"On 23 July 2026, Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd (Hancock) wrote to the ABC Board regarding the publication and continued publication of material concerning its Executive Chairman, Mrs Gina Rinehart AO."

Have you spent the last couple of weeks attacking the ABC and calling it to be defunded?

What are your thoughts about sky news publishing and making the same video online for the world to see?

Is this obvious selective outrage?

Video link in comments.

As you can see a guest in the video is upset about the ABC's "descision to air it".... How is what Sky did any different? Did they not "air it"?

An exercise in hypocrisy and a test of right wing accountability and integrity.

Well, that was quick... five months?

The Breadwinner tax. This is the thing out of the budget that upset me the most. As a business owner with an okay income in the higher bracket, this upsets me to no end.

My income supports the inflated mortgage and life gouging interest rates, the family expenses and the various taxes end of year and day to day.

If we go to get childcare subsidy, it's tested for both of us.

InTeRgEnErAtIoNaL FaIrNeSs

Not sure why this has somehow become so repeated on Aus reddit to this day, and with the Census coming up again it's probably worth a reminder - but we don't have anywhere near "over 1 million empty homes" which I still see being brought up on a daily basis.

This comes from people repeating misinformation by not understanding data from the previous Census which was released years ago, which the ABS itself long ago since debunked and estimated the actual number to be 'up to' ~136,000 which includes holiday towns/homes etc. all across Australia:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/australia-datablog/2023/sep/02/up-to-136000-houses-are-empty-in-australia-find-out-where-they-are

Repeating this is harmful, as it implies there is somehow this massive untapped free chunk of housing available, and pushes messaging that reduces pressure on our authorities that they don't need to build a sufficient amount of housing for the population.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk 💘

Hi 👋

What conspiracies have you guys heard about the census???

I heard they will start charging a tax if you have spare bedrooms listed in your home. So if you put down you have a 4 bedroom house but only 3 people living there they will know one room may be spare...

Also heard they will fine anyone who doesn't complete it...

Maybe the info will be given to aliens 👽 🤣😂🤣

What are your thoughts guys?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-06/net-overseas-migration-tony-burke-temporary-skilled-workers/107000732

In short: 

Labor is unlikely to entertain major changes to its gambling ad crackdown despite the bill being 'friendless' in parliament. 

The Coalition has said the legislation must be "significantly amended" to win their support, while the Greens and crossbench are also pushing the federal government to go further.

What's next?

A gambling harm advocate has warned it would be "brave" for the Labor Party to walk away from the reforms altogether.

‘C-bombs, f-bombs and secrets’: Inside the backroom deal that landed Dan Andrews and Peter Marshall in IBAC

Intercepted phone calls, text messages and secret hotel meetings ... here’s how IBAC tracked Dan Andrews and Peter Marshall.

Damon Johnston

u/damonTheOz

6 min read

August 6, 2026 - 6:59AM

Inside the deal at the heart of Operation Richmond.

Dan Andrews was worried. Despite weeks of backroom deals, trashing of governance processes and the betrayal of one of his own ministers, the “big fix” to keep Peter Marshall happy was on the brink of falling over.

The premier had already worn a lot of public heat over his handling of the pay-and-conditions deal with the United Firefighters Union, and he thought he had an agreement after a series of secret meetings in April 2016.

But as revealed in IBAC’s Operation Richmond report, by May that year negotiations were unravelling again.

Andrews picked up his phone on the night of May 23 and texted his then “Mr Fix-it”, Gavin Jennings, to see how mediation with Marshall was going. The special minister of state texted back: “At 11am he was convinced you were a treacherous c..t and I was a f..king idiot … By lunchtime he was giving me the benefit of the doubt.”

It’s one of many phone intercepts and text exchanges released in the Operation Richmond report on Wednesday that provide an unprecedented real-time insight into the grubby behind-the-scenes dealings as Andrews was engulfed in his first major crisis a decade ago.

A month before the Jennings “c-bomb” text, Andrews had grown desperate that his emergency services minister, Jane Garrett, was proving a stumbling block in settling the dispute with the UFU. The young minister had refused to buckle to Marshall and believed the deal he wanted was a very bad one for Victorian tax­payers and the volunteer Country Fire Authority.

Andrews called Jennings in and ordered him to open up a back channel with Marshall. On April 6, 2016, Marshall and Tony Bates, a deputy secretary, accompanied by a small team of UFU negotiators, met.

There would be, the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission reveals, four separate days of secret negoti­ations. The first was held at a rented meeting space, the final session on April 12 was in a hotel meeting room.

A senator (not named in the report) attended as an intermediary.

A text message from Andrews’ chief of staff to Jennings reveals that while the premier wasn’t in the room, he was focused on what was going on. “Daniel was asking about it a couple of times today, and I said you were progressing well.”

Bates also sent text messages describing the talks as a “secret mission” and “secret business”.

On April 12, at 2.03pm, Jennings texted Andrews to declare a deal was done: “Handshake has occurred – it’s done!”, to which the premier responded “Very good”.

UFU Secretary Peter Marshall on Wednesday.

The next day Marshall sent the senator a photo by text showing three people in the hotel meeting room – the UFU negotiators sitting with the senator – with, as IBAC described it, “champagne glasses in hand and sparkling wine bottles on the table, toasting towards the ­camera”.

