Swift parrots given reprieve as Tasmanian court orders logging halt

A RARE WIN

The way forward for the practically extinct swift parrot has been given considerably of a keep of execution after the Tasmanian Supreme Court docket ordered the federal government to halt plans to log the hen’s breeding floor. Guardian Australia reviews that government-owned Forestry Tasmania authorised a logging plan, allegedly regardless of being offered with recordings of the critically endangered swift parrot within the space. The injunction was a “enormous win”, former Greens chief and environmentalist Bob Brown says, and if the court docket upholds the case, “we anticipate motion to be taken in opposition to those that could have plundered this native forest illegally”. You possibly can be part of the search to avoid wasting the swift parrot — Guardian Australia’s 2023 Chicken of the Yr, no much less — by clicking right here.

In the meantime, WA farmers are irate Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is simply too busy to satisfy them after vowing to part out dwell sheep exports previously two federal elections, The West Australian ($) reviews. Albanese’s stance got here after 2,400 sheep perished on a ship from the Center East in 2017, the paper writes, and comes as 16,000 Australian sheep and cattle are stranded at sea amid the Crimson Sea disaster in a narrative picked up by Time and CNN in a single day. A panel put collectively final 12 months is engaged on the phase-out. Lastly, the lady who was attacked by a shark in Sydney this week had a photograph of her injured leg leaked, the SMH ($) reviews. Cripes. St Vincent’s says it’s urgently investigating.

MEN WILL BE BOYS

Conservatives are taking a stand in opposition to this darn-tootin’ wussy woke crap they usually’re not afraid to talk up about it to the media! A person from Darwin has filmed himself burning his Rip Curl shorts and telling the model “Go woke, go broke — fuck you, Rip Curl” as a result of it posted an advert on Instagram that includes transgender lady Sasha Lowerson. United Australia Celebration director Craig Kelly weighed in, Sky Information Australia reviews, calling it a masterclass in destroying a model. Take it from him! The previous Hughes MP misplaced his seat within the 2022 election after an estimated $100 million UAP promoting marketing campaign, as The Dialog reviews, leaving the celebration with only a solitary seat within the Senate.

In the meantime a person was moved to tears as a result of certainly one of Sydney’s oldest boys’ faculties goes co-ed, 9News reviews, and now he gained’t ship his grandson there. ABC’s Barrie Cassidy quipped that the Newington School protest footage was like a colourised video from the ’50s. One other protester informed the reporter it was “all a part of this woke, poisonous masculinity sort palaver”, persevering with: “I simply suppose it’s ridiculous after 160 years of considering it’s a good suggestion to have a boys-only college for the event of boys by means of a really developmental a part of their lives with out being influenced by issues of what they need to seem like or how they need to act in entrance of ladies.” I’m reminded wistfully of the instances I used to be attempting to succeed in the phrase depend on my college essays…

ALL SHOOK UP

There have been 360,000 extra bulk-billed GP journeys in two months — 202,000 in rural and regional areas — for the reason that Labor authorities tripled the motivation for docs, the SMH ($) reviews. For the primary time since 2020, appointments paid completely by Medicare are up — from 75.6% of GP providers coated in October to 77.7% in November. In the meantime, housing and lease costs are additionally on the rise — the previous by 0.4% and the latter by 0.8%, Guardian Australia reviews. Metropolis by metropolis is one other factor, nonetheless — no change in Sydney or Melbourne (median home costs are $1.2 million and $777,000 respectively), whereas they have been up 1% in Brisbane ($797,000) and Adelaide ($721,000). Perth, nonetheless, was up 2% to $677,000.

In the meantime mortgage holders can anticipate a price minimize within the second half of the 12 months, one professional predicted to the ABC, after the Australian sharemarket reached a file excessive (up 1.06%) yesterday due to cooling inflation. Why? “Merely put, buyers are optimistic in regards to the potential for firms and their valuations to rise farther from right here,” the broadcaster explains. The SMH ($) provides {that a} 0.5% minimize would slash $201 a month off a $600,000 mortgage. And Australia’s not the one one — central banks within the US, Canada and EU are all signalling an rate of interest minimize this 12 months too. Will it change the thought processes of the 71% of Australians underneath 30 who informed a survey they’d relatively journey than purchase a home within the subsequent 12 months? The New Every day notes the 2021 census discovered house possession charges for Australians aged 25-34 has declined by 14% since 1971.

