eureka

You're right, I didn't mean to say they're not at fault for shooting people. What I meant to say was that we shouldn't get tunnel-vision either and assume that officers just need better training or vetting to make sure they don't miss or don't shoot as early.

Be cool if they could do something about the amount of gambling ads attached to sports. But no, it must be video games that are bad.

Yes. And on the other hand, the video game loot boxes are gambling itself, ads are bad enough.

The problem is the disproportionate force. The police should not be using those weapons. If an officer panicking goes this badly, we shouldn't be blaming that officer or the protest. The problem is that police were firing bullets into a protest, at all. That this was a plan they had on the table for this situation, and they're clearly happy with this plan.

Reminder: no out-of-area ('absent') votes in this election.

Council elections may not the be most exciting I find them much more interesting, because while my vote is still statistically negligible, it's much more powerful than in a state or federal election. So less popular choices have a higher chance of competing.

Unfortunately* it feels like most of my local candidates have almost identical policies, so my second and third preferences might as well be a coin flip. At least I know who's going last.

[Premier Jacinta Allan] also defended the state government's sponsorship of the Land Forces conference, and said delegates attending the event had the right to gather.

"Any industry deserves the right to have these sort of events in a peaceful and respectful way."

When your industry is undeniably dedicated to murder and maim, you don't deserve peace (or, for that matter, respect).

Rubber bullets are especially concerning. Many of us saw the damage they did to journalists and protestors who were shot with them in the US protests by police a few years ago.

Hi OP, when quoting the article in your post, it's helpful to use the quote formatting to show us you're giving quotes and not just supplying additional commentary.

Writing: > You need to only look at the modern crossbench

becomes:

You need to only look at the modern crossbench

Sounds like something out of a futuristic dystopian movie.

spoiler

I haven't seen a terrorism act invoked in my state but police have called a few designated areas this year and they bring the cavalry mounted troops to most protests.

I’m calling it now. Somebody’s gonna die or get seriously injured

Big ten-thousands protests generally try to be more big-tent than radical, so as eager as police are to make a show of force against anti-military protesters, my bet is that it will be limited to shoving. But honestly, I won't be shocked if your call turns out right.

There's a point made about how no courts were involved in the action. In wonder if the High Court has a pragmatic interest in stopping this kind of summary action. If the courts can be bypassed, what power will they have?

Seriously, watching that interview is a little painful with all the interrupting to try and railroad the conversation, and attaching weird attacks and assertions to make loaded questions, or rather, framing a claim as a question. I haven't seen it so bad outside of Faux News in the US.

Glad to hear Max got a quick mention of the Green Bans of the BLF in.

So their argument is:

No, that's not what they were saying. For starters, they're clearly pointing out that the hypocrisy is that "The CFMEU [is being forced into administration] on the back of a handful of rumours and allegations", contrasting that against the "damning findings" of the Royal commissions which were tolerated, not that the CFMEU "should be allowed to be corrupt" (where did that strawman come from?!). Also, the ETU are not the CFMEU.

That would miss the point of the protest. It was a mass action from the community, where a broad range of unions and non-union organisations participated, to rally together and voice our response to the extreme administration bills. I've gone into a little detail on my perspective here. Overall, we must recognise the way this bill was handled as a knowingly-inappropriate response to the situation and a threat to the whole labour movement.

In case I need to state it, I'm not defending corruption, I'm not saying that there aren't people who should be charged and removed. There are real problems with the CFMEU and the members should be empowered to root it out of their union. Putting in a dictator with huge conflicts of interest with the workers is not how to do that. That's how to union-bust.

and protest outside of federal liberal party headquarters demanding equal action on political corruption

The Liberal party didn't do this. The protest is critiquing the Labor party and their attack on the labour movement.

The Liberal party also probably couldn't care less about the protesters, might as well be vegans threatening to boycott a butcher. Union reps are a major component of the Labor party, and union rank-and-file are a large part of their voter support base.