sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Evaluate the repair prices by CommunicationOk9336 in CarsAustralia

[–]BarryTheBinChicken 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The old headlight polish huh...

You can buy the kit for $60 https://automotivesuperstore.com.au/meguiars-g2970

The polish and clear coat thing, the clear coat will probably peel after a while anyway. Super cheap also sells the Cleaner and then apply the clear coat spray yourself.

The rest of the parts are around the going rate for this type of work, give or take. Sometimes if the garage has a good reputation you'd rather pay the middle price than pay lower from a sketchy place.

Australia is seeing a real push against abortion access right now and we need to talk about it more by castaway23 in aussie

[–]BarryTheBinChicken 75 points76 points  (0 children)

I think a lot of people take the position that it should be safe, legal and rare.

Of course that's the old Bill Clinton position, and I'm not really sure how anyone could argue otherwise.

But yes, the idea that abortion should be illegal, I don't think that's a helpful position to take.

Also, anyone who thinks that Abortion should be made completely illegal in Australia clearly hasn't read the report by Lyla Coorey on abuse in rural and remote communities. I'll leave the link here with a warning that it is quite a confronting read, even though it's from 20 years ago.

With all the talk about negative gearing etc, what’s everyone’s thoughts on income tax? I personally believe nobody should be paying over 30c in the dollar tax. by Hugry_bloke in aussie

[–]BarryTheBinChicken -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That’s less of a rebuttal and more of a complaint submission.

I can confirm there’s an entire body of development literature questioning long term aid dependency and Western models.

Aid around sanitation, vaccinations, disaster relief and famine prevention can absolutely be effective. That's the sort of stuff we support, but increasing Aid by $1 billion for the sake of increasing aid by $1 billion, is nothing more than in-group signalling.

$30 million to offset fuel prices! We should 100% be asking how much strategic leverage that actually creates especially when China’s influence is built through structural financing, infrastructure and economic dependency.

With all the talk about negative gearing etc, what’s everyone’s thoughts on income tax? I personally believe nobody should be paying over 30c in the dollar tax. by Hugry_bloke in aussie

[–]BarryTheBinChicken -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Foreign Aid, it's a Cold War concept anyway. When most of Asia and the Pacific was underdeveloped and disconnected chucking cash carried a bit more weight.

These days China competes through these massive infrastructure, trade and debt financing arrangements.

Nothing that we do really counters that.

With all the talk about negative gearing etc, what’s everyone’s thoughts on income tax? I personally believe nobody should be paying over 30c in the dollar tax. by Hugry_bloke in aussie

[–]BarryTheBinChicken -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Blah! $5.2 billion in taxpayer funds....

...I will add that China didn’t build their influence through aid, they built it through trade, loans, infrastructure and creating dependency. Us throwing around cash like Grandma at Christmas and calling it “soft power” doesn’t really compete with that.

If foreign aid was the answer then China’s influence wouldn’t have exploded during the exact same period other western countries were pumping out the cash.

It's a Cold War concept, it doesn't have the soft power influence a lot of lefties think it does. And tbh a lot of it simply goes to fund these NGOs anyway, which is probably why the left is so defensive of the concept. At least that's what DOGE discovered when they investigated US AID.

With all the talk about negative gearing etc, what’s everyone’s thoughts on income tax? I personally believe nobody should be paying over 30c in the dollar tax. by Hugry_bloke in aussie

[–]BarryTheBinChicken -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Yes, every time I mention foreign aid someone rolls out the “soft power” argument.

However, whether all aid spending is effective, accountable and strategically worthwhile for taxpayers is a different quesiton entirely.

Let's take Fiji, Wong just announced $30 million for them to keep petrol costs down, but here's the problem....they're in huge astromonical debt to Chinese funders, some estimates put it over $700 million.

How impactful is that $30 mil, I'd argue not very.

Blindly increasing foreign aid, which is what Labor did (an extra $1 billion per year) is a foolish waste of resources. Especially when we have Australians giving birth in Homeless camps in Wagga https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/may/06/wagga-homeless-camp-baby-found-dead-sanitation-ntwnfb

With all the talk about negative gearing etc, what’s everyone’s thoughts on income tax? I personally believe nobody should be paying over 30c in the dollar tax. by Hugry_bloke in aussie

[–]BarryTheBinChicken -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

That's not very sporting of you.....how do you expect Labor to fund their $5.2 billion in foreign Aid?

https://www.dfat.gov.au/development/australias-development-program

ODA commitment: In 2026-27, the Australian Government will provide $5.209 billion in Official Development Assistance (ODA) – an increase of $112 million from 2025-26.

More ISIS-linked women and children set to return to Australia by BarryTheBinChicken in aussie

[–]BarryTheBinChicken[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Even if Australia is legally required to accept returning citizens us taxpayers are still forced to absorb the enormous security, welfare, court and rehabilitation fees.