ON A LIGHTER NOTE

“Elmo is simply checking in!” the lovable determine of so lots of our childhoods posted on X. “How is everyone doing?” Not fucking good, the web responded in a considerably tongue-in-cheek show of mass existentialism. “Elmo I simply received laid off,” one individual responded. “Elmo im depressed and broke,” stated one other. A relatively memorable consumer responded drily: “Each morning, I can not wait to return to sleep. Each Monday, I can not look ahead to Friday to come back. Each single day and each single week for all times.” It didn’t cease. One other reply: “Elmo every day the abyss we stare into grows a novel horror. One which was beforehand unfathomable in nature.” Yikes!

However there have been pinpricks of sunshine within the mass remedy session with the puppet. One jaunty man responded: “I did have a very good grapefruit earlier, thanks for asking.” Elmo adopted up with a submit that he was glad he requested, persevering with it’s necessary to ask a pal how they’re doing, inflicting US President Joe Biden to chime in in settlement. Nevertheless, Elmo relatively swiftly retreated, little question to hunt some remedy himself, signing off: “Elmo will test in once more quickly, mates!” Little question instances are robust for a lot of proper now. However there’s one thing oddly reassuring that we’re not alone — the web’s near-infinite communities have made certain of that — and that there’s at all times some lightness to be discovered, even when it’s simply sharing in a joke with hundreds of strangers and a muppet.

Hope you’re doing okay right now, and should you’re not, that you understand you can be quickly.

SAY WHAT?

[ABC’s Nemesis] didn’t completely ignore the successes of the primary two years, like stopping the boats (that no-one thought could possibly be performed), finalising the commerce offers that had languished for a decade, scrapping the carbon tax and mining tax, and starting an infrastructure catch-up with new initiatives (akin to WestConnex and the Western Sydney Airport) which might be even now nonetheless being opened.

Peta Credlin

Tony Abbott’s chief of employees wants reminding that the Coalition didn’t cease the boats; it turned again solely two to a few vessels a 12 months between 2016 and 2020. Underneath PM Scott Morrison, the $20 billion relationship with our largest two-way buying and selling companion China froze for a number of years. Labor inherited from the Coalition $33 billion in price blowouts and an infrastructure funding pipeline that went from 150 to 800 initiatives in what the Worldwide Financial Fund warned was turbocharging our inflation. And don’t even get me began on the carbon tax.

CRIKEY RECAP

9’s Georgie Purcell picture reveals the dangers of AI in newsrooms

The photoshopped picture of Georgie Purcell (left), and the unedited picture (Picture: Georgie Purcell/X)

“Whereas not utilizing its title, Nailon appears to be saying the edited picture was the results of utilizing Adobe Photoshop’s new generative AI options, which permits customers to fill or increase present photos utilizing AI. (An instance Adobe makes use of is inserting a tiger into an image of a pond.) Studying between the strains, it seems as if somebody used this function to ‘increase’ an present {photograph} of Purcell, which generated her with uncovered midriff relatively than the total gown she was really carrying.

“Stupidity, not malice, may clarify how such an egregious edit may originate. Somebody who works in a graphics division at a significant Australian information community informed me that their colleagues are already utilizing Photoshop’s AI options many instances a day.”

The dialog we have to have about Australia’s neo-Nazis

“The trendy Australian Nazi has distinct traits: younger, white, male, clad head-to-foot in black and — largely, for now — masked. Like all uniforms, theirs serves a twin function: to offer them the consolation of tribal belonging, and to ship a easy message to everybody else. The message of Nazism is straightforward: concern us.

“We must always at all times do not forget that fascists are humorous, till they’re not. It’s the identical with this crew, self-evidently thick and deluded as they’re. They’re in lethal earnest, and the one factor preserving them from performing out their understanding of Mein Kampf is their cowardice. That may dissipate with numbers and influence. Left alone, they’ll multiply and they’re going to perpetrate racist violence. That’s reality, not likelihood.”

