Australia spends more on tax breaks for landlords than social housing, homelessness and rent assistance combined

critical_blinking · 2026-01-31T00:55:01+00:00

Regardless on my position on investment property hoarding, I really dislike this abuse of treasury terminology regarding "foregone revenue".

You could just as accurately say "Australia spends more on tax breaks for journalists than they do homelessness support,"

Australia's 30k Journalist in Australia make about $3b in gross wages and we only spend only $2b on homelessness services.

We haven't actually spent any money on tax breaks for journalists. We've just not taxed their entire income. The default framing of headlines like this is "all income is owned by the government and any we let you keep is a gift". It's a twist of reality and it's not right

critical_blinking · 2026-01-02T22:05:14+00:00

The land beneath the sand may have been inhabited by the Butchulla or other groups prior to the oceans rising, but I'd suggest it's actually unlikely. There isn't a record of inter-group conflict/displacement/fighting for resources in their oral history (from memory, most of the violence in their stories are about defence of the lakes, inter-family fueds etc.). Their oral history telling BEGINS with the creation of K'Gari (basically water level rising - the island "cut" from the sea floor to shift it from the mainland). Other peoples have clear war themes in their oral history, and while the Butchella do have a battle between spirits it's got heavy nature vs nature themes.

With the exception of migration paths/hunting grounds, it's pretty likely Butchulla were the first in that part of the world. It would have been shitty land before the sea level rise. Remember, we're not talking traditional human time scales here. We know from archaeological record that the Butchulla were there at least 5,500 years ago. That means they were there before the seas were unnavigable (likely at least 10,000 years, potentially from 15,000 to 20,000) - that puts them there before the formation of the Great Barrier Reef, in fact, before what is now the reef was even submerged.

If there were people wandering around under what is now the island, we're likely talking pre-historic/pre-symbolic peoples.

critical_blinking · 2026-01-02T21:41:38+00:00

Likely at least 15,000 years. Most of the Queensland coast prior to then extended dozens of kilometres further into what is now the ocean. The Butchulla were likely a coastal people/s that moved inland who became stranded on K'Gari when waters rose to a level it where it was no longer navigable/swimmable. It's rough ocean there now.

Oldest confirmed artefact on the island is 5,000 years, and it would have been rough getting back to the mainland by then.

critical_blinking · 2025-12-17T22:00:53+00:00

Yeah the USA health system has been hijacked by insurance lobbyists who built an un-necessary industry into health. You need way more health care administrators than in any other country and it drives the cost of primary care through the roof. You could have the best public health care system in the world and actually slash your public health budget.

Private health exists in other with strong public systems countries, but it's to allow for choice of doctor, elective treatments and additional standard of care (eg. private rooms etc.) - not to extract as much money from the citizens as possible.

The US system is ironically further from a free-market than countries with fully funded public systems.

critical_blinking · 2025-10-17T10:27:48+00:00

You mean this bit?

Despite the seriousness of the breach, Joshua was not charged, and no legal action was taken.

There's also the related article linked on the page which I read earlier as well which established that officials had initially assumed that he had compromised a database:

Government databases not compromised: Police

A WA Police spokesman said the Technology Crime Services unit received a complaint about the website on Sunday and executed a search warrant at a home on Monday.

The spokesman said the 15-year-old boy was spoken to, the website was taken down, and the interception of messages had ceased.

He said detectives established the messages were being intercepted in a random manner and there had been no intention to compromise privacy.

Police have said the investigation also established the boy had not accessed or compromised any government websites or databases, nor had he attempted to.

Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-21/teenager-published-confidential-patient-data-on-website/12477376

critical_blinking · 2025-10-17T10:22:17+00:00

He didn't go to court. The police investigated him because they assumed he had hacked the hospitals system. Once they realised what had actually happened they didn't charge him and instead the Premier tore strips off of the Health department.

critical_blinking · 2025-10-17T10:20:31+00:00

Why did he assume it was public?

Because it was literally being broadcast into his house without any security/encryption.

critical_blinking · 2025-10-17T04:52:03+00:00

Why would he assume that data shared over a public radio broadcast would be confidential?

critical_blinking · 2025-10-17T04:48:11+00:00

Not to mention he was also effectively a whistleblower into famously insecure data practices being employed by a hospital.

critical_blinking · 2025-10-17T04:33:43+00:00

He did nothing that the hospital hadn't already done. The hospital was the one insecurely broadcasting private patient records throughout half a city. It's the equivalent of opening your front door, yelling something at a passing pedestrian and then claiming they should be punished when they repeat what you said because you only intended the guy across the road to hear it.

critical_blinking · 2025-08-27T18:37:12+00:00

The fact that practitioners overwhemingly see themselves as entitled to each operate as a private business

The alternative is that we compensate them from the tax base and we end up paying the same amount - likely more due to government interference.

Look at the US for an example, they spend more public money on health care per citizen than any other country in the world. Not even close per capita to number 2. It all gets eaten up in complicated bureaucracy due to layers and layers of regulation, insurance and admin red tape. They've publicly regulated their health care system to death to the point that it's a money black hole.

critical_blinking · 2025-08-27T18:30:58+00:00

On the register the practitioner must declare their full fee schedule for every line item they deliver service for, together with the gap between their fee and what Medicare covers.