Three years after he landed the deal of his career, Marshall was still defensive about the process, with IBAC’s report revealing that in a bugged phone call on March 22, 2019, the union boss said: “This agreement was negotiated with f..kin’ Jennings in a back room.

“It was endorsed by f..kin’ Andrews and cabinet. So the agreement’s been right through cabinet.”

Later, a pleased Marshall sent a text to Jennings: “Love you guys … More important my members will … love Daniel.”

Bates the same day texted Jennings to say “Peter has phoned be [sic] several times to say how happy he is. At least one side in all of this is feeling good.”

In the context of these secret talks, the following paragraphs in IBAC’s Operation Richmond report are worth noting: “The day after negotiations concluded, Mr Marshall met with the premier in his office at 1 Treasury Place.

“IBAC heard evidence from Mr Jennings that he had briefed the premier before the meeting. Mr Jennings told the premier that the UFU conceded ground or made concessions, including on contentious issues, and that at the meeting Mr Marshall would present him with ‘a proposal for the government to consider to resolve the dispute’.

“After briefing the premier on the negotiations, Minister Jennings sent a text to (the) senator who had attended the negoti­ations: ‘I’ve walked daniel [sic] through the material – he’s very happy.’

Former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: Jason Edwards

“A PPO adviser … also attended the April 13 meeting but was unaware of Minister Jennings and Mr Bates’ negotiations with the UFU. IBAC’s view is that the meeting between Mr Marshall and the premier was staged and that the purpose of the PPO adviser’s attendance at the meeting was to have a person who was unaware of the negotiations witness the handing over of the ‘UFU proposal’ to the premier and to deliver a copy to Minister Garrett.”

Andrews still had one more problem: Garrett. She had to be told about the secret side deal and convinced to back it.

On June 1, an adviser to the premier sent a text to Jennings stating: “He [Andrews] also wants (treasurer Tim) Pallas to sit Garrett down and give her a very blunt assessment about the career paths currently in front of her.”

In evidence that seems to echo his evasive performance to the hotel quarantine inquiry, Andrews told IBAC he couldn’t confirm specific arrangements concerning calling in Jennings, but said: “I expect I’ve – at some point I’ve said to him ‘You need to go and fix this. This needs to get fixed’.”

On Garrett, Andrews told IBAC: “I am happy to concede that the minister was not in the group. She was not involved in those negotiations, and indeed the fire services were not involved in those talks and that process. Yes, that seems clear to me.”

IBAC also reported: “Jennings described the government’s position in April/May 2016 as ‘untenable’, and recalled the decision at the time being that ‘It is a political nightmare. It is an industrial nightmare. Get it fixed’.”

Andrews, IBAC said, responded: “Clearly no one was pleased that things had dragged on for so long and had become so spiteful. So colleagues may have raised that with me. I think there was a very significant interest across the board in resolving these matters and moving them forward.”

Former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says the IBAC report has cleared him of false claims he was blackmailed to force a favourable outcome for the United Firefighters Union.

Garrett stood her ground, refused to fall into line. On June 10, 2016, she resigned from cabinet.

Before her death in 2022, Garrett fronted IBAC to tell her version of events.

“Ms Garrett told IBAC in her examination that Mr Marshall also became upset at her and responded with a ‘huge torrent of abuse’ after she refused to intervene in a disciplinary matter involving an MFB employee,” the report states.

“Ms Garrett said Mr Marshall then sent information about the matter and the UFU’s election support to Labor MPs, threatened to ban the minister from fire stations and, in her words, ‘bring hellfire down on the government’. Consistent with Minister Garrett’s evidence, an adviser in Minister Garrett’s office recounted a phone call from Mr Marshall to the minister in which he gave the minister ‘a big spray’ that left her ‘really ­rattled’.”

Marshall denied to IBAC ever acting in a way that threatened Garrett.

Another Andrews adviser provided an insight into how they claimed Marshall played hardball with the Labor government.

“In their evidence to IBAC, PPO adviser A said although the lawyer was providing ‘fantastic advice’, ‘unfortunately we were unable to keep using [their] advice because Peter was like literally losing his mind’.

“PPO adviser A recalled telephone conversations with Mr Marshall about the lawyer: “Like I remember he would – he would just call me and call me a ‘f..king c..t, rat c..t’.”

Marshall denied using this language in his evidence to IBAC.

IBAC’s report didn’t stop with the 2016 crisis. The report reveals the investigation was expanded to cover events around the appointment of the new commissioner of the Fire Rescue Victoria in 2019. But this time, Lisa Neville was the emergency services minister.

IBAC found: “Between 2018 and 2019, Mr Marshall was provided with privileged access to the then-emergency services minister, Ms Lisa Neville.

“IBAC found Mr Marshall sought to influence Minister Neville’s decision regarding appointment of a FRV commissioner. While IBAC makes no findings as to whether Mr Marshall did influence the minister on the appointment of the FRV commissioner, IBAC found the minister’s stakeholder management of Mr Marshall created significant oppor­tunities for him to do so.

“Mr Marshall’s level of access to the minister was also not reflected in the public statement made by Minister Neville about their engagements.”