u/Jimbuscus

Source: Back to Back Barries

>Barrie Cassidy and Tony Barry deliver their verdict on Budget week – including the opposition leader, Angus Taylor’s focus on reducing migration numbers to solve the housing crisis. They also discuss Pauline Hanson’s soon-to-be-released energy policy.

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>The government’s instinct is right: passive property investors extracting wealth from a broken housing market through negative gearing and CGT concessions should not be subsidised. That case is iron-clad.

>But business builders are not the same category. Someone who started an agency from nothing, employed thirty people for a decade, paid their taxes every quarter, and sold it is not the same as someone who bought five investment properties and waited for them to appreciate. Treating them identically in the tax code is a category error — and it has real consequences for the industries that actually create jobs, IP, and export revenue. ~Mumbrella

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Do you believe that the upcoming Capital Gains Tax changes should effect all asset classes, or just real estate?

Source: If You're Listening, u/abcnews_au. This is part two of How did Palantir get so powerful?

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>“Governments in this country are rushing to sign contracts with Palantir despite a growing public backlash and with zero clarity about what data they are giving to this multinational threat,”

>“We should be deeply concerned when [Palantir] is embedded in institutions across Australia and vacuuming up ever more sensitive datasets.”

>Senator David Shoebridge said a blanket ban on new Australian government contracts with US tech company Palantir would be ‘sensible’, adding there was ‘zero clarity about what data [governments] are giving’. ~Guardian

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>Companies and government departments, including Coles, RioTinto, Westpac, the Victorian Department of Justice and Department of Defence have chosen to work with Palantir.

>This is particularly worrying given the gaps in our current privacy protections. While Michelle Rowland continues to deny us stronger privacy laws, she allows Australians to be exposed to data misuse and excessive surveillance.

>Palantir collects data in Australia but is unrestricted in where it stores the data and who it allows to access it. As a U.S. based company, Palantir is subject to American laws that allow access to foreign data. Australians need to be able to protect our sensitive information. ~digitalrightswatch.org.au

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Source: ABC Instagram, u/abcnews_au.

>The government has handed down its federal budget, which details how it plans to spend and make money over the next year. Measures include putting money back in workers' pockets and tightening tax loopholes for investors.

>Negative gearing will be restricted and the 50% capital gains discount is also changing. From July 2027, investors will instead owe tax on any gains made beyond inflation, and a 30% minimum tax rate will apply to all gains.

>The discount allowing investors to avoid paying tax on half their gains will still be an option to those buying a new build.

Source: ABC Instagram, u/abcnews_au.

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>Dr Karl is an Australian science communicator and populariser, who is known as an author and a science commentator on Australian radio, television, and podcasts.

>He received the 2025 NSW Senior Australian of the Year for inspiring millions with his science storytelling, tackling misinformation and making complex ideas accessible. ~Wikipedia

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Source: Instagram

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>Lambay Island, in the Irish Sea off the coast of County Dublin, has been owned by the Baring family since 1904. Rupert Baring introduced the first wallabies to the island in the 1950s, but the population really took off after seven more were shipped over from Dublin Zoo who had a surplus of the marsupials in the 1980s.

>The red-necked wallabies began to breed and currently their numbers are estimated to be anywhere from 60 to somewhere in the hundreds. While the species is clearly not native to Ireland, the Republic's National Biodiversity Data Centre, which monitors invasive species says "it is extremely unlikely this population could expand to the mainland".

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>The wallabies breed well, and some moderate culling is required to keep the population under control. ~Wikipedia

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Source: 10News

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>The town of Alice Springs lies near Australia’s geographic center, in a region often called the “Red Centre” for the rusty hue of its desert landscape. After weeks of heavy rainfall in February and March 2026, however, vast areas of desert and surrounding mountains turned lush and green.

>As of late March, more extreme weather was on the way for Australia with the approach of Tropical Cyclone Narelle. Bureau of Meteorology forecasts called for severe storm impacts to reach northern Queensland by late on March 19 or March 20. Flooding watches and warnings also extended inland, including to Alice Springs, where past storms have already saturated river catchments. ~NASA

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Source: If You're Listening, u/abcnews_au.

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>In a three-year deal, Coles plans to deploy Palantir's tools across more than 840 supermarkets to cut costs and "redefine how we think about our workforce".

>First, by inking this deal, Coles frames itself as future-forward and logistically driven. Groceries and grocery-store labour become more data, just like the hedge funds, healthcare, or immigrants that other Palantir clients coordinate.

>Much like Apple or Amazon, Palantir's services excel at creating "vendor lock-in", a perfect walled garden that clients find hard to leave. This pattern suggests that, over the next three years, Coles will increasingly depend on Silicon Valley technology to understand and manage its own business. A company that sells a quarter of Australia's groceries may become operationally reliant on a US tech titan. ~ABC

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>In Australia, state and federal contracts with Palantir have reached nearly $80m, and federal investment in the company is reportedly more than $160m.

