u/Important_Let2828

I used to love these guys. I was lucky enough to see them right at the beginning of their careers - just Dan, Pat, and their big inflatable rubber tyre, playing shows for Thickfreakness and Rubber Factory.

The recent albums have been okay, but with it being over a decade since they last toured down under, I'm wondering if anyone else is losing interest in this long-distance relationship?

I don’t love Pauline Hanson, and I don’t agree with everything she says, but I reckon she has a point when she says the balance between worker protections and small business risk has shifted too far.

Running a small business in Australia is bloody hard, and I don’t think many people fully understand how exposed business owners are compared to employees.

Take something like a WorkCover claim. For an employee, there is generally very little financial barrier to lodging a claim.

From the small business side, though, the impact can be massive. The employee may be off work and receiving payments, while the business still has to cover the workload, often by hiring a contractor, freelancer or casual support, as well as dealing with paperwork, advice and potential legal costs.

And if the claim is ultimately found to be baseless, the employee has still been able to lodge it at little personal cost and with relatively little downside, while the business has absorbed the disruption, stress and expense, with the owners likely carrying most of the risk.

Pauline suggests, the ledger needs to be balanced. If someone makes a flimsy claim, or a claim that is ultimately knocked back because it isn’t really the employer’s fault, there should be some mechanism for them to contribute to all or part of the cost the business has been forced to wear.

The latest budget is just another step toward pulling the ladder up behind older generations.

There’s already been plenty of discussion around negative gearing and how the proposed changes only benefit people who were old enough, wealthy enough, or early enough to take advantage of it.

Now we have the proposed CGT changes as well.

Starting a business already involves enormous personal and financial risk. Running and keeping said business afloat requires you to manage debt, stress, wages, superannuation, PAYG withholding, company tax, GST, payroll tax, WorkCover, insurance, compliance, accounting, legal costs, and the constant risk that it all falls over anyway.

And after all that, if you actually build something valuable, the government wants a bigger slice of the upside.

Why would anyone bother anymore?

This government seeks to reward only those who already built wealth under far more favourable settings, while the rest of Australia is stifled and beaten down.

Simply put, we’re looking down the barrel of an Australia that is financially and entrepreneurially impoverished - a country that no longer innovates or rewards people for taking risks… or as Albo puts it, for ‘having a go’.

What the government is proposing must be wonderful news for those who own investment properties.

Aside from it being a political play, why protect this group who are the most financially comfortable and wealthy?

This is just another mechanism for widening the divide between the haves and have-nots. It doesn't benefit the broader population, it protects the wealthy and is instead another barrier for those battling to get a leg up.

Hi all,

I am curious to learn how others are using AI to expedite their design process. I'm not talking about using Claude, GPT and anything else to generate initial design ideas - I'm talking about how, after you have created some solid, creative and well-designed concepts you translate initial design work across the remainder of pages (desktop and mobile).

We are using Relume inside Figma, but the roadblock we are struggling to get around is how we can quickly apply the design work done and approved (e.g. home page, key features, core functional items, interesting UI components) more broadly?

This is a massive time sink for us, but can't figure out a truly usable way to make this work.

Has anyone cracked this?

Agency owners, creative directors and designers - keen to hear how everyone is optimising their design workflow with AI.

I think most of us would agree that the highest-value part of our work is identifying and designing the key interactions, features and moments that define the website experience. That’s where the creative effort should go.

But then there’s the long tail of every project:

• content-heavy internal pages
• utility templates
• lower-traffic sections
• repetitive mobile adaptations
• endless layout variations

Traditionally, these still consume a huge amount of time.

Curious how others are approaching this now with AI-assisted workflows.

For example:

• Are you designing the core pages/features manually, then using tools like Relume to generate the remaining layouts?
• Are you designing the primary modules/components first, then swapping those into AI-generated wireframes/layouts in Figma?
• Are you relying more heavily on design systems + AI-generated structure?
• Are you generating mobile layouts automatically?
• Or are there completely different workflows emerging that are actually working in practice?

The key challenge for me is finding a workflow that:
a) still delivers thoughtful, comprehensive design work
b) gets approved by clients without endless revision
c) transitions cleanly into development
d) doesn’t bury senior designers in low-value production work

Feels like there’s a huge opportunity to shift effort away from repetitive page production and toward the thinking, systems and interactions that actually create value.

Would genuinely love to hear how other studios/teams are handling this.

I’m interested in whether anyone has seen (or is running) agency models that are genuinely different — not just “faster agile” or slightly tweaked retainers, but something that really breaks from the usual way we deliver and charge for work.

Recently heard about a brand agency delivering 5-figure brand projects in ~3 days by:

• having multiple designers working simultaneously in a shared Figma file
• no real “phases” or handoffs
• compressing weeks of work into a few intense days

It made me wonder how far this kind of approach can go, particularly in web/digital projects, which are usually slower, more structured, and dependency-heavy.

Has anyone come across or tried things like:

• collapsing discovery/design/dev into a single compressed sprint
• real-time collaboration instead of async feedback loops
• billing models that aren’t milestone or retainer based (e.g. fixed sprint, outcome-based, value-based, etc.)
• removing traditional approval gates entirely

Not looking for incremental improvements — more interested in:
What are the most unconventional / “this shouldn’t work but does” models you’ve seen?

Would love to hear:

• examples (your own or others)
• how clients reacted
• what actually worked vs what fell apart

Feels like there’s probably a different way to do this that most of us just haven’t leaned into yet.

Hey all,

Keen to hear from other agency owners, particularly those in Australia, on what’s actually working right now.

We’ve been running for ~20 years. Team has typically sat around 10–14 people for the last few years, but we’ve pulled that back slightly recently as work has softened.

What we’re seeing at the moment:

• More projects being delayed or put on hold
• Longer decision cycles
• Fewer inbound enquiries
• General hesitation from clients to commit to larger builds

On the flip side:

• We’ve stayed pretty sharp operationally (constantly refining process, not just coasting)
• We’ve embraced AI internally to improve efficiency and reduce low-value work
• We do a mix of:
  • WordPress marketing sites (lower end)
  • Custom dev / larger builds
  • SaaS-style / platform work (increasing focus)

We’ve historically relied almost entirely on referrals and inbound, and haven’t really “marketed” ourselves in any structured way. Feels like that now needs to change.

We’re also seeing a number of agencies shut down over the last 12–24 months. Our view is that if we can ride this out, there’s a strong position on the other side… but that could take time.

A large portion of our work is project-based. We do have some retainer/maintenance and hosting revenue, but it’s not the dominant model.

One thing we’re finding challenging:
We’re strong strategically, but converting that into ongoing retainers — especially with existing clients — has been difficult.

Would really value insight on:

• What are you doing right now that is actually generating leads?
• Has anyone had real success with LinkedIn ads? Or is it mostly brand burn?
• Are outbound efforts (email, partnerships, direct outreach) working better than paid?
• Are you repositioning offers (smaller entry points, audits, phased projects, etc.)?
• For those with stronger retainer models:
  • Have you been successful converting project clients into ongoing retainers?
  • What was the hook / value proposition that made it stick?
  • How are you positioning ongoing strategy so clients actually see and buy into it?

Not looking for theory — more what’s genuinely working (or not) in the current climate.

Appreciate any insights 👍