No, we are not.

I've lived here 22 years since I was 6, served in the RAN, went to university, lived in QLD, NSW, VIC, rural and city...

There are kind people, yes. Warm people too. But far less as a percentage of the general population.

I just got back after 1 month in Asia. To be fair, I look Asian, but everywhere I go from Vietnam, China, Korea, Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar... people treated me with exceptional warmth BEFORE and ALSO after they realized I was a foreigner. In both high end and places where locals go. When I'm not spending money. When I'm just existing. Rich and poor people. They are just kind. Making space for me on a park bench. Offering me tissues when I'm sweating. Etc

Today is the FIRST day I got back and some old dude called me a bitch for parking my trolley to the side while shopping at Coles. He had so much space to walk, yet somehow found something to bitch about. My gosh, you live in one of the place with one of the highest standards of living and literally having a tantrum, I'm actually ashamed.

Some Aussies are saying it’s taxpayers’ money going to other countries, I don’t understand this. Shouldn’t humanity always come above everything else? Watching those heartbreaking videos of entire communities being swept away is so scary and disturbing.

And Australia isn’t giving away its entire wealth. It’s providing a small amount of financial aid to help people who are going through an unimaginable tragedy. A little compassion can go a long way.

I am a Nepali-born Australian (I might get downvoted because of this). One of my close friend’s dads is missing in that incident, and there are some other people I know who are missing too. The way everything was swept away, I think some bodies will never be recovered. In my opinion, the total death count will be more than 15,000.

My husband went into the CBD today to do some shopping for our little baby. He was genuinely so happy, just going about his day and enjoying being a new dad.
And then, completely out of nowhere, a random man punched him.There was no argument, no interaction beforehand, nothing. Just a completely unprovoked assault.

Thankfully, he is okay and we’ve reported it to the police. We’re currently at the hospital getting him checked as a precaution.But emotionally, it’s really shaken us. Seeing him come home after something like this is heartbreaking. You go about your day thinking you’re safe, doing something as simple as buying things for your baby, and suddenly something like this happens. Experiences like this make you stop and wonder about the anger and hatred that can exist towards complete strangers, and why someone would feel the need to hurt another person for absolutely no reason.
I know one incident doesn’t define a city or a country, and I don’t want to generalise. But today it really scared us.

Please stay safe. ❤️

A shopper walks into a supermarket and grabs a basket. By that time, a camera has scanned their face. 

That is what experts warn could be the new normal for Australians.

Supermarkets started with exit gates and bagging-area cameras. Now they are trialling facial recognition technology.

In August, Coles and Woolworths rolled out facial recognition technology trials in a bid to combat crime with about a third of retail workers not feeling safe in their workplace, according to a union survey of about 3,000 staff.

Last week, Coles reported that incidents of abuse towards retail staff had increased by 85 per cent over the past two years in Victoria.

The technology scans the features of a person's face to create a unique digital code and identify them.

Neither of the supermarket giants has said if it would be rolled out in their Australian stores.

However, both companies said they were looking into improving protection for their customers and staff.

Industry groups say the move is about safety, but experts warn once the technology is installed the "scope creep" does not stop.

'Scope creep'

Scope creep, also known as function creep, is when society incrementally allows things to happen over time that people feel uncomfortable about.

"We let it pass and all of a sudden you see a layering of the technology being used for more privacy-intrusive purposes," said responsible technology policy specialist Lauren Perry from the University of Technology Sydney.

She is concerned face scans could shift from safety and security to customer experience in ways that could disadvantage and harm the consumer.

The layering of new technologies such as face scan-enabled EFTPOS machines and the widespread rollout of digital price tags across supermarkets could tailor the real-life shopping experience.

"I hear people say, 'I don't really care about my personal information that much. It's all over the internet anyway. I've got nothing to hide,'" she said.

"You've only got one face. You can change your password if it gets hacked … but you can't change your face.

Australia has no facial recognition law

Facial recognition technology is one of the biggest privacy risks Australians face today, with almost 90 per cent of the population more concerned about it than they were five years ago, according to a government survey this year.

Australia does not have a dedicated facial recognition law.

Instead, it is governed by the Privacy Act, which does not explicitly ban or permit its use.

Surveillance expert Mark Andrejevic said retail outlets had not been transparent about their use of the technology.

"If they want to put us all in databases there needs to be some very clear guidelines and regulations about how this works," he said.

 "Accuracy and bias ratings for the technology being used should be publicly available and a notification should be provided to people who are included in the database."

Read the full article at abc.net.au.

LOL
I like how some Australian news anchors use Aussie slang even on national television.

First day of Spring, the sky is blue, sun in shining, and cockatoos are humping on my balcony. They enjoyed postcoital snacks afterwards…

Should we put up with these cameras and are they being used for the what they say?

Saw this post in Burpengary East which is north of Brisbane city, today it had three cameras on it a Wi-Fi antenna and a disc looking camera thing as well and this is the text it had on it. Have you seen one of these before?

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Examples are Australian scenery, wildlife or tourist attractions.

You can either post them as comments here or make a standalone post with the tag [Wonderful Wednesday].

Now I've mentioned it you will see it everywhere, I reckon 50% of public toilets I visit have an empty bottle of water (usually nu water) sitting next to the toilet...

I used to clean campsite toilets for work, I would have to pick up bottles of water DAILY from toilet cubicles.

