While you will get the fine notice you shouldn’t have to pay it - there is an option to reply with a reason why you shouldn’t be fined and being overseas at the time would count as a legit excuse.

Yep, like in other elections we do have pre poll and postal voting (with a valid reason and you need to apply for postal) but the standard method is turning up on the day. I’m not sure if that has any effect on turnout compared to other states.

Probably less likely than a federal election but I’d still give it decent odds of finding one (particularly if the school is trying to raise funds for something). I can’t remember exactly whether this was during council or state elections but I have turned up to vote before and not found a sausage sizzle.

I think the QLD and NSW options are actually decent, which is surprising for a modern flag redesign. Not sure about the Victorian one, could do with either making the symbol more regular (i.e. less finger paint style) or deleting the crown (too hard to keep details on) and making the stars loosely drawn too. WA seems a decent idea but could do with a cleaner swan rather than the ruffled feathers on the back. The SA idea looks pretty good but does have hints of invading Poland due to the imperial eagle magpie. Tasmania however is another one I could get behind.

Not a real fan of the current ACT/NT flags and I don’t think changing to a wavy line helps them, and the idea for the Jervis Bay territory seems a bit too committee style bland for my liking (like most new flag designs I see mentioned).

Highlights IMO are an amusingly ironic bit of tram signage at 7:20 and a very well timed song at 29:40.

Disappointingly I only saw two clips from Canberra but luckily both involved roundabouts (or faux-abouts) so at least the reputation of the city is intact.

it seems that the smaller the town, the higher the military worship. They may not even have a public toilet, but they will have a military worship statue that seemed to have cost more than all the town to build.

That’s because the vast majority of our towns pre date WW2, and basically every area lost enough people in WW1/WW2 to affect multiple families and the broader local community. For example I grew up in a country village of a couple of hundred people (with several hundred more in the locality and upriver) and it has a war memorial listing what would have been ~50 people killed in WW2 and at least that again in WW1. I think it is understandable that towns (particularly smaller or more closely knit communities) would be in general support of the families and friends wanting a memorial to their dead given that level of losses.

I haven’t seen anywhere near the number of memorials for other conflicts, they definitely exist but are significantly less common. If you want to avoid war related stuff your best bet would be towns/suburbs built well after WW2, but these tend to be suburbs of existing centres (which are likely to have a war memorial) instead of completely new towns.

Edit: Also consider that many of our country towns/villages have either not grown significantly or have even shrunk in population in the last half century or so, so historical memorials are more likely to retain the prominence they were originally intended to have instead of being surrounded or crowded out by new development.

It’s one of these things that logically you know must happen occasionally (and I’ve even seen pictures of it) but still doesn’t seem right.

I am impressed the shark got it out again and didn’t end up with a permanent internal echidna spine collection.

The American inspired variety of sovereign citizen is enough, I don’t think we really need our own special version of the idea.

Fernwood, a women only gym, is allowed to exist.

Because there are sections of the law which allow exemption from the gender discrimination section for various reasons, and they have successfully argued that there are benefits to having a women only gym which are important enough to deserve an exemption (to provide substantive equality). They also only allow women patrons, so men are not charged for a service that is not equally provided.

I don’t really see it as problematic for a discriminated class to seek to foster a space free from those who perpetuate that discrimination

Neither do many other people, which is why such examples as Fernwood have received exemptions from the law and why there is a specific exemption in the laws for both female and male only clubs.

I don’t think it sets a precedent for protected classes to be discriminated against as “art” because men aren’t a class that needs protecting

Allowing discrimination based on gender without substantiating the businesses eligibility for an exemption under the law absolutely would set a precedent for the courts. While you may agree with this particular case of discrimination it is not a good idea to open an opportunity for more discrimination in the future - keep in mind it may not always be the type you agree with.

Good. I think the other option - setting a precedent allowing businesses to skirt discrimination laws by claiming their behaviour was art - would have been a rather poor decision.

The ABC now likes to do clickbait style headlines like that to try and grab attention, it’s a trend that annoys me. They also often rotate through options including a more traditional headline depending on what device you use and what time you access it - currently the headline is showing for me as “Electric car sales in Australia’s outer suburbs take off as commuters pocket ‘ridiculous’ savings”, which while still a bit hyped up is more informative.

British white people have never

As long as you forget about the Irish, the Welsh, and (to a lesser extent IIRC) the Scots - all of whom are white and British.

Changing to a motor which wasn’t originally offered in that model of vehicle definitely needs certification, at least in NSW (other states might be more lenient).

Whenever I see stuff like this I wonder how on earth they managed to get someone to sign off on the engineering certificate. Then again it does say he’s worked in engineering of some varieties so maybe he can self certify.

Quite a lot of people nowadays - at least not at a fluent level. I know I’ve gotten worse at it over time due to rarely requiring to read much of other people’s handwriting or handwrite myself, to the point where even in the reasonably clear example in the article I had to stop and consider a few words. Without experience reading cursive it’s noticeably harder to comprehend compared to printed text, and we’ve now had a whole generation grow up in a world where pretty much everything they read was printed (and usually on a screen at that) rather than handwritten.

I would say most do but some don’t, and with those that do the level of uniform required varies.

My primary school didn’t require uniforms for regular days, though they did have what was called the sports uniform shirt which they preferred kids to wear if away from the school (generally used for sports carnivals with other local schools).

My high school did require uniforms but only really cared about enforcing the uniform shirt and some variety of closed shoe.

The school my youngest sister did years 11-12 at didn’t require uniforms at all, though they probably did care about closed shoes due to safety in science classes etc.

Not a fan of the golden wattle design, it looks like what you’d get if BP asked someone to design them a new flag and do a bit of creative writing to make it sound good.

The Eureka flag could have been a good option in the past but I feel it’s a bit too associated with either unions or cookers these days to be accepted by everyone (would prefer if the cookers gave up on it and left it to the unions).

Modifying the Eureka flag is an idea which I think has a bit of potential but the Great Southern Flag just throws too much at it. Maybe just turning it green and gold and making the stars seven pointed instead of eight would work better.

I kind of like this other design which I found in an image search for alternative flags - fairly simple design (drawable by kids if you’re prepared to put up with wonky kangaroos) using generally recognisable and neutral symbols and I think it looks alright.

The train itself isn’t really the slow part for the XPT, it’s supposed to be able to run up to 160km/h. Knowing that only made it more annoying though when sitting in one chugging along at ~80k (or even slower when hot) up and down the north coast line - like most of our lines that track just wasn’t good enough for it to go faster.

I was vaguely interested in the Matildas for a hot minute when there was a chance of that resulting in a public holiday, I’m sure I could get at least a little bit invested in other sports if public holidays are involved.