‘It’s a no brainer’: Inside a Victorian pilot program preserving youngsters out of jail

“John (not his actual title), 19, lives with Asperger’s syndrome, and has benefited from the pilot program. Summonsed and charged by police for 3 felony offences after driving away from a minor collision in a carpark, he was referred to WEstjustice, which advocated for a warning consistent with part two of the pilot.

“Beforehand, underneath Victoria Police coverage, cautions have been restricted to minor store theft and possession of small portions of sure medicine. After session with the sufferer who was sympathetic to his circumstances, John’s fees have been formally withdrawn.”

READ ALL ABOUT IT

Ukraine battle critic submits bid to problem Putin for Russia’s presidency (Al Jazeera)

Ministers requested to reveal tobacco trade hyperlinks as smoke-free repeal once more takes centre stage in Parliament (NZ Herald)

Ethiopia hails return of its first airplane, stolen by Mussolini in Nineteen Thirties (The Guardian)

Swedish police destroy object exterior Israeli embassy in Stockholm (BBC)

How the US is getting ready for a Chinese language invasion of Taiwan (Reuters)

Ukraine battle: Kyiv strikes St Petersburg oil refinery as prisoner swap concludes (euronews)

THE COMMENTARIAT

Why I’m not performed combating — for animal rights, and for ladies — Georgie Purcell (Guardian Australia): “The problem on the core of those experiences for ladies is consent. And whereas I settle for the apology supplied by 9 Information, its clarification of the way it occurred fails to deal with this concern. I used to be a sufferer of image-based abuse whereas finding out at college, and I’ve since been recognized with PTSD. So the reason that this was an AI enhancing error got here too late for me to really feel something however that my physique had been violated as soon as once more. The picture was on the market, and as soon as once more, my willpower and dedication to my work was overshadowed. I can take care of this personally. Whereas it’s tiring, I gained’t cease speaking about my experiences, as a result of it displays what ladies face broadly, particularly younger ladies. If males gained’t get up in newsrooms, parliaments or places of work across the nation, then I have to, even on my worst days.

“I’ll depart the commentary about the potential for an AI picture error to the consultants. What’s necessary to me is that this doesn’t occur once more. I need ladies’s phrases to be sufficient, with out bringing our our bodies into it. The media undoubtedly controls a lot of the gender narrative and for that motive, they need to be held to excessive requirements. As a result of my dedication to finish leisure duck capturing has been met with sexist and misogynistic rhetoric, I took the federal government’s gutless choice to disregard the advice of its personal parliamentary inquiry, its option to proceed the slaughter of native water birds, as a private blow. This marketing campaign has captured my coronary heart and soul for greater than a decade. Yearly, for months at a time, whereas family members take pleasure in weekends, I’m with animal rescuers, tenting close to wetlands the place the shooters are, up earlier than dawn to the sound of gunshots.”

ABC’s Nemesis uncovered the Liberal-wrecking egos. For this reason I refused to participate — Peta Credlin (The Australian) ($): “As somebody who spent a 12 months working for Turnbull as his deputy chief-of-staff when he was opposition chief, after which six years working as Abbott’s chief-of -staff when opposition chief and PM, I noticed these rivals at shut quarters, underneath strain, on good days and unhealthy. It didn’t shock me that Turnbull reportedly spent one thing like eight hours on tape lashing out at others; except for his stunning glass jaw, this was about justifying himself and getting the affirmation he’s at all times craved from the lefty Q+A crowd. Likewise, it didn’t shock me that Abbott declined to be concerned as a result of he by no means noticed himself because the hero in a play that was all about him …

“As for Turnbull’s declare that Abbott was a ‘harmful’ prime minister who ran a ‘horrible’ authorities, a minister with honour may at all times have resigned, if that have been his view, relatively than spend extra time machinating in opposition to his chief than doing his job. Turnbull a number of instances supplied to make use of his friendship with fellow rich-lister Clive Palmer in assist of the 2014 finances (the final try at vital financial reform) however like a lot, these have been empty phrases. And as he informed the world on Monday night time, by then he was in discussions with quite a few colleagues, together with Scott Morrison, he insisted, to take away the PM who’d gained a majority akin to that of Fraser in 1975 and Howard in 1996.”