I used to write it off as some lazy prick just dumping rubbish but it's too common to be a once off, I've seen it everywhere from the city centre to highway rest stops

Do people use them as bides or something? Who even buys bottled water

I was slowly approaching a small roundabout in the suburbs, I was the only car coming from this direction, nobody behind me. Next thing the car already in the roundabout stopped to give way to me, this was only a young driver. Stunted I was just looking at them wondering what is going on here.
Next minute I’m hearing tyres squealing because the roll on affect of this driver stopping was causing problems behind with people not expecting a roundabout to stop.
So thinking quickly I went, perhaps I was wrong in doing so but in that split second I thought, if I go then this car will go as they no longer needed to give way to me.
I have no idea what happened next because I was gone.
I was in disbelief at what I had just witnessed and actually been implicated in by no fault of my own.
I have said for many years and I still firmly believe this to be a solution to situations like this one and many others.
If police see an act of stupidity that didn’t cause an accident or injury to anyone but certainly had the potential to do so they should be pulled over and given an order.
The person isn’t being fined by police, but what they do need to do is attend and pass a driver training course that focuses on correct road use, on every road rule, on all these kinds of everyday situations that drivers need to know when using the road.
Now the “fine” part of it so to speak is they need to pay for this course and pay again for as many times as they need to do it to pass.
They need to be given a time period of when it needs to be completed by and that could be governed by the stupidity of the incident that was observed by police, be it 30, 60, or 90 days. If they have been unsuccessful in passing this test within this period then their licence is suspended until they do pass it.
Please don’t comment that they should know this stuff to get their license in the first place, I know that, you know that and we all agree about that. I think it would be very fair to say that we have all witnessed things done by other drivers when we thought to ourselves, how did you ever get a licence.
These people are the target here, it can only make our roads safer and reduce accidents and injuries.
What’s your thoughts, can this and would this kind of system work?

Tbh, the whole social media ban is a total joke but including YouTube in it shows how out of touch these boomers in parliament really are. Seriously, aren’t we supposed to live in a free country? With free speech and stuff? And yet the government is going to control what websites and apps I use and what content I want to watch? It’s ridiculous.

The world has changed. Young people are not going to go out and start reading newspapers or watching free to air TV. Social media is where we get our information. Our news. It’s our connection to each other and to the outside world. If the government is going to cut that off, they are literally cutting us off from the entire world.

At school YouTube is one of the most important resources we have to learn about the world. We literally have the world at our fingertips and the government wants to bring it all crashing down. Total joke. Luckily they don’t understand technology at all and the ban will never work anyway.

Reading about Zane getting his compensation claim rejected because of that "14-day rule" technicality is just classic Transport Victoria. It reminds me of the massive crater at the corner of Williams and Dandenong Road. That pothole has been there so long it’s practically a local landmark. The department claims they inspect these major roads every fortnight, but inspectors must be driving past with their eyes closed. That hole has literally outlasted multiple prime ministers.

https://www.nine.com.au/australia-news/vic/pothole-victoria-university-student-compensation-claim-denied-reason-exclusive-20260824-p60qxq.html

Are there any brands that you associate thongs with?

Bonds have the singlet, Hard Yakka has work clothes, is there a good Australia thong equivalent?

Billabong or Ripcurl maybe?

Thanks

Oh boiiieee... Here we go again. I am sure this whole thing was planned as a joke that they thought wouldn't go this far. Yet here we are.

Here is Channel 7's post about the missing people in the Nepal tragedy, look at the comments on it. I find it a very sad state of affairs in Australia. They are all Australians of different descent. Everyone in Australia (other than Aboriginal people) is a migrant. They came here either 200 years ago or 2 years ago.

Aussie, Aussie, Aussie !

The "Bond's Flying Roos" just trounced everyone at the Rolex Sail GP in Germany ~!

Awesome sailing.

Funny moment...The live commentary can broadcast the team comments live as they race...

Aussie skipper, "The wind speeds fine, the wind is FUCKED !"

Nervous commentary, " I think he said, "The wind instruments are stuffed ..."

Nah, he's Aussie. He most certainly said the first comment.

Congrats to our Aussie team. The elements were vicious in the final but I guess Sydney Heads prepared them for everything.

Our neighbour Kiwis had some blistering semi finals but really botched it in the final.

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Labor MP Anika Wells is under fire for trying to explain Australia’s housing crisis with Ooshies.

In a video shared to both her Instagram and Facebook accounts, the Communications Minister used the Woolworths promotional toys to answer the question, “What do (Ooshies) and the Australian housing market have in common?”, which she asked while holding a figurine of Buzz Lightyear.

Actually melted? #YETI AU

Good morning all!

Has anyone noticed that Shapes have now been skimped? I've had BBQ and Savoury flavours this week and I've noticed that they are a little smaller, thinner and even less seasoning on them.

More and more products are losing quality, even I've noticed this with Cheezels!

I feel that I no longer desire to have these snacks, and probably a good thing for health.

Is thing now a thing, or have I just got a bad a batch?

Yes I paid it and yes I’m part of the problem, uber is cooked. But when did we get to the point where delivery for a couple burgers, one chips and three pieces of chicken is closer 100 bucks than $50?

Is there a solution? What causes this? I’m an economic dummy, explain.