This is potentially great value, depending on your shopping habits. For $35 you receive 10% discount vouchers every month for both Woolworths and Big W, that you can choose to redeem on any shop during the month. If you spend $30 in a single shop every month you'll break even. If you are like me and already shop more regularly at Woolworths, then this will save you hundreds of dollars over the course of a year as long as you remember to apply it on your big shops.

This is very reminiscent of the On The Run traineeship scandal that occurred in South Australia not long ago. Anyone know of other companies still using these traineeship loopholes to commit mass wage theft?

You need to only look at the modern crossbench, and the teals in particular, to see the prospect of a 2010 repeat is unlikely.

These modern independents aren't former Nationals blokes who have turned their back on their party.

They're modern women who couldn't see themselves in the party that once took their seats for granted.

"While the 2022 election might be heralded as a ‘breakthrough’ for the independents, the conditions for their election have been building over several decade," the Australian Election Study noted in 2022.

"Many of these changes are associated with voters being ‘less rusted on’ to the major political parties and becoming more independently minded in their political choices."

That's the problem with scare campaigns like the Coalition's. When you threaten voters with a minority government, that would require crossbench negotiations, some in the seats you're trying to win might be left thinking: "Oh, that sounds more preferable than you."

Interesting article in relation to the media pile-on of Elle Macpherson earlier this week. According to the authors, her decision to avoid chemotherapy may have been completely normal and sensible given her circumstances. We don't actually know because no one from the ABC or any other outlet bothered to check before running their stories citing her former relationship with an anti-vaxxer, or claiming that she ignored centuries of medical advice. The authors conclude that Australians have missed a great opportunity here to discuss the current state of non-invasive breast cancer research and treatment.

Interesting video, particularly the statistics around where the majority of the market is in Western countries. If you buy a base S24 in Germany, you are actually spending less money on your phone than over 70% of the country, for example. The ultra high end market absolutely dominates despite seemingly everyone complaining about how expensive phones are these days.

The video doesn't really answer the question, though. It sort of implies that it's because we are keeping smartphones for longer and because they are becoming increasingly important parts of our lives as our screen time also increases. Manufacturers are also able to bait consumers into buying these crazy expensive phones with trade-in and bundle deals (throwing in "discounted" watches and TWS earbuds, for example).

Author: Paul Strangio, Emeritus Professor of Politics, Monash University

For nearly 200 years, the notion of American political exceptionalism has had currency in the United States: it is an idea rooted in the nation’s status as the first modern republic. As we watch from afar, disturbed yet mesmerised by the latest chapter of violent political division in America, the country seems less a paragon than a symbol of democratic pathology.

America’s certainty in its political uniqueness is symptomatic of a brash national chauvinism. By way of contrast, Australia is prone, if anything, to undue bashfulness about its democratic credentials. How else can we explain that this month marks the centenary of the most extraordinary feature of the country’s democratic architecture, and yet the anniversary is slipping by with neither comment nor reflection. I refer to compulsory voting, which was legislated in the federal parliament in July 1924.

Compulsory voting is not unique to Australia. Cal

The joke was dumb, the online reaction to the joke was dumb, a random UAP senator's dumb comments being quoted globally was dumb and Rudd telling famous musicians and actors to "grow up and get a job" was very dumb. What a time we live in.