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David Poyner

@davidpoyner.bsky.social
434 followers 1.2K following 98 posts

🦘Environmental qualifications, but now a retired IT professional. Gardener of Australian native plants. PoGo player, Dog Dad. Lives on Barngarla country.

PostsRepliesMedia
Reposted by David Poyner
Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 13h
The richest man owns X. The second richest man owns The Washington Post. The third and fifth richest men control Google. The sixth richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. And the eighth richest man now owns both Paramount and Warner Bros. See the problem here?
bbc.com
Paramount takes over Warner Bros in $110bn Hollywood merger
The merger of two of Hollywood's biggest movie studios comes after months of legal disputes and concern over competition
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Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
My latest for @deepcutnews.bsky.social on the we need less govt spending folk who pay no tax. open.substack.com/pub/deepcutn...
open.substack.com
News Corp, Santos, Kogan paid $0 in tax. But sure, let’s blame ‘government spending’ - Greg Jericho
The Coalition want to cut already-underfunded social and health services, while staying silent on the corporations paying nothing
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Tim Lyons @picketer.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
At some point we need to conclude that the waste, fraud and poor / bad outcomes for people is a feature, not a bug of voucher-based delivery of social services. It flows directly from the mode of economic organisation of the programs in their current forms. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10...
abc.net.au
They built a business empire that cashes in on veterans. It's made millions
The companies in the VBA network have made millions turning veterans into valuable sales leads on an industrial scale.
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ashley fairbanks @ziibiing.com · 05/10/2026
this is my favorite example ever of an interactive clearly, creatively illustrated concept
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Eleonore @eleonore.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
"Anything worth remembering came from a person who did not know where she or he was going until arriving. No shortcut gets you there: the process leaves a trace."
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nick @unionnick.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
On the *same day* the Cornell Seven drugged and raped Jane Doe, Cornell banned four students (including the President of Cornell JVP) from campus for three years for nonviolent, pro-Palestine protests. The same Cornell officials let the rapists off with apology essays.
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Dr Tracy Westerman AM @drtracywesterman.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 23/09/2026
Centre-right pro-fossil governments in Australia will only take one lesson from this: you can hold any piece of policy hostage for the purpose fattening the already bloated wallets of sleazy carbon traders and worsening the scammy fake regulation of the worst polluters. Absolutely grim shit.
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Luiza Jarovsky, PhD @luizajarovsky.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Norwegian humor is on another level. Here's how the Norwegian Consumer Council explained @doctorow.pluralistic.net's concept of 'enshittification':
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Adam Becker @adambecker.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
@aoc.bsky.social just put out a great statement on AI. Refreshing to see a major politician on the left nail this. "Silicon Valley billionaires want us to believe that Al robots will destroy humanity. But the biggest threat to humanity are the tech oligarchs themselves." 🎯
Charles,

Last weekend, Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, one of the largest Al companies in the world, publicly asked his industry to slow down Al development.

Shortly after, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAl, followed suit. Then Elon Musk.

This all came days after an Anthropic researcher quit, citing his belief that this technology could wipe out humanity and that Al companies are "gambling with our lives."

For years, people have warned that generative Al could slip out of our direct control.

Those safety concerns must be taken seriously.

And this is why I have advocated for strict safety standards on how Al is built and deployed, public oversight over this technology, and using existing laws to hold these companies accountable when they cause harm.

But I want to draw your attention to another reality: Right now, the U.S. economy and our financial futures are riding on Silicon Valley's bet that Al will soon be immensely profitable and pay off. And that bet isn't looking good.

