Defence is supposed to provide ‘cradle to grave’ costings for proposed capability before a procurement is approved. That doesn’t seem to have happened for AUKUS nuclear waste storage and disposal.

Opposition leader Angus Taylor has drawn sharp condemnation from Indigenous leaders for labelling Welcome to Country ceremonies "overused", after First Nations speakers were heckled at Anzac Day dawn services.

Giving links in comments, as the title comes from a News Corp article, and the GetUp page doesn't contain that $400k claim.

GetUp - Stop One Nation in Farrer (page has the ad video^[YouTube]^ and a description of the campaign)

We’ve just finished producing a new TV ad that could defeat One Nation in Farrer. It’s called Trump’s War, and it showcases the links between Trump and Hanson in light of the recent fuel crisis. Test results from the electorate show that 41.4% of persuadable One Nation voters changed their mind after seeing the ad.

If One Nation wins Farrer, it will be a huge boost to their momentum and could change the political map of this country – and pave the way for Pauline Hanson as PM. But if we stop them in a seat they're leading, in the regions they claim to own – we break their momentum and their story.

Here's what your donation will help fund:

• Keeping our hard-hitting TV ads on air across the electorate exposing One Nation's real record and links to Donald Trump
• Digital ads targeted at the persuadable voters who will decide the race
• Billboards in key locations across the electorate so no one misses our message

news.com.au - GetUp launches $400k Trump-themed anti-Hanson campaign in Farrer

The campaign centres on the populist leader’s affinity for Donald Trump and links her to the rising costs that rural voters are most vulnerable to, including fuel and fertiliser.

The campaign also purportedly seeks to debunk the One Nation leader’s claim of “standing with everyday Australians” by pointing to her voting record on health care, age pensions, child care and corporate tax cuts.

“ … her political support comes from some of the wealthiest and most powerful interests in the country. And her record in power tells a different story,” the campaign website WhoisHanson.com reads.

GetUp aims to spend at least $600,000 on the anti-Hanson campaign by the time the polls close on May 9. The funds so far raised were donated by the organisation’s active membership base, which grew by over 100,000 people last month alone

Asked about the finding that social cohesion did not justify the law, Minns took aim at the Greens for supporting protesters charged after February’s anti-Herzog protest at Sydney’s town hall, when the law was in force. The rally is now subject of a police watchdog investigation into allegations of police misconduct and brutality.

🙃

35 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody handed down its 339 recommendations on how to curb the crisis. Yet, all these years on, and it’s only worsening with 630 First Peoples having died in the custody of police or corrections since the final report was released, and the 12 months of 2024-25 were the worst year on record.

Numerous coronial inquiries into First Peoples dying in custody reveal that these fatalities are caused by either neglect or straightout abuse. But despite this long list of deaths involving suspicious circumstances only one police officer has ever been convicted in relation to an Aboriginal custody death, whilst no prison guard has ever been. And only a handful of any officers have ever stood trial.

The Royal Commission is still of grave significance as its 339 recommendations were so comprehensive and to move past them is difficult because most have never been implemented.

The Electoral Commission of South Australia has uncovered more than 600 ballot papers that were not counted in the recent state election, including dozens from the closely contested seat of Narungga on the Yorke Peninsula.

Narungga has been declared for One Nation's Chantelle Thomas, who won the seat by a margin of just 58 votes.

The electoral commission has ordered a further count in Narungga since the discovery.

It says the ballots include 77 unopened absent ordinary ballot papers and four declaration ballot papers that were returned in the neighbouring district of Stuart.

Controversial laws to restrict protests in New South Wales following the Bondi Beach terrorist attack have been struck down by the state's top court.

The Court of Appeal accepted arguments by protest groups that the expanded police powers were unconstitutional, in a judgment handed down on Thursday afternoon.

The laws were ruled to have "impermissibly burdened" the implied right to freedom of political communication under Australia's constitution in a joint judgment by Chief Justice Andrew Bell, Justice Julie Ward and Justice Stephen Free.

There were hushed cheers and hugs inside the Banco Court in Sydney, the state's largest, as supporters draped in keffiyeh scarves watched on.

The plaintiffs, Elizabeth Jarrett of the Blak Caucus, Joshua Lees of the Palestine Action Group, and Michelle Berkon from Jews against the Occupation '48, launched the challenge in early January.

Mr Lees called on Mr Minns to resign, saying he has been warned by MPs and legal experts the laws were unconstitutional.

Three distinct platforms form the operational core of MASU’s capability set. The Ghost Shark, built by Anduril Australia in Sydney, is an extra-large autonomous underwater vehicle designed for long-duration submerged missions across vast oceanic distances. Unlike conventionally crewed submarines, it uses a flooded hull design that eliminates the need for a pressurized crew compartment, with waterproof zones protecting propulsion, navigation, and payload systems. In September 2025, Australia committed to acquiring dozens of Ghost Shark XL-AUVs under a A$1.7 billion program, with vehicles entering service from early 2026. The first operational Ghost Shark was delivered to the Royal Australian Navy in January 2026, following the start of low-rate production at Anduril’s Sydney manufacturing facility.