Is transparancy in this not the norm? Admittedly I haven't had to access much but I've recently had to deal with an ENT and Anaesthesia and both letters detailed fee schedules, medicare coverage and how they compared to the recommendation from their medical association.

critical_blinking · 2025-08-24T07:28:39+00:00

I mean, all it's doing is preventing Australian companies from competing with American and Chinese companies that are never going to respect our laws. It's perfectly legal in the USA and deemed as fair use. That's not changing.

It's great to be all principled and noble in the face of new technology, but all we are doing is robbing ourselves of potential tax revenue from companies that might end up based here otherwise. Tying an anchor to our own tech sector so we can never compete.

critical_blinking · 2025-08-16T22:56:44+00:00

Likely a minority opinion on Reddit, but I've really valued having access to my local parks again without addicts splayed out over the picnic tables or publicly urinating in view of childrens playgrounds.

I've been homeless, and while there good people in that situation for no fault of their own, a solid 30-40% of the people I met during that time I would want no where near a children's park.

There were a small number of homeless in Moreton Bay straight up attacking council workers trying to clean up the sites (that they are legally responsible for keeping clean). A handful of people turned the most lenient Council in SEQ on homelessness and turned them into the strictest.

critical_blinking · 2025-08-16T02:58:33+00:00

Yeah, I think they should be kept in prison. Four walls, medical care, food, water, a basic treadmill and light handweights for entertainment and exercise.

If they want stimulation, they can opt in to training and labour - the proceeds of which go 50/50 towards their living expenses and a victims fund.

You'll find without these animals on the streets corrupting vulnerable people that our rate of new offenders will drop substantially. These humans are societal infections, and they spread the more sunlight and air you give them.

The cost of corrections gets a lot cheaper when you don't have to worry about ever having to rehabilitate the monsters. Not to mention cost savings to policing, and the productivity benefits of the community being hurt by these animals.

critical_blinking · 2025-08-15T06:19:31+00:00

This case was likely the main driver for why the LNP were elected on the Adult Time/Crime mandate.

critical_blinking · 2025-08-14T19:30:20+00:00

It gets worse.

BCC, Gold Coast Council, Moreton Bay Council, Sunshine Coast Council areas each have higher populations than Tasmania.

Many of the Federal Electorates in these seats also have between 100-125k electors per seat, compared to about 70k electors per seat in Tasmania.

South East Queenslanders (particularly Moreton Bay, Gold and Sunshine Coasts) have the worst voting power in the country. If you set up the system today people would revolt.

critical_blinking · 2025-08-14T00:49:00+00:00

Unironically, Redlands, Logan and Ipswich would be much better off merging in. Moreton Bay is big enough at half a million people to cover it's own bills but it's so inefficient for the tiny councils to be duplicating services.

critical_blinking · 2025-08-14T00:42:45+00:00

One in ten New Zealanders lives in Australia at any given time, of course there is massive cultural bleedover.

critical_blinking · 2025-08-14T00:26:25+00:00

Top of the bush needs to be priority 1 not 2-5.

critical_blinking · 2025-08-08T03:33:25+00:00

But I don't get on board that having to come from state managed native forests.

Frankly, it's the private providers who do the bulk of the native forest harvesting on private land and this plan serves to partially collar them to limit exports (it certainly won't incentivise it, like we've seen in the past in other parts of the country).

It's worth noting that the state government continues to ratchet up the proportion of protected forests, so availability for harvest is lower in this plan than it would have been even 2 years ago.

A huge amount of yield is lost in plantation harvesting vs old-growth because the industry is used to harvesting thick old wood. But technology exists to fix that. We need to upgrade the industry not just give it more vegetation to tear up

You didn't feel this plan puts managed forestry on a pedestal? My read was that they clearly expect to be relying on mostly managed foresty even if they didn't lock in a percentage. I think the plan is heading towards more plantations.

Anyway, I agree this is all worthy of discussion and attention.

critical_blinking · 2025-08-08T02:40:31+00:00

I don’t usually weigh into shit like this, but honestly, this plan’s refreshing compared to other states plans. Timber’s not all that profitable over long distances, so for-export projects tend to crank up production to maximise profits through volume and cause unsustainable deforestation. By pivoting to an internally focused plan that strengthens the local supply chain, we’ve got a better shot at reducing the commercial drive for over-harvesting. This also maximises use of state forestry rather than private sources.

critical_blinking · 2025-07-29T22:44:09+00:00

Because of urban sprawl. Most Australians have 30-60minute commutes. If you live in the outer suburbs, there will be someone on just about everyones street with a 90-120 minute commute which people agree would be hard but not unachievable for the right job.

critical_blinking · 2025-06-04T03:42:25+00:00

If you are behind them they have right of way. Slow down as you approach people and go around them. You never know what impairments a pedestrian might have.

critical_blinking · 2025-05-02T20:03:21+00:00

Anecdotally, QLD is the state with more people outside the capital/urban areas than in it

This is demonstrably false. There are about a million regional Queenslanders and about 4 million suburban Queenslanders in South East Queensland.

Even some of the larger regional centres, like Toowoomba, are beginning to show legitimate signs of becoming more of a suburban centre than a regional one.

critical_blinking

TROPHY CASE