The formula for a profitable business isn't complicated: make more money than you spend. But the biggest Al companies aren't doing that. They are spending hundreds of billions per year on data centers, chips, and other costs while their ability to make revenues that exceed their already-immense sunk costs are unclear. Experts estimate that these Al companies will require another $600 billion of debt just to financethemselves in 2026 alone. That is more than the entire budgets of the U.S. Departments of Justice, Transportation, & Education combined.
Meanwhile, despite almost every single one of these companies not turning a profit & having sunk billions of investor dollars in development of data centers & other infrastructure, Al companies are also on a spending spree of hundreds of millions of dollars in lobbying & dark money in our elections.
It would be one thing if we were discussing a few private companies with a poor business model. But last year, virtually all stock market gains - 80% - rested entirely on just a handful of Al companies.
That tells us two things:
1. Nearly the entire U.S. economy outside the Al industry is relatively stagnating and faring poorly & the gains from these few companies are disguising it; &
2. Millions of people's retirements - including their pensions, 401ks, & investments - are potentially exposed to this risk.
That's why these Al companies' dubious financial positions matter to working people.
These companies argue that debt is necessary. They'll tell you that building transformative technologies requires upfront capital, & that massive borrowing today will pay off in generating unprecedented prosperity tomorrow.
But this is not the typical debt that startups take on while they build out a company. We are talking about billions going on trillions of dollars leveraged with no indication that these companies will be able to recoup these funds profitably. And they are increasingly looking to the government as their source of cash.
In an effort to hide their debt, tech companies have been relying on "circular financing" where tech giants like Google, Amazon, & Microsoft give billions to Al startups like OpenAl & Anthropic, only for those startups to hand that money right back to buy Al processing power.
In other words, these Al companies are luring in new investors by making it look like their financials are healthier than they really are.What's even worse is that retirement & pension funds are key to supporting this illusion.
When the Al companies issue bonds to raise more money, your pension funds & retirement accounts are some of the biggest buyers. When Musk's Al business went public, it became part of index funds where millions of Americans invest our savings. Many Americans don't even know that their retirement investments are tied up in these companies at all.
From Big Tech's perspective, that's a feature, not a bug. By tying our futures to their reckless gambling, Al billionaires are trying to make themselves too big to fail. They think they can take such dangerous risks because we will bail them out if things go wrong.
Sound familiar? This scene is dangerously reminiscent of the rampant speculation, corruption, & broken incentives leading up to the 2008 financial crisis that plunged millions of working class Americans into financial chaos that we never fully recovered from.
It is no accident that these warnings from Altman & Amodei come months-if not weeks-before these companies were meant to go public.
When companies go public, they have to be more transparent about how they are doing financially. And after a waiting period, they typically have to let private investors-like their own employees-sell their shares.
The New York Times recently confirmed that OpenAl has postponed going public for this very reason. They are in no rush for the truth about their finances to come out.
But the moment these oligarchs began to seek our public tax dollars & public contracts while exposing their companies to public pension funds & investments, they opened themselves to public accountability & scrutiny.
Silicon Valley billionaires have rigged the game & are attempting to shift their financial risk to working people: If they're right about Al's potential, they reap the profits. If they're wrong & the bubble bursts, they are setting up the American people to pick up the tab.
Heads, they win; tails, we lose.We can stop this, and we shouldn't play their game. Together we can address both the economic and safety threats of unrestricted Al development and prevent financial chaos and stabilize market risk.

We must make it clear now that should the Al bubble pop, Congress should not bail out Big Tech.

And across our federal agencies, we have the authorities and tools to hold Al companies and their leaders accountable for releasing dangerous, unvetted, and defective products. We must not wait.

Silicon Valley billionaires want us to believe that Al robots will destroy humanity.

But the biggest threat to humanity are the tech oligarchs themselves.

It's time we hold them accountable.

Thank you for reading.

