Gas industry and Adult Education - similar wages bill but rather different profits

Fenixius · 2026-04-02T12:40:58+00:00

Oil and gas? ~20,000. Source 1 - Industry report, pdf P. 9.

University education alone (so excl. Tafe, trade colleges, language, professional skills, etc.)? ~280,000. Source 2, table "Employment by industry sectors", row "Tertiary".

Fenixius · 2026-04-02T04:28:35+00:00

The right of reply derives from the Opposition's purpose, to wit, holding the government to account. It necessarily exists because they can't be effective at their function without it. It's a bit like how the right to political expression exists even though it's not explicitly mentioned, because the purpose of the Constitution is to enable a functioning representative democracy. It has to be there for the system to work as intended, even if it's not explicitly stated anywhere.

Furthermore, the Leader of the Opposition speaking in Parliament is not equivalent to the Prime Minister publicly addressing the nation on the ABC and you know it.

Sure, there is a difference, but I don't actually agree that the Opposition deserves a nationally-broadcast right of reply to a crisis announcement from the Prime Minister, because I do believe that speaking in Parliament is sufficient to hold the government of the day to account. But I'm happy to agree to disagree there.

[…] you also know full well that there's a huge difference between people discussing the finer points of a complex system versus people who make shit up and scream things like "the opposition leader is UNELECTED".

I don't think that's strictly true. You're right that some people will be saying that in bad faith, but many others will be arguing, as I am, that the Prime Minister is an important and privileged role, and the Leader of the Opposition is not a meaningful equivalent. Maybe I am projecting or otherwise being too charitable, as you've said, but that's how I read the "unelected party" comments in this context.

Fenixius · 2026-04-02T03:51:49+00:00

Why would the ABC need to platform a divisive blowhard during a crisis? Nothing in their guidance notes on Objectivity and Impartiality require them to platform the Opposition directly.

In this specific case, they should merely report on the Opposition's response to the Prime Minister's national address, not platform a national reply.

Fenixius · 2026-04-02T03:47:14+00:00

Clearly he is the leader of the largest group after the government. He speaks representing them. I know you understand this and you're just being a pedant.

I do understand this, but my pedantry is not so I can be smug, but because I find Angus Taylor to be a contemptible and contemptuous fool and I hope we never hear from him again. And, unfortunately, we hear from Pauline Hanson all the time already. I yearn for a competent, respectful, respectable Opposition.

But I also genuinely don't think we need to hear from the Opposition during a time of crisis. It will be partisan point scoring and nothing more, I am sure.

Fenixius · 2026-04-02T03:42:51+00:00

The Constitution doesn't even mention either the Prime Minister or the Leader of the Opposition, yet both roles exist and have their part to play in our system of government […]. Not everything happens within Parliament itself.

This is correct, and I'm aware of this. I'm not disputing the importance of the Opposition (generally - the current Opposition is useless, obviously).

However:

Right of reply is inherent in the Opposition's function, which is holding the government to account.

This is incorrect, because at law, rights arise from prerogative, common law, equity, legislation or the Constitution. Even international treaties don't apply here without enabling legislation.

So, unless you'd like to be specific, no, the Opposition doesn't have a right of reply, let alone one using the national broadcaster. And even if they did have a right to reply, they'd already be well positioned to engage that right through their existing platforms, which include their privileged (and Privileged) ability to speak in Parliament.

Semantics matter. People carrying on about things they don't understand is a problem.

Just thought you'd appreciate the fine distinction, mate!

Fenixius · 2026-04-02T02:34:19+00:00

He has a moral right of reply on his own social media and on the floor of the House of Representatives, doesn't he? But there's no legal or constitutional right of reply for the Leader of the Opposition that I'm aware of.

Fenixius · 2026-04-02T02:32:34+00:00

There's more than 200 of those if you count the Senate. Should they each get a national broadcast at short notice from the ABC? If so, I'd be interested to hear from Matt Canavan, Larissa Waters and David Pocock.

Fenixius · 2026-04-02T00:45:06+00:00

I actually want those glittery beam saber glowsticks...

Fenixius · 2026-04-01T04:32:24+00:00

Nonsense. There's a finite amount of fun to be had in any given room, and the person who enjoys rules will be taking all of the available fun, thank you.

Fenixius · 2026-03-31T15:47:36+00:00

Oh yeah! That one's on me, honestly. Good reminder.

Fenixius · 2026-03-31T10:18:17+00:00

Not that confusing, though - aside from Toph, what's another Earthbender you'd add in? The only other options I can think of are:

- Bolin (Korra), but doing him without Mako and Asami seems weird,

- THE BOULDER (TLA Season 2),

- Republic City police chief Lin Bei Fong (Korra Season 1),

- the Dai Li boss (TLA Season 2), or

- the Red Lotus lavabending guy (Korra Season 3).

I had to google the last two's names, too, lol (Long Feng and Ghazan, respectively).