>“Governments in this country are rushing to sign contracts with Palantir despite a growing public backlash and with zero clarity about what data they are giving to this multinational threat,”

>Asked about calls for Palantir to be banned from conducting business with the government in Australia in light of the manifesto published on X and its association with ICE, a spokesperson for the company said it was proud its software supports the Australian defence force and other government agencies in their work to keep Australians safe and tackle financial crime. ~Guardian

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Source: 9News

>Australia will find out whether Pauline Hanson's ambition to be a major force in politics can be realised in the key Farrer by-election. But who exactly is running One Nation show as the Chief of Staff, James Ashby, ushers the ABC crew out of the building, and Senator Hanson expresses displeasure with this intervention.

Source: Tom Gleeson

>Skithouse (styled skitHOUSE) was an Australian sketch comedy television series that ran on Network Ten from 2003 to 2004. The series was produced by Roving Enterprises. It featured many well-known Australian comedians, including comedy-band Tripod.

>The title name itself is a pun on the colloquialism "shithouse". ~Wikipedia

Source: 10 News

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>Friday 8 May will mark the 100th birthday of the world’s most beloved natural film maker and conservationist, Sir David Attenborough.

>Throughout his 100 years, Sir David has embarked on countless remarkable journeys, uncovering and revealing the wonders of the nature across the planet for us to discover. ~ABC, u/abcnews_au.

>In explaining his position, Mr Katter quoted part of Alexander Pope's 18th Century poem The Rape of the Lock - "Belinda smiled, and all the world was gay" - and said he now felt a "beautiful image" had been "taken". ~BBC

Source: ABC YouTube. u/abcnews_au.

>Oil prices fell after Donald Trump posted that Project Freedom in the Strait of Hormuz will be paused before it began because progress towards a lasting ceasefire in Iran is underway. This prompted the US share market to hit another record high, along with global markets. The Australian market followed the US with gains led by data centres, banks, and miners.

Source: Instagram

>Anyone who lived in Melbourne in the 1990s and watched television will still have this tasteful catchphrase squatting somewhere in their head. One of life’s cruellest earworms. ~medium

Source: Four Corners, u/abcnews_au.

>Police across Australia have embraced tasers over the past two decades.

>The weapons are meant to be a safer way to stop dangerous situations, without taking a life.

>But people are still dying.

>This week Four Corners reveals the secretive tactics behind investigations into controversial deaths, and the role played by the device’s manufacturer, Axon.

>Reported by Grace Tobin from the ABC’s investigative reporting team, Taser Tactics features an in-depth interview with the family of 95-year-old Clare Nowland, who died after being tasered in a nursing home in 2023, as well as shocking footage of a farmer being tasered within seconds of a police encounter on private property.

>For the first time, the program examines how a multibillion-dollar US tech giant has made itself indispensable to police in every state and territory.

>At its core, Taser Tactics asks a simple question: when something goes wrong after a taser is used, who decides what actually happened?

Source: ABC Instagram

>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is preparing to break an election commitment and overhaul property tax perks in this month's budget, to give younger Australians a "fair crack" at owning their own homes. ~ABC

Source: Hey Hey It's Saturday | YouTube

>Carl Barron delivers his relaxed ,laconic, observational comedy like only Carl can. This from Episode 7, 1999.

>Hey Hey It's Saturday is a long-running variety television program on Australian television. It initially ran for 28 years on the Nine Network from 9 October 1971 to 20 November 1999, with a recess in 1978. Its host throughout its entire run was Daryl Somers. ~Wikipedia

>Valve has confirmed the Steam Controller price and release date, while promising to announce news on the hotly anticipated Steam Machine soon.

>Steam Controller launches on May 4 priced $99. We also have regional pricing: C$149 / €99 / £85 / A$149 / 449 PLN.

>In a note to IGN, Valve said “pricing varies by region due to distribution costs, import duties/tariffs, and market conditions.”

Source:ABC YouTube, u/abcnews_au.

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>Australian Bushmaster armoured vehicles are being sent to the Netherlands following a request by the Dutch government.

>A fleet of troop carriers has been sold to the Netherlands, building on the country's existing Bushmaster fleet. 

>The sale comes as the Australian government commits $1.2 billion towards 268 new Bushmasters, as well as upgraded army trucks and smaller Hawkei tactical vehicles. Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said $750 million would go specifically to building the more than 250 Bushmasters in Bendigo. ~ABC

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Source: 9News Instagram

>Shocking video has emerged of a woman clinging to the bonnet of a moving car during an apparent road rage incident on the Gold Coast.

>Natalie Alice Shaw, 22, was pulling into a car park in July when she claimed another woman was driving the wrong way and blocking her vehicle.

>Security vision shows Shaw's red car eventually pulling into a drive-thru, where she was confronted by the woman, who tried to open her door.

>The woman then jumped onto the bonnet of the car before Shaw proceeded to drive out of the car park and onto Olsen Avenue in Molendinar, a busy main road with a 60km/h speed limit.

>The woman clung to the windscreen wipers, telling Shaw to "slow the f--- down" before eventually falling off the side. ~9News

The driver was disqualified from driving for six months.