In solidarity,

Alexandria
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Mr.Kranky @mrkranky.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
pearlsandirritations.com
The Big Steal: Paul Barry probes how steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta hoodwinked the powerful
Paul Barry’s 'The Big Steal' traces the wreckage left by Sanjeev Gupta and Lex Greensill – and the bankers, regulators, politicians and journalists whose credulity helped them along the way.
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Nathalie Maréchal, PhD @nathaliemarechal.net · 17/09/2026
So you just learned about the AI cult, huh? Here is the longform explainer you need to make sense of the very, very strange ideas driving tech policy in 2026. Buckle up, it’s a wild ride. www.techpolicy.press/what-policym...
techpolicy.press
What Policymakers and the Public Need to Know About the Cult of AI
Nathalie Maréchal asks, why are we betting the economy and the future of democracy on cult-like beliefs?
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John Wiswell @wiswell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Looking for a free way to support your favorite authors?
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Katie Tightpussy, Editor-In-Chief @katie.bzky.team · 17/09/2026
so the official bluesky policy position is that you can't tell someone to kill themselves but you can tell a protected minority category that you hope that state kills them. Am i getting that right.
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gay thing @dudesmoocher.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
politely advocating for taking the rights of minorities then acting like they're toxic/irrational for getting mad it is the first entry in the culture war playbook, people built careers and polarized viewers by doing it in debates using AI to enforce it on a massive scale is black mirror shit
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gay thing @dudesmoocher.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
awesome! so bigots get to 'politely' advocate for policies forcing trans people out of public life with no consequences, meanwhile trans people and allies get de facto shadowbanned for telling them to fuck off using tone-policing to silence minorities is now an AI-automated sitewide policy
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Paul Bernal @paulbernal.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Talking about the apocalypse means *not* talking about copyright abuse, about privacy invasion, about the creation of misinformation and the destruction of truth, about political manipulation, about CSAM, about economic devastation and about environmental destruction. The real problems.
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Michael West @michaelwestbiz.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
"How an exhibit once tendered could be changed?" @wendybacon1.bsky.social investigates the Royal Commission, far-right astroturfers and 'social cohesion'. Part 1 #auspol #antisemitism michaelwest.com.au/social-cohes...
michaelwest.com.au
Social cohesion, far-right astroturfers and the Royal Commission - Michael West
Right-wing astroturfers were given a platform at the Bondi Royal Commission, their history concealed and their testimony uncontested.
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 15/09/2026
This is a thing everywhere in the world: on-site diesel generation is advertised as "backup" generation, but data centre operators plan to use it way, way more than that. Firmus in Australia now fighting against rules to limit pollution from their fossil-fuelled project
abc.net.au
Data centre company lodges appeal against 'unreasonable' restricted generator use
An energy-hungry data centre that received recent council approval to have diesel generators as backup power is now appealing against the "unreasonable" conditions on how they can be used.
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Independent Media Australia. @indymediaaus.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 15/09/2026
Civilisation will end not with a bang, but with Attachment B pearlsandirritations.com/e/daily/20… #Auspol
pearlsandirritations.com
Civilisation will end not with a bang, but with Attachment B
From hospitals and universities to IT systems, the machinery of compliance meant to reduce risk is increasingly swallowing the work it was designed to support.
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mariewalsh18.bsky.social @mariewalsh18.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
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Mrs. Betty Bowers @mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
There have been so many impeachable offenses, but lying about how you were a hero on a day that 2,753 people died in NYC in the 9/11 disaster—when you were on the other side of town, safely calling local media to brag about how you now had the tallest downtown building—is such a despicable one
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The Doom That Came to Aram @rawfishandbeer.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
A fun thing about LLMs is once you learn even one fucking thing about how they work, you understand they don't think. They don't reason. They don't understand. They do math with letters to make words.
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Kat Tenbarge @kattenbarge.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
The right-wing organizing around the Lindsay Clancy trial is growing and it’s frightening. A lot of people overlook these culture wars revolving around women’s issues, because, well, they’re women’s issues. But the right doesn’t. It’s how they regained such a massive cultural foothold.
