To be fair, her job is to represent her party’s policies. Her own personal opinions don’t need to match the party’s policies in all cases.

Seppo detected.

The warning they’re providing is that devices and social might be searched. I think that’s a pretty sensible warning with things as they are.

Border searches have always been a thing, but I don’t think there’s any doubt that travellers are being grilled more in the last 100 days.

It’s different if there’s a spouse you need to visit in the US.

The US has never been an interesting destination for me, but if I were planning a holiday there just for fun I would definitely look at other destinations for the time being.

Yeah. People who’ve not been through it just don’t realise what it’s like.

For us it was quite uncertain that she’d get permanent residency. It’s so bizarre to have a government department rule on such a huge part of your life and your future, and have no way to influence the outcome. It was stressful.

I kinda bear the emotional scars. Dutton was the Border Force Minister at the time we were going through that. God I hated him so bad and have done so ever since. I was so stoked last week to see that he will never be PM. Fuck you Dutt plug. I hope I never see your face again.

I’ve been through this process of having a partner in another country and waiting forever for visas et cetera.

I met her 12 years ago and she got her citizenship last year.

It’s a pretty awful process and you have my sympathies.

I guess the only way to answer that is to ask what things were like 10 years ago and where they are now and then project that another 10 years forward.

Misinformation will be worse and people will be dumber. It will be a “choose your own reality” type situation where any claim can be opposed with a mountain of manufactured evidence. Institutions like Wikipedia and public broadcasters and the internet archive will be hollowed out and corrupted.

Financial mobility will be nil. If you don’t get support from your parents then you’re basically slave class. Work an awful job your entire life in order to not starve when you’re too old to continue working. Wealth will be a lot more concentrated and classes will be more ingrained between the haves and the have-nots. A lot of medical interventions like growing new organs will be available to the haves but permanently out of reach for the have-nots.

Climate Change will have progressed much faster than we predicted (that’s what’s been happening). Mass extinctions and climate change starting to make critical food sources (like fisheries) unstable. Bullshit weather events like drought and flood making broad acre farming unstable. Plastic.

There are some positives. Advances in medicine, progress towards net zero carbon emissions, DJT probably being dead.

The vote was only 29 to 25 in favour of Ley, and 2 of her biggest supporters are senators who are about to finish up

That’s pretty much what I said.

It’s just denying reality to pretend that this is evidence of them accepting a shift to the centre

That’s the opposite of what Karvellas said.

Your comments are contrary to most other commentary.

Karvellas asserted the inverse just this morning: Ley represents a significant shift to the centre.

You’re right in that she will probably get knifed in the coming months. “See, we tried centrism and it didn’t work”.

However, even the liberals recognising that there’s a need to demonstrate that they tried centrism is significant.

I’m happy to acknowledge that your opinion is unchanged. For my own part I think everything that has transpired over the last week demonstrates a change of trajectory.

Perhaps I’m just unnecessarily anxious, but I feel like the constant culture war nattering makes it be a thing.

For example, my parents are in their 80s. The struggles of trans people just aren’t relevant to them in any way. The chances they would ever interact with a trans person in any meaningful way are infinitesimal.

However, if the leader of the liberal party is on TV every day complaining about how a trans person might use a public toilet for whatever gender, it will make my parents believe that it’s a problem.

These politicians stoke the culture war to fire up and engage their base.

Locally we’ve had some conservative nutters complain about library books discussing sex and gender issues. It’s just another manufactured outrage.

Just thought I’d check in with you after the Liberals voted for Ley as their new moderate leader.

Left enough ? They’re about middle right.

You realise this is a matter of perspective?

Policies that feel “middle right” to you might feel “radical left” to someone else.

Regardless, my question isn’t “how left are we” but “are we moving towards the left right now”.

Given that the Liberals just voted for a moderate as their new leader I’d say that we are.

What the fuck is going on?

It it just me or are we heading into a situation where everyone is involved in some or other major conflict?

This claim is non-sensical.

Is a bribe really a bribe if it’s provided in exchange for an official act? That sounds more like a contractual arrangement, which is obviously not a bribe.

Additionally, it’s obviously worse if the reciprocation is undocumented. The money is provided in exchange for various favors of an undisclosed nature.

Their ruling is a non-sequitur. They’re basically just saying “it’s a bribe, deal with it”.

Wrong post there chief.

I don’t think that’s really true.

Dad is a title, bestowed by anyone for any reason.

“Biological dad” may have a specific meaning, but “dad” does not.

Isn’t the thesis of this article that we’re headed towards minority governments ?

Through recent decades votes are tending more towards independents.

I think it’s great too, does it mean we’re trending away from polarisation? That’s nice, honestly.

Maybe it’s a feature of today’s ease of communication. In the past you really needed parties in order to communicate brands and policies. In the information age that’s less critical.

IMO the LNP is facing an existential threat.

I’m not saying they’re going to disband tomorrow, but depending on what happens over the coming months it may not be possible for them to ever return to their former glory.

I’ve never heard it in a corporate context, but I had thought in a personal context it’s not necessarily something to be achieved but what is meaningful or what has value for you.

For example…

Uh…

Yeah actually IDK what my north star is. Maybe enough internet for me.

Unrelated but I only recently realised that when someone says they believe in family values it means they want to impose their definition of “family” on everyone else.

From an employer I guess when they refer to family they’re really referring to a bond beyond work, which basically means they’re expecting more from you than you’re paid for?

I can’t think of a sentence in which it doesn’t sound heavy handed.

Please effectuate the reports. Accounting will effectuate the invoice. HR has effectuated the hire.