-to-israel/

..And you can imagine the job discrimination as an adult if you don't drive.

Australian Senate, last sitting of the year. No idea when the Social Media Ban debate is kicking off.

If anyone's keen, feel free to give a live run-down of anything interesting in this thread.

(sorry about all the edits, just trying to get a decent thumbnail: )

Of course, the real story here is how the elderly (and everyone else) are fucked over by car dependency and its associated suburban sprawl, shit public transport, and unwalkable neighbourhoods.

The government is being pretty coy about the details, so most of the article is necessarily conjecture.

Selected excerpts from the article:

The definition of a social media service, as per the Online Safety Act

An electronic service that satisfies the following conditions:

1. The sole or primary purpose of the service is to enable online social interaction between two or more end users;
2. The service allows end users to link to, or interact with, some or all of the other end users;
3. The service allows end users to post material on the service.

Under the proposed changes, it will be the responsibility of social media companies to take reasonable steps to block people under 16.

How will your age be verified?

The government's legislation won't specify the technical method for proving a person's age.

Several options are on the table, including providing ID and biometrics such as face scanning.

The government's currently running an age assurance trial to assess all the methods, and it's scheduled to continue into 2025.

Based on the results of that trial, eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant will make recommendations to platforms.

It's possible that Australians will be asked to provide their IDs or biometric data directly to social media companies in order to use their platforms, but that's not guaranteed.

Many of the big players, including Meta, have instead argued for the age verification onus to be placed on app stores, rather than individual platforms, as that would mean proving your age once — rather than every time you sign up to a platform.

It's also possible that a third-party company that specialises in ID verification will act as a go-between between users and social media platforms.

No matter which model is adopted, the prime minister has said privacy protections will be introduced to cover any data people end up providing.

Tip of the iceberg when it comes to examining the corruption of land ownership in Australia. It's hardly talked about. The linked article doesn't even talk about it.

The public as a whole (and traditional owners) should be the only financial beneficiaries of rezoning.

I suspect private maximisation of rezoning profits is the reason behind why urban developments here are almost universally that awful single-story no-greenspace roof-to-roof packed suburban hellscape.

[...] The 92-page document compiled by the legal team lays out a number of specific ways Albanese and other Australian officials have acted as an accessory to genocide, including:

• Freezing $6 million in funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East amid a humanitarian crisis based on unsubstantiated claims by Israel;
• Providing military aid and approving defenee exports to Israel, which could be used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the course of the prima facie commission of genocide and crimes against humanity;
• Ambiguously deploying an Australian military contingent to the region, where its location and exact role have not been disclosed; and
• Permitting Australians, either explicitly or implicitly, to travel to Israel to join the IDF and take part in its attacks on Gaza.

"The Rome Statute provides four modes of individual criminal responsibility, two of which are accessorial," [attorney] Omeri explained in a statement. [...]

See also: Birchgrove Legal's media release and communiqué to ICC

The Australien Government has made an ad about its Whistleblower Protection Laws, and it’s surprisingly honest and informative.

Take action: droptheprosecutions.org.au

https://www.thejuicemedia.com/honest-government-ad-whistleblower-protection-laws/