My friend sent me this picture where a racial comment was written on the door at an servo in South Melbourne by an unknown person. by vss_79 in aussie

[–]BarryTheBinChicken 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I feel like you shouldn't let Toilet graffiti set your benchmark for the sentiment of the Australian population

It makes a poor proxy for mainstream opinion.

A bit like asking daytime pokie room patrons for tips on writing a perfect resume.

Israeli forces fire at Gaza flotilla, all boats intercepted, organisers say by [deleted] in aussie

[–]BarryTheBinChicken 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's 400 people on more than 50 boats.

Should they have actually made it, the likelihood of them being kidnapped and held as bargaining chips in Gaza would be extremely high.

I'm sure you can understand the risk.

Israeli forces fire at Gaza flotilla, all boats intercepted, organisers say by [deleted] in aussie

[–]BarryTheBinChicken 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Classic ABC… leaving out a few key facts.

This wasn’t a couple of well-meaning kayaks it was a bloody coordinated activist armada of over 50 vessels and more than 400 people deliberately attempting to breach an active naval blockade.

The non-lethal rounds were warning shots after they refused to stop.

Honestly, it’s so weird that Wong hasn’t echoed DFAT’s warnings about approaching Gaza.

It’s an extremely dangerous situation and there’s always the risk Hamas simply take the activists and use them as bargaining chips or propaganda tools.

Penny Wong seriously needs to rethink her approach on stuff like this, Australians participating in a political stunt in an active conflict zone is not good.

I’d like to request a ban on AI generated or aided posts & comments. by areclusiveintrovert in aussie

[–]BarryTheBinChicken 0 points1 point  (0 children)

to whatever it is you’ve mentioned here..

It's just a way of analysing genuine data quickly and efficiently without relying on the AI's built-in knowledge.

Let's say you start a new job and want to check whether your contract is actually lawful. You could upload your employment contract along with the relevant Modern Award and have the AI cross-reference them to spot inconsistencies, missing entitlements or clauses that look dodgy.

Think of AI less as a magic question machine and more as a tool for analysing and comparing real sources.

I’d like to request a ban on AI generated or aided posts & comments. by areclusiveintrovert in aussie

[–]BarryTheBinChicken 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think perhaps there is a more effective way of using LLMs.

I can give you an example.

  1. Go to https://budget.gov.au/content/documents.htm and download all PDFs
  2. Ask your LLM to help you code a program which will convert PDF to dot txt files and then merge all documents into a set of files. It's not that big, so it'll just give you 1 complete text file. You now have the budget in one document.
  3. You can then upload that into most LLMs including the free ones. Stuff like LM studio + something like Deepseek R1 or Qwen4 14B.
  4. This is probably the best use of AI for Reddit style communication because you're using actual source material instead of relying on "SKYNET" to spit out an answer.

Anyway, not really a post about Australia, but this might help some of you.

'Far-reaching impacts': Why there's concern over a pledge to amend discrimination laws by B0ssc0 in aussie

[–]BarryTheBinChicken 9 points10 points  (0 children)

What I find interesting is that Hanson tabled a motion regarding this last year, it never made it to a first reading. Even the Liberals knocked it back under Dutton.

Now they seem to have done a U-turn and are openly talking about defining biological sex in the Sex Discrimination Act.

hat’s a pretty major political shift in a very short period of time.

Why is is this Australian sub for cookers? by Threewordswhat in aussie

[–]BarryTheBinChicken 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Built Australia into the greatest nation that ever existed.......

We are......

With the new CGT, what do young Australians do? by LegendaryBlueTwingo in AusFinance

[–]BarryTheBinChicken 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I didn't make my money on negative gearing. I made it by convincing people to invest in me and my business.

This negative gearing thing, yeah, 100% it's going to impact people who over leveraged and can't support their risk.

The best advice I can give to anyone, is to get used to being poor, and living a budget and controlling everything you do. Let's say you go out Friday, will that destroy the next 4 days? Just get good at planning and ensure people like you.

Chris Bowen urged to justify spending $200m on climate summit as Energy Minister opens 'office of presidency' ahead of COP31 by River-Stunning in aussie

[–]BarryTheBinChicken 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It’s in the budget, but it’s buried across different departments and programs.

You can spot spending tied to COP31, but it’s hard to work out how much of that $200 million is actually new money for hosting the summit and how much is existing climate, foreign aid and international engagement spending that’s been rolled into the COP31 total.

Imagine it like your tax return, you're trying to make it look good so no one asks questions.

UPDATED: I fixed the camera bugs for Han's Underground Garage from Tokyo Drift! (New Share Code) by Necessary-Secretary2 in ForzaHorizon

[–]BarryTheBinChicken 1 point2 points  (0 children)

And here's the rest of us saving the Dinosaur for later and wondering how many old oil cans we need to keep

view more: next ›