https://nb.australiainstitute.org.au/donations_bill_petition#sign

This is an attempt to reduce the power of alp/lnp candidates. Please sign and spread the word!

Australian banks experienced a record-breaking year in 2023, with cash earnings soaring to unprecedented levels. This surge in profitability was primarily attributed to:

• Rising interest rates: The Reserve Bank of Australia's series of interest rate hikes throughout 2023 allowed banks to significantly increase their net interest margins (NIMs), boosting their profits.
• Healthy balance sheet growth: Banks also benefited from robust growth in their loan portfolios, further contributing to increased earnings.

Why and how are banks able to just wash their hands of this. If they were liable, this figure would be a small proportion of the above. Why do corporations always get free licence to take the piss in Australia,

Hi,

In response to this article:
https://joshuadabelstein.substack.com/p/can-anger-play-a-part-in-parliamentary

I see Lidia Thorpe over and over losing her cool. How much of her anger and outrage is a stunt v how much is genuine anger, coming out in the workplace?

Would your co-workers tolerate it if you were losing your sh*it every week or two?

When I was younger I liked it when politicians got angry as it felt like they were actually DOING something, and actually cared. But the older i get, and the more work i have had to put into my own anger/outbursts, the more i see this kind of behaviour as incredibly immature and problematic....

And I really don't think that the fact that she is a woman or indigenous factors in (unless you're attempting to lower the bar, which i would argue is sexist and racist).

Ive always voted greens, because their values most closely align with mine. I'm confused about some things though - in general I'm pretty politically aware, but somehow my own government is hard to comprehend. I don't know where to look to find unbiased information about wtf is going on (that doesn't rely on already knowing what's going on). if anyone has advice for how to learn, I'd love that.

anyway. I have greens friends and labour friends. but my labour friends say that the greens sometimes block labour bills that could have helped us, that they fight and that voting for the greens means taking away a Labor majority. can someone explain why that's bad? what does it mean for greens to have more seats in parliament?

I really want to understand this. I want to feel confident in how I vote.

Just curious this time.

EDIT, PLEASE READ BEFORE COMMENTING: Yes, I know social media has negatives, children NEED protections on social media desperately, I’ve been fully open in this post that I hold that belief, but it also has positives. What I’m asking is not “why is social media bad”, I’m asking why they chose to blanket ban, instead of selectively legislating protections against just the negative aspects, while keeping positives. It just seems unnecessary, harmful, and just lazy to me.

———————————————

I'm a labor member myself and I cannot possibly understand why they are doing this.

First off, why just blanket BAN social media for kids? I have no issues with protections being put in place for kids, certain accounts they are unable to access, certain things they aren't allowed to say or do, better parental controls. but do they really need to ban in all together?

If parent's have issues with how their kids are using social media they should be able to ban their children or have access to control, and if parents decide to be negligent to their child's best interest, well... we already HAVE LAWS FOR THAT?

Another reason for this bill that I've seen pop up is that it is to stop bullying. As a kid who was bullied pretty badly when he was young, the vast majority of it (despite every kid in my grade having a phone) was in person. Also, do people really think bullying is going to stop once social media is banned? Of course not, bullying existed before social media, it existed before, and it will definitely exist after. Kids using the internet to bully will only switch to doing it in real life. On top of that, when I was being bullied, the internet was my only escape, whether it be funny videos on the internet, games, friendships, and even finding recourses to help cope and change my situation.

Same with the point of the p3do issue with the internet. It existed before, it will exist after.

And yes, everyone knows that scams exist on the internet, and that corporations in control of these websites promote addictive content and harmful content to keep eyes on their platform. People of all ages fall for this, particularly the elderly with scams. Instead of banning usage for one group, we should be promoting bills that force social media platforms to put in place protections for every Australian.

On top of all this, it isn't even clear how adults are supposed to verify their age. I've seen suggestions anywhere between giving them photo ID or even storing biometric data of their users, neither of which I as an adult want to give to these corporations.

This bill also destroys communities for; politically active young people, members of the LGBT community who are only able to find ally-ship and acceptance on the internet when living in socially conservative areas, and other thriving communities.

All this bill is doing is trying to pull over rich, socially conservative, white, north shore type voters, people who already vote liberal and nat, and pull away a whole generation of future young voters who only remember labor as "that party that banned Instagram when we were kids," and will likely just filter these voters between (mainly) the greens, and the coalition.

Don't get me wrong, more protections need to be put in place for Australians on social media, specifically kids and the elderly, but a blanket ban just doesn't seem reasonable to me.

Am I missing something here? Or is this just a dumb bill? both politically and in consequence. First and foremost I'd love it if someone explained to me why this bill is being spearheaded so hard, but also let me know if you agree!

Thanks for reading!

TLDR;

This bill is dumb and here's why I think that

-Protections should be put in place for all Aussies, not a total ban for kids

-As a once bullied kid this will do nothing to stop bullying, cyberbullies will just move over to real life

-Social media provided a lot of help for me when I was bullied

-p3do's will not stop what they are doing just because the internet doesn't exist

-Adults will have to provide sensitive information to big corporations, something I personally hate the idea of

-Destroys online communities for kids who can only express themselves on the internet

-The only people who would be pulled over by this bill are people who are voting coalition anyways.

-It destroys labor's already suffering youth support, filtering newer generations into the coalition and greens.

Am I missing something here? Someone please explain to me why this is a good idea.

Does the Gov know what the soap box is from the 1700s? Just cause it got more sophisticated/accessible doesn’t mean you ban it from engaged people.

I could easily name 1000s ways to harass effectively without social media if I was a bully with 1/4 a brain & there’d now be no record kept that I did it, so no comeuppance.

If it’s the algorithms that is annoying people then address that, for everyone.

The RBA said unemployment needs to be at 4.5% or 75k people unemployed to lower interest rates. So how does this system actually work.

1. Unemployed people cannot stay unemployed, without work you can't afford to live and has emotional, financial, and social disadvantages. Plus the current system and society don't support unemployment people. Welfare is not enough to live on, centrelink forces the unemployed to be employed, and society treats the unemployed like they are all "dole bludgers" and "useless" broadly speaking.
2. Inflation is completely tied in this instance to employment numbers.

So how does this work? If you have to be employed to essentially live, but our economy is balances against employment how do we have stable interest rates, reduce cost of living and have everyone employed at the same time?

Having a bludge on the Taxpayers, how unusual . Where you really bin ?

One of my worries about this ban is Steam or Epic Games etc just pulling out from Australia. Has it been confirmed video games will be effected?

I know that social media is harmful sometimes but it think there’s a few levels of issues and SM is one surface. :)

Also technically SM is optional. You already don’t have to make yourself an Instagram account.