The Speartooth, developed by Melbourne-based C2 Robotics, is a large uncrewed underwater vehicle occupying a complementary niche below the Ghost Shark in terms of size and cost. The Speartooth offers long range, low cost, and minimal logistics requirements for storage, launching, recovery, and operation, making it well-suited for high-volume deployment scenarios where operating large numbers of vehicles simultaneously is operationally advantageous. Both the Ghost Shark and the Speartooth are produced domestically in Australia, a deliberate sovereign manufacturing strategy with export potential built in.

The third platform, the Bluebottle uncrewed surface vessel built by Sydney-based Ocius Technology, operates above the waterline and adds a dimension that subsurface systems cannot easily replicate. Powered by wind and solar energy, Bluebottles provide persistent surface presence over extended periods without resupply. Bluebottles operated by ThayerMahan have completed anti-submarine warfare trials in the United States and demonstrated resilience to extreme weather conditions, including 20-meter-high waves during the 2025 hurricane season. The platform can also function as a communications relay node for the underwater vehicles operating beneath it, providing a critical data link between submerged autonomous systems and command networks ashore or afloat.

cross-posted from: https://aussie.zone/post/31625931

Socialist Alternative leaders in the new electoral front want to ban caucuses from identifying with the party in public. NSW Socialists member Clarrie Lewis – writing in a personal capacity – argues this is a tipping point in defining the organisation’s democratic culture.

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After the caucus publicly supported an ‘End the Blockade of Cuba’ demonstration in March, the secretary wrote insisting that Bread & Roses remove the reference to NSW Socialist Party from its logo.

Bread & Roses caucus members were told:

“The Bread and Roses Caucus has included NSW Socialists Party on its logo. I’m writing to inform you that this will need to be removed.”

[...]

“There are a whole series of political and legal implications if this is not adhered to. We are unable to authorise material produced by an internal grouping.”

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Attempts to justify this restriction by invoking unspecified “political and legal implications” is a complete fabrication. A banner that says “Bread & Roses – NSW Socialist Party” is not an attempt to make statements under the NSW Electoral Act in the name of the registered party (New South Wales Soc). No reasonable person would think this.

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The present dispute is therefore not about logos.

It is about what kind of political organisation NSW Socialists intends to become.

Yes! More independence for us!

Sadly Boeing involved but it’s a start

Jim Dowling was arrested outside Boeing's headquarters in Brisbane earlier this year.

Religious and community leaders are urging the Australian government to take a harder stance on Israel as it continues to bombard Lebanon

Winning votes might be a better strategy than wining and dining the rich

The reality is that political donations from harmful industries are small relative to the payments parties receive from you, the voter.

Australia provides taxpayer funding to parties and candidates based on how many votes they receive. At the May 2025 federal election, each voter was worth around $6.80 in public funding, and that will rise to $10 at the next election – that’s $5 each for ballots for the House of Representatives and Senate.

Labor got $37 million in taxpayer funding after the 2025 election, the Liberal–National Coalition $33 million, the Greens $13 million and One Nation $6 million.

It pays to be popular. Winning the vote of an extra 1% of Australians (about 160,000 people) is worth $1.1 million, set to rise from next year to $1.6 million.

Learnt a lot I didn't know.

https://thepoint.com.au/off-the-charts/260411-popular-policies-would-be-a-better-revenue-raiser-than-taking-fossil-fuel-and-gambling-donations

Today [April 8th], Chandler-Mather relaunches the revamped Institute as a movement building organisation, with the aim of filling critical capacity gaps identified during the 2025 federal election.

Max was previously the strategist for the Queensland Greens between 2017 to 2022, during the most successful period in the party’s history, where they won the state seats of South Brisbane and Maiwar, and three federal seats in 2022.

The release is short, I recommend reading all the quotes, but here are some critical ones:

“This year the Green Institute will have three main focuses. One, mobilising volunteers to talk to tens of thousands of people across the country in the largest survey of economic and social life outside of the census. Rather than relying on focus groups and corporate polling, politics done right involves talking to people and actually asking them what they need to live a good life.”

“Two, the Institute will work on developing a broader vision and set of policies that speak to the hopes, desires and needs of the millions of Australians being left behind by a political and economic system that puts corporate profit first and everyday people last.”

“Three, we are going to go to every corner of this country to offer the training, skills and knowledge people need to participate themselves in building a mass movement ready to transform this country for the better.”

Australia is a global success story. The structural reforms in the 1980s and ‘90s of liberalising trade, floating the dollar and reducing government involvement in the economy ignited an unprecedented period of growth...

Crucially, this happened without a massive spike in inequality. A 2024 report from the Productivity Commission affirmed that our tax and transfer system played a significant role in redistributing income.

And while the size of government ballooned in Europe, with government expenditure soaring to around 50% of GDP (gross domestic product) in the EU, it has remained comparatively lean in Australia, staying around 24%.

Yet, unlike the US, Australia did not gut its social safety net. We deliver top-tier health outcomes, provide robust support to low-income earners and maintain a high-quality public education system.

How did we pull off this exceptional outcome? It’s largely because of something the current government seems to want to do less and less: means testing. We can see this in action with policies such as student debt cuts and electric vehicle tax concessions.

The shift towards universal policies may seem fair, but it’s creating a system that gives to the wealthy at the expense of the poor.