The federal government will spend $4 million on a study to see if it can build a new oil refinery in Western Australia, which could be the nation's first such new facility in six decades.

Ed Husic’s push for Labor to recognise claims of a genocide against Israel has failed amid resistance from factional powerbrokers, prompting the backbencher to criticise the party’s culture under Anthony Albanese.

On Saturday, the former industry minister said he doesn’t “give a shit” if senior colleagues freeze him out for constantly breaking ranks, and vowed to keep speaking about contentious issues.

Two hours later, the party’s 50th national conference wrapped up without any major fights after a potential row over Israel and Palestine never materialised.

Instead, there was a staged moment of unity for Labor, with MPs Josh Burns, who is Jewish, and Basem Abdo, the son of Palestinian refugees, to jointly support an update to the party’s foreign platform to reflect the government’s position on Israel, Palestine and Hamas.

Streaming services, where more than half of Australians now watch sport, will be allowed to run unlimited gambling ads during every break, any time of day. Television keeps the current rules. Streaming doesn't. It also does nothing about sign-up bonuses like "bet $10, get $50 in bonus bets," which researchers say are among the most effective ways to hook people into compulsive gambling.

Three years ago, an all-party parliamentary inquiry recommended something much simpler: phase out gambling advertising altogether. That recommendation was unanimous. This bill [the current govt introduced] doesn't deliver it.

The Greens and the Coalition, who agree on almost nothing, have sent the bill to a Senate inquiry rather than wave it through. That inquiry is taking public submissions right now.

We're building a GetUp submission made up of members' names and comments, calling on the inquiry to recommend the full ban Murphy proposed. Add your name, and if you want to say why this matters to you, there's space for that too.

Great article. This is just for starts:

I have been watching and listening to the livestream broadcast of the Public Inquiry into AUKUS. Truthfully, I have been doing more than watching. As a board member of the Australian Peace and Security Forum, which is supporting the Inquiry, I have been hanging on every piece of evidence, every presentation, every media story.

The presentations and evidence offered have been nothing less than extraordinary and deeply disturbing. For instance, when former Defence Minister, Linda Reynolds, was asked at the hearing in Fremantle – good on her for appearing – whether she thought having nuclear submarines stationed near Fremantle would make Fremantle more of a nuclear target, her answer was clear. “Of course it would.”

When, later in the day, Dr Colin Hughes, former head of Public Health in Perth, spoke about what would happen in the event of a nuclear accident, he described how the tanks holding contaminated water would be breached, with radiation spewing into the ocean, poisoning the seagrass beds and the ecology for thousands of years.

In short:

About 300 people, including many who travelled in from interstate, have protested against joint Australian-US defence facility Pine Gap in Alice Springs.

The rally was the biggest protest to be held at the secretive facility since 1987.

Protesters called for Pine Gap to be closed and for the land to be returned to the Arrernte people, with traditional owners delivering a letter to the base's front gates.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/49761199

If you have been wondering about the effectiveness of the social media ban of under 15 year olds, this study got you :)

Spoiler: 92%+ of kids age 14-15 in Australia still use it 🥳

Meanwhile IMO forced verification of users had a much better success rate 😉

Source: https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w35162/w35162.pdf

On Monday Rubio’s team issued a statement announcing ‘a sweeping campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court to US sovereignty.’ The campaign ‘will feature a whole-of-government response to systematically disable the ICC’s ability to operate, target American servicemen or officials, or otherwise threaten American sovereignty.’

In other words, if you are in the US government and committing war crimes, aiding Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, or facilitating crimes against humanity, you won’t see a jail cell even if the evidence against you is overwhelming.

If Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping or the smarter-than-Trump Iranian leadership put out a statement such as this, western politicians, media and commentators would be outraged. They would fulminate about universal human rights and that China, Iran and Russia are rogue states. But because this is Washington, the response is muted at best in Paris, London, Berlin and don’t forget Canberra...

In Tehran, Beijing and Moscow they rightly call out the double standards of the west and we take no notice. But we should because the Trump Administration is committed to ensuring that its military can kill civilians, bomb hospitals, abuse women and children and starve the population if that fits the bill.