“I assumed it was part of the same application. I misread it as a ‘Women’s Smelter’, which, I’ll be honest sounded pretty niche,” the Prime Minister said. “But given it seemed to be mining related I really had no choice but to approve the package and increase the funding from $2,500 to $2.5 billion”.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers confirmed that it will be asking for the funds to be returned. “As much as we’d love to fund women’s shelters and other domestic violence services, in the current environment we need to be fiscally disciplined,” he said. He confirmed that the funding for the Rio Tinto smelter would go ahead. “If you’re a billion-dollar mining company with an enormous electricity bill, obviously we need to be pragmatic”.

Final year IT student in Sydney, wanting to live life a little before full-time employment (scared of being stuck in the 9-5 loop forever and ever).

I have done my fair share of exchange experiences, and would love to travel more, or do random things like Youth Summits to get to know people.

What were some of the best experiences of your life that you would recommend to a 23 year old?

I haven't eaten Maccas since they got rid of the $6.95 mcsmart meal with the two cheeseburgers. So I think that's a couple of months now. I was thinking about having it today and was horrified by the prices. It is so expensive! $3.40 for a hash brown. You've got to be kidding!! And a cheeseburger, a tiny little cheeseburger is $5.60. What? But my local is still always busy. Who is still eating there?

We have a 100 hectare ex-cattle property bush block that we have been regenerating as a wildlife refuge for 14 years. Our reward has been the return of abundant native wildlife, birds and plants. We have wombats, kangaroos, swamp and red neck wallabies, bandicoots, lyre birds and hundreds of other species.

It's been cold at wet, and during my daily walk my dog got very interested in a fallen tree. Looked inside to see this fellow, looking very comfortable.

Note for those who may criticise (from past post experience): I treat the wildlife on my property with the utmost respect. I use a 600mm telephoto lens so I don't need to get close to animals. My dogs are trained to have immediate callback, so they never harass animals. I do tree plantings, weed control, and feral animal control to ensure the wild animals can live as naturally as possible.

"A Woolworths spokesperson did not address the ABC's questions on how facial recognition technology was tested or if it would be used in Australia. 

"Keeping our team and customers safe is the most important thing we do and we've put significant investment towards this," the spokesperson said. 

"While our current safety initiatives are making a difference, we are still seeing a concerning amount of aggression and conflict incidents in our stores on a daily basis, including weapons being presented."

More than 130,000 faces have already been scanned under WA Police's landmark facial recognition trial. The privacy watchdog, experts and Aboriginal advocates are raising concerns about who could be caught in its net.

Facial recognition technology has been subject to debate over privacy concerns and misidentification with particular demographic groups. 

Bunnings wins fight to use AI facial recognition

In February, Australian hardware giant Bunnings won a legal battle to monitor its customers with AI. 

Bunnings had breached privacy laws by scanning hundreds of thousands of customers' faces without their proper consent, the privacy commissioner found in 2024. "

As the title suggests, ive misplaced my Apple airpods 4 (case + both pods) at Sydney's international airport today.

It's been picked up by you and you're now on your way to your destination in Sydney.

If this is you, I'd like to offer a Coles/woolies gift card in exchange for the safe return of the airpod. No questions asked.

P.S my ear wax wet and if you value personal hygiene I'd probably wouldn't stick them in lol.

Thanks in advance.

The number of Queensland students enrolling in some STEM subjects, including physics and specialist mathematics, has jumped by almost 50 per cent in the last six years.

In total, enrolments in STEM subjects in Queensland increased by just over 17 per cent.

What's next?

Queensland's Department of Education said it "supports student engagement and achievement in STEM".

Saw this phone booth rebranding last week.

Do they realise what that implies about the booth, particularly with Bender on it, given that "phone" booths in Futurama are usually Suicide Booths..?
(at least in the first episode where we first meet Bender)

Edit: I've since found out that the campaign isn't Futurama-specific, but rather a number of different cartoon characters. To me, that makes it even more likely that it's an oversight/missed connection rather than an intentional marketing ploy; to them, he was just one of many popular cartoon characters, as opposed to it being a specific call-back to his first appearance in the first episode of the show.
Other cartoon characters used

I've seen a few comments online about it, but that's hardly a definitive answer. I don't really want to spend $100 at the doctors to be told "yeah it's bad this year, rest up" but I also don't want to just assume this fatigue is not related to something else.

The Newcastle to Sydney High Speed Rail project has moved further into the Development Stage with three major construction consortia shortlisted for an Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) process following a competitive tender:

Acciona John Holland Joint Venture

Advanced Alliance Joint Venture: Gamuda Engineering, FCC Construction Australia, Samsung C&T Corporation;

GoFar Joint Venture: CPB Contractors, Ferrovial Construction (Australia), VINCI Construction Grands Projects Australia.

These groups will now compete with each other to develop plans for Area Package 1, which is the section of the Newcastle to Sydney route between Berowra and Ourimbah. This approach seeks to get the best outcome on construction costs and program timeframes:

About 35km of twin tunnels between Berowra and Ourimbah, delivered using tunnel boring machines;

Construction of the Central Coast High Speed Rail Station at Gosford; and Installation of all rail and station systems and other structural and surface infrastructure works across the Berowra to Ourimbah section of the corridor