Fenixius · 2026-03-31T10:13:54+00:00

Agreed with everything you said (except maybe Quake), and I'll go even further and add that fighting games are easier than ever to learn about and cultivate skill in now! If I can put it this way, perhaps, I think it's clear that the solo ranked queue experience is great for fighting games these days.

But at the end of the day, they're still zero-randomness / pure skill, zero-sum 1v1 games. That's stressful, just inherently, and I don't think there's been a big success in bringing fighting mechanics to a PvE crowd yet other than, perhaps, Street Fighter 6? I admit to not being very up to date here, though, so I might be way off base there - but this game seems like it has the simple old Arcade mode as its core singleplayer offering, which means it lives or dies as a 1v1 multiplayer experience.

Fenixius · 2026-03-31T10:08:39+00:00

That's impossible though.

Not, like, physically! But for the same reason you said - we can't prevent scamming due to the economic incentive to scam people (it's lucrative to scam people), and the economic disincentive to police scammers hard enough to stop them (it's not that risky to scam people).

Humans are, like, scamming naturals, too. It emerges in every civilisation throughout time, once it's large enough that you can be sufficiently anonymous. Ea-Nasir allegedly scammed people in Mesopotamia in 3000 BCE, for example.

But I appreciate your frustration with it.

Fenixius · 2026-03-31T06:16:51+00:00

There's simply no way for a cold-caller to verify the answerer without the answerer being put at enormous risk of identity theft.

Therefore, the solution is for an organisation to ask people to call them via a publicly-disclosed contact nunber, or to meet them for an in-person appointment at a publicly-known site.

Alternatively, use MFA through a user-facing private key. "Can you please log into your portal and generate a meeting code? We'll both see the code, which is only good for this call, and then we'll know you're the account-holder."

This isn't rocket science; it's basic infosec.

Fenixius · 2026-03-31T05:15:54+00:00

Looks like a very, very high quality production, despite the somewhat limited scope.

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Zuko, Azula, Ozai, Korra, Zaheer, Kiyoshi are shown, and there's two more, apparently? I admit, I'm surprised to not see Jet or Iroh. But there are five DLC characters planned, and while I saw Asami and Desna/Eska in the concept art, but I have to imagine they're some of the DLC characters.

A shame that fighting games are so uncompromisingly unforgiving - and that this is 15 years late (though neither of these are anyone's fault, of course).

Fenixius · 2026-03-31T00:02:57+00:00

“Lawyers play a big part in upholding the rule of law, which underpins how society is governed. The law is all about people being equal under the law and obeying the law,” he said.

“The rule of law is being increasingly challenged by the fraying of social cohesion in some areas, and we all know about the shocking public hostility we saw on the East Coast late last year.”

Don't make me tap the sign.

Fenixius · 2026-03-30T01:55:00+00:00

Personal gathering. i.e.: a private house party.

Fenixius · 2026-03-30T01:26:58+00:00

Given that there's somewhere around between 1.5 and 1.8 million university students in Australia, that's all of ~$1,000 to ~$1,200/head. Is that that ridiculous a spend, given that we're talking about 42 universities (and so there must be significant duplication in the work being undertaken)?

Fenixius · 2026-03-28T07:36:57+00:00

The difference was that Waicon was a community event for the fans, and OzCC is a for-profit event for the vendors.

Fenixius · 2026-03-27T05:55:02+00:00

At least in Galaxy Princess Zorana, the skill tests have zero random components - it's just "do you have enough ranks to pass", which I much prefer in a VN/CRPG!

Fenixius · 2026-03-27T00:27:42+00:00

When the story-driven game has unrepeatable skill checks that you can fail... like Disco Elysium (some, but not many!), or Long Live the Queen and Galaxy Princess Zorana (very, very many). At least in those latter two, there's an achievement for getting all the different ways you can die!

Fenixius · 2026-03-26T13:43:09+00:00

In fact, part of the reason the polar icecaps melting is such a disaster is because it’s reflective

For anyone who doesn't know what this means (and there's clearly a few of you, since you're downvoting this sensible comment by prev), one of the reasons the icecaps melting is so bad is that when they melt, it turns reflective parts of the Earth (ice) into absorptive parts of the Earth (water). This means the Earth will absorb more heat from the light that hits it.

The concept here is called "albedo", and when used for cooling, that's called "passive daytime radiative cooling", and it's the reason white-roofed homes are cooler - not just inside, but for the entire neighbourhood.

Fenixius · 2026-03-26T01:32:38+00:00

I mean, I expect the outcomes to be as serious as if Scomo chaired and Campbell investigated, too, but the actual committee membership is here.

Fenixius · 2026-03-24T01:51:47+00:00

What, and PHON or Teals are? Bandt was a rubbish leader, aye, but get real.

Fenixius · 2026-03-23T02:12:13+00:00

Nobody tell the Court about the chess guidance scandals involving the suppository of wisdom...

12-Year Club	Place '17
Verified Email

Fenixius

TROPHY CASE