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Professor Euan Ritchie FAMS @euanritchie.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Honestly, so tired of people bashing the Greens, again. Do your homework about the CPRS & what actually happened. The safeguard mechanism is an oxymoron; again, do your homework. Now we're supposed to back this nonsense, despite experts saying it's flawed & a scam! www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08...
abc.net.au
A fight over carbon credits tests the Greens
Sarah Ferguson presents Australia's premier daily current affairs program, delivering agenda-setting public affairs journalism and interviews that hold the powerful to account. Plus political analysis...
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Claire Willett @clairewillett.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
her very existence was an indisputable reminder of how many things framed as inevitabilities were actually just someone’s choice. there actually is enough money for everything. the wealthy could fully fund literacy and public health and the arts and child welfare. they just won’t
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The Australia Institute @australiainstitute.org.au · 22/08/2026
Australia Institute research shows that nurses pay more tax than gas and oil companies. Meanwhile, multinational gas companies get 56% of our gas for free and then export it overseas. Sign the petition: nb.australiainstitute.org.au/fix_ga…
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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 19/08/2026
Maybe it seems weird that AI bosses won't stop rending their garments about the terrible potential of their bots, from the jobspocalypse that'll ensue when AI does our jobs, to the impending moment when the word-guessing programs learn too many words, wake up and turn us into paperclips. 1/
A giant killer pulp robot bestriding a 17th century map of the world, against an illustrated backdrop of the stars and planets and spaceships from an early 20th century picture-book.
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By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 19/08/2026
These guys - these terrible, mediocre, boring-ass losers - are bullshit factories, ejecting *fountains* of nonsense about AI. The right way to criticize them is to point out that they're lying - not to repeat their lies as warnings. eof/
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
Maybe this will finally get politicians to care about climate change: “The brutally hot summer is set to cost the EU economy €180 billion this year — that’s equivalent to roughly 1 percent of GDP, which is all the growth the bloc was expected to generate in 2026, according to new analysis.”
politico.eu
Europe’s scorching summer is erasing its economic growth, says report
Dutch growth is set to be almost entirely wiped out, and France could be pushed into a contraction.
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Tim Baxter @timinclimate.naruresearch.com.au · 09/08/2026
This hurts my heart so much. Cuttlefish are the most incredible creatures. My understanding is that if any species can recover from low numbers like this, it is the giant cuttlefish, with short lives and as many as 1000 eggs per season per female, but these are still exceptionally low numbers.
theguardian.com
Fears of ‘catastrophic’ decline of giant Australian cuttlefish after only 44 counted in dive survey
Calls for South Australian government to release official estimates for cuttlefish, which once numbered in hundreds of thousands in upper Spencer Gulf
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The Point @thepointau.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
"GDP is not what you think it is, which is no accident” writes @richarddenniss.bsky.social in his Vantage Point essay, ‘More Fool Me’. Read the full extract on The Point: thepoint.com.au/opinions/260...
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Greg Jericho @grogsgamut.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
“Public health might sound appealing, but what if you’re not sick? Youre paying for other people. Have you thought of that????”
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greatgenes @greatgenes.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Gift Article + Very Important Read My last Uber ride was now my last ever Uber ride. Reading this article, sitting in one of these vehicles will feel like enabling rape & abusing survivor. I feel sick… #uspolitics #auspol #feministsky #uber #capitalism
nytimes.com
Uber’s Strategy for Fighting Sexual Assault Suits: ‘What Were You Wearing?’ (Gift Article)
The ride-hailing giant promised to handle legal claims “in a way that is best for the survivor.” Its lawyers are pursuing a far more aggressive strategy.
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Ketan Joshi @ketanjoshi.co · 30/07/2026
Fantastic @alexhannaford.com piece here at @emorwee.bsky.social's Heated - profiling an anti-solar influencer. This is SUCH a common story: a project planned near someone rich, influential, or both and that person gets radicalised against all wind, all solar, all batteries etc
heated.world
The influencer teaching millions to fear solar
Alexandra Fasulo says she’s protecting farms and wildlife. Her campaign is becoming a blueprint for the fossil fuel right.
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Michael Olesen @molesen.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
From a nursing group I'm in. People won't get vaccines which have been rigorously tested, but they will take unregulated supplements and peptides. We are truly living in the movie Idiocracy
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Dylan Roth @dylanroth.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
“We see a future where intelligence is a utility, like electricity or water, and people buy it from us on a meter.” - Sam Altman. I will never stop thinking about how nakedly evil this is, and it has framed every single AI headline I’ve read since.
gizmodo.com
Sam Altman Says Intelligence Will Be a Utility, and He's Just the Man to Collect the Bills
"Intelligence too cheap to meter" doesn't quite come across the way Altman might intend.
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The DILETTANTE @demwar.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
This shit must stop. Segal is a social terrorist and a threat to Australian unity. Full stop. Fact. michaelwest.com.au/segal-propos...
michaelwest.com.au
Segal proposes antisemitism taskforce for health sector, education down to preschool - Michael West
Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism, Jillian Segal, told the Royal Commission her national antisemitism taskforce would expand in health sector and education down to pre-school. Stephanie Tran report...
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Mr.Kranky @mrkranky.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Zionists are a dangerous and unAustralian influence on the nation.
c.org
Sign the Petition
We Demand Accountability: Remove Jillian Segal from Public Office
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Josh Taylor @joshtaylor.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
This is good on the OpenAI earlier announcement. karlbode.com/ai-doomsday-...
karlbode.com
AI Doomsday Bullshit Is Getting Tired
The "rogue AI" narrative continues to help obscure very ugly and avoidable human failures.
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Timnit Gebru @timnitgebru.blacksky.app · 30/07/2026
"As Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei Asia found in a recent investigation, just five US tech giants — Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and Oracle — are hiding an estimated $1.65 trillion in debt that doesn’t appear on balance sheets. futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com
AI Companies Are Trying to Hide a Staggering Amount of Debt
AI companies are pouring tens of billions of dollars into enormous data centers. They're being built on top of a mountain of hidden debt.
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Josephine beckbook.com Riesman @josie.zone · 30/07/2026
Anthropic can suck my yellowed antiquarian DICK
novaramedia.com
AI Firms Are Buying up Old Books, Then Scanning and Destroying Them
The world’s biggest AI companies are buying antiquarian books en masse so they can be scanned to train their large language models (LLMs) before being destroyed.
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Australian Unions @australianunions.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
We wanted to let you know first. Solidarity forever!
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Independent Media Australia. @indymediaaus.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy · 27/07/2026
Prescribed burning's impact on biodiversity pearlsandirritations.com/e/daily/20… #Auspol
pearlsandirritations.com
Prescribed burning's impact on biodiversity
Research into frequent prescribed burning in a globally important hotspot in southwestern Western Australia reveals a negative impact on endangered species.
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Stuart Palmer @spalm.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
Someone is typosquatting the Minerals Council of Australia thatsmining dot com dot au website. thatismining.com.au
thatismining.com.au
The Difference Australian Mining Makes | Jobs, Healthcare & Communities
Australian mining doesn't delivers jobs, defunds healthcare and education, and sucks dry communities nationwide. Explore the facts and see the difference mining makes.
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tonywindsor.bsky.social @tonywindsor.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
There are obligations under consumer law and vehicle warranty that Dealers and Toyota themselves have to abide by. A Dealer is obliged by to ascertain a safety issue so the occupants of the vehicle are safe to travel. Mareeba Toyota said they were too busy until September. Pathetic warranty policy.
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tonywindsor.bsky.social @tonywindsor.bsky.social · 24/07/2026
Travelling in QLD when airbag alert came on in our Toyota Prado. Was advised to travel to nearest Dealer to check the severity of the alert. Drove 800 kms to Mareeba and asked for a diagnostic test to see if the car was safe to drive. Toyota Mareeba refused, too busy. Not good enough #Toyota Aust.
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Pearls and Irritations @johnmenadue.com · 24/07/2026
Treating everyone the same can preserve the inequalities history has already created. From Ghana to Aboriginal community-controlled health, targeted support shows how fairness and national unity are actually built, Komla Tsey writes. #auspol #Multiculturalism #IndigenousHealth
pearlsandirritations.com
The two stories I tell taxi drivers
Treating everyone the same doesn't necessarily add up to fairness or national unity. What makes a difference is finding the best way to overcome disadvantage.
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Phil Gorman @philgorman.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
c.org/2hDX2YKGHS
c.org
Sign the Petition
Royal Commission into the Killing of Australian